Carl Sagan was an extraordinary man. Apart from being a brilliant scientist, he had a beautiful heart and a beautiful mind. His vision of the universe and our place in it has always been an inspiration to me.
I first saw this video a few years ago and was deeply moved by it. I hope that it touches you as it has so many others who have seen it.
The first scene is a photo of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 as it sailed away from us, more than 4 billion miles away. It inspired Dr. Sagan to say the following about our home … The Pale Blue Dot.
If your browser is not showing the video, click here:
Additional information about this piece can be found at:
The Planetary Society
Also, visit:
The Carl Sagan Portal
Originally posted at synaptici.com February 26, 2009
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I’m going to show this to my daughter tonight!
Its such a powerful piece isn’t it!
indeed!
It’s incredibly humbling… and stunningly beautiful. Thanks Gil.
Thanks Petra
It kind of reinforces my belief that human beings are a “cosmic mistake”. Sure we’ve done all sorts of things that we ourselves label as great, but remove those things from the natural evolution of the earth and would anything we’ve done be so important that the world couldn’t carry on without it? The earth would probably have been quite alright, maybe even “happier” without us. Wonder what would have happened if the earth had continued to develop with only non-human inhabitants? I think humans put far too much importance on themselves and their so-called “top of the food chain” civilizations. We really do some very screwed-up things on a regular basis. I don’t find us to be as intelligent as we say and think we are.
Hi DPJ!
Thanks for your comment. Food for thought. I don’t think the cosmos makes mistakes though. We on the the other hand .. make many!
Cheers,
Gil