Where am I, in a carnival? In front of one of those wavy mirrors that distorts my image? Who thought to put one of those strange mirrors on the passenger side of cars with the warning, “Objects are closer than they appear”? It’s bad enough that we have all sorts of distractions when we’re driving. Someone added a distorted mirror for which we have to compensate mentally before we cut another driver off by pulling too quickly back into the right lane after passing.
Meatloaf has a song about that mirror. “Objects in the Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are” is a rather insightful reversal on the mirror’s warning in a take on how we humans look at what’s behind us, that is, the past. We perceive significant events in our past as close to our present. Memory keeps the past in the present: A lost loved one, an embarrassing moment, a great achievement…All are for us distant, yet apparently close.
That objects and events from the distant past “appear closer than they are” is not just a matter of human emotions; it’s a universal principle. And by that I don’t mean some generalization of the human psyche. Apparently, the universe also has its rearview mirror distortion. When astronomers look into the deep past by looking at distant radio galaxies, they see galaxies that appear larger than expected. Here’s how astronomer Professor Michael D. Smith, explains it: “We already know that once you are far enough away, the universe acts like a magnifying glass and objects start to increase in size in the sky. * Those radio galaxies, by the way, are so large they make the Milky Way look like a horsefly on a horse. They aren’t just a paltry 100,000 light years in diameter like our galaxy, but rather millions of light years across.
Now, what’s a human to do? Not only are the events and objects of our personal pasts apparently closer or farther depending on our psyches, but also events and objects throughout the universe that should seem smaller with distance appear larger than expected—but only for those personally affected. We just can’t get seem agree on perspectives on things gone by. Some events, like 9-11, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan appear larger for some than for others. In 2011 the International Council on Security and Development carried out a survey of 1,000 men in Afghanistan’s war-torn Kandahar and Helmand provinces to see what they knew about the attacks on 9/11, the very cause of the war in which they were involved. Ninety-two percent of 15- to 30-year-old men didn’t know about the event that “foreigners” call 9/11, even after being read a three-paragraph description of the attacks! ** Or think of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). What might have been the perspective of those who fought and died in its final year--more than a century after it started--on why they were fighting?
I’ll leave you, as usual, to your thoughts on your personal distant past, on that which stays with you, always looming large in your rearview mirror. And I’ll leave you with your thoughts on history’s great events and the events in the lives of some 100 billion humans who walked Earth over the course of 200 to 300 thousand years before you took your first step in personal history. And I’ll leave you with this final question: Which is more applicable to you, the government’s mandated side mirror warning or Meatloaf’s version?
Does your personal universe act like a magnifying glass that makes the distant past appear closer than it is?
*Ulyatt, Michelle. New research on giant radio galaxies defies conventional wisdom. Phys.org. 25 Oct 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-giant-radio-galaxies-defies-conventional.html
Accessed October 27, 2019.
Smith, Michael D. and Justin Donohoe. The morphological classification of distant radio galaxies explored with three-dimensional simulations. Oxford Academic. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 490, Issue 1. November 2019. Pp. 1363-1382. Online at https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/490/1/1363/5566346?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Accessed October 27, 2019.
** https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035160/Most-Afghans-know-9-11-according-disturbing-poll.html Accessed October 28, 2019.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035160/Most-Afghans-know-9-11-according-disturbing-poll.html Accessed October 28, 2019
Meatloaf has a song about that mirror. “Objects in the Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are” is a rather insightful reversal on the mirror’s warning in a take on how we humans look at what’s behind us, that is, the past. We perceive significant events in our past as close to our present. Memory keeps the past in the present: A lost loved one, an embarrassing moment, a great achievement…All are for us distant, yet apparently close.
That objects and events from the distant past “appear closer than they are” is not just a matter of human emotions; it’s a universal principle. And by that I don’t mean some generalization of the human psyche. Apparently, the universe also has its rearview mirror distortion. When astronomers look into the deep past by looking at distant radio galaxies, they see galaxies that appear larger than expected. Here’s how astronomer Professor Michael D. Smith, explains it: “We already know that once you are far enough away, the universe acts like a magnifying glass and objects start to increase in size in the sky. * Those radio galaxies, by the way, are so large they make the Milky Way look like a horsefly on a horse. They aren’t just a paltry 100,000 light years in diameter like our galaxy, but rather millions of light years across.
Now, what’s a human to do? Not only are the events and objects of our personal pasts apparently closer or farther depending on our psyches, but also events and objects throughout the universe that should seem smaller with distance appear larger than expected—but only for those personally affected. We just can’t get seem agree on perspectives on things gone by. Some events, like 9-11, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan appear larger for some than for others. In 2011 the International Council on Security and Development carried out a survey of 1,000 men in Afghanistan’s war-torn Kandahar and Helmand provinces to see what they knew about the attacks on 9/11, the very cause of the war in which they were involved. Ninety-two percent of 15- to 30-year-old men didn’t know about the event that “foreigners” call 9/11, even after being read a three-paragraph description of the attacks! ** Or think of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). What might have been the perspective of those who fought and died in its final year--more than a century after it started--on why they were fighting?
I’ll leave you, as usual, to your thoughts on your personal distant past, on that which stays with you, always looming large in your rearview mirror. And I’ll leave you with your thoughts on history’s great events and the events in the lives of some 100 billion humans who walked Earth over the course of 200 to 300 thousand years before you took your first step in personal history. And I’ll leave you with this final question: Which is more applicable to you, the government’s mandated side mirror warning or Meatloaf’s version?
Does your personal universe act like a magnifying glass that makes the distant past appear closer than it is?
*Ulyatt, Michelle. New research on giant radio galaxies defies conventional wisdom. Phys.org. 25 Oct 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-giant-radio-galaxies-defies-conventional.html
Accessed October 27, 2019.
Smith, Michael D. and Justin Donohoe. The morphological classification of distant radio galaxies explored with three-dimensional simulations. Oxford Academic. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 490, Issue 1. November 2019. Pp. 1363-1382. Online at https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/490/1/1363/5566346?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Accessed October 27, 2019.
** https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035160/Most-Afghans-know-9-11-according-disturbing-poll.html Accessed October 28, 2019.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035160/Most-Afghans-know-9-11-according-disturbing-poll.html Accessed October 28, 2019
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