carl sagan's cosmos, part 13 - who speaks for earth

5/12/2018 Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Part 13 - Who Speaks for Earth - slidepdf.com

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"I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day … that I have set before theelife and death...the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that thou mayest live… thou and thy seed."

Nearly 200 years ago, in the Gulf of Alaska at a place called Lituya Bay two culturesthat had never met experienced a first encounter. The Tlingit people lived more or less

as their ancestors had for thousands of years. They were nomads moving often bycanoe between numerous campsites where they caught plentiful fish and sea ottersand traded with neighboring tribes. The creator they worshiped was the raven gowhom they pictured as an enormous black bird with white wings. And one July day in1786 the raven god appeared. The Tlingit were terrified. They knew that anyonelooking directly at the god would be turned to stone. From the other side of the planethad come an expedition led by the French explorer La Pérouse. It was the mostelaborately planned scientific voyage of the century sent around the world to gatherknowledge about the geography natural history and peoples of distant lands. But tothe Tlingit whose world was confined to the islands and inlets of south Alaska thisgreat vessel could have come only from the gods. There was one among them whodared to look more deeply. He was an old warrior, and nearly blind. He said that his life

was almost over. For the common good, he would approach the raven to learn whetherthe god really would turn his people to stone. He set out on his own voyage of discovery to confront the end of the world. The old man made himself look hard at theraven and saw that it was not a great bird from the sky but the work of men likehimself. This first encounter turned out to be peaceful. Men of the La Pérouseexpedition were under orders to treat with respect any people they might discover. Anexceptional policy for its time and after. La Pérouse and the Tlingit exchanged goodsand then the strange ship sailed away, never to return.

Not all encounters between nations had been so peaceful. Before 1519 the Aztecs of Mexico had never seen a gun. They too believed at first that their strange visitors hadcome from the sky. The Spaniards under Cortez were not constrained by any

injunctions against violence. Their true nature and intentions soon became clear.Unlike the La Pérouse expedition the Conquistadors sought, not knowledge, but gold.

They used their superior weapons to loot and murder. In their madness, theyobliterated a civilization. In the name of piety in a mockery of their religion theSpaniards utterly destroyed a society with an art, astronomy, and architecture theequal of anything in Europe. We revile the Conquistadors for their cruelty andshortsightedness for choosing death. We admire La Pérouse and the Tlingit for theircourage and wisdom for choosing life. The choice is with us still.

But the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient mythmakers knewwe're children equally of the Earth and sky. In our tenure on this planet we'veaccumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage: Propensities for aggression and ritual

submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders. All of which puts our survival in somedoubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others love for our children a desire tolearn from history and experience and a great, soaring, passionate intelligence. Theclear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature willprevail is uncertain. Particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one smallpart of the small planet Earth. But up there in the cosmos an inescapable perspectiveawaits. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space.Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are difficult to support when wesee our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.

There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us

wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably, headlong to self-destruction. Idream about it. And sometimes they're bad dreams. In the vision of a dream I onceimagined myself searching for other civilizations in the cosmos. Among a hundred



billion galaxies and a billion trillion stars life and intelligence should have arisen onmany worlds. Some worlds are barren and desolate on them life never began or mayhave been extinguished in some cosmic catastrophe. There may be worlds rich in lifebut not yet evolved to intelligence and high technology. There may be civilizations thatachieve technology and then promptly use it to destroy themselves. And perhaps thereare also beings who learned to live with their technology and themselves. Beings who

endure and become citizens of the cosmos. Immersed in these thoughts I found myself approaching a world that was clearly inhabited a world I had visited before.

I saw a planet encompassed by light and recognized the signature of intelligence. Butsuddenly darkness, total and absolute. In my dream I could read the Book of Worlds. Avast encyclopedia of a billion planets within the Milky Way. What could the computertell me about this now-darkened world? They must have survived some earliercatastrophe. Locally initiated contact: Maybe their television broadcasts. Their biologywas different from ours. High technology. I wondered what those lights had been for.

There must have been signs of trouble. Probability of survival in a century less than1%. Not very good odds. "Communications interrupted." Their world society had failed.

They had made the ultimate mistake. I felt a longing to return to Earth. The television

transmissions of Earth rushed past me expanding away from our planet at the speed of light.

(RANDOM TELEVISION AUDIO PLAYS)ANNOUNCER 1: The nuclear test-ban treaty was signed today.ANNOUNCER 2: Something's happened in the motorcade. Stand by.ANNOUNCER 3: For 64,000 dollars.ANNOUNCER 4: bombing of Hanoi was designed to cripple morale.NIXON: There can be no whitewash at the White House.ANNOUNCER 5: series of record oil company profits were revealed.ANNOUNCER 6: if the serious course of events continued. Foreign ministers are at thismoment. Please stand by. Stand by.

Then, suddenly silence total and absolute. But the dream was not yet done. Had wedestroyed our home? What had we done to the Earth? There had been many ways forlife to perish at our hands. We had poisoned the air and water. We had ravaged theland. Perhaps we had changed the climate. Could it have been a plague or nuclearwar?

I remembered the galactic computer. What would it say about the Earth? There wasour region of the galaxy. There was our world. I had found the entry for Earth.Humanity, third from the sun. They had heard our television broadcasts and thoughtthem an application for cosmic citizenship. Our technology had been growingenormously. They got that right. 200 nation states, About six global powers. The

potential to become one planet. Probability of survival over a century, here also lessthan l%. So it was nuclear war. A full nuclear exchange. There would be no more bigquestions. No more answers. Never again a love or a child. No descendants toremember us and be proud. No more voyages to the stars. No more songs from theEarth. I saw East Africa and thought a few million years ago we humans took our firststeps there. Our brains grew and changed. The old parts began to be guided by thenew parts. And this made us human with compassion and foresight and reason. Butinstead, we listened to that reptilian voice within us counseling fear, territorialityaggression. We accepted the products of science. We rejected its methods.

Maybe the reptiles will evolve intelligence once more. Perhaps, one day, there will becivilizations again on Earth. There will be life. There will be intelligence. But there will

be no more humans. Not here, not on a billion worlds. Every thinking person fearsnuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madnessand every country has an excuse. There's a dreary chain of causality. The Germans



were working on the bomb at the beginning of World War II. So the Americans had tomake one first. If the Americans had one, the Russians had to have one. Then, theBritish, the French the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis.

21800:18:25,313 --> 00:18:28,874

Many nations now collectnuclear weapons.

21900:18:29,083 --> 00:18:31,313

They're easy to make.

22000:18:31,519 --> 00:18:36,218

You can steal fissionable materialfrom nuclear reactors.

22100:18:36,424 --> 00:18:41,361Nuclear weapons have almost becomea home handicraft industry.

22200:18:42,263 --> 00:18:46,563

The conventional bombs of World War IIwere called "blockbusters."

22300:18:46,767 --> 00:18:51,500

Filled with 20 tons of TNT, theycould destroy a city block.

22400:18:51,706 --> 00:18:55,198All the bombs dropped on all thecities of World War II...

22500:18:55,409 --> 00:18:57,934...amounted to some2 million tons of TNT.

22600:18:58,145 --> 00:18:59,772

Two megatons.

22700:18:59,981 --> 00:19:02,245Coventry and Rotterdam.

22800:19:02,450 --> 00:19:03,940Dresden and Tokyo.

22900:19:04,151 --> 00:19:06,483



All the death that rainedfrom the skies...

23000:19:06,687 --> 00:19:09,679...between 1939 and 1945.

23100:19:09,890 --> 00:19:14,759100,000 blockbusters.

Two megatons.

23200:19:14,962 --> 00:19:19,456

Today, two megatons is the equivalentof a single thermonuclear bomb.

233

00:19:19,667 --> 00:19:22,659One bomb with the destructive force...

23400:19:22,870 --> 00:19:25,498...of the Second World War.

23500:19:25,706 --> 00:19:28,231But there are tens of thousandsof nuclear weapons.

23600:19:28,442 --> 00:19:31,468

The missile and bomber forcesof the Soviet Union and U. S...

23700:19:31,679 --> 00:19:36,116...have warheads aimed at over15,000 designated targets.

23800:19:36,317 --> 00:19:39,115

No place on the planet is safe.

23900:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,982

The energy containedin these weapons...

24000:19:42,189 --> 00:19:43,918...genies of death...

241

00:19:44,125 --> 00:19:48,528...patiently awaitingthe rubbing of the lamps...



24200:19:48,729 --> 00:19:51,357...totals far more than10,000 megatons.

24300:19:51,565 --> 00:19:55,160But with the destructionconcentrated efficiently...

24400:19:55,369 --> 00:19:58,600...not over six years,but over a few hours.

24500:19:58,806 --> 00:20:02,742

A blockbuster for every familyon the planet.

24600:20:02,943 --> 00:20:05,810A World War II every second...

24700:20:06,013 --> 00:20:09,574...for the length of a lazy afternoon.

248

00:20:11,152 --> 00:20:13,017(BIRDS CHIRPING)

24900:20:15,489 --> 00:20:17,150

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima...

25000:20:17,358 --> 00:20:19,883...killed 70,000 people.

251

00:20:20,094 --> 00:20:22,289In a full nuclear exchange...

25200:20:22,496 --> 00:20:25,158...in the paroxysm of global death...

25300:20:25,366 --> 00:20:28,199...the equivalent of a million Hiroshima bombs...

25400:20:28,402 --> 00:20:31,166...would be dropped all



over the world.

25500:20:31,372 --> 00:20:33,397In such an exchangenot everyone would be...

25600:20:33,607 --> 00:20:37,668...killed by the blast and firestormand the immediate radiation.

25700:20:37,878 --> 00:20:40,506

There would be other agonies:

25800:20:40,714 --> 00:20:41,703

Loss of loved ones...

25900:20:41,916 --> 00:20:46,319...the legions of the burned andblinded and mutilated...

26000:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,215...the absence of medical care...

261

00:20:48,422 --> 00:20:49,753...disease, plague...

26200:20:49,957 --> 00:20:54,018...long-lived radiation poisoningof the soil and the water.

26300:20:54,228 --> 00:20:59,097

The threat of tumors and stillbirthsand malformed children.

26400:20:59,300 --> 00:21:02,861And the hopeless sense of a civilization destroyed for nothing.

26500:21:03,070 --> 00:21:07,166

The knowledge that we could haveprevented it and did not.

266

00:21:10,044 --> 00:21:13,411 The global balance of terror...



26700:21:13,614 --> 00:21:16,378...pioneered by the U.S.and the Soviet Union...

268

00:21:16,584 --> 00:21:20,020...holds hostageall the citizens of the Earth.

26900:21:20,221 --> 00:21:22,815Each side persistently probes...

27000:21:23,023 --> 00:21:25,423...the limits of the other's tolerance...

27100:21:25,626 --> 00:21:29,357...like the Cuban missile crisis...

27200:21:29,864 --> 00:21:32,128...the testing of anti-satellite weapons...

27300:21:32,333 --> 00:21:34,824

...the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars.

27400:21:35,035 --> 00:21:37,003

The hostile militaryestablishments are...

27500:21:37,204 --> 00:21:41,004...locked in some ghastlymutual embrace.

27600:21:41,208 --> 00:21:42,937Each needs the other.

27700:21:43,144 --> 00:21:46,875But the balance of terroris a delicate balance...

27800:21:47,081 --> 00:21:50,608...with very little margin

for miscalculation.

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00:21:52,186 --> 00:21:55,986And the world impoverishesitself by spending...

28000:21:56,690 --> 00:22:01,127

...a trillion dollars a yearon preparations for war.

28100:22:01,328 --> 00:22:02,920And by employing perhaps...

28200:22:03,130 --> 00:22:06,190...half the scientists and hightechnologists on the planet...

28300:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,527...in military endeavors.

28400:22:10,738 --> 00:22:12,433How would we explain all this...

28500:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,006...to a dispassionateextraterrestrial observer?

28600:22:15,209 --> 00:22:19,043What account would we giveof our stewardship...

28700:22:19,246 --> 00:22:20,713...of the planet Earth?

28800:22:20,915 --> 00:22:24,373

We have heard the rationalesoffered by the superpowers.

28900:22:24,585 --> 00:22:27,213We know who speaksfor the nations.

29000:22:27,421 --> 00:22:29,889But who speaksfor the human species?

29100:22:30,090 --> 00:22:32,149


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Who speaks for Earth?

29200:22:33,327 --> 00:22:37,525From an extraterrestrial perspective,our global civilization is...

29300:22:37,731 --> 00:22:40,165...clearly on the edge of failure...

29400:22:40,367 --> 00:22:42,267...in the most important task it faces:

29500:22:42,469 --> 00:22:45,905Preserving the lives and well-being

of its citizens...

29600:22:46,106 --> 00:22:49,269...and the future habitabilityof the planet.

29700:22:49,476 --> 00:22:53,913But if we're willing to live with thegrowing likelihood of nuclear war...

29800:22:54,114 --> 00:22:57,277...shouldn't we also be willingto explore vigorously...

29900:22:57,484 --> 00:23:00,112...every possible means toprevent nuclear war?

30000:23:00,321 --> 00:23:03,017

Shouldn't we consider,in every nation...

30100:23:03,224 --> 00:23:06,284...major changes in the traditionalways of doing things?

30200:23:06,493 --> 00:23:08,290A fundamental restructuring...

30300:23:08,495 --> 00:23:12,124...of economic, political,



social and religious institutions?

30400:23:12,633 --> 00:23:15,466We've reached a point wherethere can be no more...

30500:23:15,669 --> 00:23:17,569...special interests or cases.

30600:23:17,905 --> 00:23:21,432Nuclear arms threaten everyperson on Earth.

30700:23:22,810 --> 00:23:27,213

Fundamental changes in societyare sometimes labeled...

30800:23:27,414 --> 00:23:31,612...impractical or contraryto human nature...

30900:23:31,819 --> 00:23:34,117...as if nuclear war were practical...

31000:23:34,321 --> 00:23:37,313...or as if there were onlyone human nature.

31100:23:37,925 --> 00:23:40,519But fundamental changes canclearly be made.

31200:23:40,728 --> 00:23:42,696

We're surrounded by them.

31300:23:42,896 --> 00:23:45,558In the last two centuries,abject slavery...

31400:23:45,766 --> 00:23:48,326...which was with us forthousands of years...

31500:23:48,535 --> 00:23:50,628...has almost entirely



been eliminated...

31600:23:50,838 --> 00:23:53,432...in a stirringworldwide revolution.

31700:23:53,641 --> 00:23:57,236Women, systematically mistreatedfor millennia...

31800:23:57,444 --> 00:24:00,345...are gradually gaining the politicaland economic power...

319

00:24:00,547 --> 00:24:02,811...traditionally denied to them.

32000:24:03,017 --> 00:24:07,613And some wars of aggression haverecently been stopped or curtailed...

32100:24:07,821 --> 00:24:10,051...because of a revulsion...

32200:24:10,257 --> 00:24:13,420...felt by the people inthe aggressor nations.

32300:24:13,627 --> 00:24:15,754

The old appeals...

32400:24:15,963 --> 00:24:18,864...to racial, sexual,

and religious chauvinism...

32500:24:19,066 --> 00:24:22,331...and to rabid nationalist fervor...

32600:24:22,536 --> 00:24:24,367...are beginning not to work.

32700:24:24,571 --> 00:24:28,234

A new consciousness is developingwhich sees the Earth as...



32800:24:28,442 --> 00:24:29,966...a single organism...

32900:24:30,177 --> 00:24:34,307

...and recognizes that an organismat war with itself...

33000:24:34,515 --> 00:24:35,948...is doomed.

33100:24:36,150 --> 00:24:38,880We are one planet.

332

00:24:40,888 --> 00:24:44,517One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration...

33300:24:44,725 --> 00:24:47,853...is the image of the Earth,finite and lonely...

33400:24:48,062 --> 00:24:52,931...somehow vulnerable, bearing

the entire human species...

33500:24:53,133 --> 00:24:56,864...through the oceansof space and time.

33600:24:57,071 --> 00:24:59,437But this is an ancient perception.

337

00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,403In the 3rd century B. C...

33800:25:01,608 --> 00:25:04,099...our planet was mapped andaccurately measured...

33900:25:04,311 --> 00:25:08,441...by a Greek scientist namedEratosthenes, who worked in Egypt.

34000:25:08,649 --> 00:25:11,243



This was the world as he knew it.

34100:25:12,019 --> 00:25:14,351Eratosthenes was the director...

34200:25:14,555 --> 00:25:17,251...of the great Libraryof Alexandria...

34300:25:17,458 --> 00:25:21,724...the center of science and learningin the ancient world.

34400:25:22,963 --> 00:25:27,024

Aristotle had argued that humanitywas divided into Greeks...

34500:25:27,234 --> 00:25:31,136...and everybody else,who he called "barbarians"...

34600:25:31,338 --> 00:25:35,365...and that the Greeks should keepthemselves racially pure.

34700:25:35,576 --> 00:25:39,945He taught that it was fitting forthe Greeks to enslave other peoples.

34800:25:40,147 --> 00:25:44,914But Eratosthenes criticized Aristotlefor his blind chauvinism.

349

00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,283He believed there was good and badin every nation.

35000:25:49,490 --> 00:25:53,790

The Greek conquerors had inventeda new god for the Egyptians...

35100:25:53,994 --> 00:25:57,191...but he looked remarkably Greek.

35200:25:57,398 --> 00:25:59,923



Alexander was portrayed as pharaoh...

35300:26:00,134 --> 00:26:02,398...in a gesture to the Egyptians.

35400:26:02,603 --> 00:26:07,097But in practice, the Greeks wereconfident of their superiority.

35500:26:08,108 --> 00:26:12,101

The protests of the librarian hardlyconstituted a serious challenge...

35600:26:12,312 --> 00:26:14,109

...to prevailing prejudices.

35700:26:14,314 --> 00:26:17,181

Their world was as imperfectas our own.

35800:26:17,384 --> 00:26:20,979But the Ptolemies, the Greek kings of Egypt who followed Alexander...

35900:26:21,188 --> 00:26:23,053...had at least this virtue:

36000:26:23,257 --> 00:26:26,420

They supported the advancementof knowledge.

36100:26:26,627 --> 00:26:29,960Popular ideas about the nature of

the cosmos were challenged...

36200:26:30,164 --> 00:26:32,064...and some of them, discarded.

36300:26:32,266 --> 00:26:33,824New ideas were proposed...

36400:26:34,034 --> 00:26:36,502

...and found to be inbetter accord with the facts.



36500:26:36,703 --> 00:26:39,570

There were imaginative proposals,vigorous debates...

366

00:26:39,773 --> 00:26:41,138...brilliant syntheses.

36700:26:41,341 --> 00:26:43,309

The resulting treasureof knowledge...

36800:26:43,510 --> 00:26:46,411...was recorded and preservedfor centuries...

36900:26:46,613 --> 00:26:49,081...on these shelves.

37000:26:50,451 --> 00:26:54,319Science came of agein this library.

37100:26:56,924 --> 00:27:01,054

The Ptolemies didn't merelycollect old knowledge.

37200:27:01,261 --> 00:27:04,958

They supported scientific researchand generated new knowledge.

37300:27:05,165 --> 00:27:06,962

The results were amazing.

37400:27:07,167 --> 00:27:11,570Eratosthenes accurately calculatedthe size of the Earth.

37500:27:11,772 --> 00:27:12,864He mapped it...

37600:27:13,073 --> 00:27:16,270...and he argued that it could be

circumnavigated.

377



00:27:16,477 --> 00:27:20,504Hipparchus anticipated thatstars come into being...

37800:27:20,714 --> 00:27:23,274

...slowly move during the courseof centuries...

37900:27:23,484 --> 00:27:24,815...and eventually perish.

38000:27:25,018 --> 00:27:27,009It was he who first catalogued...

381

00:27:27,221 --> 00:27:29,951...the positions and magnitudesof the stars...

38200:27:30,257 --> 00:27:33,420...in order to determine whetherthere were such changes.

38300:27:33,627 --> 00:27:36,425Euclid produced a textbook

on geometry...

38400:27:36,630 --> 00:27:39,793...which human beings learned fromfor 23 centuries.

38500:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,733It's still a great read, fullof the most elegant proofs.

38600:27:44,938 --> 00:27:48,533Galen wrote basic works onhealing and anatomy...

38700:27:48,742 --> 00:27:51,472...which dominated medicineuntil the Renaissance.

38800:27:51,678 --> 00:27:53,339

These are just a few examples.

389



00:27:53,547 --> 00:27:55,879 There were dozens of great scholars here...

39000:27:56,083 --> 00:27:59,849

...and hundreds of fundamentaldiscoveries.

39100:28:04,191 --> 00:28:07,592Some of those discoveries havea distinctly modern ring.

39200:28:07,794 --> 00:28:11,730Apollonius of Perga studiedthe parabola and the ellipse...

39300:28:11,932 --> 00:28:15,698...curves that we know today describethe paths of falling objects...

39400:28:15,903 --> 00:28:17,268...in a gravitational field...

39500:28:17,471 --> 00:28:20,702

...and space vehicles travelingbetween the planets.

39600:28:20,908 --> 00:28:25,345Heron of Alexandria inventedsteam engines and gear trains...

39700:28:25,546 --> 00:28:29,380...he was the author of the first book on robots.

39800:28:29,583 --> 00:28:32,916Imagine how different our worldwould be if those discoveries...

39900:28:33,120 --> 00:28:35,850...had been usedfor the benefit of everyone.

400

00:28:36,056 --> 00:28:38,923If the humane perspectiveof Eratosthenes...



40100:28:39,126 --> 00:28:41,390...had been widelyadopted and applied.

40200:28:41,595 --> 00:28:44,496But this was not to be.

40300:28:46,366 --> 00:28:49,563Alexandria was the greatest city...

40400:28:49,770 --> 00:28:52,864...the Western world had ever seen.

40500:28:53,073 --> 00:28:55,041People from all nations came here...

40600:28:55,242 --> 00:28:57,437...to live, to trade, to learn.

40700:28:57,644 --> 00:28:59,168On a given day...

40800:28:59,379 --> 00:29:02,371...these harbors were thronged...

40900:29:02,583 --> 00:29:06,041...with merchants and scholars,tourists.

41000:29:06,253 --> 00:29:07,447It's probably here...

41100:29:07,654 --> 00:29:11,181...that the word "cosmopolitan"realized its true meaning...

41200:29:11,391 --> 00:29:14,656...of a citizen,not just of a nation...

413

00:29:14,861 --> 00:29:16,795...but of the cosmos.



41400:29:16,997 --> 00:29:21,934

To be a citizen of the cosmos.

41500:29:22,636 --> 00:29:26,766

Here were clearly the seedsof our modern world.

41600:29:26,974 --> 00:29:29,943But why didn't theytake root and flourish?

41700:29:30,143 --> 00:29:34,512Why, instead, did the West slumberthrough 1000 years of darkness...

41800:29:34,715 --> 00:29:38,481...until Columbus and Copernicusand their contemporaries...

41900:29:38,685 --> 00:29:42,086...rediscovered the work done here?

42000:29:42,289 --> 00:29:44,519

I cannot give you a simple answer...

42100:29:44,725 --> 00:29:46,590...but I do know this:

42200:29:46,793 --> 00:29:50,627

There is no record in the entirehistory of the library...

423

00:29:50,831 --> 00:29:54,767...that any of the illustrious scholarsand scientists who worked here...

42400:29:54,968 --> 00:29:57,300...ever seriously challenged...

42500:29:57,504 --> 00:30:01,736...a single political or economicor religious assumption...

42600:30:01,942 --> 00:30:04,240



...of the society in which they lived.

42700:30:04,444 --> 00:30:08,403

The permanence of the starswas questioned.

42800:30:08,615 --> 00:30:12,483

The justice of slavery was not.

42900:30:27,934 --> 00:30:31,165Science and learning in general...

43000:30:31,371 --> 00:30:33,999...were the preserve

of the privileged few.

43100:30:34,207 --> 00:30:38,337

The vast population of this cityhad not the vaguest notion...

43200:30:38,545 --> 00:30:42,311...of the great discoveries beingmade within these walls.

43300:30:42,516 --> 00:30:43,915How could they?

43400:30:44,117 --> 00:30:47,848

The new findings were notexplained or popularized.

43500:30:48,055 --> 00:30:51,456

The progress made here

benefited them little.

43600:30:51,658 --> 00:30:54,183Science was not part of their lives.

43700:30:54,394 --> 00:30:57,386

The discoveries in mechanics, say...

43800:30:57,597 --> 00:30:59,428

...or steam technology...

439



00:30:59,633 --> 00:31:03,535...mainly were applied tothe perfection of weapons...

44000:31:03,737 --> 00:31:06,035

...to the encouragementof superstition...

44100:31:06,239 --> 00:31:08,207...to the amusement of kings.

44200:31:08,408 --> 00:31:12,276Scientists never seemed to graspthe enormous potential...

44300:31:12,479 --> 00:31:15,414...of machines to free people...

44400:31:15,615 --> 00:31:19,244...from arduous and repetitive labor.

44500:31:19,453 --> 00:31:21,614

The intellectual achievementsof antiquity...

44600:31:21,822 --> 00:31:24,484...had few practical applications.

44700:31:24,691 --> 00:31:29,628Science never capturedthe imagination of the multitude.

44800:31:30,130 --> 00:31:33,657

There was no counterbalanceto stagnation, to pessimism...

44900:31:33,867 --> 00:31:38,270...to the most abject surrenderto mysticism.

45000:31:38,472 --> 00:31:41,635So when, at long last...

45100:31:41,842 --> 00:31:44,675...the mob came



to burn the place down...

45200:31:44,878 --> 00:31:47,278...there was nobody to stop them.

45300:32:09,169 --> 00:32:12,195Let me tell you about the end.

45400:32:12,405 --> 00:32:16,671It's a story about the lastscientist to work in this place.

45500:32:16,877 --> 00:32:20,108A mathematician, astronomer,

physicist...

45600:32:20,313 --> 00:32:25,148...and head of the school of Neo-Platonic philosophy in Alexandria.

45700:32:25,352 --> 00:32:27,582

That's an extraordinary rangeof accomplishments...

45800:32:27,788 --> 00:32:30,382...for any individual, in any age.

45900:32:30,590 --> 00:32:33,354Her name was Hypatia.

46000:32:33,560 --> 00:32:38,156She was born in this cityin the year 370 A.D.

46100:32:40,667 --> 00:32:44,398

This was a time when womenhad essentially no options.

46200:32:44,604 --> 00:32:46,936

They were considered property.

46300:32:47,140 --> 00:32:50,837

Nevertheless, Hypatia was ableto move freely...



46400:32:51,044 --> 00:32:52,705...unselfconsciously...

46500:32:52,913 --> 00:32:56,371

...through traditional male domains.

46600:32:56,583 --> 00:32:59,882By all accounts,she was a great beauty.

46700:33:00,086 --> 00:33:01,713And although she had many suitors...

468

00:33:01,922 --> 00:33:04,823...she had no interest in marriage.

46900:33:06,092 --> 00:33:11,029

The Alexandria of Hypatia's time,by then long under Roman rule...

47000:33:11,398 --> 00:33:14,333...was a city in grave conflict.

47100:33:14,534 --> 00:33:18,061Slavery, the cancerof the ancient world...

47200:33:18,271 --> 00:33:22,605...had sapped classical civilizationof its vitality.

47300:33:22,809 --> 00:33:25,243

The growing Christian Church was...

47400:33:25,445 --> 00:33:27,345...consolidating its power...

47500:33:27,547 --> 00:33:32,075...and attempting to eradicatepagan influence and culture.

476

00:33:32,285 --> 00:33:36,654Hypatia stood at the focus...



47700:33:36,857 --> 00:33:41,692...at the epicenterof mighty social forces.

478

00:33:41,895 --> 00:33:45,626Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria,despised her...

47900:33:45,832 --> 00:33:49,962...in part because of her closefriendship with a Roman governor...

48000:33:50,170 --> 00:33:54,300...but also because she was a symbol

of learning and science...

48100:33:54,507 --> 00:33:58,944...which were largely identifiedby the early Church with paganism.

48200:33:59,946 --> 00:34:01,675In great personal danger...

483

00:34:01,882 --> 00:34:05,613...Hypatia continued to teachand to publish...

48400:34:05,819 --> 00:34:10,449...until, in the year 415 A.D.,on her way to work...

48500:34:10,657 --> 00:34:12,784...she was set upon...

48600:34:12,993 --> 00:34:16,360...by a fanatical mob of Cyril's followers.

48700:34:16,563 --> 00:34:19,225

They dragged her from her chariot...

48800:34:19,432 --> 00:34:21,059

...tore off her clothes...

489



00:34:21,268 --> 00:34:25,102...and flayed her fleshfrom her bones...

49000:34:25,305 --> 00:34:27,671

...with abalone shells.

49100:34:27,874 --> 00:34:31,401Her remains were burned,her works obliterated...

49200:34:31,611 --> 00:34:33,135...her name forgotten.

493

00:34:33,346 --> 00:34:36,509Cyril was made a saint.

49400:34:39,019 --> 00:34:42,978

The glory you see around me...

49500:34:43,189 --> 00:34:46,022...is nothing but a memory.

496

00:34:46,226 --> 00:34:47,716It does not exist.

49700:34:49,462 --> 00:34:52,431

The last remains of thelibrary were destroyed...

49800:34:52,632 --> 00:34:55,157...within a year of Hypatia's death.

49900:34:55,368 --> 00:34:59,031It's as if an entirecivilization had undergone...

50000:34:59,239 --> 00:35:03,369...a sort of self-inflictedradical brain surgery...

50100:35:03,743 --> 00:35:06,007

...so that most of its memories...

502



00:35:06,212 --> 00:35:09,375...discoveries, ideas and passions...

50300:35:09,582 --> 00:35:12,983...were irrevocably wiped out.

50400:35:15,522 --> 00:35:18,650

The loss was incalculable.

50500:35:18,892 --> 00:35:21,190In some cases, we know only...

50600:35:21,394 --> 00:35:25,023...the tantalizing titles of books

that had been destroyed.

50700:35:25,265 --> 00:35:29,998In most cases, we know neitherthe titles nor the authors.

50800:35:30,203 --> 00:35:32,637We do know that in this library...

509

00:35:32,839 --> 00:35:36,866...there were 123 differentplays by Sophocles...

51000:35:37,077 --> 00:35:40,137...of which only seven havesurvived to our time.

51100:35:40,347 --> 00:35:43,145One of those seven is Oedipus Rex.

51200:35:43,350 --> 00:35:46,217Similar numbers applyto the lost works of...

51300:35:46,419 --> 00:35:49,911...Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes.

51400:35:50,123 --> 00:35:53,786

It's a little as if the onlysurviving works of a man named...



51500:35:53,994 --> 00:35:55,928...William Shakespeare...

51600:35:56,129 --> 00:36:00,088

...were Coriolanusand A Winter's Tale...

51700:36:00,300 --> 00:36:03,292...although we knew he hadwritten some other things...

51800:36:03,503 --> 00:36:05,596...which werehighly prized in his time.

51900:36:05,805 --> 00:36:09,263Plays called Hamlet, Macbeth...

52000:36:09,476 --> 00:36:13,037...A Midsummer's Night Dream,

Julius Caesar, King Lear...

52100:36:13,246 --> 00:36:15,077

...Romeo and Juliet.

52200:36:22,222 --> 00:36:25,282History is full of people...

52300:36:25,492 --> 00:36:29,451...who, out of fear or ignorance...

52400:36:29,662 --> 00:36:31,095

...or the lust for power...

52500:36:31,297 --> 00:36:35,256...have destroyed treasuresof immeasurable value...

52600:36:35,468 --> 00:36:39,063...which truly belong to all of us.

527

00:36:39,272 --> 00:36:43,106We must not let it happen again.



52800:37:03,963 --> 00:37:06,454We have consideredthe destruction of worlds...

529

00:37:06,666 --> 00:37:09,191...and the end of civilizations.

53000:37:09,402 --> 00:37:13,099But there is another perspectiveby which to measure human endeavors.

53100:37:13,306 --> 00:37:17,003Let me tell you a storyabout the beginning.

53200:37:17,510 --> 00:37:19,705Some 15 billion years ago...

53300:37:19,913 --> 00:37:21,437...our universe began...

53400:37:21,648 --> 00:37:25,015...with the mightiest explosion

of all time.

53500:37:25,218 --> 00:37:28,779

The universe expanded,cooled and darkened.

53600:37:28,988 --> 00:37:32,287Energy condensed into matter,mostly hydrogen atoms.

53700:37:32,492 --> 00:37:35,950And these atoms accumulatedinto vast clouds...

53800:37:36,162 --> 00:37:37,789...rushing away from each other...

53900:37:37,997 --> 00:37:41,228...that would one day become

the galaxies.

540



00:37:42,268 --> 00:37:46,466Within these galaxies the firstgeneration of stars was born...

54100:37:46,673 --> 00:37:49,073

...kindling the energyhidden in matter...

54200:37:49,275 --> 00:37:52,005...flooding the cosmos with light.

54300:37:52,212 --> 00:37:57,149Hydrogen atoms had madesuns and starlight.

54400:37:59,052 --> 00:38:02,647

There were in those timesno planets to receive the light...

54500:38:02,856 --> 00:38:06,986...and no living creatures to admirethe radiance of the heavens.

54600:38:07,193 --> 00:38:09,093

But deep in the stellar furnaces...

54700:38:09,295 --> 00:38:12,321...nuclear fusion was creatingthe heavier atoms:

54800:38:12,532 --> 00:38:15,501Carbon and oxygen,silicon and iron.

54900:38:15,702 --> 00:38:18,933

These elements, the ash leftby hydrogen...

55000:38:19,139 --> 00:38:24,076...were the raw materials from whichplanets and life would later arise.

55100:38:24,277 --> 00:38:28,213

At first, the heavy elements weretrapped in the hearts of the stars.



55200:38:28,414 --> 00:38:31,508But massive stars soonexhausted their fuel...

553

00:38:31,718 --> 00:38:33,208...and in their death throes...

55400:38:33,419 --> 00:38:36,445...returned most of their substanceback into space.

55500:38:36,656 --> 00:38:41,025

The interstellar gas becameenriched in heavy elements.

55600:38:42,695 --> 00:38:44,128In the Milky Way galaxy...

55700:38:44,330 --> 00:38:48,289...the matter of the cosmos was recycledinto new generations of stars...

55800:38:48,501 --> 00:38:50,469

...now rich in heavy atoms.

55900:38:50,670 --> 00:38:54,367A legacy fromtheir stellar ancestors.

56000:38:56,075 --> 00:38:58,270And in the coldof interstellar space...

56100:38:58,478 --> 00:39:01,970...great turbulent clouds weregathered by gravity...

56200:39:02,182 --> 00:39:05,015...and stirred by starlight.

56300:39:08,922 --> 00:39:10,014In their depths...

56400:39:10,223 --> 00:39:13,852



...the heavy atoms condensed intograins of rocky dust and ice...

56500:39:14,060 --> 00:39:17,120...and complex

carbon-based molecules.

56600:39:17,330 --> 00:39:20,390In accordance with the lawsof physics and chemistry...

56700:39:20,600 --> 00:39:25,469...hydrogen atoms had brought forththe stuff of life.

56800:39:32,879 --> 00:39:36,246In other clouds, more massiveaggregates of gas and dust...

56900:39:36,449 --> 00:39:38,917...formed later generations of stars.

57000:39:39,118 --> 00:39:40,847As new stars were formed...

57100:39:41,054 --> 00:39:43,989...tiny condensations of matteraccreted near them...

57200:39:44,190 --> 00:39:47,887...inconspicuous motes of rock and metal, ice and gas...

573

00:39:48,094 --> 00:39:49,959...that would become the planets.

57400:39:50,163 --> 00:39:53,132And on these worlds,as in interstellar clouds...

57500:39:53,333 --> 00:39:55,164...organic molecules formed...

57600:39:55,368 --> 00:39:59,031...made of atoms that had been



cooked inside the stars.

57700:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,299In the tide pools and oceansof many worlds...

57800:40:02,508 --> 00:40:06,774...molecules were destroyed bysunlight and assembled by chemistry.

57900:40:06,980 --> 00:40:10,143One day, among thesenatural experiments...

580

00:40:10,350 --> 00:40:13,148...a molecule arose, that,quite by accident...

58100:40:13,353 --> 00:40:16,413...was able to make crude copiesof itself.

58200:40:22,028 --> 00:40:25,486As time passed, self-replication

became more accurate.

58300:40:25,698 --> 00:40:27,495

Those molecules that copied better...

58400:40:27,700 --> 00:40:29,258...produced more copies.

58500:40:29,469 --> 00:40:31,960

Natural selection was underway.

58600:40:32,171 --> 00:40:35,197Elaborate molecular machineshad evolved.

58700:40:35,408 --> 00:40:39,674Slowly, imperceptibly, life had begun.

588

00:40:46,586 --> 00:40:50,852Collectives of organic moleculesevolved into one-celled organisms.



58900:40:51,057 --> 00:40:53,582

These produced multi-celled colonies.

590

00:40:53,793 --> 00:40:57,160 Their various parts becamespecialized organs.

59100:40:57,363 --> 00:41:00,764Some colonies attached themselvesto the sea floor...

59200:41:00,967 --> 00:41:03,765...others swam freely.

59300:41:04,937 --> 00:41:07,997Eyes evolved, and now the cosmoscould see.

59400:41:08,207 --> 00:41:11,370Living things moved onto colonize the land.

595

00:41:11,577 --> 00:41:14,205 The reptiles held sway for a time...

59600:41:14,414 --> 00:41:18,441...but gave way to small warm-bloodedcreatures with bigger brains...

59700:41:18,651 --> 00:41:22,781...who developed dexterity andcuriosity about their environment.

59800:41:22,989 --> 00:41:26,356

They learned to use tools andfire and language.

59900:41:26,559 --> 00:41:29,255Star stuff,the ash of stellar alchemy...

600

00:41:29,462 --> 00:41:32,397...had emerged into consciousness.



60100:41:42,975 --> 00:41:47,275We are a way for the cosmosto know itself.

602

00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,471We are creatures of the cosmos...

60300:41:49,682 --> 00:41:52,981...and have always hungeredto know our origins...

60400:41:53,186 --> 00:41:56,815...to understand our connectionwith the universe.

60500:41:57,023 --> 00:41:59,548How did everything come to be?

60600:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,061Every culture on the planethas devised its own response...

60700:42:04,263 --> 00:42:07,232

...to the riddleposed by the universe.

60800:42:11,304 --> 00:42:15,934Every culture celebratesthe cycles of life and nature.

60900:42:17,543 --> 00:42:19,977

There are many different waysof being human.

61000:42:24,217 --> 00:42:26,242But an extraterrestrial visitor...

61100:42:26,452 --> 00:42:29,216...examining the differencesamong human societies...

61200:42:29,422 --> 00:42:31,856

...would find thosedifferences trivial...



61300:42:32,058 --> 00:42:34,390...compared to the similarities.

61400:42:42,034 --> 00:42:44,935

We are one species.

61500:43:04,657 --> 00:43:08,252We are star stuff,harvesting starlight.

61600:43:08,661 --> 00:43:11,596Our lives, our past and our future...

617

00:43:11,798 --> 00:43:16,292...are tied to the sun, the moonand the stars.

61800:43:19,772 --> 00:43:22,832Our ancestors knew thattheir survival depended...

61900:43:23,042 --> 00:43:24,737...on understanding the heavens.

62000:43:24,944 --> 00:43:27,538

They built observatoriesand computers...

62100:43:27,747 --> 00:43:32,275...to predict the changing of theseasons by the motions in the skies.

622

00:43:32,485 --> 00:43:34,646We are, all of us...

62300:43:34,854 --> 00:43:38,051...descended from astronomers.

62400:43:40,226 --> 00:43:42,421

The discovery of orderin the universe...

62500:43:42,628 --> 00:43:44,118...of the laws of nature...



62600:43:44,330 --> 00:43:48,494...is the foundation on whichscience builds today.

62700:43:55,608 --> 00:43:57,200Our conception of the cosmos...

62800:43:57,410 --> 00:43:59,435...all of modern scienceand technology...

62900:43:59,645 --> 00:44:03,638...trace back to questions

raised by the stars.

63000:44:05,284 --> 00:44:07,445

Yet, even 400 years ago...

63100:44:07,653 --> 00:44:10,486...we still had no ideaof our place in the universe.

632

00:44:10,690 --> 00:44:13,056 The long journey tothat understanding...

63300:44:13,259 --> 00:44:16,092...required both an unflinchingrespect for the facts...

63400:44:16,295 --> 00:44:19,059...and a delight

in the natural world.

63500:44:21,834 --> 00:44:23,768

Johannes Kepler wrote:

63600:44:23,970 --> 00:44:27,770"We do not ask for what usefulpurpose the birds do sing...

637

00:44:27,974 --> 00:44:32,035...for song is their pleasuresince they were created for singing.



63800:44:32,378 --> 00:44:33,402Similarly...

639

00:44:33,613 --> 00:44:36,582...we ought not to ask why thehuman mind troubles to fathom...

64000:44:36,782 --> 00:44:38,272...the secrets of the heavens.

64100:44:38,484 --> 00:44:41,715

The diversity of the phenomenaof nature is so great...

64200:44:41,921 --> 00:44:45,186...and the treasures hiddenin the heavens so rich...

64300:44:45,391 --> 00:44:46,824...precisely in order...

64400:44:47,026 --> 00:44:51,224

...that the human mind shall neverbe lacking in fresh nourishment."

64500:45:32,705 --> 00:45:34,832It is the birthrightof every child...

64600:45:35,041 --> 00:45:37,339...to encounter the cosmos anew...

64700:45:37,543 --> 00:45:40,171...in every culture and every age.

64800:45:42,682 --> 00:45:47,312When this happens to us,we experience a deep sense of wonder.

64900:45:47,520 --> 00:45:50,387

The most fortunate among

us are guided by teachers...

650



00:45:50,590 --> 00:45:53,491...who channel this exhilaration.

65100:45:55,962 --> 00:45:58,487We are born

to delight in the world.

65200:45:58,698 --> 00:46:03,101We are taught to distinguishour preconceptions from the truth.

65300:46:03,302 --> 00:46:06,362

Then, new worlds are discovered...

654

00:46:06,572 --> 00:46:10,474...as we decipher the mysteriesof the cosmos.

65500:46:28,094 --> 00:46:30,562Science is a collective enterprise...

65600:46:30,763 --> 00:46:34,529...that embraces many culturesand spans the generations.

65700:46:34,734 --> 00:46:38,465In every age, and sometimesin the most unlikely places...

65800:46:38,671 --> 00:46:41,333...there are those who wishwith a great passion...

659

00:46:41,540 --> 00:46:43,337...to understand the world.

66000:46:43,542 --> 00:46:46,534We don't know wherethe next discovery will come from.

66100:46:46,746 --> 00:46:51,410What dream of the mind's eyewill remake the world.

66200:46:57,123 --> 00:47:01,321



These dreams beginas impossibilities.

66300:47:04,263 --> 00:47:08,757Once, even to see a planet through

a telescope was an astonishment.

66400:47:08,968 --> 00:47:10,526But we studied these worlds...

66500:47:10,736 --> 00:47:13,398...we figured out howthey moved in their orbits...

666

00:47:13,606 --> 00:47:16,473...and soon we were planningvoyages of discovery...

66700:47:16,676 --> 00:47:18,109...beyond the Earth...

66800:47:18,310 --> 00:47:22,804...and sending robot explorersto the planets and the stars.

66900:47:37,630 --> 00:47:41,760We humans long to be connectedwith our origins...

67000:47:42,735 --> 00:47:45,203...so we create rituals.

67100:47:46,372 --> 00:47:48,966

Science is another wayto express this longing.

67200:47:49,175 --> 00:47:51,439It also connects uswith our origins.

67300:47:51,644 --> 00:47:56,013And it, too, has its ritualsand its commandments.

67400:48:04,924 --> 00:48:09,554



Its only sacred truth is thatthere are no sacred truths.

67500:48:12,565 --> 00:48:14,465

Temperature systems...

67600:48:14,834 --> 00:48:17,359SAGAN: All assumptions mustbe critically examined.

67700:48:17,570 --> 00:48:20,835Arguments from authorityare worthless.

678

00:48:24,577 --> 00:48:26,943FEMALE SCIENTIST:

Transducer power is on.

67900:48:32,551 --> 00:48:34,610SAGAN: Whatever is inconsistentwith the facts...

68000:48:34,820 --> 00:48:36,913...no matter how

fond of it we are...

68100:48:37,123 --> 00:48:40,286...must be discarded or revised.

68200:48:48,801 --> 00:48:51,031Science is not perfect.

68300:48:51,237 --> 00:48:52,795

It's often misused.

68400:48:53,005 --> 00:48:54,870It's only a tool.

68500:48:55,141 --> 00:48:56,836But it's the best tool we have...

68600:48:57,042 --> 00:48:59,772

...self-correcting, ever-changing...

687



00:48:59,979 --> 00:49:02,470...applicable to everything.

68800:49:08,387 --> 00:49:12,847With this tool,

we vanquish the impossible.

68900:49:38,450 --> 00:49:40,111With the methods of science...

69000:49:40,319 --> 00:49:43,755...we have begunto explore the cosmos.

691

00:49:46,392 --> 00:49:49,020For the first time,scientific discoveries...

69200:49:49,228 --> 00:49:51,560...are widely accessible.

69300:49:54,934 --> 00:49:56,401Our machines...

69400:49:56,602 --> 00:49:58,092...the products of science...

69500:49:58,304 --> 00:50:00,772...are now beyondthe orbit of Saturn.

69600:50:07,379 --> 00:50:09,939A preliminary spacecraft

reconnaissance...

69700:50:10,149 --> 00:50:13,141...has been made of 20 new worlds.

69800:50:13,819 --> 00:50:16,879We have learned to valuecareful observations...

699

00:50:17,089 --> 00:50:19,990...to respect the facts, evenwhen they are disquieting...



70000:50:20,192 --> 00:50:23,184...when they seem to contradictconventional wisdom.

70100:50:24,196 --> 00:50:28,565

The Canterbury monks faithfullyrecorded an impact on the moon...

70200:50:28,767 --> 00:50:32,931...and the Anasazi people,an explosion of a distant star.

70300:50:33,138 --> 00:50:36,403

They saw for us as we see for them.

70400:50:36,609 --> 00:50:40,067We see further than they only becausewe stand on their shoulders.

70500:50:40,279 --> 00:50:41,871We build on what they knew.

706

00:50:42,081 --> 00:50:44,276We depend on free inquiry...

70700:50:44,483 --> 00:50:47,008...and free access to knowledge.

70800:50:47,253 --> 00:50:50,745We humans have seen the atomswhich constitute all of matter...

70900:50:50,956 --> 00:50:54,756...and the forces that sculptthis world and others.

71000:50:59,899 --> 00:51:01,730We knowthe molecules of life...

71100:51:01,934 --> 00:51:04,767

...are easily formedunder conditions common...



71200:51:04,970 --> 00:51:07,666...throughout the cosmos.

71300:51:07,873 --> 00:51:11,365

We have mapped the molecular machinesat the heart of life.

71400:51:13,178 --> 00:51:16,670We have discovered a microcosmin a drop of water.

71500:51:16,916 --> 00:51:18,713We have peeredinto the bloodstream...

71600:51:18,918 --> 00:51:20,977...and down on our stormy planet...

71700:51:21,186 --> 00:51:24,280...to see the Earthas a single organism.

71800:51:24,490 --> 00:51:26,617

We have found volcanoeson other worlds...

71900:51:26,825 --> 00:51:28,793...and explosions on the sun...

72000:51:28,994 --> 00:51:31,428...studied comets fromthe depths of space...

72100:51:31,630 --> 00:51:35,191...and traced their originsand destinies...

72200:51:35,401 --> 00:51:37,164...listened to pulsars...

72300:51:37,369 --> 00:51:40,304...and searched for

other civilizations.

724



00:51:42,174 --> 00:51:45,575We humans have set footon another world...

72500:51:45,778 --> 00:51:48,372

...in a place calledthe Sea of Tranquility...

72600:51:48,580 --> 00:51:51,879...an astonishing achievementfor creatures such as we...

72700:51:52,084 --> 00:51:55,679...whose earliest footsteps,3 ½ million years old...

72800:51:55,888 --> 00:52:00,382...are preserved in the volcanicash of East Africa.

72900:52:00,592 --> 00:52:03,083We have walked far.

73000:53:33,585 --> 00:53:36,679

These are some of the thingsthat hydrogen atoms do...

73100:53:36,889 --> 00:53:41,485...given 15 billion yearsof cosmic evolution.

73200:53:43,529 --> 00:53:46,657It has the sound of epic myth.

73300:53:46,865 --> 00:53:48,298But it's simply a description...

73400:53:48,500 --> 00:53:50,161...of the evolution of the cosmos...

73500:53:50,369 --> 00:53:53,827...as revealed by science in our time.

73600:53:54,039 --> 00:53:55,301And we...



73700:53:55,507 --> 00:53:58,965...we who embody the localeyes and ears...

73800:53:59,178 --> 00:54:01,476...and thoughts and feelingsof the cosmos...

73900:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,810...we've begun, at last, to wonderabout our origins.

74000:54:06,018 --> 00:54:09,385

Star stuff, contemplating the stars...

74100:54:09,588 --> 00:54:14,184...organized collections of 10 billion-billion-billion atoms...

74200:54:14,393 --> 00:54:16,452...contemplating the evolutionof matter...

74300:54:16,662 --> 00:54:21,190...tracing that long path by whichit arrived at consciousness...

74400:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,061...here on the planet Earth...

74500:54:23,268 --> 00:54:26,066...and perhaps, throughout the cosmos.

74600:54:26,738 --> 00:54:31,675Our loyalties are to the speciesand the planet.

74700:54:31,877 --> 00:54:33,970We speak for Earth.

74800:54:34,179 --> 00:54:36,670

Our obligation to surviveand flourish...



74900:54:36,882 --> 00:54:39,544...is owed not just to ourselves...

75000:54:39,751 --> 00:54:44,017

...but also to that cosmos,ancient and vast...

75100:54:44,223 --> 00:54:46,020...from which we spring.

75200:55:26,665 --> 00:55:30,192

The greatest thrill for mein reliving this adventure...

75300:55:30,402 --> 00:55:34,463...has been not justthat we've completed...

75400:55:34,673 --> 00:55:37,403...the preliminary reconnaissancewith spacecraft...

75500:55:37,609 --> 00:55:40,134

...of the entire solar system.

75600:55:40,345 --> 00:55:42,370And not just that we've discovered...

75700:55:42,581 --> 00:55:46,483...astonishing structures inthe realm of the galaxies...

758

00:55:46,685 --> 00:55:48,152...but especially...

75900:55:48,353 --> 00:55:53,086...that some of Cosmos' boldestdreams about this world...

76000:55:53,292 --> 00:55:55,453...are coming closer to reality.

76100:55:55,661 --> 00:55:58,687Since this series' maiden voyage...



76200:55:58,897 --> 00:56:00,865...the impossible has come to pass.

763

00:56:01,066 --> 00:56:06,003Mighty walls that maintainedinsuperable ideological differences...

76400:56:06,305 --> 00:56:08,603...have come tumbling down.

76500:56:08,807 --> 00:56:13,301Deadly enemies have embracedand begun to work together.

76600:56:13,512 --> 00:56:15,980

The imperative to cherishthe Earth...

76700:56:16,181 --> 00:56:20,140...and to protect the globalenvironment that sustains all of us...

768

00:56:20,352 --> 00:56:22,820...has become widely accepted.

76900:56:23,021 --> 00:56:25,148And we've begun, finally...

77000:56:25,357 --> 00:56:26,654...the process of reducing...

771

00:56:26,858 --> 00:56:30,726...the obscene number of weaponsof mass destruction.

77200:56:30,929 --> 00:56:33,727Perhaps we have, after all...

77300:56:33,932 --> 00:56:37,026...decided to choose life.

77400:56:38,604 --> 00:56:41,801But we still have light-years



to go to ensure that choice...

77500:56:42,007 --> 00:56:46,944...even after the summits andthe ceremonies and the treaties.

77600:56:47,145 --> 00:56:52,082

There are still some 50,000nuclear weapons in the world.

77700:56:52,417 --> 00:56:56,285And it would require the detonationof only a tiny fraction of them...

778

00:56:56,488 --> 00:56:58,956...to produce a nuclear winter...

77900:56:59,157 --> 00:57:02,126...the predicted globalclimatic catastrophe...

78000:57:02,327 --> 00:57:06,263...that would result from the smokeand dust lifted into the atmosphere...

78100:57:06,465 --> 00:57:10,731...by burning citiesand petroleum facilities.

78200:57:10,936 --> 00:57:14,872

The world's scientific community hasbegun to sound the alarm...

783

00:57:15,073 --> 00:57:17,337...about the grave dangersposed by...

78400:57:17,542 --> 00:57:19,976...depleting the protectiveozone shield...

78500:57:20,178 --> 00:57:22,305...and by greenhouse warming.

78600:57:22,514 --> 00:57:25,972



And again, we're taking somemitigating steps.

78700:57:26,184 --> 00:57:29,711But again,

those steps are too small...

78800:57:29,921 --> 00:57:32,412...and too slow.

78900:57:32,724 --> 00:57:36,353

The discovery that such a thing asnuclear winter was really possible...

790

00:57:36,561 --> 00:57:39,860...evolved out of studiesof Martian dust storms.

79100:57:40,065 --> 00:57:43,831

The surface of Mars,fried by ultraviolet light...

79200:57:44,036 --> 00:57:46,300...is also a reminder

of why it's important...

79300:57:46,505 --> 00:57:49,303...to keep our ozone layer intact.

79400:57:49,508 --> 00:57:52,170

The runaway greenhouse effecton Venus...

795

00:57:52,377 --> 00:57:53,901...is a valuable reminder...

79600:57:54,112 --> 00:57:58,606...that we must take the increasinggreenhouse effect on Earth seriously.

79700:57:58,817 --> 00:58:02,651Important lessons aboutour environment...

79800:58:02,854 --> 00:58:06,187



...have come from spacecraft missionsto the planets.

79900:58:06,391 --> 00:58:08,256By exploring other worlds...

80000:58:08,460 --> 00:58:10,428...we safeguard this one.

80100:58:10,629 --> 00:58:12,859By itself, this factmore than justifies...

80200:58:13,065 --> 00:58:14,999

...the money our species has spent...

80300:58:15,200 --> 00:58:18,966...in sending ships to other worlds.

80400:58:19,571 --> 00:58:22,062It is our fate...

80500:58:22,274 --> 00:58:25,072

...to live during one of the most perilous...

80600:58:25,277 --> 00:58:27,040...and one of the most hopeful...

80700:58:27,245 --> 00:58:29,213...chapters in human history.

808

00:58:29,414 --> 00:58:32,110Our science and our technology...

80900:58:32,317 --> 00:58:33,841...have posed us...

81000:58:34,052 --> 00:58:36,282...a profound question:

811

00:58:36,488 --> 00:58:39,980Will we learn to use these tools...



81200:58:40,192 --> 00:58:44,561...with wisdom and foresightbefore it's too late?

813

00:58:44,763 --> 00:58:48,699Will we see our species safelythrough this difficult passage...

81400:58:48,900 --> 00:58:53,030...so that our children andgrandchildren will continue...

81500:58:53,238 --> 00:58:56,833...the great journey of discovery

still deeper...

81600:58:57,042 --> 00:59:01,536...into the mysteries of the cosmos?

81700:59:01,747 --> 00:59:06,514

That same rocket and nuclearand computer technology...

818

00:59:06,718 --> 00:59:11,621...that sends our ships pastthe farthest known planet...

81900:59:11,823 --> 00:59:15,953...can also be used to destroyour global civilization.

82000:59:16,161 --> 00:59:18,721Exactly the same technology...

82100:59:18,930 --> 00:59:20,830...can be used for good...

82200:59:21,032 --> 00:59:22,590...and for evil.

82300:59:22,801 --> 00:59:25,395It is as if...

82400:59:25,604 --> 00:59:27,231



...there were a god...

82500:59:27,439 --> 00:59:29,304...who said to us:

82600:59:29,508 --> 00:59:32,909"I set before you two ways.

82700:59:33,111 --> 00:59:36,672

You can use your technologyto destroy yourselves...

82800:59:36,882 --> 00:59:41,819...or to carry you to the planets

and the stars.

82900:59:42,087 --> 00:59:43,679It's up to you."

carl sagan's cosmos, part 13 - who speaks for earth

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