You have yet to exist.
At about 65million light-years away from Earth is NGC 1300 a barred spiral galaxy, with its blue and red starlight and interstellar dust. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson puts it, "Light from dying dinosaurs just now reaching them."
What he means by that is that, if you were standing somewhere in that galaxy and pointing a (very, very, very) powerful telescope towards Earth you would see dying dinosaurs.
That's how light works and it's insane.
You are always only ever seeing the past.
So? What of it?
For me, this makes everything we do seem more important. Think about it, 65 million years from now, some person or thing -let's name him/it, Bernie- will look through that telescope and see you sipping your morning coffee, booting up your computer and checking the morning headlines.
In those morning headlines is this: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100068401/a-picture-of-islamofascism-two-sudanese-policeman-whipping-a-defenceless-woman/
The above headline is another event that will repeat 65million years into the future and beyond that.
It's awesome and scary to think that all of our actions, no matter how interesting, how mundane, how stupid or how violent. It's depressing to think that no matter what, you are going to be lumped in with that asshole when Bernie is looking through his telescope and thinks to himself, "Shit, people were barbarians 65million years ago."
Even if you aren't sure about what happens when you die, rest assured that reruns of you will air whether you like it or not.
What he means by that is that, if you were standing somewhere in that galaxy and pointing a (very, very, very) powerful telescope towards Earth you would see dying dinosaurs.
That's how light works and it's insane.
You are always only ever seeing the past.
So? What of it?
For me, this makes everything we do seem more important. Think about it, 65 million years from now, some person or thing -let's name him/it, Bernie- will look through that telescope and see you sipping your morning coffee, booting up your computer and checking the morning headlines.
In those morning headlines is this: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100068401/a-picture-of-islamofascism-two-sudanese-policeman-whipping-a-defenceless-woman/
The above headline is another event that will repeat 65million years into the future and beyond that.
It's awesome and scary to think that all of our actions, no matter how interesting, how mundane, how stupid or how violent. It's depressing to think that no matter what, you are going to be lumped in with that asshole when Bernie is looking through his telescope and thinks to himself, "Shit, people were barbarians 65million years ago."
Even if you aren't sure about what happens when you die, rest assured that reruns of you will air whether you like it or not.