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Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective
In 1973, Carl Sagan published The Cosmic Connection, a daring view of the universe, which rapidly became a classic work of popular science and inspired a generation of scientists and enthusiasts. This seminal work is reproduced here for a whole new generation to enjoy. In Sagan's typically lucid and lyrical style, he discusses many topics from astrophysics and solar system science, to colonization, terraforming and the search for extraterrestrials. Sagan conveys his own excitement and wonder, and relates the revelations of astronomy to the most profound human problems and concerns: issues that are just as valid today as they were thirty years ago. New to this edition are Freeman Dyson's comments on Sagan's vision and the importance of the work, Ann Druyan's assessment of Sagan's cultural significance as a champion of science, and David Morrison's discussion of the advances made since 1973 and what became of Sagan's predictions. Who knows what wonders this third millennium will reveal, but one thing is certain: Carl Sagan played a unique role in preparing us for them.
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Carl Sagan
152 books11.9k followersIn 1934, scientist Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. After earning bachelor and master's degrees at Cornell, Sagan earned a double doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1960. He became professor of astronomy and space science and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University, and co-founder of the Planetary Society. A great popularizer of science, Sagan produced the PBS series, "Cosmos," which was Emmy and Peabody award-winning, and was watched by 500 million people in 60 countries. A book of the same title came out in 1980, and was on The New York Times bestseller list for 7 weeks. Sagan was author, co-author or editor of 20 books, including The Dragons of Eden (1977), which won a Pulitzer, Pale Blue Dot (1995) and The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark (1996), his hardest-hitting on religion. With his wife, Ann Druyan, he was co-producer of the popular motion picture, "Contact," which featured a feminist, atheist protagonist played by Jodie Foster (1997). The film came out after Sagan's death, following a 2-year struggle with a bone marrow disease. Sagan played a leading role in NASA's Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to other planets. Ann Druyan, in the epilogue to Sagan's last book, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (published posthumously in 1997), gives a moving account of Carl's last days: "Contrary to the fantasies of the fundamentalists, there was no deathbed conversion, no last minute refuge taken in a comforting vision of a heaven or an afterlife. For Carl, what mattered most was what was true, not merely what would make us feel better. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. As we looked deeply into each other's eyes, it was with a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever."
For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society, ("for his extraordinary contributions to the development of planetary science…As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates").
He was also a recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Sagan was elected Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For twelve years he was the editor-in-chief of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was cofounder and President of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is the largest space-interest group in the world; and Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
In their posthumous award to Dr. Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his "research transformed planetary science… his gifts to mankind were infinite." D. 1996.
More: https://ffrf.org/news/day/dayitems/it...
For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society, ("for his extraordinary contributions to the development of planetary science…As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates").
He was also a recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Sagan was elected Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For twelve years he was the editor-in-chief of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was cofounder and President of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is the largest space-interest group in the world; and Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
In their posthumous award to Dr. Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his "research transformed planetary science… his gifts to mankind were infinite." D. 1996.
More: https://ffrf.org/news/day/dayitems/it...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
November 8, 2020
Having watched a few Carl Sagan videos caused me to recognize and memorize the color of his voice. I've noticed that while reading the book the little voice in my head is imitating the way he speaks. Carl Sagan's voice is one of understanding and reason. It's soothing and hopeful just like the tone of this book.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), discusses with youthful enthusiasm and optimism the possibility and probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Also, his personal involvement, in the NASA's Mariner space probe missions to Mars, and their rivals, the Soviet's, Venera spacecraft missions to Venus - from the preparations and obstacles to the exogeology of these planets. This topic was in more detail elaborated in Sagan's later book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994). He also discusses his skepticism towards pseudoscience, astrology and ufology in particular, which is also more thoroughly presented in his book The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996).
A very pleasant surprise was the level of concern for climate change he had 50 years ago! He states: "But we live in a time when the atmosphere of Earth is being strongly modified by the activities of Man. It is of the first importance to understand precisely what happened on Venus so that an accidental recapitulation on Earth of the runaway Venus greenhouse can be avoided." We haven't come too far since then.
Also, the idea of terraforming Mars and becoming and interplanetary species is not the idea of Elon Musk (whose work I respect). Sagan dedicates a whole chapter to terraformation with a few proposals on how to achieve it. Here's one:"...sprinkle carbon black over the caps, heat up the poles, and warm the planet. But the idea of becoming an interplanetary species was most wonderfully put by no other than the founder of astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935): "The Earth is a cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973) covers a wide range of other topics too (perhaps too many), such as whale and dolphin behavior, a few personal stories, evolutionary biology and cosmology. Which also reminds me of Sagan's other books he wrote later in his life. This brings me to the conclusion that this is an all-in-one Sagan book, which covers and discusses all of the topics Sagan was passionate about. Therefore, if you want to read one Carl Sagan book, this is the one!
(4.5/5.0)
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), discusses with youthful enthusiasm and optimism the possibility and probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Also, his personal involvement, in the NASA's Mariner space probe missions to Mars, and their rivals, the Soviet's, Venera spacecraft missions to Venus - from the preparations and obstacles to the exogeology of these planets. This topic was in more detail elaborated in Sagan's later book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994). He also discusses his skepticism towards pseudoscience, astrology and ufology in particular, which is also more thoroughly presented in his book The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996).
A very pleasant surprise was the level of concern for climate change he had 50 years ago! He states: "But we live in a time when the atmosphere of Earth is being strongly modified by the activities of Man. It is of the first importance to understand precisely what happened on Venus so that an accidental recapitulation on Earth of the runaway Venus greenhouse can be avoided." We haven't come too far since then.
Also, the idea of terraforming Mars and becoming and interplanetary species is not the idea of Elon Musk (whose work I respect). Sagan dedicates a whole chapter to terraformation with a few proposals on how to achieve it. Here's one:"...sprinkle carbon black over the caps, heat up the poles, and warm the planet. But the idea of becoming an interplanetary species was most wonderfully put by no other than the founder of astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935): "The Earth is a cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973) covers a wide range of other topics too (perhaps too many), such as whale and dolphin behavior, a few personal stories, evolutionary biology and cosmology. Which also reminds me of Sagan's other books he wrote later in his life. This brings me to the conclusion that this is an all-in-one Sagan book, which covers and discusses all of the topics Sagan was passionate about. Therefore, if you want to read one Carl Sagan book, this is the one!
(4.5/5.0)
February 13, 2017
This is the third book of Carl Sagan's work's, that I have read recently. Yet again, Mr Sagan has not left me disappointed.
This book consists of a collection of short essays on subjects that can be most complex, but Sagan explains it all, in such a way, so that we can all understand and enjoy it. It tells us about the Solar system, and touches on the topic of extraterrestrial life. Maybe the best thing about reading Sagans books, is I can hear his voice talking when reading. Even though this book is rather dated now, it most definitely makes for a riveting and
interesting read. Thank you Mr Sagan.
This book consists of a collection of short essays on subjects that can be most complex, but Sagan explains it all, in such a way, so that we can all understand and enjoy it. It tells us about the Solar system, and touches on the topic of extraterrestrial life. Maybe the best thing about reading Sagans books, is I can hear his voice talking when reading. Even though this book is rather dated now, it most definitely makes for a riveting and
interesting read. Thank you Mr Sagan.
Read
September 18, 2022One thing that is so attractive about Sagan is his ability to be humbled in the face of someone else’s intelligence, including a room full of first graders. “A friend asked me to come to talk to his class,” Sagan writes in one essay in The Cosmic Connection, “which, he assured me, knew nothing about astronomy but was eager to learn.”
So Sagan goes to his young friend’s class, armed with slides of colorful gaseous nebulas to entertain the kiddies, and then makes the mistake of asking the class how mankind figured out the earth was round. One kid pipes up with the example of a ship’s master sinking beneath the horizon as it sails away from you. A second says what about an ellipse, you know, when you can see that the moon is round? Another says, well, what about that guy Magello who sailed around the world? You can’t sail around the world if it isn’t round. A fourth kid says, hey, don’t you know there’s pictures of earth from space, and the pictures are all round? And then a fifth kid says, oh, yeah? What about the Foucault pendulum experiment?
First graders, all. It is a considerably chastened astronomer who goes home from school that day, and Sagan’s not too proud to say so.
So Sagan goes to his young friend’s class, armed with slides of colorful gaseous nebulas to entertain the kiddies, and then makes the mistake of asking the class how mankind figured out the earth was round. One kid pipes up with the example of a ship’s master sinking beneath the horizon as it sails away from you. A second says what about an ellipse, you know, when you can see that the moon is round? Another says, well, what about that guy Magello who sailed around the world? You can’t sail around the world if it isn’t round. A fourth kid says, hey, don’t you know there’s pictures of earth from space, and the pictures are all round? And then a fifth kid says, oh, yeah? What about the Foucault pendulum experiment?
First graders, all. It is a considerably chastened astronomer who goes home from school that day, and Sagan’s not too proud to say so.
November 30, 2017
Finished another glorious book by Carl Sagan which is fantastic as usual. Here are some highlights :
From the first chapter, “A Transitional Animal”, describing the 5-billion year history of Earth.
"In Man, not only is adaptive information acquired in the lifetime of a single individual, but it is passed on extra-genetically through learning, through books, through education. It is this, more than anything else, that has raised Man to his present pre-eminent status on the planet Earth."
"We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow, biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation."
Three chapters explore motivations for space exploration on three points: scientific interest, public interest, historical interest. Pages 51-52:
"The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming a part of it."
"The planets are no longer wandering lights in the evening sky. For centuries, Man lived in a universe that seemed safe and cozy — even tidy. Earth was the cynosure of creation and Man the pinnacle of mortal life. But these quaint and comforting notions have not stood the test of time. We now know that we live on a tiny clod of rock and metal, a planet smaller than some relatively minor features in the clouds of Jupiter and inconsiderable when compared with a modest sunspot.
…
These realizations of the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are profound — and, to some, disturbing. But they bring with them compensatory insights. We realize our deep connectedness with other life forms, both simple and complex. We know that the atoms that make us up were synthesized in the interiors of previous generations of dying stars. We are aware of our deep connection, both in form and in matter, with the rest of the universe. The cosmos revealed to us by the new advances in astronomy and biology is far grander and more awesome than the tidy world of our ancestors. And we are becoming a part of it, the cosmos as it is, not the cosmos of our desires."
Page 53.6: "A fundamental area of common interest is the problem of perspective. The exploration of space permits us to see our planet and ourselves in a new light. We are like linguists on an isolated island where only one language is spoken. We can construct general theories of language, but we have only one example to examine. It is unlikely that our understanding of language will have the generaltiy that a mature science of human linguistics requires."
And as an aside, topics that are controversial today are not new, they’ve been around for decades, e.g. p57: "But we live in a time when the atmosphere of Earth is being strongly modified by the activities of Man. It is of the first importance to understand precisely what happened on Venus so that an accidental recapitulation on Earth of the runaway Venus greenhouse can be avoided."
Chapter 9, about the historical interest of space exploration:
"But it is remarkable that the nations and epochs marked by the greatest flowering of exploration are also marked by the greatest culture exuberance. In part, this must be because of the contact with new things, new ways of life, and new modes of thought unknown to a closec culture, with its vast energies turned inward."
Followed by historical examples, especially how the age of European exploration to the ‘new world’ coincided with Montaigne, Shakespeare, the authors of the King James Bible, Cervantes, et al.
"In all the history of mankind, there will be only one generation that will be first to explore the Solar System, one generation for which, in childhood, the planets are distant and indistinct discs moving through the night sky, and for which, in old age, the planets are places, diverse new worlds in course of exploration.
…
A human infant begins to achieve maturity by the experimental discovery that he is not the whole of the universe. The same is true of societies engaged in the exploration of their surroundings. The perspective carried by space exploration may hasten the maturation of mankind — a maturation that cannot come too soon."
He’s being optimistic about the pace of interplanetary exploration, perhaps, but the principle is valid.
Chapter 10 is a cute account of giving a talk to first-graders who do, to author’s surprise, understand why we know the Earth is round.
Chapter 11 describes the crank mail the author receives, from all manner of crazies, and a case study about a man in an asylum and how he was certain the planets are inhabited. (Because of his personal encouter with “God Almighty”.)
Other chapters in Part II involve the incompetence of the CIA and/or Air Force Intelligence; Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars novels as the inspiration for so many; more comments about humanity’s influence on the environment (p142); a restatement of the passage from p69, on p155 (“There is a generation of men and women for whom, in their youth, the planets were unimaginably distant points of light…”); and Sagan’s ‘belief’ that there would be semi permanent bases on the Moon by the 1980s.
Section III includes chapters about dolphins, concerning John Lilly, how the author was ‘propositioned’ by a dolphin, and how our disregard for dolphins and whales parallels the dehumanization of human enemies to make them easier to kill, and what this implies about potential contact with extraterrestrials; one about Sagan’s advice to Stanley Kubrick about depicting the aliens in 2001 (don’t depict them, imply their presence indirectly, advice which seems to have been taken)… and Chapter 26, the title chapter, “The Cosmic Connection”, which contrasts the presistent interest in astrology (“In his vanity, Man imagined the universe designed for his benefit and organized for his use” and p186.7, “It satisfied an almost unspoken need to feel a significance for humans beings in a vast and awesome cosmos…”) with the reality of our heritage, as a species on a planet of relatively heavy elements, elements the result of stellar evolution:
"The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space away from us. Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff."
Other chapters concern extraterrestrial life as an “idea whose time has come”, focusing on the likelihood of other planetary system [he would so gratified by the recent Kepler discoveries]; a dismissal of the idea that UFOs are evidence of ETs having visited us, mostly on statistical grounds…. artifacts put forward as evidence, especially by Erich von Däniken in Chariots of the Gods, a bestselling book that has since languished into obscurity (I still own the paperback edition depicted on the Wikipedia page), of visitations by alien astronauts in ancient times… p207:
"These artifacts are, in fact, psychological projective tests. People can see in them what they wish. There is nothing to prevent anyone from seeing signs of past extraterrestrial visitations all about him. But to a person with an even mildly skeptical mind, the evidence is unconvincing. Because the significance of such a discovery would be so enormous, we must employ the most critical reasoning and the most skeptical attitudes in approaching such data. The data do not pass such tests."
Sagan contemplates what it would mean if we succeeded in contact with ETs, via radio signals, even considering the likely decades-long pace of the exchange. p218:
"The scientific, logical, cultural, and ethical knowledge to be gained by tuning into galactic transmissions may be, in the long run, the most profound single event in the history of our civilization. There will be information in what we will no longer be able to call the humanities — because our communicants will not be human. There will be a deparochialization of the way we view the cosmos and ourselves."
Final chapters expand into considerations of astroengineering (Dyson spheres), classifications of cosmic civilizations, how long it would take for a ‘galactic cultural exchange’ to happen [always assuming the speed of light limitation for communication and travel], and speculation that (the then recent idea of) black holes might serve as a kind of cosmic transportation system.
The last three chapters are expansions on the idea of “starfolk” — histories and projections of the universe and mankind’s place in it. Here’s the last paragraph of the second of those chapters (p262).
"The births of stars generate the planetary nurseries of life. The lives of stars provide the energy upon which life depends. The deaths of stars produce the implements for the continued development of life in other parts of the Galaxy. If there are on the planets of dying stars intelligent beings unable to escape their fate, they may at least derive some comfort from the thought that the death of their star, the event that will cause their own extinction, will, nevertheless, provide the means for continued biological advance of the starfolk on a million other worlds."
From the first chapter, “A Transitional Animal”, describing the 5-billion year history of Earth.
"In Man, not only is adaptive information acquired in the lifetime of a single individual, but it is passed on extra-genetically through learning, through books, through education. It is this, more than anything else, that has raised Man to his present pre-eminent status on the planet Earth."
"We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow, biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation."
Three chapters explore motivations for space exploration on three points: scientific interest, public interest, historical interest. Pages 51-52:
"The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming a part of it."
"The planets are no longer wandering lights in the evening sky. For centuries, Man lived in a universe that seemed safe and cozy — even tidy. Earth was the cynosure of creation and Man the pinnacle of mortal life. But these quaint and comforting notions have not stood the test of time. We now know that we live on a tiny clod of rock and metal, a planet smaller than some relatively minor features in the clouds of Jupiter and inconsiderable when compared with a modest sunspot.
…
These realizations of the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are profound — and, to some, disturbing. But they bring with them compensatory insights. We realize our deep connectedness with other life forms, both simple and complex. We know that the atoms that make us up were synthesized in the interiors of previous generations of dying stars. We are aware of our deep connection, both in form and in matter, with the rest of the universe. The cosmos revealed to us by the new advances in astronomy and biology is far grander and more awesome than the tidy world of our ancestors. And we are becoming a part of it, the cosmos as it is, not the cosmos of our desires."
Page 53.6: "A fundamental area of common interest is the problem of perspective. The exploration of space permits us to see our planet and ourselves in a new light. We are like linguists on an isolated island where only one language is spoken. We can construct general theories of language, but we have only one example to examine. It is unlikely that our understanding of language will have the generaltiy that a mature science of human linguistics requires."
And as an aside, topics that are controversial today are not new, they’ve been around for decades, e.g. p57: "But we live in a time when the atmosphere of Earth is being strongly modified by the activities of Man. It is of the first importance to understand precisely what happened on Venus so that an accidental recapitulation on Earth of the runaway Venus greenhouse can be avoided."
Chapter 9, about the historical interest of space exploration:
"But it is remarkable that the nations and epochs marked by the greatest flowering of exploration are also marked by the greatest culture exuberance. In part, this must be because of the contact with new things, new ways of life, and new modes of thought unknown to a closec culture, with its vast energies turned inward."
Followed by historical examples, especially how the age of European exploration to the ‘new world’ coincided with Montaigne, Shakespeare, the authors of the King James Bible, Cervantes, et al.
"In all the history of mankind, there will be only one generation that will be first to explore the Solar System, one generation for which, in childhood, the planets are distant and indistinct discs moving through the night sky, and for which, in old age, the planets are places, diverse new worlds in course of exploration.
…
A human infant begins to achieve maturity by the experimental discovery that he is not the whole of the universe. The same is true of societies engaged in the exploration of their surroundings. The perspective carried by space exploration may hasten the maturation of mankind — a maturation that cannot come too soon."
He’s being optimistic about the pace of interplanetary exploration, perhaps, but the principle is valid.
Chapter 10 is a cute account of giving a talk to first-graders who do, to author’s surprise, understand why we know the Earth is round.
Chapter 11 describes the crank mail the author receives, from all manner of crazies, and a case study about a man in an asylum and how he was certain the planets are inhabited. (Because of his personal encouter with “God Almighty”.)
Other chapters in Part II involve the incompetence of the CIA and/or Air Force Intelligence; Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars novels as the inspiration for so many; more comments about humanity’s influence on the environment (p142); a restatement of the passage from p69, on p155 (“There is a generation of men and women for whom, in their youth, the planets were unimaginably distant points of light…”); and Sagan’s ‘belief’ that there would be semi permanent bases on the Moon by the 1980s.
Section III includes chapters about dolphins, concerning John Lilly, how the author was ‘propositioned’ by a dolphin, and how our disregard for dolphins and whales parallels the dehumanization of human enemies to make them easier to kill, and what this implies about potential contact with extraterrestrials; one about Sagan’s advice to Stanley Kubrick about depicting the aliens in 2001 (don’t depict them, imply their presence indirectly, advice which seems to have been taken)… and Chapter 26, the title chapter, “The Cosmic Connection”, which contrasts the presistent interest in astrology (“In his vanity, Man imagined the universe designed for his benefit and organized for his use” and p186.7, “It satisfied an almost unspoken need to feel a significance for humans beings in a vast and awesome cosmos…”) with the reality of our heritage, as a species on a planet of relatively heavy elements, elements the result of stellar evolution:
"The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space away from us. Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff."
Other chapters concern extraterrestrial life as an “idea whose time has come”, focusing on the likelihood of other planetary system [he would so gratified by the recent Kepler discoveries]; a dismissal of the idea that UFOs are evidence of ETs having visited us, mostly on statistical grounds…. artifacts put forward as evidence, especially by Erich von Däniken in Chariots of the Gods, a bestselling book that has since languished into obscurity (I still own the paperback edition depicted on the Wikipedia page), of visitations by alien astronauts in ancient times… p207:
"These artifacts are, in fact, psychological projective tests. People can see in them what they wish. There is nothing to prevent anyone from seeing signs of past extraterrestrial visitations all about him. But to a person with an even mildly skeptical mind, the evidence is unconvincing. Because the significance of such a discovery would be so enormous, we must employ the most critical reasoning and the most skeptical attitudes in approaching such data. The data do not pass such tests."
Sagan contemplates what it would mean if we succeeded in contact with ETs, via radio signals, even considering the likely decades-long pace of the exchange. p218:
"The scientific, logical, cultural, and ethical knowledge to be gained by tuning into galactic transmissions may be, in the long run, the most profound single event in the history of our civilization. There will be information in what we will no longer be able to call the humanities — because our communicants will not be human. There will be a deparochialization of the way we view the cosmos and ourselves."
Final chapters expand into considerations of astroengineering (Dyson spheres), classifications of cosmic civilizations, how long it would take for a ‘galactic cultural exchange’ to happen [always assuming the speed of light limitation for communication and travel], and speculation that (the then recent idea of) black holes might serve as a kind of cosmic transportation system.
The last three chapters are expansions on the idea of “starfolk” — histories and projections of the universe and mankind’s place in it. Here’s the last paragraph of the second of those chapters (p262).
"The births of stars generate the planetary nurseries of life. The lives of stars provide the energy upon which life depends. The deaths of stars produce the implements for the continued development of life in other parts of the Galaxy. If there are on the planets of dying stars intelligent beings unable to escape their fate, they may at least derive some comfort from the thought that the death of their star, the event that will cause their own extinction, will, nevertheless, provide the means for continued biological advance of the starfolk on a million other worlds."
November 9, 2013
Wow!!! Happy birthday Carl Sagan. You would have been 79 today.
It's almost like a magical reality to read your book as a tribute, unintentionally and accidentally, on your birthday.
After the discovery of your birth date, I can only imagine by this random co-incidence, an ordinary mind like myself from a different sub-continent, who is not currently engaged in any scientific pursuit, is reading your book purely for entertainment and enlightenment. This is what you have to know, to understand how beautiful and imaginative your work is.
I may be somewhat biased to say that it is sad to see that people are loosing scientific temper; however you are the best astrophysicist author, an intelligent gift to humanity who will continue to inspire young mind around the planet.
It's almost like a magical reality to read your book as a tribute, unintentionally and accidentally, on your birthday.
After the discovery of your birth date, I can only imagine by this random co-incidence, an ordinary mind like myself from a different sub-continent, who is not currently engaged in any scientific pursuit, is reading your book purely for entertainment and enlightenment. This is what you have to know, to understand how beautiful and imaginative your work is.
I may be somewhat biased to say that it is sad to see that people are loosing scientific temper; however you are the best astrophysicist author, an intelligent gift to humanity who will continue to inspire young mind around the planet.
April 29, 2017
Two language review :
I am saying this again: I read non-fiction books too sloooowwww...
Carl Sagan is my favorite astronomer. His writing style is flowing, easy and funny. His optimism and fascination towards the science and cosmos are inspiring.
I loved most of his essays about space explorations and ideas. Some were a bit repetitive and boring, so I skipped those parts. However most of them were enjoyable.
Kitabı uzun müddətə oxumağıma baxmayaraq çox hissəsini bəyəndim. Carl Saganın dili axıcı və sadə, bir o qədər də əyləncəlidir. İdeaları və kosmosa qarşı olan hədsiz marağı oxucunu həyəcanlandırır. Bəzi hissələrini sürətli keçirməyimə baxmayaraq, kitabdan həzz aldım.
I am saying this again: I read non-fiction books too sloooowwww...
Carl Sagan is my favorite astronomer. His writing style is flowing, easy and funny. His optimism and fascination towards the science and cosmos are inspiring.
I loved most of his essays about space explorations and ideas. Some were a bit repetitive and boring, so I skipped those parts. However most of them were enjoyable.
Kitabı uzun müddətə oxumağıma baxmayaraq çox hissəsini bəyəndim. Carl Saganın dili axıcı və sadə, bir o qədər də əyləncəlidir. İdeaları və kosmosa qarşı olan hədsiz marağı oxucunu həyəcanlandırır. Bəzi hissələrini sürətli keçirməyimə baxmayaraq, kitabdan həzz aldım.
October 28, 2014
This collection of essays is a justifiable predecessor, in many ways including the chronological order, of Carl Sagan's latter books. The topics that are briefly brushed upon here, have been thoroughly explored in his subsequent works and this piece of text does well to introduce to the reader all those aspects of planetary astronomy and sub-fields of it; namely exploration, terraforming and colonization of planets, communications with extra-terrestrial and terrestrial non-human intelligences, understanding of planetary geology to understand our own planet etc.
In his very familiar eloquent and ascetic manner, Sagan tells the reader about his/her place in the Universe in an essay Unicorn of Cetus, it shows the place of Sun among other stars and constellations as seen from elsewhere in the Galaxy. He tells about our efforts with searching and communicating with extra-terrestrial intelligence and how he had designed the Voyager Golden Record and Pioneer 10 & 11 plaques that were sent into space as messages from humanity to other worlds. One of the point that he emphasizes that our tendency to anthropomorphize the aliens is quite futile and it is extremely unlikely that they'll understand anything transmitted to them in conventional communication code, and that was taken care of when preparing those messages by incorporating into them audio-visuals along with descriptions of universally known scientific phenomena such as spectrum of Hydrogen atom.
He makes a point to explain the benefits of space exploration to humanity and seems quite optimistic about human endeavours in space. However, this book being published in 1973, it turned out that governments were reluctant to fund the exploratory agencies and we haven't achieved anything akin to what he had prophesized in those times.
In the next part, the exploration of Mars and Venus is described with exquisite details about their environment, geology and terraforming possibilities. His visionary approach regarding the future of human enterprise is embraced by anyone who reads and understands these ideas but as it always has been the case, our governments and majority of populace are often short-sighted and tend to neglect the long-term plans which need to be employed if we want to insure the survival of human race by voyaging to other planets, considering what a mess we have already made of the tiny, fragile and the only planet we have.
Surging forward, we encounter his illustrious musings upon non-human terrestrial intelligences such as Dolphins and Whales, and some features of extra-terrestrial intelligences. It seems very plausible to look in this matter with a different perspective other than that of humans, we must try to study other kind of intelligences and find out what aspects of intelligence are universal and what aspects are unique to us humans. It would help us establish a prospering galactic community, were we ever to discover and befriend other intelligences.
In the last section that is mostly speculative, but nonetheless based on sound scientific arguments, Sagan wonders about sharing of knowledge among various intelligences in the Galaxy and the galactic cultural homogenization that may take place akin to global cultural homogenization happening right now on our planet.
As always, he never fails to enthrall the reader with his evocative and inspiring authorship and makes us want to resume the feat which he had left for us unfinished.
In his very familiar eloquent and ascetic manner, Sagan tells the reader about his/her place in the Universe in an essay Unicorn of Cetus, it shows the place of Sun among other stars and constellations as seen from elsewhere in the Galaxy. He tells about our efforts with searching and communicating with extra-terrestrial intelligence and how he had designed the Voyager Golden Record and Pioneer 10 & 11 plaques that were sent into space as messages from humanity to other worlds. One of the point that he emphasizes that our tendency to anthropomorphize the aliens is quite futile and it is extremely unlikely that they'll understand anything transmitted to them in conventional communication code, and that was taken care of when preparing those messages by incorporating into them audio-visuals along with descriptions of universally known scientific phenomena such as spectrum of Hydrogen atom.
He makes a point to explain the benefits of space exploration to humanity and seems quite optimistic about human endeavours in space. However, this book being published in 1973, it turned out that governments were reluctant to fund the exploratory agencies and we haven't achieved anything akin to what he had prophesized in those times.
In the next part, the exploration of Mars and Venus is described with exquisite details about their environment, geology and terraforming possibilities. His visionary approach regarding the future of human enterprise is embraced by anyone who reads and understands these ideas but as it always has been the case, our governments and majority of populace are often short-sighted and tend to neglect the long-term plans which need to be employed if we want to insure the survival of human race by voyaging to other planets, considering what a mess we have already made of the tiny, fragile and the only planet we have.
Surging forward, we encounter his illustrious musings upon non-human terrestrial intelligences such as Dolphins and Whales, and some features of extra-terrestrial intelligences. It seems very plausible to look in this matter with a different perspective other than that of humans, we must try to study other kind of intelligences and find out what aspects of intelligence are universal and what aspects are unique to us humans. It would help us establish a prospering galactic community, were we ever to discover and befriend other intelligences.
In the last section that is mostly speculative, but nonetheless based on sound scientific arguments, Sagan wonders about sharing of knowledge among various intelligences in the Galaxy and the galactic cultural homogenization that may take place akin to global cultural homogenization happening right now on our planet.
As always, he never fails to enthrall the reader with his evocative and inspiring authorship and makes us want to resume the feat which he had left for us unfinished.
May 20, 2020
"La conexión cósmica" es una reseña de diversos temas analizados por Carl Sagan, desde los inicios del ser humano, hasta los agujeros negros, pasando por la inteligencia de los delfines, hasta los diferentes tipos de civilizaciones, en donde ni siquiera entramos a la categoría del tipo 1.
Siempre leer a Carl Sagan es un alivio para la monotonía y es una receta para comprender al Universo con toda la humildad del caso. Entiendo y comprendo que el libro fue escrito antes de la década de 1980, sin embargo, es lo suficientemente lúcido como para poder ser leído aún 40 años después. Por ejemplo, la historia y el origen de la civilización humana, contada como fábula, me parece un relato maravilloso, probablemente uno de los mejores en este género.
Habla también sobre los agujeros negros, lo llama "los gatos negros cósmicos", ya que los asemeja al Cheshire Cat. Probablemente los haya colocado al final del relato debido a que en esa época estaba en auge el asunto y bueno, encontrar agujeros negros es virtualmente cosa nada fácil.
El libro como tal, es comprender mucho sobre la civilización humana, con el fin de pasar al siguiente paso: aventurarnos hacia nuestro origen y conocer otras formas de vida. Carl Sagan siempre habla de esto (probablemente haya tenido mucho que hablar con John Gribbin), sin embargo, Carl es sumamente optimista para conocer vida extraterrestre. Mucha gente habla de la paradoja de Fermi, de la ecuación de Drake, de los accidentes que nos convirtió de silicatos inanimados a vida como la de ahora, sin embargo, el Universo, es tan, pero tan grande, que verdaderamente es imposible asegurar que estamos solos al 100%; si accidentes ocurrieron aquí, ¿por qué no en las otras doscientas mil millones de otras estrellas que hay únicamente en nuestra galaxia?
Siempre leer a Carl Sagan es un alivio para la monotonía y es una receta para comprender al Universo con toda la humildad del caso. Entiendo y comprendo que el libro fue escrito antes de la década de 1980, sin embargo, es lo suficientemente lúcido como para poder ser leído aún 40 años después. Por ejemplo, la historia y el origen de la civilización humana, contada como fábula, me parece un relato maravilloso, probablemente uno de los mejores en este género.
Habla también sobre los agujeros negros, lo llama "los gatos negros cósmicos", ya que los asemeja al Cheshire Cat. Probablemente los haya colocado al final del relato debido a que en esa época estaba en auge el asunto y bueno, encontrar agujeros negros es virtualmente cosa nada fácil.
El libro como tal, es comprender mucho sobre la civilización humana, con el fin de pasar al siguiente paso: aventurarnos hacia nuestro origen y conocer otras formas de vida. Carl Sagan siempre habla de esto (probablemente haya tenido mucho que hablar con John Gribbin), sin embargo, Carl es sumamente optimista para conocer vida extraterrestre. Mucha gente habla de la paradoja de Fermi, de la ecuación de Drake, de los accidentes que nos convirtió de silicatos inanimados a vida como la de ahora, sin embargo, el Universo, es tan, pero tan grande, que verdaderamente es imposible asegurar que estamos solos al 100%; si accidentes ocurrieron aquí, ¿por qué no en las otras doscientas mil millones de otras estrellas que hay únicamente en nuestra galaxia?
July 25, 2010
Carl Sagan's collection of short essays on all things cosmic is a very interesting and enjoyable read. The author presents cosmology, physics, biology and nuclear electrickery that can be understood by small children. (Somebody fetch me a small child.) His views of the universe from some thirty years back are still relevant and topical today. Not certain I agree with his ideas on extra terrestrial life forms and our ability to locate same. None the less, Sagan throws in human history, chemistry and the odd scraps of atomic theories to accompany us on his grand tour of our solar system and beyond.
Carl was such a cool dude. Almost a sixties hippy, his written work should be compulsory reading matter. We are stardust. We are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Carl was such a cool dude. Almost a sixties hippy, his written work should be compulsory reading matter. We are stardust. We are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Want to read
January 11, 2016“I have just finished The Cosmic Connection and loved every word of it. You are my idea of a good writer because you have an unmannered style, and when I read what you write, I hear you talking. One thing about the book made me nervous. It was entirely too obvious that you are smarter than I am. I hate that.” —Isaac Asimov to Carl Sagan
November 18, 2020
Carl Sagan nunca me ha decepcionado. Es un libro muy fácil de leer, atrapante, extraordinario.
December 18, 2019
Superb, just like anything Sagan wrote. I look at Sagan’s writings and teachings the way some people look at the Bible for inspiration and guidance
January 14, 2024
Carl Sagan fue un astrónomo que publicó muchos documentos de divulgación científica, el presente libro es uno de ellos donde habla desde la creación del universo hasta hoyos negros y enanas blancas, todo con un lenguaje bastante digerible incluso para personas que no son expertos en el tema. Debo admitir que me pareció tedioso y repetitivo algunas cosas, sobretodo a medio libro cuando habla sobre la posibilidad de vida en otros planetas, sin embargo, no por ello puedo decir que no me gustó el libro ya que en general yo lo califico como bueno.
A pesar de que es un libro pequeño para todo lo que abarca esta muy entendible, habla sobre la formación de las estrellas y galaxias, también sobre sus descubrimientos sobre Venus ya que el fue uno de los principales en conocer la temperatura de su superficie y descubrir que era un planeta muy caliente y seco, no el paraíso que todo mundo pensaba en aquella época. Narra su papel en el tema del hombre que llegó a la luna, el como es bastante escéptico a que haya avistamientos de ovnis, crítica la astrología XD, habla sobre si interés en los estudios de marte, todo sobre la cápsula que de mando al espacio con un mensaje para seres que vivan en el espacio donde había un dibujo de una mujer, un hombre , una descripción del spin del electrón de hidrógeno que es el elemento más abundante del universo (esta la placa pionner fue diseñada por él y su esposa). Finalmente habla sobre las enanas blancas y teoría de los agujeros negros. Algo que me sorprendió de los agujeros negros es que son tan pesados que incluso absorben los fotones de la luz por lo que no se pueden ver pero si se pueden sentir, es una idea bastante loca.
A pesar de a ver sido escrito en el 73 es muy interesante este libro, trae vivencias de él que te hacen que te intereses más del tema y las bares del tema están muy bien planteadas.
A pesar de que es un libro pequeño para todo lo que abarca esta muy entendible, habla sobre la formación de las estrellas y galaxias, también sobre sus descubrimientos sobre Venus ya que el fue uno de los principales en conocer la temperatura de su superficie y descubrir que era un planeta muy caliente y seco, no el paraíso que todo mundo pensaba en aquella época. Narra su papel en el tema del hombre que llegó a la luna, el como es bastante escéptico a que haya avistamientos de ovnis, crítica la astrología XD, habla sobre si interés en los estudios de marte, todo sobre la cápsula que de mando al espacio con un mensaje para seres que vivan en el espacio donde había un dibujo de una mujer, un hombre , una descripción del spin del electrón de hidrógeno que es el elemento más abundante del universo (esta la placa pionner fue diseñada por él y su esposa). Finalmente habla sobre las enanas blancas y teoría de los agujeros negros. Algo que me sorprendió de los agujeros negros es que son tan pesados que incluso absorben los fotones de la luz por lo que no se pueden ver pero si se pueden sentir, es una idea bastante loca.
A pesar de a ver sido escrito en el 73 es muy interesante este libro, trae vivencias de él que te hacen que te intereses más del tema y las bares del tema están muy bien planteadas.
January 24, 2015
Although outdated, it is an interesting reading, with a lot of funny moments from Sagan's experience.
November 26, 2023
Sagan fue de las primeras personas que promovieron la búsqueda de vida fuera de la Tierra. Propuso y participó en el diseño del mensaje grabado en las placas metálicas lanzadas en los 70s a bordo de las sondas Pioneer 10 y 11, que siguen alejándose del Sistema Solar. También fue el primero en ver fotografías de los satélites de Marte.
Es un libro antiguo, corto y fácil de leer sobre la exploración espacial y, en concreto, la posibilidad de que exista vida extraterrestre inteligente. Primero habla sobre los intereses y las consecuencias de esta búsqueda. Luego, sobre el Sistema Solar centrándose en Venus y Marte, los planetas más cercanos, donde antes buscaríamos sitio para expandirnos. En la última parte elucubra y teoriza acerca de cómo sería nuestra expansión por el Sistema Solar y fuera de él, lo que le da un toque de ciencia ficción al libro que me ha gustado.
Se nota que el libro se escribió hace 50 años, pero resulta muy interesante porque te hace viajar al pasado y darte cuenta de la evolución tecnológica que hemos logrado. Concretamente, me ha llamado la atención que la mayoría de vaticinios que hizo Sagan sobre progreso tecnológico han sido erróneos: algunos han tardado mucho más en llegar y otros ni siquiera han llegado aún. Lo que me hace pensar que este progreso es más lento de lo que creemos.
Es un libro antiguo, corto y fácil de leer sobre la exploración espacial y, en concreto, la posibilidad de que exista vida extraterrestre inteligente. Primero habla sobre los intereses y las consecuencias de esta búsqueda. Luego, sobre el Sistema Solar centrándose en Venus y Marte, los planetas más cercanos, donde antes buscaríamos sitio para expandirnos. En la última parte elucubra y teoriza acerca de cómo sería nuestra expansión por el Sistema Solar y fuera de él, lo que le da un toque de ciencia ficción al libro que me ha gustado.
Se nota que el libro se escribió hace 50 años, pero resulta muy interesante porque te hace viajar al pasado y darte cuenta de la evolución tecnológica que hemos logrado. Concretamente, me ha llamado la atención que la mayoría de vaticinios que hizo Sagan sobre progreso tecnológico han sido erróneos: algunos han tardado mucho más en llegar y otros ni siquiera han llegado aún. Lo que me hace pensar que este progreso es más lento de lo que creemos.
April 26, 2018
"The Cosmic Connection" е от по-ранните произведения на Карл Сейгън (1973г.). Включва есета обединени от темите за космическата перспектива и нуждата от астрономията, изследването на Слънчевата с-ма (и отвъд) и извънземния разум. Някои от идеите вътре, по-късно ще намерят място в едни от най-значимите му творби, като: "КОСМОС" и "Бледа синя точица". Въпреки, че на места определено е поостаряла, гласът на Сейгън е все така силен и въздействащ. Прекрасна книга!
September 7, 2016
Se trata de una compilación de artículos escritos por Carl Sagan, agrupados en tres grandes bloques: Perspectivas Cósmicas, El Sistema Solar y Más allá del Sistema Solar.
Muchos de los capítulos comparten contenidos con algunos de los episodios de la famosa serie Cosmos, como por ejemplo los frecuentes paralelismos entre la exploración espacial y la Era de los Descubrimientos; el esfuerzo por desmontar las supersticiones (mitos, religiones, astrología, new age, etc) y promover el espíritu científico; o las referencias a las vidas de eminentes astrónomos como Johannes Kepler o Christhiaan Huygens.
La totalidad de los artículos que componen el libro datan de la década de los 70. La carrera espacial entre la extinta URSS y USA, junto con el éxito de las misiones Apollo (1969-1972) contribuyeron a despertar el interés en la población general sobre la exploración espacial, y cargaron a la comunidad científica de un desorbitado optimismo. Ese optimismo transpira en el libro, por lo que cabe preguntarse si merece la pena invertir tiempo en una lectura llena de presagios que no han llegado a cumplirse, ni siquiera medio siglo después. La respuesta es definitivamente sí.
Cuenta Sagan como la misiones Viking de la URSS revolucionaron el conocimiento que se tenía de Venus hasta entonces. La comunidad científica dudaba si realmente Venus era un planeta tan inhóspito y caliente como su estudio, desde la distancia, dejaba entrever. El inherente optimismo que nos caracteriza como especie se negaba a creer esta evidencia. Solo hasta que las sondas soviéticas aportaron datos de primera mano, se despejaron todas las dudas. La realidad resultó ser peor que el peor de los pronósticos. Esta lección es válida para cualquier empresa que tenga como objetivo el progreso científico. A medida que nos aproximamos al objeto de estudio, y obtenemos más y más datos, nuestra realidad cambia. Porque el conocimiento científico es siempre incompleto.
Como punto negativo, desconcierta un poco el hecho de que el libro no tenga un hilo conductor, salvo su estructuración por temas. Se podría decir que parte de lo más pequeño, nuestro planeta, y va hacia lo más grande, el Universo. Aún así, la agrupación de algunos capítulos resulta un tanto dispar. Por ejemplo, en el último gran bloque hay un capítulo, interesantísimo por cierto, sobre las relaciones entre humanos y delfines. Otros capítulos que me han gustado especialmente han sido los relacionados con el proyecto SETI y la sonda Voyager, y las referencias sobre Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, científico ruso de finales del siglo XIX pionero en ingeniería espacial.
Si te gusta la serie Cosmos y eres un fan de Carl Sagan, sin duda disfrutarás de la lectura. Si por el contrario buscas un libro sobre los últimos avances en astronomía y exploración del Universo, este no es tu libro.
Muchos de los capítulos comparten contenidos con algunos de los episodios de la famosa serie Cosmos, como por ejemplo los frecuentes paralelismos entre la exploración espacial y la Era de los Descubrimientos; el esfuerzo por desmontar las supersticiones (mitos, religiones, astrología, new age, etc) y promover el espíritu científico; o las referencias a las vidas de eminentes astrónomos como Johannes Kepler o Christhiaan Huygens.
La totalidad de los artículos que componen el libro datan de la década de los 70. La carrera espacial entre la extinta URSS y USA, junto con el éxito de las misiones Apollo (1969-1972) contribuyeron a despertar el interés en la población general sobre la exploración espacial, y cargaron a la comunidad científica de un desorbitado optimismo. Ese optimismo transpira en el libro, por lo que cabe preguntarse si merece la pena invertir tiempo en una lectura llena de presagios que no han llegado a cumplirse, ni siquiera medio siglo después. La respuesta es definitivamente sí.
Cuenta Sagan como la misiones Viking de la URSS revolucionaron el conocimiento que se tenía de Venus hasta entonces. La comunidad científica dudaba si realmente Venus era un planeta tan inhóspito y caliente como su estudio, desde la distancia, dejaba entrever. El inherente optimismo que nos caracteriza como especie se negaba a creer esta evidencia. Solo hasta que las sondas soviéticas aportaron datos de primera mano, se despejaron todas las dudas. La realidad resultó ser peor que el peor de los pronósticos. Esta lección es válida para cualquier empresa que tenga como objetivo el progreso científico. A medida que nos aproximamos al objeto de estudio, y obtenemos más y más datos, nuestra realidad cambia. Porque el conocimiento científico es siempre incompleto.
Como punto negativo, desconcierta un poco el hecho de que el libro no tenga un hilo conductor, salvo su estructuración por temas. Se podría decir que parte de lo más pequeño, nuestro planeta, y va hacia lo más grande, el Universo. Aún así, la agrupación de algunos capítulos resulta un tanto dispar. Por ejemplo, en el último gran bloque hay un capítulo, interesantísimo por cierto, sobre las relaciones entre humanos y delfines. Otros capítulos que me han gustado especialmente han sido los relacionados con el proyecto SETI y la sonda Voyager, y las referencias sobre Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, científico ruso de finales del siglo XIX pionero en ingeniería espacial.
Si te gusta la serie Cosmos y eres un fan de Carl Sagan, sin duda disfrutarás de la lectura. Si por el contrario buscas un libro sobre los últimos avances en astronomía y exploración del Universo, este no es tu libro.
January 15, 2015
For awhile, I've sided with the late Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki's view of space exploration. In his 1969 speech, he says of the moon landing: "to me it is not so interesting a thing." He's trying, I think, to make his listeners aware of human's insatiable appetite for the next shiny thing, the thing outside ourselves that will make us satisfied. Going inside ourselves, Zen, is the antidote to this material searching. After seeing "Gravity" I thought the same thing: why would anyone want to go to cold, lonely space? We still don't understand so much about our tenuously verdant home planet. Perhaps we should put our house in order and evolve a little bit before we start zipping around the galaxy.
But Carl Sagan is selling me on space. The motto for the International Space Station is "off the earth, for the earth". Contrary to Suzuki's views, perhaps going into space *is* going inside ourselves. What was so striking about the Apollo mission was not that astronauts went to the moon, but that they saw the earth and its inhabitants from a revelatory new perspective. The mind-boggling features of our universe tell us something about our frail humanity and our origins in the stars. Maybe Suzuki is right: maybe "right here" is enough. But could going "out there" help us realize what home means?
I've not even touched on the book itself, my first reading of Sagan. His popularity makes perfect sense: the writing is joyously accessible, full of paradigm-shifting perspectives that will have you constantly referencing the internet for photos of Mars' moons or neutron stars. I've left this with four stars (stars, heh) for the slight lack of cohesiveness and the dated nature of some of the material, but I'm eager for more of his stuff.
But Carl Sagan is selling me on space. The motto for the International Space Station is "off the earth, for the earth". Contrary to Suzuki's views, perhaps going into space *is* going inside ourselves. What was so striking about the Apollo mission was not that astronauts went to the moon, but that they saw the earth and its inhabitants from a revelatory new perspective. The mind-boggling features of our universe tell us something about our frail humanity and our origins in the stars. Maybe Suzuki is right: maybe "right here" is enough. But could going "out there" help us realize what home means?
I've not even touched on the book itself, my first reading of Sagan. His popularity makes perfect sense: the writing is joyously accessible, full of paradigm-shifting perspectives that will have you constantly referencing the internet for photos of Mars' moons or neutron stars. I've left this with four stars (stars, heh) for the slight lack of cohesiveness and the dated nature of some of the material, but I'm eager for more of his stuff.
May 24, 2016
"Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective", the tenth Carl's book I've read so far, is a collection of essays by the one and only Carl Sagan during the 60s and 70s. Most of the chapters later were improved with exquisitely detailed explanations by Carl himself in his next books. His experience working with NASA on space missions, his surprising day with schoolchildren, his perspectives on extraterrestrial and terrestrial intelligence, scientific histories of Mars and Venus, terraforming planets, our connection with the stars and other interesting topics were crammed into this beautiful piece of writing. After the publication of this book, we have since sent space probes to other worlds in order to dig their mysteries, which makes our previous speculations outdated, but I personally think the book still did a wonderful job in offering me many thought-provoking ideas related to our lives in the universe.
August 27, 2018
A nice book of mr. Sagan with a little less thunder than his bigger works. This means that this book is rather more personal and written in a more casual way, describing his personal touch for matters like some of his experiments and space programs he participated in.
I loved the part on the pioneer’s golden plaque, the debate around it and the many weird comments he got in the mail.
it’s also rather interesting to read which of his predictions came true (probes to the sun just recently!) and which didn’t (moon colonies).
an interesting read overall.
I loved the part on the pioneer’s golden plaque, the debate around it and the many weird comments he got in the mail.
it’s also rather interesting to read which of his predictions came true (probes to the sun just recently!) and which didn’t (moon colonies).
an interesting read overall.
March 3, 2012
Much of the information is now dated but the book is still a compelling, cogent and well thought out argument for a continuing and active human presence in space. The gutting of the manned NASA missions by the Carter administration shortly after this was published and the struggle for both funding and clear cut purpose following the end of the Apollo program make the optimistic tone of the book ring somewhat hollow today, but just imagine what if...
May 17, 2022
A good introduction to science, astronomy and cosmology... with glimpses of brilliance!
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July 29, 2024This book landed in my life randomly, but I was immediately intrigued. Who wants to read a 50-year-old popular science book? I do! I was curious to see how the writing of my boyhood hero held up after half a century. So I took it with me on the train as I made my way north for the Great American Eclipse of April 2024.
I'm happy to report: it proved a joy to read. Carl Sagan remains charming and clear, with a dash of dry humor here and there. His inquisitive nature shines through on every page, and I often found myself caught up in his enthusiasm for the universe and its mysteries.
However, I'm not the same kid who watched Cosmos on PBS so many years ago. Back then, I shared Carl's enthusiasm for the stars. Reading his book, I still feel that, but I read this book as a Gaian. My understanding of who we are and where we stand has been informed and transformed by the seminal work of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. My perspective is somewhat different now.
Carl knew James and Lynn pretty well. In fact, Lynn married him; they had a couple kids together. Granted, it wasn't a happy marriage, and Gaia theory was still being developed at the time this book came out, with Lynn's substantive contributions coming later. Still, Carl must have had some inklings.
The concept of Gaia is strangely absent from much of this book. Carl tells the story of life on our planet as a tale of beings on dead rock. There is a profound sense of reverence for all life, but the Earth is not alive. "We live on a tiny clod of rock and metal." He suggests that humanity can and will live on other planets.
(As an aside, I confess I had a visceral reaction when he discusses some first-graders in chapter ten. That's my cohort, the leading edge of Generation X. Carl envisions a future where we're running things. Not quite. I'm sure he would have been appalled if he could have peered into the future to see how Baby Boomers are still holding onto power half a century later.)
It was troubling to read Carl's insinuations that life on Mars was still a possibility. One might excuse him, based on the fact that he was writing before the Viking missions landed on the surface of the red planet in 1976. However, Carl had worked with James Lovelock; he knew of his conclusion that life on Mars was highly improbable. That work was done in the 1960s and led to the Gaia hypothesis. I have to wonder, did Carl not buy it? Was he too invested in the Viking program?
Carl clearly got some things wrong. He predicts "semipermanent" bases on the Moon by the 1980s, eventually self-sustaining, and manned missions to Mars by 1990. He mentions climate change with a tone of caution, but it seems he's not too worried. When discussing the history of Earth's atmosphere, he makes no mention of a Great Oxygenation Event; I guess that theory was still under development at the time of writing.
Carl even seems to mention James Lovelock's thought experiment, observing Earth's atmosphere from Mars, but he doesn't credit him. Hmm.
Then, on page 150 of my edition, we get a carefully stated formulation of the Gaia hypothesis:
Again, no mention of James or Lynn, here or anywhere in the book.
The whole notion of terraforming other planets and colonizing them was something I would have embraced enthusiastically as a child. It all seems highly questionable to me now. Carl even goes so far as to envision rearranging the planets in our local solar system for the convenience of mankind. This sparked memories of A World Out of Time by Larry Niven.
Perhaps the most valuable and enduring lesson I take from the book comes from the titular chapter. Do we have a "cosmic connection"? Carl debunks astrology, then talks about how the very components of our being were forged in stellar novae, and all that implies. While skewering one conception, he offers something similar but stronger for being grounded in reality. This strikes me as a signature move of religious naturalism. Carl may not have been an explicit proponent, but it's easy to see why he continues to inspire.
I'm happy to report: it proved a joy to read. Carl Sagan remains charming and clear, with a dash of dry humor here and there. His inquisitive nature shines through on every page, and I often found myself caught up in his enthusiasm for the universe and its mysteries.
However, I'm not the same kid who watched Cosmos on PBS so many years ago. Back then, I shared Carl's enthusiasm for the stars. Reading his book, I still feel that, but I read this book as a Gaian. My understanding of who we are and where we stand has been informed and transformed by the seminal work of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. My perspective is somewhat different now.
Carl knew James and Lynn pretty well. In fact, Lynn married him; they had a couple kids together. Granted, it wasn't a happy marriage, and Gaia theory was still being developed at the time this book came out, with Lynn's substantive contributions coming later. Still, Carl must have had some inklings.
The concept of Gaia is strangely absent from much of this book. Carl tells the story of life on our planet as a tale of beings on dead rock. There is a profound sense of reverence for all life, but the Earth is not alive. "We live on a tiny clod of rock and metal." He suggests that humanity can and will live on other planets.
(As an aside, I confess I had a visceral reaction when he discusses some first-graders in chapter ten. That's my cohort, the leading edge of Generation X. Carl envisions a future where we're running things. Not quite. I'm sure he would have been appalled if he could have peered into the future to see how Baby Boomers are still holding onto power half a century later.)
It was troubling to read Carl's insinuations that life on Mars was still a possibility. One might excuse him, based on the fact that he was writing before the Viking missions landed on the surface of the red planet in 1976. However, Carl had worked with James Lovelock; he knew of his conclusion that life on Mars was highly improbable. That work was done in the 1960s and led to the Gaia hypothesis. I have to wonder, did Carl not buy it? Was he too invested in the Viking program?
Carl clearly got some things wrong. He predicts "semipermanent" bases on the Moon by the 1980s, eventually self-sustaining, and manned missions to Mars by 1990. He mentions climate change with a tone of caution, but it seems he's not too worried. When discussing the history of Earth's atmosphere, he makes no mention of a Great Oxygenation Event; I guess that theory was still under development at the time of writing.
Carl even seems to mention James Lovelock's thought experiment, observing Earth's atmosphere from Mars, but he doesn't credit him. Hmm.
Then, on page 150 of my edition, we get a carefully stated formulation of the Gaia hypothesis:
Through the effect of atmospheric pressure and composition on the climate, there is a feedback loop in which the climate itself may to some degree be controlled by the gas exchange reactions in which the life forms on Earth engage. In a way, life on Earth has terraformed Terra. It has to some extent made the Earth the way it is.
Again, no mention of James or Lynn, here or anywhere in the book.
The whole notion of terraforming other planets and colonizing them was something I would have embraced enthusiastically as a child. It all seems highly questionable to me now. Carl even goes so far as to envision rearranging the planets in our local solar system for the convenience of mankind. This sparked memories of A World Out of Time by Larry Niven.
Perhaps the most valuable and enduring lesson I take from the book comes from the titular chapter. Do we have a "cosmic connection"? Carl debunks astrology, then talks about how the very components of our being were forged in stellar novae, and all that implies. While skewering one conception, he offers something similar but stronger for being grounded in reality. This strikes me as a signature move of religious naturalism. Carl may not have been an explicit proponent, but it's easy to see why he continues to inspire.
December 5, 2020
Carl Sagan is a genius. I only gave this 4 stars, because after 40 years some of the material is a bit dated. For example, in 1972 he's very positive that humans will keep exploring the solar system. In fact, he predicts that by 2000 there will be habitats on Mars. This only goes to show how difficult it is to predict the future.
His Chapter 37 - "Starfolk: A Fable" is the history of the universe in 6 pages. Everything from the Big Bang to the creation of the elements inside stars to the formation of planets to the accumulation of molecules that are self-replicating to humans! Each sentence could be a PhD thesis.
Each chapter is great food for thought. One of my favorite quotes is
“... human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nuclei acids.”
Which is a perfectly good way of looking at life. Who's to say that WE are the pinnacle of life. It could be DNA! The complete quote is
“In a very real sense human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nuclei acids. In a sense our strongest urges, noblest enterprises, most compelling necessities, and apparent free wills are all an expression of the information coded in the genetic material: We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true, and the beautiful. But it would be a great mistake to ignore where we have come from in our attempt to determine where we are going.”
His Chapter 37 - "Starfolk: A Fable" is the history of the universe in 6 pages. Everything from the Big Bang to the creation of the elements inside stars to the formation of planets to the accumulation of molecules that are self-replicating to humans! Each sentence could be a PhD thesis.
Each chapter is great food for thought. One of my favorite quotes is
“... human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nuclei acids.”
Which is a perfectly good way of looking at life. Who's to say that WE are the pinnacle of life. It could be DNA! The complete quote is
“In a very real sense human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nuclei acids. In a sense our strongest urges, noblest enterprises, most compelling necessities, and apparent free wills are all an expression of the information coded in the genetic material: We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true, and the beautiful. But it would be a great mistake to ignore where we have come from in our attempt to determine where we are going.”
November 17, 2018
Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective is an anthology of essays or scientific papers written by Carl Sagan and edited by Jerome Agel. In this particular edition, there are also contributors from Ann Druyan, Freeman Dyson, and David Morrison. This anthology explores humanity's place in the grand scheme of things – in a galactic or even universal sense.
Carl Sagan covers several topics, and focuses mainly on the possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligence, the likelihood of the existence of more advanced civilizations, and their distribution in the local galaxy, and in the universe. He describes the hypothetical opinions of more advanced intelligence and their views of the Earth, as well as communication with humankind.
For the most part, I really like most of these essays – if not all of them. Carl Sagan has the unique ability to take complex scientific concepts and ideas and dilute them down so simply that a nonprofessional could understand. He does it in such a manner that does not sound condescending, but rather approached everything in a quiet humble manner. Like most anthologies, there are weaker contributions, but I think this one might be an exception to the rule, because I generally liked this book.
All in all, Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective is a wonderful anthology about humanity's place in the universe.
Carl Sagan covers several topics, and focuses mainly on the possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligence, the likelihood of the existence of more advanced civilizations, and their distribution in the local galaxy, and in the universe. He describes the hypothetical opinions of more advanced intelligence and their views of the Earth, as well as communication with humankind.
For the most part, I really like most of these essays – if not all of them. Carl Sagan has the unique ability to take complex scientific concepts and ideas and dilute them down so simply that a nonprofessional could understand. He does it in such a manner that does not sound condescending, but rather approached everything in a quiet humble manner. Like most anthologies, there are weaker contributions, but I think this one might be an exception to the rule, because I generally liked this book.
All in all, Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective is a wonderful anthology about humanity's place in the universe.
March 16, 2020
I found Carl Sagan's book to be quite fascinating. Being published in 1970, it had quite a few interesting ideas that we now think differently about. One of the most interesting things I found was that at the time he referenced the world's human population to be 3.6 Billion, it's incredible that in our modern time we see our world filled with over 7 billion people. Another part that I loved in the book was his writing about dolphins. It was quite fascinating to see the studies he discovered and how psychologically and behaviorally similar we may be: dolphins, like humans, like to study things and sometimes like to study and discover our patterns; it's almost like dolphins want to train humans.
Personally, I love astronomy and found Sagan's stories incredible and interesting. I realize that not everyone would think the same about this book. I would only recommend this book to people who have an interest in sciences. Not specifically astronomy though, because his book touches on a wide variety of sciences including biology, oceanography, geology, astrophysics/physics and many others.
Personally, I love astronomy and found Sagan's stories incredible and interesting. I realize that not everyone would think the same about this book. I would only recommend this book to people who have an interest in sciences. Not specifically astronomy though, because his book touches on a wide variety of sciences including biology, oceanography, geology, astrophysics/physics and many others.
June 4, 2021
En este libro Carl Sagan parte de la emergencia de la raza humana aquí en la tierra, del lugar que ocupamos en el universo y del interés que tenemos por la exploración espacial; luego nos lleva a hacer un recorrido que parte de nuestro sistema solar hasta los confines del universo, a través de relatos que transitan entre lo anecdótico y la rigurosidad científica. Si bien en la actualidad poseemos mayor información acerca de nuestro universo, acercarse a estas formas de entendimiento - ya pasadas varias décadas - resulta muy interesante y valioso, pues nos presentan un punto de partida.
"Y entonces, un día, llegó una criatura cuyo material genético no era muy diferente de las estructuras moleculares reproductoras de cualquier otra clase de organismos del planeta, que dicha criatura llamó Tierra. Pero era capaz de reflexionar sobre el misterio de su origen, de estudiar el extraño y tortuoso sendero por el cual había surgido desde la materia estelar. Era el material del Cosmos contemplándose a sí mismo. Consideró la enigmática y problemática cuestión de su futuro. Se llamó a sí mismo hombre. Y ansió regresar a las estrellas." <3
"Y entonces, un día, llegó una criatura cuyo material genético no era muy diferente de las estructuras moleculares reproductoras de cualquier otra clase de organismos del planeta, que dicha criatura llamó Tierra. Pero era capaz de reflexionar sobre el misterio de su origen, de estudiar el extraño y tortuoso sendero por el cual había surgido desde la materia estelar. Era el material del Cosmos contemplándose a sí mismo. Consideró la enigmática y problemática cuestión de su futuro. Se llamó a sí mismo hombre. Y ansió regresar a las estrellas." <3
June 19, 2021
It is an optimistic dream of scientists of all ages to contact or be contacted by extraterrestrial lives. In cosmic connection, Carl Sagan, breaks down the possibilities, the efforts taken by different scientific societies at different times, fuelled by curiosity and funded by national pride and profits. Speaking for both sides of the debate, as always, Carl Sagan allows the reader to side with a more reasonable argument according to their knowledge and belief. From the year the book was published till date, as he has envisioned, space travel has received an interesting amount of attention from the wealthiest people and companies of the day, which are competing against or collaborating with each other in the quest for finding answers that lay just out of our reach, waiting for us to try and reach out just a bit.
The pace of development in the field of space exploration and the inspiration for enabling commercial space travel would definitely have made many astronomers and planetary scientists, belonging to the time before moon landing, overwhelmed with the countless possibilities that have opened up in front of us today.
The pace of development in the field of space exploration and the inspiration for enabling commercial space travel would definitely have made many astronomers and planetary scientists, belonging to the time before moon landing, overwhelmed with the countless possibilities that have opened up in front of us today.
October 31, 2022
The book written by Carl Sagan in 1973, The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, just shows the true dramatic wonder of this universe-both the known and unknown. This book takes you on a journey of astronomical observations and ideas that are related to human concerns and the possibility of extraterrestrial connection. Dr. Sagan was an astronomer and exobiologist that wrote this STEM book that described designing new instruments for landing and searching for new life on Mars. He also talked about space exploration and specific space vehicles used on the planet as well as preparing a new way to contact more advanced and intelligent beings in other universes. Dr. Carl Sagan is a pioneer in exobiology so he’s played an important role in NASA’s Mariner, Viking, and Voyager missions to other planets in the galaxy. Reading this really got me more curious about what much more is in this huge galaxy and just how much life there is out there which is why I was really interested in this book. Would recommend this to others who also have questions and are curious about an astronomer's view about life and astronomy.
June 24, 2021
A stellar and cohesive approach to educating on the cosmos. Split into three parts, the first is a basic rundown with scientific facts about the cosmos we perceive, then the book advances (still with scientific fact) to the solar system and further. Finally, we enter the mind of Carl Sagan. The third part is scientific for certain, but weighed heavily by speculation; pessimistic, optimistic, and realistic speculation using science to route Sagan's wonders.
A powerfully mind-altering read, quite enjoyable, and a page turner. Although, written in 1973, as we've technologically advanced much in the last fifty years, interesting how outdated this writing still has yet to become. Sagan does however speak with a brilliant mind, making mention to history and concepts unfamiliar to the common reader. Though he does explain his references (especially when math is involved), some times I found myself going onto the internet to look up unfamiliar things, but also to check and see how some (by the time of publishing) unfinished experiments eventually unfolded.
A powerfully mind-altering read, quite enjoyable, and a page turner. Although, written in 1973, as we've technologically advanced much in the last fifty years, interesting how outdated this writing still has yet to become. Sagan does however speak with a brilliant mind, making mention to history and concepts unfamiliar to the common reader. Though he does explain his references (especially when math is involved), some times I found myself going onto the internet to look up unfamiliar things, but also to check and see how some (by the time of publishing) unfinished experiments eventually unfolded.
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