科學和想像力

我 教學生，一位出色的科學家是需要非凡的想像力的，科學和想像力不是對立的。科學告訴我們，整個人類世界相比宇宙連一顆塵埃都不如，整段人類歷史相比宇宙的 過去與未來連一瞬都不如，我們奉為圭臬的常理，已經被宇宙最基本的粒子打破。現今科學給人類的世界觀，不但是超越了大部份人的想像，更重要的是，它是真實 的，是人可以理解和檢驗的。這令任何人類的創作都顯得極其渺小。科幻小說的先驅儒勒•凡爾納說：「現實世界給了我們那麼浪漫的事實，想像力已經無法添上什 麼。」“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.”

Ann Druyan talked about her husband, Carl Sagan

 

"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again.

Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . .

The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful."

- Ann Druyan, wife of the astronomer Prof. Carl Sagan, who also wrote the novel "Contact" which later was adapted into movie