Such cosmic downgrading, from headliner to extra, exemplifies what scientists now call the Copernican principle: in the grand scheme of things, everything we know points toward human beings not occupying a privileged position.
Yes and no. We do not appear to be the geographical center of anything, but when all the scales are weighed, we must occupy a very privileged position in the universe in order to exist at all. The fine tunning that allows life add we know it is far more complex a kind of privilege that simply being "in the middle."
