Mastodawn

Alexa Thy Apr 6, 2024

Jamez Barrett 🜃 ॐ Ⓐ

“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.
"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.
"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.
"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."
-- William Shatner, actor

Bytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba A thousand times this.

wlf_warren Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba Wise words!!!

let us not look only Beyond

But within. 💯💯💯💯 👍😁

so well said and so appropriate for today.

Thanks the share

Word of Mouth 🍄

@didgebaba Fuck dude... That gets me every time. Even just reading it brings tears to my eyes

[email protected]Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
Bildbeschreibung: Ein rundes schwarz-weiß-Foto von William Shatner.

J.Sʜᴀʀᴘ🌍🇺🇦Fʀᴇᴇᴅᴏᴍ&Dᴇᴍᴏᴄʀᴀᴄʏ Apr 5, 2024

Powerfull words. And he's right.

івась тарасик Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba two things come up from memory:

- https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27378869M/Aurora
- https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/49047-gravity

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson | Open Library

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, Jun 05, 2018, Orbit edition, paperback

Open Library

PJTay Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba that is really powerfully put!

Violet Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
It takes time to come to this realization. There may be a future in the stars, but it's a long way off, and we won't get there if we don't focus on the present right here.

"Present" is an apt metaphor. In our childish greed, we've torn off the wrapping, ripped through the box, decided we don't like what's inside, and asked what's next.

jnpn Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba he was .. shatnered

Amoshias Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba I am not a particular fan of this guy but hell, this is so good it makes up for a ton of being an asshole...

Nicole Parsons Apr 5, 2024

What's worse is the folks getting **paid** to ravage the planet.

$4.3 trillion dollars in 2023 alone was paid to an industry destroying the planet.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/030915/what-percentage-global-economy-comprised-oil-gas-drilling-sector.asp

What Percentage of the Global Economy Is the Oil and Gas Drilling Sector?

The oil and gas exploration and production sector currently makes up around 3.8% of the global economy.

Investopedia

Katerina Marchán Apr 5, 2024

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@zkat @didgebaba Shatner is the worst person you know? Must be nice.

Katerina Marchán Apr 5, 2024

@the_q don’t be obtuse

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@zkat I don't even know what obtuse means!

Katerina Marchán Apr 5, 2024

@the_q the internet is right there, and it's so easy to find new knowledge!

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@zkat woosh...

Cybarbie Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba THANKS JEFF

Kevin Lyda Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba I don't agree on the last part - I do think folks will spread beyond Earth. But to do so we will need to understand and coexist with our environment far better than we do now - because we will need to transport that environment with us and exist in it there.

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@lyda @didgebaba yeah a virus does want to spread.

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 5, 2024

@the_q that's an eco-fascist stance, mind. @lyda @didgebaba

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@mawhrin @lyda @didgebaba Recognizing that the human species, while able to exist within a natural system, chooses not to is an eco-fascist stance? Or is it the part where the human species moves into an area, uses up all the resources and reproduces beyond support?

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 5, 2024

@the_q yes; and both are untrue, the greatest resource abuse is remarkably concentrated amongst a small group. (the overpopulation fear is also purely racist; earth is not overpopulated.) @lyda @didgebaba

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@mawhrin @lyda @didgebaba Racist? Who the hell is talking about race? I'm talking about the fact humans don't function in this natural system in the same way other animals do. If you can't see that a squirrel's life fits and functions toward the betterment of its environment and a humans doesn't then I can't help you. Just because it hurts your feelings to even consider that you, an individual, causes harm doesn't make it less true. We're all responsible. Deal with it.

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 5, 2024

@the_q the planet will be fine, it's us who are fucked. (and as every species here, we're ephemeral.)

we're not a virus though, the earth is not overpopulated; and it's not the majority of the population that is responsible for the most significant part of the damage.

on the contrary, the responsibility is concentrated in a remarkably limited number of hands.

@lyda @didgebaba

Q. Edwards Apr 5, 2024

@mawhrin @lyda @didgebaba "I'm not responsible".. You are. You're using electricity that comes from coal that comes from mining that comes from exploitation. You're on a device made by slaves and powered by children covered in cobalt dust. Your clothes are made by slaves and purchased from companies that pay employees pennies. You're part of the problem just like anyone else, and yes I do understand that companies do more damage, but more damage and less damage are both damage.

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 5, 2024

@the_q please re-read, thank you. @lyda @didgebaba

@home Dec 21, 2024

@mawhrin don't feed the troll 🙃

econads Apr 6, 2024

@mawhrin
"The planet will be fine" - tell that to the millions of species already wiped out during the anthropicene extinction...

@the_q @lyda @didgebaba

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 6, 2024

@econads it's a terrible tragedy, and yet the planet will be fine. we, on the other hand, won't be.

(but that's not my whole argument, and not even the crux of my argument – i argue that calling the humanity “virus” and complaining about overpopulation are both eco-fascist stances.)

econads Apr 6, 2024

@mawhrin
What's your definition of the planet exactly? I tend to also be a humans firster and ergo an environmentalist, I'm just interested. Also didn't see him mention overpopulation.

flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Apr 6, 2024

@econads in order of importance:

overpopulation: “human species moves into an area, uses up all the resources and reproduces beyond support” fits the meaning quite well.
planet, literally the planet earth, the thing that supported various ecosystems across the ages, most of them for most of the time very hostile for humanity to survive. (note: that's not particularly relevant, my point is generally that “destroying the planet” is an entirely antropocentric approach – which is fine, but a bit ironic if at the same time you're calling humanity “a virus”)

(i generally disagree with the teleologic claptrap like “humans bad” (parahprasing) contrasted with “a squirrel's life fits and functions toward the betterment of its environment”; that's just romanticising the ecology and not true at all)

econads Apr 6, 2024

@mawhrin
Well, I mean the planet isn't going to explode, no, it will still be here, but so far this is what the 2nd biggest extinction, wasn't it? I wouldn't call it fine, either.

levampyre Apr 6, 2024

@the_q A virus won't spread, if he kills his host before he can do so. A virus would have to evolve to spread. I mean, we could try to change our ways. But we do not seem to be very adaptable at this point. The planet seems to die more quickly than us evolving. We might die with it before we establish life beyond earth.

@mawhrin Is it an eco-fascist stance? I have to think about that. As a metaphor it appears pretty on point to me. What exactly do you mean by "eco-facist"?

@lyda @didgebaba

Jamez Barrett 🜃 ॐ Ⓐ Apr 5, 2024

@lyda the problem lies in the environment not being transportable. We can create micro-atmospheres but the magnetic envelope that surrounds Earth, the production of the oxygen, the amount of carbon, the correct temperature food products...these are difficult to establish at scale on a planet without an atmosphere.

HipsterDM Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
That dude is a notorious douchebag. I don't want his hot take on anything.
Every single person that has ever worked with him hates him.
He killed his wife(look it up)
He couldn't even be bothered to go to Leonard Nimoy's funeral, made a dumb excuse about a charity event.
I LOVE James T. Kirk, but that guy is an asshole.

Jamez Barrett 🜃 ॐ Ⓐ Apr 5, 2024

@HipsterDM I'm not so interested in how he takes his tea, or who his friends are or the circumstances of his marriage/s. I think the idea of Earth being all we have is profound (and simple) enough to spread.

Marcel Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba Thank you for this. I totally missed his reaction at the time, and to be honest did judge him for doing something so frivolous. But it wasn't, not for him, it turns out. And as Chris Cuomo says: the gift was not the trip, it's what he brought back from it.

Vegetvs Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba "There is no life in the void, only death". - Sauron

sandywb14 Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba ❤️

Leo Fosse on Mastodon Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
We might colonize Mars, though I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.

Faster than light travel is pure fantasy, so getting to another solar system is not going to happen.As much as I enjoy Star Trek and Star Wars, they are just fairy tales for grown-ups .

TobiWanKenobi Apr 5, 2024

It does help to listen to what science tells you and believe in it. It's great that he was privileged enough to experience it in person, but it's common knowledge that there's literally no livable environment for humans within light years except for Earth.
All this nonsense talk about terraforming other planets and blah is pure escapism. Unless mankind develops such a high level of technology that space travel for several centuries and/or extremely high-speed travel becomes available, we'll be stuck on this planet for a very long time to come. And given the current tendencies, I don't see such technological advancements happening anytime soon, seeing how this civilization is likely approaching its end. 🤷‍♂️

Pa-RAD-ikaldies Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
"Ich verstand auf die klarste Art und Weise, dass wir auf einer winzigen Oase des Lebens lebten, umgeben von einer Unermesslichkeit des Todes.
...
Ich habe meinen Teil dazu beigetragen, die Idee zu verbreiten, dass der Weltraum die letzte Grenze ist. Aber ich musste in den Weltraum gehen, um zu verstehen, dass die Erde unsere einzige Heimat ist & bleiben wird. Und dass wir sie unerbittlich verwüstet und unbewohnbar gemacht haben."
(William Shatner, Schausp.)
#DerPlanethatkeinWahlrecht

the Amygdalai Lama Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
wow
all is forgiven, Bill, whatever silly bullshit that was, people hacking on you. ❤️

Schmidt_happens Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba Wise words, well spoken.

Lucy Weir Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba such a pity it took you so long, but glad to know you realised this. The Tao Te Ching has a wonderful verse on listening to barking dogs in the next village and yet managing to stay focused on living now and here, within the limits of the systems that created and sustain us. I wish you well and hope others are quicker to understand.

FoolishOwl Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba Honestly quite a moving statement.

Kevin Russell Apr 5, 2024

The dead planets Mars and Venus have been watching.

Incorrigible Maker for HARRIS Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba
I believe that Native Americans have been trying to tell us this ever since they realized what the first colonists were up to. They're still fighting for the land and water, despite our forefathers overpowering them and engaging in increasingly toxic activities for two hundred years.

Jaguarior Jones Apr 5, 2024

No. Humans have no choice but to become interplanetary and interstellar.

This is bull

Jamez Barrett 🜃 ॐ Ⓐ Apr 6, 2024

@NaturaArtisMagistra at the moment the use of 'interplanetary ' and 'interstellar' as adjectives are fiction and imagination when applied to humans. I fail to understand how that can change, without further recourse to fiction and imagination.

econads Apr 6, 2024

@NaturaArtisMagistra
Why? Do you think we're incapable of living long term on this planet? If so what makes you think we can live on a planet less adapted to us?

That came out a bit combative, I'm genuinely interested in your view :-)
@didgebaba

SFborn1940 Apr 5, 2024

@didgebaba The people who need to appreciate this, the people who can effect change, the people who truly care about tomorrow, they are not in charge.
Their opposites are in charge and the only way to change that cannot be discussed openly here.

Be_Outside Apr 6, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot

YouTube

81stColumn Apr 6, 2024

@didgebaba A few years ago 15.9 and I had a convo about inhabiting the unverse.....

We performed a you're dead analysis.

If a rubberseal breaks....

If someone leaves a door open......

If someone leaves a tap on.....

We concluded that while possible, what sort of life would these adventurers live?

Noting that there are no successful undersea colonies......

levampyre Apr 6, 2024

@didgebaba Okay, yes, I knew this truth before he told me and before he went to space. But, dude, he went to space at 90 years old? 😳 THAT's impressive!

#RiseUp4ClimateJustice
#ClimateCrisis

Jan-Peter Siedentopf Apr 6, 2024

@didgebaba I hope not everyone has to go to space to get the message…

Simounet Apr 6, 2024

@didgebaba I've destroyed our planet a little bit more, just for fun. And now, I'm telling the other rich people, how amazing it is, and the poor one that they're all gonna die because of dumb people like me.