Blast from the Past: Cosmos (Carl Sagan)
While rained in on Saturday morning, I started a trip down memory lane, re-watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series.
I was only 5 when Cosmos originally aired, but I remember watching it then and a few years later. Carl Sagan was the first popular intellectual that I can remember, and doubtlessly was a role model of sorts (uchicago grad and all!).
I remember the pictures of the planets mostly, they were strange and beautiful. I remember feeling that billions & billions were many more than I could imagine. I also remember Sagan’s imaginary space-ship, in the shape of dandelion seed, being austere and serious. I knew that it was the sort of space travel that the man of science would choose for himself, more akin to Superman’s “Fortress of Solitude” than the raucous bridge of the starship Enterprise.
Today, while viewing the first few episodes on Netflix (watch instantly!), I’m struck by how good the science was… as much of it has held up for almost 30 years (this version of the series has some scientific updates circa the early 90s by Sagan himself). I am also surprised by how multi-disciplinary the education was, as the show went beyond astronomy to biology, geology, history, physics, philosophy, and did not shy away from profound discussions about society and culture.
It seems silly to think that in the modern world science could still be under siege, but you can think nothing else when Sagan talks about evolution or the possibility that exists in an immense universe. You can think of nothing else as he details the history of the progression of our understandings of the universe and the waves of resistence to any new idea that challenged the status quo.
When not lost in the wonder of the magnitude of the universe that Sagan introduced me to, I’m convinced that we’ll reach for the stars in spite of ourselves… kicking and screaming the whole time!
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