Searcher44
Gold Member
Wasn't Carl Sagan a great teller of the stories of science? Remember his reflections on that last photograph of Earth that Viking took before it left the Solar System?
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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.
Nasa had turned Viking around to take that picture at Sagan's request. A significant number of the most respected scientists of today were inspired by him.
Those of us still living on that pale blue dot owe him a great deal. And unfortunately a lot of us have forgotten or never understood in the first place what he taught us.
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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.
Nasa had turned Viking around to take that picture at Sagan's request. A significant number of the most respected scientists of today were inspired by him.
Those of us still living on that pale blue dot owe him a great deal. And unfortunately a lot of us have forgotten or never understood in the first place what he taught us.
