Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking lay it out, in song

September 24, 2009 11:36 AM

A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way
posted by Earl the Polliwog (33 comments total)

MP3 download, also in the video description.

I just love futuristic, hopeful music like this. Around my fifteenth play, I decided I needed to share this.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:38 AM on September 24, 2009

Produced by T-Pain, evidently.
posted by ...possums at 11:42 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

The brain has its own language for testing the structure and consistency of the world.

Sing it, Carl.
posted by HumanComplex at 11:49 AM on September 24, 2009

I never noticed the Dukakis resemblance before.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:54 AM on September 24, 2009

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour...
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:55 AM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I really miss Carl Sagan.
posted by Ratio at 11:59 AM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

I ran across a Carl Sagan video the other day and was struck by the poetry of what he was describing. It was maybe his greatest feat, to make the mind-boggling slightly less so, or perceptible as to how it boggles.

The music, I'm sorry, I can hear the guy put effort into it, and it's good music, but I kept wanting it to get out of the way so that I could hear what Sagan had to say. The power of what he had to say was far far greater than GarageBand or whatever kids use these days.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:08 PM on September 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

I really miss Carl Sagan.

He's still here.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:10 PM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Autotune makes everything sound like a joke. Yuck.
posted by The World Famous at 12:27 PM on September 24, 2009

It's a great big universe, and we're all really puny.
posted by lholladay at 12:28 PM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'm going to save this until next time I take mass quantities of hallucinogens.
posted by gagglezoomer at 12:29 PM on September 24, 2009

Love the Sagan. Hate the autotune. Can autotune just die already?
posted by Mountain Goatse at 12:33 PM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

That was really great...not an auto-tune hater.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 1:11 PM on September 24, 2009

I really like this.
posted by chimaera at 1:28 PM on September 24, 2009

that was the ONLY application of Autotune that should ever exist, ever.

Yay for snagging the mp3.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 1:32 PM on September 24, 2009

Carl Sagan as a kid.
posted by Wet Spot at 1:33 PM on September 24, 2009

Billions and billions of WIN!
posted by TigerMoth at 2:12 PM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Awesome. And I dislike Auto-Tune.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:48 PM on September 24, 2009

I don't usually like autotune but I think it's good here for two reasons:

1. This is a song that looks to the future. Things in the future sound like robots. Autotune makes things sound like robots. Therefore auto-tune is appropriate for futuristic songs.

2. Sadly, Carl isn't around to sing it for us.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 2:58 PM on September 24, 2009

Autotuning Hawking just seems so... recursive.
posted by FatherDagon at 3:02 PM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Weird. Autotune actually enhances the Kermitness of Sagan's voice.
posted by Skot at 3:10 PM on September 24, 2009

Nothing makes me so simultaneously awestruck, distressed, hopeful and despairing as hearing Carl Sagan talk about the universe.
posted by lucidium at 3:55 PM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

I love this
posted by niccolo at 4:21 PM on September 24, 2009

I am glad he did not have to suffer through the Bush years.
posted by notreally at 4:31 PM on September 24, 2009

Usually hate AutoTune.

I love this.

I had the song on repeat for a 20 minute train ride, and kept thinking how much I miss listening to his voice.
posted by strixus at 7:37 PM on September 24, 2009

Why despairing, lucidium? The very *presence* of that message is inherently hopeful, to my mind.
posted by HalfJack at 8:11 PM on September 24, 2009

I sometimes wonder, notreally, if the fact that Sagan, Asimov, et. al. dying is what allowed the bush years to take place. Like maybe if there had been six smart people left in the public eye, the national iq would have stayed above some imperceptible threshhold, and we would have rejected this nonsense.....
posted by HalfJack at 8:13 PM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I love this so much.
posted by ixohoxi at 8:46 PM on September 24, 2009

This is not auto-tune the news.
posted by roygbv at 3:45 AM on September 25, 2009

This is awesome. Also, Carl Sagan is a google order of magnitudes better than Neil DeGrasse Tyson on almost every metric.
posted by DU at 9:37 AM on September 25, 2009

Wow. I really like that. I missed the whole Cosmos thing, back when. I was living without TV at the time. I think I'm going to buy it. This "morning of 400 billion suns" just totally sweeps me away. I had myself considered that was the view I want from my bed.

Between this, and the progressive rock thread, and the Twilight Zone, Metafilter is giving me one serious run of goodness today.
posted by Goofyy at 10:05 AM on September 26, 2009

I kept wanting it to get out of the way so that I could hear what Sagan had to say.

From Bklyn, if you're still in Bklyn (or anywhere else you can access Hulu) you can watch all 13 episodes of Cosmos online.
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:51 PM on September 27, 2009

Weird. Autotune actually enhances the Kermitness of Sagan's voice.

Dammit. Now I want a video of Sagan singing Rainbow Connection.
posted by HumuloneRanger at 3:36 PM on September 28, 2009