Millions, trillions, and biiiiiiiiii​iiiiiiiii​llllllllll​llllllllll​iiiions

January 9, 2015 7:41 AM

Supercut of all the times Carl Sagan said "millions, billions, and trillions" on Cosmos. [SLYT]

Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour. [SLSOUNDCLOUD]
posted by Room 641-A (13 comments total)

And they say there's no sound in space.
posted by sparklemotion at 8:48 AM on January 9, 2015

> Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour.

That sounds like something and orchestra or something could play. Someone should write the score, record it, and then speed it up thousands of times so it sounds like a human voice again.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 9:10 AM on January 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

Carl Sagan as a kid
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:32 AM on January 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

I can, of course, only think of:
posted by mykescipark at 10:25 AM on January 9, 2015

Groovy.

I was digging the backing track, but it tickled the back of my mind. And sure enough it originates from this other cool Sagan tribute/cut, A Glorious Dawn (previously) (instrumental download).
posted by books for weapons at 10:36 AM on January 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I wish there were a recording of him saying "Funyuns", just for comparison.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:16 AM on January 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

"And they say there's no sound in space."

This is a common misconception. In fact there are billions of sounds in space. They're just very, very slow.
posted by I-baLL at 12:00 PM on January 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour

I don't even need to play it, just the thought of that is making me laugh really hard.
posted by JanetLand at 12:19 PM on January 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

In fact there are billions and billions of sounds in space.

FTFY
posted by wallabear at 1:15 PM on January 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

> Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour

Inspired, Philip Glass begins furiously scoring a new piece for his long-suffering ensemble:

Kooooooooooyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnniiiiiiissssssssssssssssssqatsi
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:47 PM on January 9, 2015

Somebody needs to slow down an entire episode of "Cosmos" to this speed. It'd be an entertaining year-long listen!
posted by omredux at 1:23 AM on January 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

In fact there are billions upon billions of sounds in space.

FTFY
posted by guy72277 at 1:37 AM on January 13, 2015

By FTFY, I meant:

From Cosmos and his frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Sagan became associated with the catchphrase "billions and billions". Sagan said that he never actually used the phrase in the Cosmos series. The closest that he ever came was in the book Cosmos, where he talked of "billions upon billions":

A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars—billions upon billions of stars.
—Carl Sagan, Cosmos, page 3

That's from Wikipedia. Sorry I only discovered Sagan a few years ago (am a Brit) and have geeked out on him since...
posted by guy72277 at 2:14 AM on January 13, 2015