Friday, July 18, 2008

Arrogance

While researching something else, I stumbled on this quote by Stephen Jay Gould:

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

Absolutely. We are not the limit of the universe. We are not the center of the universe. Our solar system is not the center of the universe, or even our galaxy. How much further do we have to go, do you suppose, before we decide as a world that the universe was probably not designed for us?

1 comment:

Q said...

If we were the pinnacle of the universe, it would be a very sad universe indeed.

If, however, we are closer to being the nadir, then all exploration will be an improvement!