[ Music ] >> Hello, I'm Ann Druyan
and I'm speaking to you from my home in Ithaca,
New York. And I'm the author of
"Cosmos: Possible Worlds." Deeply, truly honored to be
participating in an event for the Library of Congress. You know, in the very first
"Cosmos," exactly 40 years ago, Carl Sagan, and Steven Soter and I celebrated the Great
Library of Alexandria. And the Library of
congress means so much to me because of the democratic idea of the world's knowledge
belonging to all of us. And so, it's my great
honor to be here. I'm here to talk about
"Possible Worlds," which is the book I've written,
but also the television series that I have the pleasure
of producing, writing, and directing with my
collaborator, Brannon Braga. So, why possible worlds? Why a third "Cosmos"
after 40 years? The first "Cosmos" was an effort to give the broadest
possible public, a global public its coordinates
in space and in time. It was Carl Sagan's dream,
one that I completely share that how we find our ways in
the cosmos, the great story of the 40,000 generations of
human beings, who in one way or another added to our
current understanding of nature. That we could tell these
wonderful, inspiring stories to a global audience
so that as many of us as possible could have
a cosmic perspective on both space and time. And in that original series
there was the cosmic calendar, in which we compressed what was
then thought to be something like 18 billion years of
cosmic evolution compressed into a single year
at a glance calendar. Well, over the last 40
years our sense of the age of the cosmos has changed. That is the great strength
of science, its power. Because it seeks
constantly to error correct. To use the methodology
of science. Five or six very simple rules
to ferret out those things which are not true and that
is why science will never be completed. And it's not for
any one generation to see the whole
picture of space time, but instead science is a
generation binding enterprise. Connecting all of us back
to our earliest ancestors, and more recently to the ancient
Greek inventors of science, and inventors of
library, and memory. And even a sense of the future. So, the first "Cosmos" was about
finding our place in space time. And the second "Cosmos" in 2014, "Cosmos The Space Time Odyssey"
took some of the unparalleled, explanatory power of some
motifs like the cosmic calendar and the ship of the imagination,
a vehicle that can take all of us anywhere in space time. Powered by twin engines of
skepticism and imagination. That's the key. Not one at the expense of the
other, rigorous skepticism of a faithfulness to reality
and to what the data tells us, but at the same time
a soaring imagination, based on what we know
could be possible. So, the third "Cosmos:
Possible Worlds" is my searching for a realistic,
evidence-based sense of how we can be
hopeful about the future. We all know the long shadow
that falls on our future. Who of us, looking
at our children and our grandchildren cannot
feel a certain pain of remorse and concern about whether or
not we are handing them a planet that will be as habitable
for them as it has been for us and our ancestors? I know that there was no need to tell the audience how serious
the challenges we face are. But instead, to find hope. To find reason for hope that
would be rational and truthful. And so, I took my inspiration
for the show and the-- from stories of some
of the scientists who cross the generations, faced
formidable and dangerous enemies who do not want their
information to be shared with the public. And I took a great deal
of courage from the story that maybe two dozen people
that you'll meet in the pages of the book, and in the episodes
of the who, against all odds, stood up in defense of reality,
in defense of the evidence. In defense of the
methodology of science for finding out where we are. I mean, nature will
not be deceived. You know, we can tell ourselves
as many lies as we want to, but in the end, that
will get us nowhere. In fact, it's worse than that. Skepticism, this sacred
searching of science, this is the selective advantage. In fact, it may be the most
powerful selective advantage we have. After all, as organisms we are
not the fastest or the biggest, you know we don't have
those other advantages. What we have is ability,
fantastic ability of pattern recognition, and a
great cleverness that can get us out beyond that place where
the wind from the sun dies. As our Voyager Spacecraft
has done. We can rendezvous with a
distance planet, or its moon. Fifteen years from now with
absolute flawless precision. We have these enormous
capabilities. And yet, here we
are sleepwalking. As if in a stupor, as if in
a dream, unable to awaken and to create the future
that we need to create by making the chances
in the way we live and the way we treat each other. This spring has been a moment
of tremendous optimism for me because I've seen a sea
change in the United States. Not as a result of a
single charismatic leader, but a sea change in the
hearts of all of us. And that's what's so inspiring,
is that's what has to happen. And so, I feel a
great sense of hope. And that hope is, I hope
completely permeates every page, every word, every shot in
both the series and the book. You know, in possible worlds
we imagine the distant future that our descendants could
conceivably experience. Worlds that circle other suns, in places that we can only
dimly apprehend at this moment with our most powerful
telescopes. So, how do I dare
imagine that future when it's 100 degrees
Fahrenheit at the arctic? When our poisoning of the
oceans, the rivers, the land, the air, the climate
is so rampant and so completely
out of control? Well, part of it is that I feel that there is a widespread
yearning to fight for the future. And I also feel that,
unlike before, we have each other's
phone numbers, we're able to communicate
with each other. Our planet, just at the moment
that we're reaching this urgent and dangerous branch
point in human history. We have developed the means to become an intercommunicating
organism and to reach people
all over the world. I'm so proud of the fact that
the original "Cosmos" series, "A Personal Voyage "has been
seen by nearly a billion people. And that both "Cosmos,
The Space Time Odysseys" and "Cosmos Possible
Worlds" shown in 180 countries
around the world. The message at the
heart of "Cosmos" is to make the case for science. Not that science hasn't
known sin, of course it has because it's practiced
by human beings. And we are faulty,
we are deeply flawed. That's true. But the dangers that we
currently face can only, only be dealt with, with
scientific knowledge and a scientific approach. Completely unflinching looking
at our true circumstances. Whether it be climate change
or the global pandemic. Which has brought us to a
halt, and these are the day that the earth stood still. And we, before this pandemic
began, I don't think any of us thought that
anything could make us stop in our tracks. And I personally have
been quarantining, alone from the first of
March until just a month ago. And for me, that was a
tremendous experience. Yes, there were moments of
great sadness, great pain. And yet, I was able to
observe the unfolding of spring in beautiful Ithaca
where I live. As never before, to appreciate
each new leaf on the trees, and the way that nature's
genius dwarfs, any fantasy, or any stories that
we can ever make up. And so, it's left me with a
greater conviction than ever that we have what it
takes and as you'll see if you read the book
or if you see the show. The book is important, I think, because it can tell these
stories in such greater depth than is possible in a show
that's on for an hour. But what you'll see in these
stories is not only the possible worlds, the exoplanets,
the other worlds that may lay in our future. As well as the lost
worlds of this planet, the lost civilizations of
which we know so little. Waiting to be discovered
and unearthed. And finally, it's about the
possible world that this can be, that earth can become if we are
resolute, if we are unified. If we are clear-eyed
and keep our eye on that most precious
of all prizes. This beautiful planet so
completely graced by life in almost every conceivable
tiny nook and cranny. Great diversity of life. That is so precious. If we can value this world and
the way that it sustains us and our fellow earthlings
above money. If we can value it above
a certain inconvenience. If we can value the air,
the water, the climate, the things that we need
to survive as an organism, above those other things that
are just recent constructs, only the last few centuries. If we can keep our eye on this
most precious of all prices, then the wonders that await
us in this cosmos past and ancient are beyond
our wildest imagination. You know, science has
done some things to just that many people feel
very hurt by and I respect that and understand that. When we started out in 1609
just to go back to Galileo, you know we, a lot of
us cherished the idea that we were the only
children of a creator. That the entire universe
revolved around us. And one by one, what I call
great demotions of science. One by one, well, you know
once the world had accepted to the extent that
we have the work of the earlier scientist
Copernicus who said that the sun was at the
center of the solar system. Once we said okay, we're not at
the center of the solar system, but we're at the
center of the galaxy, we're at the center
of the universe. No, no, nope, not any of those. Well, we were created
separately from the rest of all the other living
beings on this planet, we are God's only children. Well, no it turns out that
we are so deeply related to each other and
to all of the life that we share this planet with. That we have more in common
genetically, you and me, with a sunflower than we are
likely to have with a being from any other world
in the cosmos. And so, I cherish
what Carl Sagan says, if a person disagrees
with you, let them live. You will not find another
in 100 billion galaxies. And so, these are some
of the values of science. That image of the pale blue
dot, you know, to me when I look at that, and I looked
at it countless times since that first moment
that Carl showed it to me, back in the early '90s. When I look at that image,
I say, this is where science and spirituality, and emotions, and even aesthetics
meet in one place. You do not need an advanced
degree to understand what that pale blue dot
is telling you. It's saying that we
inhabit a tiny dot. How can the nationalist, the
chauvinist, the polluter, the purveyor of the fossil
fuels and other products that will destroy our future? How can they look at that
dot and escape its meaning? And so, you know there's
always been kind of a wall, a very tall wall between
science and the rest of us. And I was not born inside
those walls of science. I was a lousy student. I was not a good math
student or a science student. And I didn't come to my love of
science until I was an adult. Until I found those
presocratic philosophers and began to feel included. And then when I met Carl
Sagan, in my view one of the greatest teachers of the
last thousand years or more. When I met Carl Sagan and
had the honor and privilege to spend 20 years thinking
with him, writing with him, working with him, building
our beautiful family together, I felt this overwhelming desire
to share the spiritual uplift, the joy, the pleasure of
knowing even a little bit about the universe revealed by
science with everyone on earth. As Carl used to say, when he was
asked why did he spend all his time in the laboratory. Why did he go on these
television shows and go to Immigration and
Naturalization ceremonies, and kindergartens and so
many other things that he did to talk about science? He would say, when you're in
love you want to tell the world. And that's how I
feel about my book. Which is very personal
in many ways? And of course, personal in ways that the television
show could not be. I felt really that's
what I wanted to do was to share this knowledge which
was no longer impenetrable to me, which was
no longer boring, which was no longer something
that I felt alienated from, but instead I felt an
almost evangelical desire to tell these stories of
these great scientists, these heroic figures. People who chose death rather than telling a lie
about science. I don't think I could
do that; you know. I mean these are people
whom you've never heard of. They're not the Darwin's
or the Galileo's. They're not the household names, but instead they are unsung
heroes who lived so bravely, so dramatically, and who
made it possible for us to venture to the stars. I've never known
anyone who was able to integrate both a very
rigorous, evidence based, mathematical, knowledge
of physics, and chemistry, and biology that
was comprehensive. Who was able to integrate
that very rigorous skepticism with boundless imagination
and sense of wonder and joy? You know, it's always
the propounding myth of our civilization is that
if you partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge
you will be ruined, and miserable, and doomed. And it's a criminal thing to do. Whereas I feel that in the story
of Genesis when we do partake of the fruit of the
tree of knowledge, that's when we become
hour human selves. It's the most natural
thing for us. This is what we're
really good at. And so, you can't do it
just with skepticism. Again, you know I'm not the
first person to say this, Einstein, Carl many people
have said this way before me. But you can't, you know,
you need that kind of, you need that bologna
detection kit in your brain, which helps you discern things
that are real from things that we want to be
real, but are not. So, you need that. But then you also need
imagination and a sense of the great beauty of life. And when I think of
the person who was able to integrate those
two thing perfectly, never one at the
expense of the other. I always think of Carl,
because he embodied that. You know, he followed his bliss
and I think was probably one of the most fully
realized human beings. Well he was the most
fully realized human being that I ever met. Because he never lost his
sense of great joy of life, the romance of life, the romance
of being alive in the cosmos. And I think one of the reasons
he's so beloved is he had that very urgent sense
that the universe was, we now think it's 13.8
billion years old. But the universe, let's say
it's 13.8 billion years old. How long do we live? We are mayflies, 100 years
is the best we can get. And yet Carl knew,
he internalized it. It wasn't just lip service; it wasn't just something
he preached. He knew how brief life is. And so, he lived it with
that sense of great pleasure and appreciation for
even the smallest things. But at the same time,
dreaming so big. Dreaming of what it
would be like to stand on the world of another sun. To travel into the very distant
future, or into the past. And so, I feel like
some things happened since we began space
exploration. Before the space age began, and
I read about this in the book and we actually tell
this story in the show. Before the space age began, all of the different scientific
disciplines were very siloed. So, there was not a single
journal on planet earth where a biologist and a geologist could
co-author a peer-reviewed scientific paper. Isn't that amazing? And in the beginning of Carl's
career, even when I came into his life, he was
constantly criticized for being wildly
interdisciplinary. And yet, I think he understood
that once you leave this planet, whether you're sending
your instruments or other human beings,
there's no way to explore and to understand without
a complete synthesis of many different
scientific disciplines. You know, you can't go to
Mars without a geologist. And you want an astronomer,
you want a chemist, you want a physicist, and you
probably want an astrobiologist if you're going to hunt for a
past mars life if there is any. And so, he was part of that
generation and in fact, he edited the very first
scientific journal "Icarus." Which made it possible for a collaboration among
the scientific disciplines. And that's another facet of
you know, I always think of him as the great tearer down
of walls not just the wall between science and the rest
of us, but also the walls between the disciplines. And done with such good humor
and joy, and imagination of what the next experiment on
the next space craft would be, but also how to enthrall
people of all ages with the joy of discovery. There need not be, you need
not sacrifice your humanity and your soul to be a scientist. And if you're a writer,
and artist, a musician, you need not lose any
of that creative juice by knowing something
about nature. In fact, I think it
makes everything we do that much richer. [ Music ]
