Chapter 18 of Carl Sagan’s book “Billions and Billions” is called “The Twentieth Century” and begins with a couple of interesting quotes. I’ll reproduce them as they are quoted in full.

Sagan lists three broad innovations of the twentieth century:

• “Unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life”
• “Unprecedented means to destroy life, including for the first time putting our global civilization at risk”
• “Unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the universe.”

All three Sagan says “have been brought forth by science and technology, a sword with two razor-sharp edges. All three have roots in the distant past.”

“…99.9 percent of us owe our lives to agricultural technology and the science that underlies it…” we really don’t think about this enough.

“My own view,” Sagan writes, “is that it is far better to understand the Universe as it really is than to pretend to a universe as we might wish it to be.”

He concludes, “Whether we will acquire the understanding and wisdom necessary to come to grips with the scientific revelations of the twentieth century will be the most profound challenge of the twenty-first.” And about twenty five years into this century, I’d say the challenge is immensely profound.