Reading Carl Sagan’s science fiction work Contact, put me back into the mode of insatiable awe for the Universe, that seemed to have gotten sedentary under the burden of conventional observations and the so called daily wisdom, for a while now.

More than once, while reading Contact in a bus, or on my bed, my mind just drifted away, outside the window, wanting to have a bird’s eye view of the world outside, and immediately flying higher into outer spcae and then it would pause in awe of all that unexplored, unending, unrelenting awesomeness and obscurity of the Universe.

Again the wonder of how limited we are as a species, and yet how much progress we have made in observing the Universe and to predict its nature is unbelievable. If not for the awe and wonder, what else could drive our species to want to explore more of the obscure Universe, expending our time as a the conscious part of the Universe.

The cognisance about the insignificance of we humans at the scale of the Universe, and a simultaneous pride of the fact that we are able to attempt comprehension of the Universe is as religious as I can get.

When it comes to the talk of extra terrestrial intelligence, I am one of those skeptics who thinks it highly improbable that we can come in contact with another intelligent species, while the possibility of another intelligent species itself is more probable, given the number of galaxies and our limitations in observations.

In Contact, Carl Sagan through his protagonist encapsulates almost entirely many curious minds of Science, and takes us one step closer to coming in touch with an alternate intelligent species, in an almost convincing manner.

This being my first full reading of Sagan, of course has opened up the possibility of reading more of him, soon.

A jargonised book about communication and antennas, would also serve as a brilliant read for students interested in communications 😉