The Total Perspective Vortex and You

Does a cosmic perspective threaten the self? Not much, it seems

Certain writers have claimed that contemplating the vastness of space-time induces feelings of nihilistic dread, i.e. overwhelming feelings of being insignificant that threaten one’s sense of self. Such “cosmic horror” was a major theme in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote that we humans are protected by our own ignorance of the “vast infinities” in which we live and that becoming aware of the “terrifying vistas of reality” would either drive us mad or impel us to “retreat into a new dark age.”

This idea was famously parodied by Douglas Adams in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in which he described a terrible punishment that consisted of being put inside a machine called the “total perspective vortex” in which “you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little marker, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says ‘You are here.’” In the novel, this experience was so unbearable that a person would instantly drop dead from the horror of it.

The idea that human life is insignificant on a cosmic scale has been seriously discussed by philosophers, but until recently, the psychological aspects of the experience of contemplating cosmic vastness have not been empirically explored. However, a 2018 research paper that actually refers to Douglas Adams’ book attempted to fill this gap (Hornsey et al., 2018), and the findings suggest that it may be safe…