欧宝娱乐

Pale Blue Dot refers to the Earth as photographed from the Voyager craft at a point beyond the orbit of Neptune. Of course at that distance, the Earth is barely discernible - a very small, unremarkable, pale blue dot among a myriad of billions of other unremarkable points of light. Yet all our history, civilization, and culture that we have ever known has occurred on that dot.

Even though our ingrained geo-centric and ethno-centric biases cause us to become deflated and even depressed at the realization of the truth of our insignificance in the vast universe, this book is actually meant to inspire hope in all of us. Its subtitle, A Vision of the Human Future in Space, is what this book is all about. Carl Sagan was a big believer in space exploration, and he inspired millions of others to be also.

There are two reasons why I find it really difficult to have the optimism that Carl Sagan has. First, he talks of traveling the vast distances from star to star and eventually even to other galaxies. The reality of the limit of the speed of light and the extreme difficulty and power requirements to just achieve a fraction of that speed, just seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Second, the human race is obviously incapable of even responsibly managing its own affairs on its own home planet, and we are likewise extremely resistant to even subtle changes that require collective mandates (examples: American attempts to implement the metric system, dollar coins, or more fair and cost-saving health care reform, not to mention our inability to address far more pressing crises like population control and global warming).

Overall, I loved this book. It is the best of the five Carl Sagan books I have read yet, and I recommend it for everyone.