1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Hey, brain Stuff Listeners. As a bonus for you today, 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:04,920 Speaker 1: I want to share with you a preview from my 3 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: compatriot Josh Clark. You may know him from a little 4 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: show called Stuff you Should Know. He's got a new 5 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: podcast series out on existential risks, threats that could bring 6 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: humanity to a sudden and untimely end in the near future. 7 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: So here's a preview featuring a clip about our potential 8 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: to spread from Earth. I'm Stuff you Should Know, as 9 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: Josh Clark. I'm launching a teen part podcast series about 10 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,879 Speaker 1: all the ways humanity might accidentally wipe ourselves right out 11 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,559 Speaker 1: of existence. It covers everything from whether we're alone in 12 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: the universe to the evolution of life on Earth, from 13 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: artificial intelligence to what goes on inside a particle collider. 14 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,880 Speaker 1: It is an immensely interesting deep dive into the world 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: of existential risks, and I hope that you enjoy listening 16 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: to it as much as I have, making I want 17 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 1: to share a preview of the series with you. This 18 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: clip comes from episode four and it features economist Robin Hansen, 19 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,040 Speaker 1: creator of the Great Filter hypothesis, which is something we 20 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: may have to contend with in the near future when 21 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: we settled down, our cities developed. Agriculture can support more 22 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: people than hunting and gathering, and the more people there are, 23 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: the more brilliant ideas there are two, So our civilization 24 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: began to advance by leaps and bounds in the last 25 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: nine or ten thousand years. Ideas spread more quickly among 26 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: those people who lived together in those new cities, so 27 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: innovations were able to develop over the span of a 28 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: handful of years rather than millennia. Almost everything we have 29 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: in the world today can be traced back to our 30 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: collective decision to settle down and raise crops. It was, 31 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: to say the least, a sweeping change for us humans. 32 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: With our next great leap spreading out into space, we 33 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 1: are effectively doing the opposite of when we settled down 34 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: into cities. Rather than contracting, we will be expanding. From 35 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: that huge coming together, we will spread out. Over time, 36 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: humans will begin to colonize other planets, and generations of 37 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: little human babies will be borne on planets other than Earth. 38 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: They will be shaped by forces and experiences that no 39 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,679 Speaker 1: earthbound human will have ever encountered, and they will learn 40 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: to adapt to their home planet just like we did. 41 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: We are quite capable of becoming all the things that 42 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 1: it's possible to become. Life that starts from us and 43 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: radiates out can not only spread to different places, that 44 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: can create different styles and techniques and cultures and approaches. 45 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:41,920 Speaker 1: All of the life that you see on Earth started 46 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: out from a much smaller amount of variation, but with 47 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: time it could explore lots of different niches and ways 48 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: of living. And that's probably what would happen to us too. 49 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 1: If we're the only life around it, we can survive, 50 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: we will radiate, We will become diverse and different and 51 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: fill thousan million billion different niches of different ways of being. 52 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: Over time, perhaps their physical connection to humans on Earth 53 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,239 Speaker 1: will become distant enough that new species of humans will form, 54 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 1: and the universe will be home to more than one 55 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,839 Speaker 1: species of human again, just as it was fifty years ago. 56 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 1: We will become the aliens we seek, and later on 57 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: they might be surprised to learn that they came from 58 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: something that was simple and not as very It's odd 59 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: to think of, but humans are in an evolutionary bottleneck 60 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: of our own. Right now. There's only one species of us, 61 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: and with the exception of maybe half a dozen astronauts 62 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:40,400 Speaker 1: on the International Space Station. At any given time, we 63 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 1: are all stranded on this island Earth. Those astronauts aboard 64 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: the I s S showed just the faintous beginnings of 65 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: our future. If we become a space faring species, all 66 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: of humanities eggs will no longer be in just the 67 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: one basket of Earth. Should some catastrophe befall those of 68 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: us here on Earth, there will be other humans living 69 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 1: elsewhere to carry on. We will begin to trickle from 70 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: our bottleneck and spread throughout the universe, and when we do, 71 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: we will have made it through the great filter. Colonizing 72 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,839 Speaker 1: beyond Earth is something we should begin working on as 73 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: soon as we can, because Earth is vulnerable to a 74 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: wide variety of catastrophes that are pretty hostile to life, 75 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: things like exploding stars, the death of our son, even 76 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: Earth's own systems going haywire. Please join me for the 77 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: End of the World with Josh Clark. Listen and subscribe 78 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:41,479 Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts or on the I Heart Radio app, 79 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: or listen wherever you get your podcasts.