Carl Sagan Issues a Chilling Warning About the Decline of Scientific Thinking in America: Watch His Final Interview (1996)

Until the end of his life, Carl Sagan (1934-1996) He continued what he had been doing all along. It spreads science and “eagerly conveys the wonders of the universe to millions of people on television and books.” Whenever Sagan appears Tonight’s show Along with Johnny Carson in the 70s and 80s, his goal was to connect with everyday Americans. Scientific American – It will enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation for science.

At the end of his life, Sagan was still deeply concerned about where science stood in his public imagination. But while losing the battle MyelodysplasiaSagan also felt that scientific thinking had lost its position in America, making it even more ominous in the Newt Ginrich-led Congress room.

In his final interview, airing on May 27, 1996, Sagan issued a strong warning and informed Charlie Rose.

We arranged a society about science and technology. I have no understanding of science and technology. This flammable mix of ignorance and power will explode in our faces sooner or later. So if people don’t know anything about it, they’re the ones who run science and technology in a democracy.

And he added again:

And the second reason I’m worried about this is that science is more than knowledge. That’s a way of thinking. A way to understand human error and skeptical interrogation of the universe. If we can’t ask questions skeptical, if we can interrogate those who say that something is true and that they are skeptical of the authoritative people, then we have the next political or religious religion of Charlatan.

Almost 20 years later, we reached that point. Under the Second Trump administration, Doge hastily tried to dismantle the government’s scientific infrastructure, accidentally cutting off the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and NASA. Second, they chase after our major research universities and deliberately weakens the research engine that has driven the growth of American businesses and the entire American economy since World War II. And they are replacing scientific leaders with charlatans like RFK Jr., who dabbled in the highly pseudo-science that Sagan warned us. Needless to say, our competitors have not made the same mistake. Serious governments are few fools enough to cut their noses to stare in the face.

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