Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Pale Blue Dot

This is topic Pale Blue Dot in forum Grist for the Mill at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

I would like to invite you all to read something Carl Sagan wrote on a photo Voyager 1 sent back from the edge of our system a good 20+ years ago. The image shows a pale blue dot, that is Earth, set against the wide expanse of space.

quote:
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.

Professor Sagan's words continues. They are memorable and speak volumes of what type of species we are and how we are at a crossroads. Are we a one planet wonder? Is this world the only one we are destined to hold? Or are we a galactic specimen, meant to explore, grow, and thrive among the billions of stars that dominate our night sky?

Here is the rest of Carl Sagan's essay titled, Pale Blue Dot

edit to add - I would like to ask permission of Kathleen to post the remainder of Prof Sagan's essay. This is a third of it and I'm sure the good astronomer and philosopher for the betterment of mankind would not have objected that it be seen by as many people as possible.

[This message has been edited by snapper (edited May 16, 2011).]

Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :

Beautiful as Sagan's words are I'm sure they are still under copyright. The link works fine.

Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :

A little off topic, but have you seen the autotune song that was made by compiling clips from Carl Sagan's various specials (Cosmos) mostly.

I am on my mobile so I can't post a link. I like it for its creativity and because of the words of Carl Sagan that they chose.