№ 747. Carl Sagan & Science

“Science is more than a body of knowledge.

 

It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.” 

― Carl Sagan

Note Bene:

"Science is looking for a conclusion for explain their evidence, and religion is looking for evidence to support their conclusion." --- a misguided fool.

I think about them, therefore, they exist.

№ 381. Forecast for Our Dust Mote

This excerpt from Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.

"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."
--- Carl Sagan

№ 139. The Deep Space Between My Ears

"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan said. But don't the little things matter, too? Quite often?

Nonsense, unfiltered streams of thoughts, silent turns, rests, unaffected gestures of the mind sandwich the meaty questions of existence. And they occupy vast chunks of our wakefulness.

Methinks, the questions don't have to weigh a kilo. A variety of levity and gravity is a healthy salad for the life of a mind.

But has anyone ever measured whether pondering the cosmos really requires more brain watts than just cracking a knock-knock joke, assuming all things being equal? Should Economics play an essential part in the finite time we have? Does each of us have a limited allowance of brain power in our lifetime and, therefore, should budget it well? Is this a moral imperative?

"What does the fox say?" 194, 894,701 views and still counting.

Deep? Nah. Weird. Kinda. Very rough assumption: 3.35% (194, 894,701 divided by 6 Billion) of the planet's population spent about three minutes of their finite time to watch the youtube hit.

Unexpected? Yes! Why did this video go viral? I dunno.

My dear Watson, the realities outside don't have to fit the architectures and spaces (norms and expectations) we build inside our minds. Heck, they don't even have to make sense at all.

So why is it important again to make our world significant? Why even wrestle with brave questions? Why draw deep answers to risk deep vein thrombosis or maybe a slap of Lady Gaga's ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding?

Can't I just wallow in silly fox questions and get instant popularity in virtual reality? I can make tons of money off it. Maybe. And use 3.35% of the dough to kicktstart a green revolution in my backward community. Significant?