We live in a society exquisitely dependent ...

[ElboRuum]

38. That's not how it reads.

I can't say for certain what the context of that quote was, but considering the fact that Carl was a scientist, and happily so from what I know, he seems to be incredulous not that people don't know, but that they don't share his insatiable interest in it. Why this should be is why I find it to be nothing but a glib remark.

Educated people sometimes just don't get the fact that some people (and it Dr. Sagan's case, relatively speaking, most) are simply not as well educated, and in some cases, simply have no interest in what they have interest in. I love it when the mathematicians decry the lottery, pointing out time and again the utterly miniscule chance of winning and essentially calling anyone who plays an idiot. Has not a single mathematician considered the fact that people play the lottery for fun and NOT as some seem to think as a long-term retirement investment strategy? People who are enamored of literature who don't get the draw of television, making crass remarks about Cheeto dust all the while, are another fine example.

Some people just don't get science and technology, and others simply are happy that most of the time it works. I know how a car works, but I have no interest in getting out a box of tools and going to work on one. Many of my gearhead friends just don't get how this is possible. It's easy. It interests you, not me. That the car starts and gets me where I want to go is quite enough, thank you.

Is this some recipe for disaster as some have conjectured? No. For so long as there are cars, there will be mechanics. So long as there are puzzles to solve, there will be those of keen mind and insatiable interest to solve them. If science and tech trips your trigger, bully for you, as I know personally how compelling that world can be. But not knowing or caring about it has yet to claim our society, and just for the record, there is nothing new about that mindset at all.