The Wrong Stuff: Why Carl Sagan's Cosmic Perspective Matters Now More Than Ever
"We are using money for the wrong stuff." – Carl Sagan
Back in the late 1990s, Carl Sagan seemed irritated that the US government didn't spend enough on human rights and development and that military spending was too high, including the “Star Wars” program. Sagan wanted to spend more on healthcare and education, citing our relatively abysmal infant mortality rate given we’re the richest country, and by some margin.
So Carl Sagan – the most excellent and popular leader in science literacy and cosmic perspective of all time – was convinced we were spending on the "wrong stuff."
I happen to agree. Does that make me anti-science?
I like space and physics – it's fantastic. I think Hubble is cool. The pale blue dot cosmic perspective is inspiring. I once saw Neil Degrasse Tyson speak in person, and I loved the ideas he expressed and loved him.
But the famous photograph Carl Sagan himself requested — turning the camera around to show Earth from a far perspective — didn't do the job. Not enough people think of our world as a pale blue dot. We still fight and squabble over stupid shit while too many suffer.
Sagan also said:
"To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
This past week, in January of 2023, I noticed an article about new physics suggesting that faster-than-light travel is possible, and moreover, it creates alternative timelines.
Years ago, this would have riveted me; I would have indulged in hours of research and deep thought about it.
Today, my point of view doesn't allow me to care. After all, what's the end of all this progress if we can't get the fundamentals right? If you think faster than light speed will make us more compassionate, OK. But I don't see it, at least not in the short term. Instead I see much needless suffering and much turning away by intelligent, influential people who seem to have almost zero social conscience, including everyone I grew up with, family and friends, almost without exception.
The problem is so deep that even people I consider good people with integrity and depth far beyond my own are still blind to social justice issues.
For example, sweatshops with enslaved children make the clothes our kids wear. That's sick, but we accept it. Tell me: why is it OK to buy from countries that break our own laws concerning how humans MUST be treated? I don't get it.
Don't get me wrong; it's good to enjoy physics and marvel at new spaceflight tech. The faster-than-light thing is super cool! I'd be an idiot to argue otherwise. I don't judge anyone who wants to think about that stuff.
But there's a reason it leaves me feeling hollow: we don't meet enough needs on this planet, and people should all get firsts before someone goes back for seconds. That's a memory from kindergarten, and that rule's moral genius resonates with me today.
Yes, we can do both – we can care for the needy and also explore the cosmos. And sure, the trajectory of quality of life has gotten better. Space-travel science definitely makes life better, perhaps expands our minds and humbles us. It also led to some neat things like GPS, maybe the ability to avert a world-ending asteroid someday and bring new commerce, diamond mining, and space tourism for the rich.
But space and physics aren't the only science that matter. So many scientific topics seem more urgent to me. Mobile banking for unbanked laborers in emerging countries is a science. Drone deliveries to remote locations to feed starving kids is a science. AI for social good is science. Automating labor is also a science. Producing and distributing sustainable food is science. Studying the physical stress of living paycheck to paycheck is science, which describes 65% of Americans who have a shrinking voice as we inch deeper into oligarchy.
I am not anti-science at all. I don't want our planet to gaze inward myopically and stupidly; on the contrary, I want us to have a cosmic perspective like Sagan wanted. But, my primary values include human rights, human dignity, and human life. These values are what make me human.
I think Sagan had these values and believed that science can help us live up to these values. And while his comment was a bit anti-capitalist, capitalism can also help and has helped us make life better. So have social democracies with labor laws, social security, medicare, police, FDA, ambulances, and the public school system.
Many things helped! Not just capitalism.
Yes, competition and economic freedom have often led to remarkable technologies that save and improve lives. Furthermore, in many cases, the more life-or-death the competition, the more profound the results for the greater good.
Ultimately, though, capitalism harnesses the power of greed, and the results are unpredictable. With all its benefits, competition and capitalism are imperfect and not nearly good enough to make us forever accept it as the only possible system and call it a day. We should be actively seeking a better system, and we have in fact been doing so all along: Social democracy is already a better system, an approach that lives in the gray areas between competition and compassion. That’s what the US and many other countries actually practice. There exists no such thing as laissez faire capitalism on this earth. We have a blend of capitalism and socialism at best.
I'm interested in brainstorming better alternatives to what we have. Don't rush to judgment by assuming I like pure "socialism" or "communism" better than quasi-capitalism in its US form. In the guises socialism has appeared, mainly as part of totalitarian systems, it's impossible to separate the ideals of cooperation from the moral atrocity of totalitarianism. So I am not pro-socialism or communism.
Nonetheless, we need to address the downsides of capitalism and the needless suffering that comes as a result for too many people.
Those who think like me don't blame the sufferers. We blame the system for its resulting unfair suffering, just as we credit capitalism for its innovations. Both can be true.
We champion the voluntary cooperative movement, free healthcare, and education, automated labor, and more freedom for the average person to enrich themselves through self-improvement, invention, education, and relationships, instead of materialistic pursuits and the endless drive for status, which creates perverse incentives and obedience to what the market wants, even if what the market wants are poison and lies.
We reject the market theory of value. We believe in the science of well-being, and that market forces rarely care about well-being as much as it abides only by human desires, which can easily be impulsive, misguided, and self-defeating.
America seems locked in a mindset, a Thracymachian lust, modeled after the philosopher who opined that "might makes right."
We reject that. Brute power and strength once allowed for survival in a world full of danger and scarcity, and we can't fault anyone for trying to survive. But many of us believe that "might" doesn't make right in a general sense.
For example, we get our moral compass from something higher than mere might. We might get it from science. Perhaps we are not fortunate enough to be activists. But when we’re not working to support our families or exercising to protect our bodies from the ravages of time and stress of toil, we like to ponder and research economic systems of distribution that could arise from increased automation.
We'd rather spend free time trying to understand the problem of man's inability to relinquish his fetish for Thracymachian justice long after our survival required such an ethic.
We don't hear Carl Sagan saying, "Fuck the poor in the present; space travel is going to be a better investment; in the long run, it will lift all boats."
Instead, he essentially said “America is the wealthiest country but has a relatively high infant mortality rate and too much military spending. Shame on you, America.”
The US, generally considered capitalist, gives the most foreign aid, but this number is so large primarily due to military spending in Afghanistan and Iraq. Two stupid wars.
Very little of what the US gives in foreign aid goes to human rights and development. And the percentage America gives compared to its GDP is embarrassingly low and considered egregiously deficient by the UN.
The countries that give a significantly larger percent of their GDP are social democracies, all with free health care and college education. These left-leaning countries provide far more than the US. They give to far more good causes and not just military aid. These countries are Norway, Sweden, the UK, Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany. They all have free healthcare and education. And combined, they give way more foreign aid for human rights and development than the US.
America, too, is a social democracy, just like those other countries. But the problem with America is greed, the drive for status, spending on the wrong things, and prioritizing impulsive hedonism and a nihilistic, quasi-religious fervor for power.
Saying all the above doesn't make me anti-science or anti-capitalist. It makes me pro-science, and I see the benefits of capitalism, insofar as it was needed until now. But the more people with free time to learn science instead of working in a bullshit job, the better. The more automation, the less we need capitalism.
The more we take on Sagan's cosmic perspective of more kindness and less war, the better.
But, conversely, the more we look away from pain and injustice and replace it with trivial gawking at pointless news items and personal interests and hobbies; the worse off humanity will be as a whole.
If you can't get a sense of purpose from reducing suffering or thinking about it, writing about it, or trying to help in some way, it doesn't bode well for humanity, and my hope, and the hope of others like me, is that your lack of interest in reducing suffering gives you pause.
The fact that some of us get a sense of purpose thinking about these things is the only real hope for humanity having a future. For all we know, without humans, there's no science, meaning, value, or anything.
A Cosmic Perspective for Human Dignity: Sagan was right.
We spend on the wrong things: Too much military and not enough on human rights, healthcare and education. This weird prioritization causes suffering around the world.
Capitalism is better than what came before, but we need to make it even better still so it puts people first, harnesses science as a tool to improve lives, and provides basic needs like healthcare, education, food security, and housing in places like the US.
A cooperative movement is essential for us to create real change and reach this goal of cosmic perspective – more kindness and less war – where everyone can live with dignity without fear or suffering. THAT'S a tricky problem. Faster than light travel? Meh. That's child's play, and what's the point of all that speed and all those parallel universes and timelines if we're still jerks?
TLDR: Carl Sagan's cosmic perspective still matters! It highlights significant issues facing humanity, such as military spending and human rights, and it emphasizes using science to improve lives rather than just advancing technology for its own sake. So let's work together to create change that will benefit all people and make Carl proud.
“Nothing helpful above, just verbal masturbation.”
Wrong. Focus on using science to improve lives, emphasizing the importance of creating cooperative movements and investing in human rights, healthcare, education, food security, and housing. These are concrete steps we can take to make real change. Carl Sagan's optimistic outlook and cosmic perspective of more kindness and less war matters. Forget ME. Go read Carl Sagan.
"Where's the evidence? This article is all fluff."
Maybe some is fluff. But here's what isn't:
Top countries that give to human rights and quality of life in foreign aid are mainly science-based countries with less religion than the US. Science-based nations prioritize investing in human welfare, ultimately leading to improved conditions for everyone.
Social democracies like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany have implemented policies such as free healthcare and education, which have helped improve their citizens' quality of life.
Automated labor can allow people more time to pursue self-improvement through schooling or other activities rather than working long hours to make ends meet.
None of the above are mere opinions. The US routinely brags about giving more than other countries, but it's laughably less if you read the fine print.
"What do you expect ordinary people to do? What do YOU do other than spout idealistic nonsense?"
I guess try to raise awareness about military spending and human rights issues, advocate for more investment in healthcare, education, food security, and housing, support cooperative movements that promote equality and justice, and get involved in your local communities. Help organizations or causes whose mission is to create positive social change. Finally, don't buy products made by slaves or children (or enslaved children) or that hurt the environment.
Most of all, start by telling the truth before you know what to do about it. We can't solve a problem if we are too weak and selfish to look at it. Start by telling yourself the truth. Sit with it. You don’t have to do anything about it today. Just sit with it. And don’t look away. That’s all I ask. I have faith that if you do that long enough, you’ll find a way to contribute.