"I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day that I have set before thee

life and death...the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that thou mayest live
thou and thy seed."
Nearly 200 years ago, in the Gulf of Alaska at a place called Lituya Bay two cultures
that had never met experienced a first encounter. The Tlingit people lived more or less
as their ancestors had for thousands of years. They were nomads moving often by
canoe between numerous campsites where they caught plentiful fish and sea otters
and traded with neighboring tribes. The creator they worshiped was the raven go
whom they pictured as an enormous black bird with white wings. And one July day in
1786 the raven god appeared. The Tlingit were terrified. They knew that anyone
looking directly at the god would be turned to stone. From the other side of the planet
had come an expedition led by the French explorer La Prouse. It was the most
elaborately planned scientific voyage of the century sent around the world to gather
knowledge about the geography natural history and peoples of distant lands. But to
the Tlingit whose world was confined to the islands and inlets of south Alaska this
great vessel could have come only from the gods. There was one among them who
dared to look more deeply. He was an old warrior, and nearly blind. He said that his life
was almost over. For the common good, he would approach the raven to learn whether
the god really would turn his people to stone. He set out on his own voyage of
discovery to confront the end of the world. The old man made himself look hard at the
raven and saw that it was not a great bird from the sky but the work of men like
himself. This first encounter turned out to be peaceful. Men of the La Prouse
expedition were under orders to treat with respect any people they might discover. An
exceptional policy for its time and after. La Prouse and the Tlingit exchanged goods
and then the strange ship sailed away, never to return.
Not all encounters between nations had been so peaceful. Before 1519 the Aztecs of
Mexico had never seen a gun. They too believed at first that their strange visitors had
come from the sky. The Spaniards under Cortez were not constrained by any
injunctions against violence. Their true nature and intentions soon became clear.
Unlike the La Prouse expedition the Conquistadors sought, not knowledge, but gold.
They used their superior weapons to loot and murder. In their madness, they
obliterated a civilization. In the name of piety in a mockery of their religion the
Spaniards utterly destroyed a society with an art, astronomy, and architecture the
equal of anything in Europe. We revile the Conquistadors for their cruelty and
shortsightedness for choosing death. We admire La Prouse and the Tlingit for their
courage and wisdom for choosing life. The choice is with us still.
But the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient mythmakers knew
we're children equally of the Earth and sky. In our tenure on this planet we've
accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage: Propensities for aggression and ritual
submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders. All of which puts our survival in some
doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others love for our children a desire to
learn from history and experience and a great, soaring, passionate intelligence. The
clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will
prevail is uncertain. Particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small
part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the cosmos an inescapable perspective
awaits. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space.
Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are difficult to support when we
see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of
light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.
There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us
wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably, headlong to self-destruction. I
dream about it. And sometimes they're bad dreams. In the vision of a dream I once
imagined myself searching for other civilizations in the cosmos. Among a hundred

billion galaxies and a billion trillion stars life and intelligence should have arisen on
many worlds. Some worlds are barren and desolate on them life never began or may
have been extinguished in some cosmic catastrophe. There may be worlds rich in life
but not yet evolved to intelligence and high technology. There may be civilizations that
achieve technology and then promptly use it to destroy themselves. And perhaps there
are also beings who learned to live with their technology and themselves. Beings who
endure and become citizens of the cosmos. Immersed in these thoughts I found myself
approaching a world that was clearly inhabited a world I had visited before.
I saw a planet encompassed by light and recognized the signature of intelligence. But
suddenly darkness, total and absolute. In my dream I could read the Book of Worlds. A
vast encyclopedia of a billion planets within the Milky Way. What could the computer
tell me about this now-darkened world? They must have survived some earlier
catastrophe. Locally initiated contact: Maybe their television broadcasts. Their biology
was different from ours. High technology. I wondered what those lights had been for.
There must have been signs of trouble. Probability of survival in a century less than
1%. Not very good odds. "Communications interrupted." Their world society had failed.
They had made the ultimate mistake. I felt a longing to return to Earth. The television
transmissions of Earth rushed past me expanding away from our planet at the speed of
light.
(RANDOM TELEVISION AUDIO PLAYS)
ANNOUNCER 1: The nuclear test-ban treaty was signed today.
ANNOUNCER 2: Something's happened in the motorcade. Stand by.
ANNOUNCER 3: For 64,000 dollars.
ANNOUNCER 4: bombing of Hanoi was designed to cripple morale.
NIXON: There can be no whitewash at the White House.
ANNOUNCER 5: series of record oil company profits were revealed.
ANNOUNCER 6: if the serious course of events continued. Foreign ministers are at this
moment. Please stand by. Stand by.
Then, suddenly silence total and absolute. But the dream was not yet done. Had we
destroyed our home? What had we done to the Earth? There had been many ways for
life to perish at our hands. We had poisoned the air and water. We had ravaged the
land. Perhaps we had changed the climate. Could it have been a plague or nuclear
war?
I remembered the galactic computer. What would it say about the Earth? There was
our region of the galaxy. There was our world. I had found the entry for Earth.
Humanity, third from the sun. They had heard our television broadcasts and thought
them an application for cosmic citizenship. Our technology had been growing
enormously. They got that right. 200 nation states, About six global powers. The
potential to become one planet. Probability of survival over a century, here also less
than l%. So it was nuclear war. A full nuclear exchange. There would be no more big
questions. No more answers. Never again a love or a child. No descendants to
remember us and be proud. No more voyages to the stars. No more songs from the
Earth. I saw East Africa and thought a few million years ago we humans took our first
steps there. Our brains grew and changed. The old parts began to be guided by the
new parts. And this made us human with compassion and foresight and reason. But
instead, we listened to that reptilian voice within us counseling fear, territoriality
aggression. We accepted the products of science. We rejected its methods.
Maybe the reptiles will evolve intelligence once more. Perhaps, one day, there will be
civilizations again on Earth. There will be life. There will be intelligence. But there will
be no more humans. Not here, not on a billion worlds. Every thinking person fears
nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madness
and every country has an excuse. There's a dreary chain of causality. The Germans

were working on the bomb at the beginning of World War II. So the Americans had to
make one first. If the Americans had one, the Russians had to have one. Then, the
British, the French the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis.
218
00:18:25,313 --> 00:18:28,874
Many nations now collect
nuclear weapons.
219
00:18:29,083 --> 00:18:31,313
They're easy to make.
220
00:18:31,519 --> 00:18:36,218
You can steal fissionable material
from nuclear reactors.
221
00:18:36,424 --> 00:18:41,361
Nuclear weapons have almost become
a home handicraft industry.
222
00:18:42,263 --> 00:18:46,563
The conventional bombs of World War II
were called "blockbusters."
223
00:18:46,767 --> 00:18:51,500
Filled with 20 tons of TNT, they
could destroy a city block.
224
00:18:51,706 --> 00:18:55,198
All the bombs dropped on all the
cities of World War II...
225
00:18:55,409 --> 00:18:57,934
...amounted to some
2 million tons of TNT.
226
00:18:58,145 --> 00:18:59,772
Two megatons.
227
00:18:59,981 --> 00:19:02,245
Coventry and Rotterdam.
228
00:19:02,450 --> 00:19:03,940
Dresden and Tokyo.
229
00:19:04,151 --> 00:19:06,483

All the death that rained

from the skies...
230
00:19:06,687 --> 00:19:09,679
...between 1939 and 1945.
231
00:19:09,890 --> 00:19:14,759
100,000 blockbusters.
Two megatons.
232
00:19:14,962 --> 00:19:19,456
Today, two megatons is the equivalent
of a single thermonuclear bomb.
233
00:19:19,667 --> 00:19:22,659
One bomb with the destructive force...
234
00:19:22,870 --> 00:19:25,498
...of the Second World War.
235
00:19:25,706 --> 00:19:28,231
But there are tens of thousands
of nuclear weapons.
236
00:19:28,442 --> 00:19:31,468
The missile and bomber forces
of the Soviet Union and U. S...
237
00:19:31,679 --> 00:19:36,116
...have warheads aimed at over
15,000 designated targets.
238
00:19:36,317 --> 00:19:39,115
No place on the planet is safe.
239
00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,982
The energy contained
in these weapons...
240
00:19:42,189 --> 00:19:43,918
...genies of death...
241
00:19:44,125 --> 00:19:48,528
...patiently awaiting
the rubbing of the lamps...

242
00:19:48,729 --> 00:19:51,357
...totals far more than
10,000 megatons.
243
00:19:51,565 --> 00:19:55,160
But with the destruction
concentrated efficiently...
244
00:19:55,369 --> 00:19:58,600
...not over six years,
but over a few hours.
245
00:19:58,806 --> 00:20:02,742
A blockbuster for every family
on the planet.
246
00:20:02,943 --> 00:20:05,810
A World War II every second...
247
00:20:06,013 --> 00:20:09,574
...for the length of a lazy afternoon.
248
00:20:11,152 --> 00:20:13,017
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
249
00:20:15,489 --> 00:20:17,150
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima...
250
00:20:17,358 --> 00:20:19,883
...killed 70,000 people.
251
00:20:20,094 --> 00:20:22,289
In a full nuclear exchange...
252
00:20:22,496 --> 00:20:25,158
...in the paroxysm of global death...
253
00:20:25,366 --> 00:20:28,199
...the equivalent of
a million Hiroshima bombs...
254
00:20:28,402 --> 00:20:31,166
...would be dropped all

over the world.

255
00:20:31,372 --> 00:20:33,397
In such an exchange
not everyone would be...
256
00:20:33,607 --> 00:20:37,668
...killed by the blast and firestorm
and the immediate radiation.
257
00:20:37,878 --> 00:20:40,506
There would be other agonies:
258
00:20:40,714 --> 00:20:41,703
Loss of loved ones...
259
00:20:41,916 --> 00:20:46,319
...the legions of the burned and
blinded and mutilated...
260
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,215
...the absence of medical care...
261
00:20:48,422 --> 00:20:49,753
...disease, plague...
262
00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:54,018
...long-lived radiation poisoning
of the soil and the water.
263
00:20:54,228 --> 00:20:59,097
The threat of tumors and stillbirths
and malformed children.
264
00:20:59,300 --> 00:21:02,861
And the hopeless sense of
a civilization destroyed for nothing.
265
00:21:03,070 --> 00:21:07,166
The knowledge that we could have
prevented it and did not.
266
00:21:10,044 --> 00:21:13,411
The global balance of terror...

267
00:21:13,614 --> 00:21:16,378
...pioneered by the U.S.
and the Soviet Union...
268
00:21:16,584 --> 00:21:20,020
...holds hostage
all the citizens of the Earth.
269
00:21:20,221 --> 00:21:22,815
Each side persistently probes...
270
00:21:23,023 --> 00:21:25,423
...the limits of
the other's tolerance...
271
00:21:25,626 --> 00:21:29,357
...like the Cuban missile crisis...
272
00:21:29,864 --> 00:21:32,128
...the testing of
anti-satellite weapons...
273
00:21:32,333 --> 00:21:34,824
...the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars.
274
00:21:35,035 --> 00:21:37,003
The hostile military
establishments are...
275
00:21:37,204 --> 00:21:41,004
...locked in some ghastly
mutual embrace.
276
00:21:41,208 --> 00:21:42,937
Each needs the other.
277
00:21:43,144 --> 00:21:46,875
But the balance of terror
is a delicate balance...
278
00:21:47,081 --> 00:21:50,608
...with very little margin
for miscalculation.
279

00:21:52,186 --> 00:21:55,986

And the world impoverishes
itself by spending...
280
00:21:56,690 --> 00:22:01,127
...a trillion dollars a year
on preparations for war.
281
00:22:01,328 --> 00:22:02,920
And by employing perhaps...
282
00:22:03,130 --> 00:22:06,190
...half the scientists and high
technologists on the planet...
283
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,527
...in military endeavors.
284
00:22:10,738 --> 00:22:12,433
How would we explain all this...
285
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,006
...to a dispassionate
extraterrestrial observer?
286
00:22:15,209 --> 00:22:19,043
What account would we give
of our stewardship...
287
00:22:19,246 --> 00:22:20,713
...of the planet Earth?
288
00:22:20,915 --> 00:22:24,373
We have heard the rationales
offered by the superpowers.
289
00:22:24,585 --> 00:22:27,213
We know who speaks
for the nations.
290
00:22:27,421 --> 00:22:29,889
But who speaks
for the human species?
291
00:22:30,090 --> 00:22:32,149

Who speaks for Earth?

292
00:22:33,327 --> 00:22:37,525
From an extraterrestrial perspective,
our global civilization is...
293
00:22:37,731 --> 00:22:40,165
...clearly on the edge of failure...
294
00:22:40,367 --> 00:22:42,267
...in the most important task it faces:
295
00:22:42,469 --> 00:22:45,905
Preserving the lives and well-being
of its citizens...
296
00:22:46,106 --> 00:22:49,269
...and the future habitability
of the planet.
297
00:22:49,476 --> 00:22:53,913
But if we're willing to live with the
growing likelihood of nuclear war...
298
00:22:54,114 --> 00:22:57,277
...shouldn't we also be willing
to explore vigorously...
299
00:22:57,484 --> 00:23:00,112
...every possible means to
prevent nuclear war?
300
00:23:00,321 --> 00:23:03,017
Shouldn't we consider,
in every nation...
301
00:23:03,224 --> 00:23:06,284
...major changes in the traditional
ways of doing things?
302
00:23:06,493 --> 00:23:08,290
A fundamental restructuring...
303
00:23:08,495 --> 00:23:12,124
...of economic, political,

social and religious institutions?

304
00:23:12,633 --> 00:23:15,466
We've reached a point where
there can be no more...
305
00:23:15,669 --> 00:23:17,569
...special interests or cases.
306
00:23:17,905 --> 00:23:21,432
Nuclear arms threaten every
person on Earth.
307
00:23:22,810 --> 00:23:27,213
Fundamental changes in society
are sometimes labeled...
308
00:23:27,414 --> 00:23:31,612
...impractical or contrary
to human nature...
309
00:23:31,819 --> 00:23:34,117
...as if nuclear war were practical...
310
00:23:34,321 --> 00:23:37,313
...or as if there were only
one human nature.
311
00:23:37,925 --> 00:23:40,519
But fundamental changes can
clearly be made.
312
00:23:40,728 --> 00:23:42,696
We're surrounded by them.
313
00:23:42,896 --> 00:23:45,558
In the last two centuries,
abject slavery...
314
00:23:45,766 --> 00:23:48,326
...which was with us for
thousands of years...
315
00:23:48,535 --> 00:23:50,628
...has almost entirely

been eliminated...
316
00:23:50,838 --> 00:23:53,432
...in a stirring
worldwide revolution.
317
00:23:53,641 --> 00:23:57,236
Women, systematically mistreated
for millennia...
318
00:23:57,444 --> 00:24:00,345
...are gradually gaining the political
and economic power...
319
00:24:00,547 --> 00:24:02,811
...traditionally denied to them.
320
00:24:03,017 --> 00:24:07,613
And some wars of aggression have
recently been stopped or curtailed...
321
00:24:07,821 --> 00:24:10,051
...because of a revulsion...
322
00:24:10,257 --> 00:24:13,420
...felt by the people in
the aggressor nations.
323
00:24:13,627 --> 00:24:15,754
The old appeals...
324
00:24:15,963 --> 00:24:18,864
...to racial, sexual,
and religious chauvinism...
325
00:24:19,066 --> 00:24:22,331
...and to rabid nationalist fervor...
326
00:24:22,536 --> 00:24:24,367
...are beginning not to work.
327
00:24:24,571 --> 00:24:28,234
A new consciousness is developing
which sees the Earth as...

328
00:24:28,442 --> 00:24:29,966
...a single organism...
329
00:24:30,177 --> 00:24:34,307
...and recognizes that an organism
at war with itself...
330
00:24:34,515 --> 00:24:35,948
...is doomed.
331
00:24:36,150 --> 00:24:38,880
We are one planet.
332
00:24:40,888 --> 00:24:44,517
One of the great revelations of
the age of space exploration...
333
00:24:44,725 --> 00:24:47,853
...is the image of the Earth,
finite and lonely...
334
00:24:48,062 --> 00:24:52,931
...somehow vulnerable, bearing
the entire human species...
335
00:24:53,133 --> 00:24:56,864
...through the oceans
of space and time.
336
00:24:57,071 --> 00:24:59,437
But this is an ancient perception.
337
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,403
In the 3rd century B. C...
338
00:25:01,608 --> 00:25:04,099
...our planet was mapped and
accurately measured...
339
00:25:04,311 --> 00:25:08,441
...by a Greek scientist named
Eratosthenes, who worked in Egypt.
340
00:25:08,649 --> 00:25:11,243

This was the world as he knew it.

341
00:25:12,019 --> 00:25:14,351
Eratosthenes was the director...
342
00:25:14,555 --> 00:25:17,251
...of the great Library
of Alexandria...
343
00:25:17,458 --> 00:25:21,724
...the center of science and learning
in the ancient world.
344
00:25:22,963 --> 00:25:27,024
Aristotle had argued that humanity
was divided into Greeks...
345
00:25:27,234 --> 00:25:31,136
...and everybody else,
who he called "barbarians"...
346
00:25:31,338 --> 00:25:35,365
...and that the Greeks should keep
themselves racially pure.
347
00:25:35,576 --> 00:25:39,945
He taught that it was fitting for
the Greeks to enslave other peoples.
348
00:25:40,147 --> 00:25:44,914
But Eratosthenes criticized Aristotle
for his blind chauvinism.
349
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,283
He believed there was good and bad
in every nation.
350
00:25:49,490 --> 00:25:53,790
The Greek conquerors had invented
a new god for the Egyptians...
351
00:25:53,994 --> 00:25:57,191
...but he looked remarkably Greek.
352
00:25:57,398 --> 00:25:59,923

Alexander was portrayed as pharaoh...

353
00:26:00,134 --> 00:26:02,398
...in a gesture to the Egyptians.
354
00:26:02,603 --> 00:26:07,097
But in practice, the Greeks were
confident of their superiority.
355
00:26:08,108 --> 00:26:12,101
The protests of the librarian hardly
constituted a serious challenge...
356
00:26:12,312 --> 00:26:14,109
...to prevailing prejudices.
357
00:26:14,314 --> 00:26:17,181
Their world was as imperfect
as our own.
358
00:26:17,384 --> 00:26:20,979
But the Ptolemies, the Greek kings of
Egypt who followed Alexander...
359
00:26:21,188 --> 00:26:23,053
...had at least this virtue:
360
00:26:23,257 --> 00:26:26,420
They supported the advancement
of knowledge.
361
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:29,960
Popular ideas about the nature of
the cosmos were challenged...
362
00:26:30,164 --> 00:26:32,064
...and some of them, discarded.
363
00:26:32,266 --> 00:26:33,824
New ideas were proposed...
364
00:26:34,034 --> 00:26:36,502
...and found to be in
better accord with the facts.

365
00:26:36,703 --> 00:26:39,570
There were imaginative proposals,
vigorous debates...
366
00:26:39,773 --> 00:26:41,138
...brilliant syntheses.
367
00:26:41,341 --> 00:26:43,309
The resulting treasure
of knowledge...
368
00:26:43,510 --> 00:26:46,411
...was recorded and preserved
for centuries...
369
00:26:46,613 --> 00:26:49,081
...on these shelves.
370
00:26:50,451 --> 00:26:54,319
Science came of age
in this library.
371
00:26:56,924 --> 00:27:01,054
The Ptolemies didn't merely
collect old knowledge.
372
00:27:01,261 --> 00:27:04,958
They supported scientific research
and generated new knowledge.
373
00:27:05,165 --> 00:27:06,962
The results were amazing.
374
00:27:07,167 --> 00:27:11,570
Eratosthenes accurately calculated
the size of the Earth.
375
00:27:11,772 --> 00:27:12,864
He mapped it...
376
00:27:13,073 --> 00:27:16,270
...and he argued that it could be
circumnavigated.
377

00:27:16,477 --> 00:27:20,504

Hipparchus anticipated that
stars come into being...
378
00:27:20,714 --> 00:27:23,274
...slowly move during the course
of centuries...
379
00:27:23,484 --> 00:27:24,815
...and eventually perish.
380
00:27:25,018 --> 00:27:27,009
It was he who first catalogued...
381
00:27:27,221 --> 00:27:29,951
...the positions and magnitudes
of the stars...
382
00:27:30,257 --> 00:27:33,420
...in order to determine whether
there were such changes.
383
00:27:33,627 --> 00:27:36,425
Euclid produced a textbook
on geometry...
384
00:27:36,630 --> 00:27:39,793
...which human beings learned from
for 23 centuries.
385
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,733
It's still a great read, full
of the most elegant proofs.
386
00:27:44,938 --> 00:27:48,533
Galen wrote basic works on
healing and anatomy...
387
00:27:48,742 --> 00:27:51,472
...which dominated medicine
until the Renaissance.
388
00:27:51,678 --> 00:27:53,339
These are just a few examples.
389

00:27:53,547 --> 00:27:55,879

There were dozens of
great scholars here...
390
00:27:56,083 --> 00:27:59,849
...and hundreds of fundamental
discoveries.
391
00:28:04,191 --> 00:28:07,592
Some of those discoveries have
a distinctly modern ring.
392
00:28:07,794 --> 00:28:11,730
Apollonius of Perga studied
the parabola and the ellipse...
393
00:28:11,932 --> 00:28:15,698
...curves that we know today describe
the paths of falling objects...
394
00:28:15,903 --> 00:28:17,268
...in a gravitational field...
395
00:28:17,471 --> 00:28:20,702
...and space vehicles traveling
between the planets.
396
00:28:20,908 --> 00:28:25,345
Heron of Alexandria invented
steam engines and gear trains...
397
00:28:25,546 --> 00:28:29,380
...he was the author of
the first book on robots.
398
00:28:29,583 --> 00:28:32,916
Imagine how different our world
would be if those discoveries...
399
00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:35,850
...had been used
for the benefit of everyone.
400
00:28:36,056 --> 00:28:38,923
If the humane perspective
of Eratosthenes...

401
00:28:39,126 --> 00:28:41,390
...had been widely
adopted and applied.
402
00:28:41,595 --> 00:28:44,496
But this was not to be.
403
00:28:46,366 --> 00:28:49,563
Alexandria was the greatest city...
404
00:28:49,770 --> 00:28:52,864
...the Western world had ever seen.
405
00:28:53,073 --> 00:28:55,041
People from all nations came here...
406
00:28:55,242 --> 00:28:57,437
...to live, to trade, to learn.
407
00:28:57,644 --> 00:28:59,168
On a given day...
408
00:28:59,379 --> 00:29:02,371
...these harbors were thronged...
409
00:29:02,583 --> 00:29:06,041
...with merchants and scholars,
tourists.
410
00:29:06,253 --> 00:29:07,447
It's probably here...
411
00:29:07,654 --> 00:29:11,181
...that the word "cosmopolitan"
realized its true meaning...
412
00:29:11,391 --> 00:29:14,656
...of a citizen,
not just of a nation...
413
00:29:14,861 --> 00:29:16,795
...but of the cosmos.

414
00:29:16,997 --> 00:29:21,934
To be a citizen of the cosmos.
415
00:29:22,636 --> 00:29:26,766
Here were clearly the seeds
of our modern world.
416
00:29:26,974 --> 00:29:29,943
But why didn't they
take root and flourish?
417
00:29:30,143 --> 00:29:34,512
Why, instead, did the West slumber
through 1000 years of darkness...
418
00:29:34,715 --> 00:29:38,481
...until Columbus and Copernicus
and their contemporaries...
419
00:29:38,685 --> 00:29:42,086
...rediscovered the work done here?
420
00:29:42,289 --> 00:29:44,519
I cannot give you a simple answer...
421
00:29:44,725 --> 00:29:46,590
...but I do know this:
422
00:29:46,793 --> 00:29:50,627
There is no record in the entire
history of the library...
423
00:29:50,831 --> 00:29:54,767
...that any of the illustrious scholars
and scientists who worked here...
424
00:29:54,968 --> 00:29:57,300
...ever seriously challenged...
425
00:29:57,504 --> 00:30:01,736
...a single political or economic
or religious assumption...
426
00:30:01,942 --> 00:30:04,240

...of the society in which they lived.

427
00:30:04,444 --> 00:30:08,403
The permanence of the stars
was questioned.
428
00:30:08,615 --> 00:30:12,483
The justice of slavery was not.
429
00:30:27,934 --> 00:30:31,165
Science and learning in general...
430
00:30:31,371 --> 00:30:33,999
...were the preserve
of the privileged few.
431
00:30:34,207 --> 00:30:38,337
The vast population of this city
had not the vaguest notion...
432
00:30:38,545 --> 00:30:42,311
...of the great discoveries being
made within these walls.
433
00:30:42,516 --> 00:30:43,915
How could they?
434
00:30:44,117 --> 00:30:47,848
The new findings were not
explained or popularized.
435
00:30:48,055 --> 00:30:51,456
The progress made here
benefited them little.
436
00:30:51,658 --> 00:30:54,183
Science was not part of their lives.
437
00:30:54,394 --> 00:30:57,386
The discoveries in mechanics, say...
438
00:30:57,597 --> 00:30:59,428
...or steam technology...
439

00:30:59,633 --> 00:31:03,535

...mainly were applied to
the perfection of weapons...
440
00:31:03,737 --> 00:31:06,035
...to the encouragement
of superstition...
441
00:31:06,239 --> 00:31:08,207
...to the amusement of kings.
442
00:31:08,408 --> 00:31:12,276
Scientists never seemed to grasp
the enormous potential...
443
00:31:12,479 --> 00:31:15,414
...of machines to free people...
444
00:31:15,615 --> 00:31:19,244
...from arduous and repetitive labor.
445
00:31:19,453 --> 00:31:21,614
The intellectual achievements
of antiquity...
446
00:31:21,822 --> 00:31:24,484
...had few practical applications.
447
00:31:24,691 --> 00:31:29,628
Science never captured
the imagination of the multitude.
448
00:31:30,130 --> 00:31:33,657
There was no counterbalance
to stagnation, to pessimism...
449
00:31:33,867 --> 00:31:38,270
...to the most abject surrender
to mysticism.
450
00:31:38,472 --> 00:31:41,635
So when, at long last...
451
00:31:41,842 --> 00:31:44,675
...the mob came

to burn the place down...

452
00:31:44,878 --> 00:31:47,278
...there was nobody to stop them.
453
00:32:09,169 --> 00:32:12,195
Let me tell you about the end.
454
00:32:12,405 --> 00:32:16,671
It's a story about the last
scientist to work in this place.
455
00:32:16,877 --> 00:32:20,108
A mathematician, astronomer,
physicist...
456
00:32:20,313 --> 00:32:25,148
...and head of the school of NeoPlatonic philosophy in Alexandria.
457
00:32:25,352 --> 00:32:27,582
That's an extraordinary range
of accomplishments...
458
00:32:27,788 --> 00:32:30,382
...for any individual, in any age.
459
00:32:30,590 --> 00:32:33,354
Her name was Hypatia.
460
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:38,156
She was born in this city
in the year 370 A.D.
461
00:32:40,667 --> 00:32:44,398
This was a time when women
had essentially no options.
462
00:32:44,604 --> 00:32:46,936
They were considered property.
463
00:32:47,140 --> 00:32:50,837
Nevertheless, Hypatia was able
to move freely...

464
00:32:51,044 --> 00:32:52,705
...unselfconsciously...
465
00:32:52,913 --> 00:32:56,371
...through traditional male domains.
466
00:32:56,583 --> 00:32:59,882
By all accounts,
she was a great beauty.
467
00:33:00,086 --> 00:33:01,713
And although she had many suitors...
468
00:33:01,922 --> 00:33:04,823
...she had no interest in marriage.
469
00:33:06,092 --> 00:33:11,029
The Alexandria of Hypatia's time,
by then long under Roman rule...
470
00:33:11,398 --> 00:33:14,333
...was a city in grave conflict.
471
00:33:14,534 --> 00:33:18,061
Slavery, the cancer
of the ancient world...
472
00:33:18,271 --> 00:33:22,605
...had sapped classical civilization
of its vitality.
473
00:33:22,809 --> 00:33:25,243
The growing Christian Church was...
474
00:33:25,445 --> 00:33:27,345
...consolidating its power...
475
00:33:27,547 --> 00:33:32,075
...and attempting to eradicate
pagan influence and culture.
476
00:33:32,285 --> 00:33:36,654
Hypatia stood at the focus...

477
00:33:36,857 --> 00:33:41,692
...at the epicenter
of mighty social forces.
478
00:33:41,895 --> 00:33:45,626
Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria,
despised her...
479
00:33:45,832 --> 00:33:49,962
...in part because of her close
friendship with a Roman governor...
480
00:33:50,170 --> 00:33:54,300
...but also because she was a symbol
of learning and science...
481
00:33:54,507 --> 00:33:58,944
...which were largely identified
by the early Church with paganism.
482
00:33:59,946 --> 00:34:01,675
In great personal danger...
483
00:34:01,882 --> 00:34:05,613
...Hypatia continued to teach
and to publish...
484
00:34:05,819 --> 00:34:10,449
...until, in the year 415 A.D.,
on her way to work...
485
00:34:10,657 --> 00:34:12,784
...she was set upon...
486
00:34:12,993 --> 00:34:16,360
...by a fanatical mob of
Cyril's followers.
487
00:34:16,563 --> 00:34:19,225
They dragged her from her chariot...
488
00:34:19,432 --> 00:34:21,059
...tore off her clothes...
489

00:34:21,268 --> 00:34:25,102

...and flayed her flesh
from her bones...
490
00:34:25,305 --> 00:34:27,671
...with abalone shells.
491
00:34:27,874 --> 00:34:31,401
Her remains were burned,
her works obliterated...
492
00:34:31,611 --> 00:34:33,135
...her name forgotten.
493
00:34:33,346 --> 00:34:36,509
Cyril was made a saint.
494
00:34:39,019 --> 00:34:42,978
The glory you see around me...
495
00:34:43,189 --> 00:34:46,022
...is nothing but a memory.
496
00:34:46,226 --> 00:34:47,716
It does not exist.
497
00:34:49,462 --> 00:34:52,431
The last remains of the
library were destroyed...
498
00:34:52,632 --> 00:34:55,157
...within a year of Hypatia's death.
499
00:34:55,368 --> 00:34:59,031
It's as if an entire
civilization had undergone...
500
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:03,369
...a sort of self-inflicted
radical brain surgery...
501
00:35:03,743 --> 00:35:06,007
...so that most of its memories...
502

00:35:06,212 --> 00:35:09,375

...discoveries, ideas and passions...
503
00:35:09,582 --> 00:35:12,983
...were irrevocably wiped out.
504
00:35:15,522 --> 00:35:18,650
The loss was incalculable.
505
00:35:18,892 --> 00:35:21,190
In some cases, we know only...
506
00:35:21,394 --> 00:35:25,023
...the tantalizing titles of books
that had been destroyed.
507
00:35:25,265 --> 00:35:29,998
In most cases, we know neither
the titles nor the authors.
508
00:35:30,203 --> 00:35:32,637
We do know that in this library...
509
00:35:32,839 --> 00:35:36,866
...there were 123 different
plays by Sophocles...
510
00:35:37,077 --> 00:35:40,137
...of which only seven have
survived to our time.
511
00:35:40,347 --> 00:35:43,145
One of those seven is Oedipus Rex.
512
00:35:43,350 --> 00:35:46,217
Similar numbers apply
to the lost works of...
513
00:35:46,419 --> 00:35:49,911
...Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes.
514
00:35:50,123 --> 00:35:53,786
It's a little as if the only
surviving works of a man named...

515
00:35:53,994 --> 00:35:55,928
...William Shakespeare...
516
00:35:56,129 --> 00:36:00,088
...were Coriolanus
and A Winter's Tale...
517
00:36:00,300 --> 00:36:03,292
...although we knew he had
written some other things...
518
00:36:03,503 --> 00:36:05,596
...which were
highly prized in his time.
519
00:36:05,805 --> 00:36:09,263
Plays called Hamlet, Macbeth...
520
00:36:09,476 --> 00:36:13,037
...A Midsummer's Night Dream,
Julius Caesar, King Lear...
521
00:36:13,246 --> 00:36:15,077
...Romeo and Juliet.
522
00:36:22,222 --> 00:36:25,282
History is full of people...
523
00:36:25,492 --> 00:36:29,451
...who, out of fear or ignorance...
524
00:36:29,662 --> 00:36:31,095
...or the lust for power...
525
00:36:31,297 --> 00:36:35,256
...have destroyed treasures
of immeasurable value...
526
00:36:35,468 --> 00:36:39,063
...which truly belong to all of us.
527
00:36:39,272 --> 00:36:43,106
We must not let it happen again.

528
00:37:03,963 --> 00:37:06,454
We have considered
the destruction of worlds...
529
00:37:06,666 --> 00:37:09,191
...and the end of civilizations.
530
00:37:09,402 --> 00:37:13,099
But there is another perspective
by which to measure human endeavors.
531
00:37:13,306 --> 00:37:17,003
Let me tell you a story
about the beginning.
532
00:37:17,510 --> 00:37:19,705
Some 15 billion years ago...
533
00:37:19,913 --> 00:37:21,437
...our universe began...
534
00:37:21,648 --> 00:37:25,015
...with the mightiest explosion
of all time.
535
00:37:25,218 --> 00:37:28,779
The universe expanded,
cooled and darkened.
536
00:37:28,988 --> 00:37:32,287
Energy condensed into matter,
mostly hydrogen atoms.
537
00:37:32,492 --> 00:37:35,950
And these atoms accumulated
into vast clouds...
538
00:37:36,162 --> 00:37:37,789
...rushing away from each other...
539
00:37:37,997 --> 00:37:41,228
...that would one day become
the galaxies.
540

00:37:42,268 --> 00:37:46,466

Within these galaxies the first
generation of stars was born...
541
00:37:46,673 --> 00:37:49,073
...kindling the energy
hidden in matter...
542
00:37:49,275 --> 00:37:52,005
...flooding the cosmos with light.
543
00:37:52,212 --> 00:37:57,149
Hydrogen atoms had made
suns and starlight.
544
00:37:59,052 --> 00:38:02,647
There were in those times
no planets to receive the light...
545
00:38:02,856 --> 00:38:06,986
...and no living creatures to admire
the radiance of the heavens.
546
00:38:07,193 --> 00:38:09,093
But deep in the stellar furnaces...
547
00:38:09,295 --> 00:38:12,321
...nuclear fusion was creating
the heavier atoms:
548
00:38:12,532 --> 00:38:15,501
Carbon and oxygen,
silicon and iron.
549
00:38:15,702 --> 00:38:18,933
These elements, the ash left
by hydrogen...
550
00:38:19,139 --> 00:38:24,076
...were the raw materials from which
planets and life would later arise.
551
00:38:24,277 --> 00:38:28,213
At first, the heavy elements were
trapped in the hearts of the stars.

552
00:38:28,414 --> 00:38:31,508
But massive stars soon
exhausted their fuel...
553
00:38:31,718 --> 00:38:33,208
...and in their death throes...
554
00:38:33,419 --> 00:38:36,445
...returned most of their substance
back into space.
555
00:38:36,656 --> 00:38:41,025
The interstellar gas became
enriched in heavy elements.
556
00:38:42,695 --> 00:38:44,128
In the Milky Way galaxy...
557
00:38:44,330 --> 00:38:48,289
...the matter of the cosmos was recycled
into new generations of stars...
558
00:38:48,501 --> 00:38:50,469
...now rich in heavy atoms.
559
00:38:50,670 --> 00:38:54,367
A legacy from
their stellar ancestors.
560
00:38:56,075 --> 00:38:58,270
And in the cold
of interstellar space...
561
00:38:58,478 --> 00:39:01,970
...great turbulent clouds were
gathered by gravity...
562
00:39:02,182 --> 00:39:05,015
...and stirred by starlight.
563
00:39:08,922 --> 00:39:10,014
In their depths...
564
00:39:10,223 --> 00:39:13,852

...the heavy atoms condensed into

grains of rocky dust and ice...
565
00:39:14,060 --> 00:39:17,120
...and complex
carbon-based molecules.
566
00:39:17,330 --> 00:39:20,390
In accordance with the laws
of physics and chemistry...
567
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:25,469
...hydrogen atoms had brought forth
the stuff of life.
568
00:39:32,879 --> 00:39:36,246
In other clouds, more massive
aggregates of gas and dust...
569
00:39:36,449 --> 00:39:38,917
...formed later generations of stars.
570
00:39:39,118 --> 00:39:40,847
As new stars were formed...
571
00:39:41,054 --> 00:39:43,989
...tiny condensations of matter
accreted near them...
572
00:39:44,190 --> 00:39:47,887
...inconspicuous motes of
rock and metal, ice and gas...
573
00:39:48,094 --> 00:39:49,959
...that would become the planets.
574
00:39:50,163 --> 00:39:53,132
And on these worlds,
as in interstellar clouds...
575
00:39:53,333 --> 00:39:55,164
...organic molecules formed...
576
00:39:55,368 --> 00:39:59,031
...made of atoms that had been

cooked inside the stars.

577
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,299
In the tide pools and oceans
of many worlds...
578
00:40:02,508 --> 00:40:06,774
...molecules were destroyed by
sunlight and assembled by chemistry.
579
00:40:06,980 --> 00:40:10,143
One day, among these
natural experiments...
580
00:40:10,350 --> 00:40:13,148
...a molecule arose, that,
quite by accident...
581
00:40:13,353 --> 00:40:16,413
...was able to make crude copies
of itself.
582
00:40:22,028 --> 00:40:25,486
As time passed, self-replication
became more accurate.
583
00:40:25,698 --> 00:40:27,495
Those molecules that copied better...
584
00:40:27,700 --> 00:40:29,258
...produced more copies.
585
00:40:29,469 --> 00:40:31,960
Natural selection was underway.
586
00:40:32,171 --> 00:40:35,197
Elaborate molecular machines
had evolved.
587
00:40:35,408 --> 00:40:39,674
Slowly, imperceptibly, life had begun.
588
00:40:46,586 --> 00:40:50,852
Collectives of organic molecules
evolved into one-celled organisms.

589
00:40:51,057 --> 00:40:53,582
These produced multi-celled colonies.
590
00:40:53,793 --> 00:40:57,160
Their various parts became
specialized organs.
591
00:40:57,363 --> 00:41:00,764
Some colonies attached themselves
to the sea floor...
592
00:41:00,967 --> 00:41:03,765
...others swam freely.
593
00:41:04,937 --> 00:41:07,997
Eyes evolved, and now the cosmos
could see.
594
00:41:08,207 --> 00:41:11,370
Living things moved on
to colonize the land.
595
00:41:11,577 --> 00:41:14,205
The reptiles held sway for a time...
596
00:41:14,414 --> 00:41:18,441
...but gave way to small warm-blooded
creatures with bigger brains...
597
00:41:18,651 --> 00:41:22,781
...who developed dexterity and
curiosity about their environment.
598
00:41:22,989 --> 00:41:26,356
They learned to use tools and
fire and language.
599
00:41:26,559 --> 00:41:29,255
Star stuff,
the ash of stellar alchemy...
600
00:41:29,462 --> 00:41:32,397
...had emerged into consciousness.

601
00:41:42,975 --> 00:41:47,275
We are a way for the cosmos
to know itself.
602
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,471
We are creatures of the cosmos...
603
00:41:49,682 --> 00:41:52,981
...and have always hungered
to know our origins...
604
00:41:53,186 --> 00:41:56,815
...to understand our connection
with the universe.
605
00:41:57,023 --> 00:41:59,548
How did everything come to be?
606
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,061
Every culture on the planet
has devised its own response...
607
00:42:04,263 --> 00:42:07,232
...to the riddle
posed by the universe.
608
00:42:11,304 --> 00:42:15,934
Every culture celebrates
the cycles of life and nature.
609
00:42:17,543 --> 00:42:19,977
There are many different ways
of being human.
610
00:42:24,217 --> 00:42:26,242
But an extraterrestrial visitor...
611
00:42:26,452 --> 00:42:29,216
...examining the differences
among human societies...
612
00:42:29,422 --> 00:42:31,856
...would find those
differences trivial...

613
00:42:32,058 --> 00:42:34,390
...compared to the similarities.
614
00:42:42,034 --> 00:42:44,935
We are one species.
615
00:43:04,657 --> 00:43:08,252
We are star stuff,
harvesting starlight.
616
00:43:08,661 --> 00:43:11,596
Our lives, our past and our future...
617
00:43:11,798 --> 00:43:16,292
...are tied to the sun, the moon
and the stars.
618
00:43:19,772 --> 00:43:22,832
Our ancestors knew that
their survival depended...
619
00:43:23,042 --> 00:43:24,737
...on understanding the heavens.
620
00:43:24,944 --> 00:43:27,538
They built observatories
and computers...
621
00:43:27,747 --> 00:43:32,275
...to predict the changing of the
seasons by the motions in the skies.
622
00:43:32,485 --> 00:43:34,646
We are, all of us...
623
00:43:34,854 --> 00:43:38,051
...descended from astronomers.
624
00:43:40,226 --> 00:43:42,421
The discovery of order
in the universe...
625
00:43:42,628 --> 00:43:44,118
...of the laws of nature...

626
00:43:44,330 --> 00:43:48,494
...is the foundation on which
science builds today.
627
00:43:55,608 --> 00:43:57,200
Our conception of the cosmos...
628
00:43:57,410 --> 00:43:59,435
...all of modern science
and technology...
629
00:43:59,645 --> 00:44:03,638
...trace back to questions
raised by the stars.
630
00:44:05,284 --> 00:44:07,445
Yet, even 400 years ago...
631
00:44:07,653 --> 00:44:10,486
...we still had no idea
of our place in the universe.
632
00:44:10,690 --> 00:44:13,056
The long journey to
that understanding...
633
00:44:13,259 --> 00:44:16,092
...required both an unflinching
respect for the facts...
634
00:44:16,295 --> 00:44:19,059
...and a delight
in the natural world.
635
00:44:21,834 --> 00:44:23,768
Johannes Kepler wrote:
636
00:44:23,970 --> 00:44:27,770
"We do not ask for what useful
purpose the birds do sing...
637
00:44:27,974 --> 00:44:32,035
...for song is their pleasure
since they were created for singing.

638
00:44:32,378 --> 00:44:33,402
Similarly...
639
00:44:33,613 --> 00:44:36,582
...we ought not to ask why the
human mind troubles to fathom...
640
00:44:36,782 --> 00:44:38,272
...the secrets of the heavens.
641
00:44:38,484 --> 00:44:41,715
The diversity of the phenomena
of nature is so great...
642
00:44:41,921 --> 00:44:45,186
...and the treasures hidden
in the heavens so rich...
643
00:44:45,391 --> 00:44:46,824
...precisely in order...
644
00:44:47,026 --> 00:44:51,224
...that the human mind shall never
be lacking in fresh nourishment."
645
00:45:32,705 --> 00:45:34,832
It is the birthright
of every child...
646
00:45:35,041 --> 00:45:37,339
...to encounter the cosmos anew...
647
00:45:37,543 --> 00:45:40,171
...in every culture and every age.
648
00:45:42,682 --> 00:45:47,312
When this happens to us,
we experience a deep sense of wonder.
649
00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:50,387
The most fortunate among
us are guided by teachers...
650

00:45:50,590 --> 00:45:53,491

...who channel this exhilaration.
651
00:45:55,962 --> 00:45:58,487
We are born
to delight in the world.
652
00:45:58,698 --> 00:46:03,101
We are taught to distinguish
our preconceptions from the truth.
653
00:46:03,302 --> 00:46:06,362
Then, new worlds are discovered...
654
00:46:06,572 --> 00:46:10,474
...as we decipher the mysteries
of the cosmos.
655
00:46:28,094 --> 00:46:30,562
Science is a collective enterprise...
656
00:46:30,763 --> 00:46:34,529
...that embraces many cultures
and spans the generations.
657
00:46:34,734 --> 00:46:38,465
In every age, and sometimes
in the most unlikely places...
658
00:46:38,671 --> 00:46:41,333
...there are those who wish
with a great passion...
659
00:46:41,540 --> 00:46:43,337
...to understand the world.
660
00:46:43,542 --> 00:46:46,534
We don't know where
the next discovery will come from.
661
00:46:46,746 --> 00:46:51,410
What dream of the mind's eye
will remake the world.
662
00:46:57,123 --> 00:47:01,321

These dreams begin

as impossibilities.
663
00:47:04,263 --> 00:47:08,757
Once, even to see a planet through
a telescope was an astonishment.
664
00:47:08,968 --> 00:47:10,526
But we studied these worlds...
665
00:47:10,736 --> 00:47:13,398
...we figured out how
they moved in their orbits...
666
00:47:13,606 --> 00:47:16,473
...and soon we were planning
voyages of discovery...
667
00:47:16,676 --> 00:47:18,109
...beyond the Earth...
668
00:47:18,310 --> 00:47:22,804
...and sending robot explorers
to the planets and the stars.
669
00:47:37,630 --> 00:47:41,760
We humans long to be connected
with our origins...
670
00:47:42,735 --> 00:47:45,203
...so we create rituals.
671
00:47:46,372 --> 00:47:48,966
Science is another way
to express this longing.
672
00:47:49,175 --> 00:47:51,439
It also connects us
with our origins.
673
00:47:51,644 --> 00:47:56,013
And it, too, has its rituals
and its commandments.
674
00:48:04,924 --> 00:48:09,554

Its only sacred truth is that

there are no sacred truths.
675
00:48:12,565 --> 00:48:14,465
Temperature systems...
676
00:48:14,834 --> 00:48:17,359
SAGAN: All assumptions must
be critically examined.
677
00:48:17,570 --> 00:48:20,835
Arguments from authority
are worthless.
678
00:48:24,577 --> 00:48:26,943
FEMALE SCIENTIST:
Transducer power is on.
679
00:48:32,551 --> 00:48:34,610
SAGAN: Whatever is inconsistent
with the facts...
680
00:48:34,820 --> 00:48:36,913
...no matter how
fond of it we are...
681
00:48:37,123 --> 00:48:40,286
...must be discarded or revised.
682
00:48:48,801 --> 00:48:51,031
Science is not perfect.
683
00:48:51,237 --> 00:48:52,795
It's often misused.
684
00:48:53,005 --> 00:48:54,870
It's only a tool.
685
00:48:55,141 --> 00:48:56,836
But it's the best tool we have...
686
00:48:57,042 --> 00:48:59,772
...self-correcting, ever-changing...
687

00:48:59,979 --> 00:49:02,470

...applicable to everything.
688
00:49:08,387 --> 00:49:12,847
With this tool,
we vanquish the impossible.
689
00:49:38,450 --> 00:49:40,111
With the methods of science...
690
00:49:40,319 --> 00:49:43,755
...we have begun
to explore the cosmos.
691
00:49:46,392 --> 00:49:49,020
For the first time,
scientific discoveries...
692
00:49:49,228 --> 00:49:51,560
...are widely accessible.
693
00:49:54,934 --> 00:49:56,401
Our machines...
694
00:49:56,602 --> 00:49:58,092
...the products of science...
695
00:49:58,304 --> 00:50:00,772
...are now beyond
the orbit of Saturn.
696
00:50:07,379 --> 00:50:09,939
A preliminary spacecraft
reconnaissance...
697
00:50:10,149 --> 00:50:13,141
...has been made of 20 new worlds.
698
00:50:13,819 --> 00:50:16,879
We have learned to value
careful observations...
699
00:50:17,089 --> 00:50:19,990
...to respect the facts, even
when they are disquieting...

700
00:50:20,192 --> 00:50:23,184
...when they seem to contradict
conventional wisdom.
701
00:50:24,196 --> 00:50:28,565
The Canterbury monks faithfully
recorded an impact on the moon...
702
00:50:28,767 --> 00:50:32,931
...and the Anasazi people,
an explosion of a distant star.
703
00:50:33,138 --> 00:50:36,403
They saw for us as we see for them.
704
00:50:36,609 --> 00:50:40,067
We see further than they only because
we stand on their shoulders.
705
00:50:40,279 --> 00:50:41,871
We build on what they knew.
706
00:50:42,081 --> 00:50:44,276
We depend on free inquiry...
707
00:50:44,483 --> 00:50:47,008
...and free access to knowledge.
708
00:50:47,253 --> 00:50:50,745
We humans have seen the atoms
which constitute all of matter...
709
00:50:50,956 --> 00:50:54,756
...and the forces that sculpt
this world and others.
710
00:50:59,899 --> 00:51:01,730
We know
the molecules of life...
711
00:51:01,934 --> 00:51:04,767
...are easily formed
under conditions common...

712
00:51:04,970 --> 00:51:07,666
...throughout the cosmos.
713
00:51:07,873 --> 00:51:11,365
We have mapped the molecular machines
at the heart of life.
714
00:51:13,178 --> 00:51:16,670
We have discovered a microcosm
in a drop of water.
715
00:51:16,916 --> 00:51:18,713
We have peered
into the bloodstream...
716
00:51:18,918 --> 00:51:20,977
...and down on our stormy planet...
717
00:51:21,186 --> 00:51:24,280
...to see the Earth
as a single organism.
718
00:51:24,490 --> 00:51:26,617
We have found volcanoes
on other worlds...
719
00:51:26,825 --> 00:51:28,793
...and explosions on the sun...
720
00:51:28,994 --> 00:51:31,428
...studied comets from
the depths of space...
721
00:51:31,630 --> 00:51:35,191
...and traced their origins
and destinies...
722
00:51:35,401 --> 00:51:37,164
...listened to pulsars...
723
00:51:37,369 --> 00:51:40,304
...and searched for
other civilizations.
724

00:51:42,174 --> 00:51:45,575

We humans have set foot
on another world...
725
00:51:45,778 --> 00:51:48,372
...in a place called
the Sea of Tranquility...
726
00:51:48,580 --> 00:51:51,879
...an astonishing achievement
for creatures such as we...
727
00:51:52,084 --> 00:51:55,679
...whose earliest footsteps,
3 million years old...
728
00:51:55,888 --> 00:52:00,382
...are preserved in the volcanic
ash of East Africa.
729
00:52:00,592 --> 00:52:03,083
We have walked far.
730
00:53:33,585 --> 00:53:36,679
These are some of the things
that hydrogen atoms do...
731
00:53:36,889 --> 00:53:41,485
...given 15 billion years
of cosmic evolution.
732
00:53:43,529 --> 00:53:46,657
It has the sound of epic myth.
733
00:53:46,865 --> 00:53:48,298
But it's simply a description...
734
00:53:48,500 --> 00:53:50,161
...of the evolution of the cosmos...
735
00:53:50,369 --> 00:53:53,827
...as revealed by science in our time.
736
00:53:54,039 --> 00:53:55,301
And we...

737
00:53:55,507 --> 00:53:58,965
...we who embody the local
eyes and ears...
738
00:53:59,178 --> 00:54:01,476
...and thoughts and feelings
of the cosmos...
739
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,810
...we've begun, at last, to wonder
about our origins.
740
00:54:06,018 --> 00:54:09,385
Star stuff, contemplating the stars...
741
00:54:09,588 --> 00:54:14,184
...organized collections of 10 billionbillion-billion atoms...
742
00:54:14,393 --> 00:54:16,452
...contemplating the evolution
of matter...
743
00:54:16,662 --> 00:54:21,190
...tracing that long path by which
it arrived at consciousness...
744
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,061
...here on the planet Earth...
745
00:54:23,268 --> 00:54:26,066
...and perhaps, throughout the cosmos.
746
00:54:26,738 --> 00:54:31,675
Our loyalties are to the species
and the planet.
747
00:54:31,877 --> 00:54:33,970
We speak for Earth.
748
00:54:34,179 --> 00:54:36,670
Our obligation to survive
and flourish...

749
00:54:36,882 --> 00:54:39,544
...is owed not just to ourselves...
750
00:54:39,751 --> 00:54:44,017
...but also to that cosmos,
ancient and vast...
751
00:54:44,223 --> 00:54:46,020
...from which we spring.
752
00:55:26,665 --> 00:55:30,192
The greatest thrill for me
in reliving this adventure...
753
00:55:30,402 --> 00:55:34,463
...has been not just
that we've completed...
754
00:55:34,673 --> 00:55:37,403
...the preliminary reconnaissance
with spacecraft...
755
00:55:37,609 --> 00:55:40,134
...of the entire solar system.
756
00:55:40,345 --> 00:55:42,370
And not just that we've discovered...
757
00:55:42,581 --> 00:55:46,483
...astonishing structures in
the realm of the galaxies...
758
00:55:46,685 --> 00:55:48,152
...but especially...
759
00:55:48,353 --> 00:55:53,086
...that some of Cosmos' boldest
dreams about this world...
760
00:55:53,292 --> 00:55:55,453
...are coming closer to reality.
761
00:55:55,661 --> 00:55:58,687
Since this series' maiden voyage...

762
00:55:58,897 --> 00:56:00,865
...the impossible has come to pass.
763
00:56:01,066 --> 00:56:06,003
Mighty walls that maintained
insuperable ideological differences...
764
00:56:06,305 --> 00:56:08,603
...have come tumbling down.
765
00:56:08,807 --> 00:56:13,301
Deadly enemies have embraced
and begun to work together.
766
00:56:13,512 --> 00:56:15,980
The imperative to cherish
the Earth...
767
00:56:16,181 --> 00:56:20,140
...and to protect the global
environment that sustains all of us...
768
00:56:20,352 --> 00:56:22,820
...has become widely accepted.
769
00:56:23,021 --> 00:56:25,148
And we've begun, finally...
770
00:56:25,357 --> 00:56:26,654
...the process of reducing...
771
00:56:26,858 --> 00:56:30,726
...the obscene number of weapons
of mass destruction.
772
00:56:30,929 --> 00:56:33,727
Perhaps we have, after all...
773
00:56:33,932 --> 00:56:37,026
...decided to choose life.
774
00:56:38,604 --> 00:56:41,801
But we still have light-years

to go to ensure that choice...

775
00:56:42,007 --> 00:56:46,944
...even after the summits and
the ceremonies and the treaties.
776
00:56:47,145 --> 00:56:52,082
There are still some 50,000
nuclear weapons in the world.
777
00:56:52,417 --> 00:56:56,285
And it would require the detonation
of only a tiny fraction of them...
778
00:56:56,488 --> 00:56:58,956
...to produce a nuclear winter...
779
00:56:59,157 --> 00:57:02,126
...the predicted global
climatic catastrophe...
780
00:57:02,327 --> 00:57:06,263
...that would result from the smoke
and dust lifted into the atmosphere...
781
00:57:06,465 --> 00:57:10,731
...by burning cities
and petroleum facilities.
782
00:57:10,936 --> 00:57:14,872
The world's scientific community has
begun to sound the alarm...
783
00:57:15,073 --> 00:57:17,337
...about the grave dangers
posed by...
784
00:57:17,542 --> 00:57:19,976
...depleting the protective
ozone shield...
785
00:57:20,178 --> 00:57:22,305
...and by greenhouse warming.
786
00:57:22,514 --> 00:57:25,972

And again, we're taking some

mitigating steps.
787
00:57:26,184 --> 00:57:29,711
But again,
those steps are too small...
788
00:57:29,921 --> 00:57:32,412
...and too slow.
789
00:57:32,724 --> 00:57:36,353
The discovery that such a thing as
nuclear winter was really possible...
790
00:57:36,561 --> 00:57:39,860
...evolved out of studies
of Martian dust storms.
791
00:57:40,065 --> 00:57:43,831
The surface of Mars,
fried by ultraviolet light...
792
00:57:44,036 --> 00:57:46,300
...is also a reminder
of why it's important...
793
00:57:46,505 --> 00:57:49,303
...to keep our ozone layer intact.
794
00:57:49,508 --> 00:57:52,170
The runaway greenhouse effect
on Venus...
795
00:57:52,377 --> 00:57:53,901
...is a valuable reminder...
796
00:57:54,112 --> 00:57:58,606
...that we must take the increasing
greenhouse effect on Earth seriously.
797
00:57:58,817 --> 00:58:02,651
Important lessons about
our environment...
798
00:58:02,854 --> 00:58:06,187

...have come from spacecraft missions

to the planets.
799
00:58:06,391 --> 00:58:08,256
By exploring other worlds...
800
00:58:08,460 --> 00:58:10,428
...we safeguard this one.
801
00:58:10,629 --> 00:58:12,859
By itself, this fact
more than justifies...
802
00:58:13,065 --> 00:58:14,999
...the money our species has spent...
803
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:18,966
...in sending ships to other worlds.
804
00:58:19,571 --> 00:58:22,062
It is our fate...
805
00:58:22,274 --> 00:58:25,072
...to live during one of
the most perilous...
806
00:58:25,277 --> 00:58:27,040
...and one of the most hopeful...
807
00:58:27,245 --> 00:58:29,213
...chapters in human history.
808
00:58:29,414 --> 00:58:32,110
Our science and our technology...
809
00:58:32,317 --> 00:58:33,841
...have posed us...
810
00:58:34,052 --> 00:58:36,282
...a profound question:
811
00:58:36,488 --> 00:58:39,980
Will we learn to use these tools...

812
00:58:40,192 --> 00:58:44,561
...with wisdom and foresight
before it's too late?
813
00:58:44,763 --> 00:58:48,699
Will we see our species safely
through this difficult passage...
814
00:58:48,900 --> 00:58:53,030
...so that our children and
grandchildren will continue...
815
00:58:53,238 --> 00:58:56,833
...the great journey of discovery
still deeper...
816
00:58:57,042 --> 00:59:01,536
...into the mysteries of the cosmos?
817
00:59:01,747 --> 00:59:06,514
That same rocket and nuclear
and computer technology...
818
00:59:06,718 --> 00:59:11,621
...that sends our ships past
the farthest known planet...
819
00:59:11,823 --> 00:59:15,953
...can also be used to destroy
our global civilization.
820
00:59:16,161 --> 00:59:18,721
Exactly the same technology...
821
00:59:18,930 --> 00:59:20,830
...can be used for good...
822
00:59:21,032 --> 00:59:22,590
...and for evil.
823
00:59:22,801 --> 00:59:25,395
It is as if...
824
00:59:25,604 --> 00:59:27,231

...there were a god...

825
00:59:27,439 --> 00:59:29,304
...who said to us:
826
00:59:29,508 --> 00:59:32,909
"I set before you two ways.
827
00:59:33,111 --> 00:59:36,672
You can use your technology
to destroy yourselves...
828
00:59:36,882 --> 00:59:41,819
...or to carry you to the planets
and the stars.
829
00:59:42,087 --> 00:59:43,679
It's up to you."