In the last interview of his life (1996), astronomer Carl Sagan warned of the dangers that come when citizens cannot ask skeptical scientific questions of those in authority. Watch and ask: was he right?
— Saganism (@Saganismm) August 6, 2025
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Transcript of quote:
We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology in which no one knows anything about science and technology. Who is running science and technology in a democracy if people don’t know anything about.
Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human infallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions - to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who ambles along.
It is something that Jefferson laid great stress on. It wasn’t enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in the constitution, in the Bill of Rights. The people had to be educated and they had to practice their skepticism and their education. Otherwise, we don’t run the government. The government runs us.
Carl Sagan.
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