Definitions and explanations of key terms used throughout the site.
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space.
With only one or two human-made structures visible from Earth orbit, everything else that divides us – national borders, politics, languages, skin color, who you worship – is invisible to you.
Source: Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson
It seemed to me that another picture of the Earth, this one taken from a hundred thousand times farther away, might help in the continuing process of revealing to ourselves our true circumstance and condition. It had been well understood...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
And yet there is no sign of humans in this picture, not our reworking of the Earth's surface, not our machines, not ourselves: We are too small and our statecraft is too feeble to be seen by a spacecraft between...
Source: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space. It is the experience of seeing first-hand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately...
We'll watch the world from above, as it turns to the rhythm of love
So I walk up on high, and I step to the edge - To see my world below
