Randi pretty much speaks for all of us here, I think. He certainly does for me.
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February 27th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Good commentary by Randi. Carl Sagan is one of my biggest heroes and/or role models. I used to watch Cosmos regularly when I was a little boy. My grandmother used to call me an “old soul” because at the age of 5, I explained to her what a “googol” is. I got that from an episode of Cosmos.
My love for astronomy has waxed and waned through the years. I had large pictures of the planets when I was 8 years old, I had weak telescope when I was about 10 years old. When I was 16, I set my alarm clock for 4am one morning to go outside in below freezing temperatures to watch a meteor shower.
It wasn’t until two years ago that I re-discovered Carl Sagan, and it rekindled my love for astronomy. I listened to Carl read his “Pale Blue Dot” excerpt over and over again, and it brought tears to my eyes every time. I went out and bought Pale Blue Dot, finished it in one sitting, then went out and bought Demon Haunted World.
I was so inspired by Carl Sagan that I resolved to go back to school and get a degree in Astronomy or Astrophysics (not much difference there, really.) Now, I’m taking 14 credits at a community college, I’ve dropped down to 3 days a week at work to make time for study, and I’ve taken out a home equity loan on my house to help pay for school. (It’s a late start, I’m 26 years old.)
All of this I attribute to Carl Sagan.
I’d like to thank Phil Plait and others for continuing to stoke the flames inside me and inspiring countless others to be more educated in science. Phil: You may not be the next Sagan, but you’re a pretty decent fill-in.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:31 am
This is the vide I told you about in one of my previous comments!
Carl Sagan died a little too early! His scientic work will remain in history for a long time! And the old man is right, our greatest enemy is ignorance, and right now this world is “choking” with it! It’s going to take something big to get us out of these dark ages of thought!
February 27th, 2009 at 7:53 am
That’s a great story Jack… congratulations on your new career choice!
February 27th, 2009 at 8:25 am
That was like one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. In seven short minutes, we got a history lesson, a science lecture, and an amusing anecdote, and for dessert I learned a new word.. sonorous. Thanks Carl and James!
February 27th, 2009 at 9:04 am
This was a great video by Randi and he perfectly put my thougts about Carl Sagan into words!
I also miss Carl Sagan! He was my childhood hero. I watched Cosmos when I was hmm, 10 or so, I cant even remember, it has been so long. It was an awesome series and Carl Sagans presentation made it very memorable.
5 years ago I wrote a short essay about him in an online journal I had back then. In it, I spoke a lot about how great a teacher he was and how much he inspired me (I used very simillar words to James Randi, actually).
A very smart and pretty woman read that journal entry, wrote back to me and we spent many, many hours talking about science, Cosmos, etc. She has been my wife now for more than 3 years.
So Carl Sagan keeps affecting my life in more than one way, every day.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I remember the impact that Cosmos had when it first aired, and wonder if and when it might happen again. Society seems to be growing darker and darker when it comes to science and understanding the natural world. During the past ten years of the internet age, I have seen how ignorance thrives out there, something I never knew existed before then.
Thank you Carl Sagan, James Randi, and Phil Plaitt, and all the unsung heroes that continue to shed light into the darkness…
February 27th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I first got to hear of Prof. Carl Sagan when he presented a series of lectures on “The Planets” at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, back in late 1977, which was broadcast on BBC TV, here in the U.K.
It was from then on, when I was nearly 15 years’ of age, that I began to think skeptically of “Life, the Universe, and Everything”, and even more so after watching Carl Sagan’s excellent Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series, back in 1981, which was also broadcast on BBC TV.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Yeah, he speaks form me as well. In some of what he says, BTW, lies the reason why I hate so much the movie Contact with all its mystical mumbo-jumbo in the end. What a betrayal to a man such as Sagan! What. A. Betrayal!
February 27th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[Rant]
Much to my disappointment, the BBC has not bothered to repeat Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series. WTF am I paying my bloody TV licence for, then?!
[/Rant]
February 27th, 2009 at 9:31 am
I agree with all of the positive things stated by Randi and others about Carl Sagan, but I feel that we shouldn’t forget Sagan’s singular – but very large – negative blow to the perception of science and scientists before the Gulf war. As many will recall, Sagan held high profile interviews and news conferences in which he made dire predictions – stated with complete certitude – of global catastrophe if Kuwaiti oil wells were to burn as a consequence of US intervention. The problem is that he wrapped his predictions in the cover of science when in fact it seemed to many that they were based more on his politics.
When the Iraqis set many more wells ablaze than Sagan predicted, and no major catastrophe followed, the result was a lasting public impression that much of what scientists say is more politically motivated than they are objective statements of science. To this day the right-wingers portray science and scientists this way when they dismiss scientific studies relating to global warming, sex education, etc., and Carl Sagan – unfortunately – provided the clearest example of politics posing as science to serve as their ammunition.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I’m a late comer to the Sagan train. I was raised in a young earth creationist religion, sent to church schools from 1-12th grade, and with only a semester of public college under my belt ended up largely out of school for the last 15 years. Somewhere in high-school I gained a bit of doubt, and developed a bit of skepticism, but it wasn’t until the last 4-5 years that I did anything about them (for lack of better excuse, I took Pascal’s wager and led my life and attended church with my wife and kids).
Somewhere along the way a creationist friend asked me how “so many smart people could be wrong about the age of the earth” and after hearing myself spew back the usual twaddle that passes for creationist logic, and thinking it didn’t sound all that logical, I realized I hadn’t looked at both sides. The punk rock me told me to look into it, and in the spirit of Will Hunting I plunged into the library’s collection of books on religion, science, and evolution. Somewhere relatively early on I checked out stumbled into Hawking’s Brief History of Time, and after he explained the big bang to me in such a lucid way I delved into Sagan’s Cosmos DVD’s and fell in love with the elegant logic and tone of it all.
I now keep a copy of his “Reflections on a Mote of Dust” hanging in my office and have started having my son watch Cosmos as part of his “Class from Dad” school work.
February 27th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Jeff: Carl may have been too pessimistic about the oil well fires effects, but I can attest to the environmental damage from the oil dumped into the Persian gulf.( It gets very little media coverage because who cares about those danged Arabs anyway?).
The Persian gulf receives insufficient fresh water flow to enable expulsion of the contaminated water to the Arabian sea. Thus it may well take centuries for bacterial reduction of the contamination to occur. In the meantime, water purification systems are compromised, requiring the continual replacement of filters and subsequent increase in the cost per gallon fresh water. Fish taken from the gulf are oil contaminated, but people eat them anyway. The Saudi population has exploded since 1973 and the Kingdom has to provide for its people however it can. There are very powerful cultural reasons they haven’t been able to reduce their population growth, stemming from their historical (before the advent of oil income) high infant mortality rates. Most of that money was not readily available to the general population until after the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Since then, with socialized medical care and decent diets, they have most of their young surviving to maturity. It typically requires several generations to modify old ways to a more modern expectation of survival rates. I just hope they can successfully educate their young to embrace birth control.
Gary 7
February 27th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I also really enjoy Sagan’s work, and share some of Randi’s concerns.
For example, if you substitute the words ‘CEOs’ for ‘witches’ in the video you have an accurate representation of the economic thinking going on in Washington right now.
Also, if you substitute ‘AGW Deniers’ for witches you have an accurate representation of what passes for scientific thinking in many College departments of natural sciences.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
After a lot of self censorship, I still have to say @ Jim Howard’s post.
Highly unlikely. Both things. Far more people had been told to shuddup and quit yapping about that “AGW crap no one serious believes in” than have people had consequences speaking about evil Jewish Communist Martian Freemason conspiracy to scare people with Global Warming myth.
And of course, it was evil socialist requlations and populist measures that caused the Housing Bubble, not stock market speculations and litteral gambling with derivatives.
Dont listen to me please, I’m just another European-Jewloving-godless communist and America basher.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Gary: I don’t disagree with you about the damage caused to people and the environment. But Sagan stated without reservation that the burning of the Kuwaiti oil wells would lead to the equivalent of a “nuclear winter”. The problem is that at that time in his career he was working as a political activist (and a very commendable one) while also wearing his scientist hat. That blurring of roles has proved to be very damaging to the perception of science to the point where much of the public (and right-wing radio) now presume all scientific claims are tainted by political agendas.
All I want to point out is that it is important for scientists to educate policy makers and the general public, but blurring the line between statements of science and statements of political opinion will only undermine the role of science in public policy.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
@Jim Howard:
Are you honestly equating being hanged and burned at the stake with how the public feels about CEOs?
If so, I don’t see how any reasonable person can have a discussion with you.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Remember Sagan’s tussle with Apple?
“In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name “Carl Sagan,” in honor of the astronomer.
Though the project name was strictly internal and never used in public marketing, when Sagan learned of this internal usage, he sued Apple Computer to use a different project name – other projects had names like “Cold fusion” and “Piltdown Man”, and he was displeased at being associated with what he considered pseudoscience.
Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway, renaming the project “BHA” (Butthead Astronomer). Sagan sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule. Sagan lost this lawsuit as well; still, the 7100 saw another name change: it was now called “LAW” (Lawyers Are Wimps). ”
I think he mentioned his error regarding the Kuwaiti oil well prediction in one of his books as an example of how science self-corrects.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
My first thought when I saw the headline was “How does Randi know out about my son? Oh, THAT Sagan!” (yes, there is a 7-year old named Sagan running around)
February 27th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I’ve learned about Sagan’s work since 2 years or so from Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I’ve read his books and enjoyed them thoroughly. Some of the best books that I’ve read. I can never be grateful enough for the internet. I’d not be half of where I’m today without the internet. I’ve had this blog on my Google reader for over a year now and it’s quite a place. Well deserved award from Time.com.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
That was a great commentary. Randi’s laments of losing all the heros of science is a good one, and I’m glad HE is still around. Sagan was a spark that lit a lot of young fuses, his vision endures.
I remember when Sagan died seeing him on the front page of the newspaper and I was excited to see him there, before I read the article I knew he had died (knowing he had been ill for some time)
I suspect the BBC (as well as PBS) doesn’t replay them because they are in fact copyrighted works and sadly for whatever reasons the copyright holders have decided not to replay them in that venue. I actually think it would be better if they were made public domain and reaired for a new generation. With cable and the plethora of entertainment choices would today’s up and coming students find inspiration with a reairing? I’m not sure, I’d like to see though.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Jeff: Too bad scientists are only human, instead of superhuman mutants, free of mistakes and ego, intent upon ruling the world (for its own good of course).
I vaguely recall some of the hysteria over the oil field burns, since I was there at the time however, it made little impact to those of us working in Arabia. After all, Saudi Arabia had for decades been burning off gas from their fields. It had only one detectable(weather) effect in all that time,,,it contributed to smog in L.A.. Seriously, the smoke was detected in LA, carried by stratospheric winds nearly 12,000 miles,,,
They didn’t even begin to curtail their burn off until some bright entrepreneur pointed out to the King(in 1977), he could make money liquifying/selling the gas constituents(propane, pentane, methane, etc).
That had just never occurred to them.
Gary 7
February 27th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
My response to this blog: Ideas That Will Never Grow Old: Randi on Sagan
Thanks for the video Phil…(Your blog rules)
February 27th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I played that very same Carl Sagan speech that Randi quotes today to 2 of my astronomy club members in my truck. It’s on the Point Of Inquiry podcast episode that lists Ann Druyan as the interviewee and is dated 9/15/06. Audio was a little hissy, but the content was superb!
The “combustible mix of ignorance & power” part was absolutely prescient. It describes George W. Bush to a T!
Carl gets to say “I told you so!”
February 28th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Fantastic video! I’m a latecomer – I only saw Cosmos at the beginning of last year, and started reading his books around then – but Sagan has still been one of the most influential figures in my life. It’s because of him that I finally decided to turn my lifelong fascination with science in to a career, and that I’m now at uni doing a Bachelor of Science (majoring in geology, hoping to get in to planetary science). So yeah, definitely a very strong influence, and a true inspiration. The world is poorer without him.
February 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Like a lot of you here, I’ve Sagan to thank for jump-starting my interest in science. I read his “Demon-Haunted World” and “Cosmos” in my freshman year of college, and those two books inspired me to try out the ‘majors-only’ biology course rather than the general education one that I normally would have taken as a linguistics major.
Four years later, and I’m typing this in a hotel room in a city across the country from my hometown, relaxing after having just finished my interviews for a Ph.D. in neuroscience. If not for his works, I would undoubtedly not be here; he has literally changed my life. Say what you will about his personality or his scientific ability, but do not say that he has not contributed to science. I know there are many others my age who went into science after they first discovered Sagan.
Still, I wish I would have met him or seen him, or even known about him before he died. He passed away when I was barely out of elementary school.
February 28th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
An uncle bought me a copy of Cosmos when it was first published. Carl Sagan inspired critical thinking in an eight year old fundamentalist baptist private school. (got my ass whipped for it by the principal, no less!) I still have that book, warped and dogeared, the pages stiff and the spine brittle after over a quarter century. It was confiscated, twice; once by that grade school principal, once by a science teacher at another christian private high school. I stole it back, without inhibition or remorse. (Sagan didn’t teach me that, I learned that in school) It may be the only possession I treasure sentimentally. I didn’t follow into science, but my life changed significantly as a direct result of Carl Sagan’s life and work.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
@Jeff and others commenting on the Iraq oil well fires,
Four paragraphs copied from. Pages 256-257. The most relevant part is the second half of the third paragraph, but the context is useful.
Being human, scientists also sometimes engage in observational selection: they like to remember those cases where they’ve been right and forget when they’ve been wrong. But in many instances, what is “wrong” is partly right, or stimulates others to find out what’s right. One of the most productive astrophysicists of our time has been Fred Hoyle, responsible for monumental contributions to our understanding of the evolution of stars, the synthesis of the chemical elements, cosmology, and much else. Sometimes he’s succeeded by being right before anyone else even understood that there was something that needed explaining. Sometimes he’s succeeded by being wrong–by being so provocative, by suggesting such outrageous alternatives that the observers and experimentalists feel obliged to check it out. The impassioned and concerted effort to “prove Fred wrong” has sometimes failed and sometimes succeeded. In almost every case, it has pushed forward the frontiers of knowledge. Even Hoyle at his most outrageous–for example, proposing that the influenza and HIV viruses are dropped down on Earth from comets, and that interstellar dust grains are bacteria–has led to significant advances in knowledge (although turning up nothing to support those particular notions).
It might be useful for scientists now and again to list some of their mistakes. It might play an instructive role in illuminating and demythologizing the process of science and in enlightening younger scientists. Even Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Albert Einstein made serious mistakes. But the scientific enterprise arranges things so that teamwork prevails: What one of us, even the most brilliant among us, misses, another of us, even someone much less celebrated and capable, may detect and rectify.
For myself, I’ve tended in past books to recount some of the occasions when I’ve been right. Let me mention a few of the cases where I’ve been wrong: At a time when no spacecraft had been to Venus, I thought at first that the atmospheric pressure was several times that on Earth, rather than many tens of times. I thought the clouds of Venus were made mostly of water, when they turn out to be only 25 percent water. I thought there might be plate tectonics on Mars, when close-up spacecraft observations now show hardly a hint of plate tectonics. I thought the highish infrared temperatures of Titan might be due to a sizable greenhouse effect there; instead, it turns out, it is caused by a stratospheric temperature inversion. Just before Iraq torched the Kuwaiti oil wells in January 1991, I warned that so much smoke might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia; as events transpired, it was pitch black at noon and the temperatures dropped 4 – 6 degrees C over the Persian Gulf, but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared. I did not sufficiently stress the uncertainty of the calculations.
Different scientists have different speculative styles, some being much more cautious than others. As long as new ideas are testable and scientists are not overly dogmatic, no harm is done; indeed considerable progress can be made. In the first four instances I’ve just mentioned where I was wrong, I was trying to understand a distant world from a few clues in the absence of thorough spacecraft investigations. In the natural course of planetary exploration more data come in, and we find an army of old ideas plowed down by an armamentarium of new facts.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Sorry, copied from The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan.