The incomparable Carl Sagan: scientist, presenter

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a famous and brilliant astronomer who was also a great speaker and presenter. If Carl Sagan would have lived to see TED, I am sure he would have been one of the best presenters ever at the TED conference. I was a big fan of Carl Sagan back in the 1980s and learned a lot from Cosmos. Sagan always spoke of complex issues in ways that were easy to understand and made you excited about science. He did not dumb down the issues, he simply had an engaging and unique way of putting the issue in context and illuminating and illustrating his points in a way that listeners could comprehend. He was a scientist-presenter who cared about being clear and about being understood.

When Carl Sagan spoke of statistics he usually followed the number with an illustration or comparison to make it understandable in context. In the beginning of this clip below you can watch a good example of Sagan doing this without any visuals, though his words create the visuals in your head (which is sometimes even more effective). For example, how much is 20 tons of TNT? Enough for a single bomb to destroy an entire block. All the bombs used in World War II, Sagan says, amounted to two megatons of TNT or the equivalent of a hundred thousand "blockbuster" bombs. So now we can visualize all the explosive, deadly destruction that took place in all of WWII (1939-1945). We can "see" the horrible impact of two megatons of TNT. Two megatons of TNT is now not an abstraction. Then Sagan drops a bomb of his own:

"Today, two megatons is the equivalent of a single thermonuclear bomb—one bomb with the destructive force of the second world war."

Perspective
It's always hard to see the forest for the trees. Good presenters will ask us to step back and examine the problem from another perspective to better see what is true and what is not. In the clip above Sagan says:

"How would we explain all this to a dispassionate, extraterrestrial observer? What account would we give of our stewardship of the planet earth?"

By asking us to look at the problem from the point of view of an "extraterrestrial" (i.e., a dispassionate outside observer) then the problem need not be obstructed by abstractions such as nation, political party, religion, etc. Sagan says that "from the extraterrestrial perspective, our global civilization is clearly on the edge of failure and the most important task it faces is preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens and the future habitability of the planet."

Personally, Sagan's words here remind me that we as a species are the most remarkably intelligent, creative, and innovative species on the planet, yet paradoxically and incomprehensibly (at least to me), we also can be the stupidest. Nonetheless, there is hope. Sagan says there is emerging a new consciousness which sees the earth as a single organism. A consciousness that understands that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We know who speaks for the nations, Sagan says, but who speaks for the earth? The answer, of course, is we do. Though it does not appear in this clip above, you can read the final chapter of Cosmos online here and see Sagan's concluding comment:

"Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!"

Below is a quote from Carl Sagan's Cosmos that goes very well with this photo of Earth I pointed to earlier.

"Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars."
                                                            —Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot
Below is a slideshow set to Carl Sagan's narration. The message is wonderful and the simple photographic images amplify the message well. I think this is beautiful and puts "it"—our lives, our responsibilities, worries and our dreams—in perspective. It is this distant image of our tiny world—the only one we've got—that underscores, says Sagan, "our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another" and to preserve and cherish our home, the planet Earth.



Metaphor
Some of the graphics will seem a bit dated in this clip below, but this clip is a good example of using a metaphor and simple graphics to help illuminate a complex issue. You can argue that it is too simple, but  remember that this kind of calendar metaphor to explain the history of the universe is not meant to be the end of the conversation, it is only meant to be the beginning. We have a choice, says Sagan, but what happens in the first second of the next cosmic year (i.e., now) depends on what we do with our intelligence and knowledge.

Here's the Cosmic Calendar from Discovery Education. Each month represents about one billion years.


December of the "Cosmic Calendar."

LINKS
• The International Year of Astronomy 2009 
• Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP Journal)

Comments

[MikeS]

"The Priveleged Planet" DVD is an excellent protrayal of the intelligent design behind Earth's precise position in the cosmos. The Earth is perfectly positioned to support carbon-based life forms and scientific discovery. Sagan may have been a much happier person if he had realized that.

Buy the DVD here
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/4679

Home
http://www.privilegedplanet.com/

[DrSteve]

Sagan was a beautiful person, no doubt. For that very reason his philosphy can't be generalised to others.
He advocates viewing "...our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars..." - this is precisely the rationale someone like a psychopath (1%-3% of the population) needs to justify NOT being ethical. Can't you hear it now: "What difference does it make, we'll all be dead...therefore I think I'll help myself to your wallet."
Great presenter, though.

[leosia]

Thanks for a great post Garr. In regard to the comment above, Carl Sagan was a great presenter, but he was also a scientist and visionary who told things as they are, not what people like to believe. I'm currently reading his recently published book of the Gifford Lectures - I find it fascinating that back in 1986 he was giving the same messages that are currently popularised by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Al Gore, to name only a few.

Carl Sagan's message was certainly not that we're insignificant. It was the opposite - the problem is the human race is acting as though we have someplace else to go sometime soon...

[David]

Great post, Garr. Sad that some feel the need to push religious crap like The Privileged Planet in response. (Yes, the earth is in the habitable zone of the solar system...we got lucky. Out of a zillion planets in the universe, that'll happen eventually.)

My favorite Sagan book of all is The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. It's an eloquent argument for science over superstition and religion. (And by the way, beautifully makes the point that we can be good, happy, ethical people without all of that. Who said Sagan was unhappy??)

It can be bought (if you have the courage, commenter #1) at http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196970705&sr=8-1

[Chris mankey]

.our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars..." - this is precisely the rationale someone like a psychopath (1%-3% of the population) needs to justify NOT being ethical.

Psychopaths are probably born that way. You can't blame astronomy for their behaviour. They certainly wouldn't argue that the earth is a fragile planet as they don't care. Try again, Dr Steve!

[Chris mankey]

.our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars..." - this is precisely the rationale someone like a psychopath (1%-3% of the population) needs to justify NOT being ethical.

Psychopaths are probably born that way. You can't blame astronomy for their behaviour. They certainly wouldn't argue that the earth is a fragile planet as they don't care. Try again, Dr Steve!

[Carlos]

Hi Garr,

My favorite presentation of Carl Sagan on Cosmos is on the episode 5, about the possibility of existing life on Mars.
.
I love and use that part when he has over a table all the elements that are present in a human body in theyre rigth proportions. Then he mixes them and stirs and stirs and stirs... he only gets a boring mixture of atoms.
.
Then the Grand Finale... What cfould we expect?!
.
The beauty it is not in the composition, but in the eway things are mixed and linked together, information distilled over 4 bilions years of biological evolution.