[HN Gopher] A Surprising Side of Carl Sagan ___________________________________________________________________ A Surprising Side of Carl Sagan Author : QuarkForMrMark Score : 33 points Date : 2022-07-07 11:06 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (nautil.us) (TXT) w3m dump (nautil.us) | GeorgeKangas wrote: | That part of the book ( _Contact_ ) really bugged me. | | The definition of pi is what determines the digits of pi, FULL | STOP. There's no room whatsoever, for any sort of agent to 'leave | a message' in those digits. I would think even a full-on theist | would be embarrassed to suggest otherwise. | the__alchemist wrote: | I loved that part at the end of the book! It's the sort of thing | that makes me love sci-fi: A "What-the-hell-if?" question to | ponder and toy with. And to spark the reglious part of our | brains; even (especially?) in non-religious people. In his books, | Sagan encourages people to feel as in awe of the natural world as | some do with religion. With that in mind, it fits. And, as little | mysticism can be fun in a world with rules. Stephenson includes a | (somewhat) similar mysticism in Cryptonomicon (And in a few of | his books that followed it) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-07-08 23:00 UTC)