Variable Vision

In less than ten minutes, the 1977 short film ‘Powers of Ten’ depicts the relative scale of things in the Universe using factors of ten. The film, made by Ray and Charles Eames, is an adaptation of the 1957 book Cosmic View by Kees Boeke.

It begins with a view from a meter above (10⁰) a man resting on a blanket. The camera then zooms out to a view ten meters above (10¹) to show that the man is at a picnic in a park. Then it pans to a view of 100 meters (10²) to show that the picnic is taking place on Chicago's lakefront. Further on we see on the way the views of Lake Michigan, our earth, our solar system, the Milky Way… the zoom continuing to a view of 10²⁴ meters - the size of the observable universe.

The camera then zooms back to the man's hand and moves on to zoom into views of negative powers of ten (10⁻¹) (10 centimeters), and so forth. The zoom moves the range from the surface of the skin to the inside right up to the proton in a carbon atom at 10⁻¹⁶ meter. The film thus travels two extreme extents of our universe.

However, the lessons go beyond the attempt to understand the universe… they guide us on how to be better at understanding our situation. We need to be better at seeing, both, the larger-picture and the smaller-picture... to see self and situation from a perspective that moves from a wide-angle outlook to a deeper insight into our predicament.

So often, so many of us are seized by a myopic vision that connects only to peripheral considerations. We need to apply the variable vision to see the larger consequences as well the minute intricacies of the situation that surrounds us. We need to be better at zooming out to the larger context as well as zoom in to the diminutive but crucial details.

To BE BETTER at understanding the real situation…
let’s zoom in and out to the entire variable vision!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India