El Nuevo Cosmos

"Acabo de disfrutar el estreno mundial de la serie de ciencia más esperada de los últimos años: Cosmos, una Odisea en el Espacio-Tiempo.  Mi veredicto: ¡fantástica!  Aunque como dicen por ahí un hombre no se baña dos veces en el mismo río y este hombre se ha bañado más de ~10,000 veces desde que disfrutó por primera vez la Cosmos de Sagan, puedo asegurar que la joya de la divulgación científica de los años 80, ha vuelto a la vida"

“Solo un gran documental puede contener tan buenas ideas. La mejor del estreno del nuevo #Cosmos: todos somos descendientes de Astrónomos“
Marzo 11 de 2014
http://bit.ly/trino-estreno-cosmos

¿Qué hace a una serie documental una gran serie?  ¿qué hace al nuevo Cosmos tan bueno como el Cosmos de Sagan? Aunque muchos (o tal vez pocos, es mi esperanza) pueden pensar que mi emoción es desmedida y que el Nuevo Cosmos es tan solo una versión con mejores efectos especiales y un poco más personal que otras series científicas de nuestro tiempo, quiero presentarles aquí algunos argumentos para proponerles que declaremos oficialmente el renacer del Cosmos de Sagan.  Si sueno muy emocional es porque tanto mi razón como mis más profundos sentimientos sobre la ciencia están íntimamente vinculados con esta serie.  Hoy, sentimientos similares afloraron mientras disfrutaba del que para mí fue simplemente el capítulo 14 de Cosmos, congelado en el tiempo por casi 20 años como si esperará los adelantos científicos y tecnológicos de nuestro tiempo.

¿Cuál es entonces la receta para crear un buen documental de ciencia y que los productores del nuevo Cosmos lograron conservar por más de 20 años para producir de nuevo este tesoro? 

El primero, nuevamente, es Sagan.  Muy a pesar de haber muerto hace poco menos de 20 años, el fantasma del creador de la serie sigue ahí e incluso se nos aparece en uno de los momentos más emotivos de este capítulo 14.  No en persona sino en una vieja agenda que conserva intacto el nombre del nuevo presentador, al que conoció cuando este último tenía apenas 17 años.  Se nos aparece en un acantilado, el acantilado en el que comenzó el viaje de la nave de la imaginación en 1986.  Esta vez personificado como otro astrónomo.  Uno como él y que en esa carrera de obstáculos que llamamos la ciencia, le recibe el testigo.  Se nos aparece en una voz en “off” que repite una de las frases más contundentes de toda la serie, “Somos el medio para que el cosmos se conozca a sí mismo”.

En síntesis, una gran serie documental, es también una gran personalidad científica.  Sagan, deGrasse Tyson y no Tom Selleck  o Morgan Freeman.

El segundo elemento que hace a la nueva Cosmos tan buena como la Cosmos de Sagan es que te sorprende con lo inesperado.  En el momento en el que te podrían simplemente soltar un dato más, algo que podrías encontrar en una enciclopedia o en un libro de texto, te deja caer una variación de algo que ya sabías y que simplemente no habías pensado de esa manera.  Si bien para personas distintas el dato más impactante de un capítulo en una serie como esta puede variar, para mí el de este estreno fue uno solo: todos somos, de alguna manera, descendientes de astrónomos;  la astronomía estuvo de una manera u otra vinculada con nuestra supervivencia cuando comenzaba nuestro periplo en este planeta.  ¡Fantástico! Ese es el Cosmos que me conecto con la ciencia en los años 80. 

El tercer elemento es hacerlo personal.  Los seres humanos vibramos con todo lo que implique a otros seres humanos.  Una cosa es explicar lo que le pasa a un asteroide cuando cae en un agujero negro y otra es contar la misma historia pero con un astronauta de carne y hueso como protagonista. En Cosmos, el viaje es personal, como rezaba el título de la que ahora llamaremos la primera era de la serie.  Y es personal porque todo en la ciencia lo es.  Por encima de todas las cosas, la ciencia es un proyecto cultural y social.  Creado y sostenido por series humanos.  Un viaje de descubrimiento y uno muy largo en el que aún la muerte de los viajeros es un evento más que no puede ser motivo para detenerse.

En este capítulo de estreno nos encontramos con los sueños personales de un hombre completamente chiflado: Giordano Bruno.  Después del capítulo de hoy ya no sé si admirarlo o gritar a voz en cuello que fue el chiflado más recordado de todos los tiempos.  Les confieso que yo podría estar perfectamente entre los que le tiraban tomates en ese auditorio en Inglaterra.  ¿Cuantos Brunos habrán por ahí? ¿cuánto tiempo tardaremos en saber que estaban en lo cierto? ¿10 años? ¿1,000 años?

El cuarto elemento de una gran serie científica es que te hable en un lenguaje en el que todos podamos entender.  Me sorprendió poderosamente el lenguaje claro y preciso de la nueva Cosmos.  El mismo lenguaje que utilizaba Sagan y que hoy le vale toda la admiración de la comunidad divulgativa internacional.  En esto los creadores de la nueva Cosmos se lucieron y debo confesar que a pesar de mis temores, sé que este logro puede ser en gran medida obra del mismo DeGrasse Tyson.

Me quito el sombrero ante este digno continuador de la Saga Sagan.

El uso de un lenguaje sencillo tiene que ir acompañado de analogías, herramientas didácticas o visuales sencillas también.  El Calendario Cósmico es la mejor de todas.  ¿Quién no tiene claro que marzo es muy temprano y noviembre bastante tarde? Una invención original de Sagan vuelve a la vida magistralmente ilustrada por las herramientas que él lamentablemente no vería en vida.  Como en la vida, Enero coincide con el período de “oscuridad” más profundo de todo el año: todo esta por hacerse, todo se esta cocinando en silencio.  La Galaxia cumpleaños en marzo, claro en el marzo del calendario cósmico.  El Sol llega tarde.  Hay que esperar las vacaciones de fin de año para que el Universo haya cocinado los elementos químicos que se apilaran como basura a su alrededor y crearán a la Tierra apenas hasta el mes de agosto.  La vida es una invención  del cálido septiembre cuando “prácticamente” el año se acabo.  Las flores llegan como una broma el 28 de diciembre.  Y todo lo que ha sido la miserable (en términos cósmicos) historia de la humanidad, se reduce a un “faltan 12 (segundos) pa’las 12, el año va terminar“.

En esta escala solo falto un evento importante: Cosmos, el nuevo Cosmos, se estrenó 6 centésimas de segundo después de la media noche del primero de enero del calendario cósmico creado por el mismo Sagan en 1986.

ORIGINAL: Trinoceronte
Por Jorge Zuluaga

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Why Cosmos Will Be Better Than Ever

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will host the new Fox series Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, blasting off in March. Peter Yang

Before Carl Sagan, science and TV didn’t get along too well. Then, in 1980, the man in the turtleneck blew our minds with his PBS miniseries, Cosmos. Sagan took a nar­rative approach to science, inviting viewers to explore the universe and discover their own place in it. Thirty-four years later, the sequel has finally arrived: Hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey hits Fox in March. It’s far from Tyson’s only gig; while nominally the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, he has become our most visible champion of science, thanks to numerous appearances on The Colbert Report and shenanigans like his (viral) Twitter fact-checking of the movie Gravity. Sagan may be busy somewhere among the heavens’ billions and billions of stars, but Tyson talked with WIRED about inheriting the man’s mantle, what the new Cosmos hopes to teach us, and the future of science and education in the US.

You’ve spent the past year working on Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey. You’re no stranger to television, but this is the first time you’ve been involved in a project of this magnitude.
It was a surreal experience for me as an academic. Everything about it was novel. Everything. A particular pleasure was working with people who felt strongly about Cosmos at a time when the country most needs an injection of science literacy. I don’t know if love overstates it, but people came to the project with a commitment to making something bigger than all of us.

The first series was associated very closely with Carl Sagan.

As a matter of fact, it was subtitled “A Personal Voyage.”

How do you build on Sagan’s legacy, then, without letting your series be defined by it?
Well, it depends on how you think of the old Cosmos. If you think of it as “the Carl Sagan show,” then it can’t be redone with anyone else. But if it’s “Carl Sagan presenting the universe,” and the universe is the subject and he’s your guide, then it works just fine—and that’s how we’re proceeding.

What are some differences we can expect to see?
We have a cinematic dimension this time: People working on the show have brought tools from cinema and are applying them to tell the story of the universe. Think about how potent and powerful things like camera angles and scene development are. In a stereotypical documentary, somebody sets up a camera and somebody walks in front of the camera and just talks to you, and then you go to some other thing and then you come back. With this, I think, the viewer will walk away with a much more complete encounter.

How has the current climate around science in the US informed the new series?
Cosmos was conceived and filmed in the midst of the Cold War. The exploration of the solar system was still considered an odd thing that, maybe, if you had no other problems in the world, you might undertake. Then Cosmos airs in 1980, and its entire mission statement is all about a cosmic perspective, understanding things on the largest scale possible. Today there’s the issue of what we are doing as a species to the environment on a global scale. The environmental movement really started out at a very local level.

Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey features a “cosmic calendar” that helps viewers make sense of the universe’s vast history.  Courtesy of Fox


That all changed when photos from Apollo 8 showed Earth as an object in space.
As Sagan is famous for saying, “Molecules don’t have passports.” The idea that your influence on a local environment has global consequences is something I don’t think we could’ve arrived at were it not for Apollo 8. Climate change has influenced the modern Cosmos in the way nuclear proliferation influenced the previous one.

In addition, at least in America, science has been treated sort of cavalierly, not only by the public but also by government. The idea that science is just some luxury that you’ll get around to if you can afford it is regressive to any future a country might dream for itself. Innovations in science and technology are the engines of the 21st-century economy; if you care about the wealth and health of your nation tomorrow, then you’d better rethink how you allocate taxes to fund science. The federal budget needs to recognize this.

It seems like right now, we’re leaning on the private sector to pick up that slack, with for-profit companies like SpaceX, for example.

The private sector requires quarterly reports and annual returns on the investors’ capital. It’s not a 20-year baseline. It’s not even a five-year baseline. If you really want to invest in the long-term health of a nation, the government needs to step in for the long-term returns on those investments.

“The Idea That Science is a Luxury is regressive to any future a country might dream for itself.”

In the 1920s, the government was investing huge amounts of money and physicists’ brainpower on understanding the atom. What emerged was the birth of quantum physics. If you were around back then, you might have said, “Look at all the smart people just wasting their time. Why are we even doing this?” But the information technology revolution has at its foundation techniques for the creation, storage, and retrieval of information that would not have been possible without an understanding of quantum physics.

So corporations engage in applied science, while pure science requires the ongoing support of the state?
Exactly. As history has shown, pure science research ultimately ends up applying to something. We just don’t know it at the time.

But in an era where science is low on many people’s priority lists, do you think there’s also enough hunger from viewers to sustain a show like Cosmos?
The top two shows in all of television are The Big Bang Theory and NCIS. The Big Bang Theory has received plenty of criticism for its caricatures of scientists, but what comes out of their mouths and what’s on the whiteboards is real science. At the same time, I have 1.6 million followers on Twitter—all of this tells me that there’s an appetite.

An appetite for scientific information, or just for the human stories around it?
Whoever said you couldn’t communicate science by way of stories? Cosmos is an occasion to bring everything that I have, all of my capacity to communicate. We may go to the edge of the universe, but we’re going to land right on you: in your heart, in your soul, in your mind. My goal is to have people know that they are participants in this great unfolding cosmic story.

ORIGINAL: Wired

By Rachel Edidin
03.07.14

Neil deGrasse Tyson Hosts “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” (at SXSW)

How did we discover the laws of nature? 
How did we find our coordinates in both space and time? 

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” uses rich, epic storytelling to ignite our curiosity and inspire us to take a deeper interest in science and the world around us.

The series is hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who will be delivering a SXSW Interactive keynote speech on Saturday, March 8th.

Three decades after the debut of “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” Carl Sagan’s scientific exploration of the universe, Executive Producer Seth MacFarlane is working with Sagan’s original creative collaborators to produce the series.

The television premiere will take place Sunday, March 9th, debuting simultaneously across 10 U.S. networks, including Fox and National Geographic Channel. National Geographic Channel will be airing Cosmos every Monday night at 10pm, which will include additional bonus footage and behind-the-scenes content.

Be the first to see it at the SXSW Film Festival on Friday, March 7th at the Paramount Theatre at 10pm, followed by a Q&A with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

ORIGINAL: SXSW

by Cori Burford

February 26, 2014

Fox Networks Group To Launch ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’ In 181 Countries, 220 Channels

Fox Networks Group today announced its first ever cross-network global premiere event — for Seth MacFarlane‘s passion project, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, on Sunday, March 9, 9-10 PM ET/PT. In addition to premiering on the 10 U.S. networks simulcasting the premiere episode — Fox Broadcasting Company, National Geographic Channel, FX, FXX, FXM, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and FOX Life — and on the Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels International, as previously announced, Cosmos will premiere on all 90 National Geographic Channels in 180 countries, as well as 120 Fox-branded channels in 125 countries, making this the largest global launch ever for a television series. Rolling out immediately after the U.S. premiere, international markets will begin airing the premiere episode day and date on both Fox-branded and National Geographic Channels, concluding within one week of the domestic premiere event. The additional 12 episodes will air exclusively on National Geographic Channels outside the U.S.

TV Trailer: Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Cosmos’

This first multi-network launch event for Fox Networks Group, along with the series debut on Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels International, will make Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey available on 220 channels in 181 countries, with an overall footprint of more than half a billion homes.

In today’s announcement, Fox Networks Group chairman and CEO Peter Rice called it “one of the most incredible experiences ever imagined for television.” From the announcement:

After the cross-network premiere event, COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY will continue its epic 13-episode run, airing Sundays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, and Mondays – with all-new bonus footage and behind-the-scenes content – on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) (10:00-11:00 PM ET/PT).

More than three decades after the debut of “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” Carl Sagan’s stunning and iconic exploration of the universe as revealed by science, Seth MacFarlane has teamed with Sagan’s original creative collaborators – writer/executive producer Ann Druyan and co-writer, astronomer Steven Soter – to conceive the 13-part series that will serve as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series.

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY is hosted by renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. As with the legendary original series, the new COSMOS is the saga of how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time. The series brings to life never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, transporting viewers to new worlds and across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest – and the smallest – scale. The series invents new modes of scientific storytelling to reveal the grandeur of the universe and re-invent celebrated elements of the original series, including the Cosmic Calendar and the Ship of the Imagination. The most profound scientific concepts are presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.

ORIGINAL: Deadline
By THE DEADLINE TEAM
February 13, 2014

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Quantum Entanglement

Could quantum entanglement be used for faster-than-light communication across vast distances? Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson explain to Eugene Mirman the problems trying to bridge the gap between the way matter behaves in quantum physics and in the macroscopic world. If you love StarTalk Radio, don't miss out on any StarTalk news.

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ORIGINAL: StarTalk Radio

First Trailer for New "Cosmos" Series Arrives

ORIGINAL: Mental Floss
Chris Higgins

July 22, 2013

Image credit: YouTube / FoxBroadcasting

In 1980, Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage aired on PBS. More than three decades later, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is at the helm of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, set to air on Fox in 2014. Some of the team who made the original series, including Sagan's widow Ann Druyan, have returned to work on this one; Druyan is both Executive Producer and Writer for the show. The first trailer was released over the weekend at Comic-Con, and it's a doozy -- cut like a summer blockbuster, it invites re-watching and pausing to peek at the places the show will take us. Behold (and be aware that, yes, the first 15 seconds are intentionally left black):

To get warmed up, watch the original series on Netflix (it's streaming), buy it on DVD for a zillion dollars, or follow the new show on Facebook. Get excited, people!

Life & The Universe Most Astounding Fact - Neil deGrasse Tyson

ORIGINAL: YouTube
Jan 8, 2013

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.

www.facebook.com/EducateInspireChange

Special thanks to:
Reid Gower http://saganseries.com/
Carl Sagan http://www.hulu.com/cosmos
Neil deGrasse Tyson http://www.facebook.com/neiltyson
NASA http://www.nasa.gov/
...for their inspiration.

CREDITS
Narration: TIME Magazine's "10 Questions for Neil Degrasse Tyson"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiOwqD...
Music: "To Build a Home" by the Cinematic Orchestra feat. Patrick Watson
http://www.cinematicorchestra.com/

Video (in order of appearance):
IMAX: Hubble 3D (Orion)
http://www.imax.com/hubble/
Yellowstone: Battle for Life (Tree & Waterfall)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jcdml
Supernova to Crab Nebula
http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/...
BBC: Wonders of the Solar System (formation of the solar system)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qyxfb
Accretion and First Eukaryotes from the 2011 film "Tree of Life" directed by Terrence Malick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretio...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_o...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/200...
http://www.twowaysthroughlife.com/
BBC: Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
http://www.wellcometreeoflife.org/
"Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia" by Ayrton Orio (Model: Xharon Kendelker)
http://vimeo.com/9505354
"Afghanistan - touch down in flight" by Augustin Pictures
http://vimeo.com/31426899
http://lukasugustin.de
"mongolia!" by wiissa
http://vimeo.com/27876709
http://wiissa.com

Excerpt from "Outside In", Copyright Stephen van Vuuren/SV2 Studios (Saturn's moon Mimas)
http://www.outsideinthemovie.com
IMAX: Hubble 3D (Inside Orion Nebula)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Ne...
Shuttle Launch from 1985 IMAX film "The Dream is Alive"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drea...
"Earth -- Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over -- NASA, ISS" by Michael Konig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls9yJT...
http://koenigm.com
Excerpt from "The Island" - La Palma Time Lapse Video by Christoph Malin
http://vimeo.com/27539860
http://christophmalin.com
Galaxy Map and Galaxy Formation by NCSA's Advanced Visualization Lab
http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/
"Mars sunset" captured by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageg...

Edited by Max Schlickenmeyer

Neil goes on to say "For me, that is the most profound revelation of 20th century astrophysics and I look forward to what the 21st century will bring us, given the frontiers that are now unfolding."

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. All copyrighted materials contained herein belong to their respective copyright holders, I do not claim ownership over any of these materials. I realize no profit, monetary or otherwise, from the exhibition of these videos.

"If you are scientifically literate, the world looks very different to you, and that understanding empowers you". Neil DeGrasse Tyson

ORIGINAL: Welcome to our World

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Scientific Literacy, Education, and the Poetry of the Cosmos

ORIGINAL: Brain Pickings

by Maria Popova

“Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson. Photo: Brain Pickings

“People,” lamented Richard Feynman in 1964,“I mean the average person, the great majority of people, the enormous majority of people — are woefully, pitifully, absolutely ignorant of the science of the world that they live in.” In the half-century since, we’ve sequenced the human genome, put a man on the moon and rovers on Mars, confirmed the existence of the Higgs “God particle” boson, and achieved innumerable scientific miracles, small and large, that enhance our daily lives in fundamental ways. And yet, bad science spreads, good science journalism is fighting an uphill battle against media reductionism and distortion, and the general public remains as just as woefully and pitifully distrustful of or, worse yet, unconcerned with science as in the Feynman days.

In this fantastic conversation with Stephen Colbert, Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson — passionate crusader for space exploration, eloquent champion of the whimsy of the cosmos, modern-day Richard “Great Explainer” Feynman — brings his characteristic blend of sharp insight, quick wit, and unapologetic opinion to the issue of scientific literacy and how it relates to everything from education to government spending to morality.

Highlights below, though the entire hour-long conversation — including the most brilliant and hilarious James Cameron Titanic critique you’ll ever hear — is more than worth the time.

On the ethics of discovery vs. the broader morality of application:

We are collectively part of a society that is using or not using, to its benefit or its detriment, the discoveries of science. And at the end of the day, a discovery itself is not moral — it’s our application of it that has to pass that test.

On the misunderstanding of science:

[Science] is distrusted not because of what it can do, but because people don’t understand how it does what it can do — and that absence of understanding, or misunderstanding, of the power of science is what makes people afraid. … Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bad for you — go figure out how it works! That’s why we need a scientifically literate electorate — so that when you go to the polls, you can make an informed judgment and you can draw your own conclusions rather than tune into a particular TV station to have your conclusions handed to you.

On the poetry of astrophysics:

Some of the greatest poetry is revealing in the reader the beauty of something that is so simple you had taken it for granted. That, I think, is the job of the poet. The simplicity of the universe, if it doesn’t drive you to poetry it drives you tobask in the majesty of the cosmos.

On what’s wrong with education:

Our academic system rewards people who know a lot of stuff and, generally, we call those people ‘smart.’ But at the end of the day, who do you want: The person who can figure stuff out that they’ve never seen before, or the person who can rabble off a bunch of facts?

A brilliant addition to history’s best definitions of science:

[Science] is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.

On our broken yardsticks for assessing the value of scientific research:

Today, you hear people say, ‘Why are we spending money up there when we’ve got problems on Earth?’ And people don’t connect the time-delay between the frontier of scientific research and how it’s going to transform your life later down the line. All they want is a quarterly report that shows the part that comes out of it — that is so short-sighted that it’s the beginning of the end of your culture.

He goes on to point out that people grossly misperceive how much is actually being spent “up there,” assuming anywhere between 10 and 15% of taxpayer money, whereas the real number is a mere 6/10 of a penny on the tax dollar, or 0.6%. The solution:

The greatest need is to be able to have the foresight necessary to make investments on the frontier of science even if, at the time you make those investments, you cannot figure out how that might make you rich tomorrow.

Finally, when Colbert asks the grandest cosmic question of all — why there is something instead of nothing — Tyson answers with a brilliant haiku-esque retort that hints at the power of ignorance as a tool of science:

Words that make questions

May not be questions

At all

Tyson’s latest book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier (public library), is a must-read.

↬ Swiss-Miss

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Offers Advice on How to Be Yourself and Achieve Your Own Greatness

ORIGINAL: Open Culture

December 19th, 2012

Whatever else it is—mordant self-mockery, summation of a life’s work in thought—Friedrich Nietzsche’s last published book, Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is, is a profoundly Romantic text, operating on the premise that an individual who suffers for philosophy, for art, for truth, is heroic, even (or especially) when anti-heroic, brooding, Byronic. Nietzsche states one of the purposes of his strange little book as an imprecation: Hear me! For I am such and such. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else!

Over a century after this work’s publication, a cry of pop culture with its love of simulacra might be: Please mistake me for someone else, especially someone wealthy and famous and prettier than I am! Maybe this ethos reached its zenith with Facebook’s celebrity look-alike day, which inspired a site called myheritage.com to use face recognition technology for users who didn’t look enough like anyone famous to figure out for themselves who they wanted to be. Silly harmless trend, yes, but a little sad too, since it shows how many people suffer from a sense that their identities are dwarfed into insignificance by a famous stranger who slightly resembles them. (Another, more humorous meme, goes something like “Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman”).

I offer these pop-sociological ruminations as context for the great Neil deGrasse Tyson’s response above to a question he receives quite a bit: “What can I do to be you?” On the one hand, it must be very flattering to be asked this question, even though Tyson seems a pretty modest person. On the other hand, the question is pathetic, I believe, for the reasons I sketched out above. Why be Neil deGrasse Tyson when you can be yourself? Unless you don’t believe you’re worth becoming. Tyson’s answer is also Romantic; he says, “I think the greatest of people in society carve niches that represent a unique expression of their combination of talents.” For Tyson that has meant taking a set of academic and career accomplishments and using them as a platform for expressing a combination of talents that only he has, which is to say that no one can be Neil deGrasse Tyson but Neil deGrasse Tyson. He uses the example of Michael Jordan, who honed his superior talent from natural abilities, for sure, but who also created his own category through a talent for being himself, a combination of personal style, winning personality, leadership qualities, etc.

So what are we to conclude from this? Always be yourself, unless you can be Michael Jordan? Well, I think the gist of Tyson’s short talk is that there is no default or template for what you can become, or as he puts it, “what I do day-to-day is not the fulfillment of some pre-existing job description.” And while “just be yourself” may sound like trite advice to people struggling to find an identity, Tyson sets it out as a task, not a fait accompli. “The task,” he says, “is to find the unique combination of facts that apply to you. Then people will beat a path to your door.” It’s not a task to take on lightly, or in Nietzsche’s hyperbolic words, it is “the heaviest demand ever put on mankind.”

The video above is an excerpt from a longer interview Neil deGrasse Tyson did for Big Think. The full interview is available here.

Josh Jones is a writer and scholar currently completing a dissertation on land, literature, and labor.

Neil deGrasse Tyson on defending Science and Water & Air

ORIGINAL: RedGlitterX

text of image: "People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah’s ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it’s about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers."

Neil deGrasse Tyson