Pseudo-science and anti-science sweeping the world toward the end of the prophetic millennium against the murky wave of ignorance, irrationality, Carl Sagan's "demon-haunted world" is primarily a warning
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A Haunted World - Demons - Science as a Fiddler in Alta, by Carl Sagan, translated from English by Emanuel Lotem, Echo Artzi, Maariv Library, 440, 1997 pages
"A Haunted World" is the last book of the astrophysicist and science writer Carl Sagan, who died of cancer in December 1996. Sagan, a Cornell University graduate, had the privilege of becoming a planetary astronomer (that is, specializing in the study of planets) at a time when this field suddenly became one of the hottest most in science, thanks to the cooperation with space exploration.
In the last thirty years, the manned and unmanned spacecrafts of the Apollo, Viking, Voyager and Mariner models have opened up the solar system to astronomers, bringing amazing close-up photographs, precise measurements and soil samples from planets and moons that were then rather blurred spots on the backgrounds of telescopes.
Sagan and his colleagues won a treasure trove of new and exciting knowledge, as well as the public and media aura that accompanied the collaboration with NASA. Sagan was also among the first to apply this new knowledge to Earth.
Concepts such as the "greenhouse effect" and "nuclear winter" are largely his brainchild. He did not hesitate to enthusiastically support the most daring and speculative scientific field - the search for extraterrestrial civilizations (CETI) by listening to space with the help of radio telescopes.
However, Sagan is widely known for being a gifted writer and popularizer of science. His book "Cosmos" and the television series based on it were distributed worldwide and won Pulitzer and Emmy awards. Among his other books that have been translated into Hebrew: "Dragons of Heaven," "Traces from the Past" as well as a science fiction novel "Touch" (the movie based on which is being released these days).
Sagan was a successful popularizer not necessarily due to his ability to explain complex scientific problems, but mainly due to his ability to express the feeling of excitement, wonder and even (why not?) holiness that comes from the practice of science. A typical example of this can be seen in the novel "Contact:" ostensibly, the book deals with the possible consequences of receiving a message from advanced extraterrestrial cultures. In fact, his concern is the conflict between science and religion, and he presents an ancient theological question: if the universe was indeed created by a divine being, why is it impossible to prove this scientifically? The book opens when the heroine, an astronomer who manages the Hatha project, tries to locate an intelligence transmitter hidden in the radio "noise" received from space. At the end of the book, the heroine uses a powerful computer to calculate phi (the ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference, which is an irrational and constant number most commonly used in science) with an accuracy of millions of digits after the point. While using the same mathematical methods to search for order in random noise, she discovers a message hidden in the series of infinite digits - a kind of signature of the Creator on his creation, embedded in the universal geometry of the universe.
A typical "cypher" idea of this kind should not be understood simply as a science-fiction version of the biblical code, but as an imaginative metaphor. Science, says Sagan, like religion, exists because people search for meaning in the "white noise" of a seemingly random and meaningless world. With a background like Sagan's, it is difficult to find a more suitable person to write a book like "A World Haunted by Demons," which is mainly a prophetic warning against the murky wave of ignorance, irrationality, pseudo-science and anti-science sweeping the world (including Israel) towards the end of the millennium . Who is better suited than an astrophysicist who risked his scientific reputation in a speculative field such as HATHA to refute the epidemic of stories about UFOs and extraterrestrials? It should be noted here that Israel, although it also imported this fashion from the USA with great enthusiasm, still does not touch the more threatening aspect of this fashion: many people
In the US they claim that they were abducted by extraterrestrials and that horrific medical experiments were performed on them. They also claim that the government and the security services in the USA are complicit in an extensive silence of these "facts". This epidemic is reflected (probably also fed back) in movies and TV series such as "Buffets in the Dark."
UFOlogy, as well as astrology, "crystals", etc., is referred to by Sagan as "so-called science" or pseudo-science, because it markets mystical ideas and baseless claims in the guise of science for everything.
Throughout the first half of the book, Sagan thoroughly analyzes the differences between science and so-called science, using an abundance of detailed examples from UFOlogy and other "logics" of various kinds. The main difference, of course, lies in the fact that the information is based on the principle of skepticism: facts and theories survive only after standing repeated tests and cross-examination, and you never get a far-reaching explanation if you can settle for a more conventional explanation.
The scientists did not develop skepticism because they enjoy doubting, but because skepticism was found to be necessary for discovering the truth. Sagan himself was a senior participant in several committees and scientific discussions that looked into the issue of UFOs, including ones he organized himself, and he has no problem admitting that every time another UFO claim is found to be unfounded, he thinks "what a shame."
For years Sagan was puzzled by the question of many people in his lectures:
"Do you believe that UFOs are spaceships of aliens?". His comprehensive discussion should fascinate anyone with a genuine interest in this issue, though it may bore convinced readers. Nevertheless, it is a shame that Sagan does not explain in the book why he and many other astrophysicists are willing to invest a great deal in HATA, but not in UFO hunting. Many readers will find it difficult to believe that a large-scale social phenomenon like UFOlogy, supported by the testimonies of many "abductees", can grow without any factual basis.
Alternatively, readers who do not need Sagan's persuasion may think that this is at best a passing fad and a harmless craze. For the benefit of these too, Sagan outlines in detail the history of belief in demons and witchcraft in the late Middle Ages, when mass hysteria in Europe led to the wholesale execution of hundreds of thousands
People, women and children who "confessed" to witchcraft under terrible torture. Sagan's apocalyptic warning of a dark age of a new Middle Ages, lurking behind the so-called science corner, may seem a little exaggerated to most of us, but maybe that's just because of our shortness of imagination. The milder scenario he outlines predicts the retreat of nations that did not preserve the values of science in favor of those that knew how to do so. As an American, Sagan points to the economic strengthening of Japan at the expense of the United States, and links this to the American failure in the field of education in general and science education in particular (Japan produces engineers and scientists at twice the rate of the United States, even though its population is half as small).
Although he did not mean it, Sagan's warnings are also valid for Israel. According to the information provided by the translator Emanuel Lotem, we are indeed ahead of the USA in certain indicators, but still far behind Western Europe, Japan and the other rising powers of the Far East. In our universities, the demand for faculties of law and business administration is much greater than the demand for science, engineering and computers, even though the hi-tech companies crave workers in these fields.
But why is so-called science more popular with the public than science? Why is it that even in a developed country like France, the number of astrologers is ten times greater than the number of astronomers? Sagan does not feel obliged to defend science on this issue: of course an exciting, pleasant and easy-to-understand illusion is more popular than a boring, depressing and complicated truth. And yet, as Sagan himself emphasizes, many parts of modern science are far more amazing and exciting than we could come up with in our limited imaginations. Why then do they not get the popularity they deserve? Sagan finds it difficult to provide an adequate answer to this question.
In the movie "Reality Bites" (which paints a portrait of the X-generation youth in America) one of the characters is a yuppie, materialistic and superficial young man, who drives a flashy sports car and is engaged in the distribution of video films. In a personal confession to his girlfriend, it is revealed that as a child he loved to watch the stars with an amateur telescope, and wanted to be an astronomer, "but when I went to study astronomy at university, I didn't get along with mathematics. I wanted to watch the stars, and everything was four phi squared"... compare this phi with Sagan's phi! The general public's problem with science is not necessarily an aversion to skepticism. The problem is that modern science education stifles the sense of wonder among students. Today's science urgently needs generous doses of a sense of wonder like Carl Sagan's.
Published on - 17/10/1997
