Mention Books Supposing Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
| Original Title: | Billions & Billions |
| ISBN: | 0345379187 (ISBN13: 9780345379184) |
Carl Sagan
Paperback | Pages: 296 pages Rating: 4.28 | 14191 Users | 486 Reviews
Be Specific About Appertaining To Books Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
| Title | : | Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium |
| Author | : | Carl Sagan |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 296 pages |
| Published | : | May 12th 1998 by Ballantine Books (first published June 2nd 1997) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Philosophy. Physics. Astronomy. Writing. Essays. Space |
Interpretation Concering Books Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts about love, death, and God as he struggled with fatal disease. Ever forward-looking and vibrant with the sparkle of his unquenchable curiosity, Billions & Billions is a testament to one of the great scientific minds of our day.Rating Appertaining To Books Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
Ratings: 4.28 From 14191 Users | 486 ReviewsRate Appertaining To Books Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
As I always think when I finish one of his books; few who have ever put pen to paper have ever been more wise or knowledgeable than Carl SaganSagan's "compete with one another in good works" graf: "Let us vie in art and science, in music and literature, in technological innovation. Let us have an honesty race. Let us compete in relieving suffering and ignorance and disease; in respecting national independence worldwide; in formulating and implementing an ethic for responsible stewardship of the planet."
Powerful book. Carl Sagan shows deep understanding and humility of and for the human race. He speaks of philosophy, the climate change, abortion, life, death, nuclear war, and the as always the universe. Sagan was concerned for the human race and the ideas he presents are relevant today. I am sad that he did not live to see the success of the human race but simultaneously glad he did not see our failures. We should have headed his warnings. The one thing Carl Sagan did not see coming was the
Written at the end of his life and published with an post script illuminating his unsuccessful battle with myelodysplasia, as well as a touching epilogue by his widow Ann Druyan. The book starts out with a kind of fleshing-out of humanity by its numbers, things like human population and resource usage and the age of the species are all implicitly synthesized into a description of people by very large numbers. It then touches on social and environmental issues, how people react to them, and what
Good book. First and third segments are more interesting than the middle. In the first segment Sagan quantifies some figures and reminds us how small and almost inconceivable our world is. Out of the countless stars and rocks in the Universe we exist on the perfect rock situated perfectly from our star. Of course, life could exist under different circumstances in other parts of the Universe. He also reminds us that scientific understanding is available to all.The second segment is about the
This is I think Carl Sagan's last published book, published in 1996. His chapter/essay, entitled "The Twentieth Century," is one of the most insightful summaries of what the universe is that I ever read. Well, maybe not the most insightful, but surely in the top three:"Perhaps the most wrenching by-product of the scientific revolution has been to render untenable many of our most cherished and most comforting beliefs. The tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors has been replaced by a
Read today, "Billions and billions" is a series of musings on popular dark things hurting the planet today: pollution, nuclear war, disease, climate change. It is bleak at times, but overall optimistic. A bit too naively optimistic for today's standards of end-of-the-world sensationalist predictions. But this is exactly what it makes it stand out.Oh, yes. And another thing that makes it stand out: it has been written by a highly competent man of science. More than twenty years ago. If you start
No comments
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.