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I understand the reference to Ptolemy, Newton (Copernicus?), Darwin, but how did Einstein teach us that we're "part of nature instead of a privileged special case"?

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In terms of the relativity of our frames of reference. We can't even measure time on a clock or the length of a pace and declare it to be valid for anyone that has followed a different space-time path. One minute to me isn't the same for my brother in a fast train, let alone Zod on Krypton. Relativity says that our whole view of the world is unprivileged.

Space-time is not centered on our perspective. That's the revelation of the Michelson–Morley experiment that Einstein explained.

Or it shows the opposite- we are all indeed the center of our own universe, the hero of our own story.

Presumably special relativity. Our reference frame is no more special than any other.

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