Really look at that graphic. Think about those words. More than just words, the photo that accompanies it was the idea of Carl Sagan. He lobbied NASA for decades to have that photo taken. You can read the entire soliloquy and see the uncluttered photo at the Planetary Society’s website. The message of hope behind the Pale Blue Dot… that’s what this book is about.
The means by which Sagan explored that hope is through his understanding of science and the information we’ve gleaned through robotic space exploration, from craft such as Voyager (1 and 2) and Cassini as well as through manned missions like Apollo and Skylab. The information we gain, Sagan stresses, is not science itself. How we piece that information together, how we make sense of it… that’s where science unfolds, through testing and collating and comparison. All of it that we learn, we can directly apply to what we understand about our own earth, and through that, our understanding grows in regards to what’s here as much as to what’s out there. Pale Blue Dot is as much about the grandeur of the unknown as it is of our insignificance in the heavens, a direct challenge to the idea that we need not be the center of the universe for the universe itself to be full of wonder. Likewise, the message holds that earth is still very much important to our own survival.
This book was written and narrated for audio by Sagan in 1994. Since that time, a significant portion of the original audio was lost, as discovered when, in conjunction with the 2014 television production of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (the successor to Sagan’s 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage), Sagan’s works were gathered together for re-release. Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan (who cowrote for both Cosmos series), narrates for Sagan in those lost segments.
As with the television presentations, Sagan’s gift beyond just being an excellent scientist was that he was also an educator — not unlike his protégé and successor Neil deGrasse Tyson, continuing where Sagan left off — bringing the wonder of the universe to the rest of us in a manner that we can understand and appreciate. This is an inspirational work from an inspirational man, giving us an inside glimpse into the journey we share on this Pale Blue Dot. Books like this have the ability to truly change the world for the better, if only people will read them. Don’t believe me? Read it and decide for yourself.