Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

What Hacker News said

Strong rec jwatzman · 2011-02 · on “The Size of the Human Radio-Broadcast Bubble in the Milky Way Galaxy”

Here's a YouTube link to the entire Pale Blue Dot bit by Sagan: [this video] Sagan is absolutely amazing. It really does put things in perspective.

Strong rec Crazyontap · 2018-12 · on “Ask HN: Which audiobooks did/do you like?”

I really loved the Pale blue dot by Carl Sagan. His voice is soo smooth and relaxing that sometimes I just hear it for his voice even though the content is nothing less than amazing. P.S. Unfortunately Sagan died before the book recording could be completed so some chapters are in a different voice. Still, listening to it is real zen like. Here is a sample[1] [1] [this video]

Strong rec WhiteSage · 2019-10 · on “Depressed People See the World More Realistically (2017)”

I'm sorry for your loss. When something bad happens I often find myself going back to Carl Sagan's words on the Pale Blue Dot [0]. Puts everything in perspective, and makes everything feel insignificant, when compared with the vastness of what lies out there. [0] [this video]

Strong rec shafyy · 2021-05 · on “I’ve had the same supper for 10 years”

Ah, legacy. It always makes me happy to listen to Carl Sagan's words on his text "The Pale Blue Dot": From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful chi

Strong rec bayindirh · 2026-03 · on “Artemis II is not safe to fly”

James May of Top Gear has flown with a U2 spy plane once [0][1]. When they reached to the edge of space, May said "If everybody could do that once, it would completely change the face of global politics, religion, education, everything". I can't agree more. Another thing I believe needs to be watched periodically is Pale Blue Dot [2]. [0]: [LINK] [1]: [LINK] [2]: [this video]

Cites a3n · 2014-11 · on “Wanderers: a short film of humanity's expansion into the Solar System [video]”

> There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of exploration.... I agree with this 100%. But while we're moving outward, however slowly, don't forget Sagan's Caveat: "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it

Cites superasn · 2021-12 · on “Show HN: I rebuilt the Flash app “Scale of the Universe” in WebGL”

Pretty amazing. I couldn't help but remember this yt video(1) by Carl Sagan while zooming out. (1) [this video]

Cites nelblu · 2022-02 · on “Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces”

This war makes me sick and very sad. It reminds me of the pale blue dot quote by Sagan : "Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.". [this video]