If you haven’t had the chance to read Carl Sagan’s book called ‘Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space‘ then you’re really missing out on a good read (and if you know me, that means a lot). It isn’t just a book about the planets and the universe. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of what was known about the solar system at the time the book was published. He also details a human vision for the future.
The image on the left is what inspired the book. This is the Earth seen from four billion miles away. The Earth is a dot suspended in a beam of sunlight (pinpointed by artificial blue circle). Check out Wikipedia’s article about the Pale Blue Dot.
Below is actually Carl Sagan reading from his book. This part of the book has become one of the famous passages from the book. Someone took it, and put it into a video with various movie clips following along with his passage. I promise you will get goosebumps and probably a tear or two.
Now, isn’t that just great?
Carl Sagan is to astromony what Creationists are to evolution…
Sorry to say that because I know you are a fan of his works, but he really is a nut, a well educated and well read nut, but still a nut.
I’d put him in the same bag as those who claim that the pyramids were laid out according to a plan to recreate the constellation Orion on Earth. Or those that claim the Nazca lines are UFO air strips. *sighs*
Michael wrote:
Uhm.. have any examples? Calling him a “nut” seems pretty far fetched.
I’ll just assume you don’t really know anything about him. Here, take a few minutes and learn about him before you call him a nut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_sagan
Carl Saygan a nut?
No, I don’t really believe so.
He is as much a philosopher as an astronomer. Which probably throws some people off. Contact throws a lot of people off too…