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1977年的九月,旅行者一号离开了地球飞向宇宙的深处,这实在是一桩科学创造的神迹!它现在已经飞出了太阳系,距离我们200亿公里之遥。旅行者一号是地球向浩翰宇宙送出的第一位信使,它已经走出那样远,与它的通讯一来一往需要一天半还多的时间。
1980年,在它完成了对土星的探测向太阳系边缘飞去的时候,Carl Sagan请求NASA让旅行者回过头来再看一眼地球。十年后的1990年,他终于说服了NASA,拍下了这张触动人心灵的照片 - 'Pale Blue Dot'。从太阳系的边际向回眺望,地球就是这样一颗悬浮在太阳光晕中的淡蓝色尘埃,它占据不到照片上的一粒像素,在广袤的虚空中可有可无地隐现着。
从60亿公里之外遥望我们的家园,Carl Sagan向人类发出殷殷的恳求:
“再看一眼那个光点,那是这里。那是家园,那是你我。每一个你所爱的人,每一个你听说过的人,每一个曾存在过的人,都在它上面度过他们的一生。我们全部的欢乐与痛苦、成千上万的自以为是的宗教信仰、意识形态和经济学说,每一个狩猎者和采摘人,每一个英雄和懦夫,每一个文明的缔造者和毁灭者,每一个国王与农夫,每一对相爱的年轻人,每一位父亲母亲,每一个憧憬未来的孩子,发明家和探险家们,道德说教者们,每一个腐败的政客,每一个"超级明星",每一个"全能领袖",人类历史上的每一个圣徒与罪人,都只能在这里── 一个悬浮于阳光中的微细尘埃上讨生活。
在浩瀚无涯的宇宙剧场中,小小的地球舞台是如此微不足道。可看一看吧,在这个若隐若现的光点上,总不断有某一个角落的人群在向着别个角落同类施暴,万般残忍,难以尽书;频繁不断地相互误解,急不可耐地捉对厮杀,人们的心都让仇恨所充满。想一想看,有多少帝王将相踏着如山的尸骨成渠的血水炫耀胜利,只因为他们在这个光点上的某个角落作了一回转瞬即逝的霸主。我们指点江山、我们妄自尊大、我们幻想自己在宇宙中拥有着某种独特的地位、所有这一切我们的自以为是,都在这个淡淡的光点前受到挑战。我们这颗行星只是在暗色宇宙背景中一个孤单的斑点。我们如此平淡无奇,身处无垠空间,这一切都不像是在提供任何线索,暗示会有来自它处的救主助我们免于自我毁灭。
地球是目前已知可能维系生命的唯一处所。至少在不远的将来,人类还没有其它的星球可以迁居,星际探访,可能做到;移民定居,还不可能。必须接受的事实是,地球是我们唯一可能的立足之处。
有一种说法,探索星空可以让人心存谦卑,塑造人格,恐怕再没有什么比我们这个渺小星球的遥远影像更能揭示人类那种愚不可及的自以为是了。于我,它是在敦促我们担起责任,更加友爱地相互交往,呵护和珍爱着这淡蓝色的小点,毕竟,这是我们所知的唯一家园。”
科学可以给人带来诗意与激情。Carl Sagan是这样的一位使者,他希望用科学启迪人类的良知。有人感慨说,如果世界上每一个人都有机会看一看这张照片听一听Carl Sagan的恳求,人类或许会能和平共处呵护自然了吧?从那以后二十多年过去了,还没有看到人类朝这个方向有些许的改变,也并不奇怪,我们无法要求一个物种改造它自己的本性。人类还没有,并且永远也不能够,从动物的世界里挣脱出来。智慧的人与人类,那是两种全然不同的物种。不幸的是,他和他们不得不在这个孤独的淡蓝光点上共存共亡。千万年后,地球将在人类之后重新恢复它的生机,而旅行者一号将仍然在银河系中漫游,孤单地证明着遥远过去曾经的智慧。
“Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. 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. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. 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. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
(Carl Sagan, 《Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space》,1994)