Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space in Atheists and Skeptics

Jul 31, 2014 Stefany GG rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, inspirational, sci-div

Carl Sagan es, sin duda, uno de los más grandes comunicadores de ciencia de todos los tiempos. Es mucho su legado y mucho lo que nos enseña. Esta es la segunda vez que lo leo y sigue siendo alucinante y esclarecedor. Es difícil de describir el impacto que tienen en mí cada una de sus obras.
Una lectura obligada para cualquier persona que quiere una perspectiva diferente y educada. Su promoción de la ciencia nos contagia con su visión y no nada más científicamente hablando sino también a ser mejo ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Robu-sensei rated it really liked it

Shelves: skepticism, astronomy, library-books, 2011

In this late work, the visionary Carl Sagan holds forth on the present (as of 1994) and future of space exploration. In the first several chapters, the soft-spoken skeptic puts us in our place, literally. The book begins with some of the most profound and lyrical prose from any science writer, ever. Here is part of his reflections on a photo beamed back from Voyager 1, out past Pluto, in which the Earth is seen as a minuscule, baby-blue point:

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. Tha

In this late work, the visionary Carl Sagan holds forth on the present (as of 1994) and future of space exploration. In the first several chapters, the soft-spoken skeptic puts us in our place, literally. The book begins with some of the most profound and lyrical prose from any science writer, ever. Here is part of his reflections on a photo beamed back from Voyager 1, out past Pluto, in which the Earth is seen as a minuscule, baby-blue point:

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," ever "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of duct 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 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.

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.

Within a few paragraphs, Dr. Sagan both subjects us to a dose of the Total Perspective Vortex and demolishes the most dearly held prejudices and misconceptions about scientists and the nonreligious. It is not scientists and freethinkers who believe that the entire vast Universe was created for the benefit of one species of one planet among countless trillions.

After this phenomenal beginning, the book winds down to a very well written but rather unexciting description of discoveries made by old and (then) new space probes, from Venera and Viking to Voyager and Galileo, with speculation (which, alas, falls short of predicting the wonders we have since seen) about the upcoming Cassini/Huygens mission. If you're too young to remember the fantastic image beamed back from Voyager 1 and 2, or didn't follow the coverage in the late 70s and early 80s, the middle section of the book recreates some of the excitement of viewing these detailed photos of the outer planets for the first time; but the seasoned space buff will find little that's new. One prominent exception is the author's description of his own research, mainly on the composition of Titan's atmosphere. I'll have to go back and reread some of the news from Cassini/Huygens to see how well his predictions held.

I'd like to think that Dr. Sagan's timeline for human exploration of the Solar System and beyond is accurate; but I do not share his optimism. ...more

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Feb 04, 2012 R rated it it was amazing

I wonder if there lived anyone before and after Carl who could write about science with such poetry. This book is a statement for humanity, the Universe and everyone in it.

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Mar 22, 2011 David S. T. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, science

I picked this book up back in 1996 when it was first released in paperback, I got it back then because it was full of pictures of stars and the planets (sadly it seems that all of the recent reprints only have the text and which leaves out half of the story). I spent many hours looking at the photos, but it wasn't until now that I actually got around to reading it, I'm glad I waited, I'm not sure how much I would have appreciated it 15 years ago. The books spends time talking about (1)astronomy, I picked this book up back in 1996 when it was first released in paperback, I got it back then because it was full of pictures of stars and the planets (sadly it seems that all of the recent reprints only have the text and which leaves out half of the story). I spent many hours looking at the photos, but it wasn't until now that I actually got around to reading it, I'm glad I waited, I'm not sure how much I would have appreciated it 15 years ago. The books spends time talking about (1)astronomy, its history,, the planets and the voyager probes, (2) philosophy, religion, climate change and mankind, and (3) the future of space exploration.

The astronomy part was very informative and well done. I'm sure by now its getting a little dated, for example when this book was written we knew way less about extra solar system planets than we do today or Pluto was still a planet. He also talks a bunch about future NASA missions, many of which are taking place now (such as new horizons). Much of the information is still relevant and very interesting, such as how they discovered the conditions on Venus and how different it was from previous expectations, or the various history lessons such as how we got from the geocentric mindset to realizing just how vast the cosmos is.

The religious parts are probably where this book will be the most offensive to a theist, unlike some other atheist authors, he doesn't just go on assaults on people of religion, but from his perspective the huge vastness of space makes it very hard for him to believe that there is a deity which is ultra concerned with an individual species. He has some pretty great parts about how rare life is in our solar system, so far its only been confirmed on one planet, and so we should cherish, accept one another and take care of the planet.

This book is pretty great all around, it makes me appreciate life and what we have here. It provides a bunch of science which was highly interesting and its a book that I plan to read again very soon. As for the edition itself, I think its worthwhile looking around to find the older editions which include the pictures. ...more

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