Comment by ryankrage77 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ryankrage77 | Hacker News Reader

The first time I saw the night sky in an area with little light pollution is something I hope I'll never forget. I was at a campsite on the coast of denmark, not somewhere particularly rural or far from the nearest town (the campsite itself was quite big and fancy with a large pool and spa, etc). I got up in the middle of the night to go the toilet, and when I saw the sky I just stopped and stared for a long time. It really does look like those photos you see, for example the first image on the wikipedia article for the night sky is similar to what I remember, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_sky. I could see too many stars to count, shooting stars, I could even just about make out the milky way. I actually had trouble picking out constellations because the usual reference points just didn't stand out amongst the noise. I later moved my sleeping bag outside and fell asleep looking at the sky.

It's kinda crazy not knowing what the sky, the biggest most omnipresent stuff in our life, looks like, is now the default for us.

Other first times that give life a lot of texture back:

- first time a dangerous animal looks at you, and there is no wall between you and it. We are not used to be pray.

- first time you get to taste really good fruits and vegetables. Most people think they had. They have not.

- first time you get lost in a wild remote place. The jungle is really scary.

- first time you lose all your stuff (including money and id) in a place you don't speak the language. You will look differently at immigrants after this one.

- first time you see a human dead body outside of a building or a box. The outside sewers in Mali for me.

- first time you use your knowledge of physics or maths to solve a real life problem, and it works. Ok, this one is awesome.

- first time you know you almost died right there.

- first time your car break hundreds of miles from civilization, there is no cell phone, and nobody is coming.

Of course I don't wish you a lot of those. We worked hard at creating a civilization because it's nice to not die from dehydration or a spooked bull.

My only objection is the food/fruit/vegetable argument. The best fruits and veggies come from gardens, most from Japan.

Random fruits and veggies from the wild mostly taste overly sour, bitter, or under or over ripe.

I never said from the wild.

I would not recommend eating things form the wild unless you really know what you are doing: it's a good way to get sick or die.

E.G: wild carrots and hemlock can look very similar.

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