KNIT'S PICKS: COSMOS AND FOUNDING FATHER CARL SAGAN

The other day I tried to imagine the edge of space and the sack inside my skull ruptured.

What's outside the visible galaxies? Is space inside of itself? Does it overlap? What the hell is the purpose of the universe? What is dark matter?

These questions might not perturb anyone else, but to me, they form my fundamental understanding of the nature of life.

Some less-curious individuals might brush them off or give them a name, like God, but that attitude only helps to line the pockets of celibate men who read fairy tales.

Fortunately, for the human race, some very curious scientists have spent their lives's finding clues to this cosmogonic riddle.

Let me introduce the late great Carl Sagan.

You might know his name. Although I gather if you knew what he was about the world would be a much different place.

A visionary, astronomer, astrochemist, author, and human from the planet Earth, Carl Sagan produced one of the greatest series ever in television history, COSMOS.

In it, he tried to open ignorant eyes to the wonders of space and time. A thoughtful production that is still the most widely watched PBS series of all time. Sadly, it didn't take with many viewers, as evident by the construction of new creationist museums and the cars I see in church parking lots on Sundays.

Yet, if there is one thing I learned for COSMOS. It is that time is on the side of the wise man. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not 5 years from now, but one day we'll realize we are all on this tiny spinning blue life raft together and we need every one's talents to figure out where it's going to land.

THE KNIT PICK MANUAL PROUDLY PRESENTS... COSMOS


Link to COSMOS' main page on HULU.COM I didn't feel like embedding all 13 episodes from season 1 so...