Reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos

[Gregoshi]

Alas, I didn't get a chance to shake his hand and talk to him, but I was in the same auditorium. That's about as close as I ever get to famous people.

[Tachikaze]

One of my college teachers had dinner with him. At that time, Sagan was either between marriages or had just married Ann Druyan. My teacher said they were all lovey-dovey saccarine.

My chance to meet him was at the Nevada nuclear test site protest. But I didn't get arrested with him.

Sagan's series and book were very influential in my life. The music was as important to me as the concepts he presented. I have the soundtrack on cassette and CD. He used music very effectively and seemed to have as much enthusiasm for music as for science. Through him, I discovered Vangelis, Tomita's "Sea of Solaris", and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Festival Overture".

"Send more Chuck Berry".

[Agent Miles]

I believe that the single most difficult thing for most people to understand is that most people will eventually understand every single thing. We ask our children to learn the most useless information, when the origin of species, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theories of relativity are what we should teach everyone. Brane theory, a derivative of string theory, may even tell us what “banged” to create our universe. One suspects that some people don’t want to trade in their favorite myth for a little knowledge. I remember reading a lecture by a great physicist that described Sagan as “the well-known atheist”. The truth...is out there.