Of the few human-beings I look up to and admire, alive or dead, Carl Sagan is on the top of the list. Beyond his astounding contributions toward science, he provided us with a spectacular collection of books and various writings. From the book, “The Demon Haunted World”, which I must say made a terrific impact on my life and how I view the world around me, to: A Pale Blue Dot, Broca’s Brain, Billions & Billions, Comet, Contact (also a movie), and The Dragons of Eden, you can discover his contributions to the human condition. There is so much more to say, but as I found out in creating this website it has mostly be said. So, for now, I encourage you to expand your mind to the ideas and insights to a great thinker.
Video Link: Carl Sagan on the Charlie Rose Show
Additional websites:
Quotes from the book A Demon Haunted World:
"In the 1990's the tabloid universe is expanding..." "We can see this in the new generation of acknowledged tabloid television and increasingly in what passes for news and information programs."
"Mr. Buckley - well spoken, intelligent, curious... ...He wanted to know about science. It's just that all the science had gotten filtered out before it reached him. Our cultural motifs, our educational system, our communications media, had failed this man. What society permitted to trickle through was mainly pretense and confusion."
----pg 4
"...when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority...unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."
----pg 25
"The scientific way of thinking is at once imaginative and disciplined. It urges on us a delicate balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything - new ideas and established wisdom. This kind of thinking is also an essential tool for a democracy in an age of change." ----pg27
"...they sell, I think, because so many of us who want so badly to be jolted out of our humdrum lives, to rekindle that sense of wonder we remember from child- hood, and also, for a few of the stories to be able, really and truly, to believe - in someone older, smarter and wiser who is looking out for us."
----pg 58
"President Ronald Reagan, who spent World War II in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims......On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr. Reagan told an epic story of World War II, courage and sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer......not hard to imagine serious public dangers emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish fact from vivid fiction." ----pg 140
"However, through lowered educational standards, declining intellectual competence, diminished zest for substantive debate, and social sanctions against skepticism, our liberties can be slowly eroded and our rights subverted." ---pg 433