[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.53,0:00:31.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Without further ado, here's Professor Richard Dawkins and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.80,0:00:45.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, Neil, we're here to talk about the poetry of science. I would say that science is the
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.67,0:00:55.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,poetry of reality, and one of the things that I feel a bit humble in your presence, biology
Dialogue: 0,0:00:55.57,0:01:03.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being a kind of junior science to physics, I suppose we both have something to learn
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.59,0:01:06.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from each other; but I can't help feeling I've got rather more to learn from you than
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.84,0:01:13.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you've got to learn from me. Maybe we're both a bit naïve about each other's subject, but
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.46,0:01:18.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think I'm a bit more naïve about yours because there's more to be naïve about.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.33,0:01:27.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I forget who it was that coined the phrase “physics envy,” and I think this shows
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.44,0:01:32.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,itself in lots of fields, perhaps less so in biology than others, so what we're going
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.27,0:01:37.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to try to do is to have a conversation between a biologist, an evolutionary biologist and
Dialogue: 0,0:01:37.70,0:01:47.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an astrophysicist, a kind of mutual tutorial without a chairman to get in the way.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.25,0:01:59.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I thought we might begin by noting that what we can see with our sense organs is an extremely
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.44,0:02:05.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,narrow band of what there is to see, and this is particularly so with the visual sense.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.48,0:02:11.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We can see a tiny, narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, the rainbow; but the rainbow's width
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.98,0:02:17.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is tiny compared to the vast expanse of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:17.40,0:02:24.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I see that as a kind of symbol for how limited our understanding of the universe is, as well,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.92,0:02:31.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because after all, we are evolved beings who evolved to understand the interactions between
Dialogue: 0,0:02:31.47,0:02:39.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,medium-sized objects moving at medium speeds. And this ill equipped our brains to understand
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.04,0:02:46.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the very small quantum theory and the very large, which I supposed is covered by relativity.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:46.13,0:02:53.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, I find myself, as a mere biologist, baffled by some of the things that physicists talk
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.55,0:03:01.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about, and jut to throw out one example, in the expanding universe, we are told (and I
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.91,0:03:07.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have to believe it) that everywhere is as it were the same as everywhere else. There's
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.06,0:03:12.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,no one place which is the edge of the universe. How can that be?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:12.36,0:03:20.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, Richard, first of all, you're told it so you have to believe it. I will never require
Dialogue: 0,0:03:20.24,0:03:22.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you to believe anything.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:22.15,0:03:24.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Good for you.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.25,0:03:33.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It will only ever be about how compelling is the evidence to you, but you started with
Dialogue: 0,0:03:33.11,0:03:37.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,our sensory organs and landed in the expanding universe. Can I take us back to the organs
Dialogue: 0,0:03:37.97,0:03:40.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then, perhaps, land in the universe?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.40,0:03:40.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.76,0:03:49.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The urge to think of our senses as being powerful or good is strong because, first, that's all
Dialogue: 0,0:03:49.02,0:03:56.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have; second, we like having nice thoughts about ourselves, rather than miserable, depressing
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.07,0:04:03.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thoughts, so we're prone to talk around celebrating, for example the power of sight or of taste
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.66,0:04:08.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or of smell, when of course, when you really smell something, you bring a dog, and they
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.29,0:04:14.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,smell...their nose smells much better than your nose smells. I was going to say the dog
Dialogue: 0,0:04:14.93,0:04:18.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,smells better than you, but that would insult you.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:18.93,0:04:25.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, we already know that our sense are feeble, and we reach to other creatures in the animal
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.58,0:04:31.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,kingdom, cite them as having better examples of our sight, of our taste, of our smell;
Dialogue: 0,0:04:31.56,0:04:37.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but little did people know much before a century and a half ago that our sense of vision is
Dialogue: 0,0:04:37.78,0:04:44.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,limited only, as Richard said, to the colors of the rainbow, and it's quite extraordinary
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.69,0:04:52.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to realize that, for example, beyond red, there's something called infrared; and beyond
Dialogue: 0,0:04:52.59,0:04:57.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,infrared, there are microwaves. And beyond microwaves, there are radio waves.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:57.10,0:05:02.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Go the other direction, you go beyond violet, ultraviolet. Beyond that, x-rays and gamma
Dialogue: 0,0:05:02.61,0:05:09.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,rays. Energy goes up as you approach gamma rays, with dramatic consequences if you have
Dialogue: 0,0:05:09.34,0:05:14.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,gamma-ray exposure, by the way. Of course, we all know you turn big, green, and ugly
Dialogue: 0,0:05:14.81,0:05:21.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as The Hulk had experienced. But the point is the visible light part of that spectrum
Dialogue: 0,0:05:21.63,0:05:27.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is a tiny slice, and the universe doesn't only communicate with us through that slice,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:27.28,0:05:30.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as we had taken for granted for so long.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:30.52,0:05:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Most of the history of the telescope, which is itself an extension of our eyes, extended
Dialogue: 0,0:05:36.00,0:05:42.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the power of our eyes but not the range of our eyes. It wasn't until we first understood
Dialogue: 0,0:05:42.92,0:05:48.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that maybe we're missing something in the 19th century, the 20th century came decade
Dialogue: 0,0:05:48.37,0:05:55.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by decade, new telescopes in each newly-discovered band of light. Only then did we learn about
Dialogue: 0,0:05:55.89,0:06:02.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,black holes in the universe or remarkable violent forces operating in the centers of
Dialogue: 0,0:06:02.84,0:06:05.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,galaxies, discovered by radio telescopes.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:05.15,0:06:12.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, yeah, we're practically blind out there, and it's humbling, by the way, but that's
Dialogue: 0,0:06:12.49,0:06:17.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the whole point of the methods and tools of science, to not only extend your senses in
Dialogue: 0,0:06:17.74,0:06:22.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the domain in which you understand, but to take them to places they've never been before.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:22.71,0:06:28.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,On top of that, we have methods and tools that detect things that are not even extensions
Dialogue: 0,0:06:28.96,0:06:35.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of your senses. You have no clue what the magnetic field is around your body right now.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:35.08,0:06:41.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You have no clue whether or not you're being bathed in ionizing radiation right now. You'll
Dialogue: 0,0:06:41.10,0:06:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,eventually figure that out, as limbs start falling off; but while it's happening, you
Dialogue: 0,0:06:47.09,0:06:48.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,actually don't know.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:48.53,0:06:53.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There are other things that are more subtle like polarization of light. So when I think
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.40,0:06:58.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the scientist's tool kit, especially the astrophysicist's tool kit, it's all about
Dialogue: 0,0:06:58.92,0:07:03.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,how many different senses can you bring to bear, technological senses can you bring to
Dialogue: 0,0:07:03.40,0:07:05.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bear on decoding the universe.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:05.76,0:07:10.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One of the things we have discovered, now getting to your horizon question, we look
Dialogue: 0,0:07:10.49,0:07:16.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,around the universe, and it looks like we're in the center. What an ego-supporting concept
Dialogue: 0,0:07:16.36,0:07:23.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is! You can either go around continuing to think that, feeling good about yourself,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:23.46,0:07:31.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or study the problem and learn that, in an expanding universe, where the speed of light
Dialogue: 0,0:07:31.68,0:07:38.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is finite at 186,000 miles per second...forgive me using miles per second...
Dialogue: 0,0:07:38.42,0:07:39.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'd prefer miles.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:39.38,0:07:44.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You do. You got that on tape? An Oxford professor, I prefer...
Dialogue: 0,0:07:44.61,0:07:47.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, it's true. Nobody talks about kilometers in Britain.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:47.88,0:07:55.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Oh, good. All right. We share not only most of our language, we share miles still. And
Dialogue: 0,0:07:55.42,0:07:58.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,inchworms. What do they call them? They're not centimeter worms, right? They're inchworms.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:58.94,0:08:02.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We don't have that sort of stuff in Britain. That's Europe.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:02.40,0:08:10.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Of course, Britain is not Europe, as we are constantly reminded. That's right, here we
Dialogue: 0,0:08:10.60,0:08:14.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have the English breakfast and the Continental breakfast. They're very different breakfasts
Dialogue: 0,0:08:14.09,0:08:16.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that you can order here.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:16.02,0:08:21.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, this horizon problem is actually quite simple; and rather than explain the full up
Dialogue: 0,0:08:21.92,0:08:27.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,nature of it, let me just give a simple example that is entirely analogous. When you're a
Dialogue: 0,0:08:27.43,0:08:34.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ship at sea, and you look out, your horizon in every direction is the same distance from
Dialogue: 0,0:08:34.03,0:08:39.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you. It depends on your height above the sea level. That's why ship decks are high. They
Dialogue: 0,0:08:39.48,0:08:47.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,see farther beyond the curvature of the earth than you do just standing on the main deck.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:47.52,0:08:54.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, your horizon is a perfect circle centered on you. You can conclude that is the extent
Dialogue: 0,0:08:54.44,0:09:01.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the entire earth, or you can imagine, suppose I'm in another spot. Well, that horizon is
Dialogue: 0,0:09:01.02,0:09:05.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,still true for whoever happens to be in the middle of it, but now, you've moved to a new
Dialogue: 0,0:09:05.84,0:09:10.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,place, and you will see a horizon corresponding with that spot.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:10.65,0:09:16.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, everybody has a horizon at sea; yet no one at any time is thinking that that's the
Dialogue: 0,0:09:16.05,0:09:21.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,full extent of the ocean or the full extent of the earth. We have a horizon in the universe,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:21.47,0:09:28.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so does the Andromeda Galaxy, the galaxies with names that look like phone numbers. If
Dialogue: 0,0:09:28.71,0:09:34.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you travel to those galaxies, they will see the edge of the universe now in three dimensions
Dialogue: 0,0:09:34.23,0:09:37.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in every direction at the same distance from them, just as we see for ourselves.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:37.87,0:09:44.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That does it for me, provided that the horizon is that which we are capable of seeing. I
Dialogue: 0,0:09:44.08,0:09:51.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,could follow that if you said that, for any part of the universe, the horizon is the bit
Dialogue: 0,0:09:51.19,0:09:54.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,before the expending universe has disappeared over the horizon.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:54.37,0:09:54.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:54.66,0:10:00.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's just no longer visible, but it's still there, even though we can't detect it.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:00.06,0:10:02.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's true of the ocean when you're at sea.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:02.17,0:10:04.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, but...anybody on my side here?
Dialogue: 0,0:10:04.82,0:10:15.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You want it to be a harder problem than it is. I'm just simply saying... So, here you
Dialogue: 0,0:10:15.16,0:10:17.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,go. Here you go.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:17.63,0:10:21.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The radius to our horizon is about 14 billion light years.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:21.81,0:10:23.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Got it.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:23.17,0:10:29.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay? If we sat here or returned to this spot a billion years from now, that horizon will
Dialogue: 0,0:10:29.44,0:10:37.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be 15 billion light years away. It's actually an expanding horizon because the light from
Dialogue: 0,0:10:37.20,0:10:44.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,15 billion years, light years away, will have had time to reach us. Right now, it's still
Dialogue: 0,0:10:44.77,0:10:45.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,en route.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:45.44,0:10:49.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have no problem with that, but beyond the 14 billion year...
Dialogue: 0,0:10:49.03,0:10:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The problem is the universe wasn't born yet.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:52.00,0:10:53.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, okay.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:53.65,0:10:54.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's the problem.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:54.34,0:10:55.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I know.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:55.40,0:11:02.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay? So, you can't see the universe before it existed.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:02.21,0:11:03.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So why doesn't somebody...
Dialogue: 0,0:11:03.45,0:11:07.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...invent the kind of telescope that can?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:07.58,0:11:14.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, no, no. Okay, I'm getting out of my depth here. Let's get back to...
Dialogue: 0,0:11:14.60,0:11:23.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just to clarify. It takes light time to reach us, and the universe hasn't been here forever.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:23.02,0:11:28.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You combine those two facts, you get an edge of the universe. And so, the universe has
Dialogue: 0,0:11:28.59,0:11:34.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,been here for 14 billion years. The farthest thing that could send us any information is
Dialogue: 0,0:11:34.96,0:11:36.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,14 billion light years away.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:36.35,0:11:43.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I get that, but what about the guys who are on the edge of what we can see? How can they
Dialogue: 0,0:11:43.31,0:11:45.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,see beyond the other side?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:45.71,0:11:51.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Oh, because...here's an interesting point. They don't know whether or not the entire
Dialogue: 0,0:11:51.32,0:11:59.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,universe is infinite. The universe could be twice our horizon or infinitely larger than
Dialogue: 0,0:11:59.75,0:12:04.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,our horizon. Same with the ocean. You don't know how much bigger the ocean is than your
Dialogue: 0,0:12:04.60,0:12:09.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,horizon is. You can keep sort of wandering around. Maybe you'll hit land as we've done,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:09.14,0:12:10.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of course.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:10.03,0:12:16.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, now you go there. If the universe is really, really big, that will be the center of their
Dialogue: 0,0:12:16.06,0:12:21.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,own horizon. And whatever is the age of the universe is, for them at that time, that will
Dialogue: 0,0:12:21.58,0:12:23.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be the radius to their horizon.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:23.61,0:12:28.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, okay. I just want to make a remark. You drew the analogy of the sense of smell,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:28.42,0:12:35.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and what a poor sense of smell we have. It's a fascinating fact that, although dogs, for
Dialogue: 0,0:12:35.24,0:12:38.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,example have a much better sense of smell than we have, as you mentioned...
Dialogue: 0,0:12:38.27,0:12:42.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's why I say sense of smell. That's what I should say, not that dogs smell better,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:42.68,0:12:45.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but they have a better sense of smell. Thank you for that.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:45.46,0:12:52.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But we have the genes that would have once enabled our ancestors to have as good a sense
Dialogue: 0,0:12:52.31,0:12:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of smell as dogs, but the genes have mostly been turned off; so we have vestiges. We have
Dialogue: 0,0:12:58.00,0:13:01.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,historical relics of those genes.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:01.87,0:13:06.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's like your hard disk on your computer that's cluttered up with remains of old chapters
Dialogue: 0,0:13:06.76,0:13:11.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you've written here and there and things that have now been cut off. Those genes have been
Dialogue: 0,0:13:11.24,0:13:13.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,turned off, but they're still there.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:13.36,0:13:15.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Isn't that the premise of X-Men?
Dialogue: 0,0:13:15.06,0:13:17.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:17.50,0:13:24.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They're human, but they have a genetically different...different genes are turned on
Dialogue: 0,0:13:24.87,0:13:30.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and off within them, giving them special powers. So, are you suggesting the day might arise,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:30.04,0:13:34.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we go inside the human genome and flick the dipswitches on and off, and we come out as
Dialogue: 0,0:13:34.54,0:13:34.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,superheroes?
Dialogue: 0,0:13:34.69,0:13:39.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Put it this way. It's not as unlikely as it might have appeared before we realized that
Dialogue: 0,0:13:39.93,0:13:44.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we do have those genes still. You don't have to import the genes from dogs, although the
Dialogue: 0,0:13:44.90,0:13:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,technology of this coming century may enable that to happen.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:48.00,0:13:50.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'd still rather it be the dog that sniffs the bomb than me.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:50.97,0:14:00.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But we would probably have robots to do the sniffing. What about this point about the
Dialogue: 0,0:14:00.10,0:14:07.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,difficulty of...maybe I chose too easy an example. The brain, how is it that the human
Dialogue: 0,0:14:07.10,0:14:10.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,brain, which evolved to do really rather mundane things...
Dialogue: 0,0:14:10.81,0:14:12.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...to not get eaten by lions.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:12.09,0:14:17.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To not get eaten by lions in the Pleistocene of Africa because, as you'll learn this evening,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:17.24,0:14:25.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we are all Africans. We all come from Africa, and our brains were shaped by natural selection
Dialogue: 0,0:14:25.58,0:14:32.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on the African plains to do things that involve objects like this. Medium-sized objects.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:32.88,0:14:34.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Macro-sized objects.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:34.01,0:14:39.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Macro-sized objects that don't move anywhere near the speed of light. It's a tremendous
Dialogue: 0,0:14:39.11,0:14:46.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tribute to our species that we are capable...at least some of us are capable...of understanding
Dialogue: 0,0:14:46.26,0:14:51.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,things that don't belong on that ordinary macroscopic, slow-moving scale.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:51.77,0:14:58.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, and so therein is the value to us, not only of the methods and tools of science,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:58.92,0:15:04.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but also of the language of the universe that we call mathematics. Remarkable thing, a point
Dialogue: 0,0:15:04.82,0:15:12.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,first advanced by Eugene Wigner that math has an unreasonable utility in the universe
Dialogue: 0,0:15:12.82,0:15:17.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since we just invented it out of our heads. You don't discover math under a rock, as you
Dialogue: 0,0:15:17.49,0:15:28.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,might find grubs. You invent it out of whole cloth, yet is empowers us to provide accurate
Dialogue: 0,0:15:28.44,0:15:31.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the predictive descriptions and understandings of the universe.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:31.77,0:15:42.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, what comes of this is you learn to abandon your senses. That's a like from the Broadway
Dialogue: 0,0:15:42.05,0:15:54.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,musical Phantom of the Opera...abandon your...never mind, sorry. I want to write Broadway lyrics
Dialogue: 0,0:15:54.66,0:15:57.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,one day in another life.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:57.26,0:16:04.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You train yourself to abandon your senses because you recognize how they can fool you
Dialogue: 0,0:16:04.19,0:16:10.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into thinking one thing is true that is not. You abandon them. You use your tools that
Dialogue: 0,0:16:10.66,0:16:15.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,do the measuring to say, okay, that's the reality. Then you make a mathematical model
Dialogue: 0,0:16:15.31,0:16:21.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of that that you can manipulate logically...because math is all about the logical extension of
Dialogue: 0,0:16:21.60,0:16:26.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,one point to another...and then you can make new discoveries about the world that, frankly,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:26.91,0:16:29.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you'll just have to get used to you.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:29.88,0:16:38.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No longer do you have the right...right is not the right work, but no longer are you
Dialogue: 0,0:16:38.82,0:16:46.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,justified saying that idea in science is not true because it doesn't make sense. Nobody
Dialogue: 0,0:16:46.41,0:16:51.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cares about your senses. Your senses came out...forget the Serengeti, just growing up.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:51.75,0:16:57.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As a kid, something's in your hand, you let go of it, it falls. You tip a glass, water
Dialogue: 0,0:16:57.11,0:17:03.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,spills. You are assembling a rule book for how nature works in the macroscopic world.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:03.31,0:17:07.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The microscope takes you smaller than that; the telescope takes you bigger; and the other
Dialogue: 0,0:17:07.78,0:17:15.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,laws of physics manifest themselves in those regimes that you have no life experience reckoning.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:15.26,0:17:23.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's math that allows you to take these incremental steps beyond the capacity of your senses and
Dialogue: 0,0:17:23.90,0:17:30.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,perhaps even the capacity of your mind. Yes, it's the mind that's taking the steps, but
Dialogue: 0,0:17:30.31,0:17:35.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,your mind was not deducing that by just looking at the world with your senses. It was helped
Dialogue: 0,0:17:35.37,0:17:39.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,out. It was aided by these tools that, yes, we invented.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:39.81,0:17:44.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And at some point when you get so used to doing the mathematics, it becomes kind of
Dialogue: 0,0:17:44.18,0:17:51.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,intuitive in rather the way that I'm told that pilots get used to flying a plane, and
Dialogue: 0,0:17:51.16,0:17:55.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they start to feel the wings of the plane as being almost part of their own bodies.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:55.38,0:17:55.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They develop...
Dialogue: 0,0:17:55.83,0:18:06.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Before or after the drinks before they took off? Is this a common sensory perception of
Dialogue: 0,0:18:06.81,0:18:06.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,pilots.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:06.94,0:18:12.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, I think it is. It's a common thing that I think that, when people get skilled at using
Dialogue: 0,0:18:12.86,0:18:17.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,micromanipulators where they're using their hands, and what actually going on is tiny
Dialogue: 0,0:18:17.72,0:18:20.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,little miniscule movement going on under a microscope...
Dialogue: 0,0:18:20.91,0:18:21.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...so it becomes their hands.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:21.49,0:18:22.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It becomes their hands.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:22.68,0:18:25.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The plane becomes the pilot, or the pilot becomes...
Dialogue: 0,0:18:25.57,0:18:32.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just as you said, the telescope is an extension of the eyes.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:32.44,0:18:37.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My advisor in graduate school...one of my advisors, I spoke to him one morning. He was
Dialogue: 0,0:18:37.67,0:18:43.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,doing research on star clusters that have these huge orbits around the center of the
Dialogue: 0,0:18:43.03,0:18:47.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,galaxy. He said he had a dream the night before where he was one of these clusters, and he
Dialogue: 0,0:18:47.54,0:18:51.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was orbiting the center of the galaxy. I thought that was so cool.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:51.30,0:18:52.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, yes.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:52.16,0:18:56.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you start becoming in your cosmic dream...I want to have those dreams because then, you
Dialogue: 0,0:18:56.89,0:19:00.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,think creatively about what remains to be discovered.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:00.21,0:19:06.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Absolutely. I sometimes wonder about whether surgeons, maybe even surgeons of the present
Dialogue: 0,0:19:06.04,0:19:13.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who are using micromanipulators inside a body, something like when they stick that thing
Dialogue: 0,0:19:13.42,0:19:14.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,up you, and it goes...
Dialogue: 0,0:19:14.88,0:19:18.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They stick a lot of things up you, the last I've heard.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:18.93,0:19:25.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay, and already you have surgeons driving an endoscope inside and turning left to get
Dialogue: 0,0:19:25.85,0:19:31.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,round the intestine, turning right. I imagine the time will come when a surgeon will have
Dialogue: 0,0:19:31.62,0:19:38.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,virtual reality goggles on, and the surgeon will actually feel herself to be inside the
Dialogue: 0,0:19:38.06,0:19:46.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,body of the patient and will turn left and literally walk across the room, and that will
Dialogue: 0,0:19:46.05,0:19:51.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be translated into the micromanipulators, the endoscope, moving.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:51.97,0:19:55.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This sounds really cool. I like this idea. And you know what you'd have to do? You would
Dialogue: 0,0:19:55.43,0:20:01.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have to alter the dominant laws of physics in that regime because, if you're small enough
Dialogue: 0,0:20:01.95,0:20:08.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a la Fantastic Voyage, the 1960's film, when you're that small, capillary action and surface
Dialogue: 0,0:20:08.93,0:20:15.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tension and all manners of other forces take over and that then becomes your new reality,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:15.28,0:20:17.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,your new sensory standards.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:17.12,0:20:22.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's right. You would have to become sensitive to surface tension. D'Arcy Thompson made the
Dialogue: 0,0:20:22.55,0:20:28.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,point, I think in 1919, that to the world of an insect, gravity is negligible.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:28.49,0:20:30.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A completely...it's who cares?
Dialogue: 0,0:20:30.07,0:20:34.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What matters is surface tension, and you'd have to be...I never thought of that, but
Dialogue: 0,0:20:34.10,0:20:34.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what I'd do...
Dialogue: 0,0:20:34.66,0:20:36.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's because you didn't see the move Bug's Life, okay?
Dialogue: 0,0:20:36.95,0:20:37.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:37.33,0:20:43.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In Bug's Life, they serve up a cocktail to an insect that goes up to a bar, and all the
Dialogue: 0,0:20:43.76,0:20:49.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bartender does is pour out water from a spigot and hand him the ball of water, like that,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:49.17,0:20:53.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the surface...this was brilliant of the cartoonist, of the illustrator, and then,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:53.82,0:20:59.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he sticks a straw into the sphere and sucks it out. No receptacle needed. You got to get
Dialogue: 0,0:20:59.13,0:21:01.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,out more.
Dialogue: 0,0:21:01.80,0:21:11.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, I imagine my surgeon of the future being armed with a virtual saw, one of those...what
Dialogue: 0,0:21:11.10,0:21:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are those things you cut trees down with...band saws, and what's really going on is a tiny
Dialogue: 0,0:21:20.00,0:21:29.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,little micro scalpel inside, but the surgeon is wielding an axe, and it's all done by virtual
Dialogue: 0,0:21:29.04,0:21:30.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,entity.
Dialogue: 0,0:21:30.70,0:21:37.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I've got a question back to you. I lose sleep over this, and I've always wanted to be in
Dialogue: 0,0:21:37.14,0:21:45.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the company of a leading biologist to get insight into this. As an astrophysicist, we've
Dialogue: 0,0:21:45.79,0:21:54.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,seen throughout time the hubris that comes with any discovery that gets made, or the
Dialogue: 0,0:21:54.13,0:22:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hubris that prevents the acceptance of a discovery that might demote your sense of self from
Dialogue: 0,0:22:01.00,0:22:03.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whatever you previously imagined it to be.
Dialogue: 0,0:22:03.61,0:22:09.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Among them is where is earth? Is it the center of all things? No. It's not even a significant
Dialogue: 0,0:22:09.32,0:22:15.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,planet in orbit around an ordinary star in the corner of an ordinary galaxy, one of a
Dialogue: 0,0:22:15.44,0:22:22.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hundred billion galaxies in the universe. And so, here we are saying let's search life
Dialogue: 0,0:22:22.74,0:22:29.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the universe, intelligent life like us. Well, who are we to say that we're intelligent?
Dialogue: 0,0:22:29.88,0:22:37.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I pose that not as a joke questions, but as a very serious question. We define ourselves
Dialogue: 0,0:22:37.64,0:22:46.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to be intelligent in ways that no other creature can rival. Okay, now, what do we credit that
Dialogue: 0,0:22:46.14,0:22:51.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,intelligence to? So, you look at the genome, and let's take the chimp. I guess that's a
Dialogue: 0,0:22:51.33,0:22:58.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,really close relative of ours, and we have...what is it? High 90's percent identical, indistinguishable
Dialogue: 0,0:22:58.33,0:23:03.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DNA, and the chimp does not build the Hubble telescope, and the chimp does not compose
Dialogue: 0,0:23:03.22,0:23:09.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,symphonies. So, we must then declare that everything we say about us that is intelligent
Dialogue: 0,0:23:09.57,0:23:14.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is found in that one-and-a-half percent difference in DNA. First, is that a fair statement to
Dialogue: 0,0:23:14.35,0:23:15.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,make?
Dialogue: 0,0:23:15.06,0:23:15.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes.
Dialogue: 0,0:23:15.77,0:23:22.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay. Let me invert that question. If the genetic difference between humans and chimps
Dialogue: 0,0:23:22.51,0:23:29.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is that small, maybe the difference in our intelligence is also that small. Maybe the
Dialogue: 0,0:23:29.27,0:23:35.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,difference between stacking boxes and reaching a banana, putting up an umbrella when it rains,
Dialogue: 0,0:23:35.50,0:23:40.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whatever are these rudimentary things a chimp does that the primatologists roll them forward
Dialogue: 0,0:23:40.06,0:23:45.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and boast about, which of course, our toddlers can do, maybe the difference between that
Dialogue: 0,0:23:45.72,0:23:49.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the Hubble telescope is as small as that difference in DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:23:49.84,0:23:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I pose the question: suppose there was another life form on earth or elsewhere that, in that
Dialogue: 0,0:23:55.00,0:24:00.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,same sort of vector, that one-and-a-half percent difference we are to chimps, suppose they
Dialogue: 0,0:24:00.66,0:24:06.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were one-and-a-half percent different from us? Then would then roll the smartest of us
Dialogue: 0,0:24:06.73,0:24:14.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in front of their hematologists and say, Hawking, there's Hawking. Oh, this one is slightly
Dialogue: 0,0:24:14.77,0:24:20.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,smarter than the rest of them because he can do astrophysics calculations in his head.
Dialogue: 0,0:24:20.44,0:24:24.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Like little Timmy over here.
Dialogue: 0,0:24:24.22,0:24:33.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, I wonder if we're just blithering idiots in the presence of even a trivially smarter
Dialogue: 0,0:24:33.68,0:24:40.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,species than us. Therefore, who are we to even assert that, number one, we are intelligent,
Dialogue: 0,0:24:40.52,0:24:45.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we're looking for others at least as intelligent as us out there to talk to.
Dialogue: 0,0:24:45.55,0:24:50.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,By the way, is there any other species on earth that we can talk to? Can we have a conversation
Dialogue: 0,0:24:50.90,0:24:56.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with a chimp? That has identical DNA, and I don't think we can actually say, hey, what
Dialogue: 0,0:24:56.22,0:25:00.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,movie do you want to see tonight? You don't have that conversation with a chimp. Yet somehow,
Dialogue: 0,0:25:00.25,0:25:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we believe, we want to believe that an alien on another planet that's not even based on
Dialogue: 0,0:25:06.00,0:25:11.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DNA and, even if it is, it's not nothing like us, that we could communicate with it.
Dialogue: 0,0:25:11.55,0:25:21.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm screaming at you. I'm sorry. So there! Are we as stupid as I'm saying?
Dialogue: 0,0:25:21.05,0:25:26.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, I'm all for deflating hubris; but it's also true, of course, that our brains are
Dialogue: 0,0:25:26.88,0:25:32.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anatomically very, very much bigger than chimps, and so that also must be contained in some
Dialogue: 0,0:25:32.35,0:25:37.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sense in that tiny little percentage of DNA. I think the way to sort of look at the DNA
Dialogue: 0,0:25:37.11,0:25:43.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,problem is to say that the sort of DNA that has been sequenced, and the sort of thing
Dialogue: 0,0:25:43.71,0:25:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on which we base that calculation of the 98 percent...again, look at a computer, and you
Dialogue: 0,0:25:54.00,0:26:00.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,will find that most of the programs that are written at the machine code level are calling
Dialogue: 0,0:26:00.42,0:26:01.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,out the same set of subroutines.
Dialogue: 0,0:26:01.98,0:26:06.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's a subroutine for pulling down menu bars and a subroutine for moving windows and
Dialogue: 0,0:26:06.69,0:26:13.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so on. That's what we're looking at in this 98 percent. What we're not looking at is the
Dialogue: 0,0:26:13.75,0:26:18.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,set of sort of high-level instructions that say call this subroutine now, now call this
Dialogue: 0,0:26:18.35,0:26:22.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,one, now call this one, now call that one. It's not just humans and chimpanzees; all
Dialogue: 0,0:26:22.14,0:26:29.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mammals have pretty much the same repertoire of genetic subroutines.
Dialogue: 0,0:26:29.06,0:26:32.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The difference between a man and a mouse, like the difference the difference between
Dialogue: 0,0:26:32.87,0:26:37.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a man and a chimpanzee is the order in which they're called, the sequence in which they're
Dialogue: 0,0:26:37.90,0:26:43.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,called during embryology which causes the really quite substantial anatomical differences
Dialogue: 0,0:26:43.35,0:26:48.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between a human and a mouse and the quite big differences in brain size.
Dialogue: 0,0:26:48.86,0:26:55.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If we assume we're not some measure of things, then as I said earlier, that tells me that
Dialogue: 0,0:26:55.49,0:27:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the day might come where we could go in, understand which sequences are called in what way, and
Dialogue: 0,0:27:02.00,0:27:05.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,invent whole new sequences never before dreamt of by biology?
Dialogue: 0,0:27:05.89,0:27:07.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yep, absolutely.
Dialogue: 0,0:27:07.09,0:27:09.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Empowering us in ways never before...
Dialogue: 0,0:27:09.39,0:27:13.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's very, very difficult. It's much more difficult than it sounds; but still, it's
Dialogue: 0,0:27:13.88,0:27:20.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in principle possible. But the other point about intelligent life in the universe, never
Dialogue: 0,0:27:20.31,0:27:27.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mind how we define intelligence. We're only going to encounter them if they are intelligent
Dialogue: 0,0:27:27.12,0:27:31.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,enough either to come here, which is very difficult indeed, or to send radio transmissions
Dialogue: 0,0:27:31.52,0:27:37.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to us, which is a lot easier but still requires...let's just define it as the quality that you need
Dialogue: 0,0:27:37.29,0:27:40.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in order send information across the universe.
Dialogue: 0,0:27:40.78,0:27:44.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, you don't have to call that intelligence, but whatever it is, that's what it needs in
Dialogue: 0,0:27:44.68,0:27:48.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,order to get here, in order for us to apprehend it.
Dialogue: 0,0:27:48.82,0:27:53.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I wonder, you know, surely you've walked past a worm that had just crawled out of the
Dialogue: 0,0:27:53.72,0:27:59.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,earth; and when you did so, you weren't saying to yourself, gee, I wonder what that worm
Dialogue: 0,0:27:59.11,0:28:03.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is thinking because you just simply didn't care. You're so far beyond the...I don't want
Dialogue: 0,0:28:03.46,0:28:07.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to put words in your mouth, but I'm imagining you simply really don't care what the worm
Dialogue: 0,0:28:07.60,0:28:15.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is thinking; and conversely, the worm has no clue that you consider yourself intelligent.
Dialogue: 0,0:28:15.57,0:28:17.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You're just this thing that went by.
Dialogue: 0,0:28:17.31,0:28:23.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, can you imagine a species that has such high intelligence that the prospect of communicating
Dialogue: 0,0:28:23.56,0:28:25.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with us is simply of no interest to them?
Dialogue: 0,0:28:25.89,0:28:26.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, I can. Yeah.
Dialogue: 0,0:28:26.98,0:28:31.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they go by, and their intelligence is on such a level that we can't even recognize
Dialogue: 0,0:28:31.75,0:28:32.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it as intelligence.
Dialogue: 0,0:28:32.96,0:28:37.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes. Moreover, I think it would more or less have to be that much ahead of us if we were
Dialogue: 0,0:28:37.98,0:28:40.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ever to meet them because we're never going to get there.
Dialogue: 0,0:28:40.40,0:28:47.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, we sure as hell ain't getting there. See the massive budget lately? If not...
Dialogue: 0,0:28:47.36,0:28:52.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, anything that gets here has got to have a very, very highly-developed technology,
Dialogue: 0,0:28:52.40,0:28:54.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,far more than we've...
Dialogue: 0,0:28:54.45,0:28:58.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That brings us to Stephen Hawking's concern about any civilization sufficiently advanced
Dialogue: 0,0:28:58.76,0:29:04.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to visit us, what does that say about the consequence of that encounter? And he's worried,
Dialogue: 0,0:29:04.65,0:29:09.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of course, because he's taking his cue from the history of humans. When one has a more
Dialogue: 0,0:29:09.26,0:29:15.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,advanced technology than the other, and they visit, it almost is always bad for those with
Dialogue: 0,0:29:15.34,0:29:21.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the lesser technology. South America, one of the more obvious examples, in their first
Dialogue: 0,0:29:21.79,0:29:28.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,encounter with the Spaniards...so, I don't know if I want to be the first one to shake
Dialogue: 0,0:29:28.25,0:29:37.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hands...shake whatever appendage...whatever they're sticking forward, I don't know...
Dialogue: 0,0:29:37.13,0:29:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I want to do it, but I still have my concerns.
Dialogue: 0,0:29:43.00,0:29:46.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What do you think are the odds that there is life elsewhere in the universe?
Dialogue: 0,0:29:46.76,0:29:52.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They must be high, and I'll tell you why. People say, well, have you found life yet?
Dialogue: 0,0:29:52.98,0:29:58.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No. Well. That's like going to the ocean...this has been said before...taking a cup of water,
Dialogue: 0,0:29:58.86,0:30:05.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,scooping it up, and saying there are no whales in the ocean. You know? Here's my data. You
Dialogue: 0,0:30:05.73,0:30:13.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,know? You need a slightly bigger sample.
Dialogue: 0,0:30:13.64,0:30:18.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at, for example, what we call the radio bubble. This is the sphere around
Dialogue: 0,0:30:18.05,0:30:23.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,earth, centered on earth, which is the farthest our radio signals have reached in the galaxy.
Dialogue: 0,0:30:23.93,0:30:29.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They're about 70 light years away. We've been transmitting radio signals, inadvertently
Dialogue: 0,0:30:29.22,0:30:34.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,leaking into space, for about 70 years. Seventy light year radius sphere.
Dialogue: 0,0:30:34.78,0:30:40.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, how big is the galaxy? Well, shrink that sphere down to maybe the size of a BB,
Dialogue: 0,0:30:40.63,0:30:45.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then, the galaxy, on that scale, would be the size of this stage. That's how far
Dialogue: 0,0:30:45.87,0:30:49.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,our radio signals have traveled, and those aren't even the ones we sent on purpose. The
Dialogue: 0,0:30:49.79,0:30:57.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ones we sent on purpose have traveled much less. So no, we haven't actually reached as
Dialogue: 0,0:30:57.79,0:31:02.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,far into the galaxy as we'd like before we would say definitively that there's no one
Dialogue: 0,0:31:02.44,0:31:04.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,intelligent living today.
Dialogue: 0,0:31:04.70,0:31:12.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But here's some very simple facts. I can review them in 90 seconds. You look at the formation
Dialogue: 0,0:31:12.50,0:31:17.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the earth and the earliest sign of fossil life. Subtract a few hundred million years
Dialogue: 0,0:31:17.77,0:31:22.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the beginning of earth when earth was a shooting gallery, earth was still excreting
Dialogue: 0,0:31:22.69,0:31:29.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the birth materials of the solar system. It's hostile to complex chemistry over that time;
Dialogue: 0,0:31:29.14,0:31:33.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not fair to start the clock then. Wait a couple of hundred million years. Now start the clock,
Dialogue: 0,0:31:33.98,0:31:39.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and wait around and see when you have the first signs of single-celled life.
Dialogue: 0,0:31:39.05,0:31:47.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,At most, 400 million years. At most. Earth has been around for four-and-a-half billion.
Dialogue: 0,0:31:47.24,0:31:55.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So earth, without any help from us, with basic ingredients found throughout the universe,
Dialogue: 0,0:31:55.05,0:32:05.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,managed to create life, simple though it was. And earth, one of eight planets...get over
Dialogue: 0,0:32:05.58,0:32:16.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it...sorry. Earth around an ordinary star?
Dialogue: 0,0:32:16.50,0:32:21.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To suggest...and what are the ingredients of life? The number one atom in your body
Dialogue: 0,0:32:21.34,0:32:27.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is hydrogen. Number two atom is oxygen, together making mostly water that's in you. Next is
Dialogue: 0,0:32:27.41,0:32:34.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,carbon in this order. Next is nitrogen. Next is other stuff. My favorite element, other.
Dialogue: 0,0:32:34.64,0:32:35.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah?
Dialogue: 0,0:32:35.29,0:32:39.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You look at the universe, the number one element in the universe is hydrogen. Next is helium,
Dialogue: 0,0:32:39.90,0:32:44.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,chemically inert, couldn't do anything with it anyway. Next is carbon. I think I left
Dialogue: 0,0:32:44.72,0:32:50.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,out oxygen there. Next is oxygen. Next is nitrogen. One for one. We're not even made
Dialogue: 0,0:32:50.80,0:32:57.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of odd things. The most common things in the universe are found here on earth, and we're
Dialogue: 0,0:32:57.39,0:33:00.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,made of them.
Dialogue: 0,0:33:00.48,0:33:05.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And carbon? The most chemically fertile element on the periodic table? It's not a surprise
Dialogue: 0,0:33:05.83,0:33:14.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we're carbon-based. Life is just the extreme expression of complex chemistry. That's what
Dialogue: 0,0:33:14.18,0:33:21.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,biology is. All these people who want to imagine, because they remembered the chemistry class
Dialogue: 0,0:33:21.87,0:33:29.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that silicon sits right below carbon on the periodic table, so it bonds similarly to carbon,
Dialogue: 0,0:33:29.04,0:33:31.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so they want to imagine silicon-based life.
Dialogue: 0,0:33:31.40,0:33:36.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm saying, okay, fine; but you don't have to. There is five times as much carbon in
Dialogue: 0,0:33:36.79,0:33:43.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the universe as silicon. There's no need to even have to go there. We've got enough to
Dialogue: 0,0:33:43.19,0:33:49.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,imagine just simply with the carbon atom at the center of these huge biological molecules.
Dialogue: 0,0:33:49.65,0:33:53.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Point is, it happened relatively quickly with the most common ingredients in the universe.
Dialogue: 0,0:33:53.88,0:33:59.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To now say life on earth is unique in the universe would be inexcusably egocentric.
Dialogue: 0,0:33:59.44,0:34:08.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, I agree with that; and I would go further and say that, if ever you meet somebody who
Dialogue: 0,0:34:08.44,0:34:13.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wishes to claim that he believes or she believes that life is unique in the universe, then
Dialogue: 0,0:34:13.95,0:34:18.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it would follow from that belief that the origin of life on this planet would have to
Dialogue: 0,0:34:18.51,0:34:24.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be a quite stupefyingly rare and improbable event, and that would have the rather odd
Dialogue: 0,0:34:24.82,0:34:32.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,consequence that, when chemists try to work out theories, models of the origin of life,
Dialogue: 0,0:34:32.68,0:34:38.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what they should be looking for is a stupendously improbable theory, an implausible theory.
Dialogue: 0,0:34:38.55,0:34:41.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If there was a plausible theory of the origin of life...
Dialogue: 0,0:34:41.22,0:34:42.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...it wouldn't be it.
Dialogue: 0,0:34:42.82,0:34:50.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's right because then life would have to be everywhere. Now maybe it is everywhere.
Dialogue: 0,0:34:50.77,0:34:56.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My hunch is that there's lots and lots of life in the universe; but because the universe
Dialogue: 0,0:34:56.06,0:35:01.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is so vast, the islands of life that there are are so spaced that it's unlikely that
Dialogue: 0,0:35:01.87,0:35:05.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anyone of them will meet any other, which is rather sad.
Dialogue: 0,0:35:05.10,0:35:10.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's sad. However, let me make you happy a little bit more from that. We've learned now
Dialogue: 0,0:35:10.67,0:35:15.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we can model the formation of the solar system, and this period of time where earth
Dialogue: 0,0:35:15.41,0:35:21.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was being bombarded heavily...that's called the period of heavy bombardment in the early
Dialogue: 0,0:35:21.87,0:35:32.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,universe. We call it like we see it in astrophysics, let the record show.
Dialogue: 0,0:35:32.68,0:35:37.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know if I've ever in my life ever understood the title of a biology research
Dialogue: 0,0:35:37.74,0:35:47.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,paper. I just want to say that. The words just...I'm not feeling them, you know? They're
Dialogue: 0,0:35:47.56,0:35:52.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,too big, too many syllables. I'm off topic here, so...
Dialogue: 0,0:35:52.86,0:35:59.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The period of heavy bombardment and, with computer simulations you can model what happens
Dialogue: 0,0:35:59.30,0:36:04.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when an impact hits a planetary surface. It's not much different from if you sprinkle cheerios
Dialogue: 0,0:36:04.77,0:36:11.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on a bed, which you would never do on purpose, but your kids would do this; and then, you
Dialogue: 0,0:36:11.23,0:36:16.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,smack the surface of the bed, there's a sort of recoiling effect, and cheerios pop upwards.
Dialogue: 0,0:36:16.72,0:36:22.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It turns out Mars may have been wet...we know at some point, it had water...and fertile
Dialogue: 0,0:36:22.86,0:36:30.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for life before earth. At this period of heavy bombardment, if it had started life, surely
Dialogue: 0,0:36:30.33,0:36:35.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it would have been simple life. There's no reason to think otherwise. We've learned that
Dialogue: 0,0:36:35.03,0:36:37.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bacteria can be quite hardy, as you surely know.
Dialogue: 0,0:36:37.90,0:36:43.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, we imagine a bacterial stowaway in the nooks and crannies of one of these rocks that
Dialogue: 0,0:36:43.39,0:36:49.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are cast back into space. In fact, if you do the calculation, there's hundreds of tons
Dialogue: 0,0:36:49.88,0:36:56.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of Mars rocks that should have fallen to earth by now over the history of the solar system.
Dialogue: 0,0:36:56.63,0:37:03.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Maybe one of those rocks carried life from Mars to earth, seeding life on earth.
Dialogue: 0,0:37:03.10,0:37:09.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My great disappointment would be going to Mars and finding Mars life based on DNA. Then
Dialogue: 0,0:37:09.48,0:37:13.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it would not have been a separate experiment in life. We would just all simply have to
Dialogue: 0,0:37:13.79,0:37:18.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,get over the fact that we are Martian descendants.
Dialogue: 0,0:37:18.32,0:37:22.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What we need is a second sample of life. We have only one at present.
Dialogue: 0,0:37:22.92,0:37:24.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why have you only given us one?
Dialogue: 0,0:37:24.78,0:37:30.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It would be a disappointment, as you say, if we found life on Mars based on DNA; but
Dialogue: 0,0:37:30.31,0:37:35.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at least, if we found life on Mars based on the same DNA code, just about imagine DNA
Dialogue: 0,0:37:35.83,0:37:45.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,evolving twice, but you couldn't imagine the same four-letter code evolving twice.
Dialogue: 0,0:37:45.82,0:37:52.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I wanted to make a point that your calculation that it took only about 400 million years
Dialogue: 0,0:37:52.24,0:37:58.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the most for the first life to arise. For the first life capable of broadcasting radio
Dialogue: 0,0:37:58.90,0:38:03.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,waves capable of being detected elsewhere in the universe, it took approximately just
Dialogue: 0,0:38:03.78,0:38:12.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,under four billion years. Well no, about four billion years, which is about half the life
Dialogue: 0,0:38:12.97,0:38:16.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we can expect the solar system to exist.
Dialogue: 0,0:38:16.51,0:38:24.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sure. An important point, by the way, because we were human before we had the technology
Dialogue: 0,0:38:24.21,0:38:30.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to broadcast. So if your criterion for whether a planet has intelligent life, and if we are
Dialogue: 0,0:38:30.94,0:38:35.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the measure of intelligence, then there could be plenty of planets out there with Roman
Dialogue: 0,0:38:35.25,0:38:40.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Empires and whatever else and them not sending radio signals; but any close enough observer
Dialogue: 0,0:38:40.27,0:38:42.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,would surely declare them to be intelligent.
Dialogue: 0,0:38:42.75,0:38:47.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The time interval between Roman Empires and radio signals is negligible compared to the
Dialogue: 0,0:38:47.75,0:38:53.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,total time we're talking about. It's an interesting question, how long it takes once you get language,
Dialogue: 0,0:38:53.98,0:38:58.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,once you get civilization, once you get culture, how long does it take to get radio waves?
Dialogue: 0,0:38:58.96,0:39:04.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Indeed, how long does it take to get self-destructive weapons that blow the whole lot up? That's
Dialogue: 0,0:39:04.46,0:39:05.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the next...
Dialogue: 0,0:39:05.03,0:39:10.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you're even...there's an implicit assumption, that you're making inadvertently possibly,
Dialogue: 0,0:39:10.31,0:39:17.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that intelligence is an inevitable consequence of the evolutionary record, and I'm skeptical
Dialogue: 0,0:39:17.12,0:39:21.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of that because, if that were the case, what we call our intelligence would have happened
Dialogue: 0,0:39:21.29,0:39:26.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,multiple times in the fossil record, and it hasn't, whereas other things have shown up
Dialogue: 0,0:39:26.25,0:39:30.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,plenty of times, like the sense of sight and locomotion.
Dialogue: 0,0:39:30.58,0:39:35.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's some rather inventive ways things can get around the world. My favorite is the
Dialogue: 0,0:39:35.88,0:39:41.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,snake, of course; no arms, no legs, yet it gets around just fine. I'm imagining an alien
Dialogue: 0,0:39:41.98,0:39:47.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,visiting earth, stumbling on a snake, the only creature it sees, right? And then, it
Dialogue: 0,0:39:47.72,0:39:50.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,goes back and tells its home people, you're not going to believe what I saw. There's a
Dialogue: 0,0:39:50.81,0:39:56.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,creature on that planet, no arms, no legs; it can still get around. It detects its prey
Dialogue: 0,0:39:56.79,0:40:01.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with infrared rays and can eat things five times bigger than its head; and they'll think
Dialogue: 0,0:40:01.73,0:40:06.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the guy was on drugs. It's an ordinary snake, sitting here on our earth.
Dialogue: 0,0:40:06.80,0:40:13.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,While I'm on the subject, a big disappointment I have are Hollywood aliens, and I don't know
Dialogue: 0,0:40:13.15,0:40:17.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who to blame for this, Hollywood or biologists that advised them. Hollywood aliens are way
Dialogue: 0,0:40:17.57,0:40:24.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,too anthropomorphic for me. Even ET, he had a head, shoulders, arms. Okay, he had three
Dialogue: 0,0:40:24.59,0:40:29.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,fingers instead of five; they're still fingers at the end of a hand. He had legs; he had
Dialogue: 0,0:40:29.15,0:40:33.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,feet. That's human. And look at the diversity of life on earth to draw from? If you want
Dialogue: 0,0:40:33.73,0:40:42.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to think about the ways of being alive? I'm just so disappointed.
Dialogue: 0,0:40:42.30,0:40:46.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Not even that I know I can help them, but one of my favorite aliens ever was the Blob.
Dialogue: 0,0:40:46.32,0:40:48.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Did you see that movie?
Dialogue: 0,0:40:48.54,0:40:50.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, I don't see as many movies as you.
Dialogue: 0,0:40:50.02,0:41:00.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Blob is classic. So, that alien was a blob. That's what it was. And it would just kind
Dialogue: 0,0:41:00.11,0:41:04.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of move along, and it would grab onto you and suck out your blood, and keep moving.
Dialogue: 0,0:41:04.78,0:41:11.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It was non-anthropic in concept, and it came from space. I just thought that was an attempt
Dialogue: 0,0:41:11.30,0:41:14.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to try to create some kind of way of being alive.
Dialogue: 0,0:41:14.63,0:41:18.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's a very laudable attempt. It is very interesting to look around the animal kingdom
Dialogue: 0,0:41:18.23,0:41:22.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and count up the number of times that some things have evolved. I mean, eyes several
Dialogue: 0,0:41:22.99,0:41:28.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,dozen times; ears quite a large number of times. Echo location, that's finding a way
Dialogue: 0,0:41:28.58,0:41:31.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,around by sonar, only four times.
Dialogue: 0,0:41:31.52,0:41:33.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A bat and who else?
Dialogue: 0,0:41:33.80,0:41:40.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A bat, whales, and two different groups of birds, cave-dwelling birds. And a few rudimentary
Dialogue: 0,0:41:40.63,0:41:46.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,examples in some shrews and sea lions, but really four different times. Intelligence
Dialogue: 0,0:41:46.35,0:41:50.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and language of a human kind, only once, as you pointed out.
Dialogue: 0,0:41:50.55,0:41:56.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, it can't be that important for survival. If natural selection is at work, it should
Dialogue: 0,0:41:56.35,0:41:57.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have shown up many more times.
Dialogue: 0,0:41:57.74,0:42:02.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You'd think so. It's a genuinely interesting point that I think biologists haven't thought
Dialogue: 0,0:42:02.66,0:42:09.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about enough is to go around the animal kingdom, counting up the number of separate arisings
Dialogue: 0,0:42:09.16,0:42:13.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of something because that does tell you something about what you might expect elsewhere in the
Dialogue: 0,0:42:13.54,0:42:21.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,universe. You'd expect eyes. You might expect echo location. Hypodermic syringes, stingers.
Dialogue: 0,0:42:21.04,0:42:26.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,About a couple of dozen...I'm talking about independent evolutions now. You talk about
Dialogue: 0,0:42:26.86,0:42:27.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,spiders...
Dialogue: 0,0:42:27.78,0:42:30.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Our version of that would be called guns. Yeah.
Dialogue: 0,0:42:30.59,0:42:31.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What?
Dialogue: 0,0:42:31.53,0:42:35.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Our version of the hypodermic stinger would be called a gun, allowing you to sting someone
Dialogue: 0,0:42:35.02,0:42:35.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with...
Dialogue: 0,0:42:35.35,0:42:42.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, okay. But I'm talking about it as something that penetrates the body and injects poison.
Dialogue: 0,0:42:42.75,0:42:44.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's an interesting question.
Dialogue: 0,0:42:44.53,0:42:51.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Another relevant point is look around the world at different island continents and say
Dialogue: 0,0:42:51.06,0:42:57.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,how similar are they? Look at Australia. The Australian mammals, for example; and there
Dialogue: 0,0:42:57.81,0:43:02.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are very, very power similarities between Australian mammals, which evolved entirely
Dialogue: 0,0:43:02.25,0:43:08.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,independently of mammals in South America, independently again of mammals in Asia and
Dialogue: 0,0:43:08.30,0:43:08.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:43:08.63,0:43:15.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Again, that gives you a kind of a clue for how predictable evolution is. Other worlds
Dialogue: 0,0:43:15.48,0:43:19.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are going to be very different, but we perhaps shouldn't write off the possibility that the
Dialogue: 0,0:43:19.87,0:43:28.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hollywood aliens might not be that unimaginative. I mean, my colleague Simon Conway Morris has
Dialogue: 0,0:43:28.20,0:43:34.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even suggested that it's very likely that there will be, if not humans, at least bipedal,
Dialogue: 0,0:43:34.11,0:43:41.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,big-brained, language-toting, hand-toting, forward-looking eyes for stereoscopy, pretty
Dialogue: 0,0:43:41.15,0:43:45.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,much humans. He thinks it's highly likely. He's got a religious agenda, I'm sorry to
Dialogue: 0,0:43:45.19,0:43:52.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,say, for that; but like him, I appreciate the power of natural selection.
Dialogue: 0,0:43:52.19,0:44:04.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,By the way, I think if he were a creature other than a primate, he might be giving a
Dialogue: 0,0:44:04.78,0:44:06.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,different list of things that matter.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:06.32,0:44:07.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that's probably right.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:07.83,0:44:11.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The horse doesn't have two eyes facing forward, but the horse damn near can see directly behind
Dialogue: 0,0:44:11.50,0:44:15.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it; and so, the horse would be valuing that fact.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:15.31,0:44:18.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Oh, I'm not denigrating horses at all.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:18.49,0:44:25.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm just saying your first sign that there's bias is you start listing the human features
Dialogue: 0,0:44:25.88,0:44:26.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that you would want in an alien.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:26.81,0:44:31.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, no, no. I don't want to say that I'm not picking on humans because they're superior
Dialogue: 0,0:44:31.22,0:44:36.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but because they're us. I mean, we have stereoscopic vision. We have three-dimensional vision.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:36.53,0:44:40.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Horses don't. They have a different kind of vision. Insects have a different kind of vision.
Dialogue: 0,0:44:40.55,0:44:48.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Bats have echo...I mean, it's not vision, but it's using sound to produce what I would
Dialogue: 0,0:44:48.33,0:44:55.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,guess inside the bat's brain is probably perceived rather the same way we perceive visually because
Dialogue: 0,0:44:55.30,0:44:59.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,why wouldn't you use the tools of the brain, the mammalian brain to create an image, to
Dialogue: 0,0:44:59.79,0:45:04.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,create a model of the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:04.37,0:45:07.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They show that in the, forgive me, movie Daredevil.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:07.14,0:45:10.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Do they have bats...?
Dialogue: 0,0:45:10.58,0:45:18.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He's blind, and he likes when it rains because the rain hits people, and he hears the different
Dialogue: 0,0:45:18.25,0:45:23.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sort of reflections of the sound, and he saw his girlfriend for the first time in the rain.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:23.76,0:45:24.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's the image of her...
Dialogue: 0,0:45:24.59,0:45:26.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay, but my speculation is that bats hear...
Dialogue: 0,0:45:26.74,0:45:29.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is America. I've got to talk about our movies here, you know.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:29.91,0:45:34.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My speculation is that bats hear in color because why wouldn't you use color? Color
Dialogue: 0,0:45:34.95,0:45:41.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is just a hue, a perceived hue. It's nothing more than a label the brain uses.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:41.19,0:45:46.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Precisely. That's all it is. Color, you attach it to some sequence of changed phenomenon.
Dialogue: 0,0:45:46.08,0:45:53.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, bats would usefully use color as a sign. For example, if you're between a furry moth
Dialogue: 0,0:45:53.90,0:45:59.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a leathery locust, it might be perceived as red versus blue, and that would be a very
Dialogue: 0,0:45:59.50,0:46:05.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,useful way for natural selection to have tied the labels of hue onto something that would
Dialogue: 0,0:46:05.74,0:46:08.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,seem very strange to us.
Dialogue: 0,0:46:08.72,0:46:11.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're coming to the end of our time.
Dialogue: 0,0:46:11.67,0:46:13.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Did we just begin, like a second ago?
Dialogue: 0,0:46:13.87,0:46:18.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, that's rather what I felt. If we want to have some time questions...
Dialogue: 0,0:46:18.13,0:46:23.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...which I would very much like that, but I had a couple more bones to pick with you.
Dialogue: 0,0:46:23.13,0:46:26.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay, well, let's go quickly through those bones.
Dialogue: 0,0:46:26.20,0:46:30.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay. And if you start formulating questions in your head...
Dialogue: 0,0:46:30.17,0:46:42.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Some years ago, 1994 was it? Or 1996, there was this rock in Antarctica, a meteorite discovered
Dialogue: 0,0:46:42.89,0:46:50.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ALH84001, which had tantalizing evidence...by the way, that rock was from Mars, one of the
Dialogue: 0,0:46:50.85,0:46:55.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tonnage of rocks that we know are out there, and there was evidence in one of the nooks
Dialogue: 0,0:46:55.76,0:47:06.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of that rock for possible life, traceable not to earth but from Mars.
Dialogue: 0,0:47:06.68,0:47:13.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The evidence was very circumstantial but interesting, nonetheless. There was chemistry there that
Dialogue: 0,0:47:13.68,0:47:18.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,could only happen in the presence of oxygen, and there was chemistry there occupying a
Dialogue: 0,0:47:18.88,0:47:24.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,similar spot that could happen only in the absence of oxygen. Well, you might say who
Dialogue: 0,0:47:24.61,0:47:30.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cares? Well, life is just such a machine. When you breathe in oxygen, you oxygenate
Dialogue: 0,0:47:30.81,0:47:35.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the hemoglobin, that oxygen gets used for your metabolism, and it goes back without
Dialogue: 0,0:47:35.02,0:47:41.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the oxygen. In the same body, you have oxygenating and deoxygenating forces operating within
Dialogue: 0,0:47:41.31,0:47:44.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you. So, life does it for free.
Dialogue: 0,0:47:44.34,0:47:47.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you don't appeal to life, you have to have the rock hang out over here for a while and
Dialogue: 0,0:47:47.60,0:47:53.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then roll down a cliff and go anaerobic for a while. You have to sort of patch it together.
Dialogue: 0,0:47:53.33,0:47:59.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, it was all the news, page one story. They even had an electron microscope photo of what
Dialogue: 0,0:47:59.92,0:48:04.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,looked like an itty, bitty worm. It had little segments on it. It was intriguing. That was
Dialogue: 0,0:48:04.78,0:48:10.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not the lead evidence of the authors, it was just kind of interesting. It was about one-tenth
Dialogue: 0,0:48:10.39,0:48:14.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the size of the smallest worms on earth but interesting, nonetheless.
Dialogue: 0,0:48:14.92,0:48:20.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm invited to comment on this. In fact, it was Charlie Rose. He had four people. I'm
Dialogue: 0,0:48:20.31,0:48:27.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the astrophysicist. They had a biologist. They had a philosopher. And a picture of the
Dialogue: 0,0:48:27.43,0:48:32.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,worm comes up. The biologist, who is piped in by screen said, “That can't possibly
Dialogue: 0,0:48:32.73,0:48:41.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be life.” So, I said, wow, what have I missed? “So, tell me, sir, why is that?” “Oh,
Dialogue: 0,0:48:41.51,0:48:46.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because the smallest life on earth is 10 times that size,” and I'm still waiting for him
Dialogue: 0,0:48:46.67,0:48:48.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to give me the reason why it can't be life.
Dialogue: 0,0:48:48.70,0:48:53.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then I pause and reflected at that book. That is the reason he's giving me that it can't
Dialogue: 0,0:48:53.09,0:48:57.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be life...his comparison with life on earth. And then I said, “Last I checked, we're
Dialogue: 0,0:48:57.97,0:49:04.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,talking about a rock from Mars. Why are you using earth to constrain your capacity to
Dialogue: 0,0:49:04.99,0:49:07.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,think about what exists out there?”
Dialogue: 0,0:49:07.53,0:49:16.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My question to you: are biologists closed-minded or open-minded about what is possible in terms
Dialogue: 0,0:49:16.12,0:49:21.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of biology in this universe? Because at the end of the day, you go behind closed doors,
Dialogue: 0,0:49:21.92,0:49:26.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you confess to yourselves that you only have a data sample of one because all life
Dialogue: 0,0:49:26.39,0:49:27.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on earth has common DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:49:27.51,0:49:29.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah. Well, he was being closed-minded.
Dialogue: 0,0:49:29.18,0:49:33.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Most any other sciences, we would say that's not...how do you make science out of a sample
Dialogue: 0,0:49:33.16,0:49:33.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of one?
Dialogue: 0,0:49:33.73,0:49:37.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, that's right. He was being closed-minded, no question about it because he was using
Dialogue: 0,0:49:37.39,0:49:42.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,his experience of life on this planet to make that generalization. On the other hand, one
Dialogue: 0,0:49:42.37,0:49:48.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,could make sure a statement by using the laws of physics, and you could say that there are
Dialogue: 0,0:49:48.20,0:49:52.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,certain things that wouldn't work for physical reasons.
Dialogue: 0,0:49:52.23,0:49:56.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm not saying that a tiny worm wouldn't work for physical reasons, but I could imagine
Dialogue: 0,0:49:56.44,0:50:03.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,somebody making an argument that said you cannot have...for example, maybe there's a
Dialogue: 0,0:50:03.25,0:50:08.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,certain minimum size of eye that could form an image, for purely physical reasons. That
Dialogue: 0,0:50:08.78,0:50:10.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,would be a good reason why.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:10.35,0:50:14.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I'm there, all the way. It's just that he cited earth as his measure of what is possible.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:14.65,0:50:16.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, he was just wrong.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:16.96,0:50:23.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay. You don't align yourself with his closed-mindedness. That was the biggest thing I had to get off
Dialogue: 0,0:50:23.62,0:50:25.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,my chest here.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:25.01,0:50:29.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay. Shall we bring up the lights, and see if there are...
Dialogue: 0,0:50:29.24,0:50:33.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Are there microphones...? In the aisle apparently, so if you'll just line up in the two center
Dialogue: 0,0:50:33.28,0:50:38.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,aisles behind those microphones. I guess we can pick left and right for what questions
Dialogue: 0,0:50:38.21,0:50:39.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you might have.
Dialogue: 0,0:50:39.56,0:50:44.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Professor Dawkins, we're very pleased to hear that you're writing a children's book on the
Dialogue: 0,0:50:44.79,0:50:50.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,beauty of science. We'd like both of you to write one for adults or a video special on
Dialogue: 0,0:50:50.82,0:50:55.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,TV because we don't want this wonder and awe that you all have been discussing today to
Dialogue: 0,0:50:55.71,0:51:04.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be co-opted by religious people in the world, and it is really wonderful. What can we do
Dialogue: 0,0:51:04.72,0:51:10.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to spread the word that science is not something to be afraid of, but something to really be
Dialogue: 0,0:51:10.77,0:51:11.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in wonder of?
Dialogue: 0,0:51:11.67,0:51:12.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Right.
Dialogue: 0,0:51:12.28,0:51:17.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Can I just slip in there? You commented that there's a children book, and we need one for
Dialogue: 0,0:51:17.94,0:51:25.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,adults. Indeed, we need one of those for adults. Interestingly, we probably don't need it for
Dialogue: 0,0:51:25.63,0:51:31.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,children because children are born inquisitors of their natural world. They turn over rocks.
Dialogue: 0,0:51:31.69,0:51:35.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They jump in puddles. They pour water down your back.
Dialogue: 0,0:51:35.65,0:51:41.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They do things that are odd by...you can look at it as wreaking havoc in the house, or you
Dialogue: 0,0:51:41.68,0:51:47.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,can look at it as a long series of science experiments, some of them gone playfully wrong,
Dialogue: 0,0:51:47.51,0:51:51.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but nonetheless, explorations into the natural world. What happens is, over time, that gets
Dialogue: 0,0:51:51.82,0:51:56.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,beaten out of them because that is not the behavior of...not the sign of obedience. That's
Dialogue: 0,0:51:56.83,0:52:03.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the behavior or disarray, plus adults far outnumber children, so I think the real problem
Dialogue: 0,0:52:03.07,0:52:09.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the world is adults, especially since they control the world, not the kids.
Dialogue: 0,0:52:09.94,0:52:14.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What I would say about how we convey the wonder, which you and I are both extremely interested
Dialogue: 0,0:52:14.85,0:52:21.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in doing that, and following your mentor Carl Sagan, for example. I like to make a distinction
Dialogue: 0,0:52:21.45,0:52:28.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between what I call these two schools of why we should pursue the space race, space exploration.
Dialogue: 0,0:52:28.26,0:52:34.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The nonstick frying pan way, which is it's useful because you get spinoffs like nonstick
Dialogue: 0,0:52:34.12,0:52:40.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,frying pans, and it's wonderful. I go for the wonderful part, and I find that one of
Dialogue: 0,0:52:40.85,0:52:45.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the problems with people who attempt to convey science to lay people, whether it's children
Dialogue: 0,0:52:45.76,0:52:49.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or adults, is that they tend to be obsessed with bringing it down to earth and making
Dialogue: 0,0:52:49.99,0:52:55.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it ordinary and mundane and the sort of thing you might meet in your own kitchen.
Dialogue: 0,0:52:55.04,0:53:02.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm glad somebody's doing that, but for me, I prefer the wide open spaces of space, the
Dialogue: 0,0:53:02.82,0:53:07.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,wonder of looking down a microscope at the very small and thinking about it from a sort
Dialogue: 0,0:53:07.42,0:53:13.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of more poetic point of view rather than from a more utilitarian point of view.
Dialogue: 0,0:53:13.46,0:53:19.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hi. First, I'd like to say thank you. This is very stimulating, and it's wonderful to
Dialogue: 0,0:53:19.77,0:53:29.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have this here at Crampton Auditorium, at Howard University. I have a practical application
Dialogue: 0,0:53:29.17,0:53:36.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,question for technology and its impact on humans, specifically cell phones, cellular
Dialogue: 0,0:53:36.87,0:53:37.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cell phones.
Dialogue: 0,0:53:37.68,0:53:45.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm in healthcare, and I'd like to know where you stand on the effects...and I know we've
Dialogue: 0,0:53:45.48,0:53:51.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,come a long way since the first cell phones came out, but I get particularly apprehensive
Dialogue: 0,0:53:51.33,0:53:55.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when I see young people putting cell phones to the heads of little infants and saying,
Dialogue: 0,0:53:55.44,0:54:01.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,“Talk to Daddy,” or something like that. That's my first question, the impact of the
Dialogue: 0,0:54:01.73,0:54:09.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,waves and things like that, which is out...I've look at some studies on human beings.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:09.55,0:54:15.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then, my second question is about the references for the origins of calculus in the Egyptian
Dialogue: 0,0:54:15.83,0:54:18.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,culture. Thank you.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:18.59,0:54:22.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay, given how many people are in line, I think we should try to answer as quickly as
Dialogue: 0,0:54:22.65,0:54:26.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,possible to do this, and I'll take a first stab, and if you want to try that as well.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:26.74,0:54:32.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know of any first efforts at calculus in the Egyptian culture. Perhaps Richard does.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:32.81,0:54:38.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And with regard to cell phone use, there's a very important fact of science, and that
Dialogue: 0,0:54:38.76,0:54:46.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is the active measurement...it's a fascinating thing, measurement. Because you can never
Dialogue: 0,0:54:46.24,0:54:53.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,measure anything precisely, that is, with unlimited precision. You can only measure
Dialogue: 0,0:54:53.24,0:54:55.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it with the uncertainties of your measuring device.
Dialogue: 0,0:54:55.76,0:55:02.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And all you can do in the lab is try to constrain how uncertain that measurement is; but at
Dialogue: 0,0:55:02.63,0:55:08.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some level, it will always be uncertain. And here's what happens. If you're trying to measure
Dialogue: 0,0:55:08.89,0:55:16.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a phenomenon that does not exist, the variations in your measurement will occasionally give
Dialogue: 0,0:55:16.59,0:55:20.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you a positive signal, as well as a negative signal.
Dialogue: 0,0:55:20.75,0:55:28.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If that positive signal is the idea that maybe A causes B, in this case, cell phones cause
Dialogue: 0,0:55:28.21,0:55:37.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cancer, a paper gets written about that result, and then, people get concerned that cell phones
Dialogue: 0,0:55:37.24,0:55:42.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,might cause cancer or power lines might cause cancer. This goes way back. In fact, if you
Dialogue: 0,0:55:42.61,0:55:47.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,look at the full spate of these studies, even those that they fought not to publish because
Dialogue: 0,0:55:47.34,0:55:52.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there was not a positive effect, there are some cases where, in fact, there is less cancer.
Dialogue: 0,0:55:52.01,0:55:59.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so, these are the phenomenon of a no result. When you actually have A causing B, the signal
Dialogue: 0,0:55:59.06,0:56:06.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is huge. It is huge, and it's repeatable in time and in place. With cell phones, that
Dialogue: 0,0:56:06.29,0:56:12.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,repeatable signal is yet to emerge from the total experiments that are done on it. That
Dialogue: 0,0:56:12.71,0:56:17.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being said, if you are worried, almost every cell phone you can have...you know, they have
Dialogue: 0,0:56:17.16,0:56:23.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the cell phones on your hip, and you've got an ear piece, so just do that if you're worried.
Dialogue: 0,0:56:23.12,0:56:30.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Otherwise, I can either say the jury's still out, or the experimental results are consistent
Dialogue: 0,0:56:30.14,0:56:32.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with no effect at all.
Dialogue: 0,0:56:32.20,0:56:35.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have nothing to add to that.
Dialogue: 0,0:56:35.74,0:56:38.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,About the calculus in Egypt...
Dialogue: 0,0:56:38.62,0:56:40.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Can we have this one now?
Dialogue: 0,0:56:40.64,0:56:46.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, I was interested when you were speaking about the bubble of radio waves, as far as
Dialogue: 0,0:56:46.73,0:56:52.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the limitation of our communication. I read recently that the Large Hadron Collider had
Dialogue: 0,0:56:52.93,0:57:01.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some crazy experiments, but there apparently are particles that are seemingly unconnected
Dialogue: 0,0:57:01.92,0:57:07.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but they react to each other in symmetrical patterns of some kind. I'm very amateurish
Dialogue: 0,0:57:07.05,0:57:13.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on this, but what do you think would be the possibility of instantaneous communication
Dialogue: 0,0:57:13.88,0:57:19.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,across vast distances using some kind of particle manipulation?
Dialogue: 0,0:57:19.31,0:57:25.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's exactly an example of the kind of thing I meant when I said it's beyond me, so...
Dialogue: 0,0:57:25.85,0:57:33.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah, so quantum physics is the physics of the world of the small. In fact, quantum rules
Dialogue: 0,0:57:33.40,0:57:39.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,apply macroscopically, but they don't reveal themselves as exotically as what happens with
Dialogue: 0,0:57:39.94,0:57:45.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,single particles. A particle can pop into existence, go out of existence, what we call
Dialogue: 0,0:57:45.16,0:57:51.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tunnel from one place to another, instantly, with no time delay between the two. It could
Dialogue: 0,0:57:51.17,0:57:56.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,exist in all places at once and then show up instantaneously here when you make the
Dialogue: 0,0:57:56.42,0:57:57.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,measurement.
Dialogue: 0,0:57:57.04,0:58:01.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are quantum rules that don't make any sense to us because we don't live in a quantum
Dialogue: 0,0:58:01.57,0:58:06.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,world. If we did, these would be phenomena that would be quite natural. So now, can we
Dialogue: 0,0:58:06.81,0:58:13.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,exploit the quantum world for faster-than-light communication is what you are suggesting here;
Dialogue: 0,0:58:13.89,0:58:20.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and there's no known way to do that, given the laws of physics. In other words, you can
Dialogue: 0,0:58:20.44,0:58:27.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have what's called a wave form, a wave function of a particle, and it's everywhere.
Dialogue: 0,0:58:27.50,0:58:31.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You make a measurement, and the particle instantly shows up here, even though the wave had a
Dialogue: 0,0:58:31.84,0:58:36.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,probability of existing...the particle had a probability of existing over here. And so,
Dialogue: 0,0:58:36.88,0:58:43.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's just odd, and we don't know how to exploit that fact to our advantage; but as far as
Dialogue: 0,0:58:43.36,0:58:48.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we know, no, you cannot have faster-than-light communication, which we would desperately
Dialogue: 0,0:58:48.44,0:58:51.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,need to get bigger than the bubble to talk to the rest of the galaxy.
Dialogue: 0,0:58:51.95,0:58:56.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Again, I'll try to make my answers even shorter than that.
Dialogue: 0,0:58:56.88,0:59:01.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Making the distinction between life in the universe, which I think is inevitable, and
Dialogue: 0,0:59:01.62,0:59:08.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,intelligent life in the universe, which I question or challenge at least the probability
Dialogue: 0,0:59:08.20,0:59:15.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of, given our planet being in the right location, the star being the right type of star in the
Dialogue: 0,0:59:15.07,0:59:20.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,right location, etc., what are the odds that you would...and given the time it took, four-and-a-half
Dialogue: 0,0:59:20.31,0:59:25.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,billion, 4.6 billion years...for us to get to the point where we can ask the question
Dialogue: 0,0:59:25.12,0:59:30.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is there intelligent life in the universe. What do you think those odds are?
Dialogue: 0,0:59:30.92,0:59:36.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The universe is huge, in time and in space and in content. So, the good thing about the
Dialogue: 0,0:59:36.77,0:59:44.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,universe is extraordinarily rare phenomena happen every day someplace in the universe.
Dialogue: 0,0:59:44.96,0:59:51.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So however rare we might calculate it would be here for life as we know it, you multiply
Dialogue: 0,0:59:51.21,0:59:56.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,up the numbers...stars in the galaxies, galaxies in the universe...these are staggeringly huge
Dialogue: 0,0:59:56.43,1:00:03.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,numbers, 1021 stars, 1,000 times bigger than the number of grains of sand on an average
Dialogue: 0,1:00:03.44,1:00:09.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,beach, itself 100 times bigger than the number of words ever spoken or uttered by all humans
Dialogue: 0,1:00:09.48,1:00:11.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who have ever lived.
Dialogue: 0,1:00:11.14,1:00:16.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are staggeringly large, stupendously large numbers, to use Richard's word, that
Dialogue: 0,1:00:16.93,1:00:22.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,give us the confidence that, even if intelligent life is only short lived, grows up, and then,
Dialogue: 0,1:00:22.77,1:00:28.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,grows so smart it kill itself, that there's bound to be one out there that we're hitting
Dialogue: 0,1:00:28.31,1:00:32.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it right at the right time that they are happy to have a conversation with us, if we're smart
Dialogue: 0,1:00:32.58,1:00:35.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,enough to have a conversation with them.
Dialogue: 0,1:00:35.52,1:00:40.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This question is primarily for Professor Dawkins. I come from a family where there are two skeptics
Dialogue: 0,1:00:40.12,1:00:46.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and three religious fruitcakes. You can guess which side I'm on. Anyhow, I was just wondering,
Dialogue: 0,1:00:46.02,1:00:51.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with your experience, if you've ever found a good way to hit the fruitcakes upside the
Dialogue: 0,1:00:51.37,1:00:56.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,head with some rational thinking and actually get them to pay attention.
Dialogue: 0,1:00:56.92,1:01:03.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It would be nice to say that all we need to do is to expose them to scientific evidence,
Dialogue: 0,1:01:03.16,1:01:07.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that's certainly a very important part of it is what Neil and I both are trying to
Dialogue: 0,1:01:07.55,1:01:11.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,do. Unfortunately, there's a certain amount of evidence that there's a certain kind of
Dialogue: 0,1:01:11.13,1:01:20.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mind which is so dyed-in-the-wool wedded to a scriptural version of the world that they
Dialogue: 0,1:01:20.40,1:01:28.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,more or less admit in advance that, no matter what evidence comes, they will refuse to budge.
Dialogue: 0,1:01:28.12,1:01:32.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My favorite example of this is the geologist Kurt Wise, who is a young earth creationist,
Dialogue: 0,1:01:32.69,1:01:38.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but who knows very well all the evidence for an old earth from geology. He has actually
Dialogue: 0,1:01:38.17,1:01:43.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,said, in these very words; I think I quote him approximately right, “If all the evidence
Dialogue: 0,1:01:43.31,1:01:51.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the universe pointed to an old earth, I would be the first to recognize the evidence,
Dialogue: 0,1:01:51.66,1:01:56.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I would still be a young earth creationist because that is what Holy Scripture tells
Dialogue: 0,1:01:56.02,1:01:57.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,me.”
Dialogue: 0,1:01:57.77,1:02:02.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Somebody who's actually prepared to come out and say that, and at least he's honest...somebody
Dialogue: 0,1:02:02.23,1:02:09.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who actually comes out and says that is pretty much advertising himself as beyond reason.
Dialogue: 0,1:02:09.97,1:02:16.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He's absented himself from the rational discussion which the rest of us are having by announcing
Dialogue: 0,1:02:16.44,1:02:22.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in advance that scripture is going to take precedence over evidence. And here's a man
Dialogue: 0,1:02:22.62,1:02:29.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who knows the evidence. He has a Ph.D. from Harvard in geology. He knows the evidence,
Dialogue: 0,1:02:29.02,1:02:34.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and yet, he's announced in advance, so there are certain people who are unreachable; but
Dialogue: 0,1:02:34.49,1:02:39.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,my hope is that the vast majority of people are imminently reachable and just simply haven't
Dialogue: 0,1:02:39.47,1:02:46.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,been exposed to the evidence which is plentiful and wonderful.
Dialogue: 0,1:02:46.02,1:02:48.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Next question here.
Dialogue: 0,1:02:48.10,1:02:52.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thanks for the great job on the Poetry of Science. I wonder if you could say just a
Dialogue: 0,1:02:52.31,1:02:57.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,few words, both of you, on the philosophy of science. I just read Stephen Hawking's
Dialogue: 0,1:02:57.64,1:03:04.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,book, The Grand Design. The first page, philosophy is dead; and here at Howard, our administration
Dialogue: 0,1:03:04.38,1:03:09.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is proposing the abolition of our philosophy programs. Could you say a few words?
Dialogue: 0,1:03:09.69,1:03:17.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have a couple of words to say about that. Up until early 20th century, philosophers
Dialogue: 0,1:03:17.12,1:03:24.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had material contributions to make to the physical sciences. Pretty much after quantum
Dialogue: 0,1:03:24.73,1:03:30.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mechanics, remember the philosopher is the would-be scientist but without a laboratory,
Dialogue: 0,1:03:30.91,1:03:38.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,right? So, what happens is the 1920s come in. We learn about the expanding universe
Dialogue: 0,1:03:38.22,1:03:43.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the same decade as we learn about quantum physics, each of which falls so far out of
Dialogue: 0,1:03:43.21,1:03:48.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what you can deduce from your armchair that the whole community of philosophers that previously
Dialogue: 0,1:03:48.24,1:03:53.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had added materially to the thinking of the physical scientist were rendered essentially
Dialogue: 0,1:03:53.05,1:03:54.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,obsolete at that point.
Dialogue: 0,1:03:54.98,1:04:00.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have yet to see the contribution...this will get me in trouble with all manner of
Dialogue: 0,1:04:00.66,1:04:09.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,philosophers, but call me later and correct me if you think I missed somebody here, but
Dialogue: 0,1:04:09.74,1:04:15.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,philosophy has basically parted ways from the frontier of the physical sciences, when
Dialogue: 0,1:04:15.56,1:04:19.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there was a day when they were one and the same. Isaac Newton was a natural philosopher.
Dialogue: 0,1:04:19.49,1:04:23.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The work physicist didn't even exist in any important way back then.
Dialogue: 0,1:04:23.75,1:04:27.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm disappointed because there's a lot of brain power there that might have otherwise
Dialogue: 0,1:04:27.54,1:04:34.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,contributed mightily, but today simply does not. The philosophy has other...not that there
Dialogue: 0,1:04:34.25,1:04:39.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,can't be other philosophical subjects. There's religious philosophy and ethical philosophy
Dialogue: 0,1:04:39.40,1:04:43.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and political philosophy, plenty of stuff for the philosopher to do, but the frontier
Dialogue: 0,1:04:43.59,1:04:46.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the physical sciences does not appear to be among them.
Dialogue: 0,1:04:46.91,1:04:50.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even in biology, I think, is an interesting point that the idea of evolution by natural
Dialogue: 0,1:04:50.97,1:04:59.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,selection, which came independently to two traveling naturalists in the 19th century.
Dialogue: 0,1:04:59.03,1:05:02.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a simple enough idea that any philosopher could have thought of it from the depths of
Dialogue: 0,1:05:02.42,1:05:06.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an armchair anywhere back to the Greeks, and none of them did.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:06.52,1:05:11.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't really understand that. It seems to me to be a strange thing that it had to wait
Dialogue: 0,1:05:11.90,1:05:16.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to 19th century scientists, living 200 years after Newton did something that seemed a lot
Dialogue: 0,1:05:16.61,1:05:19.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,more difficult.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:19.32,1:05:28.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Check Anaxagoras, first theory of evolution in pre-Socratic Greece.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:28.56,1:05:35.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Oh, well, okay. But natural selection is something that came in the 19th...not just to Darwin
Dialogue: 0,1:05:35.26,1:05:38.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Wallace. I mean, there were a couple of other scientists who thought of it.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:38.99,1:05:42.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The philosophers that I really respect in the world today are philosophers of science,
Dialogue: 0,1:05:42.82,1:05:47.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are ones who have actually taken the trouble to learn some science, and there are some.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:47.26,1:05:51.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they're very good, clear thinkers, and they do help other people to think clearly;
Dialogue: 0,1:05:51.27,1:05:56.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but they're really the same as scientists. There are scientists who are also trained
Dialogue: 0,1:05:56.48,1:05:57.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in philosophy.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:57.62,1:05:58.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sir.
Dialogue: 0,1:05:58.46,1:06:02.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you both for coming. There's a group of scientists in Europe that have developed
Dialogue: 0,1:06:02.53,1:06:06.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a Large Hadron Collider, and they're trying to recreate the conditions of what has been
Dialogue: 0,1:06:06.70,1:06:11.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,known as the Big Bang, slamming antiprotons and protons to try and find a particle known
Dialogue: 0,1:06:11.70,1:06:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as the Higgs boson, which has been misnamed the God particle. It's a particle that gives
Dialogue: 0,1:06:16.00,1:06:16.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,matter mass.
Dialogue: 0,1:06:16.90,1:06:21.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Could you guys talk about the conditions of the universe at that time? Will this prove
Dialogue: 0,1:06:21.90,1:06:23.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anything? This experiment?
Dialogue: 0,1:06:23.89,1:06:28.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The interesting thing about physics is that there is very little physics left to be discovered
Dialogue: 0,1:06:28.73,1:06:33.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on a tabletop. The way physics works is, the way discoveries in physics, by and large,
Dialogue: 0,1:06:33.89,1:06:40.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,work is you need to go someplace you've never been before, either in scale...large, small,
Dialogue: 0,1:06:40.54,1:06:46.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,energy especially, speed...once you've explored these extremes, you're at the hairy, bleeding
Dialogue: 0,1:06:46.69,1:06:49.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,edge between what is known and unknown in the universe.
Dialogue: 0,1:06:49.75,1:06:54.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, if you want to discover something you've never done before, build an accelerator that
Dialogue: 0,1:06:54.11,1:06:59.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hits an energy level that's never been hit before. And the early universe is our best
Dialogue: 0,1:06:59.16,1:07:06.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,particle accelerator we know, so now we have the very large tabletop version of the early
Dialogue: 0,1:07:06.08,1:07:11.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,universe, large and expensive, and it allows us to test our ideas about what was going
Dialogue: 0,1:07:11.52,1:07:17.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on. And so, yes. It's regime of the early universe that we have theoretical understanding
Dialogue: 0,1:07:17.51,1:07:21.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of but we have yet to have experimental verification for it.
Dialogue: 0,1:07:21.92,1:07:27.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have visited the Large Hadron Collider twice; and on both occasions, I was more or less
Dialogue: 0,1:07:27.39,1:07:35.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,literally reduced to tears. I was moved so much by this stupendous effort of human ingenuity,
Dialogue: 0,1:07:35.07,1:07:46.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,human cooperation, multinational; and I attempted to express my poetic fascination and interest
Dialogue: 0,1:07:46.01,1:07:54.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in this terrific enterprise in my latest book. There was an unfortunate misprint. It came
Dialogue: 0,1:07:54.09,1:07:56.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,out as the large Hardon collider.
Dialogue: 0,1:07:56.37,1:08:04.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just the D and the R, right?
Dialogue: 0,1:08:04.02,1:08:12.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I spotted the misprint, and of course, I left it in; but alas, the publisher's proofreader
Dialogue: 0,1:08:12.69,1:08:19.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,also spotted it. She removed it. I begged her on my knees to leave it in. She said it
Dialogue: 0,1:08:19.03,1:08:20.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was more than her job was worth.
Dialogue: 0,1:08:20.98,1:08:30.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just a quick social comment. The 1990's cancelled superconducting supercollider that was to
Dialogue: 0,1:08:30.95,1:08:36.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be built in Texas had peak energies three times as large as the Large Hadron Collider
Dialogue: 0,1:08:36.52,1:08:42.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in Switzerland. Congress voted to not continue its funding. The project was scrapped, and
Dialogue: 0,1:08:42.26,1:08:46.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,now, the center of mass of particle physics is no longer in the United States. It's in
Dialogue: 0,1:08:46.57,1:08:47.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Europe.
Dialogue: 0,1:08:47.65,1:08:54.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now interesting to the scientists, while we'd rather it be here in America, we really celebrate
Dialogue: 0,1:08:54.08,1:08:59.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the fact that science continues to advance, and it's just a matter of whose nation's priorities
Dialogue: 0,1:08:59.57,1:09:05.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,values it; and I saw that as the beginning of the end of America's leadership in this
Dialogue: 0,1:09:05.63,1:09:06.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,realm.
Dialogue: 0,1:09:06.08,1:09:06.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sure.
Dialogue: 0,1:09:06.54,1:09:12.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All right. Thank you so much. I probably have a question which is rather mundane in this
Dialogue: 0,1:09:12.100,1:09:18.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,setting, but one doesn't get these opportunities very often. I wanted to see what you thought
Dialogue: 0,1:09:18.96,1:09:25.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about this. Life that's been discovered at the point of sea floor spreading on earth
Dialogue: 0,1:09:25.23,1:09:31.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is, I assume, because I haven't heard otherwise also DNA based, as is everything else we know
Dialogue: 0,1:09:31.53,1:09:38.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of. My curiosity is whether there is a hypothesis or an explanation that has been, in fact,
Dialogue: 0,1:09:38.72,1:09:47.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,devised as to how DNA can have this effect with the distance of 5,000 or 6,000 miles
Dialogue: 0,1:09:47.39,1:09:51.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the ocean itself between that point and the surface.
Dialogue: 0,1:09:51.81,1:09:57.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Not miles in the ocean. I mean, the diameter of the earth is only...you mean feet down?
Dialogue: 0,1:09:57.43,1:10:01.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm sorry. Five or six miles.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:01.30,1:10:03.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, thank you.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:03.24,1:10:04.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Exclude the thousand.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:04.07,1:10:07.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Okay. I can give an astrophysicist's view, but I'd welcome the biologist.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:07.76,1:10:11.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I didn't actually hear the question, so you start off by...
Dialogue: 0,1:10:11.12,1:10:16.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sure. So, these extremophiles...these are creatures that thrive under conditions that
Dialogue: 0,1:10:16.37,1:10:21.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,would kill the rest of us instantly, under high pressure, high temperature. In fact,
Dialogue: 0,1:10:21.01,1:10:25.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the ocean vents, they're thriving at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The pressure of the water
Dialogue: 0,1:10:25.80,1:10:30.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is high enough to prevent boiling, but the temperature is high enough that it would cook
Dialogue: 0,1:10:30.10,1:10:31.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anything else.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:31.49,1:10:39.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One of the great advances in exobiology was the discovery that life on earth is hardier
Dialogue: 0,1:10:39.54,1:10:45.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,than anyone had ever previously given it credit. We no longer need the room-temperature pond
Dialogue: 0,1:10:45.03,1:10:49.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,water to have life thrive. The more we've looked in the earth, the more we have found
Dialogue: 0,1:10:49.82,1:10:55.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,life doing the backstroke under extraordinarily hostile conditions, hostile to humans that
Dialogue: 0,1:10:55.67,1:10:56.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is.
Dialogue: 0,1:10:56.50,1:11:02.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What that has done for us, astrophysically, is allow us to cast for life with a much wider
Dialogue: 0,1:11:02.97,1:11:08.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,net than we had previously thought we had available to us. Whereas before we would look
Dialogue: 0,1:11:08.56,1:11:13.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the habitable zone, the Goldilocks zone; not too close to a host star, you water would
Dialogue: 0,1:11:13.52,1:11:18.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,evaporate; not too far away, water freezes. You're looking for that liquid water zone
Dialogue: 0,1:11:18.32,1:11:23.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,made liquid by sunlight. We find out all we really need is an energy source. It doesn't
Dialogue: 0,1:11:23.09,1:11:24.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have to be the sun.
Dialogue: 0,1:11:24.37,1:11:28.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Jupiter keeps Europa warm, one of its moons. It has a liquid ocean. It's been liquid for
Dialogue: 0,1:11:28.95,1:11:35.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,billions of years. You want to look for life armed with this diversity of life, the hardiness
Dialogue: 0,1:11:35.29,1:11:42.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of life, even we find here on earth. It has only broadened our search for life in the
Dialogue: 0,1:11:42.01,1:11:42.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cosmos.
Dialogue: 0,1:11:42.41,1:11:48.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Among the many theories of the origin of life, recently people have started thinking about
Dialogue: 0,1:11:48.15,1:11:52.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,life might possibly have started under what we now think of as extreme conditions of high
Dialogue: 0,1:11:52.86,1:11:57.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,temperature, and it could be that we are now in the cold zone, which was not the way it
Dialogue: 0,1:11:57.64,1:11:59.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was when it first started, and that's an interesting possibility.
Dialogue: 0,1:11:59.53,1:12:01.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, they would look at us like we're the extremophiles.
Dialogue: 0,1:12:01.84,1:12:06.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Exactly. They look at us as though we're the extremophiles.
Dialogue: 0,1:12:06.38,1:12:09.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,MS: My department chairman said that he wants you to go and ask your question. I'm not going
Dialogue: 0,1:12:09.47,1:12:14.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to tell him no, so please ask your question. Keep it brief, and this is the last one before
Dialogue: 0,1:12:14.16,1:12:15.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we go onto the book signing.
Dialogue: 0,1:12:15.60,1:12:21.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you, Howard, for making this free. Anyway, I read a book Consolation of Philosophy. The
Dialogue: 0,1:12:21.38,1:12:26.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,main guy, Boethius, is condemned to death. He has everything taken from him. All he has
Dialogue: 0,1:12:26.09,1:12:34.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is his reason and his sense of self, not even that; but he attempts to console himself to
Dialogue: 0,1:12:34.09,1:12:43.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,this execution by reasoning that the world has order, that there is something that keeps
Dialogue: 0,1:12:43.82,1:12:49.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,things together. He uses his reason to try and get to the root of why he should be at
Dialogue: 0,1:12:49.60,1:12:56.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,peace with death. The problem is his source of origin is a belief in God. What would you
Dialogue: 0,1:12:56.63,1:13:00.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,do?
Dialogue: 0,1:13:00.72,1:13:10.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, I don't know if I fully understand the question. I do know that, if he's about to
Dialogue: 0,1:13:10.18,1:13:10.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,be executed...
Dialogue: 0,1:13:10.98,1:13:14.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How about you are about to be executed?
Dialogue: 0,1:13:14.15,1:13:16.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Oh, I'm about to be executed.
Dialogue: 0,1:13:16.60,1:13:23.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You have nothing except your knowledge, your knowledge of science, your experience.
Dialogue: 0,1:13:23.14,1:13:34.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would request that my body in death be buried, not cremated so that the energy content contained
Dialogue: 0,1:13:34.41,1:13:40.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it just as I've
Dialogue: 0,1:13:40.58,1:13:45.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,dined upon flora and fauna throughout my life.
Dialogue: 0,1:13:45.58,1:13:57.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What about you, Professor Dawkins?
Dialogue: 0,1:13:57.64,1:15:52.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,END OF AUDIO FILE STAGE 2 PRODUCTIONS
Dialogue: 0,1:15:52.52,1:16:37.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAWKINS TYSON
Dialogue: 0,1:16:37.38,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,1