Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. That’s home. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. A Pale Blue Dot The following excerpt from Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on 14 February 1990. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. This excerpt from A Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. That's home. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.. That’s here. “Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. “The Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.Empowering the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration.For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Keith. Take a second to support James O'Neill on Patreon! On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. =)So, here is that amazing lecture that he gave at the University of Cornell: Here are some of the 4 major sections of the video in case you want to skip around a bit:…although I will post the Pale Blue Dot part in the next section for further use. ... — Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994. That’s us. That's here. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. But for us, it’s different. =(There is the a wonderful meme that pops through Facebook every so often that kind of explains how I feel about America, as broken as it is, having only having 2 seasons of Cosmos:Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.Liked it? I am deeply saddened that it has moved and we no longer have access to it. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. He is also Neil deGrasse Tyson’s personal mentor and hero too. Pale Blue Dot is one of the most important and reflective speeches about the human condition and our place in the Universe. Consider again that dot. Visit, yes. Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan Look again at that dot. Here are There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. Carl Sagan had also published a book with the title of ‘Pale Blue Dot’: There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.Carl Sagan had also published a book with the title of ‘Pale Blue Dot’:Although, here is the audio book read by Carl Sagan himself on YouTube:Airing from September to December in 1980, the original series of My daughter and I have watched this series quite a few times while it was on Netflix. You can support the entire fund, or designate a core enterprise of your choice.Empowering the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration.Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Here is the full video of his lecture:From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest.