Why are things like seeing panoramic views of cities (say, from the top of skyscrapers or the Eiffel Tower for example) so appealing and so captivating? It’s possible that it’s because we attempt to process in our brains what we, as individuals and as humanity, has achieved, and are capable of achieving. Master feats of engineering that have made us, in a way, the ‘dominant’ species on earth.
This will also do that, from the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket last week (the launch is at 5:15):
These things show us, first hand, that Humanity has no limits
When you’re a kid –or at least a lot of kids do this– you dream of doing huge things. Things building rockets to fly into space. Because you haven’t had limits put on you yet; you don’t even know limits even exist. You don’t know the meaning of ‘can’t’ yet. And that’s exactly it. Instead of ‘I can’t’, how about thinking why not or ‘How can I…?’
And when things like the Falcon Heavy launch or this (at 32:00) happen, those attitudes are proven as valid. And we marvel at the fact that anything can be achieved.
“Crazy things can come true. When I see a rocket lift off, I see a thousand things that could not work, and it’s amazing when they do.”
– Elon Musk
- That’s the wonder of Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla. It shows us that, despite what critics and sceptics say, if it requires the brain, it can be done. Anything.
‘Holy flying fuck, that thing took off.’
And for what’s it’s like to watch the take off (and core landings) of something you were largely responsible for building, watch Elon Musk’s reaction to it: