Carl Sagan

[Sphere]

Carl Sagan gets his own thread for obvious reasons.





Calling him just a popularizer of science is to do him injustice. He was nothing short of a poet. Has anyone really picked up his torch when it comes to sharing the aesthetic of the natural world and the science we use to investigate it? Dawkins, Hawkings and De Grasse Tyson have tried, but I think they all fall short of Sagan in this regard.

[Agent Miles]

I watched Carl Sagan when he was a guest on The Tonight Show. He gave Johnny Carson a telescope and got him (and a generation of Americans) interested in space exploration. The first probes to the planets carried cameras because Sagan wanted to show the public what Venus and Mercury really looked like (NASA thought that this was a waste of payload). I don’t kow how many times I have watched every episode of Cosmos. Sagan was more than an engaging scientist…he was cool.

[Gaidin]

Many have picked up his torch of promoting scientific literacy. Whether you think they'll go as far or as fast as him is pretty moot. They've picked it up, and they've run with it. De Grasse Tyson has done the best of those following in his footsteps though.

[irontaino]

Many have picked up his torch of promoting scientific literacy. Whether you think they'll go as far or as fast as him is pretty moot. They've picked it up, and they've run with it. De Grasse Tyson has done the best of those following in his footsteps though.

Bill Nye deserves an honorable mention for promoting science to younger people.

[Sphere]

Bill Nye deserves an honorable mention for promoting science to younger people.

He slipped my mind, but yeah I think he might be the closest. Though he isn't quite as elegant as Sagan was.

[caratacus]

Saw this thread and just wanted to comment that like many others, I think this man contributed a great deal in his lifetime on Earth. He had a tremendous ability to explain scientific concepts and an understandable way and instill in others a thirst for knowledge about the Universe around them. I believe that if humans do have a purpose, it is to learn and attempt to understand our planet and how it fits into the Cosmos and then perhaps someday we might be able to touch the beard of the one who created it. metaphorically speaking of course.

Carl Sagan certainly went some way in illuminating the path of knowledge for many people and although his time on Earth has gone now, I'm sure somewhere in a parallel universe he is still teaching others to appreciate what they themselves are part of, the stuff of stars.

[Sphere]

And FYI, posting a message in this thread without including a Sagan clip or pic is frowned upon.

[Gaidin]

And FYI, posting a message in this thread without including a Sagan clip or pic is frowned upon.

Good god man, no need to turn it from a discussion to hero worship. Let's avoid doing with Sagan the very thing we constantly get accused of doing with Dawkins. You want a discussion? Fine. But we don't need to add a picture or video to the (soon to be) shrine every time someone says something. Keep doing this and this thread will be better placed in Ethos because it's no longer science. If it ever was in the first place.

Proceed to frown.

[Denny Crane!]

Good god man, no need to turn it from a discussion to hero worship. Let's avoid doing with Sagan the very thing we constantly get accused of doing with Dawkins. You want a discussion? Fine. But we don't need to add a picture or video to the (soon to be) shrine every time someone says something. Keep doing this and this thread will be better placed in Ethos because it's no longer science. If it ever was in the first place.

Proceed to frown.

Wow. Taking this a tad to serious aren't you...

[Gaidin]

Wow. Taking this a tad to serious aren't you...

This thread doesn't have enough snark in it for me to default to sarcasm from the beginning, and thus I treat it as a normal thread and it has a certain relative seriousness to it.

Live with it or start posting jokes at Sagan's expense.

[Denny Crane!]

This thread doesn't have enough snark in it for me to default to sarcasm from the beginning, and thus I treat it as a normal thread and it has a certain relative seriousness to it.

Live with it or start posting jokes at Sagan's expense.

Jokes at Sagans expense? Oh no might we impeach the character of mighty Sagan. Incredible. Seriously Gaidin...Thread ruined congrats.

[Caduet]

Good god man, no need to turn it from a discussion to hero worship. Let's avoid doing with Sagan the very thing we constantly get accused of doing with Dawkins. You want a discussion? Fine. But we don't need to add a picture or video to the (soon to be) shrine every time someone says something. Keep doing this and this thread will be better placed in Ethos because it's no longer science. If it ever was in the first place.

Proceed to frown.

[B. W.]

I actually met Carl Sagan once and had the priviledge of shaking his hand. He gave a presentation at the university I was attending about his plans for a space habitat. Remarkably, only a handful of students showed up (about nine), but it didn't diminish his enthusiam. He talked about it for about two hours and afterwards we got to have a personal exchange.

The space habitat he presented was something wondrous. It was a transparent sphere with an endless stream flowing around its interior surface with structures situated alongside it. I told him it would make a great setting for a sci-fi book and he said that would be a great idea. In fact, I think there have been several sci-fi novels with his creation in it. At the time it was obvious (at least to me) that the engineering hurdles, not to mention the cost, would be too great for my generation to even attempt. Perhaps in the future mankind might be able to build something akind to it. If we do, I hope they remember Sagan.

[Darkragnar]

And FYI, posting a message in this thread without including a Sagan clip or pic is frowned upon.

[Denny Crane!]

No pale blue dot youtube vid?

Shame on you all.



Oh and am I the only one who can't watch Cosmos without falling asleep? Because I swear its a combination of his voice and the trippy basey music.

[Kaukas]

I like this a lot, though it sounds like some new age stuff more than it usually does.

Also Cosmos should be shown at school. Also in English and Cooking classes.

[Sphere]

Hey Gaidin ....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But really, have a look at the Richard Feynman thread. The hero-worship/elitism is just a running gag. You are right that it is inappropriate, but that's what makes it amusing.

[Armatus]

These days a social group has much greater posterity than a thread, giving the group moderator some control over what gets posted and what hits the recycle bin.

I have COSMOS on dvd, still need to watch the whole thing, I can only recall fleeting bits of it when I younger.

Perhaps in the future mankind might be able to build something akind to it. If we do, I hope they remember Sagan.

We're getting there with the international space station, but first we have to put Aston Kutcher into space.

[Lord Rahl]

A neighbor's dog is named Sagan, after Carl Sagan. I also have been known to do a good impersonation of Carl Sagan that I sometimes use on Xbox Live to talk to idiot kids. If y'all didn't know, a new Cosmos movie is being made with new visuals and new discoveries. The narrator will be De Grasse Tyson.

Also,

[Armatus]

Then went from idol worship to sacrilege lol... I hate to laugh, but damn... I like 'em Round and BIG