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The Demon-Haunted World: Carl Sagan’s Prediction for 2021

Bill Stierle • Aug 10, 2021
PT 193 | COVID Vaccine

In 1995, an astrophysicist by the name of Carl Sagan wrote a book predicting how the population would continue to pursue truth in a technology-driven world. Unbeknownst to many, his predictions from twenty-five years ago are exactly our reality today. On today’s show, Bill Stierle and Tom break down an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. They discuss the main points of his prediction and the impact technology and the monopoly of power have on how people find and advocate for truth. Pertinent to this, they also delve into the implications of the billionaire space race and the division in how people are viewing the election fraud controversy. Stay tuned to hear more about Carl Sagan’s unsettling revelation.


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Watch the episode here



The Demon-Haunted World: Carl Sagan’s Prediction for 2021

I'm still blown away, and I know you are too by this quote that we have become aware of by Carl Sagan who was a scholar and astrophysicist, many things that he was. He died in 1995 or 1996. Ten months before he died, he wrote and published a book and there is this profound quote or three sections of a quote where he predicted where we are now in terms of our media, the language of communication, power in the hands of very few people, especially the tech companies.


Me too. When you showed the clip from Brian Williams show, it’s really powerful. Even the title of the book that it comes from was a little upsetting in the sense of how did Carl Sagan get ahold of this truth many years ago, stick it in a book in four paragraphs, and landing right on our current circumstances and our struggle with the truth? The name of the book is The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Think about the discussions we're having about science right now like vaccinations. They're holding a candle in the dark but it's like, “No, that's science stuff. We're not following that stuff. We're going to follow something else.” That's problematic because you're not following the measurable truth.


People forget that science is something that you measure. It’s something you see and make a hypothesis about. You test it and you see if it's true. You make an adjustment and new hypothesis. You test that and you keep your eyes open for creativity or alternatives or new ways of thinking. Science is a big thing. It's about measuring and assessing things. That makes a huge difference to allow truth to be something you measure. It doesn't mean that science is right all the time. The hypothesis can come and land in a certain place. The measurements or the way of thinking might not have been strong, and then all of a sudden, a person starts believing it. It's neat that Carl Sagan was able to articulate one of the major struggles that we're having regarding truth these days.

PT 194 | Carl Sagan Prediction

It is shocking to have seen it. So far, I had to read those signs back then and put together quite an intelligent prediction. Let's share that with our readers. This is from Brian Williams's show on MSNBC, but that's less important than the quote. The book cover is on the left. We're going to read a couple of different sections and Bill and I are going to discuss them. This is the quote from Carl Sagan. He says, "I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time when the United States is a service and information economy, when all of the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries, when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interests can even grasp the issues.”


That’s a good pause point, Tom. For an economy to shift their manufacturing overseas and rightfully so to gain profit, to be more viable, and to bring a wine home to their parent company, to their stockholders and everything like that mindset to go over there, and then to notice that now all of a sudden, the technological power is in the hands of the very few and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues. It becomes common with everything on climate change to the environment to how do you deal with plastics in the ocean, all the different challenges and issues.


From a private standpoint, it's one place, but from a public standpoint, how do you deal with these issues when a common person like you and I are away from those things? The only action we could take is to stop drinking water bottles if we don't want the water bottle to land up in a landfill or the ocean. That's all the influence we have. It’s individually, “I've got to watch my water bottles.” It’s very challenging right now. We're in a challenging time.

Let me continue here. I have a feeling if I skipped it, I’m going to drag this. This is going on from the technology in the hands of a very few people and controlled by it, “When the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably questioned those in authority, when coaching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes or critical faculties in decline.” This is the kicker, “Unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide almost without noticing back into superstition and darkness.” There's still more of after this but that's another good pause point.


That is a good pause too. Everyone gets to have the credibility of a scientist. People get to question Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci. I'm not saying him as a spokesperson. He might not give everyone all the information all at once because if he did, he might terrify people with his knowledge and information about viruses, what viruses do to the body, and the worst viruses. All the different viruses that he has studied in his entire career. How does somebody get to question that level of authority and be even with him? That's when truth flattens like the flat Earth.


My point of view is the same as a person that's his point of view in his study has been over here. It's so much higher. I would not go to Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci and say, “I read this article on the internet, and what about this interview?” There have been times where people would bring things like that to Anthony Stephen Fauci and go, “I read that study. It was only 27 people that were in that study. This is what they said and this is what they didn't have in their tests. This is why it's not valid because the protocol wasn't followed in science.” I'm going like, “It's literally this quote.”

PT 194 | Carl Sagan Prediction

What's interesting is that Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci has spent his entire career on infectious disease studying mitigation. I forget the exact name of it, but he's been the head of this independent agency for decades back to at least the George Bush administration, George Bush number one, if not back into the Ronald Reagan administration. He's been there forever. You talk about how do you put something up against him in an authority. We've seen a couple of times Senator Rand Paul go toe-to-toe with Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci in hearings. Rand Paul hasn't spent decades studying infectious diseases, but he was a doctor before he became a Senator and Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci is here. Somehow, people are seeing that elevates his credibility to be able to question Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci, even though he hasn't studied infectious diseases for decades. It's disheartening.


It doesn't feel good for you and me to change a belief. It doesn't feel good when we're looking at something, and then all of a sudden, we've got to look at it and go like, “I got to change my belief about this.” My son came to me and he goes, “I walked yesterday, dad, and I got a blister on my toe.” I'll go, “You got a blister? Would you like me to pop it for you?” He goes, “No, you're not supposed to pop them.” I go like, “I've always popped my blisters.” He goes, “No, I read it on the internet. You're not supposed to.” I go like, “Really? I've always popped my blisters. I pop it, put a band-aid on it, put some stuff on it.” He goes, ”No. In two days, the water gets reabsorbed. It prevents infection, so I'm not popping the blister.” I'm thinking, “You're uncomfortable. Pop the blister,” then I went on the internet and going like, “He's right.”


Guess how I feel? Uncomfortable, but my flat Earth mindset is pop the blister. I'm unsettled to this day that I can't contribute wisdom to my son because he can get wisdom and knowledge ahead of me. This is what that quote is doing. We slip into what’s worked before that is not necessarily the best. We keep ourself in darkness because we're not asking ourselves to change our belief. It's unsettling and also very sobering to realize that we've got to do a better job of looking at truth instead of leaning on our beliefs that are not in alignment with truth.

We're in America and these are some struggles we're facing on a grand scale. Not that other countries aren't facing it, but let's keep it focused on America for now. This is the part of this that every American should hold up a mirror to themselves and say, “Is what you're espousing, what you're saying, and what you're believing just what feels good or is it what's true? Do you care enough to research if your beliefs are true, if what feels good to you is true or you want to stay in your happy place where you feel good, and it doesn't matter to you if it's true?


It doesn't matter if it's true. I want to do things that feel comfortable. I'm not interested or pursuing that thing that's going to upset me. That's why this quote and even the next part of this quote is so powerful. We've got to take a look at, question and do our best to adjust ourselves to this way of information overload and marketing intrusion. The marketing intrusion part is the one that's kicking our butt. It's when we see something and then a person that we believe or trust or are loyal to says, “This thing didn't happen the way you think it did.” We start believing the marketing message rather than the thing we see in front of our very eyes. We saw this thing in our eyes. We got a general sense of the truth about what it is, and this marketing person is now going to pound, repeat, say the same thing over and over again just to keep us into that superstition or into that darkness. This is so unsettling. Go ahead and read the next part of this quote.


There are two more parts here and this is really good. Carl Sagan, in 1995 or 1996, was saying, “The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content,” I would put "substantive content" as truth or maybe the facts, “in the enormously influential media. The 30-second soundbites (now down to ten seconds or less, lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

PT 194 | Carl Sagan Prediction

They almost found Bigfoot and I'm picking on something. There may be one day in the world that we find a Proto Man of that size somewhere. People will say, “There, see? We found them,” at the same time. This is believing in things that you can't measure. I like faith, intention and setting our greatest vision and trying to live towards it. There's a certain amount of time we've got to take, measure, stare it down, and apply the balance between creativity and logic, between logic and spirituality, between the ability to be creative, and to follow a to-do list and get stuff done. We've got to build that range of truth, not just to lean on a person's belief or be influenced by a marketer saying something because it's more comfortable, it feels better to listen and agree to that because then, we don't have to question ourselves. It's better to leave the blister on.


I'm still bugged by the sentence. Why? Because for years, taking the blister off or letting the liquid out of it was a strategy and a tactic I would use to provide myself comfort. It’s something my parents taught me and something that was maybe true in science back then. It's pretty good and fascinating to watch how we can change things. A marketer can get further along by purchasing truth away from the listener by repeating whatever message they want to stay on and a road science. Therefore, the title of this book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.


It sounds medieval. It sounds like this was a book that was written in Galileo's time when he was put on the block for the crime of science and looking up the truth, “Do you see these stars moving over through the sky at night? That's because the Earth is round and it's spinning.” “The Earth is not round, it's flat. Kill him.” I'm oversimplifying stuff.

We have our version of that. Didn't you see a bunch of people go into the Capitol building? That's that thing, “The election was stolen. There's election fraud. There are greater numbers.” They're like, “Let's see how that works in court. Let's bring that back into court.” “No, there are no facts here in court.” Everything gets thrown out but the superstition is still living. The marketing is still working. The brand loyalty towards Donald Trump is still being promoted and there's a group of people not getting off of that. It's just holding the line with that and then looking for any way to not talk about the truth, and use things like distraction, certain half stories, straw man, and red herrings. All the different beliefs, biases, and fallacies that you can put in are in that mix. It is a tough experience.


What winds up happening is if the power is in the hands of the few, the technology, instead of having the United States versus Russia in the space race, you have three billionaires in the space race. This is the thing that bugs me the most and we'll talk about this more in the next episode. When an individual does something, not a country, the energy is way different. It's not we did it and we support it, that we're a part of Richard Branson. We are not a part of Richard Branson's success. That leaves the person having no sense of national pride because he's an English guy. He's a capitalist but it's not something England or America, although it was on American soil and American tax breaks. It had no financial impact on the economy that all this stuff was built on. It’s unbelievable that there's no energetic investment at all.


A lot of very valid criticisms are being levied at these three billionaires for this space race. Think about all the good that money that went into this could be doing in other ways to help our world. Is it worth it to spend? Richard Branson is planning a ticket to be about $250,000 to take a ride in Virgin Galactic and experience three minutes of weightlessness on this flight.


3 to 4 minutes of up and down.


That's for the Virgin Galactic experience. I did the math and that’s 180 seconds. That comes down to a little less than $1,400 per second of weightlessness to experience that. I'm belittling it. I'm sure it was an incredibly awesome experience in many ways but still, it’s the odds to those who can afford it. They tried to mask the idea that it's a ticket for rich people by saying, “They're going to have a lottery and give two people a free ticket, and give average common people the ability to go up and experience it at some point.” Good. That makes it all ideal, doesn't it?

It doesn't build loyalty and national pride. I feel more inspired right now about the Olympics because there's the USA. What are the United States athletes going to do compared to other athletes in the world and see who is the best in the world at something, rather than three billionaires going up into outer space? Would I turn down the ticket? Maybe or maybe I would go. That's the problem. It's still about, how do human beings grapple with the truth? Can the marketing and the promotion of something get us away from the things we need to measure and the important issues? Everybody thinks that now that commercial outer space is available to people, the next step is interstellar to save the planet. It’s that pseudo-science piece. It's important to do the work and support to get up there but the collective priorities, we're not concentrating on that much.


That does appear that way. While I do think SpaceX, one of the other billionaire companies that are commercially going into space is a little different from Virgin Galactic because what they've done is privatized going to space and trying to do a better job than the US government and what admittedly, slow bureaucracy could do and had stopped doing. There's a little difference there that it's not just joy rides to space, which VirginGalactic is. Jeff Bezos's company, I forget the name, is working on similar things.


Although, I have to tell you from a marketing message, and it's true but it's humorous. Whenever my wife sees the image of Jeff Bezos’s ship that he's going to be taking going up. She's like, “These billionaire men wanting to go to space, couldn't they have done a better job designing that rocket so it didn't look like a big penis?” Certainly, for at least all the women in the world, it’s not helpful to the marketing message of the goals they're trying to achieve. It makes it seem more these are rich white men that are taking advantage of their money, wealth and privilege to feel big about themselves.


Next time around, let's take a look at marketing and branding. What does it take to flip somebody over to get whatever that item is on the grocery list? What does it take to fully purchase somebody's brain? How much money does it take? How much time and how many repeated messages? As the repeated messages keep going about election fraud with no measurable data, it becomes a way to flatten people's enthusiasm around their own national loyalty, then it's very hard for us to make a collective decision or choice moving forward. More to come on this, Tom. This is a great discussion. I appreciate it.


Thanks. I appreciate it, Bill. Talk to you next time.



Thanks. Bye.

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