Original artwork, not a still
The Demon-Haunted World ‧ 1995
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A warning from before smartphones that has aged well: we all rely on engineers and researchers we cannot check, and on devices we cannot explain. Sagan was not mocking the public. He wanted science taught as a candle people can carry, so decisions about technology in a democracy are made by people who understand the stakes. Teachers and campaigners still quote it.
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In context
Spoilers for The Demon-Haunted WorldShow the scene
Sagan returned to this complaint again and again in the 1990s. Wikiquote traces the exact wording to a Spring 1990 essay in the Skeptical Inquirer, 'Why We Need To Understand Science', and a similar remark in a 1994 Hemispheres interview calls the situation a prescription for disaster. The thought gets its fullest treatment in The Demon-Haunted World (1995), where Sagan argues for a public able to think sceptically about science and pseudoscience.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Carl SaganQuotes section, entries citing Hemispheres (October 1994) and Skeptical Inquirer 14(3), Spring 1990Reference checked
- Wikipedia: The Demon-Haunted WorldLead and infoboxReference checked
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