1. Frank White FISO Telecon: July 19, 2017. Copyright © Frank White, 2017
“No One Said We Should Go To the Moon to Look at the Earth: The Overview Effect”
Frank White
FISO Telecon: July 19, 2017.
Copyright © Frank White, 2017

2. The Overview Effect
“With all the arguments, pro and con, for going to the moon, no one suggested that we should do it to look at the Earth. But that may in fact be the most important reason.”
Shuttle astronaut Joseph P. Allen
In The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution
First astronaut interviewed for the book.

3. What Was Apollo About?
Traditional explanation: a race with the Soviet Union.
A new understanding: JFK wanted a joint mission or a multinational mission.
He hoped to unwind the Cold War.
Anticipated the power of the Overview Effect?

4. What Is the Overview Effect?
Originally a predicted experience of space settlers.
Interviewed astronauts as proxies for space settlers.
Now defined as a cognitive shift in worldview reported by many astronauts and cosmonauts.
This is change in meaning.

5. Origins of the Theory
Flying cross-country, thinking about space settlements.
“People living in space settlements will always have an overview. This would be the Overview Effect.”
How do I confirm the theory?
Approached the problem as a social scientist looking for data.

6. Collecting the Data The more data, the better! Called NASA:
“I need to interview all the astronauts.”
“You can interview two.”
Got a book contract.
Moved away from doing massive study.

7. The Book
First Edition: 1987; 16 interviews Second Edition: 1998; 22 interviews Third Edition: 2014; 29 interviews Fourth Edition: 2018?

8. Early Insights “No borders or boundaries.” “Beauty of the Earth.”
“Fragility of the planet.”
“We’re all in this together.”
Difference in Low Earth Orbit and Lunar views.
Other changes in perception.

9. Astronaut Quotes (1)
“You look out the window and pictures just don’t do justice to what you see. It is a dynamic, crystal-clear view that just glows, and that doesn’t come across in the pictures and videos. You feel more a part of it when you are looking at it that way. So it was a reaffirmation of what a beautiful and special place the Earth is.” Nicole P. Stott, Shuttle and ISS Astronaut

10. Astronaut Quotes (2)
“You can't see the boundaries over which we fight wars, and in a very real way, the inhabitants of this Earth are stuck on a very beautiful, lovely little planet in an incredibly hostile space, and everybody is in the same boat.”
Don L. Lind, Shuttle Astronaut

11. Astronaut Quotes (3)
“You can watch the sun set across North America and then see it rising again over Australia. You look back ‘home’ and say to yourself,
‘That's humanity, love, feeling, and thought.’ You don't see the barriers of color and religion and politics that divide this world. You wonder, if you could get everyone in the world up there, wouldn't they have a different feeling-a new perspective?”
Eugene A. Cernan, Gemini and Apollo Astronaut

12. Astronaut Quotes (4)
“It is all connected, it is all interdependent. You look out the window, and in my case, I saw the thinness of the atmosphere, and it really hit home, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a fragile ball of life that we are living on and it’s hard for you to appreciate that until you are outside it.’”
Sandra “Sandy” Magnus, Shuttle and ISS Astronaut

13. “Spaceship Earth” “We are living a lie.” - Ron Garan
“We are already in space.”
- Bucky Fuller
“There is a difference between intellectual and experiential knowledge.”
-Sandy Magnus

14. Changes In Awareness

15. “The Copernican Perspective”
Astronauts not only had a realization that the Earth is a whole system, of which we are a part, but also that the solar system is a whole system of which the Earth is a part.
“I don't care how many times you look at the globe or the models that show us in relationship to our solar system, it isn't quite real to you. You know it intellectually.”
Shuttle Astronaut and Senator Jake Garn

16. “The Universal Insight”
Edgar Mitchell had a profound experience of connection with the universe.
When I reviewed the book for the Third Edition, I found that many astronauts had reported a new understanding of their relationship with the universe.
“You see that the Earth is just a small part of a large universe, and you have a feeling about it that is hard to describe.” Shuttle Astronaut Al Sacco, Jr.

17. What It Means Originally a theory about space settlers.
Focus shifted to surface dwellers and need for a change in worldview.
Multiple crises facing our planet: war and peace; climate change and global warming; humanitarian disasters.
All of these need global solutions: “overview thinking.”
We still need to think about space settlement.

18. What Is “Overview Thinking?”
A planet has no sides.
“Polar opposites” are still connected in one system.
What does it mean that we cannot see borders and boundaries from orbit or the moon?
What does it mean that “we are all in this together?”

19. Quantity and Quality
Only a few hundred astronauts have had the Overview experience.
Now looking at much greater quantities of people having it globally, direct or through virtual reality, or simulations, like here.

20. Overview Thinking Has Begun
The Overview Institute founded in 2008
Three presentations at Harvard
Presentation at National Air and Space Museum
More than 7 million views of “Overview”
“Daily Overview” and Space/VR
Xploration Outer Space program
An Australian band!
Columbus/Cube/Continium

21. Daily Overview

22. New Studies
Suedfeld et al, University of British Columbia: “Changes in the Hierarchy of Value References Associated to Flying in Space.”
Yaden et al, University of Pennsylvania: “The Overview Effect: Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Spaceflight.”
Gallagher et al, University of Central Florida: “Space, Science, and Spirituality.”
Kanas et al: “Positive Psychological Outcomes of Spaceflight: An Empirical Study.”

23. Experiencing the Overview Effect as a Human Right
If it is so profound, positive, and important, shouldn’t everyone experience it, either through spaceflight or VR?
Wouldn’t it make a difference if millions of people thought of the Earth as a spaceship, and themselves as the crew?
Is it a human right to know the truth?
We can become “Citizens of the Universe.”
Astronaut Al Sacco said this is “the astronaut’s secret.”

24. The “Explorer Fish”
The first fish to flop up on land had no idea where it would lead. They couldn’t communicate the experience to other fish.
Our astronauts are like the first exploring fish.

25. Conclusion
Nothing in human history is more important than achieving an overview of our planet.
This is the key to our next evolutionary step.
Each of us has a role to play.
All of us can see ourselves as astronauts on Spaceship Earth.

26. References
The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution (2014): aiaa.com
The New Camelot: The Quest for the Overview Effect, (2016):
“Overview,” film by Planetary Collective, 2012,
The Overview Institute: