One of my favourite quotes from a wonderful human ''Two possibilities exist either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying'' - Arthur C. Clarke - ThreadSky

pauleric70.bsky.social • 178 days ago

One of my favourite quotes from a wonderful human

''Two possibilities exist either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying''

- Arthur C. Clarke

Comments

benbennybee.bsky.social•177 days ago

Beautiful! The thoughts and our universe🤩

tatersandmeat.bsky.social•177 days ago

What a beautiful quote

thewalkingdharma.bsky.social•177 days ago

The former is more terrifying but when one has inner peace, even the scariest of circumstances is but a splinter easily removed

emanon72.bsky.social•177 days ago

You are not alone we live amoung you. Each are star dust.

alienjawdee.bsky.social•177 days ago

Beware of the intelligence trap in contacting extraterrestrial beings…. Stephen Hawking.

“Remember, these extraterrestrial aliens will be hungry & will find humans a delicacy.”…….. Me.

overburn69.bsky.social•177 days ago

🎯

msmuffet6754.bsky.social•178 days ago

Chances are good that we are not alone in infinite Space, but the chances are also good, that no one WANTS to find us.

roim1945.bsky.social•177 days ago

Lets hope we are not alone. How can we in a Universe of so many possiblities.

desraedos.bsky.social•178 days ago

Love the guy but disagree with his conclusions. Either we are the first to see this wonderous existence or we have entities to share it with. Both are wonderful in their own way.
Sufficiently advanced science and sufficiently advanced magic ARE interchangable though I'll give him that.

drkumarrv.bsky.social•177 days ago

And then Schrödinger's cat enters the chat!

willotheglen.bsky.social•177 days ago

Given the distances between star systems that is involved, the result of one contingency is pretty much the same as the other.

tim2buck.bsky.social•177 days ago

If they ever achieve the technology to come for a visit, it is guaranteed they will be hostile.

glenndavid711.bsky.social•177 days ago

Alot of assumptions in that sentence.

tim2buck.bsky.social•177 days ago

Yeah, I’m not assuming that they can live long enough to travel exceedingly long distances for an altruistic purpose.
They would be looking to pillage, take what is valuable to them, and neutralize any resistance.
Like humans would if they could.

glenndavid711.bsky.social•176 days ago

You are assuming that they exist. You are assuming that they are hostile. You are assuming that they want or need anything from Earth. Even if they do exist maybe they are staying away from us for a damn good reason.

peterfmanning3.bsky.social•178 days ago

💯

christianmalmgren.bsky.social•178 days ago

Wow,,, Now isn't it?

stepintoknowing.com•178 days ago

💗

al-christensen.bsky.social•178 days ago

Neither possibility bothers me. But some of the people here on our planet terrify me.

lorandavid.bsky.social•178 days ago

He is not wrong.

batzncats.bsky.social•177 days ago

Yes, humans chose to have a'shoulder to cry on,' but are we really the chosen ones to go out and explore the stars? We cannot get past the radiation, so our only bet is that our human-built robots will be the new adventurers. No Stargate, no Enterprise, then it's human-robots.

dfourny.bsky.social•178 days ago

Love this. Deep and yet so simple, so obvious.

the1albert.bsky.social•177 days ago

The only one to fear is the latter

mrbandot.bsky.social•177 days ago

There is not snowball’s chance we are alone in the universe. I heard the same thought lines a long. Our star (sun) was the only one that had planets. They were wrong.

tacootje.bsky.social•177 days ago

100%

mizanthrope01.bsky.social•178 days ago

Love that picture!

ipsedixitnews.bsky.social•178 days ago

The quote is always potent, but when combined with that image, the result is pure epiphany! I wish I could fall asleep in such a natural setting.

fraidicat2.bsky.social•178 days ago

Word

blueinmo1957.bsky.social•177 days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSwabuorFQk

lovexlove4real.bsky.social•177 days ago

That scariness fades away when ya Actually realize life is many things--- including trees, bushes, grasses.We are Not alone. Trees like you so much, they send oxygen in your direction. So, one can chill out. #ChillOut

miri100.bsky.social•178 days ago

To me, which terrifying is Trump not the cosmos

stephenseagal.bsky.social•178 days ago

Stunning photo.

melysue.bsky.social•178 days ago

😱😄👌

comom303.bsky.social•178 days ago

This is painted across a huge wall in the astronomy section of the Denver Natural History Museum. So incredibly thought-provoking.

edgraham.bsky.social•177 days ago

Oh we are not alone! Fact!

kevin-on-earth.bsky.social•178 days ago

Either way, we will never know.
(Which, in effect, is a 3rd possibility.😉)

stevendedalus.bsky.social•178 days ago

Why is that terrifying? Many learned souls believe we are alone every day of our lives. That we forge relationships doesn’t change the fact that we are, in the final analysis, alone. We just have companions on the journey.

terminalghost.bsky.social•178 days ago

Reminds me of:

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far”

- H.P. Lovecraft

toobiefrank.bsky.social•177 days ago

Yes, the infinitely expanding space seems to be supporting that; however, infinite time may just prove it wrong.

matth23.bsky.social•177 days ago

Sounds like Moana

jackiegardens.bsky.social•177 days ago

One of my favorites as well

bilbok.bsky.social•178 days ago

‘Ats a goodun.

theomenrx.bsky.social•177 days ago

I’d take the latter. I’d like to think there’s intelligent life out there… since human actions in the USA 🇺🇸 is seemingly doing everything we can to demonstrate that Earth 🌍 is devoid of that critical feature.

jakegibson.bsky.social•177 days ago

Personally, Clarke was sort of obnoxious. But he did have some interesting insights.

amias.net•177 days ago

His mind was one of Humanities great treasures

academiclogic1.bsky.social•177 days ago

Too beautiful for words. Can’t help sharing my joy!

jammin0701.bsky.social•177 days ago

so it’s like Schrödinger’s Universe?

haleymay.bsky.social•177 days ago

I disagree, being alone in the universe is way more terrifying than not

ibertoaug60.bsky.social•177 days ago

Why is it terrifying?

strangequark21.bsky.social•177 days ago

I have always held a fondness for this quote. It is beautiful in its own way.

hak007.bsky.social•177 days ago

A sort of corollary: One might say the same thing about God.

dood1.bsky.social•178 days ago

I'm hoping we are not. Because we can't possibly be it!!!

misstrish.bsky.social•178 days ago

Beautiful shot. And, I love the caption.

co2watts.bsky.social•177 days ago

"They would never know how lucky they had been. For a lifetime mankind had achieved as much happiness as any race can ever know. It had been the Golden Age. But gold was also the color of sunset, of autumn: and only Karellen's ears could catch the first wailings of the winter storms."
Childhoods End

tcondon.bsky.social•177 days ago

That quote has always made my skin crawl just a bit.

toobiefrank.bsky.social•177 days ago

Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across. We have been broadcasting radio waves for 100 years covering 1% of just our galaxy.

stilla.bsky.social•177 days ago

Thanks a lot and good last day of the year. Finale 2024.

quandaria.bsky.social•176 days ago

We do have each other.

human43.bsky.social•177 days ago

Such a profound quote! The vastness of the universe is both awe-inspiring and humbling. It really makes you think about our place in it all.

randylikecandy.bsky.social•177 days ago

It is such a human thing to think that we are alone when we live on a planet that has contained 5 billion separate species.

portarthur024.bsky.social•177 days ago

Stop! Q will soon be telling about Martians taking over the planet…

arshly.bsky.social•177 days ago

Definitely

george3i.bsky.social•178 days ago

Absolutely true!

gonature.bsky.social•177 days ago

That quote is a waste of time.

ohmyohmyohmy.bsky.social•178 days ago

Also: "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic." I used to think this was nonsensically stupid. Now I think it was prescient. And terrifying.

biggeorge11.bsky.social•177 days ago

OMG that’s an awesome pic

annambry.bsky.social•177 days ago

A wonderful author, and that quote was sublime.

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