Image Credit : JPL viaWikimedia Commons// Public Domain
Carl Sagan , one of the earthly concern ’s most beloved astronomers andscience pedagog , would have been 81 today . In honour of his natal day , here are five piece of advice the salvia explainer of the cosmos dish out while he was still alive :
1. “ANYTHING THAT’S TRULY REAL CAN STAND UP TO SCRUTINY.”
Inan essayforNew Yorkmagazine in 2014 , Sagan ’s daughter , Sasha , write about asking her founding father whether he thought he ’d see his late parent in the hereafter :
2. INCLUSION IS GOOD FOR EVERYONE.
In 1981 , Saganwrote a letterprotesting The Explorers Club ’s insurance policy against admitting women as extremity . “ Today woman are making sinful contributions in orbit of primal interest to our formation , ” he fence . “ They are of true diachronic significance . If rank in The Explorers Club is bound to men , the exit will be ours ; we will only be deprive ourselves . ”
3. EMBRACE CHANGE, AND PLAN FOR IT.
“ Accommodation to exchange , the thoughtful pursuit of alternate futures , is the key to the natural selection of civilisation and perhaps of human beings , ” Sagan wrote in anessayon science fiction ’s function in lodge in 1978 .
4. BE SKEPTICAL OF THE RESULTS YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT.
“ I personally have been captivate by the notion of extraterrestrial life , and specially extraterrestrial intelligence , from childhood . It swept me up , ” SagantoldNOVAin an audience for the programKidnapped by UFOs?in 1996 . “ It would be an absolutely transforming event in human history [ to notice extraterrestrial animation ] . But , the stake are so high on whether it ’s true or untrue that we must need the more strict standards of evidence — precisely because it ’s so exciting . That ’s the circumstance in which our hope may dominate our skeptical scrutiny of the data point . ”
5. TAKE CARE OF THE EARTH, AND EACH OTHER.
“ We must stop pretending we ’re something we are not , ” Sagan and his wife and collaborator , Ann Druyen , write in the bookShadows of Forgotten Ancestors :
