Overview Effect
Photo courtesy of Pesquet-ESA
What does the Earth look like and feel like 'from Above'?"
Astro Pesquet: When you look at the Earth from the space station, it's absolutely magical. You're not that far away, so you still have a relatively close-up view. But you can see the curvature and you see the atmosphere. It glows in blue. It is absolutely breathtaking the first time you see it. It's the most beautiful scenery you could possibly imagine.
When you're on the Earth, you feel that everything is so vast, everything is endless. You have a hard time understanding how limited we are. Then, when you take a step back and you see the Earth in its entirety, you suddenly understand that we live in an oasis in the cosmos. All around us is nothing, no life, blackness, emptiness, absolutely nothing -- apart from this blue ball with everything we need to sustain human life, and life in general, which is absolutely fragile.
It makes you want to cherish the Earth and protect it, the more you see it from space.
Planet Citizens
- Time for Planet Citizen Action 🌎
Planet Citizens in Action
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PlanetaryAwareness.org
2023
NASA
2022
Tiny Oasis of Life
“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, of 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."
'The most profound experience'
-- William Shatner
The Captain of Star Trek experiences the 'Overview Effect'
Flies on Blue Origin to the Edge of Space and Looks Home to Earth
October 13, 2021
Shatner: “Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see ... it was unbelievable.”
“I mean, the little things, the weightlessness, and to see the blue color whip by and now you’re staring into blackness. That’s the thing. This covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue around that we have around us. We think ‘oh, that’s blue sky’ and suddenly you shoot through it all of a sudden, like you whip a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness – into black ugliness. And you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there, and there is Mother Earth and comfort and – is there death? Is that the way death is?”
... “It was so moving to me. This experience; it was something unbelievable. Yeah, weightlessness, my stomach went out, this was so weird, but not as weird as the covering of blue – this is what I never expected. It’s one thing to say “oh the sky ... and it’s fragile,” it’s all true. But what isn’t true, what is unknown, until you do [go to space] is this pillow, there’s this soft blue. Look at the beauty of that color. And it’s so thin and you’re through it in an instant. How thick is it? Is it a mile?”
... “What you’ve given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. I am so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now, I don’t want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me and life; it hasn’t got anything to do with the little green and blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death. Oh my god, it’s unbelievable.”
Bezos: “It’s so beautiful.”
Shatner: “Beautiful, yes, beautiful in it’s way but.”
Bezos: “No, I mean your words. It’s just amazing.”
Shatner: “I can’t even begin to express ... what I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible is the jeopardy. The moment you see the vulnerability of everything; it’s so small. This air, which is keeping us alive, is thinner than your skin. It’s a sliver; it’s immeasurably small when you think in terms of the universe. It’s negligible, this air. Mars doesn’t have any, nothing. I mean, when you think of when carbon dioxide changes to oxygen and what is 20% that sustains our life? It’s so thin.”
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(2021) More than three decades ago, Frank White coined the term “Overview Effect” to describe the cognitive shift that results from the experience of viewing the Earth from space and in space, from orbit or on a lunar mission. He found that with great consistency, this experience profoundly affects space travelers’ worldviews — their perceptions of themselves, our planet, and our understanding of the future.
White notes that astronauts know from direct experience what the rest of us know intellectually: we live on a planet that is like a natural spaceship moving through the universe at a high rate of speed. We are, in fact, the crew of "Spaceship Earth," as Buckminster Fuller described our world.
- Your Moment on Earth, Planet Citizen 🌎
NASA
Protect & Secure "Thin Blue"
- “I thought at one point, if you could be up in heaven, this is how you would see the planet. And then I dwelled on that and said, no, it’s more beautiful than that...
- This is what heaven must look like. I think of our planet as a paradise. We are very lucky to be here.”
- -- Mike Massimino
Six NASA Astronauts Describe the Moment in Space When “Everything Changed”
“This is what heaven must look like.”
They Saw Earth From Space. Here’s How It Changed Them
- For most of us, Earth is inescapably larger than life. Even now, after nearly six decades of human spaceflight, precious few people have rocketed into orbit and seen the sun peeking out from behind that curved horizon. Since 1961, a mere 556 people have had this rarefied experience. Fewer, just 24, have watched Earth shrink in the distance, growing smaller and smaller until it was no larger than the face of a wristwatch. And only six have been completely alone behind the far side of the moon, cut off from a view of our planet as they sailed in an endlessly deep, star-studded sea.
Big Picture View
- We're All Planet Citizens
We Saw Earth in Space... Here’s How It Changed Us
Those Earthrise and Whole Earth images from 1968-69...
Beginnings of the modern environmental movement
Apollo 8, launched on Dec 21, 1968. History was made. Humanity's picture of our place in the universe changed. Life on Earth changed as a result. Cognitive awareness, planetary awareness changed. Environmental awareness changed forever.
Apollo 8 was the first human mission to deep space, deep enough to see the Whole Earth and share images of what they saw. The images were taken "serendipity", they were not planned as part of the mission. It was a magic, monumental event -- and the images forever changed humanity's perspective of ourselves and our home planet.
On April 20th, 1970, some 18 months after Apollo 8's "Earthrise" photo was first seen on Earth, the first global environmental 'teach-in', "Earth Day" arose with a whole earth message, a new perspective, new ways of seeing, a new identification with the home planet began to be visualized in an environmental movement.
- DYK? Yes, we do, we remember the beginnings !
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On the 50th Anniversary
Memories on the Road to the First Earth Day
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Day_Memories_on_the_50th_Anniversary
Beginnings of the Modern Environmental Movement
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_movement
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Whole_earth_catalog_1969.jpg
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/science/space/14mission.html
'Earthrise', in so many ways, birthed the modern environmental movement.
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... The sight moved the poet Archibald MacLeish to write on Christmas Day of that momentous perspective-changing year:
“To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together...”
After the mission, NASA released the color pictures the astronauts had taken of “Earthrise”, celebrated on the cover of Life Magazine in January 1969.
• http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Apollo.jpg
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Earthrise_book_cover_(2008).jpg
In a 2008 book, “Earthrise” Robert Poole writes of a "spiritual nascence" of the environmental movement... “It is possible to see that Earthrise marked the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth.”
Galen Rowell described the Earthrise image as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken".
SpaceVR: Overview Effect circa Christmas 2019
On seeing the whole planet in the blackness of space, national borders melt away, and we all become, primarily, citizens of Earth. Many astronauts are struck by the thinness of the atmosphere, and the stunning beauty of the planet, and feel compelled to protect it when they return.
From space, the planet is a constantly changing masterpiece and the sheer beauty is absolutely breathtaking... “For me it was an epiphany in slow motion,” said Ron Garan, a former Nasa astronaut who is not involved in the trial. “It’s a profound sense of empathy, a profound sense of community, and a willingness to forgo immediate gratification and take a more multi-generational outlook on progress.”
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- Ride along --- http://vimeo.com/55073825
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SpaceVR, SpaceX to launch VR camera into space, bringing the 'Overview' astronaut experience to all
"I read a book called The Overview Effect. It's about this thing that happens to astronauts. When they go into space, they have this really deep, emotional feeling, it's almost like they're awakening to the universe..."
- New Ways of Seeing
Overview's "Cognitive Shift"
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The Mind of the Future
Jason Silva: Ontological design implies that there’s this hermeneutic circle in the sense of mind emerges into feedback loops between brains, tools, and environments... witnessing the power of our creative and linguistic choices... Even the words we're using to describe, to map our experience were being fed back into our experience. And it’s just a reminder of the sort of dizzying freedom that we have to compose our lives, to compose our experience.
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Overview effect: Pursuit of the ultimate view
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The phenomenon, called the "Overview Effect," refers to epiphanies reported by many astronauts who have had their world views reconfigured by looking back on Earth's "blue marble" from the wilderness of space.
Profoundly affected by the sight of a gossamer-thin atmosphere protecting a natural splendor unsullied by political boundaries, a number of astronauts have returned home committed to sharing new ideas about human unity and ecological solutions for dwindling resources....
Perspectives
Overview Effect by Anders Rostad
Overview Effect viewed by Jason Silva
‘Overview’ and the Overview Effect 25 years on:
The Overview Effect at 25, article in the Space Review:
‘Overview’: The Perspective-Altering Effect of Seeing Earth from Space, Universe Today:
The Overview Effect, But Does It Float
Overview -- the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Magazine:
The Wonder, Thrill and Meaning of Seeing Earth from Space
Earth360 ~ Watch Planet Earth from the International Space Station
- Watch 'View from Above' - FULL 1080p, lights off, volume up. Even better, go 'Original' for 2160p - HD 4K
- Watch 'All Alone in the Night' - Settings Suggestion: FULL Screen, 1080p, lights off, volume up, lean back and fly
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EarthPOV
- Yes to EarthPOV.com / https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/EarthPOV
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February 2016 ... In memory of Edgar Mitchell
Remembering an Astronaut who was one of the first to look back at our Planet Earth
- and tell us how profoundly amazing and beautiful -- and in danger -- our world is...
Edgar Mitchell: Founder of the Noetic Institute
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- New Ways of Seeing
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A Hat Tip H/T to Douglas Trumbull, Supporter of the Visionary World of the Overview Effect
"To push the edge... I believe we are at the threshold... Time to make breakthroughs"
Technology to Revolutionize Cinema
Remembering "Starchild"
Starchild 2001 / Story via GreenPolicy
A Nod to Douglas' Work to Bring 'Hypercinema, Immersive Experiences' to the Space Center in Florida
- Viewing Earth from Above
Hypercinema / State of the Cinema Art
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Remembering 'Earthrise'
- December 1968
Earthrise memories on the 45th anniversary - Earth-home, the historic view of Earth from Apollo
"The earth from here [circling the moon] is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space." — Jim Lovell, live Apollo 8 - 1968
"If somebody had said before the flight, 'Are you going to get carried away looking at the earth from the moon?' I would have said, 'No, no way.' But yet when I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, I cried." — Alan Shepard, Astronaut
"As you pass from sunlight into darkness and back again every hour and a half, you become startlingly aware how artificial are thousands of boundaries we've created to separate and define. And for the first time in your life you feel in your gut the precious unity of the Earth and all the living things it supports." — Russell Schweikart, Apollo 9
"As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate..." — James Irwin, Apollo 15
What a View!
Overview refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect our "pale blue dot."
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Earthrise tells the remarkable story of the first photographs of Earth from space and the totally unexpected impact of those images. The Apollo “Earthrise” and “Blue Marble” photographs were beamed across the world some forty years ago. They had an astounding effect, Robert Poole explains, and in fact transformed thinking about the Earth and its environment in a way that echoed throughout religion, culture, and science. Gazing upon our whole planet for the first time, we saw ourselves and our place in the universe with new clarity.
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2015
Overview Effect, Third Edition, by Frank White
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"Space travel needs a new birth, and if we can tap into the desire to go into space, incredible things can come from it."
— Sir Richard Branson
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More than 30 years ago, Frank White coined the term “Overview Effect” to describe the cognitive shift in awareness that results from the experience of viewing Earth from orbit or the moon. He found that, with great consistency, this experience profoundly affects space travelers’ worldviews — their perceptions of themselves and our planet, and our understanding of the future. White found that astronauts know from direct experience what the rest of us know only intellectually: we live on a planet that is like a natural spaceship moving through the universe at a high rate of speed. We are, in fact, the crew of “Spaceship Earth,” as Buckminster Fuller described our world.
In The Overview Effect, Third Edition Frank White expands on his original concept, which has now gained worldwide recognition and exposure. Using interviews with and writings by numerous astronauts and cosmonauts, he describes space exploration and settlement as necessary next steps in the evolution of human civilization and consciousness.
The third edition features new interviews with the following astronauts, space advocates, and New Space entrepreneurs: Ron Garan / Helen P. Sharman / Michael Lopez-Alegria / Sandra H. Magnus / John B. Herrington / Akihiko Hoshide / Nicole Stott / Sir Richard Branson / George Whitesides - Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides
Frank White is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he earned a Master of Philosophy degree in politics. He is a leading thinker and advocate on the topic of space exploration and its impact on human thought and society. He first published 'The Overview Effect' in 1987 and has since authored, co-authored, or edited nine other books, including 'Think About Space' and 'The March of the Millennia' (with Isaac Asimov), 'The SETI Factor', and 'The New Camelot'.
Frank is co-founder with David Beaver of the 'Overview Institute' created in 2008 to communicate the nature and impact of the 'whole earth space experience' that has profoundly changed the perspective of so many space travelers. He appears in 'Overview', a short film about the 'Overview Effect' released by Planetary Collective in 2012 that has been viewed on the Internet by more than 6 million people.
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- @SXSW
In March 2015, at the South by Southwest/SXSW festival, the full-length 'Overview' film entitled 'Planetary' premiered as a featured film event
Planetary is scheduled for wide release on Earth Day 2015
The film, a Planetary Collective in association with Reconsider production, is a follow-up to the award-winning short film 'Overview', featuring astronauts' stories of what it means to see the Earth from space, which was featured on Vimeo Staff Picks and has received nearly 7 million views to date. - http://weareplanetary.com/planetary-press/
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- How the Overview Effect is similar to other World View Changes
The mass experience of The Overview Effect of space travel, seeing the reality of the Earth in space, will eventually be seen as a major driver of one of the greatest shifts in world awareness in the Modern World, equivalent or greater than the Copernican Revolution or the discovery of the New World. Whether by direct experience or sophisticated simulation and artistic representation, this experience will forever alter the life we think we are living and world we think we are in.
— David Beaver
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Our #BlueDot" Whole Earth - #Earth360
"From up here it is surprisingly obvious, our world is one connected system" -- Astro Alexander Gerst"
January 31, 2015 -- "I wish I could bring all of you up to see this! -- Astro Terry Virts"
Hello Up There
To see through the eyes of Astronauts.....
Earth Science Research from Space
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Photo Courtesy of Andrew McCarthy
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