Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD millions of voices' emanating from the black hole at the centre of the galaxy M51, all singing ' "Glory, glory, glory to the Lord on high" over and over again'. In English. There is even a tabloid report, fully although murkily illustrated, of a space probe that photographed God, or at least his eyes and the bridge of his nose, up there in the Orion Nebula. The 20 July 1993 WWN sports a banner headline, 'Clinton Meets with JFK!' along with a faked photo of a plausibly aged, slumped-over John Kennedy, having secretly survived the assassination attempt, in a wheelchair at Camp David. Many pages inside the tabloid, we are informed about another item of possible interest. In 'Doomsday Asteroids', an alleged top-secret document quotes alleged 'top' scientists about an alleged asteroid ('M-167') that will allegedly hit the Earth on 11 November 1993 and 'could mean the end of life on Earth'. President Clinton is described as being kept 'constantly informed of the asteroid's position and speed'. Perhaps it was one of the items he discussed in his meeting with President Kennedy. Somehow, the fact that the Earth escaped this catastrophe did not merit even a retrospective paragraph after 11 November 1993 uneventfully passed. At least the headline writer's judgement not to burden the front page with the news of the end of the world was vindicated. Some see this as just a kind of fun. However, we live in a time when a real long-term statistical threat of an impact of an asteroid with the Earth has been identified. (This real science is of course the inspiration, if that's the word, of the WWN story.) Government agencies are studying what to do about it. Stories like this suffuse the subject with apocalyptic exaggeration and whimsy, make it difficult for the public to distinguish real perils from tabloid fiction, and conceivably can impede our ability to take precautionary steps to mitigate the danger. The tabloids are often sued - sometimes by actors and actresses who stoutly deny they have performed loathsome acts - and large sums of money occasionally change hands. The tabloids must consider such suits as just one of the costs of doing a very profitable business. In their defence they often say that they are at the mercy of their writers and have no institutional responsibility to check out the truth of what they publish. Sal Ivone, the 58
The Man in the Moon and the Face on Mars managing editor of Weekly World News, discussing the stories he publishes, says 'For all I know, they could be the product of active imaginations. But because we're a tabloid, we don't have to question ourselves out of a story.' Scepticism doesn't sell newspapers. Writers who have defected from the tabloids describe 'creative' sessions in which writers and editors dream up stories and headlines out of whole cloth, the more outrageous the better. Out of their immense readership, are there not many who take the stories at face value, who believe the tabloids 'couldn't' print it if it wasn't so? Some readers I talk to insist they read them only for entertainment, just as they watch 'wrestling' on television, that they're not in the least taken in, that the tabloids are understood by publisher and reader alike to be whimsies that explore the absurd. They merely exist outside any universe burdened by rules of evidence. But my mail suggests that large numbers of Americans take the tabloids very seriously indeed. In the 1990s the tabloid universe is expanding, voraciously gobbling up other media. Newspapers, magazines or television programmes that labour under prissy restraints imposed by what is actually known are outsold by media outlets with less scrupulous standards. We can see this in the new generation of acknowledged tabloid television, and increasingly in what passes for news and information programmes. Such reports persist and proliferate because they sell. And they sell, I think, because there are so many of us who want so badly to be jolted out of our humdrum lives, to rekindle that sense of wonder we remember from childhood, and also, for a few of the stories, to be able, really and truly, to believe in Someone older, smarter and wiser who is looking out for us. Faith is clearly not enough for many people. They crave hard evidence, scientific proof. They long for the scientific seal of approval, but are unwilling to put up with the rigorous standards of evidence that impart credibility to that seal. What a relief it would be: doubt reliably abolished! Then, the irksome burden of looking after ourselves would be lifted. We're worried - and for good reason - about what it means for the human future if we have only ourselves to rely upon. These are the modern miracles, shamelessly vouched for by 59
- Page 19 and 20: The Most Precious Thing wipers rhyt
- Page 21 and 22: The Most Precious Thing magazines o
- Page 23 and 24: The Most Precious Thing issues? As
- Page 25 and 26: The Most Precious Thing children ha
- Page 27 and 28: The Most Precious Thing are seen as
- Page 29 and 30: The Most Precious Thing to find tha
- Page 31 and 32: The Most Precious Thing commanding
- Page 33 and 34: The Most Precious Thing magic power
- Page 35 and 36: The Most Precious Thing So pseudosc
- Page 37 and 38: The Most Precious Thing Pseudoscien
- Page 39 and 40: 2 Science and Hope Two men came to
- Page 41 and 42: Science and Hope 1656, attacking th
- Page 43 and 44: Science and Hope they may pretend,
- Page 45 and 46: Science and Hope will tell you wher
- Page 47 and 48: Science and Hope author doesn't kno
- Page 49 and 50: Science and Hope Joseph Taylor and
- Page 51 and 52: Science and Hope Examples of this s
- Page 53 and 54: Science and Hope • Despite plenti
- Page 55 and 56: 3 The Man in the Moon and the Face
- Page 57 and 58: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 59 and 60: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 61 and 62: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 63 and 64: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 65 and 66: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 67 and 68: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 69: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 73 and 74: 4 Aliens 'Truly, that which makes m
- Page 75 and 76: Aliens question of whether responde
- Page 77 and 78: Aliens 1690, 'is not entertaining a
- Page 79 and 80: Aliens suck diseases out of the hum
- Page 81 and 82: Aliens accompanied by flashing ligh
- Page 83 and 84: Aliens sleight of hand, switched ge
- Page 85 and 86: Aliens A hoax? Impossible, almost e
- Page 87 and 88: Aliens following meticulous diagram
- Page 89 and 90: 5 Spoofing and Secrecy Trust a witn
- Page 91 and 92: Spoofing and Secrecy erosion of con
- Page 93 and 94: Spoofing and Secrecy radio receiver
- Page 95 and 96: Spoofing and Secrecy aircraft to mi
- Page 97 and 98: Spoofing and Secrecy other communic
- Page 99 and 100: Spoofing and Secrecy doing their co
- Page 101 and 102: Spoofing and Secrecy Renaissance. A
- Page 103 and 104: Spoofing and Secrecy clarified, and
- Page 105 and 106: 6 Hallucinations [A]s children trem
- Page 107 and 108: Hallucinations Theorem. So I write
- Page 109 and 110: Hallucinations with uniformed figur
- Page 111 and 112: Hallucinations hearing a voice, usu
- Page 113 and 114: Hallucinations outside, however, im
- Page 115 and 116: Hallucinations broken by a multi-co
- Page 117 and 118: Hallucinations maybe longer, you're
- Page 119 and 120: Hallucinations our planet, or abduc
THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD<br />
millions of voices' emanating from the black hole at the centre of<br />
the galaxy M51, all singing ' "Glory, glory, glory to the Lord on<br />
high" over and over again'. In English. There is even a tabloid<br />
report, fully although murkily illustrated, of a space probe that<br />
photographed God, or at least his eyes and the bridge of his nose,<br />
up there in the Orion Nebula.<br />
The 20 July 1993 WWN sports a banner headline, 'Clinton<br />
Meets with JFK!' along with a faked photo of a plausibly aged,<br />
slumped-over John Kennedy, having secretly survived the assassination<br />
attempt, in a wheelchair at Camp David. Many pages<br />
inside the tabloid, we are informed about another item of possible<br />
interest. In 'Doomsday Asteroids', an alleged top-secret document<br />
quotes alleged 'top' scientists about an alleged asteroid<br />
('M-167') that will allegedly hit the Earth on 11 November 1993<br />
and 'could mean the end of life on Earth'. President Clinton is<br />
described as being kept 'constantly informed of the asteroid's<br />
position and speed'. Perhaps it was one of the items he discussed<br />
in his meeting with President Kennedy. Somehow, the fact that<br />
the Earth escaped this catastrophe did not merit even a retrospective<br />
paragraph after 11 November 1993 uneventfully passed. At<br />
least the headline writer's judgement not to burden the front page<br />
with the news of the end of the world was vindicated.<br />
Some see this as just a kind of fun. However, we live in a time<br />
when a real long-term statistical threat of an impact of an asteroid<br />
with the Earth has been identified. (This real science is of course<br />
the inspiration, if that's the word, of the WWN story.) Government<br />
agencies are studying what to do about it. Stories like this<br />
suffuse the subject with apocalyptic exaggeration and whimsy,<br />
make it difficult for the public to distinguish real perils from<br />
tabloid fiction, and conceivably can impede our ability to take<br />
precautionary steps to mitigate the danger.<br />
The tabloids are often sued - sometimes by actors and actresses<br />
who stoutly deny they have performed loathsome acts - and large<br />
sums of money occasionally change hands. The tabloids must<br />
consider such suits as just one of the costs of doing a very<br />
profitable business. In their defence they often say that they are at<br />
the mercy of their writers and have no institutional responsibility<br />
to check out the truth of what they publish. Sal Ivone, the<br />
58
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