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Summary: An excellent feast for the mind and eye
Review: Carl Sagan has done it once again. This book is filled with eye openning photographs of the heavens, explanations of past missions thorough our solar system, and how science can prove our fears of the unknown irrational. Sagan addresses such thought provoking subjects as religion and science, the existence of life in the universe, and the dooms day asteriod. Pale Blue Dot is a must for anyone interested in the future on mankind
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Summary: Pale Blue Dot is appetizing food for thought
Review: Pale Blue Dot stands on its own in broadening every reader's knowledge and curious wonder about our own environment and where we fit into the vast cosmos as a whole. However, readers familiar with Sagan's earlier writings will profit from the foundations they provide. Beyond being highly informative, this book challenges us humans to prepare for the day (eventually inevitable) when our earth is no longer able to sustain us. If we wish to survive as a species, we'd better start planning now for a secure future elsewhere in the universe
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Summary: Sagan's Benediction
Review: Nearly two decades ago, a man strode out of the blackness of a star-lit background with the phrase "billions and billions..." In COSMOS, Carl Sagan introduced the general public to the infinitude of space, the staggering proportions of the universe, and the implications of mankind's scientific efforts to understand and explain it. Now, in PALE BLUE DOT, Sagan has once again returned us to the journey and the wonder. Sagan's basic message: "Due to our actions or inactions, and the misuse of our technology, we live at an extraordinary moment, for the Earth at least--the first time that a species has become able to wipe itself out. But this is also, we may note, the first time that a species has become able to journey to the planets and the stars. The two times, brought about by the same technology, coincide--a few centuries in the history of a 4.5 billion-year-old planet...Our leverage on the future is high just now." And, he says, in the process of journeying out to the stars our species will inevitably be transformed. Having left our home in search of the stars, we will encounter many other worlds which may prove more challenging to our efforts to populate. More and more, humanity will look back with reverence at the home world, appreciate and cherish the "pale blue dot" that gave us birth. This book was one of the last works of Carl Sagan before his untimely death due to cancer. The man who gave inspiration and a sense of wonder to many now has gone on ahead, not into the sunset, but into the stars, where he no doubt journeys among the "billions and billions" of worlds, confirming his hypotheses.
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Summary: For those who like illustrated sermons
Review: Although Pale Blue Dot is ostensibly Sagan's magnum opus on "the human future in space" much of it is consumed with the human past on earth. The first five chapters are concerned with the intellectual history of scientism. Sagan provides a full blown apologetic for the scientific method and harshly criticises those who have stood in its way. Those up for criticism are almost exclusively Christian and largely Roman Catholic. Whether the seminary student in Contact, or his constant vigilance against any form of belief in the Imago Dei, Sagan seems unable to escape the influence of religion. If you read Isaac Asimov's The Roving Mind you have read this.
The second unannounced section of the book is concerned with the current state of scientific understanding of the universe. This is mostly limited to a discussion of the planets and moons of our solar system but occasionally deals with other star systems. As this book was published in 1994 much of cutting edge astronomy is long past this point. The pictures are therefore worth at least as much as the text. One criticism is that with so many beautiful pictures of the solar system available why did Sagan include so many paintings of what things might look like? Perhaps he had a secret liking for the Eastern tradition and included them as icons.
The third section of the book deals with the human future in space. Sagan proposes that eventually humans must leave earth or face extinction. We will either destroy our environment or eventually be hit by a large chunk of annihilation. He therefore proposes various Sci-Fi methods by which we might attempt to colonise the other planets, the asteroid zone, and the larger galaxy. For good measure he throws in his SETI project which is the subject of Contact. On so many levels Sagan has replaced god with E.T. and this book is ultimately more politico-religious than scientific.
Buy this book in large edition for the pictures and an entertaining story or buy a real astronomy book and go outside and look at the stars if you can still see them through the smog.
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Summary: Informative and engaging
Review: Sagan's view of our past, present and future relations with space is accessible and enthusiastic. Always looking for life, Sagan explains the criteria that might indicate life on earth to a prospecting alien and applies the principles to data from other planetary bodies.
Beautiful color-enhanced space photography and scientific paintings illustrate Sagan's journey through the solar system as he visits each world and describes how speculation and expectation changed with new information from various space probes. Each planet remains shrouded in mystery, however, as Sagan explores the questions that remain as well as those that have been answered.
Along with a thorough look at the planets, moons and asteroids of our system, Sagan fits them into their solar environment, explaining the interactions of sun, gravity, temperatures and atmospheres.
Sagan's conversational style and willingness to speculate makes this thorough, cogent discussion of space program accomplishments and failures, the politics and philosophy of space exploration, and where we might go in the future, an informative treat.
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Summary: My inspiration
Review: I first read this book as a aimless 16-year old kid...now I'm an astrophysicist. It was Sagan's message of faith in science's role as mankind's candle in the dark, as well as his wonder for the universe that infected me, and spurred me to the path I'm on now. If you're not a religious fundamentalist and would like to open your mind to mankind's future in space as well as the wonders that await us in the cosmos, buy this book....or buy it for some teenager you know...
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