星际迷航Star Trek的柯克舰长Captain Kirk,少年时为神秘的宇宙着迷充满了好奇与幻想,去年在90岁的高龄终于体验了太空旅行。短短的11分钟让他看清了宇宙死亡般的黑暗、沉寂、和虚空。之后他陷入了深深的悲哀。人类生活的这个蓝色星球多么让人留恋!
"I love the mystery of the universe," he wrote, according to a book excerpt published by Variety. "All of that has thrilled me for years…but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold...all I saw was death."
"My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral," he wrote. "It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness."
Shatner is describing an experience known as the overview effect, which is a cognitive shift in how one thinks about Earth and life that many astronauts report feeling during spaceflight.
"Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong," he wrote. "I had a different experience, becauseI discovered that the beauty isn't out there, it's down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound."