Thread by @StefSimanowitz

In the mid-20th century, satellites helped us determine the exact circumference of the Earth: 40,030km

But 2000+ years earlier, Eratosthenes
a Greek mathematician, came up with nearly the exact same figure using two sticks & his brain

Carl Sagan explains

I once asked “how is it that all scientists aren’t mystics, all cosmologists not poets?”

Carl Sagan was both of these

This passage - Pale Blue Dot - was inspired by the photo of Earth taken in 1990, by the Voyager 1 from a distance of about 6 billion km.

Scientists are like mystics in that they can travel in time explaining the past, seeing into the future

In this 1974 interview, Arthur Clarke makes precise predictions about the Internet & PC

And below James Burke predicts the rise of #CambridgeAnalytica

Carl Sagan also predicted the biotechno predicament we now face

“Our society is based on science & technology, but few people understand anything about science & technology” he warns

“This combustible mixture will one day blow up in our faces”

That day, I’m afraid, has arrived

In 1985, Burke warns that the computer age could “make conformity more rigid, more totalitarian than ever before”, but says that it could also create “a future world, tolerant of every view; aware that there is no single, privileged way of doing things”.

“The greatest advantage human beings have is the variety of the gene pool”

In 1982, Isaac Asimov was asked about the danger of scientists & govts “playing god”

Sadly, his warning have been ignored

See my hashtags #PalantirPlan #GenomeUK & #DataGrab.