I can’t stop thinking about two comments from a Reddit thread on Halley’s Comet. (Or, rather, a thread started with a comic depicting Halley’s Comet as a constant in the short, brutish and mortal life of man. Pictured here.

The comments:

1) “What a silly thing you’ve done: conflating power with longevity. Halley’s Comet is totally powerless to do anything but its one task — orbit through space — until it is eventually consumed by the sun. It is completely powerless. Halley’s Comet wouldn’t even be significant if we didn’t make it significant. Significance is something humans give it — without us, it’s irrelevant.”

Truly, still, Existentialism is a humanism. 

2) “You mean consumed by space miners. I tell people they better watch Halley’s comet when it returns in 2061, because by the one after that (2136) it will be mined out for raw materials.”

Where on Earth, truly, will we be at 2136. I imagine, actually, that “on earth” will be a nuisance. And that comets will be mined for something. Resources are finite if you can’t find the infinite in the Universe.

That’s all for tonight. Putting these here if only to find them again when needed.

EG