Albert Einstein noted:
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion.”
Before my morning jog at sunrise today, I had received the following email message:
“I came across your astrophysics work at Harvard in the context of how the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth seems to affect people emotionally even before there is any final answer. It changes the feeling of how alone humanity really is.
A question, in case you have a minute: In your experience, why do you think the idea of life elsewhere in the universe affects people so personally, even when it remains uncertain?”
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