WEBVTT - Will aliens destroy us?

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.760
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff

0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:16.439
<v Speaker 1>works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. This

0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.079
<v Speaker 1>is Alice and I don't know if the science editor

0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.720
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com. This is Robert Lamb, science

0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.320
<v Speaker 1>writer at how stuff works dot com. And today we're

0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.560
<v Speaker 1>tackling a pretty big question and one that, uh, at

0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.760
<v Speaker 1>the time of this recording, was still making the rounds

0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.279
<v Speaker 1>in the news media. Um, will aliens destroy us? And

0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.920
<v Speaker 1>I need a need of stress here that we're dealing

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.160
<v Speaker 1>with a a big cosmological question here, one of the biggest.

0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.320
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of speculation in this, like like very

0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.760
<v Speaker 1>high minded speculation, not like you know what if a

0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.440
<v Speaker 1>you know, just it's um, it's not based necessarily in

0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.120
<v Speaker 1>in strict scientific research. You know that. That's the whole

0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.160
<v Speaker 1>nature of some of these big cosmological questions. Yeah, said,

0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:01.800
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna be having more of a conversation than a

0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.479
<v Speaker 1>discussed and tearing apart some study today. So the reason

0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.800
<v Speaker 1>this was making the news is because I've been series

0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.639
<v Speaker 1>currently airing on Discovery. Yeah, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking.

0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.560
<v Speaker 1>You wrote for this, right, Yeah, I wrote for the website. Um,

0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.160
<v Speaker 1>did some summaries a couple of really cool quizzes on

0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.959
<v Speaker 1>aliens and time traveling, a couple of really hard quizzes. Yeah,

0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.560
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't even get them right, they're that hard. And

0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.399
<v Speaker 1>I wrote the during things. Um but but yeah, so

0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.680
<v Speaker 1>that the first episode right out of the gate was

0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.560
<v Speaker 1>Aliens and uh and I'm just gonna go ahead and

0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:38.960
<v Speaker 1>read part of the script here. You know that of

0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.479
<v Speaker 1>what Hawking says, he says, we only have to look

0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.039
<v Speaker 1>at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into

0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.880
<v Speaker 1>something we wouldn't want to meet. We humans are already

0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.160
<v Speaker 1>capable of manipulating the course of our own evolution. Exactly

0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.960
<v Speaker 1>the same, presumably, would be true of advanced extraterrestrials. Ultimately,

0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.440
<v Speaker 1>they could halt aging and become virtually immortal. What's more,

0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:00.520
<v Speaker 1>they might have reached that point in many millions of

0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.560
<v Speaker 1>years ago. It might sound unlikely, but if you think

0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.600
<v Speaker 1>about it, logically, alien technology should be as extraordinary to

0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.960
<v Speaker 1>us as a rocket ship is to a caveman. I

0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.799
<v Speaker 1>imagine they might exist in massive ships like these. And

0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.239
<v Speaker 1>this is where in the show you get to see

0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 1>like a big giant spaceship, you know, yeah, um, like

0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.360
<v Speaker 1>these having used up all the resources from from the

0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.640
<v Speaker 1>home planet below. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads

0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.640
<v Speaker 1>looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.

0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.320
<v Speaker 1>If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each

0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.880
<v Speaker 1>new planet for materials to build more spaceships. Uh, so

0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.560
<v Speaker 1>they could move on and naturally with quotes like these

0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.919
<v Speaker 1>news stories were right on it, and it's pretty soon

0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.560
<v Speaker 1>they started producing headlines like don't talk to aliens, weren't

0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.480
<v Speaker 1>Stephen Hawking from Fox News or seen Stephen Hawking? Aliens

0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.520
<v Speaker 1>might hate us? I like that one. So yeah, I

0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.240
<v Speaker 1>think it was. It was kind of a slow newsweek

0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.959
<v Speaker 1>when all this hit, Like this was right before um,

0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.600
<v Speaker 1>you know, we had some environmental issues pop up and

0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.240
<v Speaker 1>some some other big stories hit, so and you got

0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.000
<v Speaker 1>to fill that science section of the website with something. Right.

0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:05.440
<v Speaker 1>But I don't think Hawking was engaged in fear mongering,

0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.760
<v Speaker 1>and I really wasn't his intent. It was speculation. Yes,

0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.800
<v Speaker 1>So we can't stress stress it enough that that Hawking

0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.840
<v Speaker 1>was not saying, you know, go, you know, buy a

0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.200
<v Speaker 1>shotgun and hiding your basement because the aliens are coming

0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.400
<v Speaker 1>to harvest the planet. The argument is simply, hey, if

0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.200
<v Speaker 1>life universally evolves from the chemistry on planets where the

0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.959
<v Speaker 1>you know, you have the correct minerals, the right temperature range,

0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.840
<v Speaker 1>and there's enough time for it to evolve. Then and

0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.800
<v Speaker 1>you know, if if that's true, and if they are

0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>eventually evolved to the point where they have technology sufficient

0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.560
<v Speaker 1>enough to reach us, then what might they be like?

0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:42.800
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's kind of the same way that we

0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.040
<v Speaker 1>we figure out how solar systems work by looking at

0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.240
<v Speaker 1>our own solar system. It's the best model we have

0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.040
<v Speaker 1>in the closest likewise with life. So if we you know,

0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.280
<v Speaker 1>we we look at how life has evolved here on

0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.560
<v Speaker 1>Earth and we we use that as a model for

0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.840
<v Speaker 1>how it might have applied, how how it might have

0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.880
<v Speaker 1>evolved elsewhere. And so we sort of have to look

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.920
<v Speaker 1>in the mirror and consider what that first contact would

0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.520
<v Speaker 1>be like. You know, so if you think about aliens

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.720
<v Speaker 1>in fact reaching our planet, then you have to think that, uh,

0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.600
<v Speaker 1>such a scientific development would also be accompanied by an

0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.960
<v Speaker 1>ethical development, right, if they're going to reach our planet,

0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.919
<v Speaker 1>they probably value life. Well, that's that's yeah, that's a

0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.120
<v Speaker 1>counter argument, that's that's come out. You know, people say

0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.160
<v Speaker 1>they're probably not going to be like some sort of

0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:28.080
<v Speaker 1>evil like or grace intent on destruction. And you've read

0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.919
<v Speaker 1>something about the Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hillier making this claim.

0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.880
<v Speaker 1>I hadn't seen that. Well, yeah, this was making the

0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.200
<v Speaker 1>rounds and uh. And they're saying that he's he's claimed

0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.680
<v Speaker 1>that they've been visiting for a while and they haven't

0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.920
<v Speaker 1>done any harm yet. And I actually, you know, there're

0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:45.600
<v Speaker 1>probably a lot of people out there who would say, hey,

0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.839
<v Speaker 1>you know, I think aliens have come to this planet

0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.120
<v Speaker 1>and they haven't. You know, enslaved usn't taken all our

0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.599
<v Speaker 1>resources yet. I'm sorry, So you think that they No,

0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.080
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that at all. So the Canadian Defense

0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:02.920
<v Speaker 1>minister thinks that they're already here. That's what some news

0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.520
<v Speaker 1>sources are saying. The former this former Canadian defense minister.

0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.480
<v Speaker 1>I wonder why he's a former, because I don't know

0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.240
<v Speaker 1>the aliens benefits something to do with it. But yeah,

0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.600
<v Speaker 1>the the argument about the ethics is that like an

0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.880
<v Speaker 1>ethical stance would end up taking over um or you know,

0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.640
<v Speaker 1>augmenting what Darwinian evolution started, you know, because it's it's

0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:25.560
<v Speaker 1>easy to say it's like, all right, survival of the fittest,

0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.720
<v Speaker 1>you know, looking at an organism. You know, big organisms

0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.360
<v Speaker 1>either want to consume other organisms or compete with them

0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.599
<v Speaker 1>for the same resources. And if you just follow that structure,

0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.320
<v Speaker 1>then you know, even like if you had a starship,

0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.760
<v Speaker 1>you would still be an organism intent on getting more

0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.680
<v Speaker 1>resources unless you you develop these ethics along the way

0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.359
<v Speaker 1>where you have you know, high minded ideas about I

0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.560
<v Speaker 1>don't want to destroy another planet because that's an independent, um,

0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, evolution, and I don't want to interfere with it.

0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.520
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I just want to observe it, et cetera. Or

0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.240
<v Speaker 1>it could be maybe I just want to exploit the

0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.000
<v Speaker 1>resources and slave the people. It's kind of a whole

0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.360
<v Speaker 1>like our aliens gonna be touchy feely or are they

0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:08.080
<v Speaker 1>going to be jerks? You know, I personally would prefer

0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.039
<v Speaker 1>them to be touchy feely. Well, and basically Hawking was

0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.000
<v Speaker 1>I would prefer that too, and imagine Hawking would prefer

0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.839
<v Speaker 1>would prefer that. Yeah, but he's just saying it's like, well,

0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.200
<v Speaker 1>let's look at what we know. What we've seen. The

0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.800
<v Speaker 1>model that, you know, the best model we have shows

0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.760
<v Speaker 1>humans kind of being jerks. That's true. Nuclear weapons are

0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.560
<v Speaker 1>up there, um, yeah, the you know, exploiting less technologically

0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.640
<v Speaker 1>advanced people's, etcetera. Another reason put out there not to

0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.720
<v Speaker 1>fear an alien invasion is that they probably don't know

0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.000
<v Speaker 1>we're here. Um Like, even if you even a look

0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.159
<v Speaker 1>at the d take the Drake equation and you you know,

0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.400
<v Speaker 1>extrapolate it in a very um, you know liberal way.

0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.640
<v Speaker 1>Do we have a lot of different races out there

0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.360
<v Speaker 1>with with technology sufficient to either detect our signals or

0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.640
<v Speaker 1>you know, or even travel to us. Um. You have

0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.080
<v Speaker 1>to take take into account that these places are like

0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.920
<v Speaker 1>thousands of light years away, so they won't they won't

0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:03.640
<v Speaker 1>even know about us. They won't be able to detect

0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:08.520
<v Speaker 1>a signal until about three three thousand a d. I mean,

0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.679
<v Speaker 1>that's that's that's one of the big, one, big reasons

0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.600
<v Speaker 1>not to get all up in arms over this is

0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.440
<v Speaker 1>because the universe is so big, the distances are so vast. Uh.

0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:19.360
<v Speaker 1>You know, it takes that long for light to travel

0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.360
<v Speaker 1>so and and as far as we know, traveling faster

0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.480
<v Speaker 1>than light is impossible. That's the universal speed limit. So

0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.680
<v Speaker 1>even so, they're limited in their ability to even detect

0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.600
<v Speaker 1>that we're here and uh, and also in the in

0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.880
<v Speaker 1>their ability to travel to us in a reasonable amount

0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:38.559
<v Speaker 1>of time. You know, if they're if you're three thousand

0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.000
<v Speaker 1>light years away and you can travel the speed of light,

0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.200
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna take you three thousand years to reach us.

0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.680
<v Speaker 1>And what could you possibly want that bad that's worth

0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.240
<v Speaker 1>that kind of trip, you know, Well, yeah, but then

0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.080
<v Speaker 1>you could get that um by just communicating with us.

0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.600
<v Speaker 1>You know, we could just have a long term relationship

0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.560
<v Speaker 1>us in the aliens. There's no need to you know,

0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.480
<v Speaker 1>speed things up. You can't speed things up faster than

0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.760
<v Speaker 1>the speed of light. You know, we could just text message, yeah, exactly,

0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.440
<v Speaker 1>send a long email, heartfelt Yeah, why would they need

0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.720
<v Speaker 1>to show up? So that actually goes into one of

0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.400
<v Speaker 1>the reasons to be afraid is that if an alien

0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.160
<v Speaker 1>the distance is so great that an alien actually showed

0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.040
<v Speaker 1>up at our doorstep, he would have to be he she,

0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.680
<v Speaker 1>It would have to be here for something on the planet, like,

0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.320
<v Speaker 1>because everything else could be done via communication. You know.

0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.280
<v Speaker 1>It's like if you're you're having like an email exchange

0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.080
<v Speaker 1>with somebody online and it's like, oh, this, this relationship

0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:31.800
<v Speaker 1>is fine, this is exactly where it needs to be.

0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.000
<v Speaker 1>We're emailing back and forth, and then that person shows

0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.760
<v Speaker 1>up here your doorstep. Call the cops because there's something up,

0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.800
<v Speaker 1>And that's that's kind of the argument here, unless faster

0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.439
<v Speaker 1>than light travel is somehow possible for a ridiculously advanced

0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.440
<v Speaker 1>alien civilization, in which case it's, you know, no big

0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.040
<v Speaker 1>deal for him to show up at your doorstep. So

0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.680
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if the other thing is that time

0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.559
<v Speaker 1>isn't on our side. Given the age of the universe,

0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.040
<v Speaker 1>which we know to be thirteen point seven billion years

0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.040
<v Speaker 1>courtesy of w MAP, Thank you, w UP, it's more

0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.679
<v Speaker 1>probable that they're intelligent species that are ten thousand, a million,

0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.280
<v Speaker 1>even ten million years more advanced than us, which is

0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.920
<v Speaker 1>kind of a crazy thought. Yeah, the technology ten million

0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:15.280
<v Speaker 1>years ahead. Yeah, like they would just be so I

0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.360
<v Speaker 1>mean we can't even comprehend that. It's like an aunt

0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.840
<v Speaker 1>trying to figure out like how you know an iPhone

0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.680
<v Speaker 1>works or something, right, I mean, they would be gods

0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.440
<v Speaker 1>and we would be the m Yeah, we would be

0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.959
<v Speaker 1>just at the mercy of the the iPhone. Another cool point,

0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.200
<v Speaker 1>this goes back to the whole alien showing up at

0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.480
<v Speaker 1>your doorstep. After an email conversation, Ray Billard pointed this

0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.640
<v Speaker 1>out on just the Discovery Space blogs. Um, have you

0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.080
<v Speaker 1>seen the movie avatar. I haven't, okay, I badly want

0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:44.640
<v Speaker 1>to see it. All right, Well this this is not

0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.640
<v Speaker 1>a spoiler. But the whole reason that the evil humans

0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.840
<v Speaker 1>come to this alien world is to harvest a special

0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:57.880
<v Speaker 1>element do you know that called unobtanium which on the

0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.080
<v Speaker 1>far future period at the table. But but that the

0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.440
<v Speaker 1>thing is, the whole idea is, oh, it's unobtainium. It's

0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:06.280
<v Speaker 1>this magic element you can only get one place in

0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.080
<v Speaker 1>the universe, and that's why we're going to do everything

0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.840
<v Speaker 1>in our in our power, no matter how cruel, to

0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.440
<v Speaker 1>harvest it um. But in reality, there's no such things

0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.880
<v Speaker 1>as is unobtainium or anything like this. Like, there's nothing

0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.439
<v Speaker 1>on Earth that that aliens could want that bad, that

0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.120
<v Speaker 1>would merit that kind of a journey and that much

0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.679
<v Speaker 1>time and effort, unless they are just jerks and want

0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.720
<v Speaker 1>to kick us around. Well, what about something in the

0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.400
<v Speaker 1>Amazon rainforest, perhaps a very rare cure that's only found

0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:34.360
<v Speaker 1>deep in the reaches of the Amazon rainforest, and they

0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.600
<v Speaker 1>know they have very little time left because the rainforest

0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:41.480
<v Speaker 1>is being chopped down acres per day, And maybe it's that. Yeah,

0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.480
<v Speaker 1>but if you have that kind of technology, what could

0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.120
<v Speaker 1>possibly exist in the Amazon rainforest that you couldn't create

0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.880
<v Speaker 1>on your own, you know, you could a genetic code

0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.760
<v Speaker 1>for it. Maybe they're not that good at recreating the

0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.880
<v Speaker 1>natural world. But I guess if you're that far advance,

0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:55.679
<v Speaker 1>what do you need with the natural world? You can

0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.280
<v Speaker 1>create anything, unless what they want our art, you know,

0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.680
<v Speaker 1>or to communicate with our whales. Right. And the other

0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.960
<v Speaker 1>thing that's really key in our discussion is the is

0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.440
<v Speaker 1>our concept of aliens, what we imagine aliens to be.

0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.800
<v Speaker 1>Even if they are highly technologically advanced, maybe there are microorganisms.

0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Maybe they're alien micro organisms which pose the greatest danger

0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.400
<v Speaker 1>to us, to life on Earth. Yeah, like, even if

0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:21.720
<v Speaker 1>they were to you know, to again show up at

0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.600
<v Speaker 1>our doorstep and well, you know, whether they were ethical

0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.600
<v Speaker 1>or jerks, what if they had some sort of little

0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.880
<v Speaker 1>uh little illness, you know, hanging around in their bodies

0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.080
<v Speaker 1>that is nothing to them, but would just you know,

0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.760
<v Speaker 1>be chaos for us, Be like a war of the

0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.600
<v Speaker 1>world's except the reverse right in the Spanish conquister doors

0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.480
<v Speaker 1>exactly bring with them some sort of accidental bioweapon, which yeah,

0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:47.600
<v Speaker 1>I mean all the the Europeans coming to the New World.

0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.920
<v Speaker 1>I mean just you know, they've accidental bioweapons over the place,

0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.719
<v Speaker 1>you know, measles and small boy term. I mean it

0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.880
<v Speaker 1>kind of won the battle for the Conquista doors. So again,

0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.800
<v Speaker 1>if you look took to past model of what it's

0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.560
<v Speaker 1>like when an alien species such as the Spanish, you know,

0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.120
<v Speaker 1>arrives on an alien world such as that of you know,

0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 1>South America, Um, what what can happen? People can be jerks,

0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:18.880
<v Speaker 1>people can carry um microbes that the their their hosts

0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.920
<v Speaker 1>aren't prepared for to turn to imperialism if you want

0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:24.960
<v Speaker 1>to know what's going to happen between aliens and us?

0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:29.880
<v Speaker 1>And that's that's Hawking's whole argument. Yeah, well, it's definitely

0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.320
<v Speaker 1>an excellent thought provoking question. Yeah, that's a great thing

0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.280
<v Speaker 1>about it. I mean it makes us think about the

0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.199
<v Speaker 1>far future, about our place in the cosmos, and look,

0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.160
<v Speaker 1>you know, at ourselves and just what we're capable of.

0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.360
<v Speaker 1>So what do you think? Are you afraid? Now? I'm not.

0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm curious, yea, infinitely curious. What about you? I used

0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.520
<v Speaker 1>to be afraid. I used to be afraid of UFOs

0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.520
<v Speaker 1>that I would mainly that I would be abductive, not

0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.880
<v Speaker 1>that I would be that our planet would be enslaved

0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.240
<v Speaker 1>and harvested for its resources. More that they would just

0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.960
<v Speaker 1>come get me. To me, that seems a little egosential

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:01.640
<v Speaker 1>to think. I mean, why would they pick you? I

0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.079
<v Speaker 1>was like thirteen. I mean, everybody's at the center of

0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.240
<v Speaker 1>their own universe thirteen. But you know, it's like Unsolved

0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.800
<v Speaker 1>Mysteries had all these UFO abductions going on, you know,

0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.360
<v Speaker 1>like that was like half of the program. And so

0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.960
<v Speaker 1>the idea was, if you're looking up into into the

0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.640
<v Speaker 1>stars there, you're going to see a UFO, and they're

0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.360
<v Speaker 1>gonna know that you saw the UFO and then they

0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.440
<v Speaker 1>have no choice but to come and get you. It

0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.560
<v Speaker 1>does seem funny though some of the people who have

0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.439
<v Speaker 1>said that they're abducted by aliens. Why why would the

0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.120
<v Speaker 1>aliens pick you? If I were an alien, I would

0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.400
<v Speaker 1>pick some famous mind, maybe ahead of state something like that.

0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.560
<v Speaker 1>Really just a thirteen year old I don't know. Yeah,

0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.360
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I'd probably pick up Brian Cox unless

0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.560
<v Speaker 1>it was Ender Wiggins. Can you tell I've been reading

0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.000
<v Speaker 1>my science fiction? Are you reading that one? Okay? So

0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.440
<v Speaker 1>if you guys have any thoughts on whether aliens are

0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.240
<v Speaker 1>going to destroy us, send us an email. At science

0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.079
<v Speaker 1>stuff at how stuff first dot com. Yeah, just dropped

0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.640
<v Speaker 1>by the website and search for SETI search for aliens.

0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.800
<v Speaker 1>We have a whole bunch of cool articles about those topics. Uh.

0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.560
<v Speaker 1>And we also have a Twitter account and uh and

0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.360
<v Speaker 1>do you think aliens have Twitter and Facebook? Yes? Yeah

0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.040
<v Speaker 1>they do. I just like friended one on Facebook the

0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.880
<v Speaker 1>other day, but but no Facebook. Twitter. You can find

0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.280
<v Speaker 1>us there where lab stuff or search for stuff from

0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.160
<v Speaker 1>the Science Lab lead you right to us. Um interact

0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.920
<v Speaker 1>with us there, ask us questions, see what we're up to. Yeah,

0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:31.600
<v Speaker 1>that's all we got. Thanks for listening, guys. For more

0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.920
<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics, is that how

0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.680
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check

0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:39.840
<v Speaker 1>out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com

0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:46.840
<v Speaker 1>home page.