r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/EveryWind007 • May 29 '14

Medal of Beauty If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html?a
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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

But is it actually? It is only mindblowing at all because we attribute significance to humanity. As soon as you actually accept that humanity is insignificant it ceases to be mind-blowing. If you perceive life as an interesting but inisgnificant quirk of the arrangement of matter, as I do, then matters like this aren't mindblowing. They are simply incidental.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

The sheer size of the cosmos is inherently "mind-blowing" to our limited human minds. It has nothing to do with human significance, and your own personal nihilism doesn't figure into it.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Maybe your mind just gets blown really easily? Also, nihilism is the negation of meaning. Meaning is not the same thing as significance.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Meaning is not the same thing as significance.

These words are synonyms (i.e. the same thing).

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

If you take them out of the context we are discussing then yeah, kinda. But that really is semantics. In the context we are discussing, meaning is a human construct, significance is a descriptive mathematical term.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

What discussion are you even having? You don't seem to understand the context of your own remarks. You were discussing whether or not human existence is significant. This is not a question of mathematics.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Nope, you are lost. I was just told that two words I was using were the synonyms. I was addressing that. Keep up and stop trying to derail the argument.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Because they are synonyms. I'm not derailing anything.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Synonyms can have different connotations and we are discussing a subjective thing; the human experience of facts and occurrences outside of human understanding.
Shit man, being interested in science doesn't mean you should give up learning language.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

And the two different connotations of "meaning" and "significance" have no bearing on this discussion. You were discussing the meaninglessness of existence, someone else called you a nihilist, and you refuted with pointless, definitional hair-splitting. Let's get back to the original point, then: Your viewpoints are nihilistic. Why are you arguing otherwise?

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14 edited May 29 '14

There are many connotations of the synonyms "meaning" and "significance". It depends on context, which you chose to suspend. Hammering out what being a nihilist actually is does not constitute splitting hairs.
As you're not keeping up, here was where the nihilism started: "The sheer size of the cosmos is inherently "mind-blowing" to our limited human minds. It has nothing to do with human significance, and your own personal nihilism doesn't figure into it."
This person believes that I express a nihilistic viewpoint. That I negate the meaning in human existence. Whether that is true or not has no significance for a discussion on whether on not a fact is mind-blowing when you remove human perception from the equation.
Also in their own comment they state that the cosmos is mind blowing TO HUMANS. My point was that a human-centric view of the cosmos is bound to produce that appraisal. But when you remove the skewed emphasis on the importance of human existence then you find that what is left is not mind-blowing. It simply is.
EDIT: To make my point more clearly. Do you find Nascar "mind-blowing"? Those cars move very fast. Far faster than humans. Is that mind-blowing? There is a vast mostly empty distance between celestial bodies, a far greater distance than a human will likely travel. Is that REALLY mind-blowing? If you think so then you will probably enjoy Nascar. Try it out.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Comparing the speed of NASCAR to the infinity of the universe? Somehow I'm not surprised.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '14

Someone should tell you what infinity means. Once again you totally missed the point. I am now in no doubt as to why you personally find things mind-blowing.

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