Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

cassandradispatch.org
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fairly easy
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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.

Carl Sagan's famous passage about Earth, our Pale Blue Dot, in his book with the same name, is probably not new to most of you. But I think it's important to revisit his words once in a while. So, here is the passage read by Carl Sagan himself:

It often reminds me of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Here's a great reading of it by actor Bryan Cranston.

For me, this passage invokes incredible feelings of humility and hope. At the same time, it renders me just a bit sad. From a biological and evolutionary point of view, it doesn't make sense for any animal to take on this perspective. But sometimes I ask myself: What would the world look like if we could?

Here's the full passage:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again at that dot. That's here. That's home.…
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