Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

This review is completely biased—I'm an enormous fan of Carl Sagan. He was one of the first science communicators I ever encountered, and since then, I've devoured Billions and Billions and The Demon-Haunted World. With each book, my love for astronomy has only deepened. This passion is entirely thanks to Sagan's brilliant and captivating writing. Each chapter offers a message, beautifully blending science, humanism, and a fervent hope for a better future. The last chapter is profoundly moving. I highly recommend this to everyone.

P.S. Hearing Sagan's voice in the first chapter almost brought me to tears at the start.

I listened to the audiobook of Pale Blue Dot. The book was great, for as long as Carl Sagan read it, but his audiofiles have been corrupted and lost. A couple hours into the book Ann Druyan takes over - who has a real passion for the content but has no business reading audiobooks. It was pretty brutal to listen to.

“If our long term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds. Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense the stirring of a breeze.”

First published in 1994, this book contains profound ideas and vision so far ahead of its time.
To be able to read/listen to Carl Sagan's work is a privilege.

Particularly loved the chapter : Is there intelligent life on earth where he describes the signs of life which an alien race could observe by being in earth's orbit. Caught myself smiling deliriously at some of the simplest mentions of the ordinary. But it soon takes an ominous turn.
An excerpt:

“From your orbital perspective, you can see that something has unmistakably gone wrong. The dominant organisms, whoever they are???who have gone to so much trouble to rework the surface???are simultaneously destroying their ozone layer and their forests, eroding their topsoil, and performing massive, uncontrolled experiments on their planet???s climate. Haven???t they noticed what???s happening? Are they oblivious to their fate? Are they unable to work together on behalf of the environment that sustains them all?Perhaps, you think, it???s time to reassess the conjecture that there???s intelligent life on Earth.”



Again, this most definitely should be a required reading in high school.

বইটা পড়তে অনেকটা সময় লাগলো নানা ব্যস্ততায়। তবে তাড়িয়ে তাড়িয়ে পড়েছি, তাড়া দিইনি নিজেকে। সেগানের লেখা আমার আর দশটা জনপ্রিয় বিজ্ঞান লেখকদের চেয়ে ভালো লাগে। তার কাব্যিকতা অসাধারণ। এক তারা কমেছে বইটা শেষে একটু ঝুলে গেছে বলে।

এই বইয়ের প্রথমদিকের অধ্যায়গুলো চমৎকার। ইতমধ্যে আপনি যদি জ্যোতির্বিজ্ঞান সম্পর্কে ভালো ধারণা না রাখেন এবং এই মহাবিশ্বে আপনার ছোট গণ্ডিতে নিজেকে একটাকিছু মনে হয় তবে এই অধ্যায়গুলো আপনাকে আঘাতও করতে পারে। এবং, সেগান, ঠোঁটকাটা সেগান কোনোকিছুই ছাড়েনি, ছোটমানুষের ছোট ঈশ্বরকেও না।

“In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.””

এবং শেষেরদিকের বৈজ্ঞানিক দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি নিয়ে এই কথাগুলো ভালো লেগেছে,

“but this would be self-indulgent and foolish. We must surrender our skepticism only in the face of rock-solid evidence. Science demands a tolerance for ambiguity. Where we are ignorant, we withhold belief. Whatever annoyance the uncertainty engenders serves a higher purpose: It drives us to accumulate better data. This attitude is the difference between science and so much else. Science offers little in the way of cheap thrills. The standards of evidence are strict. But when followed they allow us to see far, illuminating even a great darkness.”

Wonderful and mind expanding book. It makes a great case for the space program and human exploration of space, but does not stop there. Entertaining and filled with great science.

I wonder if there lived anyone before and after Carl who could write about science with such poetry. This book is a statement for humanity, the Universe and everyone in it.