How seeing Earth from space changes you
https://www.salon.com/2018/03/04/how-seeing-earth-from-space-changes-you/
I also wonder about scientists, generally, who had a broad view of the universe and how that affected their perspectives. Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall and Stephen Jay Gould all seem to have derived various sorts of humanism from their work, although none ever viewed Earth from space. Do you think this is similar to the inspirational effect of viewing Earth from space, as you describe it?
It’s true, I do show ways in which seeing the Earth from space inspired scientists. The microbiologist René Dubos, who popularized the expression “think globally, act locally,” said that seeing Earthrise made him realize that “the Earth is a living organism.” James Lovelock, who was then employed by NASA, was inspired by Earthrise to come up with his Gaia theory. We are lucky that scientists are largely also humanists but that isn’t always true. There is a very dark side of science. Darwinism was, soon after Darwin’s time, perverted into Social Darwinism, out of which arose eugenics (at one time a respectable science), a direct route to the concentration camps.
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