In the following video he discusses the great library of Alexandria, and it’s destruction. There is a strong note of bitterness in his voice - so much so that you can’t help but feel it too. After watching it you almost want to rush out to lay a wreath at the doorstep of your local library, to pay homage to that which we’ve lost.
He speculates as to how it might have happened - how could people have let such a treasure be destroyed? His answer is simply that the achievements of those scholars who worked in the library had little impact on the ordinary citizen of Alexandria. They had failed to capture the imagination of the people. And so when the mob came to destroy the temple, there was no one willing to fight for it.
Carl Sagan obviously thought there was not that much separating our age from that of the ancients and worked extremely hard in his popularisation efforts in an attempt to reverse this. Today, the struggle continues though our leaders have changed. These days we have the likes of Dawkins who attempts to brow beat the unenlightened into logical submission. And while I respect his efforts immensely, I very much long for the Carl Sagan style. Rather than brow beat us - he always worked hard to inspire us - capture our imaginations. He wanted us to fall in love with science - not be conquered by it.
Scientists should not be afraid of telling a beautiful story. They have more material with which to work than the religious could ever hope to glean from their narrow world view. Ironically, not all ignorance is reversed through the efforts of reason alone - it needs a narrative that people can grab hold of and understand.
In any case - please watch this video. I hope it inspires you to take up the fight - to inspire those around you with a love of science and of thought.
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Carl Sagan was one of the reasons why I had an interest in science for some time. Cosmos was one of my favorite books when I first stumbled across (in 6th grade, no less), even if I didn’t understand all of it - and probably wouldn’t fully understand today either.
While I can’t see the video (no longer available), I would have to agree that the loss of the library in Alexandria is one of history’s greatest losses. Maybe it was a case of no one caring, maybe it was a sense of there being nothing worth saving, maybe there was stuff in there that some might consider dangerous to leave intact (part of why it was burned in the first place).
Knowledge is power, and too much of it can be seen as a threat by some. Without knowing just how much was contained in Alexandria or what all was within its halls, we can only speculate on what has been forever lost. Surely, there has to have been at least one scroll, one book, one tablet that may have significantly changed things had it survived.
Could the same ever happen again? Possibly. There are texts seen as obscene, some seen as heresy, some as possibly even dangerous. We have had book burnings and bannings in libraries. A museum or library could be a target for someone at some point, possibly giving us another unrecoverable loss.
The video link should now be working.
Hopefully it will never happen again - science is a considerbly stronger institution today. But there are very powerful forces arrayed against it. One has to remain on guard.
Thanks for fixing it. Certainly food for thought.
One thing Sagan says (or so I gather) is that people didn’t think it applied to them or that it wasn’t important enough to save or protect. In the centuries that have passed civilzations seems to have, for the most part, advanced to the point where knowledge is more valuable and worth preserving. But again, it’s a matter of perspective.
Look at our travels into space for a modern example. There’s a lot of people who wonder why we bother sending shuttles into space, launching satellites and performing expiriments miles above the planet. Most of it doesn’t directly apply to a lot of people. But without the stuff we’ve learned over the past three or four decades, we would be without a lot of stuff we live with - or rely on.
Another place to look is the Bible, or rather the texts that didn’t make it, for some reason or other. They provide more of an insight into life from an earlier time. But some of it (or rather, a lot) doesn’t fit in with what organized religion wants to offer, what they choose to offer us. Some of it’s merely interesting, while some could change the way we see the Bible, our history, and how civilization grew. Much of this has been lost over time too, either due to the ravages of time and environment or being deliberately destroyed.
I would say that history is as important as science, and losing either is a serious blow to who we are and how we got here. While it’s impossible to know everything that’s happened in the millenia since Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and the others, the more we do have, the better.
How much of what we now have will remain even a century from now? 500 years? 1000 years? Will it matter then, will it be worth having?
I’d be a bit careful about Sagan’s relating of the history of the fall of the Library of Alexandria. Even today, it is unclear what happened:
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=9
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/malexanderlibrary.html
Sadly, this destruction of ancient knowledge ‘belonging to all of us’ has happened again. If anyone thinks that the war in Iraq has only had human casualties, they are mistaken.
Human short sightedness is our hubris.
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