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The title has a story attached. Sagan suggested that Voyager cameras be directed back to capture receding images of the planets. The shot of Earth, caught in a reflected ray of sunlight, was a pale blue dot set in a vast sea of black nothingness. Sagan exalts the dot to philosophical, even religious significance, and you cannot help but be captured by the metaphor.

He contrasts the famous Apollo 17 photograph of the Earth, taken by a human from space, with the pale blue dot, captured in its loneliness by a robot machine fleeing into the vast unknown. There the dot sits -- distant, isolated, fragile, yet carrying all of humanity.

Sagan's purpose is to show his vision for the future of the human race. He is the chief spokesman for space exploration. The past glories of unmanned space exploration are used to inspire humanity to reach further. According to Sagan, further space efforts can be used as a planetary goal to unite nations, deflect asteroids and produce knowledge useful in managing our dot.