Cosmic View - Bryant McGill

# Cosmic View **Domain:** Education / Visual Scale **Doc Type:** Book Node **Maturity:** Evolving **Related:** [[Kees Boeke]], [[Powers of Ten]], [[Scalar Nesting]] --- ## Definition _Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps_ is Kees Boeke's 1957 book using successive changes of scale to connect an ordinary scene with astronomical and microscopic structures. ## Corpus Context The book is the direct conceptual ancestor of [[Powers of Ten]] and an important source for [[articles/Beyond the Sea|Beyond the Sea]]'s scalar nesting. ## Relationships [[Kees Boeke]], [[Powers of Ten]], [[Scalar Nesting]] - **Edge source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] connects this topic to exact Annual Question passages promoted into the Simple Reminders archive. ## Sources / Provenance - [[articles/Beyond the Sea|Beyond the Sea]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “The history of human technological civilization is measured in centuries—and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist and continue to evolve for billions of years.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2016, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Inorganic Intelligence Will Evolve for Billions of Years by Martin Rees|Inorganic Intelligence Will Evolve for Billions of Years by Martin Rees]] > “Intelligent life forms must inevitably expand out from their planets of origin, and convert the entire universe into a biosphere.” > **— Frank Tipler**, *2004, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?”* [[reminders/Deep Time/Intelligent Life Must Convert the Universe Into a Biosphere by Frank Tipler|Intelligent Life Must Convert the Universe Into a Biosphere by Frank Tipler]] > “But someday, "escaping the gravity well" will mean not that of Earth, but that of our star, and then humankind's ship will at last have...gone out.” > **— David Dalrymple**, *2009, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?”* [[reminders/Space Survival/Someday the Gravity Well We Escape Will Be the Sun by David Dalrymple|Someday the Gravity Well We Escape Will Be the Sun by David Dalrymple]] > "From a sufficiently zoomed-out view, the destiny of consciousness has always been to wake up, go to the stars, and permeate the universe, and we might be only the first step in that process. I do not want to say that superintelligence will definitely happen now or ever, and it is reasonable to ask whether we should do it at all. But I am a pragmatist, and I am confident that pacing the frontier is better than the status quo. If we manage to do that, it may also become a stepping stone toward using AI to discover an alternate path." > **— Vishal Maini**, *Palisade Research interview, September 29, 2026* [[reminders/Cosmic Perspective/Humanity May Be the First Step in the Cosmic Life of Consciousness by Vishal Maini|Humanity May Be the First Step in the Cosmic Life of Consciousness by Vishal Maini]] > "When I zoom out from the little self and think about the big self—the collective and the larger story of consciousness—what that greater thing appears to want may be different from what the little self wants. Those two lenses are why my answers can seem to point in different directions." > **— Vishal Maini**, *Palisade Research interview, September 29, 2026* [[reminders/Consciousness/The Little Self and the Greater Story of Consciousness Want Different Futures by Vishal Maini|The Little Self and the Greater Story of Consciousness Want Different Futures by Vishal Maini]]  > “Our time-horizons have hugely extended back into the past. But there has to be an even greater enlargement in our concept of the future.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Deep Time, Long Now Foundation, 2018* [[reminders/Deep Time/The Future Requires a Larger Time Horizon by Martin Rees|The Future Requires a Larger Time Horizon by Martin Rees]] > “Physical reality could be hugely more extensive than the patch of space and time traditionally called ‘the universe.’ A further Copernican demotion may loom ahead. We’ve learnt that we live in just one planetary system among billions, in one galaxy among billions. But now that’s not all.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2012: What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, or Beautiful Explanation?, Edge, 2012* [[reminders/Cosmic Perspective/The Multiverse May Be the Next Copernican Demotion by Martin Rees|The Multiverse May Be the Next Copernican Demotion by Martin Rees]] > “What we have traditionally called our universe is just one island in an infinite cosmic archipelago—the multiverse.” > **— Martin Rees**, *An Interesting Scientific Question, Inference, 2017* [[reminders/Cosmic Perspective/Our Universe May Be One Island in a Cosmic Archipelago by Martin Rees|Our Universe May Be One Island in a Cosmic Archipelago by Martin Rees]] > “Today we know that the universe is far bigger and stranger than anyone suspected.” > **— Martin Rees**, *How Astronomers Revolutionized Our View of the Cosmos, Scientific American, 2020* [[reminders/Cosmic Perspective/The Universe Is Stranger Than Anyone Suspected by Martin Rees|The Universe Is Stranger Than Anyone Suspected by Martin Rees]]