Carl Sagan on the great library of Alexandria part 2

[yamenhawit]

Alexandria: Carl Sagan's heaven.

[Doribi117]

This was the biggest loss humanity has ever suffered, all that knowledge and culture lost to the ages, it almost makes me want to cry.

[SLewis958]

"Agora", is a great movie that touches on the fire at the Library of Alexandria and the discussion in this comment section. Set in 3rd century Alexandria, It follows the lives of pegan roman scientists, jews, christians and the conflicts between the three.

It's also extremely graphic.

[DoctorWeeTodd]

@SLewis958 It was actually the smaller daughter library that was destroyed in the film and in history. And Agora is an excellent movie.

[chuck2027]

Watching this video really drives home the point that we humans are ultimately just somewhat clever primates.

[jgrab1]

How much does this sound like now?

[Setzer]

this video brings tears to my eyes every time.

the loss of the classical civilization was so great...

[allan9874]

this shit pisses me off.... fuck humans are retarded...

[Standuble]

Religious belief serves man, but only as far as satisfying IMO a mere overactive part of the brain which demands that a notion of purpose, existence and belief be satisfied. Its not a spiritual connection to some higher power but just chemical workings of a lump of matter. I think thats all what religion is, giving people a reason to live built from non-existent values. After all religion has done to the world, what its still doing I doubt its worth it. So much destroyed, and for what?

[pixusbubblejet]

Let's also not forget the Muslim destruction of the Nalanda Central Library & University Complex in India. It was the oldest and largest actual university in the ancient world. Its library was in three 9-story buildings, it had dormitories and classrooms for thousands of students and hundreds of teachers. Its tuition was free. The Muslim fanatics beheaded all the students and professors, and burned all the books. It took them three months to wipe out the whole place.

[SirPaFla]

Why wasn't there a backup library? They could hacw afforded it. They ruled the world at the time. I bet theres a backup library somewhere but its location was destroyed with the original library.

[xXxStillSearchinGxXx]

I bought the series for my boyfriend for our anniversary. He loved it. And I'm glad he shared this with me. Carl Sagan is amazing.

[ilovety65]

wonderful, thank you very much!

[Darkpaint84]

imagine what the world would've looked like if the greeks really did implement their inventions to conventional use. the steam engine, invented nearly 2000 years before the engines of Stephenson, for transport people and goods across the greek civilization. the evolution of future technologies appearing several hundred years earlier.... its a gripping notion

[WittTristan]

The entire Cosmos Series can be watched from beginning to end on google video.

[thescorpionking2020]

basterd muslims burned down library of alexandria in egypt,academy of gundishapur in persia,nalanda university in india,and many gr8 universities of d anceint world and then they say islam is d religion of peace wat a joke,alexandria and gundishapur wer burned down directly at d orders of caliph umar,these r d deeds of those people who lived with tht paedophile mohammad and those who wer his closest companions no wonder muslims suck blood evrywhr in d world motherfuckin muslim scumbags

[Squiglypig]

@thescorpionking2020 Except that the library of Alexandria was burned down by the Christians.

It was burned down in the beginning of the 5th century, before Islam even existed.

[osityan]

The U.S is pretty much irradicating the middle east and all of their treasures and treasured buildings. It IS happening again.

[PlanetNeronia]

@osityan Quite true! Shameful... history truly does repeat itself.

[mikedo6]

The mob is stirring at this moment,both in the east and the west.

[claudiofebbo]

I watched the movie Agora a few day ago. And the story seems an adaptation of Carl Sagan speech in this episode, about the great library of Alexandria.

I recommend all people, who are interested about the story of Alexandria and Hypatia, to watch the movie.

[Treyb3yond]

Religion has plagued mankind for too long.

[DandAinTac]

Sagan used the history of the Library of Alexandria to bookend the Cosmos series. At the end--in this clip--he explains the purpose of the Cosmos series, and he also warns other scientists. It is vitally important that scientists work to popularize science. All too often, scientists and scholars have remained focused on their work, and shrug off bringing their work and understanding to the people. "So when at long last the mob came to burn the place down, there was nobody to stop them

[Mahoivlich]

Of all the videos on youtube, this video sums up both religion and how it affects people's behavior perfectly......leading to the destructive selfish results that continue to this day. If this video does not bring a tear or at least pause, your mind is corrupted by lies and you need to seek psychological help.

[CamronJohn]

@Mahoivlich right on!

[kwolf002]

This is the clip that gets to me.... :'(

[qxw667]

Hypatia lives on...

[Marcialdrums]

what a pitty, i wish all this knowledge would have lasted till our days. who knows how developed we would be toady in all senses... if the christian faith wouldn't had burned every explination or cientific statement. they just wanted one wolrd order, one god, one faith, one exlination for eveything, it reminds me of 2010...

[skydome29]

@Marcialdrums Well it was also burned in the muslim conquests and supposedly by Julius Caesar

[Kridian01]

If I had a time machine I would set for 415 A.D. Wielding an H&K 416 machine gun, I would extract Hypatia from the lynching mob and transport her to the future where she belonged.

[slashingraven]

@Kridian01 I think I would go back to around the same time, with a small army, to recover all the scrolls of the library before they were destroyed. I might hang around long enough to oversee the construction of a new Great Library somewhere else, in a land not teeming with the angry mobs of Christianity, where this ancient knowledge could be preserved, protected and utilized.

[hudsonkiyonaga]

@Kridian01 id bring some condoms for the ride back to the future considering her "many" suiters

[harshm2u]

Hypatia's story has left me disconsolate.

[mangrum876]

People was smarter back then. Today if we get lost we use the tom-tom system, back then if they got lost they used the stars to find there way...

[LordMalice6d9]

Christians killing intellectuals? Why doesn't that surprise me.

[Endolaylith]

They were Roman Catholics not Christians. there is a big difference although Catholics will always tell you otherwise. The Roman catholic church is a pagan and Christian hybrid religion. It was formed by the roman empire to merge all the empires religions into one for political stability. For instance the cross symbol actually comes from the Egyptian Unk and the demigods(subgods) were changed into saints. Roman's never used crosses to crucify people they used a simple wooden stake.

[Treyb3yond]

@LordMalice6d9 Actually it was Islam, but both flip sides of the same coin.

[Kimbahley]

Thinking of the ruin of Alexandria always makes me very sad.

[aroneous]

this could easily happen again. think if instantly the internet ceased to exist. hardly any of the information has been cataloged.

[Modax42]

No. If the internet was gone, all the websites would still exist on the servers they are hosted on. But that wouldn't stop such a thing from totally screwing up our civilization.

[aroneous]

an large electromagnet pulse bomb could instantly erase everything for thousands of miles. on home computers to the largest of servers and everything electronic with memory in between.

[Modax42]

...but it wouldn't affect optical disks! So lots of stuff survives to fuel the rebirth of civilization. ...Yeah that's pretty weak. :-/

[aroneous]

lots of stuff like youtube video cute kitten plays with ball of string...that will help.

[MultiTrollHunter]

@aroneous Just think of all the porn that would be lost!!!! ALL THE PORN!!!!

[bgreene5er]

the sceints and philosphers absolutely did oratate, debate and question the society in which they lived. an academy of science does not stand for 7 centuries and suddenly be destroyed unless they challenge the powers that demand the control the masses.

[kwolf002]

This is extended? It is different from the other version

[waterfat]

Did you even listen to what Sagan said? The point you are making is the point Sagan was making RideMyBMW.

[akirosette]

0/10 go back to troll school

[epimitheas]

@RideMyBMW

The shameful thing is YOU.Go back to your hole,ride your precious BMW and keep living in darkness

[sickbasterd123]

Another great loss of knowlegde was when the the spanish conquistadors burned all of the mayan writings thinking it was the work of the devil. think of what we could of learned from them.

[gethsoftware]

@sickbasterd123 yeah. but i am not suprised. they whuld not have being able to brainwash them to their religion is they alowed them to have knowledge. this is not just what happend in history. missionarys today inspire riots and murders of intelectuals. they allso inspire attacks agains other religions.

[SLewis958]

@gethsoftware Your right. A few months ago, in Belize, Protestant missionaries built a school, blocking the only access road a group of Catholic Creole families (who are very poor) had from the highway, to their homes. They even built over part of one families land.

The only way they could fight back was with violence, as the goverment did nothing. And then they'll try to convert them. WTF?

Channel 5 Belize City has a year in review program on streaming video on their website.

[ohnoesfedzilla]

"In some ways, the internet is our modern version of that great library. Will we let it happen again? Have we already let it happen?" i sure hope the internet stays the way it is because i think it is turning into the center of public debate in places like youtube n stuff. its like one more step towards human advancement. in the future when people think of the humans that lived in the 2000s they probably gona think "internet" the ultimate free society.

[atmatheprophet]

It makes me wonder, where would we be today if all the knowledge of the ancient world flourished and survived.

[sorienor]

"The permanence of the stars was questioned; the justice of slavery was not."

That line greatly influenced me when I first heard it over 25 years ago, and still effects me today.

[happy84k]

and it must affect us all

[kimofilms]

In some ways, the internet is our modern version of that great library. Will we let it happen again? Have we already let it happen?

[EndCredulity]

"In some ways, the internet is our modern version of that great library. Will we let it happen again? Have we already let it happen?"

Around the mid-1990's I would have agreed with you. But given the fact that the internet has become mostly teenagers squirting milk out of their nose or nutbags in their basements swallowing conspiracy theories whole, it's happened by default.

Buy books. OLD books, written when man could still write well. As opposed to writing for Oprah.

Hoard them.

[tellytwoface]

EndCredulity...hehe. I suppose you are right.

[MREok]

well said

[pili2255]

Awesome vid!

Gaby

[maurieer]

Great video XXXSDESDEXXX.

I`ve got a lot of great videos to watch on your site.

[maurieer]

Of all the gods man created for every conceivable event and fear throughout the ages, yet religion considers the present god real.

How pathetic to see science suppressed by this delusion.

[josephdrew87]

Sagan is quite brilliant is his passion about this library. The comparison about Sophocles, Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare (7 of the 123!) brought a tear to my eye. "We must not let it happen again"

[nascareer]

Long Live Saint Cyril! Jk, Sagan's the man. What a loss of knowledge, so sad.

[madsin69]

The way he narrates is cool. Nice posting.

[EMTRUE]

No one explains it as well as Carl Sagan. The exact clip I was looking for... thanks much for uploading!

[XXXSDESDEXXX]

Your very welcome. Let me know if there are any other Cosmos video-clips you would like.

[EMTRUE]

I appreciate it and may take you up on that.