WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Watches Independence Day 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.560 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.480 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.320 and I love all things tech and today we're going 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.080 to listen to another classic episode of tech Stuff. This 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.960 one's titled tech Stuff Watches Independence Day. It originally published 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:34.680 on July three, two thousand thirteen, seven years ago. Wow. So, 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.160 as the name suggests, we sat down and watched Independence 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.000 Day and then we had a discussion about the technology 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.599 in that film, and you know how it stacks up 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:48.120 against reality. I hope you guys enjoy. To start off, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.159 we should probably give an overview of the film for 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:51.720 those of you who have not seen it. Now, this 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:57.360 movie came out in nine Now, there were a few 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.880 other things that were going on at that time. That 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.120 It's the year that DVDs launched in Japan. Yeah, so 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:05.920 when I actually asked my friends if anyone had a 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:07.760 copy of this, they all said they had it on 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:12.320 vhs and said, hs, we don't even remember that media. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:14.520 I don't even know if I have anything that will 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.440 still play a tape. Uh. There were other things that 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.440 happened that year, in the world of technology, Internet Explorer 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.720 three launched. That was Microsoft's big browser, and of course 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:26.720 the three was one of the bigger ones of the 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.360 releases Windows in T four point it was released by 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.000 Microsoft as well. eBay got started. A little first person 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.720 shooter by the name of Duke NUKEAM three D launched 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.520 and that ended up, of course getting a lot of 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.360 people really excited. They enjoyed the game. I include was planned. 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.640 Y sequel was planned and would end up being vaporware 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.240 for more than a decade. Uh. There was a certain 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.080 animal that was born that year. Yeah, Dolly the cloned 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:01.200 sheep was born, first first cloned mammal. Yep, Dolly the Sheep, 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.040 first mammals successfully cloned. That's also the year that IBMS 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:10.120 Deep Blue defeated the chess champion, Gary Kasparov, so man 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.200 versus machine and machine wins. Yeah. It was also the 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.919 tele Communications Act of strangely enough, happened in UM and 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.400 and that basically allowed the Internet to sort of be 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.160 lumped in along with broadband signals, and UM allowed cable 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.440 companies to start offering Internet services. People were really excited 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.040 about this new megabit speeds that we're going to start 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.560 happening right right. We were finally getting away from the 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.600 kill a bit speeds that we were thinking of with 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.200 the old dial up modems. And you know, this is 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.080 this is back when the Internet is pretty young as 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.520 far as the general public is concerned. The Internet itself 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.720 had been around for a while, but really only research institutions, universities, 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.040 some government of facilities, military, that kind of stuff. Those 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.040 organizations had access to it, but anyone outside of that 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:55.880 really did not have a whole lot of access to 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.160 the Internet unless they just having to work someplace or 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.640 go to school someplace that had it. At this point 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:03.480 in ninety six, we've actually got the point where the 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.799 Worldwide Web is a thing, but still very early on 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.000 in the kind of the g c S era of 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.239 the Internet exactly. And and according to uh the people 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.760 history dot com that they say that in the twelve 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:23.600 months of the Internet, host computer number goes from about 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.080 one million computers to ten million computers, So obviously explosive 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.440 growth at this time, although it's still very much a 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.040 new thing, which kind of comes into play a little 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.760 bit in the film Independence Day. So Independence Day it 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.240 was a movie by Dean Devlin and Roland Yeah, and 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.640 Emerick is. Of course, he's become known as the guy 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.880 who likes to blow up the Earth. Uh. He's blown 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:51.160 up the earth in several movies and other projects, things 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:56.640 like everything from Godzilla to the Day After Tomorrow. Uh. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.480 He's really big on worldwide destruction. And of course we 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.320 should mention that. Not too long ago, it was announced 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.720 that sequels to Independence Day had been planned two sequels UM, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:13.920 with the first one coming out like I think, UM 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.719 and Independence Day stars some some folks that you might recognize, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.600 like Will Smith would be the big name Bill Pullman, 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.560 who I always get mixed up with Bill Paxton. If 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.159 you put them side by side, I would not be 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.440 able to name one versus the other. And I have 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.599 you have you have this this problem pretty commonly UM. 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.360 Also also Jeff Goldbloom, who was very famous for being 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.240 UM wacky scientist at the time due to Jurassic Park. Right. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.520 He's also known as Uh. He does this stuttering thing 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.640 where he I do too. I enjoy it. Randy Quaid 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.719 also in the movie as a as what you assume 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:56.920 is a delusional drunk, although apparently he was the truth. Yeah, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.800 he's not delusional. UM. Adam Baldwin's in Tiny cheeby Adam Baldwin. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.320 He's so young and adorable. It's very cute. Yeah, it's 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.279 it's definitely well before his firefly days. Yeah, Brent Brent 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.760 Spiner data data from Star Trek Next Generation, although he 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.200 does not play data from Star Trek Next Generation in 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.040 this movie. That would have been confusing. So to give 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.120 a brief rundown on what the film's all about in 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.680 case you have not seen it, there's gonna be a 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.320 lot of spoilers in this podcast, but essentially it's ninety six. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.720 I think it's safety spoil at night. Yeah, I think 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.960 the statute of let me Yeah. So the movie is 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.599 all about how, uh, this alien invasion force comes into 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.760 two Earth's orbit and then lays waste to the major 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.600 cities on Earth in preparation for a full on invasion. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.120 And it's about how Earth forces kind of mount up 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:52.160 a defense, a desperate defense, to fight off these alien invaders. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.520 And this all happens, of course, on on from July 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.279 two to July four, which here in the United States 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.159 is kind of a celebration and of independence and hence 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:07.200 the term Independence Day. It's extremely um, what's it not 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.600 not ethnocentric, gendoistic, it's it's all right, let me put 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.520 it this way. It's about America. It's an American movie, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.039 is um, there's quite a bit of there's quite a 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.960 bit of uh stuff about America. And then there's some 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.599 token mentions of other places around the world, where you 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:29.599 see a brief scene in Iraq with British forces saying 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.600 things like the Americans on the case, bloody hell like 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:39.520 that's you know, and then it goes to Japan and Russia, 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.360 and of course all the Russians are sitting around vodka 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.400 and listening to the radio. And I mean, it's just 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.280 let's just say that the the depiction of other cultures 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:51.599 is somewhat stereotypical within the context of this movie, but stilted. 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.080 Don't don't worry though. Everything is so it's it's not 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:01.400 just that we have a very very American centric film. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.440 No one comes out of this looking too great. But 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:06.960 but that's that's more more commentary on the quality of 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.359 the film. Let's get down to some of the science, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.840 because this film is filled with science and technology and 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.440 likely and some of the stuff. There's one thing in particular, 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.280 there's a couple of things that are really cool. Yeah, 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.560 that end up being something that that's similar to what 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.080 we use today. And I'm actually really impressed, and it 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.480 was a really cool idea that I don't know who 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.680 came up with it, but it was a really nifty thing. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.000 But the movie opens with a shot of the Moon 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.320 and you're actually looking at one of the moon landing 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.440 sites where you see the you know, the footprints on 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.720 the regulus on the moon and the placard, yeah, and 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.200 the American flag, and then a shadow comes across the 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.480 Moon and you hear this terrible rumbling noise. Because in space, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:51.800 everyone can hear you scream. Yeah. See, that's one of 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.160 the things that happens in this film is that sound 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.840 does travel in space in this movie, which I can 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:01.360 only assume that the ships themselves are miked, that somehow 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:07.160 they're they're pushing out an atmosphere where sound can actually travel. Um. Yeah, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.640 because because there's a rumbling on the on the Moon, 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.600 which technically you would not be able to hear unless 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.160 you had your ear right up against the Moon's surface 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.239 because there's not any atmosphere on the Moon, so there's 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.040 no way for particles to travel. Remember, sound is a 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.760 physical uh, manifestation. It's actually particles that are banging together, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.040 and there's no atmosphere for the particles to bang together. 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.440 You wouldn't be able to hear anything. Speaking of which 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.800 there there are really no I mean this. The ship 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.680 kicks up all kinds of moon dust and uh and yeah, 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.920 it shakes everything around a whole lot, which wouldn't really 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.280 be Yeah, that wouldn't happen either unless the propulsion system 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:47.000 for the ship is somehow something like gravity based, which 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.640 is possible. That's something we'll we'll give you that one, right, Yeah, 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.440 alien technology. We don't know how it works because we 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.600 are not we're not privy to that information. So it's 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.959 quite possible that they're using some sort of gravity draw 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.280 if which somehow can affect actual particles. Um, so we'll 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.680 give them the rumbling. We'll give at least the movement part. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.960 The rumbling part is a little yeah, yeah, and multiple 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:10.520 talking again about the ships in just a minute. I 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.840 think we're kind of going in chronological order throughout the 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.040 movie because that's how we took our notes, exactly exactly. 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.520 And we should also say that lots of science fiction 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:24.000 films have sound in space, and it's a dramatic. Yeah, 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.800 you can't, although I do appreciate it when people don't 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.520 do that, right, like just wee firefly where you would 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:32.720 have a ship explode and you don't hear anything because 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.120 you wouldn't be able to Uh, that makes sense, But 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.600 I understand why they do it for dramatic effect. It 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.400 would not be as effective for an audience, So I 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.120 give them a pass on that because they're using a 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.480 common trope that's throughout all the science fiction films. Um. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.959 We then get down to the surface of the planet 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.480 where where where Steady has suddenly realized and it is 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.120 it is pronounced study Steady, right, not s E t I, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.160 because one of the characters in the film s t I. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:06.079 What we just call it set search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Now, 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.200 this is a real organization and they use radio telescopes 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.200 to search out radio signals from other places in the 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.960 galaxy to see if there's anything broadcasting out there. But 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.080 by radio signals, we don't necessarily mean audio like audible. Yeah, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.559 it might be. It might be well, just like just 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:28.440 like our WiFi is a kind of radio transmission. Uh, 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.239 it may be that it's just a series of frequencies 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.440 that we pick up that end up looking like it's 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.240 some form of communication. It wouldn't necessarily be like or 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.600 listening to nineteen fifties rock or anything. Um, you might 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.079 be able to translate that into some sort of audible sound, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.280 but it wouldn't necessarily sound like anything. So yeah, yeah, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.440 And which is interesting to me because in the seat 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.520 headquarters they do have a scientist who goes like, I'm 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.520 hearing beeps and boops, literal audio beeps and groups coming 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.319 through this headset, and that means some things, right, So, 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.720 so clearly, steady in this in this little fractured universe, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.320 has UM translated all of their radio frequencies into an 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.640 audible signal that technicians can and and to be clear, 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.319 steady actually you know when they're looking for these radio signals, 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:17.760 one of the things you have to keep in mind 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.240 is there's a lot of stuff out there that can 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.000 create a radio signal that isn't intelligent. It's it's just 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:29.079 it's a natural phenomenon. Basically space, I mean objects within space, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.920 anything with with with gravity or with light you can 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.240 have you can have the potential for that. You can 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.360 have anything like quasars, things like that that create these 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.880 radio signals. So what SETI has to do is not 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.720 only look for the presence of radio signals, but then 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.280 to actually, yeah, to make sure that that's some sort 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:51.400 of meaningful communication as opposed to just random noise. Well, 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.800 in this case, they figure out, hey, there's something up there, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.320 and they see that there's a through through some form 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.840 of thermal imaging, they see a gigantic spaceship. Now, later 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.720 on the movie, we discover that radar does not work 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.360 on these spaceships. So radar, that's one that's I guess 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.079 the excuse of why the the spaceship was not detected 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.679 until after it was right there at the Moon already. Yeah, 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.160 But in Earth's orbit, the thermal imaging works. So in 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.040 other words, there's no cloaking device here. There's nothing that's 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:29.760 that's keeping it invisible to us from our Now we 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:31.800 can't get them by radar, but we could see them. Now. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.800 This ship, the mother ship, because this is before it 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.760 has let out any other smaller ships, is huge. According 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.599 to the movie, it is five hundred and fifty kilometers 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.000 in diameter, which is about three two miles. That's just 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.000 under half the size of Texas at its widest point, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.120 and and it says that it's about a quarter of 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.719 the mass of the Moon. All of this meaning it's 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:56.400 it's very, very big, and we would be able to 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.440 see it, if not, even without radar with our naked eye, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.600 like looking up at the sky, we would go, oh what, Yeah, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.680 you would at least be able to see the light 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.120 from this thing if nothing else, I mean, the sunlight 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.280 reflecting off of it. But with telescopes we'd be able 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:14.000 to see it even further away. And possibly you know, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.599 maybe maybe the shields, because it is revealed that the 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.240 ship has some kind of shielding mechanism um which which 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:25.560 blocks you know, torpedoes, um. Yeah, but maybe maybe it 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.400 also blocks visual data. I don't know. I mean, then 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.120 it with the question would be why do they bother 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.040 to reveal themselves at all? Because of it? If a 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.760 dramatic effect, it's like all that only makes sense within 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.960 the context of a movie within when you step outside 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:43.760 of that and you look at cloud. If you were 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.760 going to destroy a planet, wouldn't you wouldn't you want 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:47.839 to have a dramatic entrant. I have learned my lesson. 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.120 I am no longer revealing my egomaniacal plans to the 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.559 hero before I set them in motion. You know, once 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.760 for me once, shame on you, full me four D 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.520 and seventy eight times shame on me. All right, not 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:06.240 again for seven nine. It's going down okay, But yeah, 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.280 the the it does not appear to be invisible. So 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.800 that's one. That's one thing we can point out as 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.559 being a problem that we would have seen this thing 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.640 coming towards the Earth even with no instrumentation. We would 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.520 have literally telescopes. Yet we would have seen it well 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.720 before it ever reached as far as the moon. That 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.560 being said, we also don't know if I assumed this 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.960 ship must have some sort of super fast propulsion system 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.600 for faster than or at least yeah, I mean it 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:40.640 would have to be because there are no nearby systems 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.640 that could support life, uh compared you know from our 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.320 position right there are no planets that are because we 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.760 do learn that these aliens share a lot in common 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.640 with us. They breathe oxygen, they have the same sort 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.880 of tolerances for heat and cold, and so they have 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.640 they have some kind of visual cortex that that allows 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:04.400 them to you use very similar computer displays to ours. Yeah, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.520 that's a problem, but we'll get into that. But yeah, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.040 they they they have a lot of similarities to humans, 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.080 which is already a huge coincidence. I mean, there's no 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.280 there's nothing that says that another intelligent kind of life 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.200 would have to be humanoid in shape. That's one that 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:20.200 I'm willing to give them though. That's that's that's one. 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.120 I mean, they're not quite you know, it's it's not 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.600 like clingons versus humans, and so it's not it's not 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.720 quite quite that close. But you still have you know, generally, 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.320 you know, limbs and that head and is a very 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.200 strange place, is all I'm saying. I'm that's one that 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.520 I'm willing to let slide. Well. For them to be 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.840 so similar to us and in multiple ways is a 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.120 huge coincidence when you think about all the variables out there, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:43.680 I mean, when you when you really get down to it, 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.440 when you talk about our sample size for planets with 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.560 life on it, that's a one. As a sample size 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.960 of one, we have one planet that we know of 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.400 that supports life as we know it as we know it, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.320 So that's an incredibly small sample size. So this is 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.560 a problem that's throughout science fiction. I'm not just picking 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.600 on independence, but but you know, we have to extrapolate 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.040 from what we know, so I mean, I understand that, 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.440 but for something to be this similar to us, it's 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.280 pretty phenomenal. Anyway. The fact that they're this similar means 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.600 that that the well draws a lot of of questions, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.880 one of which is that why are they coming here? 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.880 And they eventually it's revealed that they're planning on invading 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:26.760 and taking over the planet. That what they do is 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.560 they go from planet to planet, they consent the resources, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:31.360 and then move on to them. They're like, well, this 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.680 one's done, let's go on, which then raises another question, 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.200 which is that we assume there are a lot of 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.280 exo planets out there, lots we've we've already found to 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.720 found lots of exo planets. Uh, there are several that 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.320 we found that are what we within what we call 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.200 the Goldilocks zone, which is this zone within a distance 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.720 from the host star of that planet. If we were 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.320 in Star Trek, it would be called a Class M planet. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.560 meaning that if meaning that that it would at least 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.680 have the potential for supporting life as we know it 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.880 based upon its distance from the star. But that's all 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.000 the you know, and we might know something about the 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.520 composition of the planet itself, but we wouldn't know enough 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.040 about to say that whether there is or isn't life 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.000 on it. However, I'm sure that, just based upon the 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.240 huge number we've already started to see in our within 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:25.520 our own galaxy, there must be countless planets that fall 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.240 into this category, which makes you wonder, why would you 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:33.560 bother going to try and colonize one where the residents 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:37.000 of that planet might potentially fight back. Well, they it is, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.320 I would say, I would argue that that these aliens 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.399 had to have been watching us long enough to to 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.480 understand our language, and understand our computer language, which we'll 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.360 get to in just a second, and and furthermore understand 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.840 our culture. Um, because when they do send out those 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.119 little spaceships, they send them not to the most populated 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.080 regions of the planet, but to the major cultural landmarks, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.840 as though they are specifically trying to evoke emotional response 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.280 in us. Yeah, though they are the creators of the film. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, so, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.520 if you're looking at it from a storyteller perspective, you 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.280 want your you want to park your your your spaceship 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.400 directly over the Empire, State State Building, or directly over 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.680 the White House or building as it was. Yeah, exactly, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:25.720 you park it directly over some incredibly identifiable landmark, because 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.880 that's very it's a great visual effect if you are 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.520 an alien. The reason you do it is, I don't know, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:39.040 you're already leveling cities. Um, so they we presume that 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:40.760 they have some sort of faster than light drive in 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.840 order for them to get to where they're going. We 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.080 don't know that. It's never revealed in the movie where 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.959 they came from or how they got here. Um, we 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.240 don't know. Uh. They talk about how the radio signal 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.399 um is originating from the moon. Uh you can't. I 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.359 don't know how they figure that out, Like how I 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.960 mean you could feel or other came from that direction. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.280 Study say, say this radio signal is coming from the moon, right, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.800 But you don't I mean, you could see what direction 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.080 it was coming from. If you were, you know, triangulating 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.760 from various radio stations and you saw how long it 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:15.440 took to get to each one, you could figure out 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.760 kind of where the origin point was. Distance is a 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.880 little weird, I mean, because radio signals can come from 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:23.800 really far away. Now, grant the strength of the signal 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:29.680 would give you an idea, but that that partly an equation. 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.720 That's a little bit on the fly. Um, they start 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.879 using our own satellites to communicate the aliens do the 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.880 mothership eventually has other ships split off from it. Oh 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:43.400 and one other thing I want to mention. You said 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:44.960 that had a quarter of the mass of the Moon. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.400 In case you're curious, I did the math here. It's 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.400 so the moon has a massive seventy three grams, which 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.960 would be if you if you wrote down the number 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.200 seven and then the number three and then put twenty 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.960 one zeros after it. That's so many grams of math 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.080 us the moon has so this Uh, this spaceship has 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.200 one point eight grams of mass. Uh. And they talk 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.159 about the possibility of using an I C. B M 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.840 to bring this mother ship down before it starts to 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.920 split off and all the other ships come out from it. Uh. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.000 There's no nuclear weapon that could destroy that much mass. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.480 It just we have not created a nuclear weapon that 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:27.440 could do that much damage. Yeah, there's that's so massive, 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.199 and we don't not only why why would we? But 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.960 how could we? So? How how how do we know 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.479 how much mass this thing has? Yeah? I don't know. 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.919 I mean, because they're they're looking at it from a 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.560 thermal imaging perspective, which really just is a is a 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.480 gravitational pull and and unless it is um, unless they've 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.760 calculated the amount that it's offset the tides, or I 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.640 don't even even then, you wouldn't be able to calculate, 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.760 you know, figure out what the mass is. That that's 0:20:57.760 --> 0:20:59.600 a good question. I think it was. I think the 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.320 answer is they wanted to make sure it looked like 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.480 it was big. This is from my sheet of increasingly 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:11.280 incredulous question. How is this possible? Well, the mother ship 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:15.719 has all these large city sized ships split off from it, 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.560 and the city size ships then come down and hover 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.040 over the various cities, including like directly over the Empire 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.360 State Building, directly over the Capitol Building, directly over part 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.439 of l At, etcetera. And they I think they say 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:30.439 at one point it's like ten to fifteen ships. So 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:35.600 apparently they never get an accurate account. Um. The ships 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.560 are using our satellite system to communicate with each other. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.600 They're bouncing signals off of our satellites, which raises a question, 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.480 how do they get their technology to interact with ours? 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:50.320 So they they've clearly learned our our computer programming languages. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.399 They must have, because how else, and they must have 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:58.080 been designed machines on their their ships that could then 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.720 interface with our machines, because otherwise, you know, yes, you 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.199 can see that they're broadcasting radio signals, but on a 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.240 technological level, you wouldn't be able to interact with that 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.520 unless yours were somehow um you know, had some sort 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.720 of adapter alien to Earth adapter or you could tap 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.720 into our technology. But they're using our satellite systems to 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.359