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The overview effect is what many astronauts report on seeing Earth from space: a sudden, powerful sense that the planet is small, fragile and has no visible borders. The writer Frank White named it in 1987.

Frank White, The Overview Effect, 1987

SpaceMind

The story behind the card

White, an American writer on space, interviewed astronauts for his book The Overview Effect and heard the same themes again and again: a strong sense of connection with everyone on the planet, impatience with conflict and a wish to protect Earth. The Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, for instance, described a sudden sense of oneness with humanity on his way home from the Moon in 1971. A 2016 paper by the psychologist David Yaden and colleagues described the effect as a form of awe, the feeling of facing something vast that changes how we see ourselves. The evidence still rests mostly on astronauts' own accounts rather than on measurements.

Türkçe oku
Genel bakış etkisi, pek çok astronotun Dünya'yı uzaydan gördüğünde yaşadığını anlattığı duygudur: gezegenin küçük ve kırılgan olduğunu, üstünde hiçbir sınır görünmediğini birdenbire derinden hissetmek. Bu adı 1987'de yazar Frank White koydu.
Frank White, The Overview Effect, 1987

Uzay üzerine yazan Amerikalı yazar White, The Overview Effect adlı kitabı için astronotlarla konuştu ve aynı temaların tekrar tekrar karşısına çıktığını gördü: gezegendeki herkesle güçlü bir bağ hissi, çatışmalara karşı sabırsızlık ve Dünya'yı koruma isteği. Örneğin Apollo 14 astronotu Edgar Mitchell, 1971'de Ay'dan dönerken bütün insanlıkla bir olduğunu birden hissettiğini anlattı. Psikolog David Yaden ve arkadaşlarının 2016'da yayımladığı bir makale, bu etkiyi bir huşu biçimi olarak tanımladı: çok büyük bir şeyle karşılaşıp kendimizi başka türlü görmeye başladığımız o duygu. Türkçede “kuş bakışı etkisi” diye de anılıyor. Kanıtlar hâlâ ölçümlere değil, çoğunlukla astronotların kendi anlatımlarına dayanıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Overview effect
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