Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is the Monster Fact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. If
Speaker 2: you've seen the new MCU film The Fantastic Four First Steps,
Speaker 2: then you've finally experienced a proper cinematic treatment of Galactus,
Speaker 2: the iconic devour of worlds for Marvel Comics, created in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty six by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This
Speaker 2: titanic space god predates the Big Bang. He survived the
Speaker 2: great collapse of the previous universe and entered into our own,
Speaker 2: hatching from the cosmic egg. His god like abilities come
Speaker 2: via the power cosmic, which he sustains through the consumption
Speaker 2: of entire worlds. And yet Galactus is a lot more
Speaker 2: complex than your typical Earth destroying elder god. While definitely
Speaker 2: an existential threat and a perpetrator of untold megadeaths, Galactus
Speaker 2: does not consume worlds with malice, as the latest MCU
Speaker 2: film accurately depicts. He himself is a slave to his
Speaker 2: own insatiable hunger, but is lawful and honorable standing by
Speaker 2: the letter of pacts made for the survival of various
Speaker 2: planets and such. While he's certainly a villain and a
Speaker 2: monster by many measurements, he is also beyond good and evil,
Speaker 2: a natural force that dwarfs everything he encounters. Sometimes he
Speaker 2: even acts in ways that might cast him as an
Speaker 2: anti hero. In The Fantastic Four First Steps, Galactus is
Speaker 2: as close to his silver Age glory as we could
Speaker 2: hope for. A giant humanoid being in purple armour and
Speaker 2: a great hat that might best be described as a
Speaker 2: papal miter with cosmic horns. English character actor Ralph Ineson
Speaker 2: provides his voice and likeness. The presentation is delightfully over
Speaker 2: the top, as it should be, But the entire Galactus scenario,
Speaker 2: in which a ravenous cosmic power sends its harbingers out
Speaker 2: in search of worlds and civilizations to dine on, actually
Speaker 2: isn't entirely the domain of comic book science fiction. Humans
Speaker 2: have wrestled with the Fermi paradox for seventy five years now.
Speaker 2: If other intelligent life forms exist in the universe, perhaps
Speaker 2: even in some abundance, then why haven't we encountered them,
Speaker 2: heard of them, seen any signs of them. Why is
Speaker 2: the universe so silent? Hypothesized solutions vary from the possibility
Speaker 2: that Earth really is a rare commodity in the cosmos
Speaker 2: to the idea that we exist in a sort of
Speaker 2: space zoo or nature reserve. But while the latter concept
Speaker 2: entails benign alien beings that intentionally leave us alone, the
Speaker 2: dark Forest hypothesis paints a bleaker picture. Name for the
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight Lucien novel of the same name,
Speaker 2: the dark Forest hypothe this states that the rest of
Speaker 2: the universe is quiet because its various intelligent, technologically advanced
Speaker 2: civilizations are understandably afraid. They remain unheard and unseen because
Speaker 2: they know to raise their voices or in any way
Speaker 2: broadcast their presence could attract the unwonted attention of dangerous,
Speaker 2: even more powerful forces. This could be threats known to exist,
Speaker 2: or merely threats likely to exist and therefore worth remaining
Speaker 2: silent for. And this is where we get to the
Speaker 2: possibility of if not an actual galactus, then something close
Speaker 2: enough to terrify us, something that hungers and sends its
Speaker 2: seekers and heralds far across the sprawl of stars in
Speaker 2: search of civilized worlds to harvest. First, let's think about
Speaker 2: that hunger galactus must consume worlds. This we know the
Speaker 2: idea is far from ridiculous when we consider it the
Speaker 2: Kardashev scale, which sorts potential civilizations by how much power
Speaker 2: they can harvest Type one the energy of an entire planet,
Speaker 2: type to the energy of an entire star, Type three
Speaker 2: the energy of an entire galaxy. Certainly, by type three
Speaker 2: we are contemplating galactus level power, and it certainly puts
Speaker 2: forms of planet and star harvesting or even consumption into consideration,
Speaker 2: both in terms of what we can imagine, such as
Speaker 2: the use of a Dyson sphere to enclose a star
Speaker 2: and collect the sum total of its energy output, and
Speaker 2: means that we can't even fathom.
Speaker 1: Yet.
Speaker 2: After all, we're not even a type one civilization on
Speaker 2: the Kardashev scale. Some of the aims and abilities of
Speaker 2: a Type three civilization or even a Type two may
Speaker 2: simply exist outside of our context, and this leads us
Speaker 2: to another Fermi paradox solution hypothesis, the Berserker hypothesis, also
Speaker 2: known as the deadly Probe scenario. The Berserker name, by
Speaker 2: the way, stems from the nineteen sixty seven Fred Saberhagen novel.
Speaker 2: The concept here is that the cosmos seems silent because
Speaker 2: thus far all other sufficiently advanced intelligent forms of life
Speaker 2: have been destroyed by deadly seeker self replicating destroyers that
Speaker 2: are even now on their way to decimate Earth as well.
Speaker 2: In teasing this hypothesis apart, some have argued that humanity
Speaker 2: would have surely been discovered and eradicated already if this
Speaker 2: were the status quo in the galaxy. However, if we've
Speaker 2: not yet met the criteria for extermination, or if there's
Speaker 2: some hope of passing a civilizational test that ensures our
Speaker 2: survival yish, then perhaps the sword of Damocles merely hangs
Speaker 2: above all of our heads, entirely dependent on how we
Speaker 2: conduct ourselves or how solid the latest season of Single
Speaker 2: Female Lawyer happens to be. Obviously, there are numerous ways
Speaker 2: to dissect this hypothesis, ranging from just considering the toll
Speaker 2: such self replicating machines might take on the galaxies available
Speaker 2: mass over time. This would potentially spell a kind of
Speaker 2: Gray Goog apocalypse on a cosmic scale, as well as
Speaker 2: issues of detection or lack of detection here in our
Speaker 2: local neighborhood. Naturally, the idea has been explored in various
Speaker 2: Sci Fi treatments, often as a means to explore our
Speaker 2: collective values as a species, our hopes and our fears
Speaker 2: that something else out there shares those values in either
Speaker 2: its dark or light extremes. And we see this with
Speaker 2: Galactus as well, that a herald is sent to judge us,
Speaker 2: save or condemn us based on our merits or the
Speaker 2: merits of those who stand as shining examples of what
Speaker 2: we aspire to be. And in this we're reminded that
Speaker 2: Galactus is a comic book take on the divine, a
Speaker 2: god who sits in judgment, echoing a very long standing
Speaker 2: note in human mythmaking, such as in the Bible, and
Speaker 2: God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is
Speaker 2: come before me, for the earth is filled with violence
Speaker 2: through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Speaker 2: In the Bagava Ghita, I am time grown old to
Speaker 2: destroy the world, embarked on the course of world annihilation.
Speaker 2: Except for yourself. None of these will survive. Of these
Speaker 2: warriors arrayed in opposite armies, and in Marvel comics, Your
Speaker 2: planet is now marked for death. Your world will be
Speaker 2: consumed by the devour. There is nothing you can do
Speaker 2: to stop him, for he is a universal force, as
Speaker 2: essential as the stars. Hold your loved ones close, and
Speaker 2: speak the words you've been afraid to speak. Tune in
Speaker 2: for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact or
Speaker 2: Animalist Upendium each week. As always, you can email us
Speaker 2: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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