By
Frank White
You look down and see the surface of that globe that you've
lived on all this time, and you know all those people
down there and they are like you, they are you-and somehow
you represent them. You are there as the sensing element,
that point out on the end, and that's a humbling feeling.
Apollo
9 astronaut Russell L. ("Rusty") Schweickart in TheOverviewEffect
|
When
I wrote a book called The Overview Effect in 1987, my goal was
to transform people's perceptions of space exploration. I wanted
them to see that the central purpose of space exploration is
the transformation of consciousness, beginning with "The Overview
Effect." I saw writing the book as a milestone in a long process
of communication from the universe to humanity. The following
quote from the book describes my feelings at the time. Speaking
of a paper I had written in mid-1985 about Rusty Schweickart's
spaceflight experience, I said:
As
I entered Schweickart's words about being " the sensing
element of humanity," into the word processor, I suddenly
knew what he meant. It was an "aha" experience for me.
I saw humanity as an organism and grasped the reality
of his experience as the "eye" of humanity.
I felt that, in writing it down, I was like a "neuron"
firing, sending the message down the line to others. It
had taken sixteen years for the message to get from the
universe to Schweickart to me. I realized that while it
may take time, a message is indeed being transmitted.(1)
|
Twenty years later, that sentiment still holds. While it may
take time, a message is indeed being transmitted. It is now
two decades since the book's first publication, and I have now
had another "aha" experience and additional proof that the message
is being transmitted from the astronauts to the people of the
Earth, and, through The Overview Effect to even more of them.
It took 16 years for the overview message to get from Rusty
to me. Why wouldn't it take at least that much time for the
true paradigm shift that I had hoped for to take place? When
I first heard from David Beaver about what he and his colleagues
were doing with the World Space Center, I knew that he too had
received the overview message: we are one species on a single
planet with a common destiny that extends far beyond that planet
as we evolve into the universe.
|
When David told me that he and his creative partners wanted
to launch a magazine and call it "Overview," I knew that the
message from the universe was about to be communicated on a
much wider basis, laying the foundations for the first in a
series of new civilizations, or "overview systems" that would
carry a new level of consciousness outward from the Earth and
into the universe. Building these new civilizations would demonstrate
that we had received the universe's message, and that we had
begun to respond. When David told me that one of the ultimate
goals of the World Space Center was to provide people on Earth
with an experience of the Overview Effect without transporting
them into orbit or the moon, I realized that something very
significant was taking place.
I fully understand Rusty Schweickart's statement that it was
a humbling feeling to be part of this communications process.
I felt the same way when I wrote about it 20 years ago, and
I feel it again today. Now, as I see many more "neurons firing,"
and the transformation of human consciousness beginning to take
shape, I am not only humbled by the experience. I am also very
excited by it.
Let the exploration of the universe begin!
(1) White, Frank, The Overview Effect: Space
Exploration and Human Evolution, American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics, Inc., Reston, Va., 1998, p. 35. |
 |
"The
Overview Effect," a term originated by Frank White, and
first widely publicized in his book, "The Overview Effect:
Space Exploration and Human Evolution," initially published
in 1987 and re-issued in 1998. The book can be obtained
from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
(AIAA) www.aiaa.org.
|
|
|
|
|
Few in the general public,
though, even among those with an active interest in space, seem to
be aware of this epochal revolution, let alone the potential for attendant
cognitive effects and cultural changes. The curiously low volume of
media coverage of the movement is only part of the story. The very
unique nature of the effect of the space experience on the mind makes
it difficult to convey through conventional media reporting. Many
astronauts have witnessed to this effect as well as to the difficulty
of communicating it. Overview magazine, by focusing on the internal,
perceptual issues surrounding space flight, will also explore and
illuminate these cognitive and media barriers to grasping the reality
of the new citizen age of space travel. Drawing on cutting edge cognitive
and media research as well as educational and scientific visualization
techniques and technology, Overview magazine will explain the greater
need for simulation media, virtual reality and other immersive imaging
technologies in communicating the space experience and even the reality
of the new citizen space movement. Finally, Overview magazine will
publicize and partner with media projects with similar goals and principles.
Commercial Space Travel & The Overview Effect
A new, personal, age of space travel is about to begin. And yet, few
in the general public seem to realize its potential to impact their
own lives (whether or not they personally will ever go into space).
Numerous scientists, philosophers, and even the rare politician have
spoken about the changes in society that will inevitably occur as
more of the world sees for itself the reality of the fact that we
all live on an enormous, but finite, globe hanging in the vastness
of space. The stresses and gains of the emerging global economy is
a prominent example of both the necessity and difficulty of moving
to such a global perspective. Yet, Numerous astronauts have talked
eloquently of how quickly they adopted just such a global perspective
in their own Earth lives as a result of their travels in space. Sociologist
Frank White called this The Overview Effect, in his 1987 book of the
same name. As more individuals have the "overview" experience and
bring their new global perspective "back to Earth" social and intellectual
changes, in various parts of the culture, will be inevitable.
 |
The
Curious Lack of Public Discussion
So why, in light of the imminent arrival of this major cultural "paradigm-shift"
created by mass space travel, do so few people seem to be paying attention.
Even leaders in fields likely to be directly affected by this sudden,
new and more inclusive space age, such as air travel and entertainment,
seem to be ignoring this potential for change. Even those individuals
who express a desire to go into space themselves, (30-40% of the population
according to national surveys. 70% in a recent Japanese survey) seem
to be paying little attention to the sudden and unexpected arrival
of their dream. And perhaps most significantly, many dedicated, service-oriented
people, currently pouring their energy into projects of global concern
and development, such as ecology and third world health care and many
more, see space travel as merely a diversion of resources and attention.
Most of them have yet to become aware of how soon the mass experience
of the overview effect will greatly spur global awareness and concern.
|
|
Barriers To Communicating Space Stories
A
major reason for this lack of awareness is obviously the relatively
small amount of media coverage of the private space movement, which
makes it difficult for such a new and complex theme to penetrate
the daily media barrage. The stories that do appear focus on the
development of the technology, business and marketing of space,
the adventure, thrill rides and the visionary leaders. While all
are significant stories, none relate directly to the lives of most
of the public. They are more akin to stories of deep-sea divers
or mountain climbers, activities that are inherently difficult and
dangerous, and meant only for the expert (and the story-reading
armchair adventurer) - not something like airline travel or Internet
technology, that soon becomes a consumer service with powerful real
world implications.
Novel
Cognitive Media Tools Can Bridge the Space Experience Gap
Thus, it is not surprising that the public pays little attention
to the citizen space movement and sees scant connection to their
own interest in space, let alone their lives. The untouchable, Olympian
NASA astronauts are just replaced with untouchable, Olympian millionaire
entrepreneurs. Little attempt has been made to complete the picture
for the public of what life in space will look and feel like in
the next few years, let alone how it will affect life on Earth.
This is the mission of The World Space Center and it's Overview
Magazine.
| “Overview
magazine will explain the greater need for simulation media,
virtual reality and other immersive imaging technologies in
communicating the space experence” |
If
you listen to the astronauts, (the only people after all, who actually
know what space travel is really like) they talk far less of the
technology, thrill rides or entrepreneurship, and far more about
the power of the internal experience of being in space. They talk,
of course, of the thrill of weightlessness. But even more so they
talk of the emotional and psychological effect of seeing the Earth
from space, despite the fact that, they, of all people, have already
seen most of the available Earth-from-space pictures. Indeed, they
emphasize that all the pictures often did not prepare them for the
experience itself and that the pictures do not really capture the
actual look of the planet or the nature of the space experience
itself. This is the heart of the overview effect. The real story
of space travel, is the story of how mass space experience will
finally bring us to a true global perspective. And just perhaps
it will do something more. It may well stimulate an internal, philosophical
or even spiritual revolution, not just about space, but about the
real place in the universe of our life here on Earth.
The
World Space Center believes that existing space
media coverage is failing to connect to the huge, market segment
described in space surveys because of the media's mis-focus on external
issues rather than on the internal experience of space travel that
will ultimately be its greatest effect, both in space and on the
ground. Part of this mis-focus is due to a lack of deep examination
of the story itself, a lack of journalistic rigor perhaps based
on the perceived lack of public interest. But, an even bigger part
is the inherent difficulty of communicating the internal experience
of space flight due to the natural cognitive barriers to space and
the overview effect. For these reasons and more, the WSC's program
will focus on deep background reporting in our magazine and explaining
the need for and encouraging the use of simulation media experiences
using state"of"the"art virtual reality technology and advanced cognitive,
learning and media theory and research to bridge this experiential
gap. In this way, we will connect directly with the local base of
space-interested individuals and begin to provide them with rich
content, direct connection to the new space movement and increasing
levels of sensory immersion in the true experience of space travel,
the overview effect and the emerging space-based economy, culture
and perspective.
|
|
Get
involved with the World Space Center 
|||
Who we are |||
