Carl's early fascination with UFO's (1947) when he was but 13 years of age soon enough fell by the wayside when he became an honors tutorial student at the U. of Chicago at age 16. He joked about receiving his BS degree there for doing nothing (aka not being challenged by a lazy faculty). My fascination with him stemmed from his later years when he could give an entire lecture without notes, while speaking with great clarity, using perfect English in complete sentences, following the rules of logic, and with the scientific method as his guide. A recording would be worthy of being transcribed directly into book format without a single correction. He was denied tenure at Harvard on the advice of Harold Urey, a jealous chemist who was 41 years older than Carl, but light years behind him intellectually despite his Nobel Prize for discovering deuterium. But Sagan does not need me to argue for his intellectual abilities, or his sense of humor, or his humanitarianism. His talents are still legion, his ability to inspire are known throughout the world, and his 500 million followers of Cosmos speak with a unifying voice--Carl Sagan will not soon be forgot nor will he be replaced in the hearts and minds of humanity.

Bonjour, EP ! Thanks very much for making this recording of Carl Sagan’s maybe farewell “oration”, not knowing how long after he may have passed away on account of the “rare disease” he suffered from. Here, in Europe, the Franco-German channel ARTE featured his most revelatory and humbling series on the COSMOS some dozen years back that I’m sure earned for him an undying name and appreciation from all and sundry, but this self-congratulatory, even undeniably arrogant “performance” that could be tantamount to playing “God”, with his own cheer-pack in the audience rallying up to his every word, despite the truth of his incontrovertible fundamental disclosures and the manner in which he organized his arguments using his “rarified” high intellectual capacities and knowledge in his own specialty and philosophy, not to mention other fields of common knowledge, destroy for me, forever, the image of “a man apart”. It is enough to draw attention to the self-celebratory enticement of the public park where he was to be housed at Cornell to clinch my point. And the manner in which he dismissed questioners trying to plead with him makes me wonder if he wasn’t himself suffering from an over-dose of megalomania. No one can deny he lacked compassion here and the need to forgive those lesser wretched human beings who behave abominably in their ignorance.
In 1972, the American astronomer published a book on UFOs in which he gave evidence of UFO sightings and even the recovery of the charred remains of an extra-terrestrial in New Mexico that a certain secret-service went out of its way, according to him, to suppress (I’m repeating from a rather shaky memory considering the lapse of time) that Sagan could not have “missed” in his exposition.
Adding to these remarks, one wonders if Sagan wasn’t himself overly nervous about his role playing at “God”, sipping constantly from his white cornucopian plastic cup as some sort of crutch to mask his own inner feelings of insecurity? Witness the over-abundance of tell-tale body-language of ticks and scratches to back up my point.
When intelligence and knowledge hit a peak in any man, he can become a “God”, too, despite his better judgement. I offer no apologies here. T. Wignesan

I miss him, too.

Rebecca

I don't have time to watch the lecture right now, but I'll take your word for it and watch it as soon as I can.



We have to give Johnny Carson credit for bringing Carl centerstage on his program so many times so that Sagan could, with his wonderful accent, reiterate the wonders of the universe and how he thought life would be common, "Out there." His message about the, "Pale blue dot (our earth)," resonates very real when we think of how important we are. Creating a Space Force?



In 1977, I was privileged to attend the AAAS annual meeting in Washington DC. The keynote address by another fine astronomer, was "God and the Astronomers." I remember passing Margaret Mead in the hall with some of her students. I also attended Sagan's session. After it was over and the crowd around him diminished, I was able to go up front and express my thanks for what he was doing. It was a brief meeting like so many others I had with notables over the years.



There are two voices today that are helping to spread the positive word with humor and knowledge. Neil Degrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku.



Ron

I am glad you are so thoughtful to share and post about such personalities who have inspired you . You are a treasure of knowledge . sharing is caring. Thank you. Very interesting vedio I watched till the end .
and the last answer in this vedio sums it all . It made me proud for the little I am doing in the universe.It made me say Buck up for him
May his soul rest in peace. Carl Sagan, you came,you did it! Long live your kind

Thanks
rose

Yes, he was a remarkable man and sorely missed. Thanks for posting this lecture. Most interesting.