Carl Sagan is da jam

I just had to come back and experience this again. I'm so glad you posted it.

It may seem cheesey to some, but Sagan is literally one of my heroes. Reading "Cosmos" as a young man was a life changing experience.
Listening to this just somehow reconnects me with that vibe. It's quite simply....moving.
 
What really does it for me, aside from the catchy chorus, is the earnest, irrepressible joy and wonder on his face in some of those shots. He really sold the idea that he was genuinely seeing the things he described and marveling at them for the first time.
 
I loveeeee Carl Sagan. I'm not sure if Carl Sagan or Mr. Wizard had a bigger effect on me growing up, but I still cannot under any circumstances turn the channel when Carl Sagan is on TV.
 
Wow, I must've completely missed the boat on Sagan, or maybe he was before my time (I grew up in the 90s, so it was mostly Bill Nye as far as edutainment went :D) - I have to say though, I too found that almost shockingly moving, mostly because I've always had a deep love of sci-fi, specifically the sense of wonder and awe it can hold, and this really captures it well. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some investigating into the guy's works!
 
I have to admit I recently discovered the genius, but the awe and wonder he held for the cosmos is infectious, and reading his words or watching him speak (his voice is even soothing) puts me in a good mood even when things feel hopeless and I feel meaningless. I can't think of any other celebrities that can do that for me. I want a shirt that says, "Carl Sagan Is My Homeboy".
 
Metaltastic said:
Wow, I must've completely missed the boat on Sagan, or maybe he was before my time (I grew up in the 90s, so it was mostly Bill Nye as far as edutainment went :D) - I have to say though, I too found that almost shockingly moving, mostly because I've always had a deep love of sci-fi, specifically the sense of wonder and awe it can hold, and this really captures it well. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some investigating into the guy's works!
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'd say he was before your time. But he was still writing amazing stuff until his death in the mid 90's.

Every book he wrote is, in my opinion, eye-opening, awe-inspiring and will leave you with a profound sense of wisdom, appreciation for our very existence, and hope for our future. That's really the best way I can describe Carl Sagan.

Start by reading "Cosmos".
 
Here is an excellent chunk of Sagan - concerning this distant photograph of Earth:

pale_blue_dot.jpg


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.
Click to expand...
 
that video was so kickass! thanks iekobird for sharing that! carl was truly da man. apart from his absolutely legendary career, he did something so few were able to do... make science mindblowingly cool! it was perfect timing and he was the perfect guy too. you gotta remember, this is like the time of the height of Star Wars (the real one, 4-6). like iekobird said above, his natural love for it comes thru, and he has the uncanny ability to make others see and feel it too.

i was lucky enough to go to school where he taught, though by the time i was there he was already very sick. still, he was a living legend on campus, with stories of private tunnels to the science dept building and his secret research lab in the side of a waterfall on campus. when he died, the whole campus mourned. it was palpable. the type of group mourning usually reserved for celebrities, like patrick swayze and kurt cobain... it was cool to see someone who changed science get some respect.

i'm off to youtube to watch some cosmos vidz
 
Thank you so much for posting this. As a kid, I always looked forward to seeing him on PBS. He is directly responsible for fueling my interest in astronomy. My hero as well.
 
As much as I like Carl Sagan and having purchased three of his books, I must say he was pretty good at sugar-coating an undesirable reality (or for a more slang term, shit) :lol: His books achieved his purpose in making science hip and palatable to the average person. However, anything can be "awe-inspiring" but it doesn't mean it has some inherent purpose.

That beat in the video is whack, hahaha!
 
I find he has more gentle approach than Dawkins. Less insulting than saying your god is a psychopath. Insults on ones logic and heritage doesn't seem effective to convince someone of the truth. Im halfway through "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" awesome book.
 
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