Name: Conflict Might Be Preventing the Discovery of Alien Life
Uploaded: 2021-01-18T21:17:28.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Conflict Might Be Preventing the Discovery of Alien Life' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-01-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Conflict Might Be Preventing the Discovery of Alien Life' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-01-18. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- Just to give an example, in my book,
I talk about Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill in 1939 wrote an essay about the fact
that there could be life on other planets,
around other stars, and we should search for it.
Now, he didn't have a chance to publish it
'cause he became prime minister and then had to fight
the Second World War against the Nazi regime.
So much money was wasted in that war.
If that money was allocated to the search
for extraterrestrial life,
the way that Churchill envisioned it before the war,
we might have known the answer by now.
And what I'm saying is this is just an example
for how non-intelligent we are.
We are not working together towards a better future.
We're fighting each other.
And that's the answer to your question
that we might not live very long.
- But you're saying this as you work at Harvard
and as you're writing books on extraterrestrial objects,
I don't necessarily agree with you.
I think there are massive problems with people,
but I think we are far better than the human beings
that lived 2000 years ago in that regard.
And I think that we will probably be looking back
on this day and age and mocking how stupid we are
when we are more advanced 2000 years from today.
- I really hope so.
And that's what I'm trying to--
- I think we're moving in that direction.
- Well, that's what I'm trying to promote,
but I'm not necessarily as optimistic as you are.
- I think our cake is still in the oven.
That's what I think. - Let's hope so.
- I really want that future.
But, you know, I'm doing my best,
but you can see from the pushback--
- Yes.
- To which I don't have access
because I'm not, you know,
I don't have an account on the social media.
- Congratulations again for that.
I think that's, I think we're moving.
I think there's conflict,
but I think for whatever reason,
the way human beings operate,
we oftentimes need conflict
in order to make improvements.
We need a yin and a yang.
We needed to give in a poll.
If we don't have that,
we get complacent.
- Why can't we understand
the best path forward without,
you know, it's just like using a GPS system
and it says, recalculating.
Every time we have a crisis, recalculating.
So we recalculate our next move
based on all the mistakes we've made.
Why can't we be smart in the first place?
- I think we have biological limitations
that are based on our ancestry
and our ancestry is filled with tribalism and chaos
and we're primates.
I mean, that's part of the problem.
And I think that our issue with racism
is the same issue that we have
when we have religious discrimination
or cultural discrimination, it's tribalism.
- I agree.
- And we are, you know, we're just,
it's wired into our DNA.
- Now, my problem is why couldn't science,
given that, you know,
there are billions of earth, sun systems
within just the Milky Way galaxy.
And then a trillion galaxies like the Milky Way
in the observable volume of the universe.
You know, why can't the mainstream of astronomy
simply say conservatively, you know,
just assuming the most conservative,
not speculative assumption.
Conservatively, we are the middle of the road,
you know, kind of life.
It's very likely that we're not unique and special.
And let's just look for evidence, you know, search for it.
Why should there be a taboo on discussing this subject?
That makes no sense.
For example, astronomers are now thinking,
contemplating new telescopes of the future
that will cost billions of dollars to taxpayers, okay?
That would search for oxygen in the atmospheres
of other planets around other stars,
because oxygen could be indicative of life, microbial life.
I say it will never be conclusive, such a search,
even if it costs billions of dollars,
because the earth for two billion years,
the first two billion years of the earth's history,
didn't have much oxygen in its atmosphere.
There were microbes,
but the oxygen level was quite low.
And then it suddenly rose after two billion years,
half of its life.
So not finding oxygen doesn't mean there is no life.
And then if you find oxygen,
it can be produced by many natural processes,
like breaking water molecules or other things.
So it will never be conclusive.
How can you make a conclusive statement
if you find industrial pollution in the same atmosphere?
You just search for CFCs.
These are the molecules produced by refrigerating systems,
by industries.
If you find evidence for that,
there is no way that nature can make these
very complex molecules naturally.
So I say to the mainstream of astronomy,
use the same instruments and motivate them
by this question of,
can we detect industrial pollution?
And I wrote a paper about it.
And the thing is,
the public is extremely interested in this question
and the public funds science.
So how can the scientific community shy away
from a question that it can address
with existing technology?
You know,
when the public is very interested in that,
how can there be a taboo on this question?
That's the thing that really puzzles me.
Now, you know,
I wasn't working in this area until the last five years or so.
I was working in studying black holes,
studying the universe,
and I came across a number of ideas
that led me into this rabbit hole,
into this subject.
Now I'm about to publish this book at a popular level,
but also a textbook six months later
that describes all the science that we have
related to the search for life outside Earth,
far from Earth.
And I'm just amazed
that it's not part of the mainstream.
You know, it's really surprising to me
and I think it's inappropriate
because you look at physics,
theoretical physics,
there are lots of speculative ideas in it.
Like people talk about extra dimensions,
the multiverse,
you know, super symmetry,
super string theory,
all of these have no evidence to their credit.
You know, there is no experimental test,
not even thought about,
you know, like in the next decade,
the next two decades,
but these ideas are part of the mainstream.
So you see physicists giving each other awards
and doing intellectual gymnastics,
you know, just demonstrating that they are smart.
And to me, that's an unhealthy situation in physics.
You know, you can do it in mathematics
where it's completely detached from any application to reality.
But in physics,
we are supposed to describe reality.
And yet you have these intellectuals.
So it's as if the physics community,
some parts of it,
decided that the most important task
is to demonstrate that you're smart.
And that is really strange to me
because, you know,
we're supposed to understand nature,
not show that we are smart.
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