Book 39: Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
I had always envisioned this book to be a wimpy, little, text-only book barely as involved as a pithy sci-fi novel. You must admit that if the only copies of Cosmos you ever saw were the one circled in green below, you might think the same thing:
It really just looks like any old mini-paperback. How much useful information could an author pack in such a tiny space? As a result, every time someone mentioned the book Cosmos to me, I sort of scoffed. Then, in my favorite used book store, I saw a paperback version of this:
Whaaaaaat? I never even knew this coffee-table version existed. I flipped through it and saw hundreds of full-color photos and illustrations as well as technical diagrams. Why had I only seen the wimpy version? I'm going to go with the large versions of the book sold so well, that it only left the smaller versions for the bookshelves I had previously frequented.
Carl Sagan himself and this book in particular have been so pervasive in science writing that there's little analysis I can give that probably hasn't been given before. Sagan is a great communicator. Sagan is a great scientist. Sagan channels one into the other so easily, it's truly remarkable. Etc. Etc.
I do find two things from the book particularly meaningful at this juncture in time, 39 years after both the publication of this book and the broadcast of the accompanying TV show. First is that there have been more than a few moments in history where humans have felt threatened by scientific advancement and achievement to the point of intentionally destroying knowledge. I find the story around Hypatia and the decline of the Library of Alexandria the most troubling. There seem to be similar rumblings in the current state of the world and I hope we manage to avert something so disgusting. Luckily, with the Internet, collective knowledge is unlikely to be harmed significantly by the loss of any single institution.
The second thing I found meaningful was that the combination of hugging infants and toddlers and allowing teens to explore their sexuality were the two strongest indicators for a non-violent society. I'd always had suspicions that general uptightness and the particular uptightness around sex led to serious assholery. This was the first time I'd seen it substantiated, which in itself isn't remarkable. I'm sure there's plenty of literature out there on the topic. What's remarkable is that this comes up in a book that is trying to thoughtfully place humanity in Universe and advocating for humanity not restricting itself to planet Earth. That is the magic of Carl Sagan, above all else. Going to other planets and other stars is indeed a scientific and engineering endeavor; but it is also a human endeavor and will necessarily be a collaborative, social endeavor. We endeavor to explore. We endeavor to create. And we achieve our greatest endeavors when we can peaceably work together. This has become increasingly true as science has progressed, with projects like LIGO and the LHC requiring thousands of people working together. Sagan knew and I honestly believe he wanted to prepare us.
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