As much as I always appreciated the essay, the image seemed to engender the exact opposite feeling in myself; an overwhelming sense that this really is all that matters. There is no meaning for humans to be found "out there". Only this, only us. We will all be born, live, and die on this rock. And all we have in this entire universe is the other primates inhabiting it with us, and the collective meaning that we can create for ourselves together to distract from that fact. Anything else is delusional fantasy.
And that's what I could extract from Carl Sagan's reflections of that image. This lone spec of dust is all there is for us. Make of it all you can, because this is all there will ever be.
I wonder how anyone else could interpret it otherwise.
I’ve never understood the “cosmic insignificance” feeling either, Pale Blue Dot is a picture of all the joy and wonder in the (accessible) universe and I get live on it? I feel gratitude at these images.
