Sophists and Professional Coaching by Manoj Sharma
May 21, 2007
The Encyclopedia Britannica lists Sophists as a “Group of itinerant professional teachers, lecturers, and writers prominent in Greece in the later 5th century BC….. a movement which arose at a time when there was much questioning of the absolute nature of familiar values and ways of life.”
At that time, the word Sophist was a highly regarded terms (taken from Sophia - The Goddess of Wisdom) and very much meant “a wise and knowledgeable person”. The Sophists arose at a time when there was a well documented distrust of the results of preceding thinkers. So the Sophists choose to educate based on new exigencies, with a focus on the problems of knowledge as well as the challenges of justice and morality. And from the prominent Sophists of the time came some delicious maxims of infinite wisdom which are still familiar till today. Maxims such as, ” Nothing in excess”, “Know thyself”, “To many workers spoil the work”, “Know thine opportunity”, “Forethought in all things”, “Moderation is impeccable” and “To bring surety brings ruin”.
The wisest of the wise at that time were revered and accorded the title of being Sophists. Arguably the most famous of the Sophists was Protagoras, who Plato later credits with having invented the role of the professional teacher. It would not be an overstatement to suggest that the Sophists were the root and the forerunners of today’s professors, teachers, lecturers, coaches, trainers and anybody who today charges a fee for the imparting of knowledge and wisdom. And in that lies the controversy, because since then, the word “sophist” has declined to represent a bunch of people who use clever rhetoric to promote their agendas for a fee and thus reduce impartiality.
This practice of, “knowledge for a fee”, significantly aggrieved Socrates (another individual to whom the field of coaching owes a huge debt) who felt the sharing of knowledge should be fee-less for it to maintain its integrity.
And this is the dilemma that still faces Professional Coaching today and seems to only be solvable by Professional Coaches (and others in the profession of knowledge and wisdom) to, ironically, exercise a high degree of morality and justice in the promotion of knowledge - The very things the Sophists represented.
I bring up this point as a reminder to myself and all other DifferWorld Professional Coaches, past, present and future to continuously self-check the integrity with which we represent our profession and to keep our Professional Coaching Code in mind.
And as usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like a FREE CONSULTATION on how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from the above please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 6338 5669 / (61) 3 9018 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!
Some Of My Favourite Quotes On Knowledge
May 20, 2007
“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” — Nicolaus Copernicus
“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever or whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.” — Thomas H. Huxley
“Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes.” — Panchatantra
“There are four kinds of people, three of which are to be avoided and the fourth cultivated: those who don’t know that they don’t know; those who know that they don’t know; those who don’t know that they know; and those who know that they know. ” — Arab Proverb
“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” — Ralph W. Sockman
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” — Confucius
“One part of knowledge consists in being ignorant of such things as are not worthy to be known.” — Crates
“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” — Henri Bergson
“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.” — Samuel Johnson
“Knowledge is power.” — Francis Bacon
“The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” — Daniel J. Boorstin
“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” — Socrates
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” — Albert Einstein
“Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.” — Mark van Doren
“The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.” — Elbert Hubbard
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. ” — Epictetus
“The final mystery is oneself.” — Oscar Wilde
“Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.” — Heraklietos of Ephesos
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” — Carl Jung
“Of course there’s a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don’t take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates.” — Abbott Lawrence Lowell
“If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions.” — Susanne K. Langer
“If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?” — Thomas Henry Huxley
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” — Margaret Fuller
“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.” — Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.” — Margaret Mead
“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” — Kahlil Gibran
“All men by nature desire knowledge.” — Aristotle
“To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.” — Benjamin Disraeli
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.” — Confucius
“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” — Frank Herbert
“I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.” — Richard Feynman
“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” — Plato
“The first step towards knowledge is to know that we are ignorant.” — Richard Cecil
“Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” — Samuel Johnson
“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” — Thomas H. Huxley
“The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.” — Malcolm Forbes
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” — William Shakespeare
“To be master of any branch of knowledge, you must master those which lie next to it; and thus to know anything you must know all.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
“All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge. The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, when a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten.” — Mark Twain
“For I am not so enamoured of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.” — Nicolaus Copernicus
“Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place.” — Nicolaus Copernicus
Failure & Success by Michael Jordan
May 18, 2007
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan
* Five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, 1997-98)
* Ten-time All-NBA First Team selection (1986-87 to 1992-93, 1995-96 to 1997-98)
* Selected in 1996 as one of the “50 Greatest Players in NBA History”
* A member of six Chicago Bulls NBA championship teams (1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1997-98)
* Six-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player
* The 1987-88 NBA Defensive Player of the Year and record nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection (1987-88 to 1992-93, 1995-96 to 1997-98)
* Entering 2002-03, ranked first in NBA history in scoring average (31.0 ppg), second in steals (2,391), fourth in points (30,652) and in field-goals made (11,513), fifth in free-throws made (7,061), sixth in field-goals attempted (23,010) and eighth in free-throws attempted (8,448)
* Closed the 1997-98 season as the Bulls’ all-time franchise leader in points, rebounds (5,836), assists (5,012), steals, games (930), field-goals made and attempted and free-throws made and attempted (8,115)
* Holds the NBA record for most seasons leading the league in scoring (10)
* Shares the NBA record with Wilt Chamberlain for most consecutive seasons leading the league in scoring (seven, 1986-87 to 1992-93)
* Holds the NBA record for most consecutive games scoring in double-digits (842)
* Holds the NBA record for most seasons leading the league in field-goals made (10) and attempted (10)
* Led the NBA in steals in 1987-88 (3.16 spg), 1989-90 (2.77 spg) and 1992-93 (2.83 spg)
* Holds the NBA single-game records for most free-throws made in one half (20 against the Miami Heat on 12/30/92) and most most free-throws attempted in one half (23 in the same game)
* Shares the NBA single-game records for most free-throws made in one quarter (14 against the Utah Jazz on 11/15/89 and against the Miami Heat on 12/30/92) and most free-throws attempted in one quarter (23 against the Miami Heat on 12/30/92)
* Holds the NBA Finals record for highest single-series scoring average (41.0 ppg in 1993)
* Entering the 2002-03 season, ranks as the all-time NBA Finals leader in three-pointers made (42), second in three-point attempts (114), third in points (1,176), fourth in steals (62), fifth in field-goals made (438), sixth in assists (209) and free-throws made (258), seventh in field-goals attempted (911) and eighth in free-throws attempted (320)
* Holds the NBA Playoffs record for highest career scoring average (33.4 ppg)
* Established an NBA Playoffs record with 63 points against the Boston Celtics on 5/20/86
* Entering the 2002-03 season ranks as the all-time NBA Playoffs leader in field-goals attempted (4,497), free-throws made (1,463) and attempted (1,766), second in steals (376) and field-goals made (2,188), fifth in assists (1,022), seventh in three-point attempts (446) and ninth in three-pointers made (148)
* Recorded two playoff career triple-doubles, both against the New York Knicks (5/9/89 and 6/2/93)
* Participated in 13 NBA All-Star Games (1985, 1987-1993, 1996-98, 2002-03), starting 13 times, and missed another due to injury
* Named the MVP of the 1988, 1996 and 1998 NBA All-Star Games
* All-time NBA All-Star Game leader in steals (35) and ranks second in field-goal attempts (206), third in points (242), fourth in scoring average (20.2 ppg), and eighth in assists (52)
* Notched the first triple-double in All-Star Game history, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, in the 1997 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland
* Won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1987 and 1988, also participating in 1985
* Notched his 28th career triple-double, with 30 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, against the Toronto Raptors on 4/14/97
* Returned from retirement against the Indiana Pacers on 3/19/95 and posted 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals in 43 minutes
Education by Noam Chomsky
May 15, 2007
“That’s the image that was used… Humboldt, the founder of classical liberalism, his view was that education is a matter of laying out a string along which the child will develop, but in its own way. You may do some guiding. That’s what serious education would be from kindergarten up through graduate school. You do get it in advanced science, because there’s no other way to do it.
But most of the educational system is quite different. Mass education was designed to turn independent farmers into docile, passive tools of production. That was its primary purpose. And don’t think people didn’t know it. They knew it and they fought against it. There was a lot of resistance to mass education for exactly that reason. It was also understood by the elites. Emerson once said something about how we’re educating them to keep them from our throats. If you don’t educate them, what we call “education,” they’re going to take control — “they” being what Alexander Hamilton called the “great beast,” namely the people.
The anti-democratic thrust of opinion in what are called democratic societies is really ferocious. And for good reason. Because the freer the society gets, the more dangerous the great beast becomes and the more you have to be careful to cage it somehow. On the other hand, there are exceptions, and Dewey and Russell are among those exceptions. But they are completely marginalized and unknown, although everybody sings praises to them, as they do to Adam Smith. What they actually said would be considered intolerable in the autocratic climate of dominant opinion. The totalitarian element of it is quite striking. The very fact that the concept “anti-American” can exist — forget the way it’s used — exhibits a totalitarian streak that’s pretty dramatic. That concept, anti-Americanism — the only real counterpart to it in the modern world is anti-Sovietism. In the Soviet Union, the worst crime was to be anti-Soviet. That’s the hallmark of a totalitarian society, to have concepts like anti-Sovietism or anti-Americanism. Here it’s considered quite natural. Books on anti-Americanism, by people who are basically Stalinist clones, are highly respected. That’s true of Anglo-American societies, which are strikingly the more democratic societies. I think there’s a correlation there… As freedom grows, the need to coerce and control opinion also grows if you want to prevent the great beast from doing something with its freedom…
… Sam Bowles and Herb Gintis, two economists, in their work on the American educational system some years back… pointed out that the educational system is divided into fragments. The part that’s directed toward working people and the general population is indeed designed to impose obedience. But the education for elites can’t quite do that. It has to allow creativity and independence. Otherwise they won’t be able to do their job of making money.
You find the same thing in the press. That’s why I read the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times and Business Week. They just have to tell the truth. That’s a contradiction in the mainstream press, too. Take, say, the New York Times or the Washington Post. They have dual functions and they’re contradictory. One function is to subdue the great beast. But another function is to let their audience, which is an elite audience, gain a tolerably realistic picture of what’s going on in the world. Otherwise, they won’t be able to satisfy their own needs. That’s a contradiction that runs right through the educational system as well. It’s totally independent of another factor, namely just professional integrity, which a lot of people have: honesty, no matter what the external constraints are. That leads to various complexities. If you really look at the details of how the newspapers work, you find these contradictions and problems playing themselves out in complicated ways…. ”
Noam Chomsky from Class Warfare
Human Destiny by Noam Chomsky
May 15, 2007
“The point is you have to work, and that is why the propaganda system has been so successful. Very few people are going to have the time, or the energy or the commitment to carry out the constant battle thats required to get outside of the know, the MacNeil / Lehrer or Dan Rather or somebody like that. The easy thing to do, you know you come home from work, you’re tired you’ve had a busy day, not going to spend the evening carrying out a research project, so you turn on the tube, say its probably right, or you look at the headlines of the papers, watch some sports, cause and that is basically the way the system of indoctrination works. Sure the other stuff is there but, you have to work to find it.
Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain which is accepted as legitimate, even praise worthy on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits - in the classic formulation.
Now, it has long been understood, very well, that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as its possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited - that the world is an infinite resource and that the world is an infinite garbage can.
At this stage in history, either one of two things is possible. Either, the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interests guided by values of solidarity, and sympathy and concern for others or alternatively there will be no destiny for anyone to control.
As long as some specialized class is in a position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interest that it serves. But the conditions of survival, the long justice, require rational social planning in the interest of the community as a whole, and by now that means the global community. The question is whether privileged elite should dominate mass communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely to impose necessary illusions, to manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena.
The question in brief is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured. They may well be essential to survival.”
Noam Chomsky
Shifting Values from Service to Dollars
May 14, 2007
I was sent a pdf recently entitled Of Champs, Chumps and Chimps written by Philip Jeyaratnam who is the President of The Law Society of Singapore and also a highly successful author.
I found an element in the article to be a call to social consciousness, something that Philip Jeyaratnam has developed a solid and well deserved reputation for over the years. The following is the last paragraph of the pdf I was sent. And to me it is also a great opportunity for the rest of us to reflect on what we do professionally and the degree to which we contribute beyond simply making money.
“But there seems no way to redress the underlying shift in how we account for our time on earth - a shift from values of service and significance to emphasis of success measured in dollars and cents. But it is a terrible shame all the same. And whether the cause is hopeless or not, we should not succumb just yet. The profession still has plenty of room for socially aware, dedicated lawyers to make a mark and earn a decent living in the process as well as for the few financial champs. So long as one has enough to keep self and family in food, shelter, health and education, giving up billable hours for professional and social service is still a worthwhile endeavour.”
Philip Jeyaratnam (President, The Law Society of Singapore)
Global Leadership Is Your Responsibility by Manoj Sharma
May 14, 2007
Most of us, the bulk of the population, do not think of ourselves as leaders. We only tend to think of ourselves as leaders when we are afforded a position and/or title and have the roles, responsibilities and rewards to go along with them.
This is both an old and outdated concept of leadership. Leadership today requires each person, at whatever “level” of society, to recognize that they have the power to choose to play a role, take responsibility and do their part to make ideas and ideals a reality (in thoughts, words, deeds and ultimately results) for the benefit of all. This is regardless of the position, title and rewards that may or may not go along with their choice to take leadership (Consider that it is only at this point; in the absence of position, title and rewards, that we can talk about true service). Furthermore, let us note that today we have become largely a globally connected society and this opens up the realm of global leadership to all. We all have the power to influence the future of our world.
Since my last 5 posts on Ted Turner interviewing Carl Sagan, I have been questioned as to why I had put up the interviews, keeping in mind that they are almost 20 years old and do not seem to relate to professional coaching. Well, they relate to leadership and global leadership and a professional coach (especially one who does any elements of Executive Coaching, Corporate Coaching and Business Coaching) needs to have a very macro economic, social and political, long-term view to be powerful and effective in the present. After all, what you think and do not think, what you say and do not say and what you do and do not do, all have a huge impact, through the people you coach on all of society. And the thing about global leaders is that, while they are mostly great at what they do, they can be far more effective simply by becoming more conscious as their time and resources are there to be saved and more gainfully engaged. (This is true for you too) And this is one of the main values a professional coach should be able to bring to the table in abundance.
In pulling together DifferWorld’s Professional Coaching Technologies, Methodologies, Techniques, Programs, Seminars, Keynotes, Workshops and Courses I paid a lot of attention to concrete evidence and not opinions, beliefs, hopes, wishes, dreams and other wishy-washy elements. Everywhere, I have looked the evidence suggests with virtually no exception (the exceptions can be called anomalies) that any sustainable success (be it for an individual, team, organization, community, nation and humanity too) has required at least 10 years of conscious effort. This is very important to keep in mind as you read on as that is at the least what it will take.
So, it is precisely because the Carl Sagan’s interview with Ted Turner is approaching 20 years that I put them up. I find it both astonishing and alarming that what Carl Sagan was speaking about all that time ago not just hold true today but that the problems he is speak of have not been resolved in the close to 20 years that have passed.
If you know me well, or have attended any of my keynotes, seminars, courses, workshops and professional coaching sessions you will know that I am not one for just quick fixes, I do not believe in simply motivating people and am definitely not one to just create hope. I believe passionately in the use of what I refer to as principle-based, immediately-actionable, core-knowledge towards ensuring sustainable and scalable competitive advantages for the individuals, teams, organizations, communities and countries I work with. This involves developing professional competencies and proficiencies, having a heightened social, economic and moral consciousness in tandem with a long-term holistic strategic perspectives. Basically improving mind sets, skill sets and business sets towards profitability, performance and fulfillment.
So in the light of the above, what Carl Sagan said all those years ago (and many others have said before or since) is of incredible value and needs to be paid attention to by every leader at every level, in every organization and in every country around the world.We need to take responsibility here. We need to take global responsibility in the spectrum from big to small ways.
And the thing about responsibility is this. Responsibility cannot in essence be given. Responsibility is taken. And it is entirely your choice to take global responsibility. Also please note that taking global responsibility is not as big a step as it seems. There is no need to concern yourself with what you need to do at this point. The first step is to take it, as what you do thereafter will simply be a natural consequence of taking that step.
So let us note that…
We are well past the point of economic growth at whatever expense.
Well past the point of “each man for himself”(the gender specific language is in itself outdated).
Old social, economic and political ideas need to be reexamined and those that are unconducive to a collectively viable future for all of humanity (for generations) need to be put aside and new conducive guidelines created.
The survival mentality that permeates all levels of society (yes, even at the richest levels) that is based on an evolutionary impulse needs to be complimented with the gift of consciousness that we now have (as the most highly evolved beings on our planet), towards holistic economic, social and moral progress.
And this in truth is everyone’s responsibility.
So read the following extracts from Carl Sagan carefully and allow then to inspire you to take up global leadership.
Carl Sagan:
We got into the mess by not paying attention and business as usual.
Humans have been on this planet for something like a million years, and for a vast bulk of that time things changed very slowly. The population increased very slowly, our technology improved by very slow steps and just recently ….. boom….. you suddenly get a huge increase, an increase in population, increase in technology, increase in pollution, increase in our powers to disturb the environment, to change the planetary environment, but we are the same old human being as we were a thousand years ago, as we were a hundred thousand years ago, not much has changed with us.
One thing we humans are good at, adapting, figuring out, we’re smart, that is our principle advantage over all the other species,
I feel there is certainly a chance of getting out of this mess, but not by business as usual, not by the idea that we shouldn’t plan ahead, not by the idea that I can do whatever the hell I want and it does not affect the environment. There has to be a new way of looking at the world.
A lot of the issues you raised are global issues, for example global warming - the green house effect. You put gasses like carbon dioxide, CFCs into the atmosphere over this country. They don’t stay over that country. Those molecules don’t have passports, they don’t understand national sovereignty, that is something they have never heard of. The atmospheric circulation spreads those gasses all over the planet. So what one country does, affects all the other countries. The solutions to these kinds of problems has to be that everybody on Earth works together.
So, there has to be a new way of looking at the future and that is, we are all humans, members of the same species, on one fragile little planet, and we are all in this together, and that we all have to work together. That’s kind of like the silver lining of this crisises, they are forcing us to become a planetary species.
If Nation A makes a massive (nuclear) attack, for whatever reason, on Nation B, and Nation B does not do anything to defend itself or to retaliate. Nevertheless, the smoke that gets raised over Nation B circulates around the world covers Nation A. Nation A gets cold and dark and the agriculture fails. And Nation A has destroyed itself by launching a nuclear war on Nation B.
The main consequence of Nuclear Winter is massive agricultural failures…
It now appears that Nuclear War will certainly destroy the nations involved in a nuclear war. Almost certainly will destroy the global civilization and might just possibly destroy the human species.
So, it is another calibration of how serious the stakes are these days, how high the stakes are, because of our technology. Nuclear war has put us in a position to do utter devastation to our species.
Putting green house gasses, promises, if that is the right word, a global catastrophe, not just destruction of farmland, flooding, some places drought, other places rising sea levels, inundation of coastal cities all over the planet, that is serious stuff. The depletion of the ozone layer from these Chloro-Fluoro-Carbon Compounds, lets more ultra-violet light from the sun down onto the surface of the Earth. Skin cancer is a serious consequence, that’s the one we hear mostly about, especially us light skinned people. Dark skinned people are much better protected against it. But the more serious aspect of it is that the ultra-violet light attacks the little one celled plants that are at the base of the food chain. Those are the guys the next guys eat, the next guys, the next guys, the next guys, and way up at the top of that ecological pyramid, there is us. We are ultimately eating the one celled plants that have been processed through a lot of intermediate plants and animals and so again we are messing around with the global environment in a very serious very stupid way.
And it is not enough to say that corporations can do whatever they want as long as they make a profit. Not if they are putting at risk, people all over the world. They can’t! There has to be a new way of approaching this. We can’t say one nation can do whatever it wants, within its borders. Like I’ve said before what you do in one country’s borders has consequences all over the planet.
Another aspect that I think is tremendously important is those photographs of Earth alone in space. Fragile, blue world in this vast blackness, this vacuum, velvety vacuum of space. And its clear very thin atmosphere, its so sensitive to the depredations of human beings. You look at that and you say, hey that’s only one little world, we have nowhere else to go, no other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings. Its this world or nothing. That is a very powerful perception.
… We have opened up a universe of wonders. We have looked close up at dozens of new worlds. Worlds that we never saw before. And unless we are so stupid as to destroy ourselves there are going to be people exploring those worlds, there are going to be human habitations on those worlds, we are going to be moving out into space in the next century.
… Then there is the fact that when you study these other worlds, you learn about this one. It is a very important fact. If you look at the individuals who played a key roles in discovering the threat to the ozone layer, the increasing green house effect, nuclear winter, you find a very high preponderance of planetary scientists working in there. People who have cut their teeth on other worlds and then come back to examine this one. By comparing our world to other worlds, you can see a lot of things that can go wrong. Venus for example has this immense green house effect. Surface temperatures are hot enough to melt tin or lead. Anybody who says the green house effect is just some fantasy, all they have to do is look at Venus. Very important object lesson…
… I believe government has the responsibility to care for the people. I am not talking about dole, I am talking about making people self reliant.
We may be more the problem than the technology.
…. this issue seems to me to be a very fundamental question because we are parochial, we’re provincial. We are stuck on one planet, we know only one kind of life and so, we don’t know what else is possible. Also, if we talk about intelligent beings, we think a certain way, we think we’ve got a lot of stuff figured out. But we’re not positive that someone else, smarter than us, independently evolved on a planet of another different star, might not look at the world in a different way. It might be a very sobering experience for us to compare what we know with what other guys smarter than us know. That’s one of the many important aspects. But, imagine another way. We’ve now, as I keep saying, made a preliminary reconnaissance of most of the worlds in our solar system. No sign of life. That suggests that life doesn’t come everywhere, that life isn’t all that easy to arise. And it says something therefore about the rarity and preciousness of life on our planet. It’s something that needs to be cherished, taken care of.
So, the flip side of not finding life elsewhere, is much greater respect for the life that is here. And here we are destroying an acre of forest every second on the planet, destroying species left and right, and imperilling even ourselves. It’s, I think, a useful perspective to recognize that life isn’t all that easy to come by, that we have an obligation to preserve life on this planet.
I think there is a broad range of things an average person can do, especially in a democracy, where at least in principle people control what the government does…. government is supposed to be working for the people, not the other way around…..
… Another worry is that great wealth has a lot of leverage and in a lot of different ways. And so, rich people have lot more control over what gets talked about, what gets seen, which opinions are acceptable and permissible than poor people. So writing letters to newspapers or members of congress doesn’t do a whole lot. Voting does a whole lot more. Because the one thing that members of congress and members of the executive branch, the elected members of the executive branch, presidents and vice-presidents are interested in is getting re-elected. If it were possible for people to clear away the electoral smoke screen, the stuff that is intended to cloud your mind, the stuff that is intended to make you look at subsidiary issues and not the fundamental issues. If people can do that, if they can learn to think straight, then they have enormous leverage, an enormous amount of control..
… And so, the next step, and this is something Thomas Jefferson repeatedly stressed is that if you want to exercise your democratic privileges and powers you have to understand the situation and you have to understand it in a fairly deep way. You have to get beyond the rhetoric that politicians necessarily spread in order to calm everybody and get re-elected.
An educated populous is absolutely essentially important. What people can do is learn the actual facts, to make sure that both sides of the issue are expressed. There is nothing, by the way, in these issues that the average person cannot understand. The average person is plenty smart enough to understand these issues. In most of those cases, almost all of them, in which the government says, “If you have the facts we have then you will reach a different conclusion.” That turns out to be bunk…..
….. As bad as our problems are, the nuclear arms race, the environmental issues, there is some reason for hope. There was once slavery on the planet. It is largely gone. There was once human sacrifice, there was once the divine right of Kings, there was lots of stuff…
All of that is changing. And we can change these issues too, because our lives depend upon it. We’re smart enough, we’re dedicated enough to do it. But, not by sitting on our duffs, we have to really work.
And as usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like a FREE CONSULTATION on how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from the above please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 633 5669 / (61) 3 901 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!
Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 5 of 5
May 11, 2007
Highlights of Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 5 of 5
(This interview was recorded in 1989. For the full part of this interview please watch the clip below.)
Ted Turner:
Well what do you think. Do you think there was the conventional concept of God or did it just happen?
Carl Sagan:
Well, that’s not the full range of possibilities.
Ted Turner:
Well that’s true. We could have come here from somewhere else.
Carl Sagan:
That’s also possible, but…
Ted Turner:
But, where did we come from before that?
Carl Sagan:
Absolutely! You want to watch out for the infinite regress.
Ted Turner:
What’s your personal opinion? Put you on the spot, a little bit.
Carl Sagan:
I’m a scientist. I go where the evidence goes, not what I personally would like to believe. I would love to believe, I would love to believe, that there was a God, who made us, who is looking out for us, loves us, takes care of us……… because we are such a mess, we are doing things so wrong. Then we would be relieved of the responsibility of taking care of ourselves………… But, that does not seem to be the case. We have to solve our own problems.
Now, on the question as to the origins of life, there has been some very interesting progress made. On the early Earth, there are two different ways in which the stuff of life, the molecules that lead to life are made. One it seems very clear it was made in the primitive atmosphere, lightning, ultraviolet light falling on Earth, that kind of stuff. And the other way is, it fell from the skies. Because at the time of the origins of the Earth, comets, lots of debris, they were being swept us, there was a lot more traffic in it, than there is now. And a lot of that debris, we know that from the exploration of Halley’s Comet, for example, are very rich in organic matter. So the stuff of life was falling on the Earth. Now is that the hand of God, or not? Well, if you believe in God, God established the physical laws of the universe, chemistry is a consequence of physics, so all those molecules that led to life were made by God. It is possible to believe that. I am not opposed to that idea, but, I just say there is no evidence for it. And where there is no evidence, I say keep an open mind, don’t commit yourself in the absence of compelling evidence.
Ted Turner:
Carl, do we have reason to be hopeful about the future and what can we do to have a hopeful future?
Carl Sagan:
I think there is a broad range of things an average person can do, especially in a democracy, where at least in principle people control what the government does…. government is supposed to be working for the people, not the other way around…..
… Another worry is that great wealth has a lot of leverage and in a lot of different ways. And so, rich people have lot more control over what gets talked about, what gets seen, which opinions are acceptable and permissible than poor people. So writing letters to newspapers or members of congress doesn’t do a whole lot. Voting does a whole lot more. Because the one thing that members of congress and members of the executive branch, the elected members of the executive branch, presidents and vice-presidents are interested in is getting re-elected. If it were possible for people to clear away the electoral smoke screen, the stuff that is intended to cloud your mind, the stuff that is intended to make you look at subsidiary issues and not the fundamental issues. If people can do that, if they can learn to think straight, then they have enormous leverage, an enormous amount of control..
… And so, the next step, and this is something Thomas Jefferson repeatedly stressed is that if you want to exercise your democratic privileges and powers you have to understand the situation and you have to understand it in a fairly deep way. You have to get beyond the rhetoric that politicians necessarily spread in order to calm everybody and get re-elected.
An educated populous is absolutely essentially important. What people can do is learn the actual facts, to make sure that both sides of the issue are expressed. There is nothing, by the way, in these issues that the average person cannot understand. The average person is plenty smart enough to understand these issues. In most of those cases, almost all of them, in which the government says, “If you have the facts we have then you will reach a different conclusion.” That turns out to be bunk…..
….. As bad as our problems are, the nuclear arms race, the environmental issues, there is some reason for hope. There was once slavery on the planet. It is largely gone. There was once human sacrifice, there was once the divine right of Kings, there was lots of stuff…
Ted Turner:
The suppression of women.
Carl Sagan:
Absolutely! I am sorry I didn’t say that. All of that is changing. And we can change these issues too, because our lives depend upon it. We’re smart enough, we’re dedicated enough to do it. But, not by sitting on our duffs, we have to really work.
Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 4 of 5
May 10, 2007
Highlights of Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 4 of 5
(This interview was recorded in 1989. For the full part of this interview please watch the clip below.)
Carl Sagan:
We may be more the problem than the technology.
Ted Turner:
Carl, do you think there is life anywhere else in the universe?
Carl Sagan:
If you look at how many other worlds there are. How many stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. How likely that most of them have planets. How many other galaxies there are. It seems the height of human arrogance to imagine that this planet is the only inhabited world. But, at the same time, we don’t know of life elsewhere yet. We are just at the earliest stages of exploration and we have not found life anywhere else. We’ve sent spacecrafts, as I’ve said before, to a wonderful, exquisite array of other worlds. We learnt an enormous amount from them. We find on some of them the chemicals necessary for the origins of life. You know, the stirrings, the intonations of life, but no sign of life. We’ve also used big radio telescopes to see if anybody is sending us a radio message and both of those efforts have not yet succeeded. So we haven’t found life elsewhere.
I would think a universe in which we are the only living things is much more incredible than a universe just burgeoning, overflowing with life. But we can’t be sure. It is an experimental question and it needs to be addressed experimentally…..
…. this issue seems to me to be a very fundamental question because we are parochial, we’re provincial. We are stuck on one planet, we know only one kind of life and so, we don’t know what else is possible. Also, if we talk about intelligent beings, we think a certain way, we think we’ve got a lot of stuff figured out. But we’re not positive that someone else, smarter than us, independently evolved on a planet of another different star, might not look at the world in a different way. It might be a very sobering experience for us to compare what we know with what other guys smarter than us know. That’s one of the many important aspects. But, imagine another way. We’ve now, as I keep saying, made a preliminary reconnaissance of most of the worlds in our solar system. No sign of life. That suggests that life doesn’t come everywhere, that life isn’t all that easy to arise. And it says something therefore about the rarity and preciousness of life on our planet. It’s something that needs to be cherished, taken care of.
So, the flip side of not finding life elsewhere, is much greater respect for the life that is here. And here we are destroying an acre of forest every second on the planet, destroying species left and right, and imperilling even ourselves. It’s, I think, a useful perspective to recognize that life isn’t all that easy to come by, that we have an obligation to preserve life on this planet.
So there are many aspects of looking for life elsewhere that seem to be very important. Another one is our own origins. How did we, us humans, us animals, us life on Earth, how did we get here?
Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 3 of 5
May 10, 2007
Highlights of Carl Sagan Interviewed by Ted Turner 3 of 5
(This interview was recorded in 1989. For the full part of this interview please watch the clip below.)
Ted Turner:
Carl, you’ve been involved with the space program for the last 30 years in a very major way. What do you feel are the greatest benefits that have accrued from our expenditure and exploration of space?
Carl Sagan:
There is a huge number of them.
… Satellite Communications… it binds the Earth together… technology is binding the Earth together.
… Another aspect that I think is tremendously important is those photographs of Earth alone in space. Fragile, blue world in this vast blackness, this vacuum, velvety vacuum of space. And its clear very thin atmosphere, its so sensitive to the depredations of human beings. You look at that and you say, hey that’s only one little world, we have nowhere else to go, no other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings. Its this world or nothing. That is a very powerful perception.
… We have opened up a universe of wonders. We have looked close up at dozens of new worlds. Worlds that we never saw before. And unless we are so stupid as to destroy ourselves there are going to be people exploring those worlds, there are going to be human habitations on those worlds, we are going to be moving out into space in the next century. And I am fortunate enough to have played a role in the first preliminary reconnaissance of the solar system.
… Then there is the fact that when you study these other worlds, you learn about this one. It is a very important fact. If you look at the individuals who played a key roles in discovering the threat to the ozone layer, the increasing green house effect, nuclear winter, you find a very high preponderance of planetary scientists working in there. People who have cut their teeth on other worlds and then come back to examine this one. By comparing our world to other worlds, you can see a lot of things that can go wrong. Venus for example has this immense green house effect. Surface temperatures are hot enough to melt tin or lead. Anybody who says the green house effect is just some fantasy, all they have to do is look at Venus. Very important object lesson…
… I believe government has the responsibility to care for the people. I am not talking about dole, I am talking about making people self reliant.
Ted Turner:
Carl do you think time travel is possible?
Carl Sagan:
Well, first of all, we all are time travellers. We travel into the future one year at a time. It takes a year to do it. According to Einstein’s Special Relativity, which is a description of the way the world works, I mean its true. You can travel as far into the future you want, if only you travel close enough to the speed of light. You can’t travel at the speed of light, you can’t travel faster than the speed of light. But, there is nothing in physics that prevents you from travelling at .999 the speed of light. And then time for you slows down and so you can travel a million years into the future and be perfectly okay. The question is “Could you ever get back?” and there is the present debate. Can you go backwards in time? Is it permitted by physics, never mind the technology, obviously we don’t have the technology.