WEBVTT - SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Part 2 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.640 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:15.560 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and my name 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.239 is Julie Tuglass. And this is part two of our 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:23.200 steady episode the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This again, this 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.840 is part two. I highly recommend you listen to part 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.160 one first. Sometimes when we do a part one in 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:29.560 a part two, you can kind of take them in 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.319 any order you want, But this is not the case here. Uh, 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.440 there's a definite, uh narrative structure in place, and uh, 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:38.400 it just won't make sense if you don't listen to 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.800 part one first. That's right. We created the setup so 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:42.839 that when we get to this part that you guys 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:44.600 have a little bit more of an understanding of the 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.320 context of exp planets and aliens. So I hope you 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:53.440 guys enjoy Part two. Yeah, we're talking about set, we're 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.920 talking about the possibility of intelligent alien life elsewhere in 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.600 the cosmos, and we're talking about radio waves. I thought 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.920 it's important to point out that there's a reason why 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:06.800 why radio waves are so important in all of this. Uh. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.280 In Nidograsse Tyson's book Space chronicles. He points out that 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.200 radio waves are a communication band of choice for potential 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.480 alien civilizations due to the radio waves ability to traverse 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:24.240 the galaxy unimpended by interstellar gas and dust clouds really well, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.560 travel really well. So it's it's something we can look 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.800 for that we know travels vast distances and again, and 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:31.840 and that's the one of the things that we as 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.920 we mentioned when we're talking about firm and paradox and 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.640 the Drake equation, is that when we're talking about finding 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.680 life elsewhere in the universe, we're talking vast stretches of 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.200 time and space, I mean to to the level that 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.320 it's really difficult for us to to think about it. Uh, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:48.559 you know, like it's it's like thinking about thinking about 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.280 in terms of like finding your soul mate. It's like 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.600 that that person is out there in the world and 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.200 they're alive, and they didn't exist, you know, you know, 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.240 five thousand years ago, and it's it's not a situation 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.000 where they won't exist for another five Imagine that you're 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.240 super picky, and so you kind of have to apply 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.160 that Drake equation to your soul mate, right, so like 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.480 they have to be like exactly like five ten and 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.880 three quarter inches and they have to be I don't 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.079 know how many more like constraints can you put on that, right, 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.640 you could put like a hundred million constraints on it. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.640 And that is what it's like searching for that signal. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.840 So steady the search for extraterrestial intelligence. There's the Study 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.640 Agency and this was set up in the sixties in 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.920 Earnest by dedicated astronomers who are trying to figure this out. 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.720 Could they really pick up a signal? Now the search 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.440 uses large radio telescopes and with these telescope, scientists involved 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.800 in the STEADY hope to detect radio signals that are leaking. 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.639 This is what we're thinking leaking from other intelligent civilizations, 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.520 or that other civilizations have specifically aimed that signal at us. Yeah, 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.080 so either we'll listen in on on an alien phone 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.680 call essentially, or we will risk eve that alien phone 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.040 call that we both hope and dreadful. Now, according to 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.400 Marshall Brain, he is the founder of Hastaff Works, He's 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.440 got a nice blog post on this. He says, the 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.559 problem with steady is that it requires massive computational resources 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.720 because think of all that data that you have to 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.239 comb through Study is listening to a huge number of frequencies. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.919 Then the computer has to look at each frequency separately 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.560 and try to decide if it's carrying an intelligent signal 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.920 as opposed to noise. To give you an idea of 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.359 the scope of the problem, the antenna used by Study 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.720 at Home records thirty five gigabytes of data every day. 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.960 It takes millions of hours of computation time just to 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.560 process one day's worth of data. Now he's talking about 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.960 a program that's called Study at Home that sort of 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.080 runs the data for you in the background. Yeah. Yeah, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.000 the distributed computing program where you would install this on 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:51.880 your home computer. You could have to go use the 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.640 restroom or you go to have lunch or whatever. Screensaver 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.800 kicks in and your computer instead of working on your 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.240 own you know, efforts in your word, process a thing 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.760 or what have you, It then contributes that computing power 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.720 to studies problem of analyzing all of this data. That's right. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.040 It grinds away on that data, which is really cool. So, uh, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.360 the other problem, I guess you could say the problem 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:14.920 of having so much data is, uh, you know, trying 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:20.080 to tune into the most probable frequencies. So one way 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.040 to go about this is to determine the best range, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.839 and the one to tend giga hurt range is the 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.279 best range to listen is the quietest. Study also uses 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.080 large multi channel bandwidth signal processors that can scan millions 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.919 or billions of frequencies uh simultaneously, and that's really what's 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.040 what they're more leaning towards these days. Yeah, and then 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:41.600 there are so many factors you have to take into 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.360 account to you have to you have to worry about 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.120 about waves that are actually emitted by us, that are 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.360 just bouncing back from from something else, say, you know, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.360 a piece of space garbage, even um pulsars to pulsars, 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.440 because that was a big one. Yeah, the pulsars are 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.280 sending out this signal, this pulse, and when we first 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:01.440 just governed them, we didn't know what they were. They're like, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:03.760 oh my goodness, this is it, this, this could be it. 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:05.880 And then we we looked a little deeper when we've 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:07.920 realized that will actually there are these things and we'll 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.680 call them pul stars because they're pulsing starts start exactly 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.560 stars emitting a pulls um. And I also wanted to 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.400 mention too that most of study research has been done 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.600 by renting time on existing radio telescope, So it's not 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.200 even something that's in an endeavor that we can do constantly. Right, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.040 you have to rent the time because it's super expensive 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.440 to to even get this sort of technology, uh for 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:35.039 your own devices, right. Yeah. And it's a nonprofit and 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.240 they depend on the funding from a variety of different sources. 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.359 NASA UM kicks in and as well as you know, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.320 even just you know, individuals and various groups out there 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.640 contribute to the steady effort because it's something that's it's 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:48.960 you know a lot of people will leaeve in it, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.120 and for good reason, because it is if you if 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.880 you consider the even the possibility that there's life out 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.760 there in the universe, then it's it's it's essential that 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.240 we find out what it is and what it might 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.360 consist of. Yep. And the three main radio telescopes are 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.360 the Parks Radio Telescope in Australia. Uh, there's the telescope 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.680 in green Bank, West Virginia and the r CEBO Radio 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.880 Telescope in Puerto Rico. And I believe that's the one 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.600 that was in the movie Contact. Yes, at least in 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.080 the intro stuff. Yeah, and of course SETTI continues to 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.160 evolve with the times. A laser technology has made it 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.880 possible to search the optical portion of the electromatetics spectrum 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.479 for pulses of laser light that are just a few 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.080 nanoseconds long and duration so short you have to really 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.680 fine tune it to to actually you know, record them 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.839 and analyze them. But during that nanosecond they can actually 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.000 briefly shine brighter than the light of nearby stars. So 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.839 there's just another area set he's looking for the possible 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.720 clues and trying to intercept that phone call. Yeah, and 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.000 just to give everybody an idea of friendly, how how 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.680 huge this is, this this um this idea of trying 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.479 to pick up this particular signal. Uh. There are a 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.560 couple of different ways to go at at. One is 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.680 called the wide field search. So you have this expansive 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.240 sky beyond right, what do you do? I mean, that's 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.840 a ton of data that's coming at you at any 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.920 little point that you decide to concentrate on. So with 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.520 the wide field search and this method, you survey large 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.080 chunks of the sky for one at a time for signals, 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.000 and it allows the entire sky to be searched at 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.280 a low resolution for short period of time. The problem 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.400 is the low resolution, right, But if you get some 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.320 data back that says, hey, this seems kind of like 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.720 a hot area, then can go back later with high resolution. 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.240 That's the idea at least, and then you have targeted searches. 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.080 And this method you make intensive investigations of a limited 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.920 number of sunlike stars. So again that's that sort of 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.600 Goldilocks area that you would be looking for. And the 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.800 targeted search allows more detailed investigations of small areas that 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:53.000 we think might be probable locations of e T. Now 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.560 what what happens if you think you've heard a signal, Well, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.400 then you have to analyze that signal. You just run 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.320 to the press and say we got it, we got 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.640 it here that we just they said, they just totally 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.080 morse coded us um from the article has study works 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.040 on on hastaf works dot com. If a signal detected, 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.200 there are a series of steps that follow to confirm 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.720 that signal is extraterrestrial. First, the radio telescope is moved 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.080 off the target. The signal should go away, right, and 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.480 then it should return When the telescope is pointed back. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.120 So they come and say, let's just make sure that 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.600 this is the real deal, move this off access and 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.600 then take it back. UH. Known Earth or Near Earth's 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.840 sources such as satellites must be ruled out stuff that's 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.320 originating from that object or bouncing back from you know, 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.719 Earth signal bouncing back off that object. Similarly, quasars pulsars 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.160 have to be ruled out as well, and then the 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:51.040 signal has to be confirmed by another radio telescope, preferably 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.440 one on a different continent to say, are you guys 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.960 hearing the same thing that we are hearing? UM? All right, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.760 so so far we don't. We haven't really had that contact. 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.000 But in nineteen seventies seven there's something called the Wow 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.760 signal that was detected, and this got people really excited 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:12.680 because it is still an anomaly. It's certainly the seventy 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.199 two second signals something that that seems to be something 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.040 that was picked up by the big Ear radio telescope 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.959 in Ohio just outside of Delaware, UM and the main 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.840 astronomer and all of this American astronomer Jerry ruh Emon 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.679 PhD and UH, and he's even kind of gone back 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:33.880 and forth on it. Um. I was reading some of 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.079 his writings about it, and like for a while he 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.440 was he was just he was of the mindset, now 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.119 there's got to be a you know, a terrestrial explanation 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.640 for this and what have you. But on the thirtieth 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.839 anniversary of the Wow signal, he had this, uh, this 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.199 really cool bit to say. I'm just gonna read the 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.359 quote here. He says, Thus, since all of the possibilities 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.800 of the terrestrial origin have been either ruled out or 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.040 seemed improbable, and since the possibility of an extraterrestrial origin 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.440 has not been able to be ruled out, I must 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:04.880 conclude than an E. T. I extraterrestrial intelligence might the 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.040 MND is bolded and to tell us us UM might 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.680 have sent the the signal that we received as the 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.280 Wild Source. The fact that we saw the signal and 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.360 only one beam could be due to an E. T. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.960 I sending a beacon signal in our direction and then 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.440 sending it in another direction that we couldn't detect. Of course, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.560 being a scientist, I await the reception of additional signals 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.000 like the wild source that are able to be received 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.800 and analyzed by many observatories. Thus, I must state that 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:32.760 the origin of the wild signal is still an open 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.480 question for me. There's simply two little data to draw 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.760 many conclusions. In other words, as I stated above, I 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.600 choose not to quote draw vast conclusions from the half 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.680 vast data unquote. Yeah, there's this great quote too that 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.240 he says it was sort of like a tug on 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.160 the cosmic fishing line. So it doesn't prove that you 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:52.680 have a fish on the line, but it does say 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.800 that you should keep your line in the water because 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.120 there might be something there. And what is so mysterious 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:00.200 about the signal is that it was being in minted 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.520 from an area that was not a Goldilocks zone. It 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.000 was sort of the void. It was sort of like 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.440 there's nothing there, and they couldn't figure out like what 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.840 what was the what was originating, what was making that? 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.480 And a couple of really interesting theories came out of that, 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.320 which I think helped to sort of color our ideas 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.360 of why we haven't picked up a significant signal since 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.960 And that's this idea that that it was a lighthouse signal. 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:28.880 So rather than it just being like hey, and we're 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.559 just gonna send this universe the signal out into the 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.120 universe constantly. It was sort of like, we have limited 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.600 energy and resources and maybe even technology, and it's going 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.160 to be more of a lighthouse signal that just kind 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.679 of goes around and well, and that was one of 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:44.520 the ideas. Yeah, that Aimon mentioned the idea that it's 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.160 blasted this signal at Earth and then it turned blasted 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.400 in another direction, so we didn't get a heat signal 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.520 because it's you know, it's going in a circle or 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.560 what have you. It's it's it's trying to send out 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.240 the signal to anybody who might be out there and 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.040 letting them know, hey, what's up or or if if 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.320 it is. Indeed, and even with the true lighthouse saying 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.880 stay away because we have rocks or hideous monster gods 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.640 here and you should you shouldn't come anywhere near us. Well, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.120 there is that zoo theory, right that that that we 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.800 have been picked up on and there's an intelligent extraterrest 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.160 fields out there. They're saying, hey, just let them do 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:20.520 their thing. We're just watch them from a distance like 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.840 a colony of ants and see what are up to um. 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.400 And then there's also the idea that maybe that technology 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.880 died or the technology from that society died out, or 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.200 maybe it's just that we didn't overlap. So in other words, 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.400 by the time that we started listening, we missed any 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.320 sort of signals that might have been sent out. Yeah, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.440 I mean the whole thing that possibility, as well as 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:43.880 just the lighthouse possibility. It reminds me of any of 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.280 these movies where someone is stranded on a desert aisle 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.439 and that that plane flies over, and generally they're like 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.240 a sleep or doing something else. You're talking to a 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.199 volleyball when it happened planes flying over, and so they 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.480 frantically try and get that plane's attention, but it's too late. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.880 It's already passed over. And maybe there just wasn't a 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:00.560 very good way to get its attention to begin with. 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.600 So there's this kind of like haunting feeling. What if 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.240 they did. What if that was an attempt at communication 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.280 from a distance civilization, and in one one way or another, 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.640 we were too late. We were just we we didn't 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.520 have the technology to respond or our our time the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.520 time light line, or where the life cycle of our 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.960 civilizations didn't overlap, were can't overlap enough for that to 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.040 be possible. You know, it's like you know, it's like 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.120 star torn lovers out there in the cosmos. It's beautiful. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.160 But that's what makes people so obsessed up about it 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.319 because they say, again, we've got the ingredients of this 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:39.280 primordial soup. There's got to be a possibility here. Um, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.040 let's just keep listening. And that is what Study is 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.440 trying to do. And Study is not just listening. They're 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.040 preparing too. And we had mentioned this in a previous podcast, 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.360 guess about a couple of years ago, and I think 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.559 it was called Alien Etiquette one on one. Yeah, that 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.040 was one of the early ones that we did together. 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.040 They the Study Institute had a workshop in Paris in 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.040 two thousand and two inviting people from all different disciplines 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.640 to discuss the ways in which we might communicate with 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.800 aliens and the best modes to do it. And then 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.800 I really love this one. Two eight NASA sponsored a 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.520 course at the University of Wyoming called Interstellar Message Composition, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.520 and UH students were asked to ponder how aliens might 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.080 communicate and how you would translate between languages and so 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.120 on and step forth. One of the students wrote a 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.200 poem about menstruation with syllables arranged in the Fibonacci sequence 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.160 in her quest, I think to try to let extraterdials 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.640 know about some of the human biology. Yeah, I mean, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.320 because you never know what the talking points are going 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:37.760 to be. You want to be like, hey, do you 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.680 guys have ad menstruation and they're like, yeah, yeah, we 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:41.840 do actually, and then you have something to talk about 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.400 like oh, how quaint. Yeah, it's like a first date 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:49.560 between species um civilizations. Um. I mean you could make 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.240 the argument that you need to appoint somebody like you 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.280 know what if Dennis Rodman was the was the go 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.240 to man. You know, he's doing so well, Dennis Rodman, Well, yeah, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:14:59.960 I mean he's he's been doing so well in term 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.320 of just being an international emissary, you know, going out 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.080 to North Korea on unofficial behalf of the United States. 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.840 So maybe we send him to other worlds to talk 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.280 to the hideous monster gods. I don't know. All right, 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:13.880 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:23.640 back more setting. Well, a lot of this has been 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.640 us looking out at the cosmos, But what about trying 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.160 to take the perspective of an extra terrestrial life form 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.240 looking at us. What would Earth the exo planet look like, yeah, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.360 because we we're talking about okay, other signal signals that 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.120 we uh, we receive that we may either be listening 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.160 in or being told directly. So it's kind of like 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:46.760 this in this situation. It makes me think of when 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.360 you're at a restaurant or something, or any public place 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.760 and you're having a conversation with somebody, or maybe you're 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:53.760 on the phone, and then you realize too late that 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:55.440 you're an earshot of someone else and you're like, oh, 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.440 my goodness, did they listen to that whole conversation up 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.920 and at this point? And then only then can you 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.720 maybe have a directed comment to them and greet them 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.320 or whatever. So the idea here is that long before 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.120 we even thought about sending a signal, a radio signal 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:13.680 out into the Great Blafe Beyond, we were inadvertently leaking 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.600 all these radio signals. And it's you know, it wasn't 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.240 the worst stuff that we've necessarily that we've we've contributed, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.640 but not all of it is exactly something that we 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:29.080 would put on the galactic resume. Hey, otherwise you're right, Um, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.000 it's sort of like cleaning up our Facebook page if 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.480 we could write it's like only eighteen year old and 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.560 then you see yourself as a thirty year old exactly. Um. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.800 So yeah, like you said, we've been kind of leaking 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:44.880 out this the triatus of humanity since the nineteen thirties 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.040 in the form of AM and FM radio broadcast, TV 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:53.360 broadcasts and then satellite and radar broadcast. Um. And then 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.440 there's also just the other sort of ambient noise like 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.920 every time you open your garage door. These are all 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.280 signals that are being out there. So we have lots 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.760 of groaning noises, we have lots of uh, I mean 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.639 ultimately a lot of footage of us, of us as 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.159 a biological specimen that I think is going to be 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.000 good regardless. But then you haven't suddssed that the monster costumes. 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.080 You have various levels of fiction and fantasy, you have 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.520 actual depictions of humanity, and it's that it's worth of 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.879 us waging war on each other, um, waging genocide and 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.439 mas just some really horrible images for another culture to 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:28.919 look at and go, oh, I don't know if we 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.600 need these guys in our in our friend group. Yeah. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.920 And what's interesting about that is, say it's say that 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.160 you pick up on our frequency, and then it's sort 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.880 of like this ocean of sound coming at us, and 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.840 and the first thing that you hear that is from 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:43.879 the nineteen thirties, and then you can move onto the 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.439 nineteen fifties and it's like bits and pieces from the 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.639 honeymoon or that's the name of the show, right, Yeah, Honeymooners. 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:54.320 I Love Lucy. Yeah, trying to make sense of all this, Yeah, yeah, 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:55.840 I found that really interesting. To the edge of this 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.800 radio bubble, that is that is admitted by our planet 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:04.399 and by our culture, uh, is about seventy lot years away, 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.480 you know, just spreading out like like ripples in a pond, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:10.720 and and near that edge, that's where you find stuff 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.080 like I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners, and I looked 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:14.760 it up. I was like, oh, I wonder if I 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.919 never really watched those shows. I wonder if interplanetary relations 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.679 were ever covered, and and of course they were to 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.280 a certain extent. There is an episode of The Honeymooners 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.680 called The Man from Space in which Jackie Gleeson dressed 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.080 up in a like a really bad, uh like robot 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.879 alien costume, and then Ralph comes into the door and 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.280 is scared, like he's terrified. He's like, ah, and then 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.200 he voices some concern over the possibility of of alien invasion. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.080 So even right there in the Honeymooners, they might clickoff 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.480 and say, whoa, there's some sort of you know, underlying 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.720 fear that we might invade them. Maybe we should we 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:50.879 should lay low. And then there's and I Love Lucy 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:55.160 episode called Lucy Is Envious that features two different sets 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.400 of of bad Martian costumes, like Lucy and her friend 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:00.840 around the roof wearing Martian costume is trying to scare 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:02.560 people off the roof for some reason, and I think 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.080 paying them to do it, Yeah, I don't know. And 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.119 then then there I think their husbands come in and 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.520 scared them wearing the Martian costumes. It's uh. And so 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.560 this is the thing that's out there on that bubble, 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.359 right yeah. And it's concerning what we think are is 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.920 intelligent extraterrestrial life, which is very interesting. I did find 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.360 it really fascinating that Jackie Gleason was apparently a big 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.040 UFO enthusiast, So I wonder what he would make of 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.199 that to to you know, that is into the idea 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.439 of extraterrestrial life as he was, um, you know that 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.280 he's kind of an emissary of it. It's hard to say, right, 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:35.280 because then there's the whole thing about how we project 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.480 all sorts of things onto other beings, and we have 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.399 these expectations, and really we don't even really know what 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.480 we're dealing with because, as we had pointed out in 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.199 one of the Slime episodes, intelligence can be many different 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.320 things in many different forms, so it may not be 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.480 what we expect. I wanted to point out to that 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.360 if if some sort of extraterrestrial life we're looking at 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.239 us um they might pick up that we are just 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.800 chemically all over the place. They might look at Earth 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.840 and they might look at the biomarkers that indicate our 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.800 planet is rife with flora and fauna, and they would 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.680 do this through spectroscopy, the analysis of light through a spectrometer, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.960 which allows us to look at the chemical fingerprint of 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.920 every element in chemical and see how much of it 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.480 is absorbed, emitted, and scattered throughout a particular atmosphere. So 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.959