Monday, September 16, 2019

The parallax view (#3881)

     A rudimentary ability for limited general calculations. When our species first became aware of time and space we needed to measure things in some simple way. Using the parallax view, extending one's arm out straight with thumb up and closing one eye to see an object in the distance aligned with the thumb and eye. Usually everyone's arm is about 2 feet long from eye to thumb when extended. Then closing that eye and opening the other gives us another line of sight to our thumb to another point out in the distance. We also can generally say that our eyes are about 2 inches apart. With this information we can with much more ease determine the distance between the two distant points.
     By measuring our walk to the first distant point we can then take every two foot increment there is and multiply that by 2 inches to generally get the distant to the object we observed with the second eye without having to walk the distance to determine it. Rudimentary like I said but effective when trying to measure great distances in our early human development. This is how science came into being. Using tools whether our bodies or some device we created, to make our world more understandable to our thinking.
     We humans didn't create anything here to make this existence. But we can make of what we have and create a life here while we are alive to bear the living here more comfortably than not. We are not gods nor are we masters of all things. But we are capable of advancing our species through ingenuity and innovation so that thus becomes our default manifest destiny. We all need to have a purpose in life so making life more bearable for our species is a purpose all humans can claim as theirs. Like the parallax view, understanding what we can do or could do is a start and then actually doing it is the goal. Let's all get going on our goals and live the best we can in an existence that evolution has made us a part of.

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