Planet Earth, a (Mostly) Harmless Object in a Gigantic Universe?

I have just finished reading the book “The hitchhiker´s guide to the galaxy” [1] by Douglas Adam, a rather mind-blowing experience if you ask me. In this book we get to follow Arthur Dent, who manages to escape planet Earth right before it is destroyed in order to make way for an intergalactic freeway. The book has irony written all over it, and makes fun of the human race and our big thoughts about ourselves. What Arthur Dent gets to learn on his journey through space is that planet Earth, which he is very fond of, is in fact a meaningless object in space. Or as the Earth is described in the Hitchhiker´s guide; “Mostly harmless”.

The book really makes you realize how big the Universe is, and what endless possibilities there are for other living creatures to exist out there. We see ourselves as very intelligent individuals just because we happen to be the most intelligent life form on our planet (despite the Hitchhiker´s guide telling us that mice and dolphins actually are smarter than us). However, there might be life out there somewhere in the Universe, compared to which we are indeed intelligent inferior. We are just not developed enough to find them.

Via superior technology the different creatures in the book have the possibility to interact with each other. In the absence of this technology we, the inhabitants of the Earth, are unaware of the life forms that might be out there somewhere in the Universe. They might not look like the aliens that Hollywood has managed to create, but some kind of organism in any kind of appearance is probably out there. We have so far only been able to transport ourselves to the closest celestial bodies in our solar system. If we would be able to search other solar systems, surely we would be able to find other habitable planets. That is at least what I think. And maybe we would find that our planet Earth is in fact harmless.

The fact that planet Earth is just a very small object in the gigantic Universe is not only a theme in the book “The hitchhiker´s guide to the galaxy”, but also a common theme in the entire science fiction genre. I think many of us enjoy the thought of us not being the most superior creatures in the Universe, or at least find the concept fascinating. The book gives the reader a more humorous insight in what life in outer space could be like. To illustrate the smallness of our planet, I will end this post by a quotation from the classic science fiction movie “Beneath the Planet of the Apes" from 1970, a more dramatic one which arises when the Earth is destroyed:

In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the Universe lies a medium sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead

(Frees, Paul, (1970) [2]

References

[1]  Adams, Douglas (2002). The hitchhiker´s guide to the galaxy. Ballantine Books, New York.

[2]  Frees, Paul, perf. (1970). Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Dir. Ted Post.