Carl Sagan

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Carl Sagan was a humanist who strived to teach science as a way of thinking and interpreting the world. His 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark was a kind of message he left to humanity before he died of cancer.

See also: Carl Sagan's January 1994 notice to the USA Public as a warning.

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By Carl Sagan; January 9, 1994 - 30 years ago today - WITH SCIENCE ON OUR SIDE (www.washingtonpost.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

30 years ago today, striking words....

But there's another reason: I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when we're a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition.

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements -- transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment and protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting -- profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. We might get away with it for a while, but eventually this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.