“science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe. with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to skeptical of those in authority, then we are up for grabs for the next political charlatan who comes along” “this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later is going to blow up in our faces”
Email Subscribe
Disrupting the Borg is expensive and time consuming!
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- GWS on Cold Is The New Hot
- Jeff L. on Carl Sagan’s Forecast From 1995
- Timo, Not That One on COVID Saves Kiwi Man From Life Sentence
- Torgo on Carl Sagan’s Forecast From 1995
- Torgo on Carl Sagan’s Forecast From 1995
Archives
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
Science has come a long way since he died. Many of his ideas have fallen apart. But I think he would be the first to welcome and champion the new discoveries.
As for political charlatans who come along manipulating the science to us peons, he couldn’t have been more correct.
And the government running us is exactly what the dimocrats want.
If we ignore the first sentence of this quote,
then this statement is universally true,
not just for science,but also for politics,news,history,religion etc.
Lies always have a price,
but it’s usually not the guy who sells the lies but those who buy the lies who’ll pay the price when the system is ruined.
Carl Sagan himself was prone to deceit and misinformation in his crusade to discredit the catastrophist ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky .[ Read ‘Velikovsky Reconsidered ‘] …..He wasn’t quite the rationalist zen warrior monk of science battling the ‘demon haunted world’ that many think he was ….That said I still greatly respect him .
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocation, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet in holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
President Eisenhower’s farewell speech
If you watch some of Sagan’s other videos, he is much more insidious about the world, government, poverty, etc..
We remember that Carl Sagan’s boss at Cornell (Thomas Gold) agreed with the Russian/Ukrainian concept of hydrocarbons as abiogenic. As opposed to being “fossil fuels”. And Russia seems to know a thing or two about extracting hydrocarbons from the Earth.
Richard Feynmam nailed it also:
I would rather have questions that can’t be answered, than have answers that can’t be questioned. — Richard Feynman .
That makes me laugh every time I hear it. (lol)
Too bad Sagan did not pass on some of his wisdom to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who likes to claim that Sagan selected him as his successor on “Cosmos”, because Tyson is the essence of what science has become – NOT the process of inquiry described by Sagan but rather a form of religion – “Scientism” – in which the phrase “scientists say” has assumed the authority once reserved for “thus sayeth the Lord”. The “scientific truth” is pronounced by the Initiates to the unlettered and ignorant, who then respond by planting signs in their yards declaring that “We Believe… that science is real”. How much better it would be to actually KNOW some REAL SCIENCE.
And, of course, “Scientism” thrives on precisely this “combustible combination of ignorance and technology” that Sagan worried about. More importantly, it has become the very purpose of modern governance to inculcate that ignorance. Here, for instance, in Oregon, our governor and legislature (in which the Dems have complete control and a legislative super-majority) has now passed an educational “reform” law which holds that it is no longer necessary, in order to get a HS diploma, that the graduate be able to demonstrate ANY degree of competence in science or math or history or English or in any other topic. That’s right, at 18 you will get a diploma even if you can’t read or write or make change. It is “Idiocracy” made reality and knowing that the answer is “two buckets” will make you the smartest person in the State. In less than a generation, the Progressives who now run Oregon will have precisely the mass of ignorant sheep they need in order to do anything they want.