Author, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution
Cofounder, The Overview Institute

Early in 2012, I heard from a group of filmmakers in the United Kingdom who wanted to make a documentary about the Overview Effect. When the Planetary Collective team told me their intentions, I decided to do all I could to help them. I contacted my colleagues at the Overview Institute and astronauts who had been part of my book, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, and arranged for some of them to participate. It turned out to be a good thing to do.

The Planetary Collective team has done a wonderful job of communicating the feelings evoked by seeing our planet from orbit and the moon, viewing the Earth not only from space but in space. The Overview Effect is, first and foremost, a visual experience, and that is one of the reasons that this film is so critical at this moment in time.

“Overview” is part of a communications process that began years ago and will continue far into the future. The Overview Effect is a message from the universe to humanity that was initially communicated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is a complex form of communication, and those of us at the Overview Institute discover nuances hidden within it each day. The astronauts and cosmonauts first received this message, and they have been passing it along to the rest of us ever since. Soon, thousands of new “astronauts” will be flying into Low Earth Orbit on commercial spacecraft, and they will begin transmitting the message as well. It would be fantastic if everyone on planet Earth could see and hear it.

The Overview Effect tells us that the Earth is an interconnected whole, of which human beings are a part. We are one species with one destiny, and as more than one astronaut has said, “We are all in this together.” We are the crew of a natural spaceship called Earth, which is hurtling through the universe at a high rate of speed. In a very real sense, all of us are astronauts, but we do not realize it because we normally do not experience it.

This is a critical moment for “Overview” to make its appearance. As so many people around the world have realized, humanity stands at a crossroads, and we will either choose to hear the message of the Overview Effect, or we will continue on a path that is destructive to ourselves and our planet.

Perhaps most concerning is that we might ignore the opportunities that are before us, both as individuals and as a species. We need thousands, even millions, of people to have a shift in worldview and identity, something the Overview Effect provides us. A constant theme of the astronauts is that they no longer identified with places on the Earth, but began to identity with the planet itself. Rather that being citizens of a town, city, state, or nation, they became “Citizens of the Earth.”

The experience of the Overview Effect has many implications. Among them are that we need to work together to create a planetary civilization and a Human Space Program that includes all nations and all people. The purpose would be to preserve our planet and undertake a peaceful and united exploration of the universe.

Our ultimate destiny is, of course, to see ourselves not only as Citizens of the Earth but also as Citizens of the Universe. The Overview Effect tells us that we have an amazing future ahead of us, if we will only choose it.

The release of this remarkable film called “Overview” opens wide the doors for a much wider audience to hear this vital message.

For me personally, it is also the culmination of a journey that began some 30 years ago on a cross-country flight. I found myself looking down at the Earth and experiencing the interconnectedness of everything on the planet. At that moment, the term “Overview Effect” leapt into my mind.

After the flight ended, I resolved to write a book about the Overview Effect, and began interviewing astronauts to confirm that this phenomenon existed.

Ultimately, I interviewed 16 (later 22) astronauts and concluded that the “Overview Effect” was a reality that deserved much more attention.

The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution came out in the fall of 1987, and we are now observing the 25th anniversary of that first edition. I hoped that the book would create a revolution in how we saw space exploration and its implications for life on Earth and human evolution.

The most recent indication that the revolution is indeed under way is the appearance of “Overview,” and I am delighted to have played a small part in bringing it to fruition.

ISS astronaut
Founder, Fragile Oasis

In June of 2008, I clamped my feet to the end of the robotic Canadarm-2 on the International Space Station. With me attached to the end, the arm was flown through a maneuver that we called the “windshield wiper” which that took me across a long arc above the space station and back. At the top of this arc, I was 100’ above the space station looking down at this incredible accomplishment of humanity against the backdrop of our indescribably beautiful Earth 240 miles below. Seeing the absolute beauty of the planet we have been given was a very moving experience. But as I looked down at this beautiful, fragile oasis – this island that has been given to us, and has protected all life from the harshness of space – I couldn’t help but think of the inequity that exists. I couldn’t help but think of the people who don’t have clean water to drink, enough food to eat, and the social injustice, conflicts, and poverty that exists. When we see our Earth from the orbital perspective we are struck with an undeniably sobering contradiction. On the one hand is the beauty of our planet but on the other hand are the unfortunate realities of life on our beautiful planet for a significant portion of her inhabitants.

I returned to Earth after that first space mission with a call to action. I could no longer accept the status-quo on our planet. We have the resources and technology to solve many, if not all of the problems facing our planet yet nearly a billion people do not have access to clean water, countless go to bed hungry every night, and many die from preventable and curable diseases. We live in a world where the possibilities are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. It is within our power to eliminate the suffering and poverty that exist on our planet.

On my second space mission I spent half of 2011 living and working onboard the International Space Station. I spent most of my free time gazing back at our Earth wondering what the world would be like in the next 50 years and pondering the question, If we have the resources and the technology to solve the challenges we face, why do they still remain?

I believe that the answer to why our world still faces so many critical problems in spite of our ample technology and resources lies primarily in our inability to effectively collaborate on a global scale. Although there are literally millions of organizations around the world working to improve life on Earth, for the most part, these organizations are not engaged in a unified, coordinated effort. There is a great deal of duplication of effort, loss of efficiency, and unfortunately in many cases unhealthy competition.

We have the technology that can enable true global collaboration that is consistent and world changing. Our real challenge is demonstrating how vital and valuable collaboration is, despite the real and perceived risks. Open collaborations make solutions better through the pooling of resources and information. Working together multiplies cost-effectiveness while reducing duplication of effort. It is the only real way to enable economies – and solutions – of scale. Perhaps most importantly, collaboration encourages greater accountability and fosters trust.

There has to be a way for all to collaborate toward our common goals. An effective collaboration mechanism will pair together challenges with solutions, bringing together different unique pieces of the puzzle and enabling us to learn from each other’s successes and failures and make all these organizations’ technologies and approaches considerably more effective than they would be otherwise. Since there are multiple organizations looking to develop tools to enable collaboration, it is critical to unify those efforts. A project called Unity Node is presently working to unify efforts to provide collaborative platforms and is striving to create a universal open source platform for global collaboration.

As I looked back at our Earth from the orbital perspective, I saw a world where natural and man-made boundaries disappeared, I saw a world becoming more and more interconnected and collaborative, a world where the exponential increase in technology was making the impossible possible on a daily basis. Thinking about the next 50 years, I imagined a world where people and organizations set aside their differences and work together toward their common goals. They set aside their differences and realize that each and every one of us is riding through the Universe together on this Spaceship we call Earth. They realize that because we are all interconnected, we are all in this together and because we are all family, the only way to solve the problems we all face is together

I imagined a world where open/transparent collaborations become the engines that fuel tremendous economic growth and help us overcome many of the problems facing our planet. I imagined that those individuals and organizations that engage in unhealthy competition, secretive dealings, and corruption see themselves being left behind and have to adapt, evolve and take on a much more effective collaborative mindset in order to keep up with the economic growth that collaboration will bring. I imagined a world where we all firmly believed that by working together we can accomplish anything.

For almost all of human history, the vast majority of people in the world believed that it was impossible to fly to the Moon – simply because it had never been done before. Human ingenuity and the determination of the human spirit proved that it was possible. Today, many people believe that it is impossible to solve many of the problems of the world. It is widely believed that is impossible to lift the entire global population out of poverty. ‘There have always been poor in the world and there always will be,’ they say. If we can land on the Moon and return to Earth safely, if nations can join together and build an enormous research facility in orbit, then by working together we can solve many of the challenges facing our planet –including the alleviation of poverty. Nothing is impossible.

The first step to affect change is to believe that real change is possible. If we all commit to work together I believe that in the next 50 years it is possible to live in a world without poverty, where no one dies from preventable and curable diseases, where everyone has access to clean water and no one goes to sleep hungry, and a world that educates all its children. I believe that we are presently living in a world where the possibilities are endless, and where we are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. You don’t have to be in orbit to have the orbital perspective and by working together we will not have to accept the status quo on our planet.

Cofounder, The Overview Institute

The Importance of the Planetary Documentary

The Overview Effect is the impact of space travel on the human mind and society. While until now it has been the exclusive experience of government astronauts, soon commercial space travel will make it available to tens of thousands of private citizens, spreading this profoundly positive perspective through our culture.

The curious question is why half a century of astronaut statements and pictures have not already brought this awareness to the world. The answer lies in the very nature of the Overview Effect and the inherent barriers to communicating such a radically different perspective. Today, the effort and expense of space travel is justified by scientific, strategic and more recently, business reasons. Leaving the Overview Effect to be discovered after the fact has greatly hindered all space programs, both public and private.

By understanding the reality and nature of the Overview Effect, as well as the difficulty of communicating it, two goals will be reached simultaneously. First, we will see a new and far more universal reason for all space programs. And second, we will begin the unexpectedly difficult effort of communicating this hugely valuable cultural shift in perspective. Overview, the best and most professionally produced media piece on the subject to date, powerfully adds to this effort.

What is the Overview Effect?

The essential nature of the Overview Effect experienced by space travelers is a shift in their internal model of the world, or “Worldview,” often resulting in changed or enriched ideas, attitudes, and behaviors concerning life on Earth. It is similar to other better-known and more widely studied experiences that broaden one’s conception of the world.

Examples are global travel, higher education and the heightened sense of the natural world that often accompanies mountain climbing, wilderness trekking, ocean sailing, and other extreme experiences. All create shifted worldviews previously based only on media portrayals. Frank White, author of The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, calls them “Overview Analogues.” While the analogues focus on individual aspects, the extraordinary scope of the Overview Effect shifts one’s perspective on the entire Earth.

While every school child knows that we live on a small round planet hanging in a star filled universe, many astronauts say they realized that this had been only an intellectual understanding until their direct experience “rewrote” their worldview and they became “Citizens of the Earth” rather than just their place of origin. This often leads to a sense of stewardship and awareness of the unity of the planet.

Relationship of the Overview Effect to Current World Challenges

The most significant fact about this constellation of shifted perspectives is how closely they correspond to many critical issues currently occupying the world’s attention, i.e., increased sensitivity to the environment, international conflicts, natural resource shortages, and a host of humanitarian concerns.

Leaders working on various world problems have long argued that a planetary perspective is vital to addressing global issues. The Overview Effect reveals space travel as a powerful technological tool that enables just such a shifted worldview and will change the perceived value of space flight.

Perception Research and the Overview Effect

Current cognitive (brain/mind) research into human perception helps to explain both the Overview Effect and the difficulty of communicating it. It reveals how deeply dependent perception is on prior sensory experience and mental models.

The brain takes “inherently ambiguous” sensory data and creates visual images that correspond remarkably to our experience. Hence, what we are seeing is not a direct mirror image of the world but a model created by the brain/mind based on prior experience or knowledge. In the scientists’ words, we perceive our brain’s “best guess” as to what is “out there.”

The Difference between the Perception of Space and Space Media Images

Research also shows the vast difference between media images and direct perception. As Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins has said:

“Those who saw pictures of the Earth and then thought ‘Oh, I’ve seen everything those astronauts have seen,’ were kidding themselves…an image alone was a pseudo-sight that denies the reality of the matter.”

Art and media theory have long recognized that the brain can only “see” depth, shape, and a sense of reality in pictures by drawing on prior sensory experience. Many speak of images as a “visual language” that we learn to “read” much as we do words.

Unlike the astronauts, our mental models of space are based only on other space media! Overview “analogues” have been experienced by millions, but only slightly more than 500 people have traveled into orbit or to the moon. Thus we have no personal perceptions of space, and little shared knowledge to inform our “reading” of space images.

The shock of seeing pictures of the Earth for the first time did offer new sensory information that shifted our worldview. But now those same images add little to our mental models.

A New Space Age Has Begun. Why then is it Necessary to Spread the Overview Effect Now?

Commercial space companies like Virgin Galactic, XCORE and Bigelow Aerospace are creating public space travel. NewSpace Industry projections suggest tens of thousands of private citizens will be exposed to the Overview Effect over the next decade.

To bridge the cognitive/media barriers to the Overview Effect, new forms of space media are needed, drawing directly on the astronauts’ “Overview” descriptions and crafted with artistic talent and sensibility. Many astronauts have argued for such collaborations since the days of the Apollo Program. New generations of simulation technology will also bring a heightened sense of reality to space media.

Communication of the Overview Effect needs to begin well before public space travel becomes commonplace because of the inherent resistance to shifting paradigms and worldviews. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which introduced the idea of “paradigm shifting,” explained that scientists’ mental models so shape their concepts and even their perceptions, that those who hold different mental models in some sense live in different worlds and have great difficulty even seeing the evidence of other paradigms.

This parallels the differences between those who have seen the Earth as a planet in space and many who have not.

Communicating the Space Experience

The space industry’s efforts to educate the public on their services have focused more on technology than the experience. While sometimes described as “life-changing,” the nature of the space experience is seldom explained. Their marketing is directed at the “Space Enthusiast” who already values space travel.

However, many technology-marketing gurus such as Regis McKenna and Geoffrey Moore have emphasized that the psychology of the mainstream buyer is more pragmatic than that of the enthusiast. They urge communicating to them the “experience” of the product and its life- or work-enhancing benefits rather than just the technical features that attract the enthusiast.

Moore says that new technology companies that fail to shift their marketing message early enough risk falling into the “chasm” between the two market psychologies.

While many NewSpace leaders are knowledgeable and successful businesspeople, as space enthusiasts, they tend to underestimate the difficulty in communicating the real value of space travel. Today, even among those who are aware that public space travel will soon be available; there is much opposition to from those who see it as a diversion of resources from current world challenges.

The Missing Piece is the Overview Effect

By spreading awareness of the Overview Effect, the value of space travel to the world will change dramatically, bringing about this positive worldview shift much sooner.

Since shifting worldviews is difficult, marshalling the knowledge, advanced tools, and strategies to raise awareness of the Overview Effect needs to begin NOW rather than waiting until after commercial space flight begins. As Thomas Kuhn emphasized, predictions made prior to demonstrations are more powerful drivers of paradigm change than those made after demonstration.

This is the work of the Overview Institute and the real value of Planetary Collective’s “Overview” documentary. We hope that all those who see the value of quickly spreading this “meme” through our culture will help us to viralize the message of “Overview.”

Managing Partner, Exodus Consulting Group
Signatory, The Overview Institute

With all of the challenges facing humanity, we know that the likely response will be competition between nations, if not outright conflict. The Overview Effect has proven to be a perspective-transforming experience, leading people to clearly appreciate how deeply they are connected to all of humanity and our planet Earth.

”Overview” is a film that communicates the Overview Effect beautifully.

It is vital that the Overview Effect be experienced and appreciated by people all across our planet, especially political leaders at the highest levels of national governments, and this is the mission of the Overview Institute. I strongly urge you to support this vision of a united and peaceful world that also benefits our belief in the importance of space exploration and settlement.