It seems voyager is now about to leave our solar system, which is quite significant, even for this long range traveler. The point was made that when our sun eventually explodes, as it must, then even if there was any trace if humankind left on Earth, or any of our neighboring planets, then this would be obliterated at the very latest then, and the only traces of us which would remain would be whatever, like voyager, had managed to escape the solar system .
It's a sobering thought, but there is also some resolve and pride to be taken in the fact that, no matter what happens now, and even if human civilization has already peaked and goes into decline from now on, at least one artefact, one achievement, will live on. And even if it will never be found by anyone or any being which can recover it, it is fitting that the words of Carl Sagan are out there somewhere on that golden disc -from the man who realized we are all from star dust,a message will live on long after we've returned to it.
And this also reminded me of a nice little idea I have, which even if just a fantasy, is somehow comforting and pleasant, even if I can't properly articulate why: the notion that, for everything that happened (outside at least but given things like xrays then maybe not just) there is in theory, at all times, some point which would just then be reached at the speed of light from the event, and where, with a powerful enough telescope, that past event can now be seen unfolding. Think of any fond incident, like playing outside as a child, and in theory, if not in practice, it's "happening" again somewhere right now. Those moments, like voyager, are flying out forever into the universe, and in a small way, will never be lost.
It reminds me too of the end of the last Pooh bear book, “The House at
Pooh Corner”,in which the boy is leaving for school and takes his leave of the companions of his youth :
“But wherever they go , and whatever happens to them on the way ,in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing. ”
This never fails to bring a tear to my eye, since for me it encapsulates the transience of our youth , our lives ,our loves and joys . . . and yet , somehow also the hope that these things live on somehow.
And that we can feel this I think shows that it is not just the astronomical immortality that is involved. Whether Voyager might really physically outlive our sun is not really the point, more that we can have the notion and feeling that it could. Our special moments and achievements endure not just in the outer world but in the inner as well, forever reverberating around our minds, and in the minds of those with whom we share them with. Like voyager, or the image of a boy playing with his bear, they will always in some sense be "happening", sometime, somewhere.
Or, as Bogart might say, we will always have Paris...
Posted from phone via Blogaway (so excuse any typos!)
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