Contact by Carl Sagan

Author:Carl Sagan
Language: pt
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Popular astronomy & space, Aeronautics, Fiction - Science Fiction, TV Tie-Ins, Extraterrestrial beings, SCIENCE, Space Opera, Juvenile Nonfiction, Interplanetary voyages, Fiction, Motion pictures, Science Fiction, Science Fiction - General, General, Adventure, Movie, Astronautics & Space Science, Astronomy, TECHNOLOGY, Popular science, Interstellar communication
ISBN: 9780671004101
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1997-04-15T05:00:00+00:00

"I want to build the Machine. Look, I'm perfectly suited for it. I've got the best cybernetics expertise, practical cybernetics, in the business--better than Camegie-Mellon, better than MIT, better than Stanford, better than Santa Barbara. And if there's anything clear from those plans, it's that this isn't a job for an old- time tool-and-die maker. And you're going to need something like genetic engineering. You won't find anybody more dedicated to this job. And I'll do it at cost."

"Really, Mr. Hadden, who builds the Machine, if we ever get to that point, isn't up to me. It's an international decision. All sorts of politics is involved. They're still debating in Paris about whether to build the thing, if and when we decrypt the Message."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm also applying through the usual channels of influence and corruption. I just want to have a good word put in for me for the right reasons, by the side of the angels. Yon understand? And speaking of angels, you really shook up Palmer Joss and Billy Jo Ran-kin. I haven't seen them so agitated since that trouble they had about Mary's waters. Rankin saying he was deliberately misquoted about supporting the Machine. My, my."

He shook his head in mock consternation. That some long-standing personal enmity existed between these active proselytizers and the inventor of Preachnix seemed probable enough, and for some reason she was moved to their defense.

"They're both a lot smarter than you might think. And Palmer Joss is ... well, there's something genuine about him. He's not a phony."

"You're sure it's not just another pretty face? Excuse me, but it's important that people understand their feelings on this. It's too important not to. I know these clowns. Underneath, when push comes to shove, they're jackals. A lot of people find religion attractive--you know, personally, sexually. You ought to see what happens in the Temple of Ishtar."

She repressed a small shiver of revulsion. "I think I will have that drink," she said. Looking down from the penthouse, she could see the gradated tiers of the Ziggurat, each draped with flowers, some artificial, some real, depending on the season. It was a reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Miraculously, it was so arranged that it did not closely resemble a Hyatt Hotel. Far below, she could make out a torchlit procession headed back from the Ziggurat to the Enlil Gate. It was led by a kind of sedan chair held by four burly men stripped to the waist.

Who or what was in it she could not make out.

"It's a ceremony in honor of Gilgamesh, one of the ancient Sumerian culture heroes."

"Yes, I've heard of him."

CHAPTER 14 Harmonic Oscillator

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.

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