PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Ann Druyan’s Cosmic Journey Cosmos: Possible Worlds writer Ann Druyan details what it will take to get us to Mars. By Charles Warner “And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn?”
my God, we moved so far from our mother.” So in some ways it has exceeded my wildest dreams and in other ways it hasn’t lived up to my wildest dreams because the way that science is respected and valued has not lived up. The respect for evidence, for truth, not the ultimate truth, but these beautiful successive approximations of reality that science can give us. I think back then when we did the first season of Cosmos, there was a more widely distributed regard for fact.
This is just one of many iconic quotes from writer and director Ann Druyan. A Peabody and Emmy Awardwinner, Druyan is best known for her work on six different New York Times best-sellers, the 1997 film Contact, and the original Cosmos series, all collaborations with her husband Carl Sagan. She also wrote for the 2014 Cosmos revival, as well as its newest iteration, Cosmos: Possible I&T Today: What Worlds. The quote also Executive Producers Brannon Braga and Ann Druyan and Co-producer Sam Sagan on set. discovery in the past 10 or Photo: Dan Smith/FOX perfectly summarizes the 20 years has most surprised themes of Cosmos, which is or even astonished you? Ann Druyan: Well, I think more and less. I itself an exploration of space think we have discovered more about the nature AD: Well, I think the achievement of actually and science through the lens of human curiosity. of the universe than I could’ve anticipated, but registering gravitational waves, which even In this exclusive interview, Druyan opens up we’ve explored less than I might’ve hoped. Einstein, who had probably the most limitless about the incredible discoveries of the past few That’s two steps forward, one step back. So I imagination of any human, even he thought that decades as well as the possibility of life on Mars. always think of the toddler who ventures from would be impossible. So the achievement of Innovation & Tech Today: When you and her mother’s skirts and runs out there for a measuring those and registering those first Carl [Sagan] worked on the original Cosmos, minute and then suddenly realizes, “Oh my gravitational waves, that was an epic you spoke about how much our exploration God, I’m on my own here!” then rushes back achievement. God, since the first season of of the heavens would grow with technology and gloms onto the mother’s legs. That’s what I Cosmos, the mapping of the human genome; the and discovery. Now, 40 years later, have we think happened to us. Failure of nerve. We went discovery of thousands of exoplanets! That’s the found and learned more than you to the moon, which was a mythic achievement. thing about science. It delivers the goods. You anticipated? And then we lost our nerve. We realized, “Oh can’t bullsh*t your way too much. Every single
72
INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
