Chapter 3: The Great Demotions

Question 0

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 2

Answer 0

Even if the earth is not the center of the universe the Sun is. The Sun is our Sun. So the Earth is approximately at the center of the universe.

Question 1

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 1

Answer 1

Even if the Earth was not the center of the universe, it might be the only world.

Question 2

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 3

Answer 2

Well,our Milky Way is the only galaxy

Question 3

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 4

Answer 3

Well, then, at least our Galaxy is at the center of universe

Question 4

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 5

Answer 4

Well,even if there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, no other star has planets

Question 5

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
Demotion 6
Well, if our position in space doesn’t reveal our special role, our position in time does: We’ve been in the Universe since The Beginning (give or take a few days). We’ve been given special responsibilities by the Creator

Answer 5

24 beyond this, the radioactive dating of rocks, the abundance of impact craters on many worlds, the evolution of stars, and the expansion of the Universe each provides compelling and independent evidence that our Universe is many billions of years old.

Question 6

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 7

Answer 6

Well, if we can’t find anything special about our position or our epoch, maybe there’s something special about our motion

Question 7

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 8

Answer 7

Well, even if our position, our epoch, our motion, and our world are not unique, maybe we are. We’re different from other animals. We are specially created. The particular devotion of The Creator of the Universe is evident in us.

Question 8

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 9

Answer 8

Well, even if we ‘re closely related to some of the other animals, we’re different—not just in degree, but in kind—on what really matters: reasoning, self-consciousness, tool-making, ethics, altruism, religion, language, nobility of character.

Question 9

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Demotion 10

Answer 9

Okay, maybe we’re not much, maybe we’re humiliatingly related to apes, but at least we’re the best there is. God and angels aside, we’re the only intelligent beings in the Universe

Question 10

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 22

Answer 10

Alpha Centauri is nearest star to our Solar System

Question 11

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 23, Demotion 6 response (b)

Answer 11

“If you add up all the begats in Genesis, you get an age of the earth: 6000 years old. The universe is said to be exactly as old as the earth…But so young a Universe raises an awkward question: How is it that there are astrological objects more than 6000 light years away? “

Question 12

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 25, Demotion 6 Response (a)

Answer 12

25….but who recognize that the perspective of these scriptures on the natural world reflects the rudimentary science of the time in which they were written

Question 13

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 24, Demotion 6 response (c)

Answer 13

beyond this, the radioactive dating of rocks, the abundance of impact craters on many worlds, the evolution of stars, and the expansion of the Universe each provides compelling and independent evidence that our Universe is many billions of years old.

Question 14

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 25, Demotion 6 Response (d)

Answer 14

Earth age: 4.5 billion years old
Universe age(since Big Bang):
15 billion years old

Question 15

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 26, Demotion 6 Response (e)

Answer 15

Our common sense intuitions can be mistaken. Our preferences don’t count. We do not live in a privileged reference frame.

Question 16

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 26, Demotion 7 Response

Answer 16

One consequence of special relativity is time dilation—the slowing down of time as the observer approaches light speed. You can still find claims that time dilation applies to watches and elementary particles—and, presumably to circadian and other rhythms in plants, animals, and microbes —but not to Human biological clocks

Question 17

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 26, Demotion 8 Response (a)

Answer 17

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy [of] the interposition of a deity…More humble and I think truer to consider him created from animals.
-Charles Darwin

Question 18

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 26-27, Demotion 8 Response (b)

Answer 18

the profound and intimate connections of humans with the other life forms on Earth have been compellingly demonstrated in the late 20th century by the new science of molecular biology.

Question 19

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 29, Demotion 9 Response

Answer 19

…it does have one great virtue—projection is the essential precondition for compassion

Question 20

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 30?, Demotion 10 Response

Answer 20

Such a conclusion is at best based on a plausibility argument, derived from the numbers are planets, the ubiquity of organic matter, the immense timescales available for evolution.

Question 21

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 30,

Weak Anthropic Principle

Answer 21

Weak Anthropic Argument-
If The laws of nature and the physical constants – such as the speed of light, the electrical charge of electrons, the Newtonian gravitational constant, or Planck’s quantum mechanical constant– had been different, the course of events leading to the origin of humans would never have transpired.

Question 22

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 31,

Strong Anthropic Principle

Answer 22

Strong Anthropic Principle
Deducing that the laws of nature and the values of the physical constants established (don’t ask how our back Whom) so that humans would eventually come to be

Question 23

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 31,

Strong Anthropic Principle Response

Answer 23

we do not know…how many other kinds of universes, laws of Nature, and physical constants that could also lead to life and intelligence and perhaps even delusions of self-importance

Question 24

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 32

Answer 24

infinite old universe view
-an infinite series of
contractions and expansions

Question 25

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 32, Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity

Answer 25

Newton’s Universal law of gravity
“Mutual gravitation force attraction to bodies toward’s each other is inversely proportional to the square of how far they are apart. You move twice as far from the center of the earth and you weigh a quarter as much; 10 times farther and you may only a hundredth of your ordinary weight; etc.