"This combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces”, said Carl Sagan in 1995. We’re living it with AI in 2026
Posted by arewawawa@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Physical_Ad5702@reddit
By 1995, the damage was done.
We were a service / financial services economy by then. He didn’t have to envision the disappearance of the American manufacturing base because it was already long gone (ask anyone from the Rust Belt), unions were being attacked and demonized, the media (Hollywood) was already fucked, a mouthpiece for USA exceptionalism and corporate advertising.
Ignorance was already widely cherished by then, racism hadn’t gone away or even been addressed at an institutional level.
Had me made these remarks 25 years earlier, I’d say he was prophetic.
mrpickles@reddit
People didn't realize it yet though
DjangoBojangles@reddit
That's the thing about prophets.
Let's restructure our entire society based on the principles behind Sagan's philosophy.
Call it Saganism.
m0fr001@reddit
And fall into the same traps deifying fallible humans..
Collectivism.
Thats it.
lowrads@reddit
He hedged his bets by starting three different families.
m19010101@reddit
Sagan was a prophet. I miss that dude.
NolanR27@reddit
He hadn’t seen anything yet
tje210@reddit
Not with his eyes, but in his mind he saw it clearly.
StatementBot@reddit
This post links to another subreddit. Users who are not already subscribed to that subreddit should not participate with comments and up/downvotes, or otherwise harass or interfere with their discussions (brigading)
The following submission statement was provided by /u/arewawawa:
The gap between the scientists and the consumers is far too large that would cause the damage to the whole civilization as could be foreseen by Carl Sagan himself. Post is related here because of apparent reasons of people unaware and unknown to the mechanism that rule the world around. Plus the pace of advancements in technology is too fast for any normal ordinary citizen to fathom unless you're Carl Sagan himself I believe!
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1sjl2zn/this_combustible_mixture_of_ignorance_and_power/ofsh7ib/
Chart-Ordinary@reddit
Correct. Humans are just smart enough to do something so damn dumb.
arewawawa@reddit (OP)
The gap between the scientists and the consumers are far too large that would cause the damage to the whole civilization as could be foreseen by Carl Sagan himself. Post is related here because of apparent reasons of people unaware and unknown to the mechanism that rule the world around. Plus the pace of advancements in technology is too fast for any normal ordinary citizen to fathom unless you're Carl Sagan himself I believe!