A spectacular opening to the series by Sagan as he provides a historical perspective about ourselves. Clearly, he is doing a conscious job of not presenting a Western-centric worldview or looking at the world as merely comprising of Westerners. Sagan's knowledge of history would seem to suggest that he is a historian and not a scientist as he tours the Library of Alexandria and mourns the loss suffered as the result of the destruction of that temple of knowledge. There's a message there for those who wish to understand it. The Library was the glory of the ancient world for seven long centuries. Yes! How many monuments of the modern world can claim to have lived for that long. All that we would be able to think of as great have been built perhaps in the last one hundred years. I can think of everything from the great skyscrapers to the great bridges to the space vehicles and the great cities. But which of these will remain great seven centuries hence ... and therein lies the str...
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