The Overview Effect – An Amazing 20-Minute Video to Brighten Your Day

June 19, 2013

A recently released 20-minute documentary trailer beautifully tells the story of astronauts’ experiences looking back on the earth. It leads with the profound proposition uttered by English astronomer Fred Hoyle in 1948:

Once a photograph of earth, taken from outside, is available … a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.

Enjoy:

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The Overview Effect “refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this “pale blue dot” becomes both obvious and imperative” (The Overview Institute).