[ba-unrev-talk] Website based on Sagan's Cosmos
http://www.onecosmos.net/ (01)
"Consider for a moment that 500,000 days ago, nearly all human beings lived
in huts and caves, using fire, wood, and stone to fashion daily living.
Today many people still do, but the privileged among us can explore the
planet, flying through the atmosphere above the continents watching live TV
with e-commerce piped to individual reclining seats. Human beings can
vacation on the ocean in ships the size of towns, some soon to have their
own zip code, or race over the surface of the land in precision machines
manufactured by the millions each year, all able to be guided by satellites
orbiting the planet powered by light from the sun. We have used our
knowledge to send living humans to the nearest Cosmic shore, safely
cocooned in portable atmospheres, televise the landing of their space canoe
for the world's eyes to witness live, and we brought these bravest of
explorers back to their homes safely, just 30 years ago. How humbling it
was to see our blue-green Cosmic reef from above, for the first time.
We now stand in awe of images of the births and deaths of stars and
galaxies, brought from Hubble's telescopic eye to us through the wafer-thin
computer screens made possible by the semiconductor. Over a period of just
a few thousand days, we have deployed a communications network around the
globe, for all people and machines to use to communicate with each other,
reinventing economics, culture, governance, and education. Soon, the sum
total of recorded knowledge can be explored through a portal in the palm of
a child's hand, an untethered device that will speak and understand spoken
words.
And in the view of many, the most remarkable wonders science has presented
to us across history appear to point to others yet more humbling waiting in
the wings. They seem hinged to a revolution of human spirit and ethics
equally profound, lest we repeat the mistakes of the last Renaissance in a
quest for someone else's New World.
The challenges facing civilization are as profound as our opportunities. We
are running out of fuels, pure water, space to live, clean air to breathe,
and natural life to enjoy naturally. Forests continue to disappear, animals
on land and in the sea are going extinct, weather patterns are shifting,
ancient cultures are vanishing, and people in cities are losing touch with
Nature.
Our worst crises require our best solutions, and pioneering the best
solutions to these historic challenges, and doing so in the right way, is
what the Motion Sciences Organization is chartered to do. " (02)
Sound familiar? (03)