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What if there were no clouds?

Started by AFK, October 05, 2009, 06:45:57 PM

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AFK

I was having a particularly touchy-feely esoteric moment one night driving home from work.  I gazed at the sky and the clouds and sun were interacting in a particular manner that created a rather vivid landscape.  Distinct rays of lights frolicking with cotton balls.  And I remembered what it was like when I was a kid.  I'd lay in the grass in my backyard, stare up at the sky, find familiar shapes in the clouds, but also, new unfamiliar shapes which I would then creatively define in my mind.  And I don't know about others, but I think the clouds and the skies were one of the first things about this world I was growing up in that made me start thinking and examining my surroundings, and developing my understanding and view of the world through my imagination. 

What would it be like if those clouds weren't there?  What if there was just this blue sky and sun?  (Put science aside for the moment)  As I'm sure many a child has grown up and were caused to wonder because of the ever-changing sky.  Would we be any different?  Would there be other things that simply would've taken the place of the clouds?  Would our imaginations be the same? 

Feel free to add your thoughts, musings, and questions. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

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Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on October 05, 2009, 06:45:57 PM
I was having a particularly touchy-feely esoteric moment one night driving home from work.  I gazed at the sky and the clouds and sun were interacting in a particular manner that created a rather vivid landscape.  Distinct rays of lights frolicking with cotton balls.  And I remembered what it was like when I was a kid.  I'd lay in the grass in my backyard, stare up at the sky, find familiar shapes in the clouds, but also, new unfamiliar shapes which I would then creatively define in my mind.  And I don't know about others, but I think the clouds and the skies were one of the first things about this world I was growing up in that made me start thinking and examining my surroundings, and developing my understanding and view of the world through my imagination. 

What would it be like if those clouds weren't there?  What if there was just this blue sky and sun?  (Put science aside for the moment)  As I'm sure many a child has grown up and were caused to wonder because of the ever-changing sky.  Would we be any different?  Would there be other things that simply would've taken the place of the clouds?  Would our imaginations be the same? 

Feel free to add your thoughts, musings, and questions. 

There's no need to put science aside for there to be no more clouds.   :horrormirth:

It would suck if there was no surface on which to apply arbitrary conceptual grids freely and easily.

AFK

When I say put aside science I mean I don't want to talk about how absence of clouds would affect weather patterns, climate, etc., 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Caliginos Gnosticos

Personally, if there were no clouds, the sky would be awfully boring during the day. On the other hand, it would make for a spectacular view at night with nothing to block the stars.
I found Eris dancing atop the hill, hair the color of spring rainbows, eyes the color of a hippy commune seen through a kaleidoscope, laughing with a sweet, gentle voice like the sound of bells recorded on a warped record and played back on an over-wound Victrola.
   "My Goddess, why do you laugh?" I asked.
   "Why do you not?" She asked in return.
   "Because life is difficult. The world is not a friendly place." I replied.
   "My poor child. I am your Goddess, and My love for you is without bounds." She giggled "Hear my words and find comfort and wisdom: Laugh in the face of adversity, and I shall laugh with you. Cry in the face of adversity, and I shall laugh at you."
   And I heard Her words and laughed.

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Iason Ouabache

You can see the same kind of fractal shapes when you look down at a liquid solutions as when you look up to the clouds. I find myself zoning out all of the time at work looking at water and syrup mixing together or a complex mixture of water, ferric acid and calcium hydroxide. You see all kinds of weird swirls, eddies, compounds reacting together, Brownian motion, etc. That's probably one of the main reasons I liked fluid mechanics (even though I sucked at it).
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Kai

I didn't look at the clouds much. I looked at water all the time though.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

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Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on October 05, 2009, 06:45:57 PMI gazed at the sky and the clouds and sun were interacting in a particular manner that created a rather vivid landscape.  Distinct rays of lights frolicking with cotton balls.  And I remembered what it was like when I was a kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7BVp2qyVBU

I love that song
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e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

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Nast

Clouds are wonderful. Trailing clouds, tall clouds, frightening clouds, little bits of insubstantial material in an otherwise clear day that make you wonder "How did that one get here? How much longer will it last?" And then the clouds that dump all they have on the people below, making an awful lot of pitter-patter and suddenly stop. Or the ones that blow across the sun, casting a very large shadow. Or the really gaudy ones at dawn with the light streaming through, that look like they're fresh from a Hallmark card or a Thomas Kinkade painting but you enjoy them anyway because what the hell they're clouds.
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Dalek

The meteor observers wouldn't have days off.

AFK

What if RWHN stopped starting threads with dumb questions? 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Payne

Clouds are fascinating to me too, always have been.

The weird thing is, all the thoughts I have about clouds now are often revisiting thoughts I had when I was a kid. The sky was a HUGE canvas. I'd look at clouds as they were, imagine clouds in weird shapes that I wish would happen (like a cloud that was the exact size and shape of the entire UK, aligned perfectly with the country). The weird interplay of air currents that make clouds move differently in relation to each other.

As I get older, I still occasionally think about these same things, but I seldom have new thoughts on them. Hell, I look up to the sky far less than I used to even. A few years back, I saw this really weird cloud, the edges of it were picked out with rainbow colours, it shone from within and had a quite intense halo of light around it (I can't find a proper picture of such a thing, but I believe it may be a Nacreous cloud or some such). I asked people about it the next day, if they had seen this wondrous thing, but no one had even looked up. So at least I have SOMETHING on them.

The above is a true story, but damn if it doesn't feel like it could be a metaphor for something else.

AFK

It could be simply me observing the world as an adult vs. when I was observing it as a young lad, but it does feel like there isn't as much wonder about our world like there was in the past.  I think of something like space exploration.  It seemed like it was something that was more universal and something that people from all walks of life would talk about.  Space shuttle launches and landings used to be big deals.  Network stations would interrupt their programming to broadcast them, and I suppose now with cable news networks maybe they don't feel the need to do that anymore.  But it feels like that kind of wonder isn't as prevalant anymore.  But again, I'm probably looking through a biased lens, so I could be wrong. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Payne

Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on October 08, 2009, 01:34:20 PM
It could be simply me observing the world as an adult vs. when I was observing it as a young lad, but it does feel like there isn't as much wonder about our world like there was in the past.  I think of something like space exploration.  It seemed like it was something that was more universal and something that people from all walks of life would talk about.  Space shuttle launches and landings used to be big deals.  Network stations would interrupt their programming to broadcast them, and I suppose now with cable news networks maybe they don't feel the need to do that anymore.  But it feels like that kind of wonder isn't as prevalant anymore.  But again, I'm probably looking through a biased lens, so I could be wrong. 

Well, for space exploration, there was wonder in the early days because it wasn't yet routine and there was the added juicy competition issue. Less so in the later days of it, hence declining viewing figures, and networks cutting its screen time.

I think there maybe are still things which arouse that kind of wonder, but almost every flavour of wonder is now tainted with the same kind of "routine" element. Some of the shit that has been happening in technology really is spectacular, when you look at it from even 10 years ago. There is so much refinement of technology (if not always actual advancement), that even the good shit gets less attention than it should.

Then of course the more "natural" wonders, such as the huge vastness of the universe and time (which we can now see deeper and farther into with the likes of Hubble), tends to make us feel smaller and more insignificant overall. With social pressures to be Someone Important, or at least to NOT be someone unimportant, we can't even look at such things without a flinch of fear.

Wonder isn't dead, we are just unwilling or unable to see it any more.

Pope Pixie Pickle

Quote from: Payne on October 08, 2009, 04:31:47 PM
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on October 08, 2009, 01:34:20 PM
It could be simply me observing the world as an adult vs. when I was observing it as a young lad, but it does feel like there isn't as much wonder about our world like there was in the past.  I think of something like space exploration.  It seemed like it was something that was more universal and something that people from all walks of life would talk about.  Space shuttle launches and landings used to be big deals.  Network stations would interrupt their programming to broadcast them, and I suppose now with cable news networks maybe they don't feel the need to do that anymore.  But it feels like that kind of wonder isn't as prevalant anymore.  But again, I'm probably looking through a biased lens, so I could be wrong. 

Well, for space exploration, there was wonder in the early days because it wasn't yet routine and there was the added juicy competition issue. Less so in the later days of it, hence declining viewing figures, and networks cutting its screen time.

I think there maybe are still things which arouse that kind of wonder, but almost every flavour of wonder is now tainted with the same kind of "routine" element. Some of the shit that has been happening in technology really is spectacular, when you look at it from even 10 years ago. There is so much refinement of technology (if not always actual advancement), that even the good shit gets less attention than it should.

Then of course the more "natural" wonders, such as the huge vastness of the universe and time (which we can now see deeper and farther into with the likes of Hubble), tends to make us feel smaller and more insignificant overall. With social pressures to be Someone Important, or at least to NOT be someone unimportant, we can't even look at such things without a flinch of fear.

Wonder isn't dead, we are just unwilling or unable to see it any more.


this.

LMNO

Screw you guys.  Wonder is any time you consciously look for it.



If you aren't looking for it, whose fault is that?



LMNO
-belligerent optimist.