Levels of Magnification

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What do you mean by levels of magnification?”

“It’s a model inspired by a beautiful website called The Scale of the Universe [<link]. 

I’ve since discovered another website called Universcale [<link] which does something similar.

Imagine yourself the size of a virus.
Imagine yourself the size of an ant.
Imagine yourself the size of the tallest structure around you.
Imagine yourself the size of Mount Everest.
Imagine yourself the size of the Earth.
Imagine yourself the size of the Sun.

Each of these perspectives can be thought of as a level of magnification. 

Reality looks very different at various levels of magnification.

From that perspective, every level of magnification is like a different reality.”

“So it’s an imagination exercise?”

“That’s one application of it.

I’m mainly interested in it as a metaphoric mental structure, a conceptual and practical tool. Being metaphoric makes it transferable.

For instance, it can be applied to time. You can think of various timeframes as levels of magnification.

Life
10 Years (Decade)
5 Years
Year
Month
Week
Day
Hour
Minute
Moment

Or it can be applied to any hierarchical structure. Similar to how reality looks very different at various physical levels of magnification, reality looks very different at various levels of magnification within the hierarchy.

Think of an army.

The general sees one reality.
The next level of command sees another reality.
The next level another reality.
The next another.
All the way down to the reality of those who do the dying.”

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