(electronic instrumental music) (instrumental synthesizer music) - [Carl] That's inevitable
that humans would project their hopes and
fears upon the cosmos. The standard Hollywood
attempts are to portray the extraterrestrials
as red of claw and fang. Pointed heads and nasty dispositions. Steven Spielberg has made
an important step forward, E.T. and Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, to show the possibility of
benign extraterrestrials, but even there, the extraterrestrials are only slight variants on human beings, when the evolutionary record is clear that extraterrestrials would
be very different from us and also they're not awfully
smart, his extraterrestrials. - [Studs] Sweet, but not smart. - [Carl] Sweet, but not smart. If you look at timescales, you realize that our civilization is the most backward
civilization in the galaxy that could communicate at all, because we've just
invented radio telescopes, just a few decades ago. We had not the ghost of a chance of communicating with anybody else. So If we receive a message, it can't be from anybody
less capable than we, because anybody less capable
can't communicate at all. So it has to be somebody
much in advance of us and maybe as much in advance of us as we are in advance of the
ants, say, or the worms. - [Studs] You, Carl Sagan, scientist, astronomer, enlighten me. You think that indeed there may be some sort of intelligence out there? - [Carl] May, surely, surely may. There is, we now realize, an
enormous number of planets. A range of planetary systems
around the nearby stars. So there's a lot of
potential abodes for life. That's one thing. Then there's the question
of organic matter. The carbon-rich complex molecules that are essential for the
kind of life we know about, are fantastically abundant. They litter the universe. We see them in asteroids, in comets, in the moons in the outer solar system and even in the cold dark
spaces between the stars, so the stuff of life is everywhere, and then there's time. There are billions of years for biological evolution on all those worlds, there are many worlds that
are much older than ours. So you put those together, lots of places, lots of organic matter, lots of time and it seems very hard to believe that our paltry little planet is
the only one that's inhabited. - [Studs] You know, there's a phrase you use about the earth people
us, we, are so benighted. "The Earth is the ghetto of the universe." We're the ghetto of the universe. - [Carl] Well in an extremely backward and obscure part of the Milky Way galaxy. We're 30,000 light years from
the center of the galaxy. We're in the galactic boondocks. This whole galaxy is only one of probably hundreds of
billions of other galaxies, a useful calibration of
our place in the universe. - [Studs] There's also
religion and science. - [Carl] There is a tendency in both schools of thought to think that they have a corner on the truth. I mean, a way to look
at it is the following, science and religion on some
level are after the same thing. Take the question of our origins. Both science and religion attempt
to approach this question. But the religions all
contradict each other, so they can't all be right. The Judeo-Christian Islamic religion holds that the world is
about 6,000 years old, you just count up the
begats in the Old Testament. It's very clear, 6,000 years old. The Hindus have an infinitely old universe with an infinite number of creations and destructions of the whole universe. Now those two major religions
can't both be right. How do you tell which is
right and which is wrong? Well, the only way is to appeal to the natural world around us and the natural world around us shows that the Earth, for example, is about four point six billion years old and nothing like 6,000 years old. So a literal reading of the
Bible simply is a mistake, I mean it's just wrong, it's just wrong. As a work of science, it is flawed, it's the science of the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C. We've learned something since then. - [Voiceover] This special
episode of Blank on Blank is supported by Squarespace. Whether your story is out of the ordinary or simply out of this world, you should tell it in
an unforgettable way. With user-friendly tools and templates, Squarespace helps you capture your story with a captivating website. Start your trial today. Visit squarespace.com/blankonblank. - [Studs] Well you quote Einstein. The cosmic religious feeling, he is religious in that sense, is the strongest, noblest
mode of a scientific research, so there's a religion of sorts
that Einstein believed in. - [Carl] Right, but it's very different from most people's view of religion. Einstein talked about
God, but for Einstein, God was little more than the sum total of the laws of the universe. There was no hint of
intervention in daily life, of the efficacy of prayer,
of life after death or any of those accouterments of the Judeo-Christian Islamic religion. - [Voiceover] This
episode was also supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science, technology
and economic performance. More information on Sloan at sloan.org. (peaceful instrumental music) (tape reversing)
I've been listening to his voice since I was 12 (and couldn't speak English, I had to read the subtitles when I watched Cosmos), he's been the best teacher for so long it just doesn't feel real that he's dead. His words will echo throughout generations, I hope.
Sagan content always gets an upvote.
Bonus for Studs Turkel, who is just kind of delightful to hear anywhere.
This is an awesome channel! Thanks OP!
That was fascinating to listen to and watch, but is there more of that interview?
Well, I'm not sure. I just stumbled upon it. I've to find out.