The Earth from Space

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Every time I see a photo of our beautiful Earth from space, I experience my subjective point of view from an objective point of view. There is a feature of this experience that puzzles me, because it is so obvious but so preposterous. My subjective experience of Earth is of a wide, flat surface with a horizon in the distance. The objective view from space is of a perfectly spherical world.

Now, think about this: What if we get the perfectly spherical view, but from Earth instead of at Earth? That's exactly what a fisheye lens on a camera does. When we see photos taken with a fisheye lens, we recognize an ordinary - real - image, but drastically distorted. We know the photo doesn't portray how the thing, the view, really looks - really is. The lens bends everything toward the center of the lens.

What if we came to the same conclusion whenever we saw a photo of the Earth from space? That we're seeing something familiar and recognizable - our everyday experience of Earth - drastically distorted by a fisheye lens? We assume that those Earth photos aren't taken with a fisheye lens, so of course the image can't be drastically distorted. But what if space outside the Earth's atmosphere is the fisheye lens?

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