Earth's location...
Dec. 14th, 2010 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrako- For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... of an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies.... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that. - Carl Sagan, 1934 - 1996
I cite this because the quote never made much sense to me. The notion that we were the centre of the universe (and of a series of spheres) was never a conceit, it was a mistake. What would make a galaxy exceptional or unexceptional? Why does he consider our star humdrum? What is obscure about any part of any galaxy, including galactic arms? Why does he think our planet is 'routine', when we're hard put to find another one with water and oxygen?
The whole paragraph seems as misguided to me as any earth-centric argument Sagan might be trying to counter. It's subjective.
