Sagan Assails America's `Glorification Of Stupidity' -- Astronomer, Recovering From Health Scare, Zeroes In On Culture

In his first speech since a bone-marrow transplant at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, astronomer Carl Sagan demonstrated to a Seattle audience the philosopher's dictum, "That which does not destroy us makes us stronger."

Though he is temporarily bald and still somewhat gaunt from successful treatment for a precancerous disease called myelodysplasia, a rare life-threatening disease, his mind was as witty and his voice as strong as ever.

As he fielded questions from an armchair at the Pacific Rim TransTech conference at the Westin Hotel yesterday, he called to mind the "Star Wars" character Yoda's serene demeanor.

Clearly concerned about the state of education and mass culture in the United States, the scientist suggested adults need to set an example for youth.

"One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's all right not to know anything - that in a way it's cool. That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet," Sagan said.

But lecturing the young is not nearly as effective as setting an example, he told the adult audience of transportation experts. "Teens should be surrounded by people who know deep things" if they are going to learn the joy of learning, Sagan advised. "Don't do as I say, do as I do."

The astronomer added that "What is clear is our problems are of our making, no one else. Problems made by humans can be solved by

humans. . . . We are on our own. We have to help ourselves."

His early vigor at the podium emotionally affected his wife Ann Druyan, who listened from a table and alternately beamed and wiped away tears as he spoke. She called the Cornell University professor's battle with disease during his five-month stay in Seattle "a horrible, wonderful time" and said, "His character and courage is as formidable as his intelligence."

Sagan talked movingly of the Voyager spacecraft flying into deep space at a speed of 40,000 mph and how from the outer solar system a camera turned to photograph the inner planets.

"The Earth was a pale blue dot, one pixel across, caught momentarily in a sunbeam caused by defraction," he recounted. The conquerors and tyrants of history, he said, caused catastrophic misery and bloodshed in order to be "momentary masters of a corner of a dot."

He returned repeatedly to the theme of space travel as exemplifying the best of human curiosity and ambition.

Sagan and Druyan worked on a record of Earth music and noises that is flying with Voyager into deep space, even though the craft probably won't enter another solar system in the next billion years. If found by an alien civilization, however, he hopes the ship will cause them to judge us kindly.

The shape of the spacecraft itself, he said - "its exploratory intent, the lofty ambition of its objectives, its lack of intent to do harm, and its brilliant design of form - will speak eloquently for us."