Carl Sagan - A thousand years of darkness

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Carl Sagan - A thousand years of darkness

Uploaded by: thingsihaveseen2
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Its happened before... Carl contemplates that the "submission to ethnic, religious or national identifications" and the rejection of scientific values will leave us tenuously on the brink of a 2nd (and possibly final) dark age.
http://www.carlsagan.com/
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In this excerpt from the final episode of Sagan's 'Cosmos,' he discusses why the momentous discoveries of the ancient world were unable to prevent the dark ages from virtually banishing scientific thought for a millennium, and how the ancient world's greatest repository of knowledge, the great library of Alexandria, met its regrettable end. A sobering statement on what ignorance, apathy and fanaticism can do if left unchallenged.
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Tags for this video: 1000 ages Alexandria Carl cosmos dark Hypatia Sagan Shakespeare

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I sinserely hope ... ( 3 weeks ago by drflynn73)

I sinserely hope that China will be the salvation of the world. Chinese value science and education and although they are pretty superstitions they are not very religious. Hopefully as they become richer and more powerful they will also become more liberal.

I think there is ... ( 3 weeks ago by Anhelain)

I think there is certainly some hope there, and they will become more liberal, but I have some concerns about China. They didn't learn the same lessons about racism and prejudice that Western society did, and that's going to lead to trouble. Hopefully West and East can learn from each other.

a brilliant mind ... ( 2 weeks ago by Shtickman2008)

a brilliant mind decades ahead of his time which sadly left us too early.

"Just imagine how ... ( 2 weeks ago by Eikinkloster)

"Just imagine how far the human race would have gone if it weren't for this 1000 years of darkness"
I imagine we would have reached a population of 12 billion people by the year 900 AD, started eating human flesh by 1000 AD and nuke ourselves into the Milky Way by 1100 AD. After all, science can only bring happiness.

Eikinkloster: Lets ... ( 2 weeks ago by Metaleks)

Eikinkloster: Lets take a moment to thank religion then for killing people and plunging us into thousand years darkness.

Exactly, let's also ... ( 2 weeks ago by Eikinkloster)

Exactly, let's also thank religion for the machine gun, the dynamite, the atom bomb, the demographic explosion and all the enlightenment these tools of love brought us, releasing us from the darkness of the times of castles, knights, princesses and merry villages.

Obvious troll is ... ( 2 weeks ago by Scrithe)

Obvious troll is obvious.

No, really... in ... ( 2 weeks ago by Eikinkloster)

No, really... in the 70's, when Sagan recorded that, we did long for the future when we would be wearing silvery suits and driving cars from the Jetsons cars. Now it's pretty clear that speeding progress will only get our infertility rate higher and speed our takeover by Islam. Ironical isn't it? Science is self defeating.

Unfortunately you ... ( 2 weeks ago by Nuclearcx)

Unfortunately you are right. Hopefully though, we will discover how to extend our lifes to be extremely long before that happens, thus defeating the self-defeating nature of science.

us humans have ... ( 2 weeks ago by onilef65)

us humans have explored a vast knowledge about our planet and beyond and there are still more to be learned and to be discovered.

so this time ... ( 2 weeks ago by naard)

so this time religion is going to use the products of science to send us into another 1000 years of darkness? interesting thought.
and i'm not sure how happy many of those villages were, what with the plague, marauding bandits, lack of refrigeration, and bone-crushing labor.
as a side thought, development of advanced weaponry could lead largely to detante as mutually assured destruction would constrain our worst excesses.
i guess whether its self defeating is yet to be seen....

truely a great role ... ( 2 weeks ago by mistermuffin420)

truely a great role model. he has converted many people into scientists. furthermore, he has made many people use the word "far" in their speech. eg. "this comment is far better than those of the previous".

Also maybe we can ... ( 1 week ago by Nuclearcx)

Also maybe we can make machines that can think for us and medicine that can make us happy and fix all our most pressing problems and virtual reality where we can play out different lives or whatevér fantisies and stuff like that.
When you're engaged in things like that and live to like 200 yo who cares about the collapse of society and stuff like that

But that *is* the ... ( 1 week ago by Eikinkloster)

But that *is* the Jetson's dream. It doesn't seem so likely now as it did in the 60's. And certainly there is no way to know whether we would have that or a dystopia where Muslims would blow the power lines and leave you with all your gadgets turned off.
So I think we'd best stop morning that which we didn't get (a world where the Alexandria Library wasn't destroyed) and try to salvage what we still have. Hopefully, this one thousand years of darkness gave us some extra expertise.

Major demographic ... ( 1 week ago by Nuclearcx)

Major demographic shifts take way longer than just a couple of decades to happen.
Scientific breakthroughs can happen in a few years and mature in a decade.
So it's quite likely that the very speeding progress will save us rather than doom us :)
It's too late to turn back now and ask people to go live in caves and hunt boars.
And how we can stop people from blowing up the power lines: Let's put rfid chips with a cyanide capsel in them, and when they're being bad release the poison :P

But I'm not asking ... ( 1 week ago by Eikinkloster)

But I'm not asking them to return to caves, boards, and plagues. Just to stop whinnying about how we have been set back a thousand years in progress.
But I believe we will eventually return to caves and boars. For a simple reason: The power to destroy increases in both dimension and availability. It's a matter of time before every other human will have his own nukes. And then killing sprees will be nuking sprees, and Muslim suicide bombers will be Muslim suicide nukers.
That will be the end.

We'll probably have ... ( 1 week ago by Nuclearcx)

We'll probably have mars and jupiter colonies so that even if the people on earth manage to screw up the people on the colonies can pick up the ball and continue the game.
And by then we probably have like satellitescans for dangerous substances like plutonium and then if someone has it just send a signal to the chip to poison taht bastard and stop him from nuking anyone!
But yeah I guess it is pointless to "what if.." about alexandria.

After all we ... ( 1 week ago by Nuclearcx)

After all we already have an International Space Station, it's not that big of a reach to suggest we could colonize other planets or asteroids

He makes so many ... ( 1 week ago by belle2smart)

He makes so many good points about science and human nature.

though there is an ... ( 1 week ago by deeliciousplum)

though there is an immense beauty and truth within the parameters of science and discovery, there is also an unfathomable amount of tragedy & sadness. Hipatia sought to excel in her studies and to bring this knowledge to the public at large. This desire went against the laws and wishes of both religious and academic circles. To silence her love for truth & the sharing of knowledge, the community harmed her in the most horrifying way. This would, in turn, set fear into any who followed her path

Instilling fear in ... ( 1 week ago by deeliciousplum)

Instilling fear in the public is something that falls under the most commonly used form of control. One need not even make a stretch for current examples of this within our own behaviours. There are a few common oppressive thinking patterns that fall both within the religious and scientific circles, one of these is the behaviour entitled: self-interest. If we could see through the veil of deception, we would see this trait as the bond that keeps those 2 communities together.

I miss Carl so much ... ( 1 week ago by freedom0f5peech)

I miss Carl so much!! He was such a brilliant man!!

He was so ... ( 5 days ago by lifeisgummo)

He was so compassionate & sincere. Truly one of the greatest minds of the human race.
my opinion of course.

I miss Uncle Carl. ... ( 1 day ago by TheSecondChild)

I miss Uncle Carl. The world needs more people like him.

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