WEBVTT - Are there Aliens? 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:07.960 Have you ever looked up at the night sky and 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:10.400 wondered if there's life in other parts of the universe? 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.760 You mean our aliens? Real? Yeah, I mean some of 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.240 these questions are so deep that no matter what the 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.040 answer is, it's going to blow your mind. So like, 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.320 if there is life out there, that would be totally 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.479 mind blowing. And if we're the only living beings in 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:45.560 the entire universe, oh my gosh, also mind blowing. Him. 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.080 And I'm Daniel, and I'm a cartoonists former roboticist, and 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.760 I'm a particle physicist, which means I know things about 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.279 particles and space and the universe, and I make up 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.960 things about aliens. Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Horror 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.680 Explain the Universe today. On the program, we're asking the 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:14.080 question are we alone in the universe? Is there anyone 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.160 else out there that thinks and feels and loves and 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.200 slips on bananas? Or is it just us in the 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.400 universe thinking and feeling? Are we the only ones intelligent 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.400 or somewhat intelligent in this entire universe at least? Do 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:31.560 you think humans are intelligent? Or hey, I mean that 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.479 says something about you right there. Well, it's a little bar. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.440 Sometimes I wonder if aliens have come to Earth and 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.000 just sort of dismissed us as not intelligent life and 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.320 moved on. Yeah, They're like, oh my god, we don't 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.320 want to associate with these people, these dumb rocks. So 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.760 we were wondering about this question, and as usual, we 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:52.720 went out and we asked people on the street. We said, 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.080 do you think we're alone in the universe or is 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.400 there other intelligent life out there? What do you think 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.600 are we the only ones in the universe. Here's what 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.200 they had to say. I definitely think there's other intelligence 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.080 out there. Why is that? Well, first of all, I 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:08.720 think it's kind of arrogant to think that we're the 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.840 only ones here because it's a pretty big place. I 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.680 think it's possible that there's other intelligent life just because 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.440 of how spacious the universe is. I think there's another 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.760 intelligent life somewhere out there. Yeah, I think because I 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.280 think the universe is so big, and I don't I 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.680 just don't think it's possible that human as the only 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.959 intelligence forever life. Yeah, alright, So I think most people 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.239 seem to be pretty optimistic about it, right, You think 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.600 that's optimistic? I was surprised that everybody believes in aliens, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.880 Like almost every single person thinks there is other intelligent 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:44.959 life out there, right, I was really shocked. I thought 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.520 there's gonna be a lot more skepticism, really a lot 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.280 more like human centric people like we're special. Yeah. Well, 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.040 you know, America is a fairly religious nation, and the 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.800 narrative of the mainstream Christianity is that humans were made 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.839 in the image of God, and there's not a whole 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.240 lot a place in that narrative for other intelligent races. Well, 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.040 I guess there's nothing on the In the Bible, it 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.520 says that there aren't aliens. Right, Oh, that's true, I suppose, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.320 But are they human like or you know, other weird 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.000 stuff or yeah, I suppose. Yeah. Anyway, it would be 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.160 a fascinating moment and a reckoning for Christianity and most 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.079 religions the day that we discover other intelligent life. You 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.480 and I should write that Extra Testament, the Newest Testament 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:30.800 by Jorhand Daniel, the Extra Terrestrial Testament, the Terrestament. But 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:35.040 I was surprised by how subtle people's arguments were. You know, 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.240 they were like, um, it's a big universe, so it 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.760 would be surprising if we were the only ones. Like, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.720 that's a very kind of subtle argument, right, what's subtle 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.120 about it? I mean they're just saying it's huge, and 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.720 so it's probably not empty, right, there's a lot of 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.920 interesting nuances. They're like, yeah, it's big, but we don't 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.000 know how rare life is, and so we have no 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.600 idea if being big means that there's a lot of life, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.800 we could still be the only ones. You know. What 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:01.960 I'm really interested in is your comment. You said you 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.360 thought they were optimistic, So you think, um, having aliens 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.360 out there is good news. Well, I don't know if 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.320 it's good news, but it's it's kind of like, um, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.200 it sort of feels like the sadder option is that 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.279 we were the only ones in the entire universe, right, 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.120 Like there's something comforting emotionally about the fact that we're 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.400 not the only ones out there, right, Like, you wouldn't 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.480 want to be the only person in live in the universe. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.760 I don't know. It depends how friendly they are, you know, 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.360 if there's their ferocious life out their way and to 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.719 kill us, I'm not sure i'd be too comforted knowing 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:33.640 that they're they're not very far away, and they could 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:35.960 come over here and squish us in a moment. Oh, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.920 I see, you're you're pessimistic about the optimistic scenario where 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.080 we're not the only ones. Yeah, the fact that we're 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.200 not the only ones. Um, if we were, if we 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.040 discover that there is intelligent, other intelligent life out there, 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.880 I agree, it means something really fascinating and deep about 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.040 life and intelligence and consciousness. But I'm not sure it 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.920 would be good news for humans, you know. And what 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.239 you said a moment ago is fascinating as well, because 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.599 you say it would be comforting to think that there's 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.640 other intelligent life out there. On the contrary, if we 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.440 are the only intelligent life in the entire vast cosmos, 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.360 that means we're quite special. You know. In the history 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.000 of science, mostly the role of science has been to 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.479 put humanity in its place. You know. Oh, you the 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.280 Earth is not the center of the Solar system. Oh, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.120 the Earth is not the center of the galaxy. Oh, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.720 this galaxy is one of zillions. So it turns out 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.800 we're tiny little things living on a tiny speck in 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.800 the middle of nowhere. Wouldn't it be amazing if science 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.599 then put humanity right back in the center of importance 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.799 and said we are special. We are the only intelligent 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.880 life in the universe. We are basically the universe's brain. 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.560 That would be a fascinating new role for science in 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.159 sort of the communal mindset. I guess I don't have 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:50.200 the same ego as a physicist, maybe, right. Cartoonists are 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.919 famously self depricating, right, it doesn't take any ego to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:06:02.120 put your art online for millions to admire. But yeah, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.080 I mean, it's a big universe, and so it would 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.840 be weird if we were the only ones. And so 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.360 that's that's a big question, right, Like why haven't we 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.599 by now we've been listening to these guys and looking 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.279 out there by now, why haven't we heard from, or 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:21.600 been contacted by, or seen evidence of other intelligent life forms? Right, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.320 It's a famous question, and people call it the Fermi 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.920 paradox from for Enrico Fermi, who first posited it. He said, 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.400 the universe is huge, and it's old, and that's another 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.520 important factor. The universe is old, and that means that 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.720 even though it's pretty big, it doesn't take that long 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.800 to get across it, like take our galaxy. Right, it's 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.240 pretty big, but you could traverse it in you know, 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.200 a couple of million years if you had pretty good technology. Right, So, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.360 so by now we should have seen some passing cruise 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.560 ship or ailing cruise ship or some sort of probe 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.800 or something by now. Yeah, Like, if I wanted to 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.039 explore the galaxy, how would I do it? I would 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.120 send out a probe which would then self replicate. It 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.120 would like land on an asteroid and mind the materials 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.520 to build two copies of itself, which would then land 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.719 on an asteroid, which would then land on asteroids. So 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.880 you get this exponential growth in these probes, and it 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.280 only takes you know, a few hundred thousand years to 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.600 visit every single thing in the galaxy if you use 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.520 that technique. So then the question is, why haven't we 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.960 been visited? If the galaxy is billions of years old 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.040 and not that hard to get across in a fraction 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.160 of the galaxy's lifetime, where is everybody? Right? So that's 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.800 firm me his famous question, right, right, And it's kind 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.360 of related to this idea you mentioned earlier, which is 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.240 that it sort of depends on the probability of things, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.800 like the probability that we would be contacted by life 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:43.800 is equal to the probability that life can form and 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.800 that it can do other things. Right, That's right, And 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:48.920 you have to sort of break the problem into pieces. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.120 And the guy who did that first is called Drake. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.040 And so there's this equation called the Drake equation, which 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.960 tries to sort of compartmentalize the questions. It says, you know, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.800 the probability for us to be contact by aliens is 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.960 the number of stars out there times the fraction of 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.200 those stars that have earthlike planets. Right, That gives you 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.360 the total number of earthlike planets out there times the 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.680 probability for life to be formed on those planets times 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.800 the probability for that life to be intelligent, times the 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.280 probability for that life to have technology, times the probability 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.120 that we overlap in eras so that we can actually 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.280 talk to them. So it's a lot of different pieces. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.720 So it's like you have to stack these probabilities one 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.360 on top of the other. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like, 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.600 what's the probability you're gonna roll a two ones when 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:35.760 you rule to die, And it's like you have to 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.400 multiply the probability of rolling one in one die and 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.079 then another one in another die, which is one six 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:43.760 times one six. So it's like there's like a one 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.040 in thirty six probability you're gonna throw a deuce a 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.360 two ones in a pair of die exactly. And the 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.400 more pieces you have that have to line up that 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:54.360 the heart of the chances are even if you do 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.920 something more more likely, like flip a coin. Right, what 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.560 are the chances you're gonna flip a coin eight times 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.000 and get eight heads in a row? Right? Well, not 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:03.839 very high? You know, one over two to the eight 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.480 is a small number. So even if all of those 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.000 numbers are pretty big, it's the probability of all them 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:10.880 together can be kind of small. Oh, I see. It's 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:12.800 like you have to flip a coin and get ahead, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.040 and then flip another coin and get ahead, and so 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.360 that there's probability stuck up. And if you have one 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.360 coin that's like messed up, that's tails and both sides 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.320 and you'll never get all heads. Right, that's right, And 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.480 that's the calculation I think people were doing in their 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.319 heads when we asked them, is their intelligent life out there? 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.400 And they thought, well, the first part of that number, 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.200 the number of stars is huge, and so it doesn't 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.120 really matter what the other numbers are. I think that's 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.800 the argument they were making. But I think that argument 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.400 is pretty flawed. Actually, what do you mean it's flawed? Well, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.959 the first number is big, right, So how many stars 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.400 are there in the universe? Well, every galaxy has about 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.560 a hundred billion, which is, you know, already a totally 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.720 infathomable number. Like it's just it's hard to even imagine, right, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.760 how many stars that is. Plus you have to multiply 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.240 that by the number of galaxies in the universe. And 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.400 in our observed prubble universe, the part we can see, 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.640 there's two trillion galaxies. So we're two trillion times a 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:10.720 hundred billion zillion stars. That's the official that's right technically, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:16.320 because and so I in fact that I think they've 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.280 figured out that um on any given star, the probability 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.440 that there's an earthlike planet, there's like maybe three or 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.360 four of them right per star. Yeah, this is something 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.000 we've only learned pretty recently because of the rise of 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.040 this exoplanet science where we can look at other stars 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.560 and see the planets around them and try to estimate 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:36.679 we've seen enough now that we can start to estimate 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.839 what fraction of those stars have an earthlike planet, meaning 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.760 a planet that's pretty rocky, reasonable size, and has a 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.880 reasonable amount of solar radiation right fried to a crisp 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.319 or totally chilly. And yeah, the fraction of stars that 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.320 have an earthlike planet is one in five. One in 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.760 five stars as an earthlike planet. Yeah, which is amazing 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.240 because that takes that huge number two trillion times a 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.960 hundred billion and just divides it by five, which still 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.960 leaves an enormous number. There's a huge amount of planets 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.760 out there that are just like the Earth, that's right, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:10.600 And we only learned this recently, you know, a few 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.760 years ago it could have been that earthlike planets were 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.360 super rare. That number could have been one over two gazillion. Right. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.599 So the fact that the first number is big, that 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.320 the number of stars is huge, doesn't guarantee that the 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.760 whole number is big, because if any of those numbers, 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.800 the fraction that have earthlike planets, the fraction that have life, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.520 the fractions have intelligent life, if any of those are tiny, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.360 then the whole number is tiny. Right. So, but so 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.000 far it's pretty big still, number of stars times number 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.600 earthlike planets still an enormous number, but that's as far 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.000 as we know. We really just don't know, Like, can 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.120 you answer the question what fraction of earthlike planets have 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.760 life on them? That's a pretty basic question, right, You 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.360 might ask a biologist, like if you ran an Earth 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.400 stimulator a hundred times, how many times would you get 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:56.800 life on it? We just don't know the answer to 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.960 that question. It's one of the core questions and modern biology. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.400 And I'm speaking as a particle physicist who doesn't know 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:04.720 that much biology except for being married to a biologist. 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.520 But we still don't know they answer that very basic question. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.760 So basically she would say, you don't know anything. You 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.520 don't know. She says that to me a lot, and 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.319 she's usually right. Not just about biology, that's right, it's 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.120 more of a broader conversation that we have before we 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:34.560 keep going. Let's take a short break. But we sort 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.880 of know a little bit about how life form, right, Like, 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.640 you haven't planeted like the Earth, and um that maybe 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.680 has water. It's in the right spot relative to the sun, 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.080 it's not too hot, not too cold. It's called the 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.319 Goldilocks planet. We sort of know a little bit about 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.119 you know, you need this kind of primordial soup, and eventually, 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.880 at least on Earth, like some of those molecules kind 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.720 of came together and became a life. Yeah, that's true. Um, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.880 we know what's necessar seria, but we don't know if 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:02.960 it's sufficient. Right. So, you know, we know that you 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.640 need liquid water, and you need basic amino acids, and 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.160 you need some source of energy right to organize things, um, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.079 lightning or the sun or whatever. But we don't know 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:14.960 if you put that all together, if you get life 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.120 every time, or if it's a totally freak chance. Right. 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.480 We just really, we really have no idea how many 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.120 times that happens. And people are studying this, you know, 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.640 they do things like put that promodial soup or our 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.800 understanding of it, in a test tube and zap it 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.960 with electricity, and they see cool stuff happen, like basic 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.959 amino acids the building blocks of DNA and stuff they 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.880 do form. But that doesn't make life, right. Life needs 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.600 to be self replicating and has to have metabolism. And 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:41.600 but you know there's a whole other question there about 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.319 what is life anyway. Well, so even if you can 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.880 get life out of primorial soup, you still have to 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:53.280 have that live, survive and evolve and become uh critters 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:57.160 and beings and intalligent beings. We can build radios and 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.160 technology and harness and launch podcast the city, yeah, and 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.120 large podcasts and then get transmitted across the cosmos. Like 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.480 that's that's a huge gap to write, like a huge improbability. 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.199 That's right, we just don't know, and so we've already 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.360 gone past our knowledge, right that the fraction of planets 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.680 that form life could be one in two, it could 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.120 be one in a gazillion. Right, Um, you're absolutely right, 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.280 And then you're right that we don't know what fraction 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.680 then make intelligent life, Like, yeah, we have the example 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.920 here on Earth. We also know that that one example 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.520 is highly dependent on a bunch of random events, like 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:33.800 a meteor crashed in the Earth and killed all the 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.840 dinosaurs and made room for the mammals to evolve. Would 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.680 the dinosaurs have become intelligent if we hadn't come around? 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.680 Is is it guaranteed that something becomes intelligent? Or is 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.280 this just a total fluke and in a thousand different 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.600 other similar earths without in a meteor, or if the 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.360 meteor hit somewhere else, you wouldn't have intelligent life, or 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.120 you'd have super intelligent life, or like dumb life or 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.120 life all life would be dead. We just we really 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.480 have no where to answer that question. But even then, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.200 that's just a probability that there is life out there, right, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.520 Like you just need all those factors to add up 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.200 to more than one in a gazillion, Like if it 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.880 was to an a gazillion, there's probably definitely life out there. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.680 But then there's the other question of like, why haven't 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.280 we heard from them or contacted them or seen them? Right, Like, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.280 it's kind of two separate questions, like is there life 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.800 out there? Right? And then there's a question of why 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.120 haven't we like seen it or had contact with it? 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.800 I like that thought. Let's assume that life is not 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.400 so rare, and even that intelligent life is not so rare, Okay, 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.240 So then we live in a universe filled with Earth 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.360 life planets that have some sort of squishy, weird intelligent 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.920 life on them, right, And then the question is if 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.080 that's true, why haven't we heard from them? Right? Because 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.080 as we said earlier, it's not that complicated to make 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.880 self replicating probes that explore the entire galaxy. So why 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:47.880 haven't we heard from them? Yeah, and there's a lot 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.320 of fun ideas. They're like my favorite hypothesis is that 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.760 maybe we have heard from them and we just don't know. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.480 I mean, would we understand a message from space? I mean, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.080 in order to understand it, it it would have to be 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.160 in a language we've recognize. It would have to be 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.200 in a communication medium we're looking for, Like maybe they're 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.040 sending us signals, but it's uh in some kind of 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.480 thing that we don't even look for, like neutrinos or 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.840 some other medium that's not light exactly. We're listening to 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.800 messages from the sky, we're not actually listening that hard, 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.320 and we're only listening to a tiny little slice of 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.880 the possible messages we can get. And the message could 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.680 be in a totally different medium, you're right, Or it 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.360 could even be you know, in radio waves, which is 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.000 what we're listening for, but just be undecipherable. I mean, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.600 what if aliens live thousands of years and so their 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.640 messages last hundreds of years and we're hearing it, We're 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.200 just hearing the first, you know, few snatches of it, 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.880 and we don't even recognize that. It is like maybe 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:50.200 we're getting a message thing, uh, guys going, but like 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.880 it's so slow if we don't even pay attention to it. Yeah, 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:54.520 Or it could be the reverse. It could be like 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.680 super fast, like super pico second signals that we can't 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:05.399 even detect. Yeah. Absolutely. We have actually in the past 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.160 heard messages or heard things from space that we don't understand. 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.000 One of my favorite stories is this message called the 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:16.040 WOW signal. That's the scientific term. It's literally called the 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.880 Wow signal because when somebody heard it, they wrote wow 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:21.960 down on a piece of paper when they saw it, 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.480 and it was exactly the kind of signal you would 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.119 expect to get from space if they were aliens. It 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.520 was the thing. It was the ninety seven and they 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.760 had a telescope and they heard this extraordinarily loud, intense 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:38.520 burst of radiation well above the background and nothing they 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.920 had seen like that before. And you know, they said, 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.200 is it a satellite, is it something reflecting off this, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.040 is it something weird bounce off the moon? Is it 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.760 something else? And they ruled out all those possibilities they 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.200 recorded it. Yeah. Absolutely, So we have the data, um, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.000 but nobody knows if it comes from an intelligent life 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.480 or not. Because first of all, it was never repeated, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.440 so we only heard it once and we can't decipher it. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.480 It's very short. We don't know what it means. So 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.840 without being able to decipher it, it it could just be like, 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.879 you know, some weird emissions structure to it. Yeah, it 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.640 has that we can determine, right, I mean, who knows 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.200 how these things could be structured encoded in a way 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.280 that's totally alien to us. Anything we get will be encoded. 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.439 Like think about the message that we sent into space. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.720 I think about that a lot. Like we send messages 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.679 into space, like on the Voyager Probe and the Pioneer. Right, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.639 there's like the famous Golden Record, that's where we send 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.760 that satellite out there into space with like information about it, 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.920 like a little note that says call me maybe maybe 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.080 I'm crazy, call me um. And I wonder, like, if 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.359 you're an alien species, would you have any chance of 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.119 deciphering that? Right? In order for that to work, we 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.119 have to have some a lot of stuff in common 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.000 about the way we think. And I think that's the 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.159 critical factor, is that really all we're capable of discovering 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.840 is life that's very similar to ours in the sense 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.399 that it thinks the way we do. It uses math 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.720 and it communicates the way we do, and also that 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:01.440 they want to communicate. I mean, there could be just 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.040 be life out there that just doesn't care about finding 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.080 other life, that's busy living their squishy, little eyeball life. Right, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.960 Like we're the only extroverts in the universe, and most 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.199 thoughts aliens out there are like, why would you want 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.600 to talk to other people? That's insane, that's right to 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.600 just slam the door and pretend to not home. You know, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.679 we could be the weird ones in that perspective. Um. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.280 And you know we sent other messages into space when 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.280 we got this wow signal. We can tell where in 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.080 the sky it's coming from because from directionality of the 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.320 of the antenna. And so people actually sent a response, 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:38.280 like they beamed a response back into space. What again, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:49.679 it was it was new phone who did UM. So 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.760 that's one possibilities that like, even if there is intelligent 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.000 life out there and there are signals to be seen, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.320 there's just two alien for us to even recognize or 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.560 process or be able to cypher. That's right, And I 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.480 think that's honestly likely because it's hard for us to 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.600 imagine things that are really alien to us. I mean, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.359 like look at all of our science fiction, right, It 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.639 usually the aliens are like some variation on humans with 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:16.120 like fuzzy eyebrows or pointy ears or something, because it's 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.680 difficult to extrapolate that far into the unknown. I mean 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.879 even here on Earth, people travel to other countries and 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.280 they're like shocked at the weird stuff people eat and 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.399 the way they talk and how they sleep and what 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.879 they wear, and like even human cultures are bizarre and 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.600 alien to us if we're not familiar with them. And 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.400 I love traveling for that reason that you discover what's 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.520 universal about being human and what's just like totally arbitrary 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:40.480