Cosmos by Carl Sagan
While I was looking for books on my 100 Books list, one of the final ones I picked was Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It is very far from my usual genres. It is scientific and philosophical and speculative. Not that there is anything wrong with any of these things, but science, as much as it interests me, is not a strong subject of mine, so I was worried when I started it.
Cosmos is broken into thirteen chapters that explore cosmic evolution and the development it has influenced in science and civilizations. The book covers Sagan's positions on the anthropological, cosmological, biological, historical, and astronomical matters, as well as his stance on extraterrestrial life, which is that with the magnitude of the universe, it would be naive to think there is no alien civilization, but we also have no evidence than any civilizations but our own have ever existed. The book corresponds with the thirteen episodes of the Cosmos television series, produced in tandem with the book.
So now hopefully y'all understand why this is out of my realm (pun intended). I am all over the what ifs when it comes to our galaxy and others. But when you starts talking about space time and quasars and theories of long dead philosophers and scientists, my eyes kind of glaze over and I go off into my own space. I know how horrible that is to say. I am almost twenty-nine, I should do better. But it really is hard for me to focus on sciences. All that being said, I really wish this was the book that was used when I took astronomy in college. Even though I made A's in both classes, I think I would have done better with retention. These are a few things I really enjoyed.
The first one is silly to anyone who doesn't know me, but I love this. The book was written in 1980. Y'all know what that means? Pluto is still a planet and they are only starting to be able to record things on TV. That second bit just made me laugh when it is mentioned in the introduction to the book. I wonder what Sagan would have to say about DVR and streaming services and that I can watch Cosmos on Blu-Ray. The Pluto part is just sad. I will always remember My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. What's it's supposed to be now? My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nothing? Whatever, Pluto's a planet.
I also really like that Sagan tries to make everything as relatable as possible. I have always been told that if you cannot explain something to a child in a way they would understand it, you don't understand it. Sagan can clearly explain this stuff to a child. He compares breaking apart particles to cutting a pie in half over and over. He explains the complexity of the fourth dimension by using the second dimension. This is why I wish this had been my astronomy textbook. I would spend hours pouring over my textbook preparing for exams, and I can only tell you a handful of things, and none of them will help you. At least now I feel like I would be able to have a very basic conversation and follow along.
I also really liked myths, fables, and more romantic parts of history that are in the book. Those are things that really pull my interest and make it easier for me to remember something. The fact that it covers such a wide variety of sub-topics under the larger topic of the cosmos, these little tidbits really help break up all of the dense material.
Lastly, I really love that Sagan so openly admits all of his unknowns and then lists every possibility and what he thinks is the highest possibility. The whole question of what came first: the chicken or the egg? He plays both sides of it. If God created the universe, where did God come from? If God has always been there, wouldn't it be just as easy to say that the universe as always been there? Who is there to say God created it? Or gods? How do we know that there is nothing else out there? It takes multitudes of light years to leave our galaxy, so we have no way of knowing if signals we have sent out have been received yet. And even then, look at how long it took us to evolve to our current state. Other alien civilizations may not yet be evolved enough. Or they may have already collapsed. This book is a creationists worst nightmare basically.
What is sad though is that Sagan talks about what the end of the Earth will be like, the end of the Sun. Carl Sagan passed away in 1996 when we were just on the cusp of learning the damage we have created on our little planet. He talks about how even our childrens children will not see the destruction he talks about in his book. I hope for everyone's sake, he is right. However, despite what non-believers say, global warming is a problem and we are too far gone. Even though Texas is known for its heat, its rare that we have 70 degree days in January and February, and yet it's happened for a couple years now. The realist in me is scared for what he says will happen in our end days; the optimist in me has hope.
Rating: 5/10
Author: Carl Sagan
Genres: Non-fiction, Astronomy, Physics
Dates Read: February 28-March 4, 2020
 |
| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
So now hopefully y'all understand why this is out of my realm (pun intended). I am all over the what ifs when it comes to our galaxy and others. But when you starts talking about space time and quasars and theories of long dead philosophers and scientists, my eyes kind of glaze over and I go off into my own space. I know how horrible that is to say. I am almost twenty-nine, I should do better. But it really is hard for me to focus on sciences. All that being said, I really wish this was the book that was used when I took astronomy in college. Even though I made A's in both classes, I think I would have done better with retention. These are a few things I really enjoyed.
The first one is silly to anyone who doesn't know me, but I love this. The book was written in 1980. Y'all know what that means? Pluto is still a planet and they are only starting to be able to record things on TV. That second bit just made me laugh when it is mentioned in the introduction to the book. I wonder what Sagan would have to say about DVR and streaming services and that I can watch Cosmos on Blu-Ray. The Pluto part is just sad. I will always remember My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. What's it's supposed to be now? My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nothing? Whatever, Pluto's a planet.
 |
| (Source: Giphy) |
I also really liked myths, fables, and more romantic parts of history that are in the book. Those are things that really pull my interest and make it easier for me to remember something. The fact that it covers such a wide variety of sub-topics under the larger topic of the cosmos, these little tidbits really help break up all of the dense material.
 |
| (Source: Giphy) |
What is sad though is that Sagan talks about what the end of the Earth will be like, the end of the Sun. Carl Sagan passed away in 1996 when we were just on the cusp of learning the damage we have created on our little planet. He talks about how even our childrens children will not see the destruction he talks about in his book. I hope for everyone's sake, he is right. However, despite what non-believers say, global warming is a problem and we are too far gone. Even though Texas is known for its heat, its rare that we have 70 degree days in January and February, and yet it's happened for a couple years now. The realist in me is scared for what he says will happen in our end days; the optimist in me has hope.
 |
| (Source: Giphy) |
Author: Carl Sagan
Genres: Non-fiction, Astronomy, Physics
Dates Read: February 28-March 4, 2020
Comments
Post a Comment