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Conversations With Carl Sagan (Literary Conversations Series) PDF

195 Pages·2006·6.203 MB·English
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Conversations with Carl Sagan Literary Conversations Series Peggy Whitman Prenshaw General Editor Photo credit:© Photofest Conversatwiiotnhs CarSla gan Edited by Tom Head University Press of Mississippi Jackson ww'\v. upress.state. ms. us The University Press of Mississippi is a n1en1ber of the Association of An1erican University Presses. Copyright© 2006 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of An1erica First edition 2006 x. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sagan Carl, 1934- Conversations with Carl Sagan I edited by Tom Head.- 1st ed. p. cm. - (Literary conversations series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57806-735-9 (cloth: alk. paper)- ISBN 1-57806-736-7 (paper: alk. paper) I. Sagan, Carl, 1934--Interviews. 2. Novelists, American-20th century-Interviews. 3. Science fiction-Authorship. I. Head, Tom. II. Title. III. Series. PS3569.A287Z475 2006 520' .92-dc22 [BJ 2005048747 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available Books by Carl Sagan The Atmospheres of Mars and Venus. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1961.W ith W[illiam] W. Kellogg. Intelligent Life in the Universe. Oakland, CA: Holden-Day, 1963. With I[osif] S[amuilovich] Shklovskii. Planets. New York: Time-Life Science Library, 1966. With Jonathan Leonard. Planetary Exploration: The Condon Lectures. Corvallis, OR: University of Oregon Press, 1970. Planetary Atmospheres. New York: Reidel, 1971. Edited with Tobias C. Owen and Harlan J.S mith. Space Research XI. 2 vols. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1971. Edited with K[irill] Ya. Kondratyev and M[ichael] Rycroft. UFOs: A Scientific Debate. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972. Edited with Thornton Page. Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, editor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973. Mars and the Mind of Man. New York: Harper, 1973.W ith Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Bruce Murray, and Walter Sullivan. Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man. Washington, DC: U.S.G overnment Printing Office, 1973. With Richard Berendzen, Ashley Montagu, Philip Morrison, Krister Stendhal, and George Wald. The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. New York: Doubleday, 1973. Other Worlds. New York: Bantam, 1975. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. New York: Random House, 1977. Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record. New York: Random House, 1978. With F[rank] D[onald] Drake, Ann Druyan, Jon Lomberg, Linda Sagan, and Timothy Ferris. Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. New York: Random House, 1979. Cosmos. New York: Random House, 1980. The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War. New York: Norton, 1984. With Paul R. Ehrlich, Donald Kennedy, and Walter Orr Roberts. Comet. New York: Random House, 1985. And Ann Druyan. v VI Bookbsy C arSla gan ContaAc tN:o veNle.w Y orkR:a ndonH1o use1,98 5. f A PatWhh erNeo M an ThoughNtu:c leWairn taenrd t hEen do thAer msR aceN.e wY ork: RandomH ouse1,98 9. WithR ichaTrudr co. f f ShadowosF orgotAtnecne stAo Sresa:r cohrW ho \..Ve AreN.e wY orkR:a ndomH ouse1,99 2. AndA nnD ruyan. f PalBel uDeo tA: V isiootnh Heu manF utuirneS pacNee.w Y orkR:a ndorHno use1,99 4. TheD emon-HaunWtoerdl Sdc:i enacsae C andlient heD arkN.e wY orkR:a ndonH1o use, 1995. f f BilliaonndBs i lliTohnosu:g hotnsL iea ndD eath at thBer inokt hMei llenniNuemwY .o rk: RandomH ouse1,99 7. Contents Introduction ix Chronology xxi A Conversation with Carl Sagan Timothy Ferris 3 A Resonance with Something Alive lfe nry S. F. Cooper, Jr. 19 Carl Sagan Interviewed Joseph Goodavage 36 Second View: Sagan on Encounters Art Harris 47 Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish Dennis Meredith 51 The Cosmos Jonathan Cott 57 God and Carl Sagan: Is the Cosmos Big Enough for Both of Them? Edward Wakin 68 A Pale Blue Dot Claire Marino 76 Sagan: Dump Environmentally Unconscious Slobs Ponchitta Pierce 79 Talk of the Nation: Science Friday Ira Flatow 82 Bringing Science Down to Earth Anne Kalosh 99 The Charlie Rose Show Charlie Rose 106 A Slayer of Demons Psychology Today 1 13 ., ... Talk of the Nation: Science Friday Ira Flatow 125 The Charlie Rose Show Charlie Rose 141 The Final Frontier? Joel Achenbach 151 Index 163 .. V1l Introduction "When you're in love:' Carl Sagan said in his last published interview, "you 1 want to tell the world. I've been in love with science, so it seems the most nat­ ural thing in the world to tell people about it." The passion for science Sagan displayed in his interviews was not base� strictly on professional interest; it was based on a deeply personal and sincere curiosity about the cosmos and an almost religious commitment to preserving the vulnerable humanity he saw within it. Before Sagan, scientists had argued for centuries that the Earth is not at the center of the universe and existentialists had argued for centuries that human life is not subject to special protection, but these were abstract ideas generally described in an abstract way. These beliefs, though widely accepted by philosophers and scientists alike, had not been introduced together into the public consciousness as a clear, meaningful model of human­ ity and the cosmos that could be visualized and understood. Sagan attempted to combine these images and emerged with an original way of describing the universe. As he told Interview magazine in 1996: We live on an obscure hunk of rock and metal circling a humdrum sun, which is on the outskirts of a perfectly ordinary galaxy comprised of 400 billion other suns, which, in turn, is one of some hundred billion galaxies that make up the universe, which, current thinking suggests, is one of a huge number-perhaps an infinite number-of other closed-off universes. From that perspective, the idea that we're at the center, that we have some cosmic importance, is ludicrous.2 Sagan's interviews convey a humanism, a confidence in the potential of the human race tempered by a sense of its vulnerability as a tiny hive swept about in an indifferent cosmos. This explains, in part, his passion for sci­ ence-the only way humanity has ever learned to protect itself from the unspeakably powerful and mysterious blind forces of nature. «It's not that scientists are prejudiced toward science," Sagan told U.S. News' Stephen . IX

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