I was reading up on Carl Sagan on wiki...
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While watching the other Symphony of Science videos, I came across this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlpyGhABXRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlpyGhABXRA
I was familiar with "A Glorious Dawn," but not "Symphony Of Science." That's great. 
"The Matrix vs Carl Sagan" pretty much demonstrates how my relatives react whenever I try to talk about anything interesting. "Duhhhh...."
"The Matrix vs Carl Sagan" pretty much demonstrates how my relatives react whenever I try to talk about anything interesting. "Duhhhh...."
There's a new one out, featuring David Attenborough.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOLAGYmUQV0[/yt]
All the Symphony of Science songs are found here:
http://symphonyofscience.com/
Oh, and that Matrix vs Sagan was pretty funny too.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOLAGYmUQV0[/yt]
All the Symphony of Science songs are found here:
http://symphonyofscience.com/
Oh, and that Matrix vs Sagan was pretty funny too.
I saved them all. I love them.
Thanks for the thread and the links, made my week.
Thanks for the thread and the links, made my week.
A
Amaris
Guest
I have to be honest, it made me tear up. Just the whole beauty of what Professor Hawking and Dr. Sagan were saying, combined with the awe and wonder found in both.
Bill Nye in one of the other videos ain't so shabby either!
Waaay back in 1981 at Planetfest in Pasadena, CA, there was a panel with Carl Sagan, Gene Roddenberry, Ray Bradbury, Sen. Proxmire of Wisconsin via satellite, moderated by Ted Koppel, and I don't remember who else, if anyone.
At the Q&A, young woman asked Sagan, "I'm a struggling young astronomy student, what do I have to look forward to?" Sagan answered, "Being a struggling young astronomer."
When another person pointed out the irony that Proxmire, notorious for voting down money for the space program, was appearing via satellite, the entire panel did a big "D'oh."
I kept the brochure from Planetfest '81. I got it autographed by Nichelle Nichols, Roddenberry, and Bradbury. I didn't have a chance to get Sagan's.
At the Q&A, young woman asked Sagan, "I'm a struggling young astronomy student, what do I have to look forward to?" Sagan answered, "Being a struggling young astronomer."
When another person pointed out the irony that Proxmire, notorious for voting down money for the space program, was appearing via satellite, the entire panel did a big "D'oh."
I kept the brochure from Planetfest '81. I got it autographed by Nichelle Nichols, Roddenberry, and Bradbury. I didn't have a chance to get Sagan's.
That's one of the things I like about Sagan, every time he looks at something, it's like he's looking at it with the awe and wonder of a small child.
Last week, at a used book store, I picked up a copy each of "The Cosmic Connection" and "Troca's Brain" and "Varieties of Scientific Experience".
Which do you think I should hit first? Of Sagan, I've read "Billions and Billions," "Contact" and "Other Worlds".
Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
Would it be better if our planet were really really big?
Sorry, but I never understood this thing where people talk about how small and insignifcant the Earth is. I know it is relatively small, but if that fact somehow makes some people feel depressed then they likely get depressed at the drop of a hat.
Would it be better if our planet were really really big?
Sorry, but I never understood this thing where people talk about how small and insignifcant the Earth is. I know it is relatively small, but if that fact somehow makes some people feel depressed then they likely get depressed at the drop of a hat.
When, where and how does depression enter in? For Carl Sagan and those who have received the message, the fact that the Earth is such a fantastically small place, cosmologically speaking, makes it all the more rare and precious. It's a place we must look after; and it is, for the moment, in its ability to support life and organisms as complex as us, unique. Sagan's writings are replete with hope and starry-eyed optimism for the human species, but they are also tempered by cautionary tales and constant warnings and reminders about the fallibility of the human mind, the fragility of our planet and the indifference of the cosmos. The Earth is insignificant, on the scale of stars and galaxies, and the way in which Sagan describes it, combined with a cosmic perspective, inspires mixed emotions: awe, wonder, gratitude, fear. The "momentary masters of a fraction of a dot" phrasing is a brilliant distillation of mankind's ugly passion for territoriality, and a profound way of illuminating the staggering futility of greed-driven dominance hierarchies; in short, Sagan was showing how trivial the old ways of human thinking and behaviour are when contrasted against the newer (and bigger and better) possibilities that modern science has revealed to us (one of Sagan's many lucid remarks: "there are many different ways of being human"). Whatever our past, our future is even greater; but it is incumbent on us, on the deepest of levels, to work towards it; if we don't, not only will it not transpire, but we may very well destroy ourselves in the process. Look around. Fundamentalism of various sorts is on the rise. Pseudoscience and scientific ignorance (the two go hand-in-hand) are everywhere. The rift between our technology and our illiteracy grows. In "Demon Haunted World", Sagan characterizes it as a "combustible mixture" that will eventually blow up in our faces. We need to set into motion the right course of events that will stop this happening. Reading more about science is a very good and wholly necessary start.
Sagan was both a scientist and a poet (and much more) -- about the closest thing we've ever had to a true prophet -- and his words should be heeded on more than one level. That said, while many of his observations are tinged with a doleful tone, particularly as he reflects on all the ways in which the human intellect has been squandered over the centuries, I find little depressing in his words themselves; rather, I find much that is positively inspiring, uplifting and enriching, with many implications for the present and the future. In his lifetime, Sagan popularized science and critical thinking so that we may transform ourselves. No-one else is going to do it. It is totally up to us (or down to us, if you prefer). And I don't think this is conveyed better by anyone else. You can grab other works by other popularizers and be touched, but not to the same extent; the difference, to my mind, is something like "Shakespeare and then everyone else". Sagan's words, like Shakespeare's, resonate in ways that other writers get nowhere near. I cannot say this enough. It helps that he was exceptionally well-versed in areas other people neglect. How many scientists, for example, can talk about the Ancient Greeks, the Babylonians, the Sumerians, et al.? How many took things like the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence and fields like exobiology seriously before Sagan did? And what about The Greenhouse Effect, Nuclear Winter, etc.? There's a lot to Sagan, what he wrote and why he wrote it. His stuff will go on resonating for decades -- if not generations -- to come. Try reading some of his material when you can. It's very important that you do; way more than you can realize before you've started. I'm not exaggerating: to read Sagan is to begin to see the light.
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Must've been all the weed he smoked.
Count me as another Sagan lover. One of the reasons I love TMP so much is because it seems like a companion piece to Cosmos.
EDIT: Another brilliant post, Cryogenic. Expect a friend request forthwith.
I don't smoke weed (I did it maybe half a dozen times in university, but those days are over) but I would SO smoke a joint with Carl Sagan. I can only imagine how that conversation would go.
B, b ,b, but ...
That wasn't Sagan. That was Mr. X. *cough*
Good point. It seems a lot of good TV and film was done in those 10-15 years, beginning with "2001" in 1968 and culminating, perhaps, with "Blade Runner" in 1982, with all manner of wonderful things in between, including Jacob Bronowski's "The Ascent Of Man" in 1973 (which "Cosmos" was inspired by) and an amazing short film by IBM in 1977, "Powers Of Ten", which, despite technological advances, remains compelling to this day.
I also wonder what Carl Sagan would have made -- or, perhaps, even, did make -- of TMP? After all, it touched on various issues near and dear to him, and very auspiciously, had a VOYAGER SPACE PROBE driving the narrative! Sagan, of course, worked on the Voyager missions, and he helped design the Voyager Golden Record. I've read that Sagan was a little annoyed with ST in general (for its parochial depiction of most alien life), but came round to seeing it as a force for good (because it depicted space flight in positive terms) later on. I imagine he might have been moved by some of the film's themes, but perhaps a little pissed that no mention was made of the the Golden Record; he may also have found the idea that a "Voyager 6" probe -- or any probe -- was conveniently devoured by a black hole and survived stupid. Then again, I am probably just projecting my own upsets here. Would be satisfying to find out.
Thank you, Mr Strudel!
Would it be better if our planet were really really big?
Sorry, but I never understood this thing where people talk about how small and insignifcant the Earth is. I know it is relatively small, but if that fact somehow makes some people feel depressed then they likely get depressed at the drop of a hat.
For me, the essence of Sagan's "message", if you will, can be condescend to six words, and you'll find those words in my signature.
But read Croygenic's post for a more detailed reply.
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