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Posted
 

TL dr: I tried out space engine and I am not sure if it's considered to be harmfull or harmless.

 

I love space... I loved it before it quitted and I still love it today. Everytime I think about the problems that I can not change in this world (war, suffering, corruption, evil humans doing evil human things, destruction of our world) I just remember how unbelievably huge the universe is and it fills me with this odd feeling of calm and consolation.

One of the games I loved to play during my days was one where I would fly a spaceship. Yes.. I know escaping reality

But I also really loved the idea of exploring the universe. Watching planets and suns. Diving through the rings. Shooting stuff was never the "fun" part for me.

 

When I quitted gaming I of course quitted this game too. And I am on my 103 day of being clean. I don't want to change that.

Still this urge to get back into space is strong in me. I watched a ton of videos about it mostly scientific stuff also some TedX talks about colonising Mars you name it. I can read wikipedia articles about planets all day.

 

I am very sad about being part of the generation that was “too late to discover anything new and too early to explore the stars”

Yes earth is beautiful and worth exploring too but it's not where my passion lies.

 

Now I discovered the simulation space engine and I decided to carefully try it out. When I fired it up for the first time i felt very VERY indifferent. The main menu looks very gamey there is even the "player" option.

After trying it out I am still not sure...

The good thing is it's very scientific and I can explore the universe to my heart's content without limits. And there is no gamey interaction. No highscores no game rules. No enemys to shoot at no credits to gain.

But at its core it still has this  game feeling... and I sometimes worry if I do waste my time flying through space… Instead of doing something more productive.

 

My father suggested to me that I should by a telescope if I want to see space... But telescopes are expensive... And there is hardly a day with no cloudy sky where I live. We just married and I am the only one earning money in our relationship. My wife and me want to fly to indonesia again soon and visit much of asia. So in other words money is kind of a hot topic at the moment.

but maybe I am just trying to find excuses.

 

I will end this very random post with asking what you guys think about it. Do you consider space engine harmfull? Or is it a tool just like google maps/earth?

 
 

I will not post a link to space engine because I don't want to trigger anyone here (google it if you want it's easy to find). However I will leave you with a very beautiful piece of ambient music :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AveCENBgybQ

 

 

 

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I looked at this website.  Space Engine and looked at the video Stellardrone.  

I noticed when I googled Space Engine one of the links further down the page said something about "Gameplay" but I had already clicked on the one for Space Engine.

I explored the site some and checked out the forums.

This is an awesome program.  Very pretty.  But I think it's a game because of this post in the forums.

Gameplay Concept

I also looked at the trailer for it.  I see how I could lose hours there. :) 

I wonder if you are interested in meditation.  There is a book by Mary Summer Rain who said she flew in the body of a crow.

I wonder if you could explore space through meditation?...

Also another idea.. maybe volunteer work at a Planetarium?

Oh, oh before checking out the site, I had in my mind to say that it's important for me to check my motivation and how I feel about it.

For Example:

If someone is quitting drinking and goes into a liquor store to buy a pack of cigarettes...   Couldn't they buy that pack just as easy somewhere other than a liquor store?  Maybe that's all it was they were just used to buying their cigarettes there.  But we have to change our habits.

 

Edited by dandielionous
Posted

I guess there is no need for you to use a "gamey" astronomy software if there are plenty of other applications that do not include this element. For instance, this one: http://www.stellarium.org/

I was also very keen on astronomy, however, I had never had enough maths skills to study it, other than reading astronomy books. I remember using some planetarium simulators like the one I mention above, maybe I would look into it when I have some more free time and let you know about interesting astronomy apps.

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