Living in Space

If you ask most "space enthusiasts" whether they would like to live in space, they will say, "Yes!" If you tell them that they are already living in space, it may take a while for them to understand what you mean.

Language is important. How we say things influences how we think about them. Ever since I wrote The Overview Effect, I have been working on creating the understanding within myself that we are already in space. We are in space, we have always been in space, and we will always be in space because the Earth is in space and can't be anywhere else. (In the book, I tell the story of a young man in a daycare center who helped me to see the importance of this insight.)

The challenge before us is to find ways to be elsewhere in the universe. Right now, we are more or less imprisoned on this planet. It is a beautiful prison, and one that we can enjoy greatly. However, we are not yet free to leave it if we want to do so.

What we are really talking about is finding a way for those of us who want to do so to leave the Earth, and be in space in a different way. Not everyone will go, of course. Sometimes, when there is a prison break, some of the prisoners stay inside. Sometimes, when the restless members of a society go exploring, others stay at home.

In the meantime, though, how would it change our lives to just relax a bit and realize that we are in space. Another methphor, coined by Buckminster Fuller, is that we are on Spaceship Earth, traveling through the universe at a high rate of speed.

As I pointed out in The Overview Effect, everyone on the spaceship is either a passenger or a crew member ("Terranaut"). Wouldn't you rather be a Terranaut?

Frank White

What Apollo Was About

I was watching the Apollo 11 celebration in Washington on NASA TV last night, and I saw something significant as I looked at the logo for the 40th anniversary of the landing. Now, remember that the Apollo effort was supposedly all about going to the moon. However, as shuttle astronaut Joe Allen said in the interview that he granted for my book, The Overview Effect, "With all the arguments, pro and con, for going to the moon, no one suggested that we should do it to look at the Earth. But that may in fact be the most important reason."

It seems that whoever designed the logo for the Apollo 11 celebration knew that Allen was right, because the scene is not a view of the moon. It is, rather, a view of the Earth as seen from the moon. The perspective is from the lunar surface, with the numbers 4 and 0 in the foreground, and the Earth rising on the horizon within the 0. Think about all the choices that NASA had in designing that logo, all the people who had to participate in approving it, and in the end, think about the fact that they chose to make the view of the Earth, the Overview Effect, the centerpiece.

Now, imagine all the arguments pro and con, for going to Mars. Could it be that we will eventually realize that the real reason was to see the Earth from the surface of the red planet? And what will the logo look like for the 40th anniversary of that landing?



Frank White

Wow: NASA TV!

I've become a fan of NASA TV. Okay, I know it is sometimes like watching paint dry when they have those shots of mission control and no sound whatsoever. I'm thinking, "How can they make space exploration so boring?"

But then, suddenly, they switch to live shots from the International Space Station or the shuttle, and there it is, the Earth rolling past. It is what I am talking about all the time, the Overview Effect! It's what the astronauts see!

The views aren't perfect, because there is often a lot of hardware in the way, but can still be impressive. The other day, they offered commentary, which was even better. The NASA person told us we were over the Pacific Ocean, then over Saskatchewan, and so on.

Now I have an idea, and if anyone reads this, please let me know how to do it. I would like to create a screensaver that is made up of edited NASA TV videos of the Earth from orbit. Ultimately, I'd rather have live video, but this will do for now. The Overview Institute could distribute these screensavers for free, and spread the word (and the images) of the Overview Effect.

I like the concept, now I just have to figure out how to do it.

Suggestions welcomed.

Moon or Mars? Why Not Both?

As I have listened to Apollo 11 commentary today, it has seemed to me that the media has decided that the best way to entertain viewers is to have a debate called "Moon vs. Mars." I am happy to see so much discussion of space exploration in the media, of course. Unfortunately, however, this debate is far too narrow, and it is not the one we should be having 40 years after Apollo 11.

Rather than discussing whether NASA, an American government agency, ought to choose one or the other planetary bodies for its next major mission, we should be discussing what our planet as a whole ought to be doing to open up the solar system as our next frontier. As I discussed in The Overview Effect, such a "Human Space Program" would unite our planet and give us an exciting new adventure, focusing our energies outward into the universe. It would be the next logical consciousness-expanding step that our species ought to take.

I have called this next step in consciousness the "Copernican Perspective." Just as the Overview Effect is the realization that we are all part of one planet, the Copernican Perspective is the realization that we are all part of one solar system. Just as we needed the Effect, we now need the Perspective.

This is why I say, "The Moon or Mars: Why Not Both?

Frank White

Isn't It Interesting?

Yes, isn't it interesting that, at the moment when the Obama Administration is expanding the government's reach in a host of areas, such as financial services, the automobile industry, and the healthcare industry, it is contemplating a diminished role in piloted spaceflight. As I understand it, that is what the Augustine Commission has been set up to consider.

As for me, I am for a healthy and balanced public/private partnership in all aspects of our lives, and "balance" is the key word. Without the government, we would most likely not be celebrating the Apollo 11 moon landing, we would not have the Overview Effect, nor would we be using the Internet to talk about all of this on a worldwide basis. So I would like to see a rational plan for a global opening of the space frontier, with all interested nations participating (I call this the "Human Space Program.) Under this plan, there would be a role for government and a role for private enterprise. Each one would do what they do best.

Of course, there might be some unintended consequences of the American government receding from the space field. That might encourage people in the private sector to step up and make things happen. However, I don't think that is what is driving this current initiative. So I would be interested in hearing from anyone who is following the Augustine Commission and might be able to enlighten me as to where they are headed.

Frank White

A Major Milestone

Not only are we celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight but we also have just passed a major milestone on the current shuttle flight: the 500th human being has now flown into space.

Now, 500 people in nearly 50 years is not a great record: it's about 10 a year, on average. But consider how much impact space exploration in general and the view of the Earth from space and in space in particular have had on our understanding of ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Consider the impact of the technological "Overview Effect" in the form of satellites, which are knitting our world together in a near-seamless whole.

If the promise of commercial spaceflight proves itself to be real, and we begin to see hundreds and then thousands of people experiencing the Overview Effect directly, that will be a quantitative change that will eventually lead to a qualitative change, a revolution in consciousness, essentially.

Our colleague, Barbara Marx Hubbard, is beginning to focus her energies on the concept of a universal birthing process in which humanity begins to be a universal species. I think we're on the verge of seeing that happen.

What do you think?

Frank White

Apollo 11 Revisited

Last night, I watched some of NASA's coverage of the Apollo 11 mission, and of the missions that led up to it. I again felt some of the awe that I experienced in 1969, realizing what an amazing achievement it was to navigate to the moon and back with 1960s technology and knowledge. I was also struck by something that Tom Putnam, director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum said in announcing that the library would be commemorating the moon landing by reproducing the Apollo 11 journey online at WeChooseTheMoon.org, starting at 8:02 am on Thursday, July 16. Putnam said, "Putting a man on the moon really did unite the globe. We hope to use the Internet to do the same thing."

As I watched the NASA coverage of Apollo 11, I realized that Putnam was right. People all over the planet were gathered around television sets watching the Apollo touchdown, and talking about it in just about every human language. And they were all privileged to see the most extraordinary event of Earthrise, as our planet hovered over the moon, half of it lit by the sun, half in darkness.

It occurred to me that, while President Kennedy receives plenty of credit for the space program in general and Apollo in particular, he may not be acknowledged enough for his contribution to giving us an experience of the Overview Effect, the sense of unity and oneness that seeing the Earth from space offers to our entire world. Reading some of his other speeches, I think he did have the sense that we are all crew members of Spaceship Earth, and that we need to work together to navigate through this vast and unknown universe. I hope his legacy clearly includes this contribution to humanity.

Frank White