Have you ever seen/heard Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" and do you think it made you a better person?

…... we are all very special to live in a time when we could learn enough to appreciate this ’ pale blue dot’!

Pale Blue Dot is actually a book. I don’t know if that video was an excerpt or a summary, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Carl Sagan was one of the good ones. Carl made me a better person as far as I’m concerned.

@drdoombot

yea, this paticular piece is taken from his cosmos series i believe. it was probably edited down for tv.

I wouldn’t go that far but it does put things in perspective

As far as I’m concerned it’s just an eloquent explanation of things most people already know or should know.

I worked under the same roof as Sagan for several years. He was a brilliant astronomer and a gifted popularizer of astronomy and cosmology.

He was a scumbag socially; he cheated on his first wife with his secretary at The Smithsonian Astrophysical Obeservatory in Cambridge (where I was doing research -we used to look out the window and see them sneaking off together at lunchtime); he then ditched wife #1 and married the secretary. Then he cheated on wife #2 with the producer/director, co-write of the Cosmos series and Contact; he then married her (Ann Druyan).

@gailcalled I thought we were talking about the ‘pale blue dot’. Using your rationale, Einstein was what…..?

I know nothing about Einstein. I did know something about Sagan; I have always found public idols who have non-traditional private lives to be worth pondering.

And, that five minute video was not representative of the book.

(What’s with all the…‘s?)

@gailcalled what a small world.

I dont think any piece of writing can make you a better person. Being a better person depends entirely on your own actions. Reading it can make you realize something but doing something about it makes you a better person.

I think it puts things into perspective. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it made me break down and start shivering. In fact, I hate when people say lame things like that. It takes the whole hyperbole thing way too far in an unrealistic fashion. I don’t like being that guy but it just annoys me when I see people say those things because I guarantee it didn’t do that. Maybe I’m just having a bad night. Who knows.

It is interesting though nonetheless. All we know, all we study in books and learn about in movies, all the vast history our planet has, is just a pale blue dot from the perspective of planets light years away who have their own rich history. It makes you think, definitely does.

Yes.

@Parrappa

well, thats no exaggeration on my part. i have never cried at any movie or anything like that except this piece of footage.

it was a very unique thing, and had i not been an atheist i would probably be climing that i was touched by god. it was a very profound experience that almost changed my entire morality over night.

i just got sucked in, thinking about my family and my loved ones combined with utter rage over all the wars and spilled blood, combined with a total sense of frustration on how we could do better as a species if we just tried.

so yea :P dont go thinking im some softy, this was a very particular and rare thing for me. and happened about a year ago, not just before i posted the question.

Humbling. It made me realize we are apart of all that space. I love it.

A Glorious Dawn