APW- Anyone up for some Sagan in the afternoon? (908 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.28 on 19 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Bob (View user info) at 2007-05-09 15:27:19 EDT
I just finished The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan and I figured that I would share my favorite excerpt from the novel for my APW contribution.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
-Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (1994)
If you look closely at this NASA photo, you can see a small white dot, which is Earth.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-05-10 16:19:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
BILLYUNS AND BILLYUNS AND BILLYUNS
Submitted by Realpolitik (user info) at 2007-05-10 00:41:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yes, but it is OUR small white dot
Submitted by ColchesterDr (user info) at 2007-05-09 17:41:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Tom (user info) at 2007-05-09 16:38:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Right, even from a distance the earth is white. The KKK is probably eating this up.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2007-05-09 16:31:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
geek
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-05-09 16:23:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:58:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:43:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'll be back in a minute. I gotta go take a Sagan.
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Don't forget to wipe your Democrat and flush the NYC.
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Only after I've given my Mitterand a good double-shake.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2007-05-09 16:13:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.ubersite.com/m/101534
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:58:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:43:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'll be back in a minute. I gotta go take a Sagan.
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Don't forget to wipe your Democrat and flush the NYC.
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:52:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This passage has always been one of my Sagan favorites.
People need to read it and re-read it until it sinks in.
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:50:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
loved Pale Blue Dot, Cosmos, and everything else Sagan did. the ability to take complex topics and allow simpletons to have a working understanding of them is a great gift that very few possess.
not that I'm a simpleton.
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:49:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe"
WTF?!? Not important?! Jesus made the earth FOR man. Man's not important?
If it wasn't for man, there'd be nobody to worship Jesus or Allah. With nobody worshiping them, they'd surely destroy us all.
Besides, I don't see Jesus dying for the sins of aliens, only man.
Man #1, aliens #10!
But yeah, auto +2 for Sagan. I read Pale Blue Dot years ago, great book.
First saw Sagan on repeats of Cosmos on PBS. What a great series that was. I mean, it was no American Idol, but it's still pretty good.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:44:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:43:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'll be back in a minute. I gotta go take a Sagan.
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:41:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:40:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
APW. That's Occitan for "+2."
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:33:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
fair enough.
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:32:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I suppose anything can be art....just....this isn't very interesting...here's two for the spirit of things.
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:30:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
the written word cant be art? boo to you!
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-05-09 15:29:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Lame