There's one more video like this at Symphony of Science.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the lack of curiosity among people today; the tunnel vision we've all gotten, the feeling that we're all stuck wherever we are, and that's all there is. When I was younger, I remember there was more of a sense that man's destiny was inextricably linked to the universe, and that all of the answers to the important questions lay out there. I felt like there was hope for us in that, a perpetual future of quest and discovery, whereas we're all dead-enders if we think our lot in life ends here. I've been wondering where that feeling has gone, and why we aren't even asking those same questions anymore.
I think a big part of it is that we don't have guys like Carl Sagan around to teach us about why these things matter. (I like Bill Nye, but he doesn't invoke the same kind of wonder as Sagan did.) And I miss having people like that in our popular culture, people who are not just really smart, but who can connect these huge concepts to our everyday lives. Carl Sagan had a populist poetry about him, as you can hear in the video above - a way of putting things that put complex and intricate mathematical theories and laws into words we could not just understand, but feel.
He captured in words the way I always feel when I see this:
Credit: Larry Landolfi
That's a view you don't get in a city, or anywhere near one. I still remember the first time I saw our galaxy, sitting on Holden Beach in North Carolina, a private beach that's quiet during the day, and so still at night during summer that, with the waves gently breaking and a clear sky showing the Milky Way's majesty above you, there's nothing to do but sit and ponder your place in the universe. And the first time I saw that view, I sat in awe, staring at it for about four hours. It's impossible not to.
These days, as we all increasingly move to cities where we can't even see the stars, we no longer seem to have the time or desire to think about these things. And I miss that.
Today would have been Carl Sagan's 75th birthday.
I can't even enjoy reading science fiction anymore... you have to believe in a future, one that's interesting and different from the present or there's no purpose. Used to read tons of it, along with non-fiction by folks like Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardiner, John McPhee, Lewis Thomas, Stephen Gould, Doug Hofstadter, Rudy Rucker, and my hero, Carl Sagan. Since Sagan's death, it feels like we've entered a new era, one in which science only matters insofar as it produces new junk to market. It's a very depressing situation when no one is dreaming or asking big questions, putting things into new perspectives.
ReplyDeleteFor years I felt I was steadily gaining understanding, but I have to admit that, nowadays, I just don't understand much of anything at all.
I can't even enjoy reading science fiction anymore... you have to believe in a future, one that's interesting and different from the present or there's no purpose. Used to read tons of it, along with non-fiction by folks like Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardiner, John McPhee, Lewis Thomas, Stephen Gould, Doug Hofstadter, Rudy Rucker, and my hero, Carl Sagan. Since Sagan's death, it feels like we've entered a new era, one in which science only matters insofar as it produces new junk to market. It's a very depressing situation when no one is dreaming or asking big questions, putting things into new perspectives.
ReplyDeleteFor years I felt I was steadily gaining understanding, but I have to admit that, nowadays, I just don't understand much of anything at all.