‽istis wonders and ponders * ‘who’s looking at you’? (weekending December 25th 2021)
So, the James Webb Space Telescope (1) is set to launch and ‽istis, contemplating the prospect of ‘seeing’ both across vast distance and back in time, wonders in utter, utter amazement as we are told (2):
‽ ‘the observatory will travel to an orbit about one million miles away from Earth and undergo six months of commissioning in space—unfolding its mirrors, sunshield, and other smaller systems; cooling down; aligning; and calibrating’
‽ its ‘revolutionary technology will study every phase of cosmic history—from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe’
‽ it will ‘directly observe a part of space and time never seen before. Webb will gaze into the epoch when the very first stars and galaxies formed, over 13.5 billion years’ ago’
‽istis wonders what questions we might be asking and what answers we might in search of in the conceiving, planning, funding, building and deploying this (soon to be) out-of-this-world piece of equipment?*
What might you want to know and why?*
And ‽istis feels utterly mind-boggled*.
But then, out of the reverie and reverence, and perhaps through a 'Total Vortex Perspective' (3), ‽istis suddenly has an image of potential ‘other life’ looking back down the telescope at us, or even looking through their/its telescope at us‽
Memories of adverts for Smash instant potato come back (4)... and ‽istis wonders if laughter at discovering what ‘the earth people’ eat and how they prepare it (5) is accompanied by utter horror and overwhelming pity that such wondrousness - us, our world and all that is on it - seems to be held in such little regard: killing each other and spending billions on ways to potentially and actually do it; allowing some to live in gross excess and some to live in extreme impoverishment; killing ourselves; mass slaughter and exploitation of anything and everything else that lives; the use of never-to-be replaced fossil fuels which at the same time choke the miraculous eco-system that sustains us... on and on...
Think on these things*, please, please, please - and add, from here and there, from then and now, your own thoughts!
And perhaps, possibly, maybe those who interpret the data that the James Webb Telescope sends back will hear one resounding cosmic message:
“Look at yourselves.
Pathetic, utterly pathetic.
Do better before it is too late.
Please. Please. Please.”
© Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
*..pausing for considerable thought
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ (what looks to be an amazing array of resources and links are available)
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/assets/documents/WebbFactSheet.pdf
Thank you Douglas Adams, for this and so very much: 'The Total Perspective Vortex was a machine built with the intention of showing beings the infinity of creation, which became used as a method of torture. It first appeared in the Secondary Phase of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, when Zaphod Beeblebrox was subjected to the vortex and became the first person to survive it.’ https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=smash+adverts+1970s (and the taste from ‘expedition’ walks as a young member of the Scouting movement https://www.scouts.org.uk/ )
