Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'm Joe McCormick of Stuff to blow your mind. Today,
Speaker 1: we want to play you an episode of a new
Speaker 1: show called Smart Girl Dumb Questions, hosted by journalist Naima Raza.
Speaker 1: Each Friday, she unpacks complex ideas by asking simple questions
Speaker 1: to big thinkers. This one is with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Speaker 2: They talk about.
Speaker 1: Dimensions, wormholes, time travel, and brick and Morty. So enjoy
Speaker 1: the episode and you can find more episodes of Smart
Speaker 1: Girl Dumb Questions wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: There was an asteroid set to meet the Earth in
Speaker 3: the year twenty thirty two.
Speaker 2: Well, that's to put very politely, to meet the Earth, Jemmy,
Speaker 2: they collide. Yes, we can say meet and greet the Earth.
Speaker 2: The press ran with the fact that the likelihood of
Speaker 2: it hitting Earth went up briefly from like one percent
Speaker 2: to three percent.
Speaker 3: That was it, eh, But one percent is not that
Speaker 3: different from three percent, so you're saying it still might
Speaker 3: happen a.
Speaker 2: Third And then it went Yeah, I feel.
Speaker 3: Like it's a very binary situation, this meeting of Earth
Speaker 3: and the asteris.
Speaker 2: Well, the value of that news cycle, yes, is people
Speaker 2: were trained to follow the scientific progress on the number.
Speaker 2: That's an important way that the public should be interacting
Speaker 2: with the moving frontier of science. I'm happy that we
Speaker 2: went through that episode because that will happen more frequently
Speaker 2: going forward. We have better data, better telescopes to see
Speaker 2: asteroids of that size in that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Previously we wouldn't have even known the difference between
Speaker 3: the zero and the one percent, even.
Speaker 2: Known it was there. That we might have known it
Speaker 2: was there, But when it was much closer.
Speaker 3: Like Bruce Willis Ben Affleck close, well, you.
Speaker 2: Don't get me started on arm again. That movie violated
Speaker 2: more laws of physics per minute than any other psych
Speaker 2: fiction movie ever. Plus an asteroid the size of Texas
Speaker 2: we would have discovered two hundred years ago. That's the
Speaker 2: good thing about asteroids that might kill us, right if
Speaker 2: I met, They are the largest and the easiest to detect.
Speaker 3: Smart girl dumb questions. Hi, welcome to smart girl dumb Questions.
Speaker 3: I'm named Areza. You're a smart girl with the dumb questions,
Speaker 3: and that telling me the good thing about the asteroids
Speaker 3: that might kill us, that they're larger and easier to detect.
Speaker 3: Is Neil deGrasse Tyson. He's an astrophysicist, a science communicator,
Speaker 3: an educator, the director of Hayden Planetarium here in New York,
Speaker 3: and someone whose job it is to help make sense
Speaker 3: of the universe really for people like me who just
Speaker 3: don't get it all the time. Neil has written several
Speaker 3: best selling books, including Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Speaker 3: and Merlin's Tour of the Universe. And I was so
Speaker 3: excited to talk to Neil because of all the things
Speaker 3: that I'm dumb about, science really top the list. Like
Speaker 3: I took biology in school, but I couldn't look when
Speaker 3: the frog got dissected. And I took chemistry, but all
Speaker 3: I remember is kind of honk, like hydrogen bonds once
Speaker 3: and oxygen bonds twice and nitrogen bonds three times, and
Speaker 3: oh my god, I cannot believe I am even telling
Speaker 3: you this on a podcast. So my dumb question for
Speaker 3: Neil Degrass Tyson was are we living in a simulation?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: Is this whole universe a simulation? But before we got there,
Speaker 3: I had to understand what the universe was. And we
Speaker 3: started small, like Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star small, and we
Speaker 3: worked our way up into galaxies and universes and multiverses
Speaker 3: and aliens, and this idea of wormholes which maybe allow
Speaker 3: you to cross through space time that blew my mind.
Speaker 3: Here's my conversation with Neil de grass Tyson. So I
Speaker 3: want to start with the building blocks the stars.
Speaker 2: I'm your servant in this interview.
Speaker 3: You're not anyone servant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a servant of your curiosity. And by the way,
Speaker 2: it's not for you to judge whether you're asking a
Speaker 2: dumb question.
Speaker 3: Okay, oh, you want to challenge the whole premise of
Speaker 3: my show.
Speaker 2: It's whether I give a dumb answer.
Speaker 3: The dumbness is in the eye of the answer.
Speaker 2: Yes, because an educator should be sensitive to how a
Speaker 2: person's tangled mental pathways might be interpreting the world. And
Speaker 2: then that one gurgles up as a question. Then I
Speaker 2: deeply care about how you thought about the world, and
Speaker 2: that puts the onus on me to figure out a
Speaker 2: way to respond such that what I share with you
Speaker 2: is received by your learning receptors.
Speaker 3: Are you untangling me or are you just sending it
Speaker 3: down the tangled pipe?
Speaker 2: Navigating a tangled path? Sometimes I'm a badly tangled from life. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: And so you got to navigate that.
Speaker 3: At the end of this, I would like an assessment
Speaker 3: of how tangled I am compared to the most tangled
Speaker 3: person you're.
Speaker 2: In fact, when I post on social media and I
Speaker 2: see the comment thread, I take that as a neurosynaptic
Speaker 2: snapshot of how people think about words. I've used, phrases,
Speaker 2: I've offered, content I've delivered. If I think I posted tweet,
Speaker 2: let's say, and if I think it's funny and no
Speaker 2: one laughs, it's not funny.
Speaker 3: It's not funny. It's like your own personal fMRI all
Speaker 3: of America or all of the world.
Speaker 2: Very good, Yeah, that's my it's a it's a social
Speaker 2: media fMRI.
Speaker 3: Okay, Twinkle Twinkle, little Star. I was at a roller
Speaker 3: skating rink the other.
Speaker 2: Day, Neil, and that's a thing.
Speaker 3: That's a thing, Okay, a roller skating disco. I was
Speaker 3: told by somebody there that when you see a star,
Speaker 3: you look at the star. That star is so far away,
Speaker 3: both in distance and time, that the light I am
Speaker 3: seeing from that star means that the star may not
Speaker 3: even be there anymore? Is that corrector? And oh, I
Speaker 3: can tell by your eyes that this person.
Speaker 2: So you learned this at a disco roller skating rink. Yes,
Speaker 2: we're all that's where you are. The great wisdom of
Speaker 2: the world is dispersed. It's completely correct, but misleading, all right. So,
Speaker 2: because it takes light time to travel between any two points. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the world you see is not as it is, but
Speaker 2: as it once was when the light from that object
Speaker 2: left En Routier retina. I see you right now, not
Speaker 2: as you are, but as you were four billions of
Speaker 2: a second ago. Now I'm not going to then say
Speaker 2: I wonder if she's still alive, because four billions of
Speaker 2: a second is small compared with your life expectancy. So
Speaker 2: too it is with stars. There's stars that are thousands
Speaker 2: of light years away. Yes, it could have died, but
Speaker 2: stars live billions and in some cases trillions of years. Ah,
Speaker 2: So a thousand year delay that you're not going to
Speaker 2: catch it in the last thousand years of its life. Now,
Speaker 2: of course some stars do explode, but at a rate
Speaker 2: of maybe two per century per galaxy.
Speaker 3: How long does it take us to know with the
Speaker 3: telescopes and whatnot.
Speaker 2: The information about the death of the star is on
Speaker 2: route through space. So let's take the sun. Right, If
Speaker 2: someone plucks the sun out of the middle of the
Speaker 2: Solar System. You wouldn't know for eight minutes and twenty seconds,
Speaker 2: because that's how far correct still feel the gravity. We'd
Speaker 2: still orbit even though there's nothing there, right, we'd still
Speaker 2: do well, you wouldn't know there's nothing there. So eight
Speaker 2: minutes and twenty seconds go by, and then we plunge
Speaker 2: into darkness. The temperature of the Earth descends, and we
Speaker 2: fly off at a tangent lost in interstellar space.
Speaker 3: That's the first page of your book. This is like
Speaker 3: what happens if the Earth were to stop rotating. And
Speaker 3: your answer is to pin yourself down unless you want
Speaker 3: to go at what is it, eight hundred miles per hour?
Speaker 3: I mean, my mind is broken by your book.
Speaker 2: That's a good thing. And then you reassemble it into
Speaker 2: the laws of physics that guide.
Speaker 3: The universe at the rollers category apparently back to the
Speaker 3: building walks.
Speaker 2: Okay, to start at the beginning of the universe.
Speaker 3: Now, I don't want to start the universe because the
Speaker 3: universe is expanding. So if we start at the beginning,
Speaker 3: by the time we finish, it will be even bigger
Speaker 3: than we could get to. Okay, you can look into telescopes,
Speaker 3: you can see what's happening out there. We cannot see
Speaker 3: the Big Bang.
Speaker 2: That's correct, but for reasons that are not obvious.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, we see the afterglow, correct. So what
Speaker 3: are the reasons that are not obvious?
Speaker 2: Is a barrier? The light can't pass through that afterglow?
Speaker 2: It's opaque to light.
Speaker 3: And there's no technology that we're developing to try to see.
Speaker 2: It's not using light. Before the universe had this opaque barrier,
Speaker 2: it was active in ways that we have some telescopes
Speaker 2: that can see through the barrier to those early times,
Speaker 2: and so one of them is gravitational waves.
Speaker 3: Do we know what happened before the Big Bang?
Speaker 2: No, but we have ideas.
Speaker 3: Do we know that something for sure happened before the
Speaker 3: Big Bang? Is it possible at the Big Bang?
Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, But we have ideas.
Speaker 3: What are the ideas?
Speaker 2: Our universe is a natural expression of a larger entity
Speaker 2: called a multiverse that's making universes forever, and there could
Speaker 2: be an infinite number of multiverses. All that does is
Speaker 2: move the question earlier right way? Do we get the
Speaker 2: multiverse from? Right?
Speaker 3: Where did that start?
Speaker 2: Right? So this is this is a big challenge with
Speaker 2: origins questions because the origin of something typically, if it's singular,
Speaker 2: you can't compare it to the origin of something else. However,
Speaker 2: let's look back in time the origin of the Earth. Peoples, Oh,
Speaker 2: we'll never know the origin of the Earth because you
Speaker 2: can't go back in time. This was logged, lobbed against
Speaker 2: astronomers centuries ago. Until we have telescopes that look at
Speaker 2: other star systems being born and you can see them
Speaker 2: making planets. So now I have comparisons, and I said, oh,
Speaker 2: that must be how our planet got made. These are
Speaker 2: planets around a star that looks just like ours. And
Speaker 2: when it's not singular, you can do you can compare
Speaker 2: and contrast. We found galaxies being born, so now our
Speaker 2: galaxy is not the whole thing. We only have one universe.
Speaker 2: We don't know how it was foreigned, but maybe there
Speaker 2: are other universes that we can compare it to.
Speaker 3: Do you have a hunch or is that not a thing?
Speaker 2: Going with the multiverse. It feels right and it looks
Speaker 2: good coming out of the equations. We're not just pulling
Speaker 2: it out of our ass. The equations give us the multiverse.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, And all of this is rooted in math.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is well, well, it's served by math, I
Speaker 2: should say, it's rooted in what the universe really is,
Speaker 2: whatever that is, and we invent math. And it's one
Speaker 2: of the great miracles of science that this invention we
Speaker 2: call math has anything at all to do with the
Speaker 2: with the universe that we didn't invent.
Speaker 3: It's like our language for trying to understand the universe's
Speaker 3: math is.
Speaker 2: That is the language of the universe, the way Spanish
Speaker 2: is the language of Spain.
Speaker 3: Well, this is great because I interviewed two eleven year
Speaker 3: olds recently and they said they feel everything they learn
Speaker 3: is not useful.
Speaker 2: The problem is, when we're in school, the expectation is
Speaker 2: that what you learn is what will be useful to
Speaker 2: you later. That implies that the only way we function
Speaker 2: is by applying discrete knowledge to discrete problems. But no,
Speaker 2: most of the ways you function is you're applying wisdom
Speaker 2: and insight to a problem you've never seen before. And
Speaker 2: where does that wisdom and insight come from the collection
Speaker 2: of all of the things you learned, Yes, but also
Speaker 2: all the ways you learned. You are a turn paper
Speaker 2: on Julius Caesar. Well, you had to research that these
Speaker 2: are methods, tools and tactics didn't even matter. There was
Speaker 2: that about Julius Caesar that you had to go through
Speaker 2: that exercise to arrive at that term paper, and that
Speaker 2: is the exercise that you carry forth. Math and physics
Speaker 2: are the embodiment of a new kind of brain wiring
Speaker 2: that teaches you not just what to know about the universe,
Speaker 2: but how to think, how to think about knowing it
Speaker 2: even correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's good news. I didn't tell them that
Speaker 3: the process by which they were learning it's going to
Speaker 3: be invaluable. But I didn't get to wisdom and insight.
Speaker 3: But I like that distinction.
Speaker 2: There's knowledge, wisdom, and insight. Yeah, and they're they're more
Speaker 2: refined versions of themselves. And also you can learn this
Speaker 2: and learn that and learn this, and then later on
Speaker 2: in life see a connection that no one else did.
Speaker 2: One could define genius in just that way. The genius
Speaker 2: is a person who sees what everyone else sees and
Speaker 2: thinks what no one else has thought.
Speaker 3: Do you think you're a genius?
Speaker 2: Other than in that phrase definition, I never used the word.
Speaker 2: It's a label, and when you start labeling people, it's
Speaker 2: shorthand for I don't need to know anything more about you.
Speaker 2: Because I've given you this label. I know everything I
Speaker 2: need to know about you, so I don't even have
Speaker 2: to have a conversation. So I'm just anti label.
Speaker 3: So Big Bang happens before the Big Bang. It's possible.
Speaker 3: We don't know exactly what happened, but it's possible that
Speaker 3: there are these multiverses a multiverse sorry, crinking.
Speaker 2: Out our universes such as ours.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so there could be infinite universe. Y do
Speaker 3: we exist in other universes?
Speaker 2: Well, it depends on what you mean by that. They
Speaker 2: would likely if this model is accurate. Yeah, then there
Speaker 2: are enough universes so that there's an entire universe where
Speaker 2: all events are playing out exactly as they are in
Speaker 2: this universe. Or you know, we're having this conversation except
Speaker 2: on the interviewer and you're the subject. But if all
Speaker 2: variations are possible, that means a duplicate of what's happening
Speaker 2: here exist in at least one of those universes. So
Speaker 2: now to say do we exist in those universes, it's
Speaker 2: tempting to write a sci fi novel about that. We've
Speaker 2: already done the experiments with clones. Do you know what
Speaker 2: that experiment is no, they're called twins.
Speaker 3: Oh twins, Yes, exactically.
Speaker 2: Identical, but you're not the same person. So put your
Speaker 2: twin in another universe. Yeah, then I you will get
Speaker 2: over yourself.
Speaker 3: So if we know all of this, we can see
Speaker 3: we can see stars, we can see the aftergo of
Speaker 3: the Big Bang. Why can we not travel to that?
Speaker 2: It's long gone, it's long gone.
Speaker 3: But we can time travel.
Speaker 2: You have to travel backwards in time. You put the
Speaker 2: future that created you at risk.
Speaker 3: You'd muddle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you hold it back time and accidentally prevented
Speaker 2: your parents from meeting each other, you would not exist.
Speaker 2: You would not exist. To go back in time and
Speaker 2: prevent your parents from meeting each other, or, as was
Speaker 2: indicated in at least one sci fi story, if you
Speaker 2: disrupt their act of love making by ten minutes, not disrupted.
Speaker 2: If you delay, okay, in ten minutes, some other gammy
Speaker 2: would have been made, not the one that made you.
Speaker 2: It'll probably be the same egg, but definitely a different sperm.
Speaker 2: So the risks now. Stephen Hawking, concerned about these very
Speaker 2: same risks, propose what he calls the time travel conjecture,
Speaker 2: which is, we will one day discover a law of
Speaker 2: physics that prevents backwards time travel because of all of
Speaker 2: these problems that are inherent in doing So what is
Speaker 2: time in the sequel to this Merlin book? M Merlin
Speaker 2: answers that with it, so I can say, just wait
Speaker 2: till the book comes. So Einstein suggested that time is
Speaker 2: defined to make motion look simple. That's an is defined
Speaker 2: to make motion.
Speaker 3: So time is designed to make sense of space.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the right way. That's a good way to
Speaker 2: think about it. But beyond that, there is no measurement
Speaker 2: of time without an event that repeats itself. By the way,
Speaker 2: astro folk, we were time people. Yeah, we all your
Speaker 2: fundamental measures of time come from us. There's the day,
Speaker 2: there's the moons. Then there's the time time it takes
Speaker 2: to orbit to orbit. That's a year.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for the sequel to your book, Merlin's to
Speaker 3: the Universal visiting this planet, Just visiting.
Speaker 2: This planet, okay, knocking out until the fall.
Speaker 3: Read very few physicists, but the other one is Carla Ravelli.
Speaker 3: Carla Revelli, you guys are accessible, Yeah, very accessible. He
Speaker 3: wrote the Seven brief Lessons on Physics and these Guardian articles.
Speaker 3: You guys, you get that's not like Kanye Drake's ex strama.
Speaker 2: Right. I've had people write to me and say, because
Speaker 2: I have the book Astrophysical for people in a hurry. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And when I titled it, I said, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to use the word brief. It's too it's out there
Speaker 2: and many books that have the word brief are very successful. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking the number
Speaker 2: one selling science book of all time. So I said,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to use brief. Someone wrote to me
Speaker 2: and said, uh, this, I think you owe Bravelli an
Speaker 2: apology for copying it. I was like, what we like?
Speaker 2: Then I said, do you have any idea how long
Speaker 2: it takes to produce a book? Like?
Speaker 3: To call it brief would be ridiculous. It's not a
Speaker 3: brief book because the brevity is in the eye of
Speaker 3: the reader. And I think that actually a lot of
Speaker 3: these books, yours included, take time to read because they
Speaker 3: require you require me to think and then to go
Speaker 3: back and think about all the things that I have
Speaker 3: to unthink to think this thing that.
Speaker 2: Can happen sometimes, right, deal with it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm glad there's one of the chapters
Speaker 3: in it, and he talks about in the re Valey book,
Speaker 3: and he talks about twins, the twin paradox, the twin paradox. Exactly,
Speaker 3: there's one twin living on a beach and one twin
Speaker 3: living in a mountain at altitude, and those twins will
Speaker 3: age differently.
Speaker 2: There are different fields of gravity. The one on the
Speaker 2: mountain will see the one in the valley age more slowly.
Speaker 3: And vice versa, and the one in the valley will
Speaker 3: see the one in the mountain age more quickly quickly.
Speaker 3: That is because of the way that time bends. Yes,
Speaker 3: explain it though, because I mean, is this apicable? Is
Speaker 3: this a dumb question?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, it's time and space are conjoined. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And gravity is the distortion of time and space. And
Speaker 2: the way it distorts time is that it slows down, okay,
Speaker 2: time as you get near it, and time speeds up
Speaker 2: as you get far away. Okay. So we have equations
Speaker 2: that guide you in understanding that you can calculate how
Speaker 2: much time you would lose or gain.
Speaker 3: Is this an anti aging method that you could go
Speaker 3: to a valley and time would move slowly?
Speaker 2: Except you know, if you did this, you know in
Speaker 2: the limit you go near a black hole and time
Speaker 2: really slows down for you. This was portrayed in the
Speaker 2: movie Interstellar, Uh huh, where they're gone for twenty minutes
Speaker 2: and the guy was twenty years older, had gray hair
Speaker 2: and everything, so he was waiting for them to come
Speaker 2: back off of their time distorted coordinate system.
Speaker 3: I saw this conversation you were having with your friend
Speaker 3: Brian Green, friend and colleague, and your mind was blown
Speaker 3: by something he had said to you over lunch, which
Speaker 3: was around whether or not wormholes or a structure kind
Speaker 3: of for space time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, remember that correctly. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then there's a viral clip on TikTok and it
Speaker 3: ends with your other colleague saying, you know, it's time
Speaker 3: for some weeks week.
Speaker 2: That was my co host.
Speaker 3: Yeah, say exactly a joint for this conversation or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it was entangled particles in the vacuum of space.
Speaker 2: If they're connected by wormholes, then wormholes may be the
Speaker 2: actual stitches in the fabric of space time itself.
Speaker 3: Explain what a wormhole is.
Speaker 2: It's what you think it is. We're here in this
Speaker 2: in the now. Yeah, and then a wormhole opens up,
Speaker 2: you step through and you're in a different time in
Speaker 2: a different place.
Speaker 3: So it is a mode of time travel, yes, a
Speaker 3: little bit.
Speaker 2: So I want to put research on wormholes, not rocket drive.
Speaker 2: So a quick anecdote, I was in the Charlotte airport
Speaker 2: and I have to go from a big plane to
Speaker 2: a little plane, okay, and I swear I walk three miles.
Speaker 2: It might have been only a half mile, but it
Speaker 2: felt like three miles. So I get to my destination
Speaker 2: and I thought I'd be clever geek, and I tweeted,
Speaker 2: can't wait until there's wormholes. That way, all gates will
Speaker 2: be adjacent. So I thought that, yeah, that's great. I
Speaker 2: like quality geek tweet. And in this, by the way,
Speaker 2: wherever you are on the geek spectrum, they're geekier people
Speaker 2: than you.
Speaker 3: Okay, and you can find them without wormholes.
Speaker 2: It's just on Twitter infinite. In the threat, it says
Speaker 2: doctor Tyson, the day we have wormholes, you won't need airports. WHOA, Yeah,
Speaker 2: just got out geeked.
Speaker 3: And you would just like, how would you move through
Speaker 3: a wormhole? Would you have to find that specific space
Speaker 3: time moment?
Speaker 2: Imagine a wormhole where you connect a wormhole between the
Speaker 2: back of your refrigerator and the grocer it's all you
Speaker 2: need more milk, and they just put the milk in.
Speaker 3: But could you just create wormholes?
Speaker 2: Ideally we would make one, and you need a negative
Speaker 2: gravity force to prop it open because this naturally wants
Speaker 2: to collapse on itself, and we don't know what would
Speaker 2: happen if you were in there and it collapsed while
Speaker 2: you were there. That would be weird.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is your mind still blown by this wormhole idea?
Speaker 2: Yes, I would say, and less so than in the moment.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so a year later, Oh yeah, they're still
Speaker 3: thinking about and you still think it's we need to
Speaker 3: have research on wormholes for this reason, and there is
Speaker 3: there a budget for wormhole reason we.
Speaker 2: Need we need negative gravity matter, and we don't have it.
Speaker 3: We don't have it, and are we close to having it?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: And is there who writes the budgets for things like
Speaker 3: find Is there a line item in our government like
Speaker 3: find negative gravity matter?
Speaker 2: We don't even know million dollars if it exists.
Speaker 3: Okay, very quickly on horoscopes because to the point of
Speaker 3: people's tangled minds. I am in the intersection of ven
Speaker 3: diagram of people who have multiple degrees and read the
Speaker 3: Cosmo astrology page. Does that worry you about me?
Speaker 2: Only if you wanted to become ahead of NASA, But
Speaker 2: otherwise there are plenty of jobs for you in the
Speaker 2: world where you can read your horoscope and it won't
Speaker 2: matter at all.
Speaker 3: But when I read your book, I saw that you
Speaker 3: have taken my entire my stars. I'm a scorpio.
Speaker 2: Oh you got to that part of the book and
Speaker 2: you have.
Speaker 3: Taken away the scorpio is no longer a month. It's
Speaker 3: like a week.
Speaker 2: Me, not you.
Speaker 3: So how did that happen? Is that about time?
Speaker 2: It's about Earth on its axis. Earth is spinning, as
Speaker 2: we know, it's also tipped, and if you ever played
Speaker 2: with tops, you might remember that they possess so they spin,
Speaker 2: but then they wabblebb okay, So the Earth wobbles, and
Speaker 2: that wobbling over twenty six thousand years, shifts the correspondence
Speaker 2: of the constellation and the month associated with it, and
Speaker 2: it shifts it through completely a full twelve months. So
Speaker 2: every two thousand years or so, the Sun passes through
Speaker 2: a different constellation than the astrological charts would have you believe.
Speaker 3: So horoscopes are not real.
Speaker 2: There are many reasons for them not being real. That's
Speaker 2: among them.
Speaker 3: That's among them.
Speaker 2: It's a hoax perpetrated on adults. So I shouldn't say hoax.
Speaker 2: Hoax implies that the people perpetrating it know that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they believe. I think there are people who
Speaker 2: propagate this who fully believe it. Yeah, And so then
Speaker 2: there's no real guilt there.
Speaker 3: And so there's no explanation for the fact that I,
Speaker 3: as a Scorpio, connect more I believe with cancer people.
Speaker 2: So I've seen descriptions of the zodiac, yes, where it
Speaker 2: says these are twelve prominent constellations in the sky. You
Speaker 2: said you were what scorpia? You're Scorpion and you connect
Speaker 2: with cancer?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I like to date cancer, okay? Or sometimes Aris?
Speaker 2: Is that better or worse than any other dating app
Speaker 2: we might have? I don't know. But the I just
Speaker 2: did the calculation before I came today, Oh, that the
Speaker 2: four brightest stars in the constellation Cancer are actually quite
Speaker 2: dim and then may be as many as five hundred
Speaker 2: stars brighter than the brightest star in the constellation Cancer,
Speaker 2: which makes it a dull, boring and uninteresting constellation.
Speaker 3: So I should stop dating cancer. You've just expanded my
Speaker 3: dating pool, Neil. This thank you for that service. When
Speaker 3: it comes to dating, are my expectations keeping me single?
Speaker 3: I'm named Araza host of Smart Girl Dumb Questions, and
Speaker 3: this is the sponsored dumb question brought to you by Tinder.
Speaker 3: So forty percent of people who find dating difficult say
Speaker 3: that they can't meet someone who meets their expectations. But
Speaker 3: is the problems supply or demand? It's easy to build
Speaker 3: a checklist for what we want six' five blue, eyes
Speaker 3: maybe some kind of specific zodiac, Sign but researchers have
Speaker 3: found that people are really bad at knowing what they
Speaker 3: want or. Need in, fact the science kind of sucks
Speaker 3: at it. Too in one, study for, example researchers ask
Speaker 3: daters to identify their own traits and also identify the
Speaker 3: traits they were looking for in other, PEOPLE i eat
Speaker 3: their dating, expectations and then they ran it through this
Speaker 3: machine learning. Algorithm they turned out they could predict one
Speaker 3: way attraction at around twenty, percent that, is who would
Speaker 3: be liked or who would like, Somebody but when it
Speaker 3: came to two way, attraction the algorithm was not. Good
Speaker 3: its success rate was less than one percent because it
Speaker 3: turns out the actual best predictor of compatibility is not
Speaker 3: your expectations but your. Experiences, now of course that doesn't
Speaker 3: mean you should throw all your expectations out the. Window of,
Speaker 3: course you deserve to date somebody that treats you, well
Speaker 3: that makes you feel. Safe yet a graduate degree may
Speaker 3: not be the best predictor of, That and it could
Speaker 3: be a good time to slide over that location filter
Speaker 3: or give that short king a second, glance because when
Speaker 3: it comes to, dating our experiences are more important than our.
Speaker 3: Expectations so the important thing is to actually start going on.
Speaker 3: Dates and a great place to start dating Is. Tinder
Speaker 3: it starts with a. Swipe you can explore all the
Speaker 3: possibilities for. Yourself Get tinder today and start. Dating and
Speaker 3: wormholes would wormholesles? NO i think we should go.
Speaker 2: BACK i figure out a way to pry a pathway
Speaker 2: through spacetime that connects to otherwise very distant, Parts and
Speaker 2: when you do, that you just step through and you're
Speaker 2: in another place in. Time the two most famous current
Speaker 2: ways that's done is In Doctor strange in The marvel
Speaker 2: universe And rick And morty in The cartoon.
Speaker 3: Universe i'm not familiar With rick And.
Speaker 2: Morty that means your audience is not. Geekified it's a.
Speaker 3: GEEK i mean my audience might BE i might not
Speaker 3: be the best leading. Indicator you just.
Speaker 2: Lost you just lost The rick And. Morty rick has
Speaker 2: portals through space time and he goes to other, universes other,
Speaker 2: galaxies and half of those shows are More he's interacting
Speaker 2: with other life forms that are brilliantly conceived to be
Speaker 2: different from us in ways That hollywood perennially fails at.
Speaker 2: Doing all the aliens In, hollywood it's got a, head two,
Speaker 2: eyes and those armsferent there's a little thing on the.
Speaker 2: Forehead it's, like really, really most life On earth looks
Speaker 2: nothing like. Humans, yes and we HAVE dna in. Common
Speaker 2: now you're going to bring something from another planet and
Speaker 2: walk and with a.
Speaker 3: Mouth you, know such limited imagination.
Speaker 2: Exactly So rick And morty is unlimited imagination as as
Speaker 2: it conceives of life.
Speaker 3: Forms so these wormholes, though so these two conceptions of.
Speaker 2: It here's a, wormhole gun shoots it and opens up a.
Speaker 3: Hole oh so that's, okay so you could find but
Speaker 3: it's not like a wormhole.
Speaker 2: Identifier, no Worm they're not going to be naturally in the. Universe, no,
Speaker 2: okay they want to collapse on. Themselves so you need
Speaker 2: negative gravity to the, open which we don't.
Speaker 3: Have so wormholes they wouldn't. Exist we need negative, gravity.
Speaker 2: Uh to create a, substance, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah negative gravity substance to create and stabilize a.
Speaker 2: Wormhole gravity brings space time, together, yes and a wormhole
Speaker 2: you're prying it. Apart so you need the opposite of
Speaker 2: what gravity is to make that.
Speaker 3: Happen that was a very clarifying.
Speaker 2: Sentence tracking your tangled mental.
Speaker 3: That really help. Me, Okay so gravity brings.
Speaker 2: It, together just untangled one little. Bit, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: Okay a negative gravity will will suspend that and then
Speaker 3: allow you to pass and then through a. Wormhole you
Speaker 3: could go to other universes.
Speaker 2: In, principle but that would could be dangerous because in
Speaker 2: those universe might have slightly different laws of. Physics, okay
Speaker 2: and stepping into, it you collapse in a pile of
Speaker 2: goo because the, forces the molecular forces might not.
Speaker 3: COMPORT i could go to other, galaxies, oh, definitely, definitely galaxies, easier,
Speaker 3: okay and other, dimensions other.
Speaker 2: Dimensions we don't know how to go to other.
Speaker 3: Dimensions and what is a.
Speaker 2: Dimension it's interesting how we have such an intuitive understanding of.
Speaker 2: Dimensions we never think about. Them have you imagined a
Speaker 2: future with flying? Cars of course everybody. Does why would
Speaker 2: you want a flying car less?
Speaker 3: Traffic?
Speaker 2: Okay? Good, yeah when you're out on the open road
Speaker 2: driving seventy miles an, hour are you, saying, GEE i
Speaker 2: WISH i had a flying? Car, No, no you're only
Speaker 2: thinking about it near. Cities when you're in traffic and
Speaker 2: you got a place to, be you just want to
Speaker 2: up and go in the car on the. Road you
Speaker 2: are stuck in two. Dimensions, yeah you can change lanes
Speaker 2: left and. Right that's one, dimension and the other dimension
Speaker 2: is just forward and. Back so driving is a two dimensional.
Speaker 2: Exercise in a flying, car you enter a third dimension
Speaker 2: and bypass these hapless souls who don't have a flying. Car, yeah,
Speaker 2: okay do we together on? That we're?
Speaker 3: Together. Okay so that's three, dimensions so.
Speaker 2: That you can move the idea of a flying car
Speaker 2: and just, say when you want to bypass the, traffic
Speaker 2: you want to go to another dimension to do. So
Speaker 2: in that, regard The New York City subway is a flying.
Speaker 2: Car you're stuck in dimension you go into another, dimension
Speaker 2: and this case is, down not, up and there's a whole, other,
Speaker 2: whole entire transportation system that does not get stuck in that.
Speaker 2: Traffic that's a flying.
Speaker 3: Car BUT i think the difference IS i can see
Speaker 3: those dimensions like the dimends you're talking.
Speaker 2: About i'm warming you.
Speaker 3: Up, okay, okay.
Speaker 2: Because you that tangled you eat. Horoscopes IF i went straight,
Speaker 2: there this wouldn't have. Happened, OKAY i Gotta i'm gonna
Speaker 2: make sure we're on the same. Page, okay.
Speaker 3: Good SO i don't believe they're. REAL i just read.
Speaker 2: Them, so, yeah this is easy to. Understand, correct we
Speaker 2: are on the same. Page, okay let's go back to two.
Speaker 2: DIMENSIONS i have a, desk, yeah AND i still have. Paper,
Speaker 2: Okay SO i lay paper out on the desk and
Speaker 2: THEN i run out of desk. Surface so what do you?
Speaker 2: Do put it on the?
Speaker 3: FLOOR i, could, Yeah or you can stack them on
Speaker 3: top for each.
Speaker 2: Other, yeah that's a third. Dimension stacking is is a third.
Speaker 2: Dimension that's what you. Got, Okay so, no watch on
Speaker 2: the pape on the on my, DESK i, said sixteen
Speaker 2: sheets of. Paper let's say, yes let's say twenty four by.
Speaker 2: Five NOW i can Stack how many pages CAN i
Speaker 2: stack into the third? Dimension? Yeah UNTIL i hit the? Ceiling, right,
Speaker 2: Okay oh my. Gosh, Look and how much more room
Speaker 2: there is in three dimensions than there is in two?
Speaker 2: Dimensions of, course you got? Me, yeah. Okay so now
Speaker 2: we're in a. Room the room is a three dimensional,
Speaker 2: room AND i put boxes in this. Room now the
Speaker 2: room is, full and, someone a hyperdimensional being, says just
Speaker 2: go into the fourth dimension and you can fit millions
Speaker 2: of boxes. There AND i, say where is the fourth?
Speaker 2: Dimension it is at a perpendicular line to. YOU i
Speaker 2: already have my perpendicular. Lines they trace the three dimensions
Speaker 2: of this. Space we cannot conceive of what direction that
Speaker 2: fourth dimension is any more than the ant can know
Speaker 2: what up.
Speaker 3: Is, okay so we're just. Ants we're three d, ants
Speaker 3: the two d, ants and there's Some is there a
Speaker 3: four d? Ant is? That is it possible the fourth?
Speaker 3: Dimension don't?
Speaker 2: Know that's really, interesting? Right? Yeah if you're actually two,
Speaker 2: dimensions you have no, Thickness so you would be this,
Speaker 2: flat your flat, membrane and so anyone who sees you
Speaker 2: would only see your. Outers they'd have to cut you
Speaker 2: open and peel back your outer contour to see what's.
Speaker 2: Inside so let's seal that. Back we are three dimensional
Speaker 2: people who are completely transparent to four dimensional. Beings you
Speaker 2: have an outer. Perimeter we call it. Skin, yes, okay,
Speaker 2: YEAH i would love to write a sci fi story
Speaker 2: where the hospital is the surgery is a four dimensional
Speaker 2: room and you go in there and the doctors remove the. Tumor,
Speaker 2: yeah and they never cut you open to do, so.
Speaker 3: Because it's just your.
Speaker 2: Flat they're accessing you through the fourth. Dimension so surgery
Speaker 2: they just go in and pluck it, out it, out
Speaker 2: and there's no no evidence of Any.
Speaker 3: That would be.
Speaker 2: Good when you start thinking about, dimensions it's a fascinating.
Speaker 3: World and you think they're infinite. Dimensions it could.
Speaker 2: Be cosmologists say there might be ten dimensions in which
Speaker 2: to embed everything they need to account for in The
Speaker 2: Big bang and follows, it but we can't see the
Speaker 2: other dimensions because they're tightly curled. Up the idea with
Speaker 2: the higher dimensions is that they might be there right
Speaker 2: but not entirely accessible to, Us and.
Speaker 3: It's possible that there's life on those other. DIMENSIONS i don't.
Speaker 2: See why?
Speaker 3: Not, yeah why? Not we, can we can conceive of.
Speaker 3: It my last Guest Cleo. Abram do you Know Cleo?
Speaker 3: Abram she has a show Called Huge If true on
Speaker 3: YouTube and, ANYWAYS i end every show asking what the
Speaker 3: guest doesn't know about with the guest is quote unquote
Speaker 3: dumb about and she, asked where are the? ALIENS i
Speaker 3: want to ask you about this BECAUSE i feel every
Speaker 3: Time i've seen you asked about, aliens this. Happens what's
Speaker 3: happening in front of me right, now which is that?
Speaker 3: YOU i feel like you.
Speaker 2: For the question what you're interpreting my, Face.
Speaker 3: I'm interpreting your face billions of a second. Ago i'm
Speaker 3: interpreting that, actually but four billions of a second. Ago
Speaker 3: but you seem to be skeptical about alien, sightings ABOUT
Speaker 3: Uap Unidentified aeral phenomena OR, ufo both the.
Speaker 2: Signings i'm skeptical of how people interpret.
Speaker 3: Them how do you think people interpret?
Speaker 2: Them they think they're visiting aliens from outer, Space and
Speaker 2: an account of people seeing aliens is more often than
Speaker 2: not an account of some lights in the sky behaving
Speaker 2: badly to the fact that fifty years ago there was
Speaker 2: no end of accounts typically extracted via. Hypnosis no end
Speaker 2: of accounts of people having been abducted by. Aliens in
Speaker 2: the era of the, smartphone those accounts have gone to. Zero,
Speaker 2: really because you could film an encounter with. Aliens, yes
Speaker 2: it would go viral.
Speaker 3: Instantly we have the ability to have proof now.
Speaker 2: Correct so that skepticism is people's, accounts that's.
Speaker 3: All are aliens? Real do aliens?
Speaker 2: Exist we don't have evidence yet of, them but there's
Speaker 2: no reason to doubt.
Speaker 3: It if they were to. Visit what would you be
Speaker 3: most embarrassed about them seeing on our?
Speaker 2: Earth, WELL i don't know what they would. DO i
Speaker 2: can't think like an. Alien but there's a COMIC i
Speaker 2: think it was in The New yorker. Show two cave
Speaker 2: men facing each other in a, cave and one says
Speaker 2: to the, OTHER i don't get. It my water is,
Speaker 2: pure the air is, clear all of our food is.
Speaker 2: Organic yet none of us lives past Thirty those are.
Speaker 2: Cavemen now let's go to eighteen. Forty everything they ate was,
Speaker 2: organic the water ramp. Heure half of everyone born was
Speaker 2: dead by thirty. Five fast forward to. Today if you
Speaker 2: die before, ninety your obituary is going to have to
Speaker 2: account for. That, somehow not just your old, age not
Speaker 2: just old. Age you're, like how did he? Die explain?
Speaker 2: Yourself explain, Yourself explain. Yourself explain. Yourself and in The
Speaker 2: New York, times for, example the OBITUARIES i marked when
Speaker 2: they started giving the cause of death for people over.
Speaker 2: Eighty so that meant we understood, aging we understood the
Speaker 2: death of someone who's. Old and it's a reportable bit of.
Speaker 2: Information LIKE i, said if you die before, eighty people
Speaker 2: want to know. Why when one hundred and, fifties one
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy years, ago it was half the people
Speaker 2: were dead by thirty. Five so the point is today
Speaker 2: we live in a world where we have overvalued the
Speaker 2: significance of the food we eat relative to what role
Speaker 2: science has played to increase.
Speaker 3: Our, longevity and what is the technology that has enabled
Speaker 3: us mostly to.
Speaker 2: Lookitation, vaccines preventive, medicine knowing what role exercise plays in
Speaker 2: your cardiovascular. Health we have still a long way to.
Speaker 2: Go WHEN i was in seventh, GRADE i wrote a
Speaker 2: book report On ponce De leone and The fountain Of.
Speaker 2: Youth so it's A spanish explorer And i'm looking at
Speaker 2: it AND i, say this is a full grown. Adult
Speaker 2: BUT i was a geek kid since age, Nine, yes
Speaker 2: which WHY i can have this. Thought this is a
Speaker 2: full grown.
Speaker 3: Adult were you non geek before?
Speaker 2: NINE i was just? Regular, okay? Yeah after, NINE i
Speaker 2: got my death. Groove Now i'm reading it and it,
Speaker 2: said there's a full grown adult who sales across an,
Speaker 2: ocean believing that there's a fountain from which you drink
Speaker 2: and then you will live. Forever AND i thought to,
Speaker 2: myself what the f how Could he's a grown? Man,
Speaker 2: right this is not a fairy. Tale he's a grown.
Speaker 2: Man how could he think? This and everybody thought, that
Speaker 2: and SO i was so disappointed in adults not. That
Speaker 2: but THEN i, said all that was five hundred years,
Speaker 2: ago and now, today this one food is all you
Speaker 2: need to. Eat here's the miracle, food here's a miracle.
Speaker 2: Drink don't do any of, this do this one. Thing
Speaker 2: AND i, said this Is ponce a De leon all over.
Speaker 2: Again this is the secret to. Longevity it wouldn't have
Speaker 2: to just be. Food could do. This in, fact any
Speaker 2: ad on YouTube that has the words this in, IT
Speaker 2: i don't think on it because they want to leave
Speaker 2: you dangling at the.
Speaker 3: This, right you were missing. This the thing you're missing out.
Speaker 2: On this is irresistible. Clickbait What i'm saying is maybe
Speaker 2: all that will ultimately be shown to have an important
Speaker 2: difference on the, Edges but that's not What god is
Speaker 2: living two and three times longer than our great great.
Speaker 3: Grandparents, okay, aliens that's. Aliens back to that's, aliens BECAUSE i,
Speaker 3: so here's my. Thing is it possible that the aliens
Speaker 3: are in a different.
Speaker 2: Dimension, well that would be a way for you to
Speaker 2: still say they're aliens with no possible evidence of their. Existence.
Speaker 3: Okay. Sure by the, way do you think aliens speak? Math?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes that's how you'd have to communicate with.
Speaker 3: Them That Caveman New yorker cartoon that you're talking, About
Speaker 3: you and meet, alien alien comes, here and you would, say.
Speaker 2: YEAH i would find ways to show symbol if they,
Speaker 2: see to check what their retinue of senses. Are if
Speaker 2: they hear but don't, see you need other ways to do, This.
Speaker 2: Okay and maybe they see in a different wavelength of.
Speaker 2: Light they could see infrared rather than, visible so i'd
Speaker 2: have to you'd have to assess. This, yes then you
Speaker 2: work within their.
Speaker 3: Senses but it's definitely. Math it's Not, English, no espaniol is.
Speaker 2: Definitely not any language On. Earth and NOW i feel
Speaker 2: bad about. This when the Movie Arrival yeah came the
Speaker 2: government shows a physicist and a linguist to communicate with the,
Speaker 2: alien AND i, said, no you want a cryptographer and an,
Speaker 2: astrobiologist not a linguist and a. Physicist and then WHEN i,
Speaker 2: POSTED i JUST i felt.
Speaker 3: Bad people thought you were anti.
Speaker 2: Linguist linguists are hardly ever in. MOVIES i have no
Speaker 2: shortage of astrophysicists in. Movies every space movie has an
Speaker 2: actual physicist in there, Somewhere and so THEN i felt.
Speaker 2: Bad cast in, Shade, yeah it was their day in the.
Speaker 3: Sun we got to send the right people in the
Speaker 3: circumstances you don't want to. Send i'm sorry, linguist but,
Speaker 3: like we don't want to send the wrong.
Speaker 2: Person, YEAH i don't need your. Culture.
Speaker 3: No in twenty, TWENTY i produced an interview With Elon,
Speaker 3: musk and he talked about how we needed to be
Speaker 3: a multi planetary space faring. Civilization do we need to
Speaker 3: be a multiplanetary space faring that.
Speaker 2: That makes very good news paper? Headlines you'd expect that
Speaker 2: spoken of someone who's in the business of making rockets
Speaker 2: and launching, things sending people. Places So i'm not surprised by,
Speaker 2: That and that idea goes back some ways Or Carl
Speaker 2: sagan was a big fan of becoming a multi planet.
Speaker 2: Species so why would you do that.
Speaker 3: Because you believe that there is some scarcity on This,
Speaker 3: earth some abundance to be hot, outside or some expansion
Speaker 3: of our population that requires, it.
Speaker 2: Or more likely in those, scenarios that it could put
Speaker 2: our species at risk if all our eggs were in
Speaker 2: one basket and a killer asteroid comes or a virus or. Whatever,
Speaker 2: okay that's the main, motivation other than just the exploration
Speaker 2: part of. It you can go, there explore and then
Speaker 2: come back to go there and stay a big. Driver
Speaker 2: there is that way we protect the. Species. Species, YEAH
Speaker 2: i have a way more practical view of the. WORLD
Speaker 2: i don't mind people thinking. THAT i just think it's
Speaker 2: it's a solution to a non. Problem every scenario you
Speaker 2: come up, WITH i can put life On earth at
Speaker 2: risk to solve. It seems to me to be easier
Speaker 2: than terraforming marsn't shipping a billion? People do suppose we
Speaker 2: suppose we trash our. Environments, yeah and we Need earth
Speaker 2: two point. Zero that's not an asteroids being in our own, bathtub, right,
Speaker 2: okay this time cooping in their, bathtub right, yeah, Okay
Speaker 2: so why not that if we have the power of
Speaker 2: geoengineering to Turn mars Into, earth then we have the
Speaker 2: power to Turn earth back Into. EARTH i can't think
Speaker 2: of a reason why we would have to do. THAT
Speaker 2: i can think of a hundred reasons why we would
Speaker 2: want to do, It but every reason that people give
Speaker 2: for having to do, it, YEAH i don't find. CONVINCING
Speaker 2: i want to do it BECAUSE i like.
Speaker 3: Exploring one of the reasons why we want to do,
Speaker 3: it and it feels sometimes imperative is, competition, competition not
Speaker 3: just amongst, species but within our own. Species we want
Speaker 3: to be in The moon before other countries are at The.
Speaker 3: Moon we want to be at the In mars before
Speaker 3: other countries are In. Mars we want to take up
Speaker 3: as much Of mars as we. Can territorial domination it's a.
Speaker 2: Driver it's a, driver especially among.
Speaker 3: Men yeah, yeah well, YEAH i mean it'd be interesting
Speaker 3: if we had more female leaders to see if they
Speaker 3: too would have to save incentives actually.
Speaker 2: Really big ones in the past. Century, yeah they have
Speaker 2: been just like. Men.
Speaker 3: YEAH i was going to, SAY i think a lot
Speaker 3: of the things that we think are just male and.
Speaker 2: Females Margaret thatcher de Were.
Speaker 3: Gandhi there's that book that's like men are From, mars
Speaker 3: women are From venus or. Whatever it turns out that
Speaker 3: it's like.
Speaker 2: POWER i think those women succeeded because they were succeeding
Speaker 2: in a man's, world and they have to be like
Speaker 2: a man to do. So let's say you're in a
Speaker 2: traffic and someone cuts someone else, off and then a
Speaker 2: person jumps out of the car and yells at the other.
Speaker 2: Person there's a ninety nine percent chance that's a, man
Speaker 2: not one.
Speaker 3: Hundred but not In New york necessary because it's a
Speaker 3: Man's we're all In New York.
Speaker 2: City and the funny thing, is to, me men like
Speaker 2: complaining about women's emotions and their. Hormones, yeah century centuries
Speaker 2: doing that without actually looking at ourselves and, saying how
Speaker 2: does testosterone manifest as a hormone on our? Behavior how
Speaker 2: many bar fights break out between women versus? Men is
Speaker 2: that socialization or is it? Hormones, yeah you could say
Speaker 2: it's SOCIETAL i, Suppose but this territorial. Thing, yeah this
Speaker 2: is not, genderized but just the idea that if aliens
Speaker 2: exist anywhere in the, universe how come they haven't? Visited? Right,
Speaker 2: okay you can do a calculation that if you visit
Speaker 2: other star, systems you figure out how to make rockets
Speaker 2: they can fit other star, systems even if it takes
Speaker 2: one hundred years to get. There then you get there
Speaker 2: and you build a, factory and you build two more.
Speaker 2: Ships then they go to two other star system and
Speaker 2: then they go to. Four give yourself a very relaxing
Speaker 2: time to make that. Happened you could do it in
Speaker 2: one hundred million. Years the universe is billions of years. Old,
Speaker 2: Okay so if you run that, calculation you can, say
Speaker 2: If amlias did it at, all they should have occupied
Speaker 2: every planet in the. Galaxy where are? They this is
Speaker 2: the Famous fermi. Paradox an argument against The fermi paradox
Speaker 2: is whatever urge you have to want to take control
Speaker 2: of a planet is self, limiting as we say in,
Speaker 2: physics because you reach a point where, okay now half
Speaker 2: the planets are. Going but now this urge is so,
Speaker 2: STRONG i want your. Planet it's self. DESTRUCT i want your, planet,
Speaker 2: okay and then they fight each other and the entire system.
Speaker 2: Implodes and that actually already happened On earth with the
Speaker 2: age of.
Speaker 3: Colonization lots of talk About russia And china and outer
Speaker 3: space and the space competition With russia And. CHINA i
Speaker 3: think That. India india's got this big space program right,
Speaker 3: now And i've been impressed by the stride that The
Speaker 3: indians are making an outer Space are you impressed by?
Speaker 2: That what impresses me is not that they've made the, strides,
Speaker 2: yeah but that the strides were unthinkable even just a
Speaker 2: few decades. Ago they're accomplishing what other space faring nations are. Accomplishing.
Speaker 2: Yeah so we're all, Human So i'm not differently, impressed,
Speaker 2: yeah for what they've done relative to anybody else doing.
Speaker 2: It what impresses me When i'm impressed is where were
Speaker 2: you twenty years? Ago, yeah thirty years, ago and where
Speaker 2: are you? Now india was the first to land, safely
Speaker 2: softly on the south pole of The. Moon The indian
Speaker 2: headlines Were indian lands is the fourth country to land
Speaker 2: on The. Moon that's not the. Headline it is the
Speaker 2: first country to land softly at the south.
Speaker 3: Pole and what's up With india in outer space because
Speaker 3: of the speed with which they have gotten, here are
Speaker 3: they going to get elsewhere? Faster you? Think or or you,
Speaker 3: know there's national.
Speaker 2: Pride never underestimate the value of national pride and national.
Speaker 2: Security security is a code word for protecting. Yourself but
Speaker 2: also if you feel like being an, aggressor you have
Speaker 2: the power to do. So SO i say security Because
Speaker 2: i'd rather we were secure rather than it's a that's
Speaker 2: the peace nick in. Me In india a few years
Speaker 2: before they tomahawked out one of their satellites from more a.
Speaker 2: Bit it's called a kinetic. Kill you would do that
Speaker 2: if the satellite is failing or you don't want. To
Speaker 2: and So india did, that after The United states did,
Speaker 2: it After russia did, it and After china did, It
Speaker 2: and So Prime minister gets on and, says we do
Speaker 2: this for peaceful you, know there's the peace. Argument, yeah
Speaker 2: this is the beginnings of people's access to. Space one
Speaker 2: thing that concerned me deeply When india landed on The South.
Speaker 2: POLE i don't know if you know that it had a.
Speaker 2: ROVER i.
Speaker 3: SAW i don't know what it.
Speaker 2: Is, yeah, okay so it's a rover and so there's the. Rover,
Speaker 2: yes the emblem in The indian, flag here's the Central.
Speaker 2: Yeah and one of the icons of The Space agency
Speaker 2: were embedded in the rovers, wheels so that as it
Speaker 2: rolled on the dusty, soil these. Imprints but they came in.
Speaker 2: Peace but, wait but. Wait and the sad part of
Speaker 2: my concern is it's Something americans would. SAY i know
Speaker 2: we would say, It so how CAN i get mad
Speaker 2: if somebody else is going to say so on the?
Speaker 2: Internet because people were dancing in the streets when, yes oh, yes,
Speaker 2: okay there was On twitter or wherever it first landed
Speaker 2: on X because as you, know The pakistani flag has
Speaker 2: The muslim and the and the and the. Star this posting,
Speaker 2: said In india we have our flag on the. Moon
Speaker 2: In pakistan they have the moon on the. Flag did
Speaker 2: you have to go? There you, know it'd be something.
Speaker 2: Different If pakistan wars big as idea and they had
Speaker 2: active then it would be kind of a. Fun it
Speaker 2: would be trash talk.
Speaker 3: In the, way punching, down punching, down.
Speaker 2: That's what you're. Doing AND i WAS i was saddened by.
Speaker 3: THAT i want to talk to you about how technology
Speaker 3: changes your what you, Do how DO ai and quantum change.
Speaker 2: Astrophysics, well there's certain problems that become tractable that were
Speaker 2: previously only things we could. Approximate If i'm going to
Speaker 2: model what happens to a rotating galaxy that has hundreds
Speaker 2: of billions of, stars my computers in the nineteen seventies
Speaker 2: couldn't do. That, well let me model galaxy using one hundred.
Speaker 2: Stars maybe ables something about one hundred stars that will
Speaker 2: give me insight to a billion. Stars maybe maybe. Not
Speaker 2: so much of our effort over the years is approximating
Speaker 2: the reality because the computing power can't match the. Reality
Speaker 2: with quantum, COMPUTING i can model all the, stars by the,
Speaker 2: way every, star every, time every star moves the gravitational,
Speaker 2: configuration but everything is.
Speaker 3: Different, yeah it can calculate.
Speaker 2: That calculate. That then there's gas. Clouds how do you
Speaker 2: calculate a gas? Cloud it's not a discrete. Object there
Speaker 2: are bits and pieces of molecules moving, around subjected to
Speaker 2: radiation forces and magnetic forces and rotational forces and sheer.
Speaker 2: Forces oh my, gosh we love. It, okay bring it.
Speaker 3: On is it possible that we live in a? Simulation?
Speaker 2: Yes and my best evidence for that is just when
Speaker 2: things are kind of, stable let's have the leader of
Speaker 2: the free world be A New York city real estate.
Speaker 2: Developer there's got to be someone simulating us throwing that
Speaker 2: in just for their.
Speaker 3: Entertainment that's Your your best evidence for simulation Is Donald.
Speaker 2: Trump wouldn't have to just be. That and then so
Speaker 2: now he's not in, office and then he comes back
Speaker 2: one and then we Have. Biden things are pretty. Stable
Speaker 2: we need a.
Speaker 3: Pandemic pandemic, well, YEAH i, THINK i, say and Then
Speaker 3: biden becomes a little less. STABLE i say.
Speaker 2: THAT i think one argument for a simulation is how
Speaker 2: how periodically something extraordinary happens in the. World the world
Speaker 2: doesn't just stay in a stable chaos Chaosk and if
Speaker 2: you ever played these simulation, games that's what you, want
Speaker 2: because that's where it's more.
Speaker 3: Interesting that's where it gets.
Speaker 2: Interesting. YEAH i used to play Sim city and every
Speaker 2: now and Then godzilla would walk across the, city maybe
Speaker 2: fires and everything we've, broken And godzilla is not, real
Speaker 2: but it's metaphor for an assault on the, city which
Speaker 2: is exactly what nine to eleven. Was it was an.
Speaker 2: Assault it's Not. Godzilla but when you're simulating the fire,
Speaker 2: department the police. Department Un, yes what is tax money?
Speaker 2: Doing are people?
Speaker 3: Unhappy my Friend ian has a list of reasons why
Speaker 3: he believes the world is a. Simulation they include.
Speaker 2: Things like, wells wells w what's?
Speaker 3: Wells the idea that you like put down on there's,
Speaker 3: water emergency broadcast, system just like things observable phenomenon that
Speaker 3: seem odd and. Simulation like for, me like all things
Speaker 3: drilling are. That it's like reminds me of being in
Speaker 3: a video game where Like Mario, kart like you, Know
Speaker 3: mario hits the thing and then a mushroom comes out
Speaker 3: and he gets.
Speaker 2: Bigger uh.
Speaker 3: Huh that seems like we're living in a. Simulation just then.
Speaker 2: Natural so he's saying there's no law in the universe
Speaker 2: that says if you, dig you get. Water so when you,
Speaker 2: dig you get. Water clearly somebody put it. There OH
Speaker 2: i need some, energy let's put oil.
Speaker 3: There, yeah, exactly like, oh let's put the sludge into a.
Speaker 3: Car will power a. CAR i mean it's kind of,
Speaker 3: Odd like the whole thing is.
Speaker 2: Odd, Okay so it's Like, minecraft where you just through
Speaker 2: stuff there and you do it and you build a little.
Speaker 3: World Sea chuck we don't even need.
Speaker 2: Weed, okay that's the.
Speaker 3: Thing but how would we find out if we are
Speaker 3: in a, simulation how would we?
Speaker 2: Know there are? Ways, okay one has been. Suggested so
Speaker 2: gamma ray. Bursts these are pulses of gamma rays from
Speaker 2: the universe that summer higher energy than. Others, yeah and
Speaker 2: if you find it's the highest energy of anything we've
Speaker 2: ever leasured of. Anything if we find an edge to,
Speaker 2: that where above, that there's no, more that could be
Speaker 2: the edge of the. Simulation because you can't simulate something to.
Speaker 2: Infinity you have to put some edges on. It like
Speaker 2: The Truman, show it looks like a sky and, clouds
Speaker 2: but he goes out there and then it's a. Wall,
Speaker 2: right it's the Wall up until then it was, fine,
Speaker 2: Right but if you explore this is what exploration. Does
Speaker 2: it probably annoys the, Programmers, yeah because we're reaching for
Speaker 2: the edge of what you thought we would ever.
Speaker 3: Acquire so then mars could be good good as, well
Speaker 3: good because it pushes the. Edge, sure or it could
Speaker 3: just be fall into the line of the. Simulation they
Speaker 3: want us to go, There.
Speaker 2: The simulation would not need you would not want. It
Speaker 2: if you are the simulator to simulate everything if no
Speaker 2: one was looking at. It If i'm, digging you'd only
Speaker 2: simulate What i'm digging. Too in the spot Where i'm,
Speaker 2: DIGGING i don't have to simulate it over there because
Speaker 2: you're not digging over. There so that greatly improves the
Speaker 2: computing power of the simulation when you localize it the
Speaker 2: only places where people are granting it. Attention here's a
Speaker 2: way to consider. This when we look in the universe
Speaker 2: in the search for an intelligent, life that comes with
Speaker 2: a big assumption that whatever we find would agree that
Speaker 2: we are. Intelligent but who declared that we're intelligent?
Speaker 3: Ourselves we?
Speaker 2: Did?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What? What? Okay and what's the closest species to? Humans?
Speaker 3: Monkeys?
Speaker 2: Chimpanzee? Chimpanzees, yeah how smart is a? Chimp it's one
Speaker 2: PERCENT dna difference between. Us we have The, james, webspace
Speaker 2: telescope and philosophy and art and. Music they have none of. It,
Speaker 2: right stack boxes and reach a. Banana, now if you're,
Speaker 2: religious you might, say what a difference that one percent
Speaker 2: make makes we're? Special? Yeah or you take another, View
Speaker 2: maybe the difference between stacking boxes and reaching a banana
Speaker 2: and The james webspace telescope is as.
Speaker 3: Small, yeah it's like a one to three.
Speaker 2: Percent as that one percent you, say come, ON, ti sack. It,
Speaker 2: well imagine because our toddlers can stack boxes and. Banana
Speaker 2: so now imagine a life form that's one percent beyond
Speaker 2: us in the. Universe, yeah on that same intelligence, scale
Speaker 2: what would we look like to?
Speaker 3: Them we look like. Chimpanzee we would look like.
Speaker 2: Chimpanzee, yes our most brilliant achievements would be accomplished by their.
Speaker 2: Toddlers little Alien timmy, Comes, oh what did you do
Speaker 2: today from? School? OH i composed a sonnet and derived
Speaker 2: the principles of. Calculation that's so. Cute put it on the. Refrigerator, sure.
Speaker 3: That's so.
Speaker 2: Sad so my point, is, yeah they could have Created
Speaker 2: earth as a literal aquarium terrarium for their own, amusement
Speaker 2: with us as life forms upon, it and we would
Speaker 2: never know until we hit the.
Speaker 3: Edge until we hit the, edge and then maybe we
Speaker 3: would find.
Speaker 2: Out unless they're so smart they know we're not even
Speaker 2: going to live for the.
Speaker 3: Edge, okay you've been so generous with your. Times i'm
Speaker 3: going to try to get you out of. Here when
Speaker 3: do a lightning, round, okay And i'll keep the questions lightnings. Purple, okay,
Speaker 3: Great why are you so good at communicating or or actually,
Speaker 3: better why do other scientists suck at? Communicating they, Do i'm,
Speaker 3: sorry not all of.
Speaker 2: That it's not valued in the. Field there's no test
Speaker 2: for it in THE. PhD, yeah that's like, saying why
Speaker 2: do construction workers suck at? Communicating it's not it's not
Speaker 2: the core of the, function it's not part of the
Speaker 2: it's not part of the, job and so. So AND
Speaker 2: i would say some fraction of my colleagues may be
Speaker 2: higher than in the, population are on the on the.
Speaker 2: Spectrum and when you're on the, SPECTRUM i don't care about. You,
Speaker 2: YEAH i have my own, thoughts AND i care about
Speaker 2: my lab. Equipment and so you, know you can't put
Speaker 2: a camera in front of that person and expect them
Speaker 2: to be cheery eyed and smiley and with. Eyebrows you
Speaker 2: can't expect. That, yeah AND i While i'd rather be
Speaker 2: in the, lab.
Speaker 3: Thanks thanks Doctor.
Speaker 2: Tyz, yeah, Yeah i'd rather be in the, lab But
Speaker 2: i'd be irresponsible IF i never left.
Speaker 3: It as an educator and having this value of being
Speaker 3: able to, communicate how do you assess our relationship to
Speaker 3: act and the skepticism around science and expertise right, Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah it'll just implode society and then we'll recover from it.
Speaker 2: EVENTUALLY i think The United states is good at reacting
Speaker 2: to perceive. Threats there are other countries that do not
Speaker 2: have this problem of the mistrust of, science and we'll
Speaker 2: just watch them ascend, economically because innovations and science and
Speaker 2: technology are the engines of tomorrow's economy in every, sector
Speaker 2: including things like. Farming we make more food on less
Speaker 2: land with fewer farmers than ever. Before it's because of.
Speaker 2: Science so we'll just watch other countries rise. Up AND
Speaker 2: i think we have more to fall before we realize.
Speaker 2: That and it's, sad but you, Know i'm trying to
Speaker 2: do ALL i can to prevent.
Speaker 3: It it's.
Speaker 2: Hard the communication, HELPS i, Think, yeah so, HERESY i
Speaker 2: protect my. EGO i say to, myself as bad as it,
Speaker 2: is maybe it would be much worse IF i were
Speaker 2: not doing my. Thing that's WHY i.
Speaker 3: Say that's why we can't let you time travel and undo,
Speaker 3: yourself because then you wouldn't be able to hear be
Speaker 3: here and teach. Us you updated and re release your book.
Speaker 2: Order to the twenty first, century thirty five.
Speaker 3: Years between its publication and its. Update in that, time
Speaker 3: we discovered a lot of things The hubbles. Telescope what
Speaker 3: in the next thirty five years are we going to?
Speaker 3: Discover what do you what do you likely to?
Speaker 2: Think like, physics we have a good handle on. That,
Speaker 2: yeah because budgets get, allocated space probes get, Designed we
Speaker 2: have a we have a decadal survey right that we
Speaker 2: invoke and that guides us in the decades that. Follow
Speaker 2: So i'd like to know if there's life anywhere On,
Speaker 2: mars even below the. SURFACE i want to know if
Speaker 2: there's life swimming In jupiter's Moon, europa which as a
Speaker 2: frozen outer shell and an ocean of liquid water that's
Speaker 2: been liquid for billions of. Years there's more water there
Speaker 2: than all the water In earth's. Oceans SO i think
Speaker 2: the question about life in the, universe microbial or, otherwise
Speaker 2: will be answered in the next thirty years BY.
Speaker 3: Nasa all, right last question for every GUEST i have
Speaker 3: on the show is what do you not? Know what are?
Speaker 3: You what Is Neil deGrasse tyson dumb? About if?
Speaker 2: Anything, oh Anytime i'm in the company of someone who
Speaker 2: knows anything THAT i don't. Know that's ALL i want
Speaker 2: to talk. About, yeah, YEAH i have a curiosity of
Speaker 2: everything THAT i don't. Know and if they're an expert
Speaker 2: on like cricket legs or whether there's a chef Or
Speaker 2: i'm all there.
Speaker 3: Must be very frustrated for you to be a.
Speaker 2: Guest then, ye yes it is because then everyone asked me, questions,
Speaker 2: Right AND i don't mind that Because i'm an. Educator
Speaker 2: but that's not my preferred dinner, party. RIGHT i prefer
Speaker 2: to sit me next to someone who's GOT i don't.
Speaker 2: Care they could be a, preacher they could be an oil.
Speaker 2: Driller i've got.
Speaker 3: Questions, okay give me a. Question something you want to
Speaker 3: know that you wish that you could go to a
Speaker 3: dinner party to night and sit next to someone who could.
Speaker 3: Answer what's a specific.
Speaker 2: Question, oh let's say it's a construction. Worker, okay how
Speaker 2: did they get the crane to the top of the?
Speaker 3: Building how did they get the CRAZY.
Speaker 2: I didn't see them put it up. There it's fifty stories.
Speaker 3: Up, yeah there there's probably a crane left or.
Speaker 2: Something i've never seen. IT i would ask, them do you.
Speaker 3: Think that in another universe somewhere out there there's A
Speaker 3: Neil deGrasse tyson that knows this and the.
Speaker 2: Infinite, YEAH i, mean it's just these are.
Speaker 3: Things there could be a construction, Worker Neil Degrass tyson
Speaker 3: and another.
Speaker 2: Plan sure That neil would certainly know the answer to that.
Speaker 2: Question the curiosity would be all up in.
Speaker 3: It thank you so, Much neil for doing. THIS i
Speaker 3: so appreciate. It oh, SURE i feel less tangled now
Speaker 3: thanks to.
Speaker 2: You your mental roadways have been. Unraveled thank.
Speaker 3: You thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Service you have it, anytime all.
Speaker 3: Right that conversation With Neil Dagrass tyson just definitely untangled
Speaker 3: my mind a little, bit or it totally bent it
Speaker 3: out of. Shape i'm not. SURE i have a lot
Speaker 3: of processing to. Do but three quick reflections on. That
Speaker 3: one on this question of if we're living in a,
Speaker 3: SIMULATION i Found neil's answer to that to be beautifully
Speaker 3: scientific and mathematical in some, way like there's no evidence against,
Speaker 3: it and there's potentially some evidence for, it so it's.
Speaker 3: Possible AND i found even more compelling his answer to
Speaker 3: the second question of how would we you know this
Speaker 3: kind of testing of the edges of the simulation to
Speaker 3: see if it. Breaks it is hugely destabilizing for me
Speaker 3: to think. About, second and on the subject of, destabilizing
Speaker 3: it was really sad By neil's answer about our growing
Speaker 3: distrust and skepticism about the. SCIENCE i had hope for
Speaker 3: something more, hopeful but he instead was, like, well we
Speaker 3: might implode as a. Society we have a lot further to.
Speaker 3: Fall that just sucks because if you think, about you,
Speaker 3: know other parts of that, conversation the great leaps we've
Speaker 3: made as a, society our ability to kind of double
Speaker 3: or triple our, lifespan our ability to detect and deflect.
Speaker 3: ASTEROIDS i, mean these are huge innovations that relied on
Speaker 3: a belief in, science an investment in. Science it's hard
Speaker 3: to think that we're going to let those things. Go,
Speaker 3: thirdly and on a much lighter, NOTE i want to
Speaker 3: make a plea to the negative gravity matter funders around the,
Speaker 3: world whatever universities or researchers are doing. THIS i, mean
Speaker 3: the idea of wormholes like These rick And morty guys
Speaker 3: have to just like avoid airports, entirely and to have
Speaker 3: food delivered into my refrigerator sounds like the best. Thing
Speaker 3: it also is really kind of, trippy really, trippy and
Speaker 3: if we get, There i'm going to know for sure
Speaker 3: that we're in a. Simulation that's it for this week
Speaker 3: of Smart girl Dumb. Questions i'm going to go find
Speaker 3: a wormhole AND i hope you'll be back with me Next.
Speaker 3: Friday today's show was produced With Sickbird, Productions Jade, Watson Diana,
Speaker 3: DaCosta And Kess, agnew with additional editing by