Carl Sagan

I'm not proposing to write an essay on the life of Carl Sagan, nor tell you what you can't read on the Wikipedia article. This is just a summary of Carl's recent influence on me thanks to his work on the television series "Cosmos" which was broadcast in the eighties.

I did not see Cosmos when it was originally broadcast, and I would have been far too young to take much away from it at the time. I recently watched the entire series on YouTube (you can find the playlist here), and I've ordered the series on DVD from Amazon.

The series was enlightening to say the least. However, it wasn't just the content that had me clicking the links to each new episode; it was the way Carl presented that information, and the passion for cosmology that he was transferring. I would go so far as to say that Cosmos had a profound effect on me, and that it reignited my desire to learn (something that I thought I might have lost entirely).

So, of course, I came to think of Carl Sagan as an awesome guy, which he probably was. Somebody to emulate and learn from. Which probably brings me to the subject of his book "Mirhuana Reconsidered" (I've not read it by the way). I've never been a user or advocate of marijuana, but that doesn't mean that I exclude Carl from my list of heroes.

I also have to keep in mind that although I have enjoyed Carl Sagan's works (including Contact), this does not mean he was a perfect human being. None of us are; and if smoking marijuana was one of Carl's most vilifying vices, then why should it invalidate the important work and the inspiring messages that he left behind?