A Loss of Curiosity

For the past month, as I have written previously, I have been reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It has a few concepts it brings forth causing me to do further reading elsewhere before I can continue on with the book. This is why I have only read 180 pages in a month. Keep in mind, this book was published in 1980, so many things have come to pass in the world of science since Sagan finished this book. It makes it that much more interesting to read his insight. I came across one paragraph I found particularly interesting. He writes about how great it would be to send a roving vehicle to Mars to carry out advanced experiments in imaging, chemistry & biology. "Prototypes of such rovers are under development by NASA." writes Sagan. He goes on to write:

"Public interest in such a mission would be sizable. Every day a new set of vistas would arrive on our home television screens...[a] billion people could participate in the exploration of another world."

Sagan, C., Cosmos. Chapter 5: Blues for a Red Planet. p. 108.

The two rovers he spoke of, Spirit & Opportunity, have been on the Mars surface for nearly 3 years now. When they first landed, there was some hype. These two little rovers have out performed and lasted longer than anyone thought possible. They are still going to this day. But where is the hype now. We don't see the pictures on TV every night or hear stories on the rovers. This is just an example. It seems very few people take an interest in new things or even attempt to ask questions, much less seek the answer ( during a discussion, I actually had somebody I work with ask me if I thought there were other suns in the Universe).

Anyway, I hope to finish the book in the next week. I will then start "Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Should Have Learned in School, but Didn't" or something like that.

Cool Picture

I came across this picture a few days ago. It is now being used as my desktop wallpaper. It is a picture taken from one of the Mars rovers of Earth. It just makes you feel so small and insignificant. Wait...we are small and insignificant. It is weird to imagine that every person who has ever lived; every war ever waged, all of man's accomplishments and dastardly acts of horror; disease; the hustle and bustle of industrialization; mountains; vast oceans; plunging canyons; every species of plant and animal; and all of our fears and worries take place in that little dot. This is just one little dot in billions and billions of dots (maybe more). Some people take comfort in religion and faith...I take comfort in knowing we are nothing special and just a freckle on the gigantic eternal ass of the cosmos (I bet Sagan wishes he had thought of that line!).

(The speck in the upper right hand corner is just a blown up image of Earth, though it's hard to tell in this format).