The extraordinary claims are not supported by extraordinary evidence." - Meaning and context.">
7 min 25 sec
• Back reference to UFO abduction claims

For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday, but there's no support for this appealing idea. The extraordinary claims are not supported by extraordinary evidence.

— Carl Sagan

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday, but there's no support for this appealing idea. The extraordinary claims are not supported by extraordinary evidence." in the context of "7 min 25 sec
• Back reference to UFO abduction claims" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Carl Sagan" (Quotes, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Encyclopedia Galactica [Episode 12]) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Carl Sagan

About Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan (9 November 1934 – 20 December 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect. He testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect will change the earth's climate system.