The Pale Blue Dot

[the pampas bull]

I recently came across this little poem (?) from Carl Sagan, and I have to say it's possibly the most inspiring thing I've ever read. Every human being should hear this.

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.

[thing]

Very moving. I have a copy of Sagan's 'The Cosmos'. The guy was a scientist but a visionary as well.

[John]

Yes it's good that - put things in perspective !.

John

[Talitha]

Iirc, the text was taken from a speech Carl gave at Cornell University.. got it on my iPod. Very soothing to hear his voice while I'm observing.

I read somewhere that our Pale Blue Dot is less than one pixel on the image.. perspective, indeed.

[timetraveller]

Profound words of wisdom from someone who truly understood the journey in which we all partake and of our hopes dreams and ambitions and more importantly of our responsibilities for each other and for this little blue marble which is our only home regards Pete

[Psychobilly]

I still get my daily fix of the "music from the Cosmos" listen to it every day...

Billy...

[vincentnm]

Pale Blue Dot is a wonderful read. It had a rather strange reaction on me - made me depressed. It made me realise what we would lose if we continue the way we are headed. I wish this was made prescribed reading.

[kniclander]

I love pale blue dot and Cosmos is a great book.

Anyone recommend any other Sagan books?

Dan

[StarMan1701]

I'm currently reading 'Comet', (co-written with Ann Druyan), again. Interesting book...

Lee.