The universe's explorations, and the technology's development, have often been guided by bright minds and deep hearts.
Carl Sagan was one of this great men.
Today we are going to work on one of his speeches.
Man
in his arrogance (Carl Sagan)
“See
that star?”
“You
mean that bright red one?” his daughter asks in return
“Yes,
it might not be there anymore. It might be gone by now, exploded or
something. Its light is still crossing space, just reaching our eyes
now. But we don't see it as it is, we see it as it was.”
Many
people experience a stirring sense of wonder when they first confront
this simple truth. Why? why should it be so compelling. The immense
distances to the stars and the galaxies means we see everything in
the past. Some as they were before the earth came to be. Telescopes
are time machines.
Long
ago, when an early galaxy began to pour light out in to the
surrounding darkness no witness could have known that billions of
years later. Some remote clumps of rock and metal, ice and organic
molecules would fall together to form a place that we call earth. And
surely nobody could have imagined that life would arise, and thinking
beings evolve who would one day capture a fraction of that light and
would try to puzzle out what sent it on its way.
We
can recognize here a shortcoming, in some circumstances serious, in
our ability to understand the world. Characteristically, willie-nilly
we seem compelled to project our own nature onto nature. Man in his
arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy of the interposition of
a deity. Darwin wrote in his notebook, more humble, and I think truer
to consider himself created from animals.
We're
johnny-come-latelys; we live in the cosmic boondocks; we emerged from
microbes in muck; Apes are our cousins; our thoughts are not entirely
our own, and on top of that we're making a mess of our planet and
becoming a danger to ourselves.
The
trapdoor beneath our feet swings open. We find ourselves in
bottomless free fall. We are lost in a great darkness and there is
nobody to send out a search party. Given so harsh a reality, of
course we are inclined to shut our eyes and pretend that we are safe
and snug at home, that the fall is only a bad dream. If it takes a
little myth and ritual to get us through a night that seems endless,
who among us cannot sympathize and understand?
We
long to be here for a purpose. Even though, despite much
self-deception, none is evident. The significance of our lives and
our fragile planet is then determined by our own wisdom and courage.
We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for parents to care
for us, to forgive us of our errors, to save us from our childish
mistakes. But knowledge of preferable to ignorance. Better, by far,
to embrace the harsh reality than a reassuring fable.
Modern
science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility
waiting at every stop. Our common sense intuitions can be mistaken.
Our preferences don't count. We do not live in a privileged reference
frame. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a
worthy goal.
2.- Use the new words of the Carl Sagan's speech to write your own speech. (The words you did'nt know and you have learnt today)
You are going to talk in front of your peers for about 3 minutes about the technology. You have to explain how the technology will help human kind to solve the hardest problems of the human kind. Freely.
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