The recent events in Japan got me to think about various kinds of scales. You know, the sheer magnitude of the earthquake was a very good reminder of how insignificant we, human beings, are compared to the forces of nature. Not to say anything about comparing with even larger entities.
Let's picture in our minds... Earth's diameter is roughly 12 800 km and the thickness of its crust is about 5—70 km which includes all the variation from the deepest trenches of the oceans to the highest mountains of Himalaya. Now, let's imagine this blue planet of ours as a ball the size of a billiard ball. At this scale Earth's crust would feel to hand just as smooth as the surface of a billiard ball.
You would need a state-of-the-art microscope to be able to detect all those tiny wrinkles and scratches we see as mountains and ocean basins.
We, ourselves, would be smaller than viruses on the surface of that billiard ball!
If we want to emphasize the importance of mankind even more, let's take the comparison to cosmological level. On that same relative scale, compared to our own galaxy The Milky Way, even a single quark would be enormous compared to the size of a human being.
And yet, some people insist they need to go on a diet...
Thinking along these lines it should become very clear that there's absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves when faced with a major (catastrophic) natural phenomenon. Even on Earth scale, let alone on cosmic scale if one would ever happen.
From this point of view it's pure madness how some groups or individuals try to grab as much wealth and power as they can totally disregarding the well-being of their fellow members of this same species. Or force-feed some bizarre ideological attitudes to others. What do they think they will gain?
If, one day, the whole mankind were to experience a total extinction, the Universe wouldn't even notice.
We, even the wealthiest and the most powerful of us, are not significant...
