From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Thu Nov 16 2000 - 13:47:43 MST
He was brilliant as a inspirer and sharer of scientific knowledege. He was
also big time into the Ganja and this at age 55-60! He was a big time
schmuckeroo when it came time to face down the Soviets, when they wished to
Glom West Asia and Western Europe--and glom it they would have, had not the
West and Old Man Reagan showed them a fist, and the will to use it. Carl
Sagan was chicken ala Carl on the money for SDI, and basically viewed the
world so pessimistically, that surrender was better then annihilation-well
yeah! But people of a sneakier frame of mind could see that it wasn't exactly
the sure destinty of humanity-at least at that point. I like Freeman Dysons'
( a Strong Democratic Socialist) response to Carl's Nuclear Winter scenario,
with his Nuclear Spring--using the same data.
n a message dated 11/16/2000 3:20:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
amara@amara.com writes:
> From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@turbont.net>, Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:47:22
> -0500
>
> >Sagan was showboating buffoon who was doing memetic programming.
>
> Pretty strong words, Mike.
>
> I wonder if you've read his scientific papers, his popular
> works, seen his old Cosmos TV series, or met or worked with
> the fellow.
>
> Yes indeed, he had a particular agenda, which he promoted in
> various media.
>
> He also was a well-respected scientist by his peers.
> (try typing his name in NASA ADS to get an idea of the volume
> and breadth of his research)
>
> He ran a solid research department at Cornell.
>
> His TV series inspired a whole generation of astronomers.
>
> And believe it or not, he was a nice man too.
>
> I certainly would not call him a showboating buffoon.
>
> Amara
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:31:59 MST