Happy 19th Birthday, Hubble!
by Tom Huston
Today marked the 19th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s exemplary service (well, 15 years of service, anyway; there was that horrendous mirror fiasco early on). I think it goes without saying that this telescope, like its namesake, has dramatically expanded our sense of the vastness of the universe in ways we still can’t begin to wrap our tiny primate minds around. But I’m sure we’ll be able to someday, once our consciousness is up to the task. After all, since 1968, when the crew of Apollo 8 took that famous shot of the Earth rising over the moon, a cerulean jewel suspended in the inky void, humanity’s growing capacity to hold a truly global, worldcentric consciousness has been steadily on the rise. And this past Earth Day was another reflection of that. But at EnlightenNext, we don’t think a merely planetary awareness provides a context or perspective big enough to help us answer the biggest questions of all: Who are we? and Why are we here? No, any attempt to tackle those metaphysical mind-stoppers requires that we strive to be true to the evolving edge of what we actually do know. And given the ways in which Hubble the man and Hubble the telescope have radically blown open our sense of the enormity of the Kosmos, nothing short of a Kosmocentric orientation to life will suffice from here on out. That doesn’t mean merely appreciating the physical vastness of space and time, but also seeing ourselves in the context of the 14-billion-year evolutionary process that has led to this very moment, with your incredibly complex brain and incredibly sophisticated consciousness comprehending these incredibly cool words. :)
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