Introduction by Carl Sagan Summary and Analysis

Carl Sagan writes the Introduction from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He begins with the observation that most adults do not concern themselves with understanding how the universe, which includes our planet earth, works. However, children do at a certain point before their curiosity about seemingly unanswerable questions melts away into the concerns of everyday life. Among these questions are: Why is there a universe at all? Why do we remember the past and not the future? What is the smallest piece of matter? Sagan hints that it might be possible for time to flow backwards, where effects happen before causes.

Adults often turn to religious concepts to explain away the fundamental questions of the universe, but these answers only reveal the limits of human understanding. They do not explain in clear terms just...