I've been moved to tears by New Horizons pictures of Pluto & even ETH's "photos" of black holes. Because whether humans were "present" there at Pluto or Sgr A* was immaterial, it still represents for me a triumph of human understanding & undertaking.
What helped me feel this way was a couple of presentations I attended which showed not only the scientific results or the "ooh look at this" photos but also just how human the activity was, folks dedicating decades of their work in some cases.
Besides these two talks I'm thinking of, I also had the opportunity to meet a guy who worked on some of the scientific instruments of Cassini. A humble machinist but clearly brilliant and passionate.
These experiences make me deeply believe that it's OK if humans never go to the stars or even the planets for themselves; there's still the work of lifetimes upon lifetimes to learn what we can of the universe remotely. And similarly, to be at peace with the fact that while some future technology might enable it, it won't happen in my lifetime.
Stylus
npub1t9…h32jg
2026-10-13 21:38:56 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…tn92
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npub1t92ss09zhn0t0347d82mxzlrrxmpecc5xanv0seyns0l9qumh7ssyh32jgSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-10-13 21:38:56 UTCEvent JSON
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