We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to selfawareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized as… - Carl Sagan

We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose.

Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

Might it be possible at some future time, when neurophysiology has advanced substantially, to reconstruct the memories or insight of someone long dead?...It would be the ultimate breach of privacy.

I believe a partial answer can be found in the responses made to the Mariner IV findings by political leaders, by Mr. Billy Graham, and by other American divines - often sure barometers of common attitudes. They were unmistakably relieved. Finding life beyond the Earth - particularly intelligent life, although this is highly unlikely on Mars - wrenches at our secret hope that Man is the pinnacle of creation, a contention which no other species on our planet can now challenge. Even simple forms of extraterrestrial life may have abilities and adaptations denied to us. The discovery of life on some other world will, among many things, be for us a humbling experience.

The corollary, one that the United States sometimes fails to grasp, is that abandoning science is the road back into poverty and backwardness.