Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Hard to choose for myself who made the post. But some of my favorites are - 1. God: The Failed Hypothesis Book by Victor J. Stenger 2. The God Delusion Book by Richard Dawkins 3. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Book by Antony Beevor 4. A Song of Ice and Fire Novel series by George R.R. Martin 5. A Short History of Nearly Everything Book by Bill Bryson 6. Billions and Billions Book by Carl Sagan 7. Flowers for Algernon Short story by Daniel Keyes 8. I'm Glad My Mom Died Book by Jennette McCurdy 9. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad Book by Peter Bergen 10. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space Book by Carl Sagan 11. The Metamorphosis Novella by Franz Kafka 12. The Selfish Gene Book by Richard Dawkins Gun to my head, pick one? The God Delusion.

Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan - A beautiful perspective on our place in the Cosmos, and how convergent scientific discoveries can be. I think his model of how we learn about our own planet from studying other worlds applies more broadly to learning and knowledge in general - we can learn so much by exploring and solving new problems. This is more provincial, but I think Neal Stephenson's Fall; or, Dodge in hell makes important statements on the current and (possible? likely?) state of the future of the Internet. It's inspired me to start several projects lately - that drive is why I love good sci-fi.

Pale Blue Dot by Sagan