Empires come and go, the reins of power go back and forth, wars are a constant and terrible weapons have been a continual preoccupation of the barbaric-- nothing special, and all artifacts of Humanity's animalistic past. The first landing of a Human Being from Earth on another celestial body fundamentally changed what Humanity is.
Well, firstly, the whole world was indeed watching that day, as much as was possible; there's never been another day like it. Secondly, I did say "Humanity." I'm certainly happy (and not surprised^ That's pretty US centric, don't you think? There were more people on Earth -unaware- of the Moon landing than people who knew about it, at the time. So it sounds presumptuous if you speak for all of humanity. I'm quite sure they couldn't give a damn about it in, say, Chad.
) that it was the United States that accomplished it, but regardless of who did it, it represented a fundamental change for our entire species, whether people understand it yet or not.
^ More so than the Moon landing, I'd say.
I don't know, it just doesn't particularly strike me as this incredible and over-the-top thing, that's all. Maybe I've always been too much into sci-fi or something, so I expect much more and it takes much more to impress me. And I'm not being facetious either, I'm telling the truth.
I keep watching these movies about aliens and starships and stuff, and I find myself thinking: "If aliens were to land today, I wouldn't be surprised at all, I wouldn't panic, I wouldn't lose my head, I probably would turn the page of the newspaper to see what's on tv tonight.". Which is kind of sad really.
Well, as they said in The Core: "Space is easy. It's empty."
Given that it's been 40 years ago, and not much has changed in terms of social interaction in the world, I doubt a lot of people hold the same positive outlook about it as you. Which is -also- rather sad. I envy your enthusiasm.
In my opinion, it represented the change of Humanity from a species of clever animal to a spacefaring race on its way to a true Civilization. Other animals communicate, other animals migrate, other animals use tools, other animals exhibit curiosity; but only Humanity could travel outside the biosphere where it evolved and cross space to another world. Nothing else in the past or future can compare to that event.
Exactly. Whether Humanity travels to Mars or another galaxy, the Moon is where it happened first-- everything else is just moving on from there.
^ That's pretty US centric, don't you think? There were more people on Earth -unaware- of the Moon landing than people who knew about it, at the time. So it sounds presumptuous if you speak for all of humanity. I'm quite sure they couldn't give a damn about it in, say, Chad.
I voted extra terrestials.
It's all quite logical when you think about it: if they can travel all the way across the vast expanse of space to visit us...
Well I'd expect them to give us the cure for cancer and supply us with a time travelling device, which we could use to get Jesus, and some dinosaurs for our park off the coast in Costa Rica...
