Carl Sagan's Pale blue dot image., page 1
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Topic started on 17-2-2009 @ 01:11 PM by karl 12
Great short film featuring Carl Sagan discussing NASA's famous
'pale blue dot' photograph of planet earth (image towards end of video).


As philosophers go,I think this man was truly ahead of his time:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every 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".
Carl Sagan



Photograph of planet Earth taken by Voyager 1 which was 4 billion miles away:



"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 in 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 the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. 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 is up to us.
Carl Sagan".



[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]


reply posted on 17-2-2009 @ 02:16 PM by SLAYER69
reply to post by nerbot




Yeah I'm sure " Billions and Billions " have viewed the series by now.
He was very far forward thinking I miss him.


[edit on 17-2-2009 by SLAYER69]



reply posted on 17-2-2009 @ 04:22 PM by gimme_some_truth
Oh yes, Ive seen that picture before and it NEVER ceases to amaze me. It just shows that we truly are nothing compared to the vastness that is the whole universe.

Yet we keep fighting as it says" To momentarily be the master of a fraction of a dot"

For what its worth I have another video here that is similar and I enjoy it very much. its another great video none the less.



These two videos are so deep and amazing. I see those images of our tiny little dot that is a planet then I look out at our sky and think, if something so tiny and insignificat looking as earth looks in those pics can have life, I just know that there is all kinds of wonderfull and beautiful life out there some where.



[edit on 17-2-2009 by gimme_some_truth]


reply posted on 17-2-2009 @ 04:49 PM by karl 12
Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Oh yes, Ive seen that picture before and it NEVER ceases to amaze me. It just shows that we truly are nothing compared to the vastness that is the whole universe.



Thanks for the replies,the image is a truly humbling one and it certainly makes one wonder.

GST-thats a great short film vid,thanks for posting! Towards the end of the vid,Carl Sagan makes a very pertinent point about healthy scepticism - its probably more relevant nowadays than ever.

As for the sheer size and scale of cosmos its interesting that a recent German super-computer has now estimated theres a mindbogglingly incomprehensible 540 billion galaxies in the universe (each containing 10 to 100 billion stars) - it makes my head hurt just thinking about it.
Cheers.


[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]


reply posted on 17-2-2009 @ 06:17 PM by mattguy404
reply to post by wylekat



I think the lines are sunlight. Apparently it was taken through several filters, and from 4 or something billion miles away.

Definitely puts everything into perspective, everyone fighting wars, arguing about religion, worried about money, they just need to sit down and think if it's all really worth it.


reply posted on 17-2-2009 @ 07:27 PM by Anonymous ATS


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