Reflecting on "The Pale Blue Dot"

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minfarshaw

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 12, 2014
279
1
I watched the last episode of "The Cosmos" narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Something about it really spoke to me. Especially he part where he quotes Carl Sagan (1994). I just want to share the quote with you. I've been reflecting on it and it really put things is perspective. When Voyager 1 sailed past Neptune, it turned around to take one last picture of the earth before moving on into interstellar space. Here is an excerpt from Carl Sagan's book "The Pale Blue Dot."
"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
I invite you to take a look at the photo too you can find it at http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/earth/pale-blue-dot.html if you are interested. I just wanted to share this because it really struck a chord in me.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Yup, I felt sure it was a question about the signature dot on the stem. But it is a powerful quote. Sagan was a brilliant guy, I guess as an astrophysicist, but notably too as a science educator to a vast audience about the scale and magnitude of the universe.

 

echie

Can't Leave
Jul 7, 2014
368
0
Amsterdam
To take a slight parallel, I have a particular fascination with the 2 Voyagers. They're such lonely, ridiculously long-term programmes. They were launched (...quick wikipedia check...) almost *40* years ago, and are still sending us data!! For them, the "pale blue dot" will only get more pale, and I love the thought that they're out there.

 

maxx

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 10, 2015
709
6
I watched Sagan's Cosmos series when it came out. He shows a timeline of the Earth as a year long calendar, and points out how comparatively recently Homosapiens arrived. Comparing this to the age of the Cosmos, we are very, very young. On the other hand, it's extraordinary that, in the rational mind, the Cosmos comprises something that can come to know Itself.

 

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,332
3,413
In the sticks in Mississippi
Very inspriational min. I saw that episode also and some others, and they were very thought provoking, although so many people aren't into thinking, but that's a different discussion not for this forum.
So yes I like the pale blue dot we're on, I like Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, and I like Alfred Sasieni's pale blue dot.

 

beefeater33

Lifer
Apr 14, 2014
4,063
6,119
Central Ohio
Thanks for sharing Min.......

I stared at that photo for a good while......Quite humbling and thought provoking....

Funny how we are so significant and insignificant at the same time............ :puffy:

 

minfarshaw

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 12, 2014
279
1
I had no idea Sasienis had pale blue dots. Beginner's folly. I've never even looked up Sasienis. Hmmm... Maybe I should take a look.

 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,073
Maryland
postimg.cc
Well, even though we're (ie: me..) a bunch of high-jacking a-holes, I'll always think about that photo.

In fact, I'm smoking a Viscount Lascelles now.
In the future, at a shiop, when someone asks me "is that a Sasieni". I'll say "why yes it is, have you ever heard of Carl Sagan? Look deep into those dots"....
Thanks for an insightful post, I'm sorry we're a bunch of jackals!

 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
I always thought Sagan's views were somewhat of a contradiction: to believe that the universe was teeming with alien life, but to believe terrestrial life here on earth had not yet been discovered or visited by our universal neighbors; his views were so anti-UFO. If he only believed in the idea of simple alien life but not advanced alien life, then why the Voyager Golden Records? The only explanation he ever offered was the Golden Records were like a time capsule for the future; the implication was the Golden Records will be viewed by alien life in the future, long after life here on earth has expired.
I often wonder if his personal beliefs were quite different from his professional opinions, and that publicly he was just playing the role assigned to him by science, religion & government. Good post, Min! Thought provoking, for sure.

 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
Could be. Depends on what your definition of "Is" is; one of those deals. I take it that he did believe from his comments that "there are a lot of places out there", "molecules of life are everywhere", and "it would be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial intelligence". I would only add that maybe the public is not being told of the "compelling evidence" that would appear to be lacking.
Quote:
“I'm frequently asked, "Do you believe there's extraterrestrial intelligence?" I give the standard arguments- there are a lot of places out there, the molecules of life are everywhere, I use the word billions, and so on. Then I say it would be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling evidence for it.

Often, I'm asked next, "What do you really think?"

I say, "I just told you what I really think."

"Yes, but what's your gut feeling?"

But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.” ― Carl Sagan
What's your thoughts on the purpose for the Voyager Golden Records?

 

minfarshaw

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 12, 2014
279
1
The golden records, I am actually really curious as to what is in there. Supposed the sounds of the earth. From a mother's first words to her baby, different languages, even a whale language. In my opinion, it isn't the golden record that is important. It is the hieroglyphs inscribed in the voyager.
Many scenarios play in my head about extraterrestrial beings. They could be anywhere between unicellular, non-evolved organisms to beings that are so far advances from us.
What bothers me about the Voyager's message is it gives away our position in the universe. In the plates are our time and space in the cosmos. If there are beings out there, they will know where we are and how to look for us. Let's just hope whoever finds it, if anyone finds it, means no harm.

 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
Min, I agree! I guess when I refer to the Golden Records I am including the hieroglyphs, etc on each Voyager. Very detailed, planetary chart & all.
Any advanced extraterrestrial life forms have probably been aware of us & our location for at least 70 yrs now, with all the commercial radio & TV signals that emanate from our planet daily. It's not like we are being quiet or anything. And any extraterrestrial life close enough to us to be in our universal neighborhood certainly became aware of us and our location with the first test of the atomic bomb on July 16, 1945.
What I am curious about is in order for intelligent extraterrestrial life forms to discover the Golden Records the Voyager I or II must first either crash and be recovered somewhere in the future, or Voyager I or II must slow up significantly in order to be captured by these intelligent life forms. Easier said than done; after all we earthlings have been unable to identify or capture the Black Knight Satellite circling the earth in a polar orbit since we first became aware of it and photographed it in the early 1950's. Maybe the Black Knight contains a Golden Record from one of our universal neighbors, just waiting for us to recover it?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_satellite
Maybe that is what Sagan means when he refers to the Golden Records as a time capsule.

 
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