WEBVTT - You Aren't From Around Here Are You 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.320 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:15.840 Forward Thinking. Hey there everyone, Welcome to Forward Thinking about 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.000 podcast that looks at the future and says we have 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.840 just discovered an important note from space. The Martians plan 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:22.960 to throw a dance for all the human race. I'm 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.880 Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren, and I'm Joe McCormick. And today 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.360 we're going to talk about aliens. It is time to 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.040 talk about aliens on this podcast. You know, it has 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.199 been a long time coming. We we talked about the 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.600 future and obviously the future involves aliens. Well, the day 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.000 were probably the day, the day we are recording this 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.680 is the same day that NASA announced that the Voyager 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.960 one spacecraft has officially entered interstellar space. Not like the 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.720 last time that the Internet said that this time, yeah, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.920 because again, our our our benchmark for what marks the 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.560 end of our solar system and the beginning of interstellar 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:08.399 space has changed frequently over the last ten years or so. Yeah. Essentially, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.240 we're talking about plasma and the presence of interstellar plasma 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.520 over solar plasma in the in the environment that the 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.080 Voyager one is traveling through, and that now it's all 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.959 the Interstellar spaces Plasma's party time soonified Interstellar Plasma. By 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.280 the way, it sounds an awful lot like Demon sam 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.560 Neil is coming for our souls. It actually to me, 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.800 I'm very concerned. To me, it sounds like what the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.480 fox says, not like what the music video does, but 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.840 what a fox actually says. Okay, because it sounds like 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:46.080 it sounds like screaming. Um. But yeah, it's uh yeah, 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.360 because what NaSTA did was they they translated the plasma 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.960 frequencies into audible frequencies for us to hear, and they 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:58.960 played it on their live stream and it was pretty creepy. Wow. Yeah, 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:03.000 so anyway, we're we're out there now, We're we're putting 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.400 our our hat on the table for inner interstellar space. 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.960 Yeah well, not an intergalactic note sorry, that was totally 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.440 the wrong word. Interstellar interstellar. Yeah. Well, and it even 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.120 has an album on board that has information about Earth, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.200 essentially things like greetings as music. It has pictures of 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:28.000 Earth on it. Yes it is too. Both have gold 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.600 disk designed by Carl saying. Well, okay, so that is 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.480 designed to talk to aliens and um. One interesting thing 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:40.160 about that disc is imagine you are commissioned to make it. Yeah, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.720 so I'm Carl Sagan. Yeah. How do you design something 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.400 that would be comprehensible to an alien? It's a really 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:49.840 right in English. You have to you have to make 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.520 some serious assumptions about what an alien is going to 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.679 find comprehensible exactly and what And the way you would 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.680 do that is by imagining what an alien my be like. Right, 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.560 But we don't know what an alien might be like, 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.919 and that's what we're about to speculate. In fact, we're 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.040 going to speculate wildly and with no evidence whatsoever. Oh No, 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.960 there's evidence, not in terms of direct evidence of what 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.760 there is, but evidence maybe suggesting what there might more 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.520 or less likely be based upon a sample size of 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.280 one planet that has life on it. So keeping in 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.080 mind that if you're looking at this from a scientific perspective, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.600 as far as sample size goes, we have a sample 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:38.960 size of one so that which means experiment well, right, 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:43.120 but so we can say that the chance of aliens 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:48.040 being transformers is fairly low. Yeah, but I still hold 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.960 out hope. I mean statistically statistically chances of transformers Lauren 0:03:53.240 --> 0:04:00.960 um oh, like an Earth truck. Hey, hey, hey, he 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.040 was able to take the form of an earth truck 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.320 after landing on Earth. It's not like that was his 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.160 actual form back there. And I cannot think of a 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.839 number close enough to zero that's pronounceable within the confines 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:18.560 of our podcast time. You're breaking my heart freight. Oh okay, So, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.080 so I think we should start with the place where 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.440 we would usually go to get images of what aliens 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.560 might look like. We got to start with science fiction, 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.880 because that's what we got to work with, right right, Um, 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.839 lots of aliens from science fiction you might notice have 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.440 something in common, and I'm not going to say what 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.520 it is yet, but I'm going to start with After Transformers, 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.920 there's of course my favorite sci fi aliens, the cone heads. Okay, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.320 that's a pretty that's kind of hard sci fi. Yeah, no, 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:55.240 that's that's right there with Yeah, it's pretty classic Rusumov 0:04:55.360 --> 0:05:00.360 Highland cone heads. Yeah, they come from France. Yeah, but 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.279 I can easily imagine you as a cone head. But 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.960 it does not take a lot of imagining. It really 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.680 just takes a little bit of, yeah, stretching and that's it. So, 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.160 but you take cone heads and then you shrink down 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.400 the head and add some hair and make them very handsome. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:19.080 And then you have Kryptonians like Superman. You put some 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.240 some some ridges along their forehead and now you've got 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.320 clingons yeah, or you point ee up their ears and 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:31.400 then you've got Vulcans or romulans. Yeah yeah, okay. Um. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.479 One thing all these really seem to have in common 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.880 to me is that they all look basically like humans. Well, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.560 and I almost as though a human actor we're put 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.320 into some kind of makeup process. That's fair. Um. In fact, 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.760 lots of aliens and science fiction just straight up our humans. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.680 I know, we've all seen Plan nine from outer Space yea, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.640 the aliens, and that are humans wearing like medieval night costumes, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.279 got like a like a shield emblem on their two Well, 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.680 and then there's things like Balstar Galactica, the nineteen seventy 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.599 eight version, obviously the superior one, where it's revealed that 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:12.120 essentially the people aboard the Ballestar Galactica they're searching for 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.120 Earth because they've heard that that's where humans are are 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.000 dwelling and that they themselves are humans. So apparently the 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.719 human race in that sense is distributed across the galaxy. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.160 Or in Star Wars, which took place as we all know, 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.680 a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:31.000 Well and and Star Wars actually has some interesting aliens 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.160 that are not human looking but are still human anoid 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.000 meaning that they still have you know, they still tend 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.000 to be bipedal. They have you know, a torso, arms, legs, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.920 and a head, and then they might look a little funky, 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:48.560 but basically human, basically bilateral symmetry exactly. A lot of 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.599 aliens also fit into that category. Think for example, like 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.440 of predators, the Predator from the Predator movies. These are 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.560 basically like they're like alien ted nugents and they they 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.080 just go from planet to planet killing wildlife. I was 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:05.960 wondering where you're going with that, but now I got you. 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.040 I'm caught up. Yeah, but they're they're so human when 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:11.720 you look at them, except they've got a weird kind 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.680 of bug face. But even or something from Doctor Who, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.120 Yeah right, even the xenomorphs from Alien you know, they 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:23.040 tend to move. Most of them are basically bipole and bilaterally. Yeah, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.560 they might move on all fours at times, but they 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.720 still like when they stand up, they are essentially the 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.880 human form. I think the aliens actually are a little 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.400 more interesting than that because they're not purely anthropomorphic. They 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.840 also incorporate um insect hive behavior, I think in a 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.040 in an interesting way, and I think we can come 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.080 back to that when we talk about some of the 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.880 more plausible theories of what advanced alien life might look like. Well. Also, also, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.360 they're not squishy the way that say a Klingon is 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.240 or something like that. They never tried to hug agin on, 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.320 so I don't know how squishy they can. They've they've 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:02.160 got an exoskeleton, their blood is is acid. Yeah, the 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.680 floors lava. So there's also the the tendency that aliens 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:11.360 will sometimes have multiple organs. For example, Uh, time lords 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.000 have two hearts. Uh, I think cleanlands do to. Actually, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.160 I'm pretty sure Cleanon's have two hearts. Don't quote me 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.239 on that. That's me just referencing my yeah, my memory 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.160 of Star Trek. But there are a lot of different 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:26.240 variations of that where you find out, you know, like 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.120 I think, um, you find out Dr Zoidberg and Futurama 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:34.960 has several different copies of organs in his body. Okay, 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:42.319 what do you think are the stupidest sci fi anatomy? Alright? 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.960 So alien anatomy one are the dumbest um I think. Well, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.440 going back to the xenomorph, seeing the mouth within the 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.480 mouth was a little weird. I like it. I mean 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.480 it's a cool it's a cool effect. I just don't 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:58.280 know about the actual evolutionary pathway that that would happen. 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.280 But then again, you look at some insects and they 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.640 have some pretty pretty weird proboscis types seem all that. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.080 It seems a little weird to me. The acid blood 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.840 also seems a little weird to me. I don't know, 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.959 I can see it here. Here's what I would go. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.080 I would go with basically all the ones that are 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.600 exactly humans that speak English, of course. But then also 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.320 that was always like a babel fish or something like that, 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.720 right right, uh. I hate to say it because he's 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.719 so wonderful, but but eat doesn't make any sense. I mean, 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.240 et has the problem of the Okay, so we're just 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.160 sort of like uncritically going basically humanoid. It's it's bipedal 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.559 with with a face like ours and the same shape 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.400 and all that, except he's like melted and he has 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.920 magic powers. He can he can magic powers. Part that 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.640 really sets you off yeah, well Superman is the same 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.720 way though, you know, actually, yeah, the entire concept that 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.440 the radiation from our son could could cause superpowers in 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.280 an alien, particularly flight, there's no mechanism there. What do 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.559 you think is the stupidest? Lauren Um, I I didn't. 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.880 I didn't. Actually, I'm gonna go with Kryptonians. Really, we're 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.960 going to be honest. I want to go crazy ones 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.160 because yeah, human ones I just dismiss out of hand, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.079 because you know, I mean that's I think triples are 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:22.200 totally plausible. I'm not going with triples. Okay, those are stupid. Well, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.360 trying to think of one that I'd really go with. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.840 Hold onto that thought, because maybe it's time for us 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.920 to transition to talking about the actual science behind this 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:35.000 and and what are some things that might actually be 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:39.640 more plausible than other things according to some thinkers, because 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:41.680 a lot of thought has been put into this kind 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.320 of thing. I mean, even just when we're trying to 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.920 classify life on Earth, we start really having to hit 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.280 up some hard definitions like whether or not a virus 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.840 is alive and stuff like. Yeah, and to be fair, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.240 if we're going to talk about intelligent life, there are 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:01.360 some who argue. I mean, there's some some scientists who 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:07.360 argue that the bipedal humanoid form is possibly what will encounter. Now, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.080 there are others who argue very much against that. But 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:16.680 one of the proponents is Cambridge University paleontologist Simon Conway Morris, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:21.800 who sort of has expressed uh an argument that the 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.000 bipedal form is almost like an evolutionary inevitability, like that 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.240 is just a it is a basic form that evolution 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:34.960 pushes towards. Well, I'm paraphrasing to be fair, but but 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.680 also he feels that if we were to find alien 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:43.680 intelligent alien life, he would not be surprised if that 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:49.520 alien intelligent life appeared as a bipedal humanoid kind of figure. Now, 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.240 there are others who say that this is this is 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:57.679 an example of protagoras is bias. Protagoras was a Greek 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:04.000 philosopher predecessor to uh So crates Um, and Protagoras said 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.600 that man is the measure of all things, so essentially 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:13.920 measuring everything against mankind and that that and other people 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.400 have pointed out to think saying that's really a logical fallacy, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.199 you know, to sit there and just a centric well, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:22.920 I mean, at that point in time, we did think 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.920 that the entire universe literally revolved around the planet Earth. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.440 Well so most of us did. Uh I was not 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.600 really that vocal back in that day. But um, so 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.560 there are some considerations I think that that we could 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:39.480 give to this the idea, well, what if they do 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.760 look like bipedal humanoids in our sample size of one 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.040 that did happen only so we know that it's we 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.760 know that it's plausible, whereas we don't know that other 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.679 advanced intelligent body forms are plausible. Sure, however we do 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.480 I mean the the emotional and intellectual maturity of some 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.920 other non eipeedle animals on on Earth, like like cuttle fisher, octopus, 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:10.640 or dolphins or um whales. Lawyers, lawyers, that was mean, Jonathan, 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.680 Um you know, are like like to the point where 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.600 there's certainly as as intelligent as our young before their 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:24.040 brains developed past put essence well. And also a lot 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.920 of the critics that that Morris has and others like 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.600 Morris not just more of something. Morris is one person 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.360 who has this this belief, but a lot of the 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.560 critics say that, like Michael Schermer, for example, says that 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:42.360 it's almost an impossibility that intelligent alien species would resemble 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:47.560 a bipetal primate, because in Earth's own history only one 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:52.240 species ever developed into that bipetle mode. We don't see 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:57.880 examples of this, like a reptile version or a fish version, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.480 which you wouldn't expect anyway, just because the Ironmen. But 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.079 at any rate, we don't see anything other than this 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:08.920 one branch having developed that particular that particular model. And therefore, 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.640 if you're talking about a planet where that's only ever 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.760 happened once, then the possibility of that happening somewhere else 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.319 maybe even lower. So who knows, maybe the intelligent life 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.320 on another planet, particularly say let's say it's one that 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.320 has mostly covered in water, would not look anything like 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.560 a bipedal humanoid. Uh. Carl Sagan made that same argument. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.080 In fact, he said that uh. Intelligence species may live 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:34.880 on the land or in the sea or the air. 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:40.239 They may have unimaginable chemistries, shapes, sizes, colors, appendages, and opinions. 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:42.800 We are not requiring that they follow the particular route 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.720 that led the evolution led to the evolution of humans. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.360 There may be many different evolutionary pathways, each unlikely, but 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.920 the sum of the number of pathways to intelligence may 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.960 nevertheless be quite substantial. I think those are good points. 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.960 I do want to stick up for one sort of 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:05.000 strange take on bipedalism, which is that I think I 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:13.600 would favor bipedalism, or say quadrupedalism over tripedalism if you see, like, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.040 well that not the organisms themselves in war the worlds, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:22.040 but the sort of the rovers they use are legged things. 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.080 But I just realized this is really interesting. According to 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.320 a two thousand eleven paper, Um, they're about eight point 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:32.960 seven million distinct eukaryotic species on Earth. That was their estimate. 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.560 Not one of these species. And this isn't from the paper. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.160 This is just that was for that number, not one 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.320 of those eight point seven million species that we know about. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.520 It's tripedal No three legged organisms. There's like, there's like 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.640 a fish that sometimes props itself up on two fins 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.400 and a tail, you know, it's something like that, But 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.080 there's nothing with three legs. Well, life as we know 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:02.040 it on on Earth evolved from hypothetically a common ancestor 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:07.160 or maybe a few common ancestors independently across the globe, 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.520 depending on which theory you want to prescribe to, but 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.360 it would only follow that all life on our planet 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:18.240 would follow the same basic design. Well, I mean, I 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.640 think there is certainly convergent evolution, which is this idea 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.640 that you get to the same basic kind of of 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.960 body types and even behavioral types in different parts of 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.960 the world, even when the species that are concerned have 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.920 no actual contact genetic link until you get back to 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:42.040 that ancient, ancient, ancient ancient ancestor, right, And I think 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.480 so there's there's two sides to this story. Also, I 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.160 think convergent evolution is interesting in that it shows that 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.760 different animals in different environments can involve the same characteristics, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.200 which is one thing that might give us a reason 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.480 to think, well, okay, maybe aliens could look like humans. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:05.240 But also they're starting with the same biochemistry. And here 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.960 this leads us into another interesting question, um about what 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.879 this alien life could look like. Should we expect that 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.840 it's basically going to have the same chemical basis as 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.600 life on Earth? And I've heard good arguments on both 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.640 sides of this um that that basically, if there's going 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:28.520 to be something as organized and complex as as life 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.240 as we know it, it needs to be carbon based. Well, 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.679 and that argument is hard to make, right because we 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.399 live on a carbon rich planet. So if you were 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.680 if we were from some other planet that was silicon 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.480 rich and we were silicon based, we would be making 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:48.919 that same argument. Perhaps we may be saying, well, clearly, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.920 any intelligent life out there would be silicon based, because 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.120 look at us and look at how these things developed. Uh, 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.720 and it's because we don't have anything we can point 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.679 to right now. It's very I I would not go 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.680 so far as to say it's likely that whatever life 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.320 we do encounter, assuming that we one day encounter it, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.679 and I imagine that one day we will if we 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:14.680 haven't wiped ourselves out, then I'm pretty sure it will happen. Um. Uh. 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.439 Then you know, I don't know if how likely it 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:19.359 is one way or versus the other. I think it 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.359 all depends upon well, it depends upon many things. Depends 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.399 upon the the actual physical properties of the planet that 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.080 life was originally from, or asteroid or whatever it happens 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.080 to be that supports that life, the moon whatever, that 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:37.119 not our moon, but a moon. I don't expect us 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.280 to find any life on our moon. But uh, yeah, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:42.040 it's just I think it's gonna be one of those 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.920 things where the circumstances will really dictate it. And what 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.959 what also is interesting is not just what you know, 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.160 what how chemically they are are based, like whether it's 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.480 carbon based, silicon based, or something else, but also how 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.920 they pass on information. When the way we understand life 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.880 is that it's this process where we have this. Even 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:06.880 this gets a little tricky because we talk about things 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.440 like viruses, but you know, basic life, we talk about 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.879 cells passing on information and that's the process of life 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.680 we have. If the cells did not pass on information, 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.280 you would not have any sort of cohesion or evolution. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.160 You have to have this progression for cells to pass 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.520 information along so that descendants will continue to develop beyond 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.680 their ancestors. In humans, that's proteins amino acids that are 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:37.239 that are storing and transmitting this this data. But that 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.520 doesn't necessarily need to be what would do that? Well, yeah, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:42.840 I mean it is according to us. Yeah, we think 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.560 of it as DNA because that's pretty much how almost 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.760 all everything we call life passes on information. Viruses are 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.320 a little bit different. Uh, And again there's an argument 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.000 about whether or not viruses count as being alive or not. 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.560 It all depends upon whom you ask. But uh, you know, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.600 there was a lot of debate for a very long time, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.840 and in fact there's still debate about is this the 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.440 only way that cells as we understand them could pass 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.080 along information. What's interesting is that there's work by a 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.840 fellow by the name of Philip Hollager of the MRC 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:20.280 Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, the United Kingdom. That's 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:24.160 why I said laboratory, because you know, respective or friends 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.320 across the pond um and he experimented with molecules to 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.600 see if it was possible to create a mechanism for 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.400 passing genetic information from one cell to another, but not 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.720 use DNA or RNA. To create something new, and he 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.000 actually started to experiment with x in A, which stands 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.840 for zeno nucleic acids, using different sugars than the ones 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.639 you would actually find a DNA or RNA, and discovered 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.240 that you could actually create a mechanism for passing along 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:58.440 information from one cell to another using this completely separate mechanism. 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:00.639 I mean it it worked on a similar principle as 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.880 DNA and RNA, but a totally different structure. And so 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:08.320 now there's an interesting debate about, well, now that we 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.719 understand that there are other ways of having this happened, 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.600 why did DNA and RNA become the way that it 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.159 happens with life on Earth? Does that mean that it 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.160 is the best way of passing this information? Was there 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.000 perhaps at some time life on Earth that used this 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.440 other method and in fact that just die out because 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.200 it was not advantageous to have that and survive. Or 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.240 was it just a thing about what sugars happened to 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.400 be available at the same time that life itself was forming. 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.600 So these are questions that are are fascinating and we 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.920 do not have answers for them, but people are working 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.120 very hard to study it now because now there are 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.160 these other possibilities out there, where before we didn't even 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.080 know these possibilities existed. It's also interesting because it points 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.960 out the fact that there is the possibility that that 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.080 some alien race has a different methodology for passing along 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:02.000 information at whatever basic level uh they would require for 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.359 their kind of life. And really what gets interesting is 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.879 when we start looking at the possibility that life in 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:13.080 an alien world would look so different to us than 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.000 the way we consider life here that we wouldn't even 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.480 recognize it as life. Yeah, all of the options we've 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:22.800 talked about so far and that we'll probably continue to 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.240 talk about are are basically corporeal in a way. We 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.840 recognize that they it's basically a body with some kind 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:34.840 of brain type organ that exists in the three dimensions 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.600 as we understand them. Oh, you bring up dimensions. So 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.560 I've got a really question a question about this. Okay. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:46.800 So I'm a big fan of Buck Ruban's Eye and 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:52.320 the alien ionized that. I'm okay. Now, the aliens in 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.440 uh from the movie that Peter Weller movie, the Buck 0:22:55.560 --> 0:23:00.480 Rubansi movie, John Lithgo movie, Yeah exactly. Um alas Areadi 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:06.000 was the best character, the best Yeah. Um so the 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:12.600 aliens like Dr Lizardo and uh and John Smallberries. Yeah, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.280 they claim to be not from another planet but from 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.719 another dimension. Right, I've actually heard about this in all 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.040 kinds of old sci fi. This is there aliens from 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:26.159 another dimension. But what I'm wondering is is this concept 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:30.080 even coherent? Does this make sense? Could there actually be 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:34.120 aliens from another dimension? Or is that just some kind 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:36.720 of like babble that they put into sci fi? Whether 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:38.560 or not the concept is coherent, I think you could 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:42.239 argue that the movie certainly isn't it amazing? I love it? 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:47.280 But coherent that movie aside for a second, Lauren, do 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:51.560 anything about extra dimensional aliens? All right? So so the 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.439 thing the thing with us is that futurists like like 0:23:55.520 --> 0:24:00.000 Michokku have pointed out that our existence is very much 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.120 like um, like carp swimming in a pond, and what 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:06.160 we see around us, the world as we can perceive 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:10.640 it is limited by our our senses and and how 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:13.680 we how we use them, you know, like evolutionarily speaking, 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:17.240 it was worthwhile for us to develop site because tigers 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.240 could could run at us, you um, but tigers can't 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.359 move through time. Aside from that, you know, basic linear 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:27.000 way that we all do. So learning to to visualize 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:30.600 something like the fourth dimension was never it was never 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:40.879 an evolutionary a good thing, right, yes? Um? So if 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:45.240 we're all carps and ponds, right and in a single pond, Yeah, 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:48.199 let's say, and all we know is the water and 0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:51.480