Carl Sagan was a humanist who strived to teach science as a way of thinking and interpreting the world. His 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark was a kind of message he left to humanity before he died of cancer.
See also: Carl Sagan's January 1994 notice to the USA Public as a warning.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, year 1995
A side effect of this is also what Orson Welles calls a shut eye: https://youtu.be/3Poac0eciM0
Where the charlatan believes in their own gimmick.
So basically if you're a fraudster, believing in yourself is an occupational hazard
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥺
Solidifying a generations bamboozlement. Times get better. But not for the bamboozled. They blame those that weren’t bamboozled for their bamboozlement. If they’re lucky, their next generation will see through the lies. More than likely not due to indoctrination. Hopefully they turn out like anti nazi Germans. Stomping out any “hails dipshit” they here uttered.
He was a great scientist and a great communicator, but also a dick.
Late-1993, renowned astronomer Carl Sagan learnt that Apple’s forthcoming computer, the Power Macintosh 7100, had been given a codename of “Carl Sagan” — the joke being that they would sell “billions and billions.” This was mentioned in a MacWEEK article some time later, to which Sagan sent the following letter in response.
"I was profoundly distressed to see your lead front-page story "Trio of Power PC Macs spring toward March release date" proclaiming Apple's announcement of a new Mac bearing my name. That this was done without my authorization or knowledge is especially disturbing." Sagan wrote to MacWEEK on January 10, 1994.
Apple soon changed the codename to “BHA.” Upon learning that it stood for “Butt-Head Astronomer,” Sagan filed a lawsuit for defamation of character, and lost. He then sued Apple again, for the original codename, and lost again. So he appealed. Late-1995, the two parties settled out of court, and Apple apologised for any unintended distress caused by the situation.
The 7100′s final codename was “LAW.” It stood for “Lawyers Are Wimps.”
https://www.iphonesavior.com/2012/03/codename-butt-head-astronomer.html
The article you shared appears to be only an excerpt of the one I found here, and I don't really find this to be dick behavior at all in the context of the first paragraph.
I have been approached many times over the past two decades by individuals and corporations seeking to use my name and/or likeness for commercial purposes. I have always declined, no matter how lucrative the offer or how important the corporation. My endorsement is not for sale.
For this reason, I was profoundly distressed to see your lead front-page story "Trio of Power PC Macs spring toward March release date" proclaiming Apple's announcement of a new Mac bearing my name. That this was done without my authorization or knowledge is especially disturbing. Through my attorneys, I have repeatedly requested Apple to make a public clarification that I knew nothing of its intention to capitalize on my reputation in introducing this product, that I derived no benefit, financial or otherwise, from its doing so. Apple has refused. I would appreciate it if you so apprise your readership.
Carl Sagan
Seems to me like Apple could just have published a short statement saying that it was a internal codename only, used without Sagan's knowledge or permission, and that they would change it to something unrelated.
Instead they apparently decided to be little pissbabies about it and rename it to something obviously meant to be insulting to Sagan.
He definitely took it further than I personally think would have been prudent, but in terms of who I think had the moral high ground? Not Apple.
I'm not sure what part of that anecdote makes Sagan a dick. Jobs on the other hand...
Steve Jobs wasn't at Apple when this happened. Sagan sued for an internal codename that was not meant to go public. Steve was a dick. Carl was a dick. People who achieve a lot can be dicks.
You think Steve Jobs, egomaniac, is the measure against Carl Sagan. interesting.
"in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe" - Carl Sagan
Apple soon changed the codename to “BHA.”
Sounds like worshipers of Steve Jobs.
Apple cultist are always cringe.
They'll look past all the company's own faults and then point finger and someone else like they have a moral high ground.
You don't know what you're talking about, clearly. Copy / pasta from a diff reply: Steve Jobs wasn’t at Apple when this happened. Sagan sued for an internal codename that was not meant to go public. Steve was a dick. Carl was a dick. People who achieve a lot can be dicks.
But since your comment has me worshiping Jobs (a flawed person, no doubt), why don't you get fucked.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, clearly. Copy / pasta from a diff reply: Steve Jobs wasn’t at Apple when this happened.
Dude, I worked on the private staff of the 3rd richest person in the entire world as a consultant in the era these things were going on, who also was a huge Carl Sagan fan and was involved with Contact film was being made. I know the behind the scenes culture of these people, I worked in social media for them (and moderated them)!
The cult of Steve Jobs didn't require him to be there. He was often a very superficial man who promoted and cultivated extremely shallow and superficial values. This was just a few years before Bill Gates rescued Apple (where would we be in 2025 if the Apple iPod and iPhone were never saved by Microsoft wanting a Pepsi-Coke two-brand society?)
The 1990's of Apple and Microsoft were all about a race to capture as much mindshare of the audience with computers are easy, don't listen to teachers, everything is point and click simple while we dump money into our pockets. Cultivating a closed-source world (what automotive people called a "welded hood" on a car) with high-profit taking from a non-educated uninformed public. And Carl Sagan was a TEACHER, and EDUCATOR, first and foremost.... criticizing the promotion of superficial understanding that Apple and Microsoft were trying to exploit with "it is so easy" marketing.
But since your comment has me worshiping Jobs (a flawed person, no doubt), why don’t you get fucked
No, you have a major literacy problem. I'm talking about the workers who went along with the mocking of Sagan. The Apple employees. But your egomania thinks I'm talking about your own self. The same kind of egomania that the "pure brand" of Apple promotes in the entire society.
let me repeat what I said that you think is a comment about you:
Apple soon changed the codename to “BHA.”
Sounds like worshipers of Steve Jobs. (The Employees at Apple who went along with the codename as a ego-trick against someone with secret language)
Lemmy users think every message is about their own ego just as much as Twitter users, it is horrific how people discussing dehumanizing others (secret code-names to mock Carl Sagan) have such poor media literacy and think that every single posting is about them. The very act of renaming the "code-name" is a bamboozle upon the public consumers, the kind of behind-the-scenes egomania that goes on in the computer industry by the worshiped clergy of technology.
“I am constantly amazed at how obediently people accept explanations that begin with the words “The computer shows …” or “The computer has determined …” It is Technopoly’s equivalent of the sentence “It is God’s will,” and the effect is roughly the same.” ― Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, 1992
let me repeat what I said that you think is a comment about you:
Apple soon changed the codename to “BHA.” Sounds like worshipers of Steve Jobs. (The Employees at Apple who went along with the codename as a ego-trick against someone with secret language)
No. You're writing a wall of text about nothing. A scientist sued a corporation over nothing. They made a joke of it. End of my point. Anything you read in after is fucking silly.
Anything you read in after is fucking silly.
An entire population bamboozled by Twitter owner, Elon Musk, who is being sponsored right now by Apple Computers you think is a "silly" topic. Egomania you got there, worship of technology.
You’re writing a wall of text about nothing.
I have an entire community dedicated to that "wall of text", Carl Sagan. But you must mock and here to discourage people from taking the ideas seriously because you want to make baby pot-shots at the author because he took your favorite computer vendor to court or something.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, year 1995
You’re writing a wall of text about nothing.
Ahh, it isn't meme-speak 2025 "TLDR" for you. You like ELI5 AND TLDR speak? That's why you replied against Carl Sagan saying Apple Computers is better teachers than Sagan?
You’re writing a wall of text about nothing.
Does it not fit on your Apple iPhone screen size? Your iPad too small? One-button mouse too complicated into "WALL OF TEXT" understanding?
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), (Lemmy, Mastodon) lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning—not just of science, but of anything—are avoidable, even undesirable.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
That’s why you replied against Carl Sagan saying Apple Computers is better teachers than Sagan?
Again, this is drivel. I'm not going to indulge you further.
Again, this is drivel. I’m not going to indulge you further.
You only came here to promote drivel about your Apple iPhone praise against Carl Sagan. How you adore computer machine behaviors of dehumanization of Apple Computers against Carl Sagan and think it is LOL entertaining. How any serious discussion in year 2025 about ego problems of facing bamboozle (the Carl Sagan quote that this post is about) isn't to be taken seriously because Carl Sagan was once insulted by Apple computers.
You came to a Carl Sagan community to mock Carl Sagan, and then act like you are not the bully against nerds who don't worship aesthetic values (Apple bamboozle of consumer, bamboozle of USA -at the Trump January 2025 Inauguration, and 2025 Apple funding Elon Musk on Twitter) over long-term deeper comprehension.
“What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985
It's cool how some people care so much about nothing. At this point, I rescind my pledge not to indulge you because it's amusing that you're so bought-in.
It’s cool how some people care so much about nothing.
Which is why you came along to the community I created, to belittle humanism in favor of your technology worship.
It’s cool how some people care so much about nothing.
Nothing, people willing to be bamboozled for the idea of heaven after death and die for it.... just "nothing" to be concerned about. Just memes on your Apple iPad to LOL at. Perhaps some of your Apple stock ownership profits off Elon Musk Twitter platform, sponsored by Apple in 2025.
“I encounter forms of this attitude every day. The producers who work at the Ostankino channels might all be liberals in their private lives, holiday in Tuscany, and be completely European in their tastes. When I ask how they marry their professional and personal lives, they look at me as if I were a fool and answer: “Over the last twenty years we’ve lived through a communism we never believed in, democracy and defaults and mafia state and oligarchy, and we’ve realized they are illusions, that everything is PR.” “Everything is PR” has become the favorite phrase of the new Russia; my Moscow peers are filled with a sense that they are both cynical and enlightened. When I ask them about Soviet-era dissidents, like my parents, who fought against communism, they dismiss them as naïve dreamers and my own Western attachment to such vague notions as “human rights” and “freedom” as a blunder. “Can’t you see your own governments are just as bad as ours?” they ask me. I try to protest—but they just smile and pity me. To believe in something and stand by it in this world is derided, the ability to be a shape-shifter celebrated. Vladimir Nabokov once described a species of butterfly that at an early stage in its development had to learn how to change colors to hide from predators. The butterfly’s predators had long died off, but still it changed its colors from the sheer pleasure of transformation. Something similar has happened to the Russian elites: during the Soviet period they learned to dissimulate in order to survive; now there is no need to constantly change their colors, but they continue to do so out of a sort of dark joy, conformism raised to the level of aesthetic act. Surkov himself is the ultimate expression of this psychology. As I watch him give his speech to the students and journalists, he seems to change and transform like mercury, from cherubic smile to demonic stare, from a woolly liberal preaching “modernization” to a finger-wagging nationalist, spitting out willfully contradictory ideas: “managed democracy,” “conservative modernization.” Then he steps back, smiling, and says: “We need a new political party, and we should help it happen, no need to wait and make it form by itself.” And when you look closely at the party men in the political reality show Surkov directs, the spitting nationalists and beetroot-faced communists, you notice how they all seem to perform their roles with a little ironic twinkle.” ― Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia