The Overview Effect

I read an article somewhere about how it&#x27;s possible the idea of the &quot;overview effect&quot; might actually just be putting a positive spin on the earlier &quot;breakaway effect&quot; or &quot;break-off phenomenon&quot;. I thought it was this [0] article by Gwern, but on rereading, while it discusses both effects, it doesn&#x27;t seem to actually make that claim. Hm. Wonder what I was thinking of.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Scanners" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Scanners</a>

I felt something akin to the overview effect when I used psychedelics.<p>It was the realization that my internal conflicts, like the conflicts of the world, were arbitrary and that reality offers so much more.<p>Hard to explain. But perhaps this could also help those who can&#x27;t travel to space.

&gt; the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this &quot;pale blue dot&quot; becomes both obvious and imperative<p>Change of perspective doesn&#x27;t change objective reality of human nature as the latter is immutable and outside control of observer, while the prior is very mutable and anyone can warp it as much as tech allows them.

I think it&#x27;s everyone&#x27;s birth-right to see Earth in its entirety. Not in some picture or video, but to be in space and see it floating like some fragile embryo in the womb.<p>That&#x27;s why I&#x27;m not overly cynical about the space billionaires who want to democratize trips to space and in the words of Bezos, &#x27;build a road to space&#x27;.<p>Not seeing the very planet you were born on, from a bigger perspective is like being a caretaker of a prison (or garden!) never having seen the entire prison (or garden!) from the outside.

Cant wait to see if it makes bezos less of an asshole.

Perhaps the overview effect can be achieved with a good virtual reality experience. SpaceVR are working on it.

&gt; From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’<p>-- Edgar Mitchell