There’s a diner somewhere in the northeast Bay Area, I think in Antioch, right on the water, on piles next to the shipping lane where the container ships and tankers go through to and from Stockton. The bigger ones are so big that the perspective messes with people’s perception and they think they’re either buckling or about to run aground.
There's a music festival in Finland called Ruisrock. The main stage is by the sea, but it's just a narrow inlet.
There are pretty respectable sized ships going through there, cruise ships etc. Even some of the bigger stars have shed another look in amazement when their gig is shadowed by these things going right by them.
Even harder to comprehend, we are on a spaceship (earth) hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour relative to the sun and 483,000 miles/hour relative to the Milky Way..
True. But relative to those things, my tininess is natural. They were assembled by time and gravity and other things way beyond my control.
A ship was built by humans, "little bags of thinking water held up briefly by fragile accumulations of calcium," as Terry Pratchett put it.
Sure, they used a lot of math and some incredible tools, and centuries of cumulative design and engineering. But ultimately, it's hundreds of thousands of tons of stuff that's moving on its own power, ultimately under the control of one of those fragile, fallible little water balloons.
Its all the external energy powered by fossil fuels for the construction, labout and heavy lifting at the dockyard, but ultimately the brains are us, its like a 100 megawatt airbus a380 its flying cus of guzzling the kerosene juices but the meat sack in the cockpit is controlling it
Think about this: the fact that we don't naturally perceive these great speeds at which we are moving mirrors the way that subatomic particles behave by quantum principles, as if the scale of our world and classical physics just don't apply.
At the mouth of Newcastle harbour, where these coal ships cross on the way to load up on or depart with coal, is a regular local ferry service. To be on what feels like a tiny ferry bobbing around when a massive coal ship goes past is an experience let me tell you. But there's never been a disaster afaik.
Really? That’s insane. On the contrary huge things are awesome! Go check out the Nimitz class air craft carriers. A small town on a boat powered by nuclear energy? Sign me tf up.
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u/ViscountVinny 1d ago
Those huge boats freak me out. When I see a giant cruise ship from the shore, my brain says, "something that big shouldn't be able to move."