A Matter of Perspective

So how many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb? Okay, so you’ve heard that one before, great, but why do you think it’s supposed to be a joke? I mean what if they were trying to change 85 light bulbs, that’s a big deal, right? No, I mean seriously. What, you still think I’m onto some joke? So what if those light bulbs they’re replacing are on the International Space Station (ISS)? A-ha, now you finally think it’s not funny. Phew! Well, so much for changing a perspective…

Just in case there still remains a shred of doubt that it’s a joke, go check this out. NASA’s actually re-fitting new light bulbs on the ISS, and one of the reasons for it is that they’re concerned that the astronauts aren’t getting enough sleep in space. Okay, debate all you want the merits and demerits of the $11Mn upgrade, but the point I wanted to convey was that I wasn’t making a joke. However, it certainly felt like that at the first instance, right?  And then what happened? You got presented with more facts, assimilated those, and your perspective changed. That’s just a very small example of how our brains are conditioned to draw conclusions at the drop of a hat, and in the process trick us of the big picture at times. And that’s perhaps a reflex that either evolution or we ourselves hard-wired into us, to deal with certain fight & flight situations, but we let that happen all the while. And our perspective is what shapes up our reality, which in turn may actually not be the true reality if we do not have the correct perspective of things. Moreover, even though our reality might be the popular and contemporary version, it could still be different from the actual reality (a challenge which folks like Galileo & Copernicus had to deal with a few hundred years back; so to calm your curiosity, yes that’s possible). As goes a popular saying – “there are three sides to every story - yours, mine, and the truth.”

Image courtesy of Suvro Datta / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now, what comprises the true reality and whether it is possible to have a full perspective of it, might be the questions we can let the philosophers wrangle with for the moment. For our and for simplicity’s sake, let’s commit this to our memory that in most situations in life, it helps to have a keen observational mind, rather than a mind which keeps jumping to conclusions. That said, it is not implied that it’s wrong to draw conclusions or to judge situations, rather I’m just highlighting the fact that it helps to have more data points before you make an assumption, or in other words, before you frame a perspective.

But then again, that’s my perspective. What’s yours? Share with us here in comments.

P.S.: Sounds a bit too much, right, spending $11Mn just for refurbishing the lighting? But hey, who am I to judge, that’s NASA’s perspective!

© Jayant Rana, 2012-Present