From: Larry Klaes (lklaes@bbn.com)
Date: Mon Dec 20 1999 - 12:55:32 MST
>X-Envelope-To: <carlsagan@craigerware.avalon.net>
>X-Lotus-FromDomain: CWB
>Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 13:39:18 CST6CDT,4,1,0,7200,10,-1,0,10800,3600
>X-OldDate: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 13:38:02 -0600
>Sender: carlsagan-owner <carlsagan-owner@craigerware.avalon.net>
>Reply-To: "Carl Sagan List" <carlsagan@cwe.cx>
>From: "Greg Loeb" <Greg_Loeb@cwb.ca>
>To: carlsagan@craigerware.avalon.net
>Subject: Sagan: Carl Sagan quote of the...?
>
>
> " If you lived two or three millennia ago, there was no shame in holding
that
>the Universe was made for us. It was an appealing thesis consistent with
>everything we knew; it was what the most learned among us taught without
>qualification. But we have found out much since then. Defending such a
position
>today amounts to wilful disregard of the evidence, and a flight from
>self-knowledge.
>
> Still, for many of us, these deprovincializations rankle. Even if they
do not
>fully carry the day, they erode confidence - unlike the happy anthropocentric
>certitudes, rippling with social unity, of an earlier age. We long to be here
>for a purpose, even though, despite much self-deception, none is evident.
"The
>meaningless absurdity of life," wrote Leo Tolstoy, "is the only incontestable
>knowledge accessible to man." Our time is burdened under the cumulative
weight
>of successive debunkings of our conceits: We're Johnny-come-latelies. We
live in
>the cosmic boondocks. We emerged from microbes and muck. Apes are our
cousins.
>Our thoughts and feelings are not fully under our own control. There may
be much
>smarter and very different beings elsewhere. And on top of all this, we're
>making a mess of our planet and becoming a danger to ourselves.
>
> The trapdoor beneath our feet swings open. We find ourselves in bottomless
>free fall. We are lost in a great darkness, and there's no one to send our a
>search party. Given so harsh a reality, of course we're tempted to shut
our eyes
>and pretend that we're safe and snug at home, that the fall is only a bad
dream.
>
> We lack consensus about our place in the Universe. There is no generally
>agreed upon long-term vision of the goal of our species - other than,
perhaps,
>simple survival. Especially when times are hard, we become desperate for
>encouragement, unreceptive to the litany of great demotions and dashed hopes,
>and much more willing to hear that we're special, never mind if the
evidence is
>paper-thin. If it takes a little myth and ritual to get us through a night
that
>seems endless, who among us cannot sympathize and understand?
>
> But if our objective is deep knowledge rather than shallow reassurance, the
>gains from this new perspective far outweigh the losses. Once we overcome our
>fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome
>Universe that utterly dwarfs - in time, in space, and in potential - the tidy
>anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors. We gaze across billions of light
>years of space to view the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, and plumb the
>fine structure of matter. We peer down into the core of our planet, and the
>blazing interior of our star. We read the genetic language in which is
written
>the diverse skills and propensities of every being on Earth. We uncover
hidden
>chapters in the record of our own origins, and with some anguish better
>understand our nature and prospects. We invent and refine agriculture,
without
>which almost all of us would starve to death. We create medicines and
vaccines
>that save the lives of billions. We communicate at the speed of light, and
whip
>around the Earth in an hour and a half. We have sent dozens of ships to more
>than seventy worlds, and four spacecraft to the stars. We are right to
rejoice
>in our accomplishments, to be proud that our species has been able to see so
>far, and to judge our merit in part by the very science that has so
deflated our
>pretensions. "
>
>"Pale Blue Dot" - Ch: A Universe Not Made For Us - (1994)
>
>
>
>-=============================================================-
>-= Send all help/info requests to: =-
>-= carlsagan-owner@cwe.cx =-
>-=-----------------------------------------------------------=-
>-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE: =-
>-= Message To: carlsagan-request@cwe.cx =-
>-= Subject: <blank> =-
>-= Body: unsubscribe (or unsubscribe carlsagan-digest) =-
>-=-----------------------------------------------------------=-
>-= Carl Sagan Mailing List Home Page =-
>-= http://frontpage.lightspeed.net/rcbloom =-
>-=-----------------------------------------------------------=-
>-= This list provided courtesy of CraigerWare Enterprises =-
>-= http://www.cwe.cx/ =-
>-= Custom software, internet hosting, and the kitchen sink! =-
>-=============================================================-
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:06:09 MST