Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium [Paperback]

After reading his two best known works, "Cosmos" and "Contact" and receiving a suggestion to read this, I ordered Billions and Billions off the internet. After the first two chapters, I was confused. They had the same heart-felt, easy-to-read style Sagan is known for, but this book seemed more private and passionate. Unlike his other works, this seems to peer into his soul much more than other stuff I've read.

The book is broken up into three parts. The first part is basically an introduction. It consists of a few chapters that educate you on such subjects as the importance of exponentials, the connection between hunting and football, and the true size and scope of the known universe. Like always, if the readers happens to already know a subject, it is still not painful to read through it. Sagan has a way with words that I can only describe as elegant. It is elementary enough to understand and yet intriguing enough to keep your interest.

The second section I would consider the "Warning Section". Pretty much the entire thing is a giant speech on the horrible things we are doing to our planet. It touches on CFC's, CO2 poisoning, and the greenhouse effect. While 100 pages of this can take it's toll on your patience every once in a while, I never trully lost interest. Right when you can consider it boring it switchs subjects just enough to keep you reading. This is definetely the section when you realize this must be Sagan's last work. The true opinion and passion that comes out out in his writing is so unlike his other books that I forgot I was reading the author of "Cosmos".

But right as I was about to get tired of hearing about the atmosphere and it's decline, the third section of the book came. I can't give this part a title because there are so many elements he touches on. Some of them being government tyranny, weapons of mass destruction, and abortion. The short essay on the latter subject was easily the most perfect example of Sagan's genius I have ever read. In a short writing he used facts, religion, philosophy, and opinion to give a perfectly unbiased view on a serious subject.

But even through all his thoughts and theories, the last two chapters of the book stick in your head the most. "In the Valley of the Shadow" recounts his repeated problems with the illness that eventually took his life in 1996. All I can say is you have to read it. The term "heroic" is thrown around way too often in our society, but the word could not be better used than to describe Sagan's final years. And finally, the epilogue was written by his wife right after Carl's passing. Her look into the man beyond the scientist is something to be cherished.

It is rare, nowadays, to find a person who is simultaneously intelligent, caring, and human at the same time. And even though it is a fairly known fact that Carl Sagan was in fact human, reading this final masterpiece makes one wonder whether he was truly part of our self-proclaimed "flawed species" known as man.

I read this shortly after finishing Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark." While I heartily recommend either volume, this one will, I think, appeal more to the mainstream audience.

Dr. Sagan infuses this work not only with the critical thinking scientific method we know and admire him for, but also with a human touch which doesn't come across in some of his other writings. It is well worth your time to read what Sagan has to say here.

During his lifetime, he was occasionally criticised in the scientific community for popularizing science, but he has done more to advance the cause of science than almost anyone else in the 20th century. In making science accessible, he allowed all of us to share his excitement and curiosity, and we are all made poorer by his loss.

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This book by scientist, professor, and author Dr. Carl Sagan is his last of thirty books that was published posthumously. It is a compilation of selected previously published articles (some of them revised) that he wrote for the publication "Parade" (which is one of the most widely circulated publications in the United States).

This book is foremost an expression of Sagan's "thoughts" (a word in the book's subtitle). What he does is express his thoughts on various social, political, religious, and scientific issues.

These selected articles are divided into three parts that make up nineteen chapters. The epilogue makes up the fourth part. Below I shall state the "nuclei" of each chapter or article (as I see it) and give for selected articles a sample thought in quotation marks.

(I) (6 chapters)

(1) The meaning of big numbers and their importance when dealing with complex issues.
(2) Exponentials and their relation to complex issues.
(3) The human hunting instinct, a remnant from our past.
"[I]f we're stranded a few hundred centuries from when we long to be--if...we find ourselves, in an age of environmental pollution, social hierarchy, economic inequality, nuclear weapons...with [ancient] emotions but without [ancient] social safeguards--perhaps we can be excused for [liking rough, contact sports] like...football."
(4) The physics of waves, sound waves & human communication, and light waves & human sight.
"[T]he elegant machinery of the evolutionary process...has brought us into ...superb harmony with our physical environment."
(5) Four cosmic questions. Sagan explains the details behind these questions that are as follows:
(i) Was there ever life on Mars? (ii) Is Titan a laboratory for the origin of life? (iii) Is there intelligent life elsewhere (iv) What is the origin and fate of the universe?
(6) Expresses the idea that because there are so many stars or suns in the universe, then there are probably many planets.

(II) (7 chapters)

(7) Draws a parallel between a shrimp's world in an aquarium and our world.
"With acid rain, ozone depletion, chemical pollution, radioactivity...and a dozen other assaults on the environment, we are pushing and pulling our little world in poorly understood directions. Our...advanced civilization may be changing the delicate ecological balance that has...evolved over the 4-billion-year period of life on Earth."
(8) Environmental concerns.
"Nearly all our [environmental] problems are made by humans and can be solved by humans."
(9) The job of the policymaker.
"[P]olicymakers need--more than ever before--to understand science and technology."
(10) Thinning of the ozone layer.
"It's hard to understand how "conservatives" could oppose safeguarding the environment that all of us--including conservatives and their children--depend on for our very lives. What exactly is it conservatives are conserving?"
(11) Global warming.
(12) Solving the global warming crisis.
(13) An alliance between science and religion to solve the environmental crisis.

(III) (6 articles)

(14) The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Illustrates "the common enemy."
(15) Abortion (co-written with his third wife, Ann Druyan). An excellent article that considers the science involved.
(16) Looks at codes of ethics. Sagan asks, "[C]an we explore the matter scientifically?"
(17) Examines the technological advances in the art of mass murder from the projectiles used at Gettysburg to the nuclear weapons we have today. Co-written with A. Druyan.
"Today [1992], the United States and the Soviet Union have booby-trapped our planet with almost 60,000 nuclear weapons...[that] could destroy the global civilization and possibly even the human species...nuclear weapons remain our greatest danger."
(18) Examines the twentieth century in three categories: (i) Saving, prolonging, and enhancing human life (ii) Totalitarian and military technology and (iii) The revelations of science.
"Only in the twentieth century has technology made killing on...a [large] scale practical...Whether we will acquire the understanding and wisdom necessary to come to grips with the scientific revelations of the twentieth century will be the most profound challenge of the twenty-first."
(19) An account by Sagan of his bone marrow disease. I admired him for looking at "Death in the eye." The postscript of optimism for this chapter he wrote in October 1996 was probably his last published words.

(IV) Epilogue by A. Druyan (Feb. 1997). She gives an account of Sagan's fight with complications due to his disease that he succumbed too in late Dec. 1996.

There are more than fifteen illustrations in this book. I found most of them quite helpful and informative.

A problem I had with this book is that many times it does not seem to flow from chapter to chapter. The reason for this is that the chapters are actually articles that Sagan wrote at various times for the publication "Parade." I feel he should have let the reader know this at the beginning of the book (in order to prepare the reader). Instead he leaves this explanation until the end of the book (in the acknowledgements).

As well, I noticed that chapters 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, and 18 have no references. As well, chapters 1, 4, and 17 only have one reference each. Anyone familiar with Sagan's works knows that he always extensively references. The major reason for not properly referencing (I think) is that he was so hampered by his disease that he could not properly complete these (which is understandable).

Despite these oversights due to overwhelming circumstances, this book provides much insight into social, political, religious, and scientific issues. This is all done in Sagan's characteristic easy-to-read style.

Finally, before reading this book, I suggest that a potential reader examine a photograph of the Earth as seen from 3.7 billion miles away. (Such a photo is found in Sagan's 1994 book "Pale Blue Dot.") This will increase the impact of what is said in this book.

In conclusion, this is a fascinating and important book. I realized after reading it why the National Science Foundation awarded posthumously Dr. Carl Edward Sagan (Nov. 1934 to Dec. 1996) their highest honor since "his gifts to [humankind] were infinite."

**** 1/2

(first published 1997; 3 parts or 19 chapters; epilogue; main narrative 230 pages; acknowledgements; references; index)

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