So, we all know Carl Sagan was 'the man' professionally. He was brilliant and creative etc etc. But, does anyone know anything about him as a person? What was he like? does anybody have any biography sites they can send this way?

Nice options!

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Inspected by #13

You don't give many choices, do you?

I always admired Sagan as a scientist, but despised his politics.

Don't know of any sites but have read a little bit about him in books. He was very influential to me and my love of science. I only regret I never got to meet him.

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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Carl Sagan

I like him a lot, especially since he did a lot for the popularization of good science.

Carl Sagan was the man that instilled an interest in me for astronomy. I loved watching his programs on Nova and have read most of his books. I have heard he was an outcast to some of the other professionals in his field for his "commercialism" but he is more responsible than anyone I can think of for spreading an interest in astronomy and its related fields in the general public.

I agree. Like many brilliant men he thought he knew everything. Socrates warned us about falling into this trap. Einstein was not guilt free here either.

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All very interesting comments (Ilya I'd like to hear more from you about your dislike of his politics)....

and for everyone else...WHERE ARE THE LINKS I ASKED FOR!!!!!!!


but seriously folks, does anyone have any links for bios and the such??

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I don't know if you ever got those links Tito, but here are some related to Carl.



http://www.planetary.org/html/society/tributes/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~paulchui/sagan.html

http://www.fas.org/sagan.htm



I'm amazed to think he died nearly 10 years ago.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

I always admired Sagan as a politician, but despised his science.

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There's a biography, Carl Sagan: A Life by Keay Davidson.

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What science did you despise, in particular, Argos?

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Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

Sagan was an entertainer.

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Well, I think it is common understanding that he was a mediocre scientist - for lack of time, perhaps. He was good at divulging science though.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

I don't care if it's "common understanding" that he was a "mediocre scientist". Please explicitely state what, exactly, you disagreed with. Also, please explain how he was a "mediocre scientist".

I do not share any "common understanding" of Sagan. I have yet to really read into him personally.

__________________
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." -- Thomas Paine

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. -- Heinlein

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

The expression 'mediocre scientist' says it all. There´s no seminal work by Sagan. By the way, I´m not here to denigrate a person whom I admire, regardless of he being a good scientist or not. As I said, he´s helped to raise important questions in the realm of policy making. I´m entitled to my opinion.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, I just prefer to hear some reasons for it if it's going to be preached to me.

The expression "mediocre scientist" does NOT say it all. I don't really care if you admire him or not, you're making a claim and then not really backing it up.

__________________
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." -- Thomas Paine

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. -- Heinlein

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

Carl Sagan was NOT The Man.

He got things right when he ripped off other ideas but when he started thinking for himself he got things wrong.

Cosmos is really a re-hashing of other people's ideas. Demon Haunted World is a good book in the first half but when he starts putting his ideas about the nature of gravity and other things later in the book, he gets things wrong.

He single-handedly buried Fermi's Paradox and only after his death are people thinking about Fermi's Observation at Los Alamos labs.

Anyone who did not embrace his ET dreams were discredited and ruthlessly fired from any job they might have in academia.

His theories about life on Venus were proven wrong.

Many theories he had about the environment are probably wrong.

He was interested in selling books more than presenting real science. Although he might have gotten some people interested in science who would normally not be interested, he main goal was to give the people what they wanted. People wanted to hope and dream. He gave people those dreams. But if reality has bitter pills to swallow, we should swallow them. We are better in the long run to do so.

He was NOT The Man

Can you support this claim?

Sagan was the one who originally hypothesized that the surface of Venus was extremely hot, so I don't know what ideas about life on Venus you're talking about.

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Somebody once told me that he was a self-admitted occultist, yet I thought I read somewhere that he was an atheist. So what's correct?

To me it is obvious, from his writings, that he´s an atheist, one of the reasons why I admire him.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band