Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
If we restrict ourselves to what is actually known, and ignore the
tabloid industry that manufactures epochal discoveries out of thin
air, where are we? When we know only a little about the Face, it
raises goosebumps. When we know a little more, the mystery
quickly shallows.
Mars has a surface area of almost 150 million square kilometres.
Is it so astonishing that one (comparatively) postage-stamp-sized
patch in 150 million should look artificial - especially given our
penchant, since infancy, for finding faces? When we examine the
neighbouring jumble of hillocks, mesas and other complex surface
forms, we recognize that the feature is akin to many that do not at
all resemble a human face. Why this resemblance? Would the
ancient Martian engineers rework only this mesa (well, maybe a
few others) and leave all others unimproved by monumental
sculpture? Or shall we conclude that other blocky mesas are also
sculpted into the form of faces, but weirder faces, unfamiliar to us
on Earth?
If we study the original image more carefully, we find that a
strategically placed 'nostril' - one that adds much to the impression
of a face - is in fact a black dot corresponding to lost data in
the radio transmission from Mars to Earth. The best picture of the
Face shows one side lit by the Sun, the other in deep shadow.
Using the original digital data, we can severely enhance the
contrast in the shadows. When we do, we find something rather
unfacelike there. The Face is at best half a face. Despite our
shortness of breath and the beating of our hearts, the Martian
sphinx looks natural - not artificial, not a dead ringer for a human
face. It was probably sculpted by slow geological process over
millions of years.
But I might be wrong. It's hard to be sure about a world we've
seen so little of in extreme close-up. These features merit closer
attention with higher resolution. Much more detailed photos of
the Face would surely settle issues of symmetry and help resolve
the debate between geology and monumental sculpture. Small
impact craters found on or near the Face can settle the question of
its age. In the case (most unlikely in my view) that the nearby
structures were really once a city, that fact should also be obvious
on closer examination. Are there broken streets? Crenellations in
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