The Overview Effect
- Andrea Speakman
- Aug 29, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 14
What connects us all across this spaceship known as Earth?
You hold out a pen and let it go – instead of falling to the floor with a clack…it floats in front of you.
This does not compute.
Your curiosity is ignited as you stare at the pen.
You tap it with your gloved finger, and it spins slowly in the direction of your tap while still floating in midair.
Then your crew mate nudges you to look out the window.
Dashed across the middle of it is a curved paper-thin blue line that reveals varying shades of blues, whites, and other colors taking up the bottom half.
Your eyes follow the colors down as they make out clouds swirling in different directions that reveal coastlines, mountain ranges, deserts, rainforests, and vast ranges of deep ocean underneath.
You can’t take your eyes away as Earth reveals its true self to you.
The above description brings to mind an initial experience of the 'overview effect.' Recently, I was asked to write about it in a prompt for a work thing. It got me thinking about how to truly share a gut feeling, an awe inspiring moment, something that fundamentally changes a person that only a few hundred in a world of over 7 billion people have ever experienced. First coined in 1987 by Frank White for his book The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution , it has come to be synonymous with astronauts looking down at the Earth from Space. One of the first instances of astronauts truly seeing Earth in one complete moment was when the Apollo 8 crew saw the Earth rise from behind the moon. They got so excited they had to get out the camera to capture it on film to send back to NASA - much like how a parent has to film their kid doing baseball.
NASA Archives
Many people have probably seen this image or some others similar to that. Images of the Earth from space are becoming more commonplace as the years go by that the initial wonders of the Overview Effect are wearing off as a whole. Whole generations of people are growing up with the knowledge that man has walked on the moon (soon to be women too). Whether they believe it or not is another story. But here's the point - images are not enough any more to evoke a wondrous feeling through most people. Of course, there are still those pockets of people who will look at it and feel mesmerized, but it seems that group grows smaller by the day.
Perhaps we need to utilize a different tool to help connect people to the transcendental experience of the fact that we are all one Earth - traveling through the void of space together; astronomically lucky that wild objects hurtling through it have not destroyed us in the past few million years. Perhaps we have had this tool all along on the tips of our tongues, the ends of our fingertips, and the edges of our ears....
MUSIC has always had a transcendental effect on people. Music has always had a way to bring us together. Music has always had a way to share ideas and emotions with others when mere words were not enough.
Composers in our collective history have tried to bring about those giant emotions of nature, the seasons, the planets themselves, and even the rest of space. Below are some links to check out:
NASA has an understanding of the importance of music as a symbol of our collective cultural identities as human beings. They have sent out copies of music on Voyager 1 in case anyone out there does happen to find the spacecraft. Here is a link to the list on the golden record:
NASA Voyager
Space agencies send up all kinds of people to the International Space Station that have obviously included all kinds of scientists but even filmmakers have gone up as well. At some point we need to send up a composer to take in the beauty of the Earth and write it all down to music - truly encompass the emotions in the format that words cannot express enough to share with the rest of us here on the surface.
Though who do you think should go up to help share that experience to connect us all we call Earth?
This was such an intriguing perspective. The overview effect has mesmerized so many, and music that helps capture those emotions could help have an impact on so many more. I'll definitely have to check out that music on Voyager 1 now.