Dr. Carl Sagan

D

donnie_darko

Temporal Novice
Hi there people, it's my first post here, hope we get along well :D

I read some interviews with Dr. Carl Sagan and I'd like to listen to your opinion about his vision of universe and time travel.

For those not familiar with his ideas, he does not believe that there's life in outer space or other planets and he does not believe in time travel.

His main point is that "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidences", and he says that neither aliens nor time travel have evidences that comprove their existance.

What do you think about it??

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Donnie Darko
 
I think it's pretty laughable, to be totally honest.

I don't know how old he is. must be quite old. Reminds me of a very old fashioned mindset. Scientists really can afford to think like this any more. All the best and might i add, the ones that will be lead to great discoveries, won't think in this way.

As for planets, We already know they exist outside of our solar system!

Evidence that aliens are a possibility, well our existence is strong evidence of a high likelyhood. Wouldn't you agree.

As for time travel. How about at least, time dilation?

Kind regards,
OllyB
 
OllyB, I think donnie meant that sagan did not believe in life on other plantes, not that he didn't believe in other planets.

Mikebo, I think you're right about Sagan's beliefs about aliens (I don't know about time travel, I've never seen a reference to the subject with regards to him). However, I also think donnie's right. He did believe that there likely was alien life outside our solar system - and he also believed that there was nothing like enough evidence to state that this was actually the case.

There's an interview with him about alien abductions, and the larger alien life phenomenon here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/carlsagan.html

Personally, I think he was what he claimed to be - a scientist who firmly believed in scientific method, yet who was fascinated by the idea of alien life. He really wanted to believe in alien life, yet he could not abandon scientific method to make that wish come true for himself. You have to respect the man for that.
 
FWIW, that's my view of alien life, too. Except add in the issue of timescales. Compared to the existence of this planet, human life is but a blip. We must expect any alien life to also be a blip. For these blips to occur at comparable times, with each life-form being at a comparable stage of technological evolution reduces the odds again.
 
In the 1960's I lived in Los Angeles and associated with a number of UFO contactees, including Orfeo Angelucci,Frank Stranges,George Adamski and George van Tassel. The first I heard of Carl Sagan was as an astronomer from Stanford called to testify in the trial of Reinhold Schmidt, a big
German, milo buyer from Kearny(sp?)NE who claimed he had met aliens from one of the gas planets --I think it was Saturn.I really can't evaluate Schmidt's claim, but this was the emergence, in a way, of Sagan. The Contactees were gathering a following and most of the astronomers interviewed for a contrary opinion by the media came off like a bear awakened from his winter's sleep.
But Sagan had a style (he's dead now of course) with his turtleneck sweater and a 'gosh,geewhiz,I almost could believe in this stuff but ...' He was a regular on Johnny Carson for years,Johnny once referred to him as the best guest he had ever had.My personal belief is that Carl Sagan was a disinformation agent for the U.S. Government. The majority of scientists either work for the government, for a company that does business with them, or an educational facility.Sagan stole the thunder from the Contactees. The scientiific orientation in the 1960's was that there were unlikely to be any inhabited planets in the universe other than our own.Project SETI would basically be another anti-UFO op. You see, if people are convinced that science is really,really, trying to find evidence of life 'out there' they are going to discont claims that the aliens are here. Even if SETI did discover signals, release of the information would have to be approved by the Defense Department, the government itself, and the United Nations. So don't hold your breath on this one.
And yet, for all that, and not to speak ill of the dead, Carl Sagan did provide a way of breaking in the subject to the vast majority of persons. Packerbacker (N.of Green Bay)
 
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