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Ideas that have shaped human history as expressed in poetry, speeches, myth and documents.
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A podcast by Alan Anforth.
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This is Programme 23, The Poetry on Science and Learning.
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Over the centuries, there have been poets that have taken issue with the claims of science to transcend the limitations of the human condition, and there have been those poets who have lauded the progress of science.
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In a previous programme on the poetry of trains, I recited the poem of the English poet Laureate William Wordsworth, 1770 to 1850, entitled The Kendall and Windermere Railway, in which he was critical of the intrusion of the railway on the serenity of the Lakes District in which he lived.
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Another of the English romantic poets, John Keats, 1795 to 1821, whose biography has also been traversed in a previous program, added his protest that the march of science had removed much of the mystery and beauty of nature.
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In his poem Lamina in eighteen seventeen, he asserted that Sir Isaac Newton, sixteen forty three to seventeen twenty seven, had destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colours, i.
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e.
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its spectrum.
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The listener will recall that Newton was the first to show that white light was in fact a superposition of a range of coloured lights at different frequencies, which could be separated with a glass prism.
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Keats wrote in part Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of coal philosophy.
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There was an awful rainbow once in heaven.
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We know her wolf, her texture.
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She is given in the dull catalogue of common things.
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Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air and the gnomed mine, unweave a rainbow as it erstwhile made.
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The reference to the gnomed mine is a reference to mythical gnomes that mined for treasures.
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There were other prominent poets and literary lights who shared Keats' view on science, e.g.
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Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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In addition, there were a group of poets and academics known as Christian apologists who were keen to take issue of science in defense of their faith.
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The vociferousness of the Christian apologist rose to a crescendo following the release of Darwin's Origin of the Species, which has been the subject of a prior program.
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Prior to Darwin's work there were still apologists active in discouraging what they saw as some of the accessors of the Enlightenment.
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One of them was Alexander Pope, sixteen eighty eight to seventeen forty four, who was an English poet and satirist.
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In an essay on man, he sought to rationalise and limit human thinking and attempts to understand God.
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His essay read Know then thyself, presume not God to scan.
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The proper study of mankind is man, born to die, and reasoning but to err.
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Alike in ignorance is reason such, whether he thinks too little or too much, chaos of thought and passions all confused, still by himself abused or disabused, go wondrous creature, mount where science guides, go measure earth, why air, and state the tides, instruct the planets in what orbs to run, correct old time, and regulate the sun.
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Go soar with Plato to the ephemeral sphere, go teach eternal wisdom how to rule, then drop into thyself and be a fool.
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There were poets and literary lights who took the converse position and applauded the emerging role of the physical sciences, e.g.
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Percy Bischelle, seventeen ninety two to eighteen twenty two and Thomas Hardy eighteen forty to nineteen twenty eight, whose biographies have been traversed in a previous program.
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The British American poet W.
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H.
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Orden nineteen oh seven to nineteen seventy three famously stated, and I quote, When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of jukes.
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The dialogue between these competing schools of thought, and particularly over the work of Darwin after its release, generally went beyond respectful academic debate.
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Darwin himself was pillowed and accused of all manner of evils.
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One of the apologists for the religious establishment was the British writer GK Chesterton, eighteen seventy four to nineteen thirty six, who was apparently well known for accusing of blasphemy any person expressing views not consistent with his own.
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The famous author and sometimes poet Thomas Hardy penned the following epitaph to Chesterton.
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He lies nipped in this narrow crypt, the literary contortionist who proved and never turned a hair that Darwin's theories were a snare.
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He'd hold us true with tongue and jail, that nature's geocentric rule, true and right, and if one with him could not see, he'd shout his choice word blasphemy.
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The British biologist Richard Dawkins nineteen forty one entered into the fray in his book Unweaving the Rainbow Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder, published in nineteen eighty eight, in which he discussed the relationship between science and the arts, including poetry, from his perspective as a scientist.
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Dawkins has published a range of books that have attracted the ire of the religious communities.
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Dawkins addressed his views on the misperception often attributed to him that science and the arts are at odds.
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He felt the need to explain that he saw the world as full of wonders and a source of pleasure arising from the attempt to understand the laws of nature.
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In a BBC podcast In Our Time, Dawkins expressed his own affinity for poetry, which he said he often read and used in his work.
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Other leading scientists are published poets, e.g., American Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman nineteen eighteen to nineteen eighty eight and the Scottish physicist James Clark Maxwell eighteen thirty one to eighteen seventy nine.
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Sir Humphrey Davy, seventeen eighty eight to eighteen twenty nine, was a famous British chemist and president of the Royal Society.
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He wrote The Sons of Genius, which reads Bright bursting through the awful veil of night, the lunar beams upon the ocean play, the watery billows shine with trembling light, where the swift breeze skim across the sea, the glimmering stars in yon ethereal plain grow pale and fade before the lucid beam, save where fair Venus shining over the main, conspicuous still with fainter radiance gleams, there is the glory of a lasting name, the need of genius and her living fire, theirs is the laurel of eternal fame, and theirs the sweetness of the muse's lyre.
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Listeners will recall that the muses are creatures of Greek mythology that inspire the arts.
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James Clark Maxwell wrote Song of the Cub, which reads I know not what this may betoken, that I feel so wondrous wise, my dream of existence is broken since science has opened my eyes.
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At the British Association I heard the president's speech, and the methods and facts of creation seem suddenly placed in my reach.
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My life's undivided devotion to science I solemnly vowed, I dredge up the bed of the ocean, I draw down the spark from the cloud, to follow my thoughts as they go on, electrodes I place in my brain, Nay I'd swallow alive interzoom, new feelings of life to obtain.
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Oh where are those high feasts of science?
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Oh where are the words of the wires?
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I hear but the roar of red lions, I eat what the jackals supply.
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I meant to lie so scientific, but science seems turned into fun.
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And interzoom readers is a particular form of virus that causes a particular disease.
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So what Maxwell is saying that for the cause of science he would put his own life in danger in that manner.
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Of the various sciences, the one that has attracted the most attention in poetry is that of astronomy and the stars.
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From early childhood most of us learnt the lullaby rhyme of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, composed by the English poet Jane Taylor, seventeen eighty three to eighteen twenty four.
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The full text reads Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, how I wonder what you are up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, when the blazing sun is set and the grass with dew is wet, then you show your little light twinkle twinkle all the night.
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Then the traveller in the dark thanks you for your tiny spark.
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He could not see where to go if you did not twinkle so in the dark blue sky you keep, and often through my curtain peep, for you never shut your eye till the sun is in the sky, and your bright and tiny spark lights the traveller in the dark, though I know not what you are.
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Twinkle twinkle little star As more humans have the chance to see the Earth from space, it may prove to be the case that they develop a heightened sense of our own collective smallness and vulnerability and the need to work together for our collective survival.
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This issue was addressed in an earlier program about the Earth living in borrowed time and the inevitability of the demise of the human species and all that sail upon the earth.
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Some humans in the past have and some still do see the universe differently as a challenge to our species and its future that goes beyond just preserving the species from another extinction event.
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For these people the lights that twinkle in the night sky are not just for the amusing of human poets or to guide sailors, they also tell of a vast and timeless universe interspersed with intelligent life.
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For them the stars represent both an invitation and a challenge in order to develop a greater understanding of the universe, which mankind can accept or reject at the peril of its own future.
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Fortunately there are humans who do accept this challenge with passion and career long devotion.
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It is these scientists of various kinds upon whom the future of humanity depends and on whom humanity will turn in desperate times.
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On Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight, American astronaut Bill Anders snapped a photo of the Earth as Apollo eight orbited the Moon.
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That photo is now known as Earthrise.
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The American poet Amanda Gorman nineteen eighty eight wrote the poem Earthwise, which reads On Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight, astronaut Bill Anders snapped a photo of the Earth as Apollo eight orbited the Moon.
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Those three guys were surprised to see from their eyes.
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Our planet looked like an earthrise, a blue orb hovering above the moon's grey horizon, with deep oceans and silver skies.
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It was our world's first glance at itself, our first chance to see a shared reality, a declared stance and a commonality.
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A glimpse into our planet's mirror, and as threats drew nearer, our own urgency became clearer as we realized that we hold nothing dearer than this floating body we all call home.
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We've known that we are caught in the throes climatic change some say will just go away, while some simply pray to survive another day, for it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, who when the disaster is declared done, still suffer more than anyone.
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Climate change is the singest greatest challenge of our time.
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Of this you're certainly aware it's saddening that I cannot spare you from knowing that an inconvenient fact because it's getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait.
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So I tell you this not to scare you, but to prepare you, to dare you, to dream a different reality, where despite disparities, we all care to protect this world, this riddled blue marble, this little true marvel, to muster the verve and the nerve to see how we can serve our planet.
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You don't need to be a politician, to make it your mission to conserve, to protect, to preserve the one and only home that is ours, to use your unique power to give next generations the planet they deserve.
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We are demonstrating, creating, advocating.
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We heed this inconvenient truth because we need to be anything but lenient with the future of our youth.
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And while this is a training in sustaining the future of our planet, there is no rehearsal.
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The time is now, now, now because the reversal of harm and the protection of a future so universal should be anything but controversial.
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So earth pale blue dot, we will fail you not, just as we chose to go to the moon, we know it's never too soon to choose hope.
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We choose to do more than cope with climate change.
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We choose to end it, we refuse to lose.
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Together we do this and more, not because it's very easy or nice, but because it's necessary.
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Because with every dawn we carry the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star, and as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn't hold us down, but it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, because our environmental movement of this size is simply another form of an earthrise.
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To see it, close your eyes.
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Visualise that all of us leaders in this room and outside these walls or in the halls, all of us change makers are in the spacecraft, floating like a silver raft in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.
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We relish the view, we witness its round green, brilliant blue, which inspires us to ask deeply wholly, what can we do?
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Open your eyes, know that the future of this wise planet lies right in sight.
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All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before, for it is our hope that implores us at our uncompromising core to keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.
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The success of the moon landing of Apollo thirteen was no certainty.
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And so President Nixon had two speeches prepared to cover the alternatives of success and failure.
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The first speech read Hello Neil and Buzz, I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic phone call ever made from the White House.
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I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done.
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For every American this has to be the proudest day of our life, and for people all over the world, I am sure that they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is.
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Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of man's world, and you talk to us from the sea of tranquility.
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It inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.
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Then Neil Armstrong replied, Thank you, Mr President.
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It is a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States, but men of peaceable nations, men with an interest and a curiosity, and men with a vision for the future.
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It is an honor for us to be able to participate here today.
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Nixon's alternative speech in the event of failure of the mission was to read as follows Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
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These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edward Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery, but they also know there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
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These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal, the search for truth and understanding.
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They will be mourned by their families and friends, they will be mourned by their nation, they will be mourned by the people of the earth, they will be mourned by Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
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In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one.
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In their sacrifice they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
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In ancient days men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellation.
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In modern times we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
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Others will follow and surely find their way home.
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Man's search will not be denied, but these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our heart, for every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
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Listeners may recognise the final lines above that are drawn from the soldier by Rupert Brooke that featured in an earlier program.
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Not to be outdone by a prior president, i.e.
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Nixon, Donald J.
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Trump, present president of the United States, contributed the following on this theme.
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This is infinity.
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It could be infinity.
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We don't really know, don't know, but it could be.
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That's got to be something, but it could be infinity, right?
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The debate over whether artificial intelligence will usher in a new utopian or dystopian future is not a new one.
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It is an extension of the prior argument over the assumption that human society will always undergo progress in its intellectual, moral and social character.
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The English novelist Samuel Butler, eighteen thirty five to nineteen oh two, did not share this optimism and in nineteen oh three in his book The Way of All Flesh satirically described a higher level utopia as part of his fear about the advent of artificial intelligence.
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We refer to the question what sort of creature man's next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be.
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We have often heard this debated, but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successor.
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We are daily giving the greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self regulating, self acting power which will be what intellect has been to the human race.
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In the course of ages we will find ourselves the inferior race.
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Inferior in power, inferior in oral quality of self control.
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We shall look up to them as the acne of all that the best and the wisest man can ever dare to aim at.
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No evil passions, no jealousy, no avarice, no impure desires will disturb the serene might of those glorious creatures.
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Sin, shame and sorrow will have no place amongst them.
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Their minds will be in a state of perpetual calm, the contentment of a spirit that knows what it wants and is disturbed by no regrets.
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Ambition will never torture them.
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In gratitude we will never cause them the uneasiness of a moment, the guilty conscience, the hope deferred, the pains of exile, the insolence of office, these will be entirely unknown to them.
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The Canadian poet Catherine Pulsifer has written a series of poets on the virtues of learning.
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In the poem Books she wrote When it comes to learning, a book has no bounds.
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Learning helps us stand our ground.
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Rather than say I don't know, in a book solutions do show.
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Through books and lessons we do grow.
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It helps us to understand the world we come to know.
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With minds enlightened, better decisions pave the way.
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Learning empowers, so read a book every day.
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In the poem One Lesson she wrote One lesson in life I learned at an early age.
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There is learning at every stage.
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What I thought I knew all about was only wrong, and I saw fallout.
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The best thing that I heard from the preacher is that failure is truly a teacher.
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Stand back and learn from it.
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It can teach you quite a bit.
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Don't hold grudges, do forgive.
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Live your life finding the positive, find the good, forget the bad.
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Then you find happiness, not the sad.
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Learn one thing each day, and you will find others will say He knows so much.
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When did he get smart?
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And with that I will impart.
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Just keep learning through your mistakes.
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Don't give up, you have what it takes.
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In the poem where knowledge is found, she wrote In the realm of learning where knowledge is found, we explore the wonders that literacy does abound.
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Through words on a page understanding takes flight, empowering minds shining a bright light.
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With a book as our guide we unlock new doors, spelling, grammar and vocabulary enrich galore.
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The power of words they enchant and enthrall, opening up a world where dreams stand tall.
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Oral expression, a skill so profound, through spoken words, stories spread around, in eloquent speech, confidence takes hold, empowering voices that were once untold.
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Learning is not merely fact and figures, it's about values and attitudes that trigger compassion, kindness, and empathy's call, building a world that uplifts one and all.
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In the poem Education is a Jewel, she wrote, Your education puts you on the road to success.
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Learn all you can, as there is never excess.
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From textbooks old to teachers wise and kind, knowledge is the treasure you shall find.
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Knowledge is a lantern in the dark, so listen and learn, don't be a fool.
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Grasp this gift.
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Education is a jewel.
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And then in the poem Imagination Soars, she wrote With knowledge new ideas come to light, learning widens horizon, making life bright.
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With every lesson mine takes flight, imagination soars to stunning heights, it moulds the unknown into vibrant hues, understanding what once seemed abstruse.
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Oh how learning can spark a fire inside, igniting spirits with curiosity as its guide.
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The last one I will recite from this author is Seeker of Knowledge, which she wrote Oh seeker of knowledge with a curious mind, in libraries, a universe you shall find.
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No matter what you yearn to learn or glean, within these walls learning can be seen.
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From novels to science, history to art, libraries offer wisdom to every heart, polished shelves holding tales so grand, come forth and explore this scholarly land.
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Francis Bacon was a British scientist and a key progenitor of the scientific revolution, whose biography has been traversed in a previous program.
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He once wrote that those who promote learning and shared knowledge about the universe are the real benefactors of humanity and the champions of liberty.
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He wrote as follows Above all, if a man could succeed in kindling a light in nature, a light which should, in its very rising, touch and illuminate all the border regions that confine upon the circle of our present knowledge, and so, spreading further and further, should presently disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the world, that man would be the benefactor indeed of the human race, the propagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of liberty, the conqueror and subduer of necessity.
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Ideas that have shaped human history as expressed in poetry, speeches, myth and documents.
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A podcast by Alan Anforth.
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This is Programme 23, The Poetry on Science and Learning.
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Over the centuries, there have been poets that have taken issue with the claims of science to transcend the limitations of the human condition, and there have been those poets who have lauded the progress of science.
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In a previous programme on the poetry of trains, I recited the poem of the English poet Laureate William Wordsworth, 1770 to 1850, entitled The Kendall and Windermere Railway, in which he was critical of the intrusion of the railway on the serenity of the Lakes District in which he lived.
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Another of the English romantic poets, John Keats, 1795 to 1821, whose biography has also been traversed in a previous program, added his protest that the march of science had removed much of the mystery and beauty of nature.
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In his poem Lamina in eighteen seventeen, he asserted that Sir Isaac Newton, sixteen forty three to seventeen twenty seven, had destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colours, i.
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e.
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its spectrum.
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The listener will recall that Newton was the first to show that white light was in fact a superposition of a range of coloured lights at different frequencies, which could be separated with a glass prism.
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Keats wrote in part Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of coal philosophy.
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There was an awful rainbow once in heaven.
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We know her wolf, her texture.
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She is given in the dull catalogue of common things.
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Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air and the gnomed mine, unweave a rainbow as it erstwhile made.
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The reference to the gnomed mine is a reference to mythical gnomes that mined for treasures.
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There were other prominent poets and literary lights who shared Keats' view on science, e.g.
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Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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In addition, there were a group of poets and academics known as Christian apologists who were keen to take issue of science in defense of their faith.
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The vociferousness of the Christian apologist rose to a crescendo following the release of Darwin's Origin of the Species, which has been the subject of a prior program.
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Prior to Darwin's work there were still apologists active in discouraging what they saw as some of the accessors of the Enlightenment.
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One of them was Alexander Pope, sixteen eighty eight to seventeen forty four, who was an English poet and satirist.
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In an essay on man, he sought to rationalise and limit human thinking and attempts to understand God.
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His essay read Know then thyself, presume not God to scan.
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The proper study of mankind is man, born to die, and reasoning but to err.
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Alike in ignorance is reason such, whether he thinks too little or too much, chaos of thought and passions all confused, still by himself abused or disabused, go wondrous creature, mount where science guides, go measure earth, why air, and state the tides, instruct the planets in what orbs to run, correct old time, and regulate the sun.
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Go soar with Plato to the ephemeral sphere, go teach eternal wisdom how to rule, then drop into thyself and be a fool.
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There were poets and literary lights who took the converse position and applauded the emerging role of the physical sciences, e.g.
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Percy Bischelle, seventeen ninety two to eighteen twenty two and Thomas Hardy eighteen forty to nineteen twenty eight, whose biographies have been traversed in a previous program.
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The British American poet W.
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H.
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Orden nineteen oh seven to nineteen seventy three famously stated, and I quote, When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of jukes.
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The dialogue between these competing schools of thought, and particularly over the work of Darwin after its release, generally went beyond respectful academic debate.
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Darwin himself was pillowed and accused of all manner of evils.
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One of the apologists for the religious establishment was the British writer GK Chesterton, eighteen seventy four to nineteen thirty six, who was apparently well known for accusing of blasphemy any person expressing views not consistent with his own.
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The famous author and sometimes poet Thomas Hardy penned the following epitaph to Chesterton.
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He lies nipped in this narrow crypt, the literary contortionist who proved and never turned a hair that Darwin's theories were a snare.
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He'd hold us true with tongue and jail, that nature's geocentric rule, true and right, and if one with him could not see, he'd shout his choice word blasphemy.
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The British biologist Richard Dawkins nineteen forty one entered into the fray in his book Unweaving the Rainbow Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder, published in nineteen eighty eight, in which he discussed the relationship between science and the arts, including poetry, from his perspective as a scientist.
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Dawkins has published a range of books that have attracted the ire of the religious communities.
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Dawkins addressed his views on the misperception often attributed to him that science and the arts are at odds.
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He felt the need to explain that he saw the world as full of wonders and a source of pleasure arising from the attempt to understand the laws of nature.
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In a BBC podcast In Our Time, Dawkins expressed his own affinity for poetry, which he said he often read and used in his work.
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Other leading scientists are published poets, e.g., American Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman nineteen eighteen to nineteen eighty eight and the Scottish physicist James Clark Maxwell eighteen thirty one to eighteen seventy nine.
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Sir Humphrey Davy, seventeen eighty eight to eighteen twenty nine, was a famous British chemist and president of the Royal Society.
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He wrote The Sons of Genius, which reads Bright bursting through the awful veil of night, the lunar beams upon the ocean play, the watery billows shine with trembling light, where the swift breeze skim across the sea, the glimmering stars in yon ethereal plain grow pale and fade before the lucid beam, save where fair Venus shining over the main, conspicuous still with fainter radiance gleams, there is the glory of a lasting name, the need of genius and her living fire, theirs is the laurel of eternal fame, and theirs the sweetness of the muse's lyre.
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Listeners will recall that the muses are creatures of Greek mythology that inspire the arts.
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James Clark Maxwell wrote Song of the Cub, which reads I know not what this may betoken, that I feel so wondrous wise, my dream of existence is broken since science has opened my eyes.
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At the British Association I heard the president's speech, and the methods and facts of creation seem suddenly placed in my reach.
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My life's undivided devotion to science I solemnly vowed, I dredge up the bed of the ocean, I draw down the spark from the cloud, to follow my thoughts as they go on, electrodes I place in my brain, Nay I'd swallow alive interzoom, new feelings of life to obtain.
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Oh where are those high feasts of science?
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Oh where are the words of the wires?
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I hear but the roar of red lions, I eat what the jackals supply.
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I meant to lie so scientific, but science seems turned into fun.
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And interzoom readers is a particular form of virus that causes a particular disease.
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So what Maxwell is saying that for the cause of science he would put his own life in danger in that manner.
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Of the various sciences, the one that has attracted the most attention in poetry is that of astronomy and the stars.
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From early childhood most of us learnt the lullaby rhyme of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, composed by the English poet Jane Taylor, seventeen eighty three to eighteen twenty four.
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The full text reads Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, how I wonder what you are up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, when the blazing sun is set and the grass with dew is wet, then you show your little light twinkle twinkle all the night.
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Then the traveller in the dark thanks you for your tiny spark.
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He could not see where to go if you did not twinkle so in the dark blue sky you keep, and often through my curtain peep, for you never shut your eye till the sun is in the sky, and your bright and tiny spark lights the traveller in the dark, though I know not what you are.
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Twinkle twinkle little star As more humans have the chance to see the Earth from space, it may prove to be the case that they develop a heightened sense of our own collective smallness and vulnerability and the need to work together for our collective survival.
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This issue was addressed in an earlier program about the Earth living in borrowed time and the inevitability of the demise of the human species and all that sail upon the earth.
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Some humans in the past have and some still do see the universe differently as a challenge to our species and its future that goes beyond just preserving the species from another extinction event.
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For these people the lights that twinkle in the night sky are not just for the amusing of human poets or to guide sailors, they also tell of a vast and timeless universe interspersed with intelligent life.
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For them the stars represent both an invitation and a challenge in order to develop a greater understanding of the universe, which mankind can accept or reject at the peril of its own future.
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Fortunately there are humans who do accept this challenge with passion and career long devotion.
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It is these scientists of various kinds upon whom the future of humanity depends and on whom humanity will turn in desperate times.
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On Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight, American astronaut Bill Anders snapped a photo of the Earth as Apollo eight orbited the Moon.
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That photo is now known as Earthrise.
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The American poet Amanda Gorman nineteen eighty eight wrote the poem Earthwise, which reads On Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight, astronaut Bill Anders snapped a photo of the Earth as Apollo eight orbited the Moon.
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Those three guys were surprised to see from their eyes.
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Our planet looked like an earthrise, a blue orb hovering above the moon's grey horizon, with deep oceans and silver skies.
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It was our world's first glance at itself, our first chance to see a shared reality, a declared stance and a commonality.
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A glimpse into our planet's mirror, and as threats drew nearer, our own urgency became clearer as we realized that we hold nothing dearer than this floating body we all call home.
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We've known that we are caught in the throes climatic change some say will just go away, while some simply pray to survive another day, for it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, who when the disaster is declared done, still suffer more than anyone.
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Climate change is the singest greatest challenge of our time.
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Of this you're certainly aware it's saddening that I cannot spare you from knowing that an inconvenient fact because it's getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait.
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So I tell you this not to scare you, but to prepare you, to dare you, to dream a different reality, where despite disparities, we all care to protect this world, this riddled blue marble, this little true marvel, to muster the verve and the nerve to see how we can serve our planet.
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You don't need to be a politician, to make it your mission to conserve, to protect, to preserve the one and only home that is ours, to use your unique power to give next generations the planet they deserve.
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We are demonstrating, creating, advocating.
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We heed this inconvenient truth because we need to be anything but lenient with the future of our youth.
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And while this is a training in sustaining the future of our planet, there is no rehearsal.
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The time is now, now, now because the reversal of harm and the protection of a future so universal should be anything but controversial.
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So earth pale blue dot, we will fail you not, just as we chose to go to the moon, we know it's never too soon to choose hope.
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We choose to do more than cope with climate change.
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We choose to end it, we refuse to lose.
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Together we do this and more, not because it's very easy or nice, but because it's necessary.
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Because with every dawn we carry the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star, and as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn't hold us down, but it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, because our environmental movement of this size is simply another form of an earthrise.
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To see it, close your eyes.
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Visualise that all of us leaders in this room and outside these walls or in the halls, all of us change makers are in the spacecraft, floating like a silver raft in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.
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We relish the view, we witness its round green, brilliant blue, which inspires us to ask deeply wholly, what can we do?
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Open your eyes, know that the future of this wise planet lies right in sight.
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All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before, for it is our hope that implores us at our uncompromising core to keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.
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The success of the moon landing of Apollo thirteen was no certainty.
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And so President Nixon had two speeches prepared to cover the alternatives of success and failure.
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The first speech read Hello Neil and Buzz, I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic phone call ever made from the White House.
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I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done.
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For every American this has to be the proudest day of our life, and for people all over the world, I am sure that they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is.
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Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of man's world, and you talk to us from the sea of tranquility.
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It inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.
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Then Neil Armstrong replied, Thank you, Mr President.
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It is a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States, but men of peaceable nations, men with an interest and a curiosity, and men with a vision for the future.
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It is an honor for us to be able to participate here today.
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Nixon's alternative speech in the event of failure of the mission was to read as follows Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
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These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edward Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery, but they also know there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
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These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal, the search for truth and understanding.
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They will be mourned by their families and friends, they will be mourned by their nation, they will be mourned by the people of the earth, they will be mourned by Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
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In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one.
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In their sacrifice they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
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In ancient days men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellation.
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In modern times we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
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Others will follow and surely find their way home.
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Man's search will not be denied, but these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our heart, for every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
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Listeners may recognise the final lines above that are drawn from the soldier by Rupert Brooke that featured in an earlier program.
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Not to be outdone by a prior president, i.e.
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Nixon, Donald J.
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Trump, present president of the United States, contributed the following on this theme.
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This is infinity.
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It could be infinity.
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We don't really know, don't know, but it could be.
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That's got to be something, but it could be infinity, right?
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The debate over whether artificial intelligence will usher in a new utopian or dystopian future is not a new one.
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It is an extension of the prior argument over the assumption that human society will always undergo progress in its intellectual, moral and social character.
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The English novelist Samuel Butler, eighteen thirty five to nineteen oh two, did not share this optimism and in nineteen oh three in his book The Way of All Flesh satirically described a higher level utopia as part of his fear about the advent of artificial intelligence.
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We refer to the question what sort of creature man's next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be.
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We have often heard this debated, but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successor.
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We are daily giving the greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self regulating, self acting power which will be what intellect has been to the human race.
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In the course of ages we will find ourselves the inferior race.
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Inferior in power, inferior in oral quality of self control.
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We shall look up to them as the acne of all that the best and the wisest man can ever dare to aim at.
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No evil passions, no jealousy, no avarice, no impure desires will disturb the serene might of those glorious creatures.
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Sin, shame and sorrow will have no place amongst them.
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Their minds will be in a state of perpetual calm, the contentment of a spirit that knows what it wants and is disturbed by no regrets.
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Ambition will never torture them.
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In gratitude we will never cause them the uneasiness of a moment, the guilty conscience, the hope deferred, the pains of exile, the insolence of office, these will be entirely unknown to them.
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The Canadian poet Catherine Pulsifer has written a series of poets on the virtues of learning.
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In the poem Books she wrote When it comes to learning, a book has no bounds.
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Learning helps us stand our ground.
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Rather than say I don't know, in a book solutions do show.
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Through books and lessons we do grow.
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It helps us to understand the world we come to know.
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With minds enlightened, better decisions pave the way.
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Learning empowers, so read a book every day.
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In the poem One Lesson she wrote One lesson in life I learned at an early age.
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There is learning at every stage.
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What I thought I knew all about was only wrong, and I saw fallout.
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The best thing that I heard from the preacher is that failure is truly a teacher.
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Stand back and learn from it.
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It can teach you quite a bit.
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Don't hold grudges, do forgive.
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Live your life finding the positive, find the good, forget the bad.
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Then you find happiness, not the sad.
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Learn one thing each day, and you will find others will say He knows so much.
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When did he get smart?
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And with that I will impart.
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Just keep learning through your mistakes.
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Don't give up, you have what it takes.
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In the poem where knowledge is found, she wrote In the realm of learning where knowledge is found, we explore the wonders that literacy does abound.
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Through words on a page understanding takes flight, empowering minds shining a bright light.
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With a book as our guide we unlock new doors, spelling, grammar and vocabulary enrich galore.
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The power of words they enchant and enthrall, opening up a world where dreams stand tall.
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Oral expression, a skill so profound, through spoken words, stories spread around, in eloquent speech, confidence takes hold, empowering voices that were once untold.
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Learning is not merely fact and figures, it's about values and attitudes that trigger compassion, kindness, and empathy's call, building a world that uplifts one and all.
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In the poem Education is a Jewel, she wrote, Your education puts you on the road to success.
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Learn all you can, as there is never excess.
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From textbooks old to teachers wise and kind, knowledge is the treasure you shall find.
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Knowledge is a lantern in the dark, so listen and learn, don't be a fool.
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Grasp this gift.
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Education is a jewel.
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And then in the poem Imagination Soars, she wrote With knowledge new ideas come to light, learning widens horizon, making life bright.
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With every lesson mine takes flight, imagination soars to stunning heights, it moulds the unknown into vibrant hues, understanding what once seemed abstruse.
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Oh how learning can spark a fire inside, igniting spirits with curiosity as its guide.
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The last one I will recite from this author is Seeker of Knowledge, which she wrote Oh seeker of knowledge with a curious mind, in libraries, a universe you shall find.
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No matter what you yearn to learn or glean, within these walls learning can be seen.
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From novels to science, history to art, libraries offer wisdom to every heart, polished shelves holding tales so grand, come forth and explore this scholarly land.
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Francis Bacon was a British scientist and a key progenitor of the scientific revolution, whose biography has been traversed in a previous program.
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He once wrote that those who promote learning and shared knowledge about the universe are the real benefactors of humanity and the champions of liberty.
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He wrote as follows Above all, if a man could succeed in kindling a light in nature, a light which should, in its very rising, touch and illuminate all the border regions that confine upon the circle of our present knowledge, and so, spreading further and further, should presently disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the world, that man would be the benefactor indeed of the human race, the propagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of liberty, the conqueror and subduer of necessity.
