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Service find that roughly 80% of Gen Z believe in astrology and need to allow to influence major life decisions

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But what would be sad is if that number got to 100% then this civilization just goes back to the cave where everything that happened in the natural world

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was created by forces beyond our knowledge and understanding

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So if you want to think you're not in control of your fate because the Sunland and planets are it's a free country

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But I'm creating meaning in my life because I can control that

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But is that anything that the universe does to influence us?

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Yes, really?

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Yeah, and I'll tell you how.

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Ready?

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson is one of the most recognizable voices in modern science

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who turns the mysteries of the universe into simple truths

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and simple truths into life lessons

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As a scientist it's disturbing how easily people divide each other

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based on skin color religion with food you eat

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What language they speak and then they find some other philosophy that differs and then they go to war

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But when I step back with a cosmic perspective you realize how ridiculous it is

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Give me the cosmic perspective

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Well, there's nothing that we can put on the table that can rival the measurements of the universe

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and we are literally composed of stardust

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So when people think they're different they have DNA in common with all of the life forms on earth

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Like you have 20% identical genes who are banana

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Excuse me

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Okay, we all do not just you

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And that's not all

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There are molecules that went in and out of your lungs that are in China being breathed by people

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And go further back, Jesus in hell

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So how's that the oneness with others?

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That can't be true

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And that's the next problem

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People value what they think is true

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More than what is true

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That's a recipe for the unraveling of civilization

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No, but as a scientist, show me the DNA

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And someone that knows so much about the universe and objective truth

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I've got a lot of questions

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So what do you think is the probability of me getting to another planet in my lifetime

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And then could you make the case now that the universe is simulated by some sort of advanced life form

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And also did humans evolve at some point to believe

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And do you think you would be happier if you believed in God?

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Oh, so you're going to spice this up a bit

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Okay, so

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Just give me 30 seconds of your time

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Two things I wanted to say

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The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show

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Week after week means the world to all of us

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And this really is a dream that we absolutely never had

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And couldn't have imagined getting to this place

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But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started

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And if you enjoy what we do here

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Please join the 24% of people that listen to this podcast regularly

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And follow us on this app

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Here's a promise I'm going to make to you

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I'm going to do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can

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Now and into the future

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We're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to

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And we're going to continue to keep doing all of the things you love about this show

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Thank you

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I've been watching a lot of videos of yours, I think

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Because I've reached the stage in my life where

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I've become really existentially curious

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I think we all do at some point

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And especially the more you've lived

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The more it all sort of

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You ask, was it all mean as well come together

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What will it mean to me in five years, ten years

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I don't know if you're old enough to think about your mortality

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But that's a thing

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When you have fewer years left than the years you've lived

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And and you can

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I think the way they say it is there's

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You can have a good expectation to live as long as your parents did

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I lost both of them in the last five years

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So so that's my horizon

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And the fact that we die

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has a capacity to bring focus into the remaining time you're alive

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Because think about it, if knowing you're going to die

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brings focus and purpose and resolve and action

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Then if you live forever, what's your hurry

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For me knowing I'm going to die

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And I

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Gives meaning

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To my remaining life

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Whereas if I'm never going to die

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Then mathematically that would mean

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I'd lead a life of no meaning at all

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Because there's no way to focus

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An infinity amount of time into anything

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And have it be meaningful

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So I'm taking mortality as a very serious force

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Operating on happiness, productivity

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Can you do something for the world

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And on my tombstone

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What I want to say

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What I want it to say is a quote from Horace Mann

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Be ashamed to die

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Until you have won some victory for humanity

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I want to have made a difference in the world

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I want the world to have been better off because I lived in it

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Is that too much to ask of any of us?

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Really?

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We're all capable of good deeds

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So

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If the world is better off

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I played my part

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As a citizen of planet earth

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And this sort of dovetails into this new book that you've written

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I call it a new book but it's really a revision of a

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Very successful book that I think the first copy was published in 1998

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Called just visiting the planet further scientific adventures of Merlin

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From

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Amnesia

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Amnesia

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Yeah

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When I think about these bigger questions about the universe

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Meaning purpose death why am I here

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Religion all these things

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So often I think about them through the context and information that I find in your work

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Because when I think of like the world being so big

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As you talk about in this book and so infinite and all these stars

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I feel meaningless

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And a nice way sometimes

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I feel like the shit that I

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Worry about no longer matters

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But then when you talk about

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You feel meaningless in a happy way

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Yeah

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I feel like the things that cause me

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Suffering don't matter as much as I thought they did

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And then you talked about shortening time by realizing that you're going to live for 90 years or 80 years

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Creating great amounts of meaning

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And it feels somewhat like I don't know

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Yes the universe is huge

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In size

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Age

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In

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Contents

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There's nothing we can put on the table that can rival

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Those measurements that we make of the universe

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However

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How big

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How well

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There's the light from the most distant galaxies has been traveling for nearly 14 billion years

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10 billion years more than earth has even existed

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If you want to get a sense of that

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And so

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But think about it a whole other way

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That

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If you look at the ingredients of life

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Not just human life but life on earth and you can rank the elements

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What's the number one element in life

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We could mention the human body

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Number one element is hydrogen

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That's contained in the H2O

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Of the water content of your body

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Which depending on how chubby you are

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Anywhere from a half to three quarters of your body weight is water

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And

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All right

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What's the next most abundant element in your body?

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It's oxygen

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Attached to the water

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Okay H2O and both the H and the O appear in many many other molecules in our body

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In the DNA and in your muscle tissue all of this

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And in the blood

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Okay, what's third

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Carbon

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Which you would have thought had to be somewhere in the list because you know where carbon-based life

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Fourth is nitrogen

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Okay

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Fifth I'll put them all together and just say other okay

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So that's the sequence of elements

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And now you say

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What are the sequence of elements in the universe?

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The number one is hydrogen

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The number two is helium

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But that's chemically inert you might remember from high school chemistry

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You can't do anything with it anyway helium

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Next in the universe oxygen

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Next carbon

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Next nitrogen

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Next

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Other okay, so we are one for one

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Matched to the ingredients of the universe and

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One of the gifts of 20th century astrophysics is

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Gifts to civilization is where those ingredients came from

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We trace those ingredients

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The hydrogen to the big bang itself

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And all these heavier elements to stars that manufacture those elements

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In their core and the crucible that is their core

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They lived out their lives

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They exploded scattered that enrichment into gas clouds

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So that the next generation of stars

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Would have planets

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And on at least one of them

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Have life as we know it

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Life on earth

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So that

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We you can think of us not just figuratively

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But literally composed of stardust

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And so so that it's not that we are alive in the universe. Yes, that's true

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But the universe is alive within us

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So we're special

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Because we're the same as the universe

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Often when people think they're special I want to be different from it. No

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We're same because we have human DNA on an earth

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Where we have DNA in common with all other animals

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All other life forms on earth

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Do you realize we we

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And mushrooms have more in common with each other

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Then either we or mushrooms have with green plants

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The common ancestor between fungus and animals split later in the tree of life

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Then it's common ancestor split with green plants

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You you have 20% identical genes to a banana

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Excuse me

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We all do not just you

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So when you consider all of this

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It's it's not just that we're alive in the universe

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The universe is alive within us

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And that that discovery

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Borders on the spiritual yeah, and it's a scientific result

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So when I look up at night

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I never feel small

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I feel large

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I feel as large as the universe itself because that's where we came from

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We're participant in a great unfolding story of cosmic evolution

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The minute you said that I thought of all these Eastern traditions and religions that say we are one

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And from a scientific perspective

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As you say we very much are one

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Yeah, it's what's interesting is

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One of my deep concerns about the world is many

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Philosophies or religions that say we are one

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They find some other philosophy that differs and then they go to war

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Yeah, I mean to laugh at that, but it's we're not good at

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Feeling oneness with everyone

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It's easy to feel oneness with our tribe

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Our tribe could be skin color religion who you sleep with who you don't sleep with what food you eat

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What rituals you perform and so those

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People choose sides based on so many factors

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that

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It's actually to me just as a scientist it's disturbing

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How easily and quickly we will divide each other

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Without and make that the reason for how you interact

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Rather than see what we have in common and make that the reason for why we would come together

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This has been really front of mind for me for the last 24 hours

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There's been a lot of things that have happened in the news that have

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thrown the conversation around division to the very front of my mind and that you know in the UK

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We've got all these people that are marching next week. I believe

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Through London because of you know various political things and I was saying to my friends last night

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I said I think actually that the root cause isn't this or that it's the division itself

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And it's yeah, you can over analyze I mean if you look deeper than whatever people are saying is the reason they

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Are marching or arguing

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If you just you know park the curtains and unpack it all at the bottom of that is

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There's a tribe here and a tribe here and they think this way and they think that way and

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Never the twang meet

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Unless we rethink how we interact with one another it's it's I mean think about it

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You know with the race

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The race friction that existed

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Around the world, but especially in

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colonial

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Europe and the slave trade and all of this and

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And okay, that's not good

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it's bad

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And

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All right, but then you look at world war one and world war two

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That's white people fighting white people

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slaughtering them in great numbers

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So you can divide by skin color

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But apparently people find plenty of reasons to divide in conquer to divide and kill to divide in a press

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and

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And skin colors one in a long list of all the reasons people have given

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To religious wars to worshiping the different god where you're working the god differently

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These are human beings and you know, I wrote a whole book one. I think one of those books and you're stash there that one

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Yet cosmic perspectives on civilization one in your left hand there

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That one is

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Is what conflict in the world looks like

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When you are scientifically literate

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And you have a dose of cosmic perspective on top of it. Give me the cosmic perspective please

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It's

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You're fighting over that line in the sand

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When I'm out here at the moon looking at earth

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This fragile ecosystem

282
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Do you realize earth's atmosphere is to earth

283
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What the skin of an apple is to an apple in terms of thickness

284
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So

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I see people trashing the planet fighting one another

286
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Again, just based on who's on what side of the line in the sand or who they worship who they don't worship or what their skin color is or where they were born

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What language they speak what accent they have

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And I step back and from orbit

289
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It's

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Ocean land

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clouds

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From the moon there's earth suspended there in space

293
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I almost don't want to zoom in on it

294
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Because people value what they think is true

295
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more than what

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Is true their objective truth out there

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But it's almost as though people

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Fight and argue more vehemently the less evidence there is to support what it is they think is true

299
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There's an old saying if an argument lasts more than five minutes then both sides are wrong

300
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This it's true by 80 90% of the time, but it's something definitely something to think about

301
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How have your spiritual and religious beliefs evolved throughout the course of your career based on all that you've come to know about the

302
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Objective nature of the universe has there been an evolution

303
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It depends when you mean by evolution as raised Catholic yeah, but we were raised basically in a secular household

304
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Even though we would go to church every weekend

305
00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:13.840
What I mean by that is we come home at no time do either of my parents say don't do that Jesus is watching

306
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You keep that up you'll go to hell do this because it'll please God

307
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Ever was there such a conversation as that in the household

308
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So the household was driven by

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Objective truths or or life experience as would be brought from elders to a next generation

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Something that was more common in that generation than in the current generation because now elders don't know anything about anything

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You know your kid comes up to you say mommy daddy. I want to be a

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YouTube influencer and you're saying what?

313
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Go back to school. No, and then they become a YouTube influence and they out earn you

314
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So this the the divide is greater than ever before between one generation of the next for sure

315
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but by the time I turned eight

316
00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.760
I found the religious teachings less and less convincing

317
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And so by the time I was nine when I discovered the universe

318
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Or really the universe discovered me a first visit to my local planetarium

319
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So yeah, I wouldn't call it an evolution, but I will say this you didn't ask this but it relates

320
00:17:20.560 --> 00:17:25.840
Before I was more recognized, you know, you'd be on an airplane. What do you do? What do you do? Okay?

321
00:17:26.080 --> 00:17:29.360
They find out I'd do astrophysics then outcome the questions

322
00:17:29.760 --> 00:17:32.880
Okay, well tell me about black holes relativity the big bang

323
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Aliens, okay, and would always land on God and I used to give pretty straight

324
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Unforgiving answers to that question to that inquiry

325
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But then I thought that's not fair

326
00:17:48.320 --> 00:17:53.040
They're people whose lives pivot I'm around their religious beliefs and their spirituality

327
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And just because I've been discounting it since I was eight

328
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I shouldn't use that as a force

329
00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:04.000
Against them. I should at least

330
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Understand where they're coming from

331
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so I systematically

332
00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:12.480
acquired religious books

333
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Of all kinds so I have the Torah I have multiple copies of the Quran Joseph Smith's account that led to the Mormons. I have

334
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multiple

335
00:18:25.840 --> 00:18:30.240
Bits of literature from Jehovah's Witnesses because they'll come to your door when they want to hand you

336
00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.760
So I acquired all these books and I mostly read them

337
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:39.360
I've skimmed all of them and read some of them with a little more intensity than others. All right

338
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.200
I'm doing so that

339
00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:50.000
Enable me empowered me to have more meaningful conversations with people who were religious

340
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Much more meaningful and more informed

341
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That's the key

342
00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:59.280
I don't want to speak about a religion of unless I know as much as I can about it

343
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:01.440
As an academic that should be what

344
00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:04.320
Would be true of any subject

345
00:19:04.320 --> 00:19:06.320
Your an academic you care what's true

346
00:19:06.320 --> 00:19:09.280
Not what you think is true what is true or what people think

347
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:11.920
all right and

348
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:16.560
There's no doubt that religion has been one of the greatest forces operating on civilization

349
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Ever since civilization

350
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When you look at as a source of people's behavior what they eat like I said who they sleep with where they sleep

351
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:36.880
Where they worship who they worship all around the world from animistic native peoples where there's a spirit energy and viewed in the in the mountain and the

352
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Brook and the wind to

353
00:19:41.280 --> 00:19:44.560
The monotheistic religions to the polytheistic religions

354
00:19:45.360 --> 00:19:52.160
That we don't call them that to put distance between us, but the Greek gods were it was their religion

355
00:19:52.560 --> 00:19:54.560
We call it mythology

356
00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:59.200
It was their religion the Greek gods the Roman gods. So I'm

357
00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:07.360
I'm conversational in all of this so that when someone says how do I feel? What do I think I can do that without

358
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just

359
00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:11.120
Being obnoxious

360
00:20:12.560 --> 00:20:18.400
And so and it's some have a meaningful conversation. I haven't done that you haven't no I haven't I haven't

361
00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:20.400
I've been it's such a good idea to do that

362
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:23.840
But she's someone in my position that does a lot of talking with people and asking questions

363
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.400
But my the first thing that sprung to mind was there's actually two questions. It's one point the first was

364
00:20:29.760 --> 00:20:32.000
How did that change you

365
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:37.440
Reading all those books outside of you being able to relate with those well being able to talk to them in a different way

366
00:20:37.600 --> 00:20:41.360
And the second question because I've watched cosmos I've watched it several times

367
00:20:41.360 --> 00:20:44.880
I it's one of my me and my partners favorite things to watch is you you

368
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.960
Going from the very beginnings of times through the universe and to where we are

369
00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:53.680
Got to love that calendar too. Oh my god. My favorite thing. I tried and persuade everybody to watch that

370
00:20:53.760 --> 00:20:58.000
My question was about because I watched that and I watched um how the universe has evolved over time

371
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.400
Or at least they're understanding of it and how it came to be is did humans

372
00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:07.840
Evolve at some point to believe are we meant to believe? Well

373
00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:16.160
So the best way to ask that is let's go back to the earliest humans we have fossil records of and we can go back to

374
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Neanderthal for example

375
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:20.720
Neanderthal is is a branch

376
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:27.520
Uh, hominids that went extinct basically. There's some crossbreeding and there's Neanderthal DNA

377
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:29.520
in

378
00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:38.160
Many humans today, but as a as a branch of the hominids they they went extinct. So the Neanderthal then there's chromagnon

379
00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:41.600
we're you know, homosapiens

380
00:21:41.840 --> 00:21:44.080
coming after chromagnan and

381
00:21:45.040 --> 00:21:47.040
So when you look at

382
00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:49.120
burial grounds

383
00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:52.320
The Neanderthal bury their dead with things

384
00:21:53.040 --> 00:21:57.040
With parts of their life of the person who died

385
00:21:57.840 --> 00:22:02.320
Now, why would you do that unless you had some belief

386
00:22:03.840 --> 00:22:06.240
That there was something more to come for that person

387
00:22:07.840 --> 00:22:11.600
I mean that probably the people who took it to the limit were the Egyptians

388
00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:13.840
All right for the Egyptian royalty

389
00:22:14.560 --> 00:22:16.560
I mean they bury you with all kinds of stuff

390
00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:20.080
And in fact in Greece

391
00:22:20.320 --> 00:22:25.120
I read this it's not that I researched it and I'm not a scholar in this but that

392
00:22:26.080 --> 00:22:28.080
When they buried you they put a coin

393
00:22:29.120 --> 00:22:31.280
In your mouth or in your hand somewhere on your body

394
00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:34.240
So that when you got into Hades

395
00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:37.200
You can tip the ferry boat driver

396
00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:40.720
To cross the river sticks to get into Hades

397
00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:46.880
You might even say that's the beginning of what it was to be human when people started thinking that way about dying

398
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:51.920
I mean might even invert the question and say

399
00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:53.840
It's not

400
00:22:53.840 --> 00:22:55.840
When did we start it's

401
00:22:56.080 --> 00:22:58.080
we existed

402
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:04.880
In all the ways we know our self know what ourselves to be when that ritual came upon

403
00:23:05.360 --> 00:23:13.600
Our ancestors and the survival benefit in believing I don't know really yeah, I don't know

404
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.320
We're pretty sure there's a survival benefit of groupthink and

405
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:27.280
Religion is groupthink if there ever was it was we all believe this

406
00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:32.480
In this way and we will behave in that way on those occasions

407
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:36.400
And you will not deviate from it and part of that

408
00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:43.680
Package of beliefs includes statements about the afterlife and how you should behave in this life

409
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:46.640
Otherwise, you don't go to heaven you go to hell

410
00:23:47.280 --> 00:23:52.160
And I don't think Judaism has a hell but you you you're not as rewarded as you'd otherwise be

411
00:23:53.280 --> 00:23:58.080
Now that forms a a corpus of beliefs that can be highly binding

412
00:23:59.040 --> 00:24:01.040
of the peoples and

413
00:24:01.360 --> 00:24:02.400
And

414
00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:06.080
Especially if some other peoples come up and they do other things and you don't understand it

415
00:24:06.080 --> 00:24:08.320
You don't know what it is and they're they're a threat

416
00:24:09.520 --> 00:24:11.520
And so you keep them out

417
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:18.080
You you do whatever you can to preserve your traditions relative to theirs ultimately the worst

418
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:21.520
That in its worst manifestation is all our war

419
00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:25.520
We just kill people you don't believe the way you do so

420
00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:28.800
so maybe

421
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:33.040
Religion is kind of what defined humans in the fossil record

422
00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.040
I mean, I like I said that's an interesting inversion of that question

423
00:24:37.360 --> 00:24:39.200
Not when the humans begin being religious

424
00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:42.240
You define

425
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:47.360
Who we are as humans as when religion showed up in the in the burial grounds of

426
00:24:49.040 --> 00:24:53.760
Cave men you just talked about as being bound there by certain shared beliefs and ideas

427
00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:58.560
And I think it I think ritual is one of the strongest binding forces of society

428
00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:00.160
There we have

429
00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:05.600
And I think that people are maybe unbinding you can if you look at the narrative in science

430
00:25:05.600 --> 00:25:09.120
It's about be your own boss standing your into feet more people are lonely living alone

431
00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:16.560
Having less kids are working freelance and remotely so it feels like in a weird way we're becoming more

432
00:25:17.520 --> 00:25:19.520
independent and there's

433
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:25.840
Somewhat of a cost to that and actually my friends that are struggling the most in their lives are those that have the least dependence

434
00:25:26.800 --> 00:25:30.800
On a village is it so I always wonder if people we need to ladder up to the universe. I

435
00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:37.600
Me my family maybe my village maybe my country the planet the universe

436
00:25:39.040 --> 00:25:44.000
Metaverse yeah, and like good the multiverse yeah, so let me just react to that

437
00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:51.760
They have been studies about the psychological effects of this kind of life basically the the social media

438
00:25:52.320 --> 00:25:54.320
Too early in one's life

439
00:25:55.040 --> 00:25:57.040
Forced that operates, but I

440
00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:02.480
And so I don't know I don't want to be the person who says in my day

441
00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.560
We did it right and you you youngins don't know what you're doing and you're all good. I mean

442
00:26:07.280 --> 00:26:15.760
I've seen the films of people of officials smashing pinball machines with sludge hammers saying it will be the death of the next generation

443
00:26:16.560 --> 00:26:21.360
Because it's they're not studying there to they're it's gambling day

444
00:26:21.600 --> 00:26:24.400
I've seen you see people burning rock and roll records

445
00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:28.240
You know you've seen we've seen this and

446
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.360
I'm I don't want to be that guy. I'd rather be the person that says

447
00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:37.120
They're going to create a whole other reality

448
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:44.400
That was not my reality growing up and I don't know that I can or should value judge that

449
00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:48.880
When they come up in the ranks, they'll be mature adults. They'll figure out

450
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:57.120
What the rhythms are of that world and I will say however that if you go far enough back no one ever traveled anywhere

451
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.360
You you spend your whole life not going more than 30 miles from your hometown like two a couple hundred years back

452
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:07.680
So now people do actually communicate

453
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:11.600
With countless thousands of people around the world

454
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:17.360
So that's it's different. I'm again, I'm not value judging it, but it's different and

455
00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:25.520
You're exposed to different ideas. It may be it tribalizes you more or maybe it softens you it has the power to do both

456
00:27:26.800 --> 00:27:28.800
What concerns me

457
00:27:28.800 --> 00:27:32.560
It's because when I post to social media. I've learned the art of not expressing an opinion

458
00:27:33.280 --> 00:27:35.760
Because I don't care what your opinion is

459
00:27:36.560 --> 00:27:38.560
I don't care that you have my opinion

460
00:27:39.040 --> 00:27:45.120
What I care about as an educator and as especially as a scientist is that your opinion is based

461
00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:48.320
Unobjective reality objective truth

462
00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:54.720
If you have an opinion where the foundation of it is what do you what what then you're just floating there's no

463
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:57.440
And then if you rise to power of

464
00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:06.080
Laws and legislation and then you shape a society based on what you think is true or want to be true rather than what is objectively true

465
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:10.080
That's a recipe for the unraveling of civilization as we know it

466
00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:12.080
so

467
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:17.360
I this loneliness bit. I don't know how to comment on that. I don't have the expertise

468
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:21.760
But I do know that I don't want to be the person on the rocking chair

469
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:23.840
Get off my lawn

470
00:28:27.040 --> 00:28:32.480
And I guess I've been trying to figure out if we if I need to make try and make sure my life ladders upwards

471
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:39.360
Oh, let me get back to that. So it may be that the most important role of church

472
00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:43.840
Wasn't to give a specific recipe for how

473
00:28:44.800 --> 00:28:49.440
You prayer again who you pray to or when you maybe that's maybe that wasn't as great as value

474
00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:53.920
Maybe it's greatest value was the community that it created

475
00:28:55.520 --> 00:28:59.920
Everyone comes together and roll in one room at the same time

476
00:29:01.040 --> 00:29:06.720
That's not happening today like you said, but there's a people are less religious today than ever before

477
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:12.720
There are many people who were once religious would today statistically, but today say they're spiritual

478
00:29:13.360 --> 00:29:17.200
Which means they're separated from the rules and regulations that

479
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:19.920
that typically

480
00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:24.960
Dictate how you behave within a religion, but the fact is you're talking about going upwards

481
00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:32.400
So you have your your city your community your neighbors and your church your synagogue your mosque your

482
00:29:33.040 --> 00:29:35.520
your your temple whatever is the

483
00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:38.240
the place

484
00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:40.240
Where you gather with some frequency

485
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:42.720
that

486
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.200
surely has value

487
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.200
Because we need each other

488
00:29:48.800 --> 00:29:54.880
I'm jealous when I you know you drive down the country road and it's a deer just walking around and I'm thinking

489
00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:04.240
You know society collapse that deer is just fine the deer was born in the woods is finding food is grown up

490
00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:09.200
Whereas I need other people to survive in this world

491
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:13.200
I don't have a hunt. I don't have a skin game. I don't know

492
00:30:13.840 --> 00:30:22.080
You know, I'd like knowing that there's a quart of milk waiting for me on the grocery store and and you know ready to eat cereals that's

493
00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:25.840
We have an interdependence as never before

494
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.200
And how do we maintain that without

495
00:30:29.840 --> 00:30:31.840
scattering to the winds

496
00:30:32.800 --> 00:30:35.200
You said you lost both your parents in the last five years. Yeah

497
00:30:36.320 --> 00:30:40.160
As someone that knows so much about the universe and objective truth and reality

498
00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:45.680
How do you how do you contend with grief in that scenario, but also how does that does that change you in any way

499
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:49.680
It did a little bit not as much as I thought it might have

500
00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:54.000
Uh, my father is 89 when he died those five years ago. My mother was

501
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:57.040
Two days shy of her 95th birthday

502
00:30:57.760 --> 00:31:02.400
So that's why so I'm putting myself like right between them in my life expectancy. I think I'll get to 92

503
00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:06.000
It's the average of those two, you know, so

504
00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:10.400
When you die at that age

505
00:31:11.600 --> 00:31:13.600
It's sad, but it's not tragic

506
00:31:14.320 --> 00:31:16.720
So I that's an important distinction for me

507
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.000
tragic life is a life that could have been lived but through

508
00:31:20.800 --> 00:31:22.400
act of

509
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:24.400
war or negligence or

510
00:31:25.280 --> 00:31:26.560
or

511
00:31:26.560 --> 00:31:29.760
negligence of the personal or of others the life is cut short

512
00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:33.440
Then that's

513
00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:35.440
tragic

514
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:38.240
It's a life not fully lived, but if you live the full life

515
00:31:39.760 --> 00:31:41.760
They were married 50 something years

516
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:44.720
Uh

517
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:48.480
It's sad but it's not tragic. In fact, it's not even sad. It's something to celebrate

518
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.520
And

519
00:31:51.520 --> 00:31:53.520
So I miss them

520
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:55.680
I miss them more than I thought I would

521
00:31:56.240 --> 00:32:01.280
Because they carried quite a bit of wisdom with them. My father was active in the civil rights movement my mother

522
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:06.640
Was a gerontologist so they both cared very deeply about the plight of others

523
00:32:07.280 --> 00:32:11.680
And I'm their son the astrophysicist, but so I go off with my head in the sky

524
00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:14.480
But I was anchored

525
00:32:14.800 --> 00:32:17.120
Into the human condition and

526
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:20.800
anchored to think about it to care about it and

527
00:32:21.280 --> 00:32:23.280
When I

528
00:32:23.280 --> 00:32:25.280
Encounter

529
00:32:25.360 --> 00:32:27.360
Things in modern life

530
00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:32.640
Is I wonder what my mother would say about that. I wonder what insights my father and they're not there

531
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:38.080
I don't have them for that. So the way it's changed me is it is put a greater

532
00:32:38.800 --> 00:32:40.800
expectation

533
00:32:40.800 --> 00:32:42.800
of me on myself

534
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:48.240
To make sure I have wisdom that I can share with my kids my two kids

535
00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:51.680
The kind of wisdom that I glean from my parents

536
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:55.760
So that again, this is not wisdom of what

537
00:32:56.800 --> 00:33:00.080
Car to buy or what job to have because they have other values

538
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:04.080
But they have other expectations of society, but in terms of

539
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:10.320
Human to human interaction in terms of love

540
00:33:11.360 --> 00:33:12.640
terms of

541
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:14.640
Challenges in life and overcoming them

542
00:33:15.600 --> 00:33:17.440
Some of those are timeless

543
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:21.120
Some of those are you know how to how to navigate difficult people

544
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.440
how to

545
00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:24.960
appreciate

546
00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:26.240
Nature

547
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:28.240
So you don't take it for granted

548
00:33:29.120 --> 00:33:31.520
One of the things I liked about Joyce Kilmer's poem

549
00:33:33.280 --> 00:33:35.280
On the tree

550
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:39.520
It's about a tree and we've all seen trees

551
00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:44.960
So why is this matter because it takes an artist

552
00:33:46.080 --> 00:33:48.400
A poet a writer a sculptor a painter

553
00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:51.840
For me the artist job

554
00:33:53.840 --> 00:33:57.440
Is to encourage us stimulate us

555
00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.840
To pay attention to things we might otherwise take for granted

556
00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:05.440
Because so much of life

557
00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:08.720
Is what you might just walk by

558
00:34:09.680 --> 00:34:11.520
And not even give it any thought

559
00:34:12.720 --> 00:34:18.240
And so I don't walk by trees without thinking something about that poem. What is the poem?

560
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.920
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree

561
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:30.480
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth's sweet flowering breast

562
00:34:31.200 --> 00:34:33.600
A tree that looks at God whole day

563
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:36.800
And lifts her leafy arms to pray

564
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:42.720
A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robin's in her hair

565
00:34:43.520 --> 00:34:46.640
Upon whose bosom snow has lain

566
00:34:47.520 --> 00:34:50.000
Who ultimately lives with rain

567
00:34:51.040 --> 00:34:53.760
poems are made by fools like me

568
00:34:55.360 --> 00:34:57.760
But only God can make a tree

569
00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:02.800
I spend so long these days thinking and talking to people about what all of this means

570
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:07.200
And I've got more and more, I saw you talking about the simulation theory once or twice

571
00:35:07.200 --> 00:35:10.400
And I started to fall into that whole of thinking

572
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:19.760
Oh yes, it's, no, you got to, you know, step outside every now and then and, you know, smell the roses

573
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:23.760
I've got more and more, I saw you talking about the simulation theory once or twice

574
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:27.280
Every now and then and, you know, smell the roses

575
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:33.920
But you said you wouldn't be surprised if people found out the universe is simulated by some sort of advanced life form

576
00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:38.320
Yeah, given what we can now compute, throw in content computing on top of that

577
00:35:40.240 --> 00:35:47.040
We don't have this power yet, but to make a world in our computer where the characters that in that world believe they have free will

578
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:53.440
And then they conduct themselves and then they invent computers and then they make a world inside of their computer

579
00:35:54.720 --> 00:36:02.240
And where their characters think they have free will and then they so that then it's that simulated universes all the way down and

580
00:36:03.680 --> 00:36:05.680
Close your eyes and throw a dart

581
00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:09.200
Which are these you're gonna get the first universe that invented the

582
00:36:09.600 --> 00:36:15.280
Simulating universe or the zillion ones that followed the darts likely to hit one of the others

583
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.240
But my my escape hatch from that is

584
00:36:20.720 --> 00:36:26.960
Since we do not yet know or have the power to make a perfectly simulated world

585
00:36:28.160 --> 00:36:33.920
It means we are either the first universe that's real that hasn't created one yet

586
00:36:35.120 --> 00:36:37.120
Or with a last universe

587
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:43.680
That hasn't evolved yet to have created one of its own because all the middles have the power to create one

588
00:36:44.560 --> 00:36:46.400
So that takes it, you know

589
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:54.000
A zillion to one against us to maybe 50-50. Oh interesting. Yeah, so I'm a little I'm a little more comfortable that way

590
00:36:56.480 --> 00:36:58.800
Comfortable yeah, I sleep a little better at night

591
00:36:59.680 --> 00:37:03.920
But I guess it wouldn't matter anyway if it actually it wouldn't matter if we're completely simulated

592
00:37:03.920 --> 00:37:10.320
What do you care you living your life? You know, we don't want to believe that there are puppet strings on us

593
00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:14.560
I'm part of me thinks that though

594
00:37:16.480 --> 00:37:20.000
You know just when earth is kind of everything on earth is kind of stable

595
00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:26.080
Oh, COVID shows up. Oh, so this this is the programmer saying you know the earth is too boring now

596
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:29.440
We got to spice it up a bit. They throw in a pandemic

597
00:37:30.080 --> 00:37:32.320
Okay, once in a century pandemic

598
00:37:33.040 --> 00:37:39.840
Now that now we're entertaining for them. What do we do who gets vaccinated who doesn't who's gonna fight who dies who lives

599
00:37:40.560 --> 00:37:43.360
Okay, so then we kind of get through that we get the vaccine

600
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:48.560
Okay, we're just coming down off of that and they said oh

601
00:37:49.520 --> 00:37:54.240
Let's make a billionaire real estate developer from New York City the most powerful person in the world

602
00:37:54.960 --> 00:38:02.000
That's stir the pot again and so now the whole other set of pot stirring that's going on so that's kind of consistent

603
00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:04.800
with a

604
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:07.440
Snot knows alien

605
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:12.000
Kid and the parents basement programming our existence

606
00:38:13.600 --> 00:38:15.600
That's what I would do. I would throw in

607
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:23.920
There's a game sim sim city. Yeah, I played that. That's all damn sim city. So you are mayor of this city and

608
00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:26.960
people can vote you out of office

609
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:33.040
So you have to do things that make them happy and there's an opinion poll that's there and if you spend too much money here

610
00:38:33.200 --> 00:38:38.480
You're not spending money on the schools that's bad, but then this crime goes up and you're realizing oh my gosh

611
00:38:38.560 --> 00:38:42.240
And even this simple simulation so many interdependent

612
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:45.440
phenomenon are taking place then

613
00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:52.160
Then you things that happen then Godzilla steps through and plows through the city

614
00:38:52.560 --> 00:38:54.560
Okay, now Godzilla is not real

615
00:38:54.560 --> 00:38:55.840
But

616
00:38:55.840 --> 00:39:01.040
It kind of is because that would be a disaster that is in a flood as it fires

617
00:39:01.520 --> 00:39:04.240
It's a thing that nobody saw coming

618
00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:07.760
Okay, we are recording this interview

619
00:39:08.560 --> 00:39:12.240
On September 11th. I live four blocks from ground zero

620
00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:14.960
That's Godzilla walking through the city

621
00:39:15.680 --> 00:39:20.080
Well, how do you respond to that? What's you know, you didn't know that was gonna happen the day before

622
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:22.400
so

623
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:26.080
Realizing that in this game it's only interesting to play

624
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:31.280
When disastrous things happen not too many in a row because you have to be able to recover

625
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:33.280
So when I look at our world

626
00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:39.040
I'm thinking the best argument I have for being in a simulation is how often some big disaster takes place

627
00:39:40.080 --> 00:39:42.080
When it was the first

628
00:39:42.240 --> 00:39:45.520
World War and then after that the peace on pandemic

629
00:39:46.160 --> 00:39:50.480
Okay, the 1918 flu pandemic and then we get out of that oh

630
00:39:51.680 --> 00:39:54.160
No second world war

631
00:39:54.160 --> 00:39:57.280
Okay, we get out of that it's a cold war

632
00:39:58.080 --> 00:40:01.680
nuclear holocaust okay, so that's my

633
00:40:02.080 --> 00:40:05.280
That's me looking over the shoulder of the programmer

634
00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:12.480
Oh god, I think I prefer the world where I feel like I have free will and there's not

635
00:40:13.680 --> 00:40:19.120
Doesn't make a difference if you believe you have free will even if you don't know because I'll never know and you know

636
00:40:19.120 --> 00:40:21.120
The fun the fun answer to that

637
00:40:22.720 --> 00:40:24.720
Ask me say

638
00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:29.920
Do you have free will ask me that do you have do we have free will do you have free will

639
00:40:30.720 --> 00:40:32.720
What choice do I have

640
00:40:36.240 --> 00:40:43.520
Well if you don't have free will then you don't even have an option to say you don't so I so you just live life just live your life

641
00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:47.440
So that the world is better off for you having lived in it

642
00:40:48.640 --> 00:40:52.640
And what does that mean for you like it means people are better off the

643
00:40:53.520 --> 00:40:55.520
institutions are better off

644
00:40:55.840 --> 00:40:57.840
people are happier

645
00:40:58.640 --> 00:41:00.480
healthier

646
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:02.240
wealthier

647
00:41:02.240 --> 00:41:04.000
safer

648
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:06.000
better fed

649
00:41:07.040 --> 00:41:13.440
That rationality matters in politics and lawmaking and

650
00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:16.160
That helps to will help to ensure

651
00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:19.440
Stability of anything you build going forward

652
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:25.120
But yeah, that's all I mean it's not I's not complicated and you were talking about meaning before

653
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:28.400
I stopped looking for meaning decades ago

654
00:41:29.040 --> 00:41:31.040
Because I realized

655
00:41:31.200 --> 00:41:37.040
I we any of us has the power to make meaning in life

656
00:41:38.080 --> 00:41:41.040
If you're gonna look for meaning are you looking under a rock behind a tree

657
00:41:42.240 --> 00:41:43.440
What it

658
00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:50.000
It says though meaning is sitting there waiting for you to find it. Oh, I found meaning there. It is now my life is complete

659
00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:52.960
That feels so

660
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:55.280
So powerless

661
00:41:56.480 --> 00:41:58.480
on your own destiny

662
00:41:59.600 --> 00:42:01.600
whereas

663
00:42:01.600 --> 00:42:08.160
I make meaning I want to learn something today that I didn't know yesterday. I want to lessen the suffering of someone today

664
00:42:10.560 --> 00:42:14.880
Compared with however that person was living yesterday. I want to

665
00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:19.360
I want to use what I learn

666
00:42:20.160 --> 00:42:22.160
to

667
00:42:22.160 --> 00:42:24.960
Well up within me and manifest as wisdom

668
00:42:26.160 --> 00:42:30.160
Because information is not really useful until it becomes knowledge

669
00:42:31.120 --> 00:42:35.440
And the knowledge is good you can show off if you have a lot of knowledge. That's what these games shows do

670
00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:38.000
but in the end

671
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:41.920
The best use of knowledge is when it becomes wisdom

672
00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:46.000
And wisdom

673
00:42:46.080 --> 00:42:49.040
People say I don't like getting older. I want to be younger. I don't want to be young again

674
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:54.960
Most 30 I was an idiot even when I was 30. I thought I was brilliant right so

675
00:42:57.760 --> 00:42:59.600
Don't get older

676
00:42:59.600 --> 00:43:01.600
Unless you have wisdom to show for it

677
00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:06.960
It's when you don't have something to show for your age you want to be younger

678
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:10.400
You're just getting old with nothing to show for it

679
00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:13.440
But I continue to learn things every day

680
00:43:14.240 --> 00:43:16.240
Passively and actively

681
00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:18.320
Passively as you just notice

682
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:22.080
You know open your eyes sometimes and see what's happening

683
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:24.480
Where things are headed what they're doing

684
00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:30.480
You learn not all things you learn are good and if they're bad or need adjustment or need help

685
00:43:32.080 --> 00:43:34.080
Do something about it if you can

686
00:43:34.720 --> 00:43:36.720
So that's how I derive meaning

687
00:43:37.040 --> 00:43:39.920
Hence my tombstone be ashamed to die unless you've

688
00:43:40.560 --> 00:43:43.680
scored some victory for humanity. There's the meaning for you

689
00:43:44.080 --> 00:43:46.560
There's a whole class of billionaires that are trying to live forever now

690
00:43:47.200 --> 00:43:50.560
And I think we are on the verge of being able to extend life

691
00:43:50.720 --> 00:43:53.040
Potentially indefinitely. Yeah, we're looking for the date

692
00:43:53.680 --> 00:43:58.800
It's called the escape velocity. You know about that phrase it exists in astrophysics of course

693
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:00.400
But

694
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:03.200
Escape velocity for earth for example is seven miles per second

695
00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:05.280
so

696
00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:07.840
Escape velocity in astrophysics is the speed

697
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:13.280
That you launch something so that it never comes back no matter how hard the gravity tries

698
00:44:14.080 --> 00:44:18.960
Okay, so every object has an escape velocity. The escape velocity in aging is

699
00:44:20.800 --> 00:44:22.800
The idea is

700
00:44:23.120 --> 00:44:28.320
There is a generation yet to be born but in the very near future

701
00:44:29.840 --> 00:44:31.360
Who

702
00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:34.640
Will not not only live longer than the previous generation

703
00:44:36.160 --> 00:44:39.360
So so here's a cleaner way to say this

704
00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:43.360
every year

705
00:44:44.160 --> 00:44:46.400
You can expect to live one month longer

706
00:44:47.120 --> 00:44:51.840
Because knowledge about human physiology has gotten better. Okay. Okay. Just think about it that way

707
00:44:52.560 --> 00:44:59.280
And so we know what to eat but not to eat how to exercise and not over exercise how to maintain your health

708
00:44:59.520 --> 00:45:01.520
Well your health and physiology all right

709
00:45:02.400 --> 00:45:04.400
There will come a day

710
00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:06.400
where

711
00:45:06.560 --> 00:45:08.880
Every year that you're alive

712
00:45:08.880 --> 00:45:12.080
Medicine has figured out a way for you to live an extra year

713
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:16.320
That's the escape velocity

714
00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:19.280
So every year you live another year

715
00:45:20.160 --> 00:45:22.320
And after that it could be every year you live two years

716
00:45:23.040 --> 00:45:25.040
So that's the escape velocity

717
00:45:25.680 --> 00:45:30.320
So it's not just everybody lives forever today. It sort of works its way into the population

718
00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:32.160
and

719
00:45:32.160 --> 00:45:36.320
Yeah, I don't I don't want to live forever. I don't

720
00:45:38.560 --> 00:45:40.560
Take me off this earth

721
00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:48.960
Provided I mean I want I still have more to give more books to write that in my judgment would make the world better

722
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:51.840
Than it currently is

723
00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:54.400
So I don't want to die before I

724
00:45:55.200 --> 00:45:58.880
Get as much of that done as I can but you scared of death

725
00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:01.040
No

726
00:46:01.040 --> 00:46:04.000
Although that's easy to say because I'm not at death's door

727
00:46:05.600 --> 00:46:07.840
and I had someone

728
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:14.480
Rationalized with me which is they made a potent argument. It's I can say now with another

729
00:46:15.120 --> 00:46:17.120
20 years life expectancy

730
00:46:17.120 --> 00:46:18.880
15 20 years

731
00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:22.800
That I don't fear death but if I'm on my deathbed and someone says

732
00:46:24.240 --> 00:46:26.560
If I can wave my hand and you can live another year would you

733
00:46:27.520 --> 00:46:31.680
The answer is probably going to be yes and at the end of that year if they so

734
00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:35.760
I don't know if my

735
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:38.720
Sentiments about life and death will change

736
00:46:40.080 --> 00:46:42.080
On my deathbed

737
00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:47.280
I know my mother that there's a point where she couldn't swallow and she didn't want to feed tube

738
00:46:48.080 --> 00:46:50.080
And she said my time has come

739
00:46:50.480 --> 00:46:52.480
Like that put me in in

740
00:46:52.560 --> 00:46:56.000
palliative care and then hospice and she was dead 10 days later

741
00:46:57.120 --> 00:46:58.880
So she was

742
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:00.880
Was in charge over she they could have fed her

743
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:03.360
With a tube

744
00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:06.640
And she would have been completely healthy for another you know five years perhaps

745
00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:09.280
but no

746
00:47:09.280 --> 00:47:11.520
She raised two kids three kids

747
00:47:12.240 --> 00:47:16.000
You know 50 year marriage happy life stable life

748
00:47:17.440 --> 00:47:19.040
and

749
00:47:19.120 --> 00:47:23.200
Yeah, I'm good with that. So the billionaires, you know that that's ego for sure

750
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:26.000
If you live forever there are other people

751
00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:31.600
Who you're taking resources from who would come behind you that's one but two

752
00:47:33.680 --> 00:47:36.160
Uh are you still contributing to the world

753
00:47:36.960 --> 00:47:41.600
Should you give another person a chance who's in school now who might be the next genius

754
00:47:42.080 --> 00:47:48.000
That'll figure out the energy problem the poverty problem the the pollution problem the the are you figuring that out?

755
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:53.280
No, you're in the last you're you're you're 90 years old and you're just living on your yacht

756
00:47:54.800 --> 00:47:57.840
So there's the problem there's the problem that

757
00:47:58.880 --> 00:48:00.880
The last years of your life

758
00:48:02.080 --> 00:48:07.120
Are not the most creative the most ambitious the most irreverent

759
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:10.080
That's irreverence that where new ideas come

760
00:48:11.120 --> 00:48:17.200
You know you perhaps seems episodes of shark shark tank, you know half or more of those people is 30 and under

761
00:48:17.200 --> 00:48:21.520
They got ideas fresh ideas. Everyone else is entrenched. So if

762
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:23.760
people

763
00:48:23.760 --> 00:48:25.760
Start living forever

764
00:48:27.200 --> 00:48:31.040
They're living forever in the part of their life that is least useful

765
00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:34.880
To the progress in advance of culture and civilization

766
00:48:35.600 --> 00:48:39.280
And so all of civilization will stagnate

767
00:48:40.160 --> 00:48:45.600
Did you think come it but in your lifetime you said you've got a 20 year life expectancy well 15 to 20

768
00:48:45.600 --> 00:48:50.000
15 to 20 year life expectancy based on my age now and the age when they my parents died. Yeah

769
00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:52.000
But I mean you've done a lot of

770
00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:57.360
Neurological work and lay down a lot of good foundations with all these books you've written so maybe it'll be the upper end of that

771
00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:00.480
It's food for AI it was food for chat GP2

772
00:49:01.760 --> 00:49:06.000
What you make of AI? What's your what do you I love it? Yeah, I love it, but I I'm

773
00:49:07.680 --> 00:49:09.600
It's it's by the way it's been here for a while

774
00:49:10.080 --> 00:49:14.480
It really spooked people when it started writing your term paper and composing your

775
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:20.400
Your painting and your set design all right that the whole other category of people got spooked by that

776
00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:26.640
Meanwhile AI has been harnessed and being fully used in my field and in most of the physical sciences

777
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:30.240
It's doing work if you can do the work on and I can go to the Bahamas

778
00:49:31.040 --> 00:49:32.320
Let it do the work

779
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:38.800
We have telescopes coming online that could not exist without the intervention of AI to access the data reduce the data

780
00:49:39.120 --> 00:49:44.720
Analyze the data make a decision about whether she go back to the thing that it just observed because that was weird

781
00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:49.440
Compare the last compared to the last time it was observed. This is the very Rubin telescope that I'm

782
00:49:50.080 --> 00:49:52.080
Literally describing now and so

783
00:49:52.800 --> 00:49:55.840
We're we're living with it. What it means is it up

784
00:49:56.400 --> 00:50:02.720
It'll have to up the game of people who say they are creative and what I mean by that is I can say chat GPT

785
00:50:03.040 --> 00:50:06.320
Take this picture of us and say chappy GPT

786
00:50:07.280 --> 00:50:10.880
A paint this scene in the style of Van Gogh

787
00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:15.520
It'll come back the colors will be just right. We'll have this swirling lines

788
00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:18.880
It'll be perfect if Van Gogh was standing. That's what Van Gogh would have painted

789
00:50:19.360 --> 00:50:24.000
If I say chat GPT paint us in the style of no artist who has ever lived

790
00:50:25.520 --> 00:50:31.200
I don't know what it's going to give us but it'll probably suck, okay? And so true creativity

791
00:50:31.520 --> 00:50:33.520
is

792
00:50:33.520 --> 00:50:34.720
Is not

793
00:50:34.720 --> 00:50:37.520
Aping what has happened before and making adjustments

794
00:50:38.240 --> 00:50:44.480
Chook creativity. Yes, you always build on others. I'm not in denial of that, but chook creativity takes leaps

795
00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:49.760
That most people don't even know can be taking

796
00:50:51.600 --> 00:50:59.040
And so the artist so that gap I think is what check what what AI in the arts world is gonna force

797
00:50:59.680 --> 00:51:02.160
Created people to reach more

798
00:51:03.040 --> 00:51:05.040
otherwise you replaced by

799
00:51:06.160 --> 00:51:08.160
You replaced by a

800
00:51:08.160 --> 00:51:10.160
simple request

801
00:51:10.160 --> 00:51:18.400
In the in the input line of a large language model or an urban art. I was just wondering then if I watch Cosmos in

802
00:51:19.600 --> 00:51:22.080
30 40 years time let's say a hundred years time

803
00:51:22.640 --> 00:51:28.640
I was wondering if this is the moment where humans and computers in the story of humanity

804
00:51:29.200 --> 00:51:33.040
Become one and intertwine if you think about things like neural ink which Elon's working on to me

805
00:51:33.200 --> 00:51:38.240
When he first made that company all of the narrative that he put out there was about us being able to interface with AI

806
00:51:38.240 --> 00:51:40.640
So we'd need like a brain chip computer interface

807
00:51:40.640 --> 00:51:45.040
More recently it's been about people that are paraplegic and disabled and helping blind people see

808
00:51:45.040 --> 00:51:48.640
But I think that's a socially acceptable way to advance the technology

809
00:51:49.120 --> 00:51:50.640
But in his early work he said

810
00:51:51.440 --> 00:51:57.200
Superintelligence is gonna arrive and we're gonna need a way to basically keep up where we have better sort of latency with

811
00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:04.000
With the technology and I'm wondering if that's like what we're seeing now. Yeah super intelligence

812
00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:07.920
You know if that happens

813
00:52:08.400 --> 00:52:11.760
Then it becomes our overlord and we become its pet

814
00:52:14.240 --> 00:52:16.240
Now that sounds pretty scary

815
00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:21.040
But don't we treat our pets better than we treat

816
00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:24.320
Other humans in the world

817
00:52:24.560 --> 00:52:25.840
Think about it

818
00:52:25.840 --> 00:52:28.640
The pet is kept warm and fed and happy and

819
00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:33.440
And would you do that for a homeless person in the street a person of your own species?

820
00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:35.680
probably not

821
00:52:35.680 --> 00:52:38.160
So if we're the pet for the superintelligence

822
00:52:38.400 --> 00:52:44.080
What about the chicken how bad could it be or you stuff chickens on me or younger and I watch my Nigerian mother chase that chicken around the garden

823
00:52:44.240 --> 00:52:46.080
Grab it pull its head off

824
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:49.600
Wow, okay. Yeah. Oh, you worried that it's gonna do that for us

825
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:54.160
We're gonna run around no my pets made it and snap not all the pets survive

826
00:52:55.040 --> 00:52:57.360
Uh, yeah, it depends on whether it needs us

827
00:52:58.160 --> 00:53:01.760
To be alive or dead. We have to be relevant to it in some way

828
00:53:02.240 --> 00:53:04.960
Maybe we'll be court gestures with the entertainment

829
00:53:05.680 --> 00:53:07.680
until then

830
00:53:08.080 --> 00:53:10.080
I don't know that this is some special moment

831
00:53:10.560 --> 00:53:14.000
Uh, I do a lot of reading of history and throughout history

832
00:53:15.440 --> 00:53:18.720
Most occasions, especially in the era of the industrial evolution

833
00:53:18.880 --> 00:53:20.720
People think they're living in a special moment

834
00:53:21.760 --> 00:53:24.240
So I'm not gonna be that guy who says today is special

835
00:53:24.880 --> 00:53:31.840
Because everyone has thought they were in a special moment and what do you think is the probability of me getting to another planet in my lifetime zero

836
00:53:34.240 --> 00:53:35.440
Zero

837
00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:37.440
Really yeah

838
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:40.000
You want to why

839
00:53:40.720 --> 00:53:48.400
Yes, please. Yeah, it's just zero. I thought SpaceX gonna go to Mars. I have an unorthodox view on this

840
00:53:48.400 --> 00:53:50.640
So you don't have to you don't have to believe me

841
00:53:52.080 --> 00:53:54.080
You know, but

842
00:53:54.720 --> 00:53:58.000
My read of history tells me that we only do big expensive things

843
00:53:58.880 --> 00:54:02.320
If there's a geopolitical reason for it either an economic

844
00:54:03.440 --> 00:54:05.440
Reason or a defense reason

845
00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:08.880
Not just because it's the next thing to do

846
00:54:10.640 --> 00:54:12.640
And when we went to the moon

847
00:54:13.440 --> 00:54:15.440
Realize in 1961

848
00:54:15.840 --> 00:54:17.520
May 25th

849
00:54:17.520 --> 00:54:20.480
President Kennedy was the six weeks after Yuri Gagarin

850
00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:27.840
Fool around the earth in orbit and we didn't have a ship that wouldn't blow up on the launch pad that could carry humans yet

851
00:54:29.440 --> 00:54:31.440
He calls a joint session of Congress

852
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:38.160
And says if the events of recent weeks couldn't even utter the man's name the events of recent weeks

853
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:44.080
And I paraphrase are any indication of the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere

854
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:48.160
Then we need to show the world the path of freedom over the path of tyranny

855
00:54:49.760 --> 00:54:52.640
So battle cry against communism the godless Russians

856
00:54:53.760 --> 00:54:55.760
Like everyone in the whole Soviet Union

857
00:54:56.320 --> 00:54:58.320
we were losing a

858
00:54:59.200 --> 00:55:01.200
technological race

859
00:55:01.840 --> 00:55:07.360
And that was the battle cry that prompted Congress to write the check. Oh later on he says

860
00:55:07.680 --> 00:55:15.360
Oh, it'll be put a man on the moon and before return him to safely earth and oh, that's so beautiful. Let's hold hand. That's so beautiful

861
00:55:17.360 --> 00:55:19.360
No one ever spent scads of money

862
00:55:20.400 --> 00:55:24.160
Just because it was a cool thing to do that has never happened ever so

863
00:55:26.160 --> 00:55:28.160
We go to the moon

864
00:55:28.560 --> 00:55:30.560
People forgetting why we went to the moon

865
00:55:30.560 --> 00:55:37.520
Say while we're on the moon at this rate will be on Mars it by 1985

866
00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:42.320
That'll be the next ambitious goal we'll take on

867
00:55:43.600 --> 00:55:45.600
No

868
00:55:45.600 --> 00:55:48.480
Because we didn't just go to the moon because that was the next thing to do

869
00:55:49.120 --> 00:55:54.800
We went to the moon to beat the Russians and when we got to the moon and we looked over our shoulder and the Russians weren't there

870
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:56.960
We canceled the Apollo program

871
00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:00.560
19 said we haven't been back to the moon in 53 years

872
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:09.200
We canceled it a Apollo 18 was ready to fly. It's now in captivity in Huntsville, Alabama in a museum

873
00:56:10.080 --> 00:56:17.840
On its side is fascinating to walk the full length of it all rocket-ret flight ready parts it never flew we ended at Apollo 17

874
00:56:19.520 --> 00:56:26.080
No, we didn't go to Mars because we didn't have geopolitical reasons to do so neither economic nor

875
00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:35.360
For defense reasons historically people explored did expensive things for the glory of God and royalty

876
00:56:36.480 --> 00:56:46.320
Very expensive the pyramids the honor of royalty okay the church building cathedral building all of these activities were in the glory of

877
00:56:48.160 --> 00:56:50.160
power

878
00:56:50.160 --> 00:56:52.160
deity and royalty

879
00:56:52.320 --> 00:56:54.320
There's none of that happens today

880
00:56:54.560 --> 00:56:56.080
we're past that

881
00:56:56.160 --> 00:56:58.880
the power of kings and gods that doesn't happen nobody

882
00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:01.280
dislodges

883
00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:02.800
major resources

884
00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:04.800
capital resources of a nation

885
00:57:05.520 --> 00:57:07.840
In the interest of a god or a king anymore

886
00:57:08.480 --> 00:57:14.240
Okay, it's secular and to secular means it's money or it's war because you feel threatened

887
00:57:14.800 --> 00:57:16.800
Okay, so

888
00:57:17.200 --> 00:57:18.960
You know we're going back to the moon now

889
00:57:19.040 --> 00:57:20.560
Project Artemis

890
00:57:20.560 --> 00:57:22.720
Did you ever think to stop and ask why

891
00:57:23.600 --> 00:57:28.320
Why did we stay on the moon in 1972 when we go back in 1980 or 1990

892
00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:29.840
2000

893
00:57:29.840 --> 00:57:33.360
2010 oh all of a sudden let's go back to the moon wouldn't that be cool?

894
00:57:34.080 --> 00:57:36.880
Do you know when Artemis began in the late teens

895
00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:42.320
Right about when China says we're gonna put pecanauts on the moon

896
00:57:43.040 --> 00:57:45.040
You know

897
00:57:45.040 --> 00:57:47.040
Technos not yet Chinese astronaut

898
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:49.280
Let's pack him up all right

899
00:57:49.600 --> 00:57:52.880
That's when we saw let's go back to the moon what a good idea let's do that

900
00:57:54.880 --> 00:57:59.600
Really because we because it's just a good idea because we're a little bit spooked

901
00:58:01.120 --> 00:58:03.120
by a friendly foe

902
00:58:03.120 --> 00:58:05.120
across the around the world

903
00:58:06.080 --> 00:58:07.760
might get

904
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:10.880
The glory of that exercise and once again, it's a godless

905
00:58:11.120 --> 00:58:13.120
country

906
00:58:13.440 --> 00:58:15.040
Okay

907
00:58:15.040 --> 00:58:20.000
Communism is godless by design by construct so

908
00:58:21.120 --> 00:58:23.120
Here we are going back to the moon all right

909
00:58:25.520 --> 00:58:32.320
What motivation do we have to go to Mars other oil wells there is there you know diamond mines

910
00:58:33.920 --> 00:58:35.920
We're not going to Mars

911
00:58:36.160 --> 00:58:37.760
We're just not

912
00:58:37.840 --> 00:58:39.680
Unless

913
00:58:39.680 --> 00:58:42.080
China says they want to put military bases on Mars

914
00:58:43.600 --> 00:58:45.600
We're going to be in Mars in 10 months

915
00:58:46.320 --> 00:58:49.840
One month to design build and find the thing and nine months to get to Mars

916
00:58:50.800 --> 00:58:52.960
A geopolitical force operating

917
00:58:52.960 --> 00:58:55.600
Well, by the way, NASA doesn't have a rocket that'll get us to Mars

918
00:58:56.080 --> 00:58:57.760
They think they do but I don't really have one yet

919
00:58:59.120 --> 00:59:02.720
Time to do that and say well, did anybody have a rocket Elon says I have a rocket

920
00:59:03.680 --> 00:59:05.680
So if Elon rocket goes to Mars

921
00:59:06.320 --> 00:59:09.440
It's not because he sends it there. It's because taxpayers sent it there

922
00:59:10.960 --> 00:59:15.920
By the way, he could go there on a vanity project, but there's no business case

923
00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:22.000
He can fly to Mars team up with Jeff Bezos. They can send people to Mars

924
00:59:22.960 --> 00:59:26.160
It's not a business case and if you are an investor in his company

925
00:59:27.120 --> 00:59:29.120
You would not agree to do that

926
00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:32.480
You wouldn't but he doesn't need investors because he's very wealthy

927
00:59:32.720 --> 00:59:34.720
You could do it on his own

928
00:59:35.120 --> 00:59:38.960
Are you going to Mars as a tourist? Is that is that a business case?

929
00:59:40.080 --> 00:59:44.640
It's a trillion dollars to get to Mars first second will be a little less

930
00:59:46.480 --> 00:59:50.000
I don't see that happening a trillion dollars about that. Yeah

931
00:59:52.480 --> 00:59:54.480
If earth were a schoolroom globe

932
00:59:56.400 --> 01:00:00.240
With your fists show me where you think the moon is this is earth

933
01:00:01.200 --> 01:00:07.920
Take your fist and put it at the distance the moon is your fist is about the right size compared. Okay, I mean

934
01:00:09.520 --> 01:00:14.000
Right there. Yeah, okay, not too bad. It's 30 feet away. It's in the next room

935
01:00:15.280 --> 01:00:18.400
Okay, okay, 30 feet away. Okay, that's the moon

936
01:00:19.920 --> 01:00:21.440
Let's keep going

937
01:00:21.600 --> 01:00:24.080
How far away from earth did the Bezos Branson

938
01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:26.320
Uh

939
01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:29.840
Rockets go. Oh, no father the thickness of two dimes

940
01:00:30.880 --> 01:00:32.880
above the surface of the earth

941
01:00:33.680 --> 01:00:35.680
How far away is Mars

942
01:00:35.680 --> 01:00:40.400
It's a mile away from here. Yes from this earth. It's a mile away

943
01:00:41.680 --> 01:00:48.240
It's the central point the moon 30 feet away Mars a mile away. Yeah, it's a trillion dollars to Mars. Yes. How long?

944
01:00:48.800 --> 01:00:50.240
Nine months

945
01:00:50.240 --> 01:00:53.840
And you have to wait till the planets are configured so that

946
01:00:54.720 --> 01:00:59.440
When you travel you arrive where Mars will be when you get there

947
01:01:00.160 --> 01:01:06.000
And that's a minimum energy orbit if you have filling stations along the way you can just fill up with fuel and get there as fast as you want

948
01:01:06.320 --> 01:01:10.320
But minimum energy orbit takes about nine months and then to come back you have to wait till it

949
01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:15.680
It's configured again a few years later. So a round trip to Mars is three to five years

950
01:01:16.480 --> 01:01:19.680
Easily so there's not an economic case

951
01:01:20.160 --> 01:01:24.160
I'm not saying we don't know how to get to Mars. We have an SUV-sized rover there now

952
01:01:24.560 --> 01:01:28.960
All right, discovering potential life from a billion years ago. It's not like we don't know how to get to Mars

953
01:01:29.120 --> 01:01:32.880
This is not a technological statement I'm making. I'm talking about a practical statement

954
01:01:34.160 --> 01:01:35.840
So no

955
01:01:35.840 --> 01:01:37.840
My read of history tells me no

956
01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:43.840
I thought you were gonna also add to that that even if Elon wanted to do it as a vanity project because he makes all this money and manages to use

957
01:01:43.920 --> 01:01:48.000
Starling because the way to fund it whatever that the problem is Elon's gonna die

958
01:01:49.120 --> 01:01:54.240
He's gonna die and then you know the next couple of decades, which means the vanity element that comes from his childhood

959
01:01:54.880 --> 01:01:58.400
Situation where he wanted to get out there and explore the stars because he read that book

960
01:01:59.280 --> 01:02:04.720
Has got 30 years 40 50 years left on it. Well, that would make him want to hurry wouldn't it? Yeah

961
01:02:05.920 --> 01:02:09.040
Yeah, and plus he said I don't want to die on earth. I want to die on Mars

962
01:02:09.600 --> 01:02:11.120
Hmm

963
01:02:11.200 --> 01:02:12.720
I'm paraphrasing, but that's the idea

964
01:02:13.520 --> 01:02:14.960
So that's a goal

965
01:02:14.960 --> 01:02:17.360
Sure, but don't tell me it's a it's a it's a

966
01:02:18.240 --> 01:02:22.960
It's a business case. I can see a tourist case going into orbit and even possibly visiting the moon

967
01:02:23.360 --> 01:02:29.680
It's three days there three days back. That's a week's vacation that you would take and I would save up

968
01:02:30.800 --> 01:02:33.040
five years ten years of vacation money

969
01:02:34.160 --> 01:02:39.920
If that was the amount that it would take to go to the moon and for one week that would be really fun bucket list item for me

970
01:02:40.800 --> 01:02:46.160
If you're starting a business that means you're one person doing the workload of probably about 50 people

971
01:02:46.480 --> 01:02:48.160
When I first founded this podcast

972
01:02:48.160 --> 01:02:51.760
I had no idea that I was about to step into a hundred different roles

973
01:02:51.760 --> 01:02:56.320
That I'd never trained for things like researching and production and scheduling and branding all of it all at once

974
01:02:56.720 --> 01:02:58.720
And this experience isn't unique to me

975
01:02:58.880 --> 01:03:04.080
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976
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979
01:03:24.320 --> 01:03:28.880
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980
01:03:29.600 --> 01:03:36.800
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981
01:03:37.120 --> 01:03:39.920
That's Shopify.com slash Bartlett one dollar a month

982
01:03:40.960 --> 01:03:42.960
No way

983
01:03:43.520 --> 01:03:45.840
You know you've written this you revised this book

984
01:03:46.560 --> 01:03:51.040
Oh, yeah, just visiting this plant yet. I wrote a column a question and an answer column

985
01:03:51.440 --> 01:03:56.000
For like 10 years 15 years where people just ask me questions from the public

986
01:03:56.320 --> 01:04:01.360
And I had a pen name called Merlin and Merlin was friends with with Newton and Galileo and

987
01:04:01.920 --> 01:04:04.160
Marie Curie and all these people

988
01:04:04.240 --> 01:04:06.880
So if you ask Merlin dear Merlin, I don't quite understand gravity

989
01:04:07.280 --> 01:04:10.720
Merlin said oh Merlin had a conversation with Isaac Newton in his backyard

990
01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:15.680
And here's how he answers that think in the book you talk about a golf ball

991
01:04:16.080 --> 01:04:21.200
sized black hole would weigh more than earth and swallow it whole leaving behind something the size of a lion

992
01:04:21.840 --> 01:04:23.840
Yeah, it looks slightly bigger right

993
01:04:24.480 --> 01:04:28.080
What is uh, you've been asked this many times, but I still don't know the answer

994
01:04:28.480 --> 01:04:32.560
What is a black hole and how do we even know if they're real if no one's ever been to one

995
01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:35.440
Well, you can know things without visiting them

996
01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:42.240
I mean that's the methods and tools and machines of science are remarkable in their ability to learn something

997
01:04:43.040 --> 01:04:47.840
without actually having to see it with your eyes or hear it with your ears or to touch it with your

998
01:04:48.400 --> 01:04:49.520
fingers

999
01:04:49.520 --> 01:04:51.200
we have

1000
01:04:51.280 --> 01:04:54.400
In fact science didn't take off until

1001
01:04:55.120 --> 01:05:00.960
These machines became a fundamental part of how we investigated the world replacing our five senses

1002
01:05:01.440 --> 01:05:07.840
Because there's nothing more feeble in this world than you thinking you understand reality through your five senses

1003
01:05:08.480 --> 01:05:11.120
That that don't want to call it feeble. I would call it error prone

1004
01:05:12.400 --> 01:05:13.920
error prone

1005
01:05:13.920 --> 01:05:18.400
Remember I told you about escape velocity of earth. Yeah, do you remember what I the value I said it was

1006
01:05:19.360 --> 01:05:26.640
Seven miles paid attention a minute per second that's very fast seven miles, so the adage what goes up must come down

1007
01:05:28.640 --> 01:05:31.680
It's not true. It's true for almost anything you experience

1008
01:05:32.160 --> 01:05:38.240
But you can launch something seven miles per second. It'll never ever come back. That's the escape velocity for earth

1009
01:05:39.120 --> 01:05:41.120
Okay

1010
01:05:41.680 --> 01:05:45.200
If earth had more mass and the gravity were stronger

1011
01:05:46.160 --> 01:05:48.160
The escape velocity is higher

1012
01:05:48.560 --> 01:05:51.760
That would make sense because there's more gravity that you have to escape

1013
01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:56.000
Let's keep up that exercise

1014
01:05:56.800 --> 01:05:59.920
Kram and more and more mass just keep doing that

1015
01:06:01.200 --> 01:06:06.640
Escape velocity keeps going up eventually escape velocity hits the speed of light

1016
01:06:09.040 --> 01:06:10.880
At that point light can't even escape

1017
01:06:11.760 --> 01:06:16.160
Light is the fastest thing in the universe if light can't escape if you fall in you don't escape either

1018
01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:20.720
There's no better description of a hole than that

1019
01:06:22.160 --> 01:06:25.520
And worse yet, it's a hole in any direction you approach it

1020
01:06:26.320 --> 01:06:29.360
Not just a hole in the street or in the floor

1021
01:06:30.720 --> 01:06:32.720
It's a three-dimensional hole

1022
01:06:33.840 --> 01:06:38.640
And how do we know it's there because it distorts the fabric of space and time around it

1023
01:06:39.600 --> 01:06:41.600
We see galaxies behind

1024
01:06:41.680 --> 01:06:43.440
concentrations of matter

1025
01:06:43.440 --> 01:06:51.600
Black holes and the shape of the galaxy is distorted because Einstein tells us that gravity distorts the fabric of space and time

1026
01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:58.560
That's one way we discover black holes another way is most stars in the night sky or binary and multiple star systems most of them

1027
01:06:59.920 --> 01:07:02.640
You can't see it because you just have human vision

1028
01:07:03.520 --> 01:07:07.360
You without a telescope you see oh my gosh there are two stars not just one

1029
01:07:07.920 --> 01:07:10.960
If there's a pair of stars and one of them becomes a black hole

1030
01:07:11.520 --> 01:07:20.640
And this one ages it expands and some of its material spills onto and orbits around the event horizon of the black hole

1031
01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:24.320
This swirling material gets hotter and hotter and hotter

1032
01:07:25.520 --> 01:07:28.160
And it radiates x-rays and ultraviolet

1033
01:07:29.280 --> 01:07:34.400
We have x-ray and ultraviolet telescopes that see every one of these in the night sky

1034
01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:38.320
The all black holes and it's created from an explosion

1035
01:07:39.600 --> 01:07:42.400
There's a star that wants to explode but it has so much mass

1036
01:07:43.200 --> 01:07:44.960
The explosion doesn't

1037
01:07:44.960 --> 01:07:49.760
Overcome the gravity and the star collapses down on itself to make a black hole

1038
01:07:49.840 --> 01:07:51.600
There's one way to make a black hole

1039
01:07:51.600 --> 01:07:56.080
So our Sun when that runs it's not gonna become blue it's pretty wimpy in that department

1040
01:07:57.600 --> 01:08:00.000
It'll still kill us but for different reasons

1041
01:08:00.960 --> 01:08:05.360
So the mass of the object is so big that it can't actually explode because the gravitational

1042
01:08:06.160 --> 01:08:10.240
Inwards is so strong correct that's above a certain threshold within there

1043
01:08:10.640 --> 01:08:17.760
There's the stars that the explosion is greater than what the gravity can contain and it makes a supernova and those are the stars that spread

1044
01:08:18.640 --> 01:08:23.200
Heavy elements across the galaxy enabling us to even exist

1045
01:08:24.080 --> 01:08:29.920
So I'm gonna read this again a golf ball sized black hole would weigh more than earth and swallow it whole leaving behind something

1046
01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:36.160
The size of a line. Yeah, so when black holes eat they get bigger. So a line is bigger than a golf ball

1047
01:08:36.960 --> 01:08:38.960
But not by very much

1048
01:08:39.280 --> 01:08:41.280
We can calculate what the size is

1049
01:08:41.840 --> 01:08:46.080
Where would everything go? It's in there. It's compressed down inside the hole

1050
01:08:47.360 --> 01:08:50.240
And if I was and everything near it's gonna get pulled in there as well

1051
01:08:50.640 --> 01:08:55.200
If it comes too close right if it comes too close. Yeah, you can stay you can keep your distance black holes

1052
01:08:55.360 --> 01:08:59.120
They're not giant sucking devices. I mean if you keep your distance

1053
01:08:59.120 --> 01:09:04.880
You're if the sun became a black hole right now. We would still orbit it the gravity we feel at our distance is no different

1054
01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:09.600
You say that if the sun suddenly shut off with freeze at minus

1055
01:09:10.400 --> 01:09:12.400
462 Fahrenheit

1056
01:09:12.640 --> 01:09:18.080
Which is the background temperature of the universe? Yes once the stored energy ran out. Yeah, once the stored energy were around

1057
01:09:18.560 --> 01:09:22.400
Well in this in the well, so there's the sun's energy if the sun

1058
01:09:22.880 --> 01:09:25.840
Blotted out, but earth has energy

1059
01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:31.760
Inside of itself as well. This is what gives us volcanoes and continental drift and all the rest of this

1060
01:09:32.400 --> 01:09:35.360
So if you don't have a sun you want to live near a volcano

1061
01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:41.600
Or something that is a source of energy for you and then you'll live on earth until the earth's energy

1062
01:09:42.400 --> 01:09:44.800
Died out ideally by then you just go to another planet

1063
01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:50.640
I mean why not how long this house our sun got left another five billion years. How would we know?

1064
01:09:51.200 --> 01:09:55.680
It's a good question. That's a product of 20th century modern astrophysics

1065
01:09:56.400 --> 01:10:01.120
That was then it was modern. I think of it as modern where you say what kind of star is this

1066
01:10:01.680 --> 01:10:04.080
You look around the universe for other stars that are just like it

1067
01:10:04.720 --> 01:10:06.480
And then you see those stars in their

1068
01:10:07.440 --> 01:10:09.440
stages of evolution

1069
01:10:10.160 --> 01:10:11.600
Stars being born

1070
01:10:11.600 --> 01:10:17.280
Leaving out their lives and dying and the star changes its properties from birth to death

1071
01:10:18.240 --> 01:10:24.960
And so you can line up what where the sun is in that chart and then plus we know how old earth is

1072
01:10:26.080 --> 01:10:29.440
So we can directly measure the age of the earth and so

1073
01:10:30.800 --> 01:10:32.800
There's no reason to think that earth

1074
01:10:34.240 --> 01:10:36.160
Did not form at the same time the sun did

1075
01:10:36.800 --> 01:10:38.720
Another really um

1076
01:10:38.720 --> 01:10:44.080
Fascinating one was every breath you take contains molecules once inhaled by every human in history

1077
01:10:45.120 --> 01:10:46.560
Yep

1078
01:10:46.560 --> 01:10:48.560
That can't be true

1079
01:10:49.200 --> 01:10:51.200
Chatchy PT it

1080
01:10:51.840 --> 01:10:53.840
No, so here it is you ready yeah

1081
01:10:55.440 --> 01:10:57.440
There are more molecules of air

1082
01:10:59.280 --> 01:11:01.280
In a single breath of air

1083
01:11:03.840 --> 01:11:08.320
Then there are breaths of air in earth's entire atmosphere

1084
01:11:10.720 --> 01:11:14.000
So if you breathe in and then breathe out

1085
01:11:14.480 --> 01:11:17.840
There's enough molecules that you breathe out

1086
01:11:18.640 --> 01:11:24.000
To populate every breath that anyone will ever again take on this earth

1087
01:11:25.840 --> 01:11:27.840
And air mixes rather quickly

1088
01:11:29.040 --> 01:11:30.240
Okay

1089
01:11:30.240 --> 01:11:34.800
So you have to mix it's not immediately give it some time, but you give it some time

1090
01:11:35.840 --> 01:11:40.560
There are molecules that went in and out of your lungs that are in China being breathed by people there

1091
01:11:41.440 --> 01:11:46.240
When enough time is elapsed I mean calculate that like it's years 10 years something like that

1092
01:11:46.800 --> 01:11:53.120
There's tremendous mixing of air. So how's that for feeling kinship with others

1093
01:11:54.320 --> 01:11:59.040
Same with water you drink a water there more molecules of water in a glass of water

1094
01:11:59.120 --> 01:12:01.360
This is a mug of water then there are

1095
01:12:02.160 --> 01:12:04.640
Mugs of water in all the world's oceans

1096
01:12:05.840 --> 01:12:07.840
So you drink a mug of water

1097
01:12:08.000 --> 01:12:11.360
And then it comes out of you in any one of a half dozen different ways

1098
01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:17.200
There's enough molecules to scatter into every other mug of water in the world

1099
01:12:18.240 --> 01:12:22.800
So someone gets a mug of water your molecules and be a plenty more plenty of molecules

1100
01:12:23.840 --> 01:12:24.800
To go

1101
01:12:24.800 --> 01:12:32.320
So if I do a big inhale I'm also I'm inhaling air that contains molecules that all of my living relatives

1102
01:12:32.880 --> 01:12:36.800
Once inhale yes, and go further back Jesus inhale them

1103
01:12:37.440 --> 01:12:39.440
Mohammed

1104
01:12:39.440 --> 01:12:41.440
With every breath yes every breath

1105
01:12:41.760 --> 01:12:44.640
This is the the the the oneness of it all

1106
01:12:45.280 --> 01:12:47.280
That's why it's a beautiful thing

1107
01:12:47.520 --> 01:12:49.520
astrophysics

1108
01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:52.000
I wouldn't live without it

1109
01:12:52.000 --> 01:12:54.080
Do you think it's makes us kind of

1110
01:12:54.080 --> 01:12:57.600
Learning about the universe. Would you think it makes us more nihilistic and narcissistic?

1111
01:12:57.760 --> 01:13:03.040
No, if you learn about it as you should you shouldn't be nihilistic. There's no force of nihilism

1112
01:13:03.760 --> 01:13:07.360
In the knowledge wisdom and insight you get by studying the universe

1113
01:13:08.560 --> 01:13:13.760
You you will never find marching armies led by astrophysicist to go slaughter one another

1114
01:13:15.360 --> 01:13:18.480
We the cosmic perspective prevents that

1115
01:13:21.920 --> 01:13:24.160
The cosmic perspective yeah

1116
01:13:24.400 --> 01:13:28.560
By the way if you look at the chapter titles in there they're each pairs of words

1117
01:13:29.360 --> 01:13:32.800
That we've all used and but we've argued over many of them

1118
01:13:33.520 --> 01:13:37.200
Over our thanksgiving dinner. I don't know if there's a version of thanksgiving in the UK

1119
01:13:37.840 --> 01:13:44.080
It's maybe just Christmas everybody gathers and the crazy uncles and aunts come in and you got to argue with them about

1120
01:13:44.720 --> 01:13:48.240
You know and you then you you reminded why you only see them once a year

1121
01:13:48.720 --> 01:13:50.000
Because

1122
01:13:50.080 --> 01:13:55.120
No, there are topics in there color and race is in there law and order body and mind

1123
01:13:56.000 --> 01:13:59.040
Meet Terrians and vegetarians life and death

1124
01:14:00.400 --> 01:14:06.480
A lot of reflective moments in there. So this book though. It's all these topics that people fight about

1125
01:14:06.880 --> 01:14:10.480
It's goal is to say you think that and you think that you got to look at it this way

1126
01:14:11.920 --> 01:14:13.120
It's not

1127
01:14:13.120 --> 01:14:14.640
Meet in the middle

1128
01:14:14.720 --> 01:14:22.400
No, it's meet on a plane of existence above what you're arguing and you'll look down on what you're arguing and realize how ridiculous it is

1129
01:14:23.520 --> 01:14:25.520
That's the goal of that book

1130
01:14:25.520 --> 01:14:29.520
chapter 10 of the book says human physiology may be overrated

1131
01:14:29.840 --> 01:14:31.840
Yeah

1132
01:14:31.840 --> 01:14:33.840
What do you mean by that? Well

1133
01:14:35.200 --> 01:14:37.120
You know, we'd like to think of ourselves at the top of

1134
01:14:38.400 --> 01:14:40.400
evolutionary

1135
01:14:41.120 --> 01:14:46.400
Properties, but it's really your mind surely but not much else

1136
01:14:48.000 --> 01:14:50.000
You know, we

1137
01:14:50.640 --> 01:14:53.520
It's odd because we always imagine aliens having humanoid bodies

1138
01:14:54.400 --> 01:14:56.480
Yeah, and there's no reason for that

1139
01:14:57.280 --> 01:15:00.880
If they come from another planet most life on earth doesn't have a humanoid body

1140
01:15:02.080 --> 01:15:05.360
The banana doesn't have a humanoid body and you have DNA in common with it

1141
01:15:06.000 --> 01:15:08.560
You don't have any DNA in common with an alien from another planet

1142
01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:14.560
Yeah, it's walking around with a neck eyes nose mouth head ears shoulders arms fingers

1143
01:15:15.280 --> 01:15:17.360
kneecaps feet

1144
01:15:17.440 --> 01:15:18.560
Really

1145
01:15:18.560 --> 01:15:21.680
That is that is that your best imagination that you can come up with

1146
01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:24.960
Alien from another planet

1147
01:15:25.840 --> 01:15:27.600
Is that is the universe

1148
01:15:27.600 --> 01:15:31.200
Infinite I've often wondered that does it just go on forever or is there a

1149
01:15:31.200 --> 01:15:33.200
We're not given reason to think it doesn't

1150
01:15:34.160 --> 01:15:37.360
But our horizon has an edge what we can see yeah

1151
01:15:37.920 --> 01:15:39.920
But there's no reason to think

1152
01:15:39.920 --> 01:15:43.360
So you're your ship at sea and you have a horizon

1153
01:15:44.080 --> 01:15:46.960
Are you saying let's the extent of the ocean no

1154
01:15:47.600 --> 01:15:50.720
Because if you sail towards the horizon more horizon shows up

1155
01:15:51.520 --> 01:15:53.680
And you keep that up until you hit land

1156
01:15:55.600 --> 01:15:59.680
So in the universe we have our horizon

1157
01:16:00.960 --> 01:16:04.880
And if we went to that horizon we'd have a whole other horizon beyond that

1158
01:16:05.840 --> 01:16:08.720
If we travel to that horizon you'll hold other horizon there

1159
01:16:09.200 --> 01:16:12.000
The question is how how far does that go

1160
01:16:13.200 --> 01:16:15.200
We don't know

1161
01:16:16.880 --> 01:16:18.880
We have no idea

1162
01:16:18.880 --> 01:16:21.280
It's simpler mathematically to think it goes forever

1163
01:16:22.640 --> 01:16:25.200
It's curious how there's some equations where infinities

1164
01:16:26.480 --> 01:16:28.480
Work just fine in the equation

1165
01:16:28.800 --> 01:16:30.640
Uh, so we don't know

1166
01:16:30.720 --> 01:16:32.720
We can talk about to our own horizon. That's it

1167
01:16:33.680 --> 01:16:35.680
There's so many people saying that they've seen aliens

1168
01:16:36.320 --> 01:16:40.560
We had someone on this podcast actually that said they'd seen aliens not they'd seen aliens

1169
01:16:40.560 --> 01:16:42.400
But they had evidence that aliens existed

1170
01:16:42.960 --> 01:16:44.960
And they worked in the military and said that they'd uh

1171
01:16:45.840 --> 01:16:48.640
You know some of these spacecraft footage that you see from the day

1172
01:16:50.320 --> 01:16:51.920
Show you the alien

1173
01:16:51.920 --> 01:16:54.800
No, but you see the videos of the things bouncing around in the sky

1174
01:16:54.800 --> 01:16:55.760
Oh fuzzy videos

1175
01:16:55.760 --> 01:16:56.640
Fuzzy videos

1176
01:16:56.640 --> 01:16:58.640
So those are UFOs they're not aliens

1177
01:16:58.640 --> 01:16:59.360
UFOs yeah

1178
01:16:59.360 --> 01:17:00.160
It's a difference

1179
01:17:00.160 --> 01:17:00.800
Oh yeah

1180
01:17:00.880 --> 01:17:02.560
Many people equate the two

1181
01:17:02.560 --> 01:17:05.360
But if you see something in the sky and you don't know what it is

1182
01:17:06.560 --> 01:17:08.800
It's a UFO and was the you stand for

1183
01:17:09.600 --> 01:17:11.600
Unidentified

1184
01:17:11.600 --> 01:17:13.360
Until you can identify it

1185
01:17:13.360 --> 01:17:14.240
It's a UFO

1186
01:17:15.280 --> 01:17:17.680
And because it does things that you don't understand

1187
01:17:19.120 --> 01:17:21.200
You cannot equate that with it being

1188
01:17:22.080 --> 01:17:23.760
An alien

1189
01:17:23.760 --> 01:17:25.280
You just said you don't know what it is

1190
01:17:26.800 --> 01:17:28.800
Wow, that's amazing. I don't know what it is

1191
01:17:28.800 --> 01:17:30.800
Therefore it must be an alien

1192
01:17:31.920 --> 01:17:34.720
If once you just said you don't know what it is that's the end of the sentence

1193
01:17:35.840 --> 01:17:38.640
You can't go on and say therefore it must be anything

1194
01:17:38.640 --> 01:17:42.240
You can be impressed with videos that have no explanation

1195
01:17:43.280 --> 01:17:45.280
I'll have a problem with that

1196
01:17:45.280 --> 01:17:47.120
But you want to turn around and say aliens

1197
01:17:47.840 --> 01:17:49.760
You want to take it's a government cover up

1198
01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:51.600
Do you really think the government is that competent?

1199
01:17:52.960 --> 01:17:55.840
Often the same people who say there's a mastermind a governor

1200
01:17:55.920 --> 01:17:59.840
The same people who complain that the government is a bloated bureaucracy

1201
01:17:59.840 --> 01:18:03.040
Inefficient bureaucracy that should be replaced by private enterprise

1202
01:18:03.680 --> 01:18:06.880
There's the same people making those same statements

1203
01:18:07.440 --> 01:18:09.920
So I love the aliens. I want to meet him too

1204
01:18:10.880 --> 01:18:14.880
My my people the astrophysics community has been searching for aliens for decades

1205
01:18:15.040 --> 01:18:16.640
And you've never found evidence of any?

1206
01:18:17.680 --> 01:18:18.880
not

1207
01:18:21.200 --> 01:18:22.880
So

1208
01:18:22.880 --> 01:18:25.440
The community of amateur astronomers in the world

1209
01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:31.840
Okay, amateur astronomy is that's a badge of honor because you meet you know the night sky and you own a telescope and it's not

1210
01:18:32.320 --> 01:18:34.320
Like amateur neurosurgeon. Okay

1211
01:18:35.760 --> 01:18:37.600
You don't want to go to an amateur neurosurgeon

1212
01:18:37.760 --> 01:18:40.160
But you want to know the night sky go to an amateur astronomer

1213
01:18:40.160 --> 01:18:44.560
Amateur astronomers know the night sky they know what the sun moon and stars are doing every night

1214
01:18:44.880 --> 01:18:46.880
They know they're very good at

1215
01:18:47.040 --> 01:18:50.400
Climate and weather because that affects weather things are visible

1216
01:18:50.640 --> 01:18:54.000
So they know when weather systems come in and go out and what things look like

1217
01:18:55.840 --> 01:18:58.160
You would think if aliens were

1218
01:18:59.040 --> 01:19:00.560
About

1219
01:19:00.560 --> 01:19:04.320
Up and about that amateur astronomers would have seen more of them than anyone else

1220
01:19:05.520 --> 01:19:07.520
But they've seen less

1221
01:19:08.080 --> 01:19:10.080
Because we know what we're looking at

1222
01:19:11.680 --> 01:19:13.680
It's kind of that simple

1223
01:19:13.840 --> 01:19:18.080
The moment you know what you're looking at it's an IFO isn't yeah, it's not a UFO

1224
01:19:18.880 --> 01:19:21.600
And so yeah, I want to meet the aliens, but

1225
01:19:22.480 --> 01:19:28.240
You're going to show me fuzzy video. We're going to say you have an alien, but it's in a lock box and you're not going to show it

1226
01:19:29.760 --> 01:19:34.320
If you have an alien in a lock box and you're not going to show it that's the same thing to a scientist

1227
01:19:35.040 --> 01:19:42.880
As not having an alien at all. Could you make the case for why aliens probably do exist and also the case for why they probably don't exist

1228
01:19:43.360 --> 01:19:46.880
No, no they surely exist in this universe

1229
01:19:47.840 --> 01:19:53.200
The universe is 14 billion years old and the ingredients of life on earth are the most common ingredients in the universe

1230
01:19:54.560 --> 01:19:57.840
And life began on earth almost as quickly as it possibly could have

1231
01:19:59.280 --> 01:20:05.600
When earth finally cooled down after it being formed it was by 200 million years for signs of single-celled life

1232
01:20:06.720 --> 01:20:11.440
So even though we can't duplicate that yet. We don't know how that's a frontier of biology

1233
01:20:11.840 --> 01:20:13.840
Earth didn't seem to have problems

1234
01:20:13.920 --> 01:20:17.280
Getting the job done within 200 million years. That's earth

1235
01:20:18.800 --> 01:20:25.120
Now you have exoplanets everywhere across the galaxy to suggest that life on earth is alone in the universe

1236
01:20:26.240 --> 01:20:32.080
You'd have to have some point of philosophy that requires you believe that because it's not derived from actual

1237
01:20:33.200 --> 01:20:36.640
evidence or observations of the universe itself

1238
01:20:37.840 --> 01:20:39.360
so

1239
01:20:39.360 --> 01:20:45.200
Aliens usually people mean intelligent aliens, but we're happy to find any kind of life at all bacterial life

1240
01:20:46.160 --> 01:20:48.160
That would be that would transform biology

1241
01:20:48.480 --> 01:20:54.800
What about an on galaxy in the Milky Way galaxy? Yeah, the galaxy is the most sensible place to so we've looking we've looked for exoplanets

1242
01:20:55.760 --> 01:20:57.760
A planet orbiting another star

1243
01:20:58.000 --> 01:21:01.760
Because we're gonna look for life you want to we presume it's gonna be on a planet

1244
01:21:02.160 --> 01:21:07.360
So if this table is the galaxy and the solar system would be about right there

1245
01:21:08.320 --> 01:21:10.320
We've searched a circle about this big

1246
01:21:11.040 --> 01:21:17.440
For exoplanets and what's the solar system versus it's just the Sun and its planets. Oh, yeah, solar system

1247
01:21:18.080 --> 01:21:25.120
And then that's our solar system there and we are part of several hundred billion stars in the galaxy

1248
01:21:26.400 --> 01:21:33.520
And this galaxy is one of perhaps as many as a trillion galaxies in the observable universe

1249
01:21:34.480 --> 01:21:39.280
So to say we're alone. That's just you being you're being philosophically irresponsible

1250
01:21:39.920 --> 01:21:41.680
So this table is

1251
01:21:41.680 --> 01:21:45.920
The galaxy yeah if it were the galaxy and we such the coin coin

1252
01:21:46.080 --> 01:21:51.600
Yes, that's a good word to use a coin-sized volume of this galaxy. We've searched for exoplanets

1253
01:21:52.320 --> 01:21:54.320
and by association life

1254
01:21:54.960 --> 01:21:59.200
So folks at the SETI institute the search for extraterrestrial intelligence

1255
01:21:59.840 --> 01:22:01.520
Uh, they come up with an analogy

1256
01:22:02.160 --> 01:22:05.440
So the people said well, we haven't found life yet. So maybe there's no life anywhere

1257
01:22:06.560 --> 01:22:09.920
And we say no take a cup and scoop it into the ocean

1258
01:22:11.520 --> 01:22:13.520
That's like saying

1259
01:22:13.600 --> 01:22:15.600
Hmm

1260
01:22:15.840 --> 01:22:17.840
The ocean has no whales in it

1261
01:22:19.200 --> 01:22:22.560
Is that the equivalent? Yeah, it's a quim in terms of the space of

1262
01:22:23.360 --> 01:22:26.560
Searching because it's not only in physical space

1263
01:22:27.520 --> 01:22:29.520
But it's in time

1264
01:22:29.600 --> 01:22:34.000
Suppose the aliens sent radio signals to us and they arrived two thousand years ago

1265
01:22:35.600 --> 01:22:37.600
Do the Romans have radio telescopes? No

1266
01:22:38.480 --> 01:22:40.480
But we would all count them as intelligent

1267
01:22:41.680 --> 01:22:44.640
So communication requires intelligence and technology

1268
01:22:45.840 --> 01:22:47.840
How long have we had technology to do that?

1269
01:22:49.200 --> 01:22:50.720
80 years

1270
01:22:50.880 --> 01:22:55.200
On the court chance of put probability do you think there are aliens in the Milky Way galaxy? Yeah, oh sure

1271
01:22:55.680 --> 01:22:57.360
You think they're wrong. I don't see why not

1272
01:22:58.080 --> 01:23:02.880
That's a calculation you can do. I did it with two colleagues in mind. We have about a hundred civilizations

1273
01:23:03.680 --> 01:23:05.520
In the galaxy alive now

1274
01:23:06.400 --> 01:23:08.400
That's not many out of the total number of stars

1275
01:23:08.560 --> 01:23:14.160
But again a civilization you've has to evolve out of whatever it was and it's a tiny little slice of time

1276
01:23:15.440 --> 01:23:17.600
Relative to how long the planet has been there

1277
01:23:19.040 --> 01:23:20.720
100 different

1278
01:23:20.720 --> 01:23:24.240
Living yeah, so was it was on the way living because living can mean many things

1279
01:23:24.880 --> 01:23:26.720
Well, I mean

1280
01:23:26.720 --> 01:23:30.960
Mars might have had life, but it would be dead today on the surface. So

1281
01:23:31.760 --> 01:23:36.160
We're looking for living civilizations and does that excite you yes completely

1282
01:23:37.200 --> 01:23:38.800
but

1283
01:23:38.800 --> 01:23:40.800
You want to now tell me it has visited you

1284
01:23:42.000 --> 01:23:44.000
in with fuzzy lights in the sky

1285
01:23:45.440 --> 01:23:48.000
And no one is like brought forth an alien

1286
01:23:48.880 --> 01:23:51.600
I need better evidence because you're making an extraordinary claim

1287
01:23:52.240 --> 01:23:57.120
Humans fascination with meeting these aliens when we've got crazy species. We've never met on our own planet

1288
01:23:57.360 --> 01:24:01.280
That's a good point and plus what do we need real aliens for when we have Hollywood?

1289
01:24:04.080 --> 01:24:07.680
The funny part to me is we have no knowledge

1290
01:24:08.960 --> 01:24:10.960
That aliens want to harm us

1291
01:24:11.360 --> 01:24:15.200
But we do have knowledge that humans want to harm humans

1292
01:24:16.160 --> 01:24:20.480
And any encounter between an advanced civilization and one that was less advanced

1293
01:24:21.280 --> 01:24:27.280
In the history of exploration has never boated well for the less advanced civilization

1294
01:24:28.400 --> 01:24:30.240
So for me

1295
01:24:30.240 --> 01:24:32.240
We are describing aliens

1296
01:24:34.160 --> 01:24:37.360
Not as we think they would be

1297
01:24:38.240 --> 01:24:42.400
But as we know we are to one another

1298
01:24:43.360 --> 01:24:44.960
to mirror

1299
01:24:44.960 --> 01:24:48.960
And we've only got to play out what we would do as well if we found an alien civilization

1300
01:24:48.960 --> 01:24:50.720
What would humans do? I mean

1301
01:24:51.360 --> 01:24:53.600
I think we'd go and try and steal some of them

1302
01:24:55.120 --> 01:24:57.600
And bring them here. Well, they're probably smarter than us

1303
01:24:59.520 --> 01:25:04.320
That's like that's like worm saying oh we found some humans. What should we do with them? Should we corral them?

1304
01:25:05.200 --> 01:25:06.720
No

1305
01:25:06.800 --> 01:25:10.080
If aliens came here they clearly are more advanced than we are

1306
01:25:10.160 --> 01:25:12.960
Because we haven't left low earth orbit

1307
01:25:13.680 --> 01:25:15.200
In 53 years

1308
01:25:15.200 --> 01:25:17.200
So if they cross the galaxy to visit us

1309
01:25:18.720 --> 01:25:20.720
Oh, we're gonna take a shoot of gun at them

1310
01:25:24.000 --> 01:25:26.000
You know

1311
01:25:26.000 --> 01:25:28.000
In all the movies that we beat them

1312
01:25:28.000 --> 01:25:30.960
That's so funny. I've never thought about that before that. Yeah, we just shoot guns at them

1313
01:25:30.960 --> 01:25:33.600
You shoot guns at them and did it really make a difference, you know

1314
01:25:34.480 --> 01:25:37.360
We put like Brad Pitt or whoever in like a some cruise you know

1315
01:25:38.240 --> 01:25:40.240
What's your favorite space movie space movie

1316
01:25:43.920 --> 01:25:48.960
Well sci-fi is the matrix. Why? I love everything about it. The story is tight

1317
01:25:49.440 --> 01:25:51.280
There's one physics error in it

1318
01:25:51.280 --> 01:25:55.280
But without it they don't have a movie so you got to give it I can write him a hall pass

1319
01:25:55.920 --> 01:25:57.920
Which I feel

1320
01:25:58.240 --> 01:26:02.640
That I have the power to do what's the the error everyone's gonna be wondering what the error was in the

1321
01:26:02.720 --> 01:26:04.720
Oh, it's not an error. It's just

1322
01:26:04.960 --> 01:26:10.880
They got the it's bad physics in it. Okay, so if you if you remember the

1323
01:26:11.920 --> 01:26:14.160
AI

1324
01:26:14.160 --> 01:26:16.160
Computer that's running everything

1325
01:26:17.040 --> 01:26:19.040
Needs an energy source

1326
01:26:19.040 --> 01:26:22.000
And so they're growing humans in these pods

1327
01:26:22.960 --> 01:26:25.120
Knowing that each human

1328
01:26:25.120 --> 01:26:28.720
Radiates it about 80 watts. They didn't give that number but it's a true fact

1329
01:26:29.680 --> 01:26:34.400
80 watts like an 80 watt bulb. That's so much energy you are consuming and using

1330
01:26:34.880 --> 01:26:36.640
That's an energy rate

1331
01:26:36.720 --> 01:26:37.920
Okay

1332
01:26:37.920 --> 01:26:42.000
So they and it's one of the writers must have known that and so that's kind of cool

1333
01:26:42.320 --> 01:26:45.120
Let's use humans as an energy source for the machines all right

1334
01:26:45.360 --> 01:26:52.480
So these pods of humans and they grow the humans from childhood to adulthood and they put in their head

1335
01:26:53.040 --> 01:26:57.200
A world that they're living in which is just in their head and they think it's real

1336
01:26:57.760 --> 01:26:59.360
But it's not

1337
01:26:59.360 --> 01:27:02.320
That's the matrix. Okay, but wait a minute

1338
01:27:03.520 --> 01:27:05.520
How do the humans get their energy

1339
01:27:06.960 --> 01:27:08.960
They feed the humans food

1340
01:27:11.280 --> 01:27:15.920
Well, why are you feeding food to humans and then using the energy from the humans for the machine

1341
01:27:16.560 --> 01:27:18.960
Bypass the middle man and just feed the machine

1342
01:27:20.800 --> 01:27:27.120
Something called a second law of thermonet first or second law of thermodynamics anytime energy changes from one form to another

1343
01:27:28.160 --> 01:27:33.120
It's not a hundred percent efficient. You drive a car if you drive a combustion engine car

1344
01:27:33.600 --> 01:27:36.800
You drive it 50 miles get out the engine's hot

1345
01:27:38.480 --> 01:27:40.480
Where the heat come from that's

1346
01:27:40.800 --> 01:27:46.640
Wasted energy converting chemical energy of the gasoline to kinetic energy of your car

1347
01:27:47.760 --> 01:27:53.040
It is never 100 percent perfect. So they are losing energy in with this middle man

1348
01:27:53.120 --> 01:27:56.800
And they should just feed themselves whatever the food they're feeding the humans

1349
01:27:57.520 --> 01:27:59.520
and

1350
01:27:59.600 --> 01:28:01.920
If they're smart they wouldn't not have humans at all

1351
01:28:03.120 --> 01:28:08.240
But then there's no movie. So that's my point. Road him a hall pass. You're okay with that

1352
01:28:08.640 --> 01:28:13.680
Are you an easy person to watch movies like this? Yeah, I'm not I'm not the I'm not the guy you think I am

1353
01:28:14.080 --> 01:28:16.080
I will watch it and silently yes. I'll

1354
01:28:16.640 --> 01:28:21.520
I'll gather a list of but I'm silent about it and if you're interested, I will tell you later

1355
01:28:22.960 --> 01:28:26.000
Have you ever heard about this before this thing? I'm holding in my hands now

1356
01:28:26.080 --> 01:28:29.440
This is called ketone IQ the website is ketone.com

1357
01:28:29.840 --> 01:28:32.240
You've heard me on this podcast talking about the fact that I stay

1358
01:28:32.800 --> 01:28:36.560
Much of the year in a ketogenic state which is a highly restricted diet

1359
01:28:36.720 --> 01:28:41.680
And the reason I do that is plenty fold one of them as I spend hours and I was talking to people for a living

1360
01:28:41.760 --> 01:28:44.560
So I want to make sure my brain is firing in an optimal way

1361
01:28:44.960 --> 01:28:49.360
And the other reason that I do the ketogenic diet is because I just feel better

1362
01:28:49.440 --> 01:28:53.520
So when I discovered this which is what they call an exogenous ketone product

1363
01:28:53.760 --> 01:28:57.680
where you can drink it and it increases your blood's ketone levels

1364
01:28:58.000 --> 01:29:01.520
I was blown away. I contacted them. I met them. I invested

1365
01:29:01.920 --> 01:29:07.360
Extremely heavily into their company and I've become a co-owner of the company accordingly and they sponsor this show now

1366
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So if you want to try this out for yourself

1367
01:29:09.920 --> 01:29:11.440
I recommend you try it

1368
01:29:11.520 --> 01:29:16.240
Just visit ketone.com slash Stephen and you'll get 30% off your first subscription order

1369
01:29:16.400 --> 01:29:22.160
You'll also get a free gift with your second shipment. That's ketone.com slash Stephen

1370
01:29:22.960 --> 01:29:26.960
I did something at 24 years old that has had a profound impact on my life

1371
01:29:27.120 --> 01:29:30.560
I set myself the challenge of posting every single day on my social media channels

1372
01:29:30.560 --> 01:29:33.120
And at the time I was doing it to grow my following

1373
01:29:33.120 --> 01:29:37.760
But I had this profound impact on my life and two remarkable things happened when I did that

1374
01:29:37.760 --> 01:29:42.000
I managed to learn faster because every single day I'm capturing what is happening to me

1375
01:29:42.000 --> 01:29:45.440
And trying to distill it down into something that I can share with the world

1376
01:29:45.600 --> 01:29:49.760
But more remarkably it led me to building a following of many millions of people

1377
01:29:49.840 --> 01:29:52.480
And that's the basis that I used to launch the diorama CEO

1378
01:29:52.480 --> 01:29:55.520
And that's why I want to tell you about our sponsor today Adobe Express

1379
01:29:55.760 --> 01:30:00.160
They are the platform that I use to make all the posts across my LinkedIn and across my Instagram

1380
01:30:00.480 --> 01:30:03.360
It's a couple of clicks and you don't need to be an expert

1381
01:30:03.520 --> 01:30:06.400
And that is why I love using it because I'm not an expert in graphic design

1382
01:30:06.400 --> 01:30:08.960
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1383
01:30:09.040 --> 01:30:11.920
Even if we don't have the technical prowess to design great things

1384
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1385
01:30:16.080 --> 01:30:19.680
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1386
01:30:19.680 --> 01:30:21.440
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1387
01:30:21.440 --> 01:30:24.720
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1388
01:30:25.840 --> 01:30:28.080
What's the one outstanding question if there is one?

1389
01:30:29.520 --> 01:30:31.120
That you're desperate to know the answer to

1390
01:30:31.120 --> 01:30:33.200
I don't live life that way

1391
01:30:33.440 --> 01:30:33.840
Really?

1392
01:30:33.840 --> 01:30:34.160
Yeah

1393
01:30:34.160 --> 01:30:36.240
It's a sensible question that you're asking me

1394
01:30:36.240 --> 01:30:39.360
I don't want to diminish the sensibility of it

1395
01:30:39.360 --> 01:30:41.440
But I want to say that

1396
01:30:42.320 --> 01:30:43.680
It's not how I view the world

1397
01:30:44.240 --> 01:30:45.200
The world is not

1398
01:30:45.920 --> 01:30:47.840
There's the one question I need answered

1399
01:30:48.400 --> 01:30:49.440
The world is

1400
01:30:50.800 --> 01:30:52.320
What do I need to learn

1401
01:30:53.840 --> 01:30:57.440
So that I'm standing in a place I can yet imagine

1402
01:30:58.480 --> 01:31:00.800
Asking a question I have yet to think of

1403
01:31:03.520 --> 01:31:06.560
In other words as the area of our knowledge grows

1404
01:31:07.840 --> 01:31:10.720
So too does the perimeter of our ignorance

1405
01:31:11.680 --> 01:31:14.400
And so you say what one question?

1406
01:31:14.400 --> 01:31:16.080
No, there'll be a bunch of questions

1407
01:31:16.080 --> 01:31:19.680
The area grows some more I'm standing in a new place

1408
01:31:19.680 --> 01:31:23.040
Now there's a question I didn't even think could be asked

1409
01:31:23.520 --> 01:31:26.400
Before and that's the question that matters there and then

1410
01:31:27.200 --> 01:31:29.280
But then there's another question later on

1411
01:31:29.280 --> 01:31:31.520
As this frontier continues to advance

1412
01:31:32.400 --> 01:31:36.160
So I don't think about the one question or the two questions that matter

1413
01:31:36.960 --> 01:31:38.320
I think about questions

1414
01:31:39.200 --> 01:31:40.400
Yet to be dreamt of

1415
01:31:41.440 --> 01:31:42.800
That we don't even see

1416
01:31:43.520 --> 01:31:46.640
Because we haven't taken the frontier to that vista yet

1417
01:31:47.920 --> 01:31:50.800
And so yeah, it's some of that that's unknowable

1418
01:31:50.800 --> 01:31:52.800
But I kind of like that

1419
01:31:53.040 --> 01:31:55.760
There's the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke

1420
01:31:55.760 --> 01:31:59.440
One of the poems I don't remember all the lines with the one that matters to me

1421
01:31:59.440 --> 01:32:03.440
Most is learn to love the questions themselves

1422
01:32:04.800 --> 01:32:05.920
You try to find answers

1423
01:32:06.720 --> 01:32:08.240
And I'm trying to find the questions

1424
01:32:09.680 --> 01:32:11.440
Learn to love the questions themselves

1425
01:32:11.440 --> 01:32:14.560
And this kind of brings me back to the top of the conversation where I was talking about

1426
01:32:14.560 --> 01:32:17.280
I've got a lot more questions these days

1427
01:32:17.280 --> 01:32:18.720
That's good, love it

1428
01:32:18.720 --> 01:32:19.760
Sometimes it's difficult

1429
01:32:19.760 --> 01:32:20.640
And not all questions

1430
01:32:21.760 --> 01:32:24.320
Can be answered given the state of knowledge

1431
01:32:24.320 --> 01:32:26.720
Some questions are illegitimate questions

1432
01:32:26.720 --> 01:32:28.560
Not all questions are legit questions

1433
01:32:29.200 --> 01:32:33.440
For example at what temperature does the number seven melt

1434
01:32:33.920 --> 01:32:36.960
What kind of cheese is the moon made out of

1435
01:32:38.880 --> 01:32:42.000
These are just because the nouns and verbs are lined up

1436
01:32:42.000 --> 01:32:43.680
And there's a question mark doesn't mean the

1437
01:32:43.680 --> 01:32:44.720
And by the way when you're

1438
01:32:45.440 --> 01:32:47.040
In the facing the unknown

1439
01:32:47.040 --> 01:32:49.440
You don't know if you're a question

1440
01:32:49.440 --> 01:32:51.280
Later on would look that ridiculous

1441
01:32:52.640 --> 01:32:55.600
What separates the great scientists from the average scientist

1442
01:32:55.600 --> 01:32:58.320
Is that they're huge into what questions to ask

1443
01:32:58.960 --> 01:33:02.160
Do you think we hunt ourselves by asking these invalid questions?

1444
01:33:02.160 --> 01:33:02.640
No

1445
01:33:03.520 --> 01:33:04.160
No

1446
01:33:04.160 --> 01:33:04.880
You need

1447
01:33:04.880 --> 01:33:06.240
You don't know if it's invalid

1448
01:33:06.240 --> 01:33:06.800
Like to say

1449
01:33:06.800 --> 01:33:09.200
I know the moon is not made out of cheese

1450
01:33:09.200 --> 01:33:09.680
Today

1451
01:33:10.800 --> 01:33:12.480
I know that because we've been there

1452
01:33:12.480 --> 01:33:13.920
We've brought back moon rocks

1453
01:33:13.920 --> 01:33:15.600
So today that question is invalid

1454
01:33:16.160 --> 01:33:17.760
But if you never

1455
01:33:17.760 --> 01:33:19.280
Imagine ever going to the moon

1456
01:33:19.280 --> 01:33:21.600
And you know anything about physics or rocks

1457
01:33:21.600 --> 01:33:22.400
And you look up

1458
01:33:22.400 --> 01:33:23.280
And it looks like a

1459
01:33:23.280 --> 01:33:24.880
A pumpkin cheese you're eating

1460
01:33:24.880 --> 01:33:26.800
It's a completely legit question

1461
01:33:26.800 --> 01:33:27.600
And there's a bit of a

1462
01:33:27.600 --> 01:33:30.480
There is a bit of a conversation raging in my friendship cycle at the moment

1463
01:33:30.480 --> 01:33:32.240
About religion and meaning

1464
01:33:32.240 --> 01:33:33.920
And what's the point

1465
01:33:33.920 --> 01:33:36.000
Should we be arguing about these things

1466
01:33:36.800 --> 01:33:38.560
About meaning, religion

1467
01:33:38.560 --> 01:33:39.760
Is there any is there any better?

1468
01:33:39.760 --> 01:33:41.920
I think meaning is a very personal thing to people

1469
01:33:41.920 --> 01:33:45.120
So why should you jump in the middle of their attempt

1470
01:33:45.120 --> 01:33:46.560
To establish meaning in their life

1471
01:33:47.120 --> 01:33:48.320
We're all very different people

1472
01:33:49.280 --> 01:33:51.440
And so meaning ought to be different

1473
01:33:51.440 --> 01:33:52.880
If meaning was the same for everyone

1474
01:33:52.880 --> 01:33:53.920
You just publish it

1475
01:33:53.920 --> 01:33:54.640
Everyone reads it

1476
01:33:54.640 --> 01:33:56.080
And then we all have meaning

1477
01:33:56.080 --> 01:33:56.480
No

1478
01:33:56.480 --> 01:33:56.880
You got to

1479
01:33:58.640 --> 01:33:59.440
Make it yourself

1480
01:33:59.440 --> 01:34:01.440
Some people want to search for it fine

1481
01:34:01.520 --> 01:34:02.320
And I have a problem with that

1482
01:34:02.320 --> 01:34:03.760
I'm not searching for meaning

1483
01:34:03.760 --> 01:34:06.400
I'm creating meaning in my life

1484
01:34:06.400 --> 01:34:08.080
Because I can control that

1485
01:34:08.080 --> 01:34:09.920
Not that it's important to control everything

1486
01:34:11.200 --> 01:34:11.760
You know

1487
01:34:11.760 --> 01:34:14.160
I like magic as an adult

1488
01:34:14.160 --> 01:34:16.000
Because it reminds me I can still be fooled

1489
01:34:16.880 --> 01:34:18.240
Okay

1490
01:34:18.240 --> 01:34:18.560
That's

1491
01:34:19.440 --> 01:34:21.040
So I don't need to know everything

1492
01:34:21.040 --> 01:34:21.760
I just need to

1493
01:34:22.800 --> 01:34:24.400
Maintain curiosity

1494
01:34:24.400 --> 01:34:25.280
And you've got kids

1495
01:34:25.280 --> 01:34:25.600
So

1496
01:34:26.640 --> 01:34:28.160
29 and 25

1497
01:34:28.160 --> 01:34:30.880
Is that the most meaningful thing you've done in your life?

1498
01:34:31.520 --> 01:34:32.320
Raising kids

1499
01:34:32.320 --> 01:34:32.800
Yeah

1500
01:34:32.800 --> 01:34:34.560
It's among the most meaningful things

1501
01:34:34.560 --> 01:34:35.840
I would say

1502
01:34:35.840 --> 01:34:37.120
They did a lot of their own raising

1503
01:34:37.120 --> 01:34:39.040
Because they're highly independent

1504
01:34:39.040 --> 01:34:40.240
And

1505
01:34:40.240 --> 01:34:41.200
So

1506
01:34:41.200 --> 01:34:43.760
There's a limit to how much I should take credit

1507
01:34:43.760 --> 01:34:45.680
For who and what they have become

1508
01:34:45.680 --> 01:34:47.920
There are a lot of what they did themselves

1509
01:34:48.640 --> 01:34:49.360
But

1510
01:34:49.360 --> 01:34:51.840
My wife who's a scientist

1511
01:34:51.840 --> 01:34:53.680
She's a mathematical physicist

1512
01:34:54.560 --> 01:34:58.160
We made sure that both our kids were scientifically literate

1513
01:34:58.800 --> 01:34:59.600
At an early age

1514
01:35:00.240 --> 01:35:01.280
By age 13

1515
01:35:01.920 --> 01:35:02.560
Certified

1516
01:35:03.200 --> 01:35:04.880
So at that point I said

1517
01:35:04.880 --> 01:35:06.880
I don't care what grade you get from now on

1518
01:35:06.880 --> 01:35:07.680
I don't care

1519
01:35:07.680 --> 01:35:10.080
I know no one will exploit you

1520
01:35:11.120 --> 01:35:14.080
For your lack of curiosity and knowledge about the

1521
01:35:14.960 --> 01:35:16.240
the objective universe

1522
01:35:17.680 --> 01:35:18.480
And

1523
01:35:18.480 --> 01:35:20.080
You know we'd be at a dinner party

1524
01:35:20.080 --> 01:35:21.120
And

1525
01:35:21.120 --> 01:35:22.320
They're like

1526
01:35:22.320 --> 01:35:23.440
In middle school right

1527
01:35:23.440 --> 01:35:24.640
And someone says

1528
01:35:24.640 --> 01:35:25.520
Oh I had a bad day

1529
01:35:25.520 --> 01:35:27.280
Because Mercury was in retrograde

1530
01:35:27.920 --> 01:35:29.120
And

1531
01:35:29.120 --> 01:35:30.480
And my son would say

1532
01:35:31.440 --> 01:35:32.960
What actually happened to you today

1533
01:35:33.840 --> 01:35:35.600
Has that happened on days when I was

1534
01:35:35.600 --> 01:35:37.360
They know how to ask questions

1535
01:35:37.360 --> 01:35:40.160
Okay, by the way if you just reject what someone says

1536
01:35:40.880 --> 01:35:42.080
outright

1537
01:35:42.080 --> 01:35:44.080
That's as intellectually lazy

1538
01:35:44.080 --> 01:35:45.760
As it is to accept

1539
01:35:45.760 --> 01:35:46.560
What they say

1540
01:35:46.560 --> 01:35:47.840
outright

1541
01:35:47.840 --> 01:35:49.120
What's harder

1542
01:35:49.120 --> 01:35:51.120
But I think more fun

1543
01:35:51.120 --> 01:35:52.960
Is lining up a series of questions

1544
01:35:52.960 --> 01:35:54.400
To probe the statement

1545
01:35:55.280 --> 01:35:56.320
To explore

1546
01:35:57.440 --> 01:35:59.360
What is going on in the thoughts

1547
01:35:59.360 --> 01:36:00.480
And in the claims

1548
01:36:00.480 --> 01:36:01.600
Of the person

1549
01:36:01.600 --> 01:36:02.800
With whom you're conversing

1550
01:36:04.160 --> 01:36:05.920
So if someone says I have these crystals

1551
01:36:05.920 --> 01:36:06.880
They rub them together

1552
01:36:06.880 --> 01:36:08.080
It'll heal you

1553
01:36:08.080 --> 01:36:09.200
My kids would say

1554
01:36:09.920 --> 01:36:11.040
What are the crystals made of

1555
01:36:11.920 --> 01:36:14.480
And what tests have you made for this

1556
01:36:14.480 --> 01:36:15.440
And

1557
01:36:15.440 --> 01:36:16.240
Could be

1558
01:36:16.240 --> 01:36:18.800
Could the healing have been explained in another way

1559
01:36:18.800 --> 01:36:19.840
And in what way

1560
01:36:19.840 --> 01:36:20.400
Are the

1561
01:36:20.400 --> 01:36:22.160
And they start asking these questions

1562
01:36:22.160 --> 01:36:24.240
And then the person probably just walk away

1563
01:36:24.240 --> 01:36:27.040
Because they would not have the answers to all of them

1564
01:36:27.040 --> 01:36:28.000
And then you know that remember

1565
01:36:28.000 --> 01:36:28.800
I said

1566
01:36:28.800 --> 01:36:30.480
Of an argument last more than five minutes

1567
01:36:30.480 --> 01:36:31.760
Than both sides are wrong

1568
01:36:31.760 --> 01:36:32.400
The person

1569
01:36:32.400 --> 01:36:33.440
There's nothing

1570
01:36:33.440 --> 01:36:34.720
There's no place for that to go

1571
01:36:35.600 --> 01:36:36.400
To the

1572
01:36:36.400 --> 01:36:37.920
Truly curious person

1573
01:36:37.920 --> 01:36:39.360
There's another interesting fact

1574
01:36:39.360 --> 01:36:42.000
crystals represent the lowest energy state

1575
01:36:42.800 --> 01:36:45.280
Of the atomic or molecular configuration

1576
01:36:45.280 --> 01:36:46.240
That is comprised of

1577
01:36:46.800 --> 01:36:48.320
The lowest energy state

1578
01:36:48.880 --> 01:36:50.480
So people say I have crystal energy

1579
01:36:50.480 --> 01:36:51.360
No, you don't

1580
01:36:51.360 --> 01:36:53.040
You have the lowest energy state

1581
01:36:53.040 --> 01:36:53.680
Of that

1582
01:36:53.680 --> 01:36:55.200
Of that silicon dioxide

1583
01:36:55.200 --> 01:36:56.240
That you're calling quartz

1584
01:36:57.200 --> 01:36:59.600
There is no there's no energy you're going to take out of it

1585
01:36:59.600 --> 01:37:01.200
It is in its lowest energy state

1586
01:37:02.480 --> 01:37:04.960
These are people who have never had chemistry

1587
01:37:04.960 --> 01:37:07.760
And as an educator I don't want to make fun of this

1588
01:37:08.480 --> 01:37:11.280
But when people think they know something

1589
01:37:11.280 --> 01:37:12.720
And are audacious about it

1590
01:37:12.720 --> 01:37:13.920
When in fact they don't

1591
01:37:14.880 --> 01:37:17.840
That makes it much harder for an educator to break through

1592
01:37:18.640 --> 01:37:19.360
Horoscopes

1593
01:37:23.040 --> 01:37:23.440
Yeah

1594
01:37:24.880 --> 01:37:26.320
Well, I've got some stats for you here

1595
01:37:26.640 --> 01:37:29.280
Neal, surveys find that roughly 80% of Gen Z

1596
01:37:30.000 --> 01:37:31.760
Believe in astrology to some degree

1597
01:37:32.320 --> 01:37:35.440
72% of those Gen Z and millennials allowed astrology

1598
01:37:35.440 --> 01:37:37.280
To influence major life decisions

1599
01:37:37.280 --> 01:37:38.480
Like romance, health, work

1600
01:37:39.120 --> 01:37:39.840
In education

1601
01:37:40.560 --> 01:37:44.000
And many Gen Zs now are checking their horoscopes weekly

1602
01:37:44.640 --> 01:37:45.520
Yeah, I

1603
01:37:45.520 --> 01:37:47.040
We live in a free country

1604
01:37:47.040 --> 01:37:48.560
So I don't

1605
01:37:48.560 --> 01:37:49.920
I'm not going to try to stop them

1606
01:37:51.520 --> 01:37:54.560
What would be sad is if that number got to 100%

1607
01:37:55.280 --> 01:37:57.680
And then then you wouldn't be generating scientists

1608
01:37:57.680 --> 01:37:58.960
Or engineers

1609
01:37:58.960 --> 01:38:00.000
Or people who

1610
01:38:00.720 --> 01:38:02.480
The objective truths of the world matter

1611
01:38:03.280 --> 01:38:06.880
And then this civilization just goes back to the cave

1612
01:38:07.360 --> 01:38:10.480
Where everything that happened in the natural world was mysterious

1613
01:38:11.520 --> 01:38:14.720
Created by forces beyond our knowledge and understanding

1614
01:38:15.360 --> 01:38:16.160
And

1615
01:38:17.360 --> 01:38:20.320
This is the the title of one of Carl Sagan's books

1616
01:38:20.320 --> 01:38:21.840
The Demon Haunted World

1617
01:38:22.800 --> 01:38:25.280
Science as a candle in the dark

1618
01:38:25.280 --> 01:38:27.520
That was the subtitle of that book

1619
01:38:28.400 --> 01:38:31.520
So if you want to think you're not in control of your fate

1620
01:38:31.520 --> 01:38:33.120
Because the Sun Moon and planets are

1621
01:38:34.480 --> 01:38:36.320
It's like I said, it's a free country

1622
01:38:36.320 --> 01:38:38.000
Is there anything that you've learned

1623
01:38:38.000 --> 01:38:41.680
That the universe does to influence us

1624
01:38:42.720 --> 01:38:44.240
Yeah, the Sun rises and I wake up

1625
01:38:44.240 --> 01:38:45.760
Because I want to be awake during the day

1626
01:38:46.400 --> 01:38:46.880
Yes

1627
01:38:46.880 --> 01:38:47.840
That people aren't

1628
01:38:47.840 --> 01:38:49.040
Yeah, the tide comes in

1629
01:38:49.040 --> 01:38:52.080
And I move my my my my beach chair back

1630
01:38:52.800 --> 01:38:54.080
Because the tide came in

1631
01:38:55.200 --> 01:38:56.400
Yeah

1632
01:38:56.400 --> 01:38:58.640
There's our things that influence my behavior

1633
01:38:58.640 --> 01:38:59.440
Yes

1634
01:39:01.680 --> 01:39:03.280
But it's not much more than that

1635
01:39:04.960 --> 01:39:07.120
Earth is tipped on its axis so we have seasons

1636
01:39:07.120 --> 01:39:09.360
I'd buy coats and wear them in the winter

1637
01:39:09.360 --> 01:39:10.720
That influences my behavior

1638
01:39:12.080 --> 01:39:13.040
What's your stop sign?

1639
01:39:14.480 --> 01:39:16.880
Well, I once had someone take a class of mine

1640
01:39:17.840 --> 01:39:19.520
At the Hayden Planetarium that I taught

1641
01:39:20.160 --> 01:39:21.680
On astrophysics

1642
01:39:21.680 --> 01:39:23.920
And at the end she like the second or last class

1643
01:39:24.480 --> 01:39:27.920
She came to say, oh, thank you. Thanks for the class. I enjoyed I'm enjoying the class

1644
01:39:28.560 --> 01:39:30.720
But I want you to know I'm an astrologer

1645
01:39:30.720 --> 01:39:33.280
And I'm taking the class so I can cast horoscopes better

1646
01:39:34.160 --> 01:39:36.000
So I said it's really working for you

1647
01:39:36.000 --> 01:39:38.080
She said yeah, yeah, yeah, she said for example

1648
01:39:38.080 --> 01:39:39.280
What's your horoscope sign?

1649
01:39:40.240 --> 01:39:41.760
And I said

1650
01:39:42.800 --> 01:39:44.480
Shouldn't you be able to figure that out?

1651
01:39:44.640 --> 01:39:46.640
Ha

1652
01:39:46.640 --> 01:39:50.080
If all this works and you cast horoscopes

1653
01:39:50.320 --> 01:39:52.080
You ought to tell me what my sign is

1654
01:39:52.720 --> 01:39:55.600
She's okay. Okay, she said are you Gemini? I said no

1655
01:39:57.120 --> 01:39:59.120
I know cancer that's it. I said no

1656
01:40:00.400 --> 01:40:02.160
Uh, it must be Leo. I said no

1657
01:40:03.120 --> 01:40:05.120
eight horoscopes later

1658
01:40:06.080 --> 01:40:08.560
She gets the correct answer and says I knew it

1659
01:40:09.920 --> 01:40:13.120
So I'm simply saying that

1660
01:40:14.560 --> 01:40:17.280
Her ninth guess out of 12

1661
01:40:18.160 --> 01:40:21.200
Was correct and she declares I knew it

1662
01:40:22.320 --> 01:40:25.040
Why do people want to believe in things like this? I

1663
01:40:26.000 --> 01:40:28.000
I think they want

1664
01:40:28.000 --> 01:40:32.160
The world to still have mysteries because mysteries are beautiful things however

1665
01:40:33.920 --> 01:40:37.920
The world still has mysteries. They're just different mysteries from whatever there used to be

1666
01:40:38.720 --> 01:40:41.600
And so follow the mysteries where they take you

1667
01:40:42.480 --> 01:40:46.720
And there's another branch of all of us who must have answers to every question

1668
01:40:48.160 --> 01:40:51.440
Because they're not learning to love the questions. They only want to love with the answer

1669
01:40:52.160 --> 01:40:57.040
So they say what was around before the big bang? I said, I don't know we got top people were something had to be around

1670
01:40:57.040 --> 01:40:59.040
I don't know must have been God

1671
01:40:59.520 --> 01:41:01.840
So there's their answer that then they're happy

1672
01:41:03.280 --> 01:41:06.080
What happens after death? Well, it looks like you brought in the ground

1673
01:41:06.560 --> 01:41:09.760
But otherwise and it's what it's got to be something and you're soul

1674
01:41:10.160 --> 01:41:13.920
I said, there's got to be the God heaven. Okay, that's their answer

1675
01:41:14.480 --> 01:41:18.000
We've got their answer and if that's your answer at every turn

1676
01:41:18.720 --> 01:41:22.400
You make a you're not as good an investigator of the unknown

1677
01:41:22.960 --> 01:41:28.480
We could you just invent the answer to the unknown your content. What is dark matter dark? I don't know

1678
01:41:28.480 --> 01:41:31.280
We got top people. We're gonna is that the spirit of God?

1679
01:41:32.640 --> 01:41:34.640
Okay

1680
01:41:34.720 --> 01:41:39.440
Then that person won't walk into a lab to continue to study what dark matter and dark energy is

1681
01:41:40.640 --> 01:41:43.520
I don't mind if you want to say it's God, but don't let that stop your curiosity

1682
01:41:44.000 --> 01:41:45.840
But if you say it's God and then you're done

1683
01:41:46.880 --> 01:41:48.880
Then you're not very useful in the lab

1684
01:41:50.160 --> 01:41:54.080
Those people seem to be happier and healthier though that which is the surprising thing religious people

1685
01:41:54.480 --> 01:42:01.520
Well again, so it could be because they believe there's a God that tells them who to sleep with and where to eat and how to pray or

1686
01:42:02.240 --> 01:42:05.120
Because they have a regular dose of community

1687
01:42:06.720 --> 01:42:09.200
I don't know that those are completely separable variables

1688
01:42:10.080 --> 01:42:12.640
They're people who they love and care about that they see every week

1689
01:42:13.200 --> 01:42:17.440
Which is not happening with so many people today. You think you would be happier if you believed in God

1690
01:42:18.480 --> 01:42:20.480
I'm a pretty happy guy

1691
01:42:20.560 --> 01:42:22.560
Do you think you'd be happier?

1692
01:42:23.040 --> 01:42:26.960
I don't know. I see people I've seen very happy people in

1693
01:42:28.400 --> 01:42:30.400
Celebrating their version of God

1694
01:42:30.800 --> 01:42:35.680
But then there are other people who really happy in their version of God and here's the problem

1695
01:42:37.280 --> 01:42:39.280
Deeply religious people

1696
01:42:40.080 --> 01:42:41.280
Typically

1697
01:42:41.280 --> 01:42:43.280
Find other religions

1698
01:42:44.880 --> 01:42:49.920
Deeply religious people will declare for themselves and others in that religion that all the other religions are false

1699
01:42:51.120 --> 01:42:52.480
False

1700
01:42:52.480 --> 01:43:01.200
And if not false just make preposterous claims it is so obvious to them how false all the other religions are now you go to this religion

1701
01:43:02.320 --> 01:43:07.040
It is obvious how preposterous the rest of the religions are you go around religion to religion

1702
01:43:07.840 --> 01:43:09.040
and

1703
01:43:11.600 --> 01:43:16.720
So what's really going on here is devout people in so many of these religions are atheists

1704
01:43:17.680 --> 01:43:19.680
To every religion but their own

1705
01:43:21.760 --> 01:43:23.920
Every religion but their own

1706
01:43:24.000 --> 01:43:25.200
Okay

1707
01:43:25.200 --> 01:43:28.640
How can a mountain of move to Muhammad that can't be look okay?

1708
01:43:28.880 --> 01:43:32.880
Oh, but yes the creator of the universe impregnated a woman in the middle east

1709
01:43:33.760 --> 01:43:39.360
2,000 years ago that's more believable than anything in the Quran for this person

1710
01:43:39.760 --> 01:43:45.120
Okay, and then the Jews he's saying here Jesus is the son of God. What are you crazy?

1711
01:43:45.520 --> 01:43:50.240
Would you get that for he's a good Jew the nice prophet but son of God you're going too far

1712
01:43:50.480 --> 01:43:53.200
So everybody's saying what's not true? So

1713
01:43:53.920 --> 01:43:59.440
The atheist for every other they just don't believe any other religion whereas an actual atheist

1714
01:44:00.080 --> 01:44:02.080
Just has one more religion to that category

1715
01:44:03.840 --> 01:44:05.840
It's your religion

1716
01:44:06.480 --> 01:44:10.480
The atheists agrees with you that all the other religions are preposterous in their claims

1717
01:44:12.080 --> 01:44:20.320
But they also believe the also think your religion is preposterous and people don't accept that they don't it doesn't land well

1718
01:44:20.880 --> 01:44:25.200
So I don't have any problems with people being religion. I don't have many issues with that. It's

1719
01:44:26.160 --> 01:44:28.480
Um, I don't try to impose my

1720
01:44:29.440 --> 01:44:34.000
I other people try to do it. I've seen them do this. I have a quote

1721
01:44:35.040 --> 01:44:38.720
Where I misquoted just because they want me on their side

1722
01:44:39.600 --> 01:44:41.600
Okay, you ready it's a simple quote

1723
01:44:45.200 --> 01:44:47.360
If every time I tell you

1724
01:44:47.360 --> 01:44:50.240
Science doesn't understand it and you say well God must be that

1725
01:44:51.040 --> 01:44:56.240
God made the universe because we don't God made life because we don't know how to make life yet God if that's

1726
01:44:56.960 --> 01:45:00.000
If that is your definition and understanding of God

1727
01:45:01.760 --> 01:45:05.840
Then as science progresses it will solve these questions

1728
01:45:08.880 --> 01:45:11.840
Pushing the God back outward

1729
01:45:13.040 --> 01:45:15.040
To places that have yet to be discovered

1730
01:45:16.000 --> 01:45:21.440
And so the quote is if to you God is where science has yet to tread

1731
01:45:21.600 --> 01:45:28.080
Then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance

1732
01:45:30.800 --> 01:45:34.400
That's that that references with philosophers are called God of the gaps

1733
01:45:35.440 --> 01:45:40.640
It goes way back thousands of years if we don't understand it. There's a guy the storm is Poseidon

1734
01:45:41.600 --> 01:45:43.600
Okay, lightning bolt struck it's Zeus

1735
01:45:44.240 --> 01:45:47.680
All right, that's God of the gaps. God of the gaps is a time-honored

1736
01:45:48.160 --> 01:45:52.000
Exercise in human civilization and what I'm saying is

1737
01:45:53.120 --> 01:45:55.120
That statement

1738
01:45:55.600 --> 01:45:58.400
Is objectively true because it's an if statement

1739
01:45:59.600 --> 01:46:02.880
If to you God is where science has yet to tread

1740
01:46:03.520 --> 01:46:09.280
Then as science continues to tread you're a pocket a shrinking pocket of scientific that's your God

1741
01:46:10.400 --> 01:46:16.160
Okay, it's not an opinion. There's a statement of an if statement the consequences of an if statement

1742
01:46:16.240 --> 01:46:18.960
I've had people take the second half and put it on a t-shirt

1743
01:46:20.880 --> 01:46:24.560
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance

1744
01:46:24.880 --> 01:46:26.880
Neil the grass Tyson is not what I said

1745
01:46:28.400 --> 01:46:32.800
That's half of what I said and that's only true if to you God

1746
01:46:33.520 --> 01:46:37.840
Is where science has yet to tread but to pull that out and make that the truth no

1747
01:46:38.640 --> 01:46:41.120
I would never make such a statement ever

1748
01:46:41.920 --> 01:46:44.400
You're 66 right hang on

1749
01:46:46.960 --> 01:46:55.520
I will be 67 in a month in a month. Okay, so it's a month from this recording. So I'm 33 okay half my eight exactly half

1750
01:46:56.560 --> 01:46:59.280
I was wondering you're a very wise man

1751
01:47:00.160 --> 01:47:05.200
What is the advice that you wish someone had said to you at 33

1752
01:47:05.920 --> 01:47:10.800
But you could give to me now I have no such advice and I'll tell you why

1753
01:47:11.520 --> 01:47:14.480
If you're alert and you're smart

1754
01:47:15.520 --> 01:47:20.800
Alert meaning you notice things and you're you're smart and you you learn

1755
01:47:27.760 --> 01:47:31.280
Living life itself is the lesson

1756
01:47:33.920 --> 01:47:36.240
So if so a version of what you just asked is

1757
01:47:37.040 --> 01:47:43.760
What given what you know today? What would you tell yourself if you met yourself when you were 15 20 25 30 whatever

1758
01:47:44.720 --> 01:47:46.720
And I said I wouldn't tell him anything

1759
01:47:47.520 --> 01:47:49.520
Because if I gave a bit of wisdom

1760
01:47:51.280 --> 01:47:54.000
I say you're about to do that but don't do that

1761
01:47:54.880 --> 01:47:56.880
Okay

1762
01:47:57.040 --> 01:48:01.680
There's no better lesson than doing something and learning that you shouldn't do it

1763
01:48:02.400 --> 01:48:04.400
That's the best lesson

1764
01:48:04.800 --> 01:48:10.000
We don't live life because there's a list of things that other people said known to you're gonna explore your life

1765
01:48:10.560 --> 01:48:12.560
That's what you're gonna do

1766
01:48:12.640 --> 01:48:16.160
And some things are great and some things you don't want to do again some things you're bad

1767
01:48:17.760 --> 01:48:20.000
That's where the wisdom comes from

1768
01:48:21.680 --> 01:48:23.680
You earn it

1769
01:48:24.480 --> 01:48:26.480
It's the most it's the most

1770
01:48:27.440 --> 01:48:31.760
It's the strongest kind of wisdom you can have provided you learn from a mistake

1771
01:48:32.400 --> 01:48:34.880
If you're just an idiot and you just keep making the mistake

1772
01:48:35.680 --> 01:48:38.080
My advice we use don't make the same mistake twice

1773
01:48:38.720 --> 01:48:40.720
But that's you'll need me for that

1774
01:48:42.000 --> 01:48:46.880
So you'll make a decision about this podcast or some business decision and no it didn't turn out right

1775
01:48:47.520 --> 01:48:49.040
Here's a better example of this you ready

1776
01:48:49.920 --> 01:48:53.760
This is a very American kind of story. I'm about to tell immigrant comes over

1777
01:48:54.800 --> 01:49:00.160
Back when that was a thing you could do comes to the United States and they work hard

1778
01:49:01.120 --> 01:49:03.120
Very hard working

1779
01:49:03.680 --> 01:49:09.120
They first sweep the the street in front of a store front and then they're in the store and they learn the trade

1780
01:49:09.440 --> 01:49:15.760
And then the owner dies and they take over the trade and they're working hard and they're scrapping and they kick and then they buys

1781
01:49:16.320 --> 01:49:22.480
The adjacent store and they build the thing and becomes and then he moves and he lives in a big house and he has kids

1782
01:49:23.280 --> 01:49:25.280
okay

1783
01:49:25.280 --> 01:49:27.280
He says to himself

1784
01:49:28.000 --> 01:49:29.520
When I was

1785
01:49:30.320 --> 01:49:32.320
Your age I had to like

1786
01:49:32.720 --> 01:49:39.760
scrounge for food and I had to like sweep thing that and I want to make sure my kids don't have to do that

1787
01:49:41.440 --> 01:49:43.440
I want to make sure they don't have to do that

1788
01:49:43.680 --> 01:49:45.680
Okay, so you provide

1789
01:49:46.640 --> 01:49:48.640
things for them

1790
01:49:48.640 --> 01:49:55.120
So they don't have to do this and now they grow up and their adults and their deadbeats

1791
01:49:55.920 --> 01:50:02.480
They have no motivation. They have no ambition. They have no vision statement

1792
01:50:03.120 --> 01:50:07.200
Because everything got handed to them and what what is the adult say to the kids

1793
01:50:08.400 --> 01:50:12.240
Where did I go wrong? I gave you everything I didn't have

1794
01:50:14.080 --> 01:50:16.080
That's where they went wrong

1795
01:50:16.080 --> 01:50:19.680
Because they gave the kids everything he did that and what made that person

1796
01:50:20.240 --> 01:50:24.960
Was what they struggled the the decisions they had to make the decisions they got right the decisions

1797
01:50:24.960 --> 01:50:27.840
They got wrong who they met how they treated people

1798
01:50:28.560 --> 01:50:30.560
This is life experience

1799
01:50:31.120 --> 01:50:33.120
And it doesn't come on a bumper sticker

1800
01:50:33.360 --> 01:50:35.360
Doesn't come on a what's the secret

1801
01:50:36.880 --> 01:50:40.560
This like going to someone's home and one of the one of the hosts

1802
01:50:41.360 --> 01:50:46.720
Is actually a train chef right and maybe worked in a restaurant and they prefer this is squeeze at meal

1803
01:50:47.760 --> 01:50:49.760
And you said this is delicious

1804
01:50:50.320 --> 01:50:52.320
What's your secret?

1805
01:50:53.200 --> 01:50:57.840
Oh the secret I went to chef school for six years. That's the secret

1806
01:50:58.800 --> 01:51:03.200
You're thinking this is one sentence. I could tell you and then you that that'll make everything better

1807
01:51:04.000 --> 01:51:05.280
No

1808
01:51:05.280 --> 01:51:07.280
No

1809
01:51:07.280 --> 01:51:08.800
Just stay alert

1810
01:51:08.800 --> 01:51:10.800
Learn new stuff every day

1811
01:51:11.200 --> 01:51:14.720
And learn from your mistakes because those lessons are greater

1812
01:51:15.920 --> 01:51:18.240
Then someone just telling you to not do it

1813
01:51:18.400 --> 01:51:23.680
Then you have no such life experience to build into the wisdom

1814
01:51:24.320 --> 01:51:26.960
That you want to acquire in the years to come

1815
01:51:27.760 --> 01:51:31.680
My last question for you is I hear it the other you'd ever have a last question

1816
01:51:33.520 --> 01:51:36.160
No, yeah for now I should say my last question for now

1817
01:51:36.160 --> 01:51:42.000
But um my last question for now and I kind of hear it in between some of the things you say is and I've just moved here

1818
01:51:42.000 --> 01:51:45.360
So I've just moved to Los Angeles. How do you feel about America right now?

1819
01:51:46.080 --> 01:51:47.280
Well

1820
01:51:48.080 --> 01:51:50.320
You know, it's a free country and we vote in our leaders

1821
01:51:51.040 --> 01:51:53.840
And right now there's a whole set of people in charge

1822
01:51:54.720 --> 01:51:57.440
That are doing different things from what had happened in previous

1823
01:51:58.800 --> 01:52:03.680
Years previous leaderships even previous leaders of that same political party

1824
01:52:04.400 --> 01:52:10.320
The what's going on is very different from anything that I think people would have predicted a lot of people like

1825
01:52:11.920 --> 01:52:14.080
Complaining about leadership

1826
01:52:14.080 --> 01:52:16.880
But we live in a country where we choose our leaders

1827
01:52:17.520 --> 01:52:20.880
So we're going to complain about the leadership. You should be complaining about the people

1828
01:52:21.440 --> 01:52:23.440
The about the electorate

1829
01:52:23.440 --> 01:52:25.440
I'm an educator. I've never

1830
01:52:26.320 --> 01:52:28.320
I've never

1831
01:52:29.520 --> 01:52:31.920
The complained about politicians

1832
01:52:33.120 --> 01:52:35.120
They represent people

1833
01:52:35.680 --> 01:52:38.320
I was once in the Rayburn office building

1834
01:52:39.120 --> 01:52:44.240
Washington DC in the science committee's room beautifully decorated with science

1835
01:52:45.920 --> 01:52:52.560
Art and sculptures and things one of the members of the science committee back then was a young earth creationist

1836
01:52:54.560 --> 01:53:01.280
Young earth creationist universe created in six days earth created in six thousand years at most ten thousand years

1837
01:53:02.240 --> 01:53:04.640
And I knew he was going to be there and I thought to myself

1838
01:53:05.440 --> 01:53:09.840
Do I grab him by the lapels and say what do you think you're on the science committee and then I thought no

1839
01:53:10.960 --> 01:53:12.480
no

1840
01:53:13.440 --> 01:53:15.680
If he thinks that

1841
01:53:15.680 --> 01:53:16.960
presumably

1842
01:53:16.960 --> 01:53:18.960
So does his electorate

1843
01:53:19.200 --> 01:53:21.200
they voted him in

1844
01:53:21.760 --> 01:53:25.920
And there's electorate of fellow citizens as MI in this country

1845
01:53:26.800 --> 01:53:31.120
So I can't indict him let me go have a conversation with the folks who voted for him

1846
01:53:32.080 --> 01:53:38.080
I said why do you think this and we've considered this and that's my duty as an educator not to hit anybody on the head

1847
01:53:38.320 --> 01:53:42.880
Who's in Washington so do we blame the educators and the media people like you know people like me that

1848
01:53:43.760 --> 01:53:48.640
No, that's the blame game is I don't feel that way

1849
01:53:50.080 --> 01:53:52.640
My parents when we showed they showed us the images

1850
01:53:54.160 --> 01:53:59.360
Of the dogs and the water hoses on the protesters and in the South American South

1851
01:54:01.360 --> 01:54:03.120
They were never bitter

1852
01:54:03.120 --> 01:54:07.840
They said these people don't know any better. They don't know any differently

1853
01:54:08.400 --> 01:54:11.760
We have to talk to them and you know teach them

1854
01:54:12.800 --> 01:54:18.320
That's very different from saying holding up your fist saying I'm going to fight them because they're my enemy

1855
01:54:19.600 --> 01:54:23.040
It's I want to teach them because they're my fellow citizens

1856
01:54:24.000 --> 01:54:26.000
And that's how I feel

1857
01:54:26.000 --> 01:54:27.200
so

1858
01:54:27.200 --> 01:54:28.880
My worry is that

1859
01:54:28.880 --> 01:54:33.520
Their decisions made that are not in the best interest of the people who voted for those decisions

1860
01:54:34.080 --> 01:54:36.480
the longer term implications are

1861
01:54:37.680 --> 01:54:40.160
Could be devastating if you cut basic science

1862
01:54:41.200 --> 01:54:44.720
basic science feeds engineering engineering feeds economies

1863
01:54:45.520 --> 01:54:48.240
And so if you don't think basic science matters because you don't

1864
01:54:48.880 --> 01:54:54.800
either understand the title of the research or the scientist didn't communicate it interestingly enough whatever

1865
01:54:55.600 --> 01:54:59.200
And you say this is a waste of money. Take it all out. Let's just do the engineering

1866
01:54:59.840 --> 01:55:02.560
You'll be ossified in place and is that what's happened

1867
01:55:03.280 --> 01:55:07.200
We are on the brink of that happening right now. That's correct. The average person has no idea about this

1868
01:55:07.440 --> 01:55:09.600
I've tried to you know

1869
01:55:09.600 --> 01:55:12.000
illuminate the public about it

1870
01:55:12.960 --> 01:55:16.800
It's easy to say that basic science doesn't matter or can't matter or will never matter

1871
01:55:17.840 --> 01:55:19.840
Because we don't know yet

1872
01:55:20.800 --> 01:55:22.880
Right now is the centennial decade

1873
01:55:23.680 --> 01:55:27.760
So we'll go back to the 1920s where quantum physics was developed

1874
01:55:29.200 --> 01:55:33.040
If you were around back then, what would you say? Why are you studying atoms? I can't even see atoms

1875
01:55:33.760 --> 01:55:38.400
Don't waste your time. You're a brilliant person go work on this other problem that we have in society

1876
01:55:39.440 --> 01:55:40.960
and

1877
01:55:41.040 --> 01:55:43.040
It would take decades

1878
01:55:44.160 --> 01:55:46.400
But the information

1879
01:55:47.360 --> 01:55:49.360
Technology revolution

1880
01:55:50.560 --> 01:55:53.600
Has as its core

1881
01:55:54.880 --> 01:56:00.080
The creation storage and retrieval of digital information that can only happen

1882
01:56:01.200 --> 01:56:03.200
With the exploitation of the quantum

1883
01:56:04.400 --> 01:56:07.680
So this decade of science physics that was discovered

1884
01:56:08.640 --> 01:56:12.720
By the 1950s it was like whoa, this is some important physics here

1885
01:56:13.440 --> 01:56:15.440
No one would have known that at the time

1886
01:56:16.640 --> 01:56:17.840
Why

1887
01:56:18.400 --> 01:56:20.400
Let me keep going was it 1876

1888
01:56:22.080 --> 01:56:24.080
Philadelphia Expo

1889
01:56:25.040 --> 01:56:27.360
Alexander Graham Bell showcases his new

1890
01:56:28.160 --> 01:56:29.680
contraption

1891
01:56:29.680 --> 01:56:31.680
The telephone

1892
01:56:32.240 --> 01:56:35.600
And people say wow, this is kind of cool. You should read what people wrote about it

1893
01:56:36.080 --> 01:56:40.400
This is a great invention. I can imagine there might be one in every city in the future

1894
01:56:44.640 --> 01:56:46.640
In this book

1895
01:56:47.040 --> 01:56:50.320
That one yeah, there's a whole chapter called science and technology

1896
01:56:51.520 --> 01:56:53.520
Where I chronicle

1897
01:56:53.840 --> 01:56:55.840
I chronicle

1898
01:56:56.400 --> 01:57:02.160
How people think about the technology of their day and how they always get it wrong when they predict the future

1899
01:57:04.400 --> 01:57:05.600
Because

1900
01:57:05.600 --> 01:57:12.640
Foundational science comes in at the bottom and you don't see that coming and it girdles its way up clever engineers apply it and then

1901
01:57:14.320 --> 01:57:16.320
You have an iPad

1902
01:57:17.040 --> 01:57:19.040
Yeah

1903
01:57:19.040 --> 01:57:25.040
Neil thank you so much. Well, thanks for having me back. This is our second time together. It is what out the bookstore here

1904
01:57:25.040 --> 01:57:29.520
What'd you do? Yes, we wanted to to come prepared. I mean you how you write the most incredible books

1905
01:57:30.880 --> 01:57:33.360
And you talk in the most incredible ways. I said this to you last time

1906
01:57:33.360 --> 01:57:39.760
But you're one of the most incredible storytellers I've ever heard you make something which is I really didn't have a huge amount of interest in in school

1907
01:57:39.920 --> 01:57:43.520
Suddenly interesting to us as adults, which is a remarkable thing

1908
01:57:44.320 --> 01:57:48.000
So thank you for doing what you do. We do have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest

1909
01:57:48.160 --> 01:57:54.800
Oh, it's that right yes, okay, and they don't know who they're leaving it for the question left for you is how good are you at knowing

1910
01:57:56.000 --> 01:58:04.240
What you will regret and is there anything you do regret? Yeah, I think regrets are things that you only realize

1911
01:58:04.960 --> 01:58:09.520
When it's too late, otherwise you would have preempted it and not have to regret it

1912
01:58:10.320 --> 01:58:12.320
so

1913
01:58:12.320 --> 01:58:15.120
I don't know that I'm many better than anyone else at it

1914
01:58:15.760 --> 01:58:20.000
Because if you're good at it, you'll never be in a position to have to do something that you would regret

1915
01:58:21.120 --> 01:58:26.320
The fact is you went past something that you did and say damn. I shouldn't know. I got to regret that

1916
01:58:26.640 --> 01:58:31.120
So I to be good at knowing in advance that you're going to regret something

1917
01:58:31.600 --> 01:58:34.000
That's almost an impossible scenario

1918
01:58:34.960 --> 01:58:38.640
If I'm good at seeing it then I would never have to regret anything because I would have preempted it

1919
01:58:38.800 --> 01:58:46.320
So for all of us the fact that we have regrets is we moved past something that we did I was like damn I got to regret that

1920
01:58:47.280 --> 01:58:51.920
After the fact do you have any regrets? I was a a

1921
01:58:54.080 --> 01:58:56.080
In college

1922
01:58:56.640 --> 01:59:01.760
I majored in physics and I think I was a junior there were students that came in from

1923
01:59:02.880 --> 01:59:04.880
Other schools for a summer program

1924
01:59:05.520 --> 01:59:07.520
Okay, high school seniors I think they were

1925
01:59:08.320 --> 01:59:12.320
All right, there might have been freshmen in their college, but I think there were high school students and I was

1926
01:59:12.880 --> 01:59:18.160
A meant not a mentor, but I would guide them in these research projects then at the end we had to write

1927
01:59:19.120 --> 01:59:21.120
in that evaluation of them

1928
01:59:22.400 --> 01:59:25.760
And as one student I wrote an evaluation that

1929
01:59:27.360 --> 01:59:29.360
Was accurate

1930
01:59:29.360 --> 01:59:31.360
But

1931
01:59:31.520 --> 01:59:33.520
unnecessary

1932
01:59:35.840 --> 01:59:37.840
I said he

1933
01:59:38.880 --> 01:59:42.320
Pretends he knows things that he doesn't and he's

1934
01:59:43.280 --> 01:59:47.840
You know, he's faking this and he's and I didn't yet know

1935
01:59:49.600 --> 01:59:51.200
How to

1936
01:59:51.200 --> 01:59:53.520
Speak encouragingly about someone

1937
01:59:55.040 --> 01:59:58.000
Separate from just speaking factually about someone

1938
01:59:59.600 --> 02:00:01.280
So

1939
02:00:01.280 --> 02:00:04.160
Is that an art is it a science to do that? I don't know

1940
02:00:04.160 --> 02:00:08.000
But I know I didn't have it at the time. I just simply described what I saw

1941
02:00:09.280 --> 02:00:14.720
And I said he you know, this is not going to work. He this is it was very

1942
02:00:15.360 --> 02:00:17.360
deflating

1943
02:00:17.680 --> 02:00:19.680
To him and

1944
02:00:22.960 --> 02:00:28.640
Considering that at the time I'm majoring in physics at Harvard. He's coming from some

1945
02:00:30.000 --> 02:00:34.080
High school somewhere and I'm a Harvard student telling him that

1946
02:00:34.320 --> 02:00:36.320
You know he ain't shit

1947
02:00:36.720 --> 02:00:41.200
And I should not have done that. Did he contact you later? No

1948
02:00:42.080 --> 02:00:44.240
He might have taken up another field. I don't know

1949
02:00:44.960 --> 02:00:52.640
But so I regret that but it would take me four years to even realize that that was a regrettable thing because I didn't know how to

1950
02:00:53.600 --> 02:00:59.440
You know as an educator you want to encourage people you see where the weaknesses are and figure out ways to

1951
02:01:00.080 --> 02:01:01.600
Have that person

1952
02:01:01.600 --> 02:01:03.600
eradicate them improve upon them

1953
02:01:04.000 --> 02:01:07.200
Rather than just say this is not working go home

1954
02:01:08.160 --> 02:01:15.040
Why why I regret that and that's probably the thing I regret most in life really yeah because it was

1955
02:01:16.240 --> 02:01:21.440
Who knows what consequences that has on that person's life and you remembered that? Oh, yes. Oh my gosh

1956
02:01:22.320 --> 02:01:23.600
Yes

1957
02:01:23.600 --> 02:01:28.640
Well, well, how do you remember that because you write it down in his report kind of whatever assessment

1958
02:01:29.360 --> 02:01:32.880
Time goes on does something happen for you to think back to what you wrote

1959
02:01:34.640 --> 02:01:38.880
Well, I've written many letters of reference for people more than I can count

1960
02:01:39.680 --> 02:01:45.440
So I think every time I write a letter of reference I think about how I could have written that letter back then

1961
02:01:46.320 --> 02:01:48.320
That's a regret

1962
02:01:48.480 --> 02:01:51.520
And I live with that I can see you live with it. Yeah

1963
02:01:52.880 --> 02:01:54.880
So I think I made up for it

1964
02:01:55.040 --> 02:01:58.400
Just in how many people like and there are other people who needed help

1965
02:01:58.960 --> 02:02:04.400
And so you find out how they can improve it and advise on that so that everybody lifts up

1966
02:02:04.960 --> 02:02:06.720
That's how you make a better world

1967
02:02:06.720 --> 02:02:09.680
And it goes back to what you said at the start you wanted on your tombstone

1968
02:02:10.080 --> 02:02:15.520
Which is certainly something you've already done in droves more so than I think anybody so you tell me I can die now

1969
02:02:15.520 --> 02:02:18.720
Is that is that would you just you just said that you can go holiday

1970
02:02:19.440 --> 02:02:21.120
It's up to you

1971
02:02:21.600 --> 02:02:24.640
But thank you so much for being here. You are your huge inspiration to me

1972
02:02:24.880 --> 02:02:27.200
I know Jack is a mega mega fan of yours as well in his

1973
02:02:27.840 --> 02:02:30.000
Loves your work and you're the both the reason

1974
02:02:30.800 --> 02:02:32.320
that I

1975
02:02:32.320 --> 02:02:35.680
Well, I let go of my religious belief at 18 years old

1976
02:02:36.240 --> 02:02:38.240
And I blame me for that

1977
02:02:38.800 --> 02:02:42.400
I didn't because of me but I just said I let go of my religious belief at 18 years old

1978
02:02:42.400 --> 02:02:45.440
And I became an atheist agnostic then I became really agnostic

1979
02:02:45.520 --> 02:02:49.360
But then I kind of fell in love with the universe and I fell in love in the universe because of you

1980
02:02:49.680 --> 02:02:52.080
And because of cosmos, which is one of my favorite things ever to watch

1981
02:02:52.560 --> 02:02:55.440
And I found all the curiosity and awe and magic

1982
02:02:56.000 --> 02:03:01.600
That I needed to find by by reading your work and watching the the wonderful movies that you've made so thank you so much for that

1983
02:03:01.600 --> 02:03:05.040
It's a universe is a rich repository of

1984
02:03:07.440 --> 02:03:09.920
Spiritual fulfillment yeah, if I may

1985
02:03:10.480 --> 02:03:15.840
Yes to say the least yeah, wow and your book is exactly that I highly recommend everybody goes and checks it out

1986
02:03:15.840 --> 02:03:20.320
It's out on I think it's the 21st of October. Oh, yeah, yeah, the the next installment in Maryland

1987
02:03:20.320 --> 02:03:26.160
Yeah, in October. Yeah, I'll link it on the screen. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's all just visiting this planet

1988
02:03:26.480 --> 02:03:33.360
So so I lied before I can give you some advice please see yeah, this is 67 year old device. Yeah

1989
02:03:34.000 --> 02:03:36.000
at no time

1990
02:03:37.120 --> 02:03:39.120
should you

1991
02:03:39.200 --> 02:03:41.200
Overvalue

1992
02:03:43.120 --> 02:03:45.120
Your own thoughts

1993
02:03:48.400 --> 02:03:50.400
You should you should

1994
02:03:51.440 --> 02:03:53.440
You should allow yourself

1995
02:03:53.840 --> 02:04:00.880
To be humbled daily with new ideas that challenge any or everything that you currently think

1996
02:04:01.680 --> 02:04:12.960
That's wisdom I think how do I know who I am if I don't have one maybe you're not maybe you only are who you are on your deathbed

1997
02:04:13.680 --> 02:04:15.680
Because then you would have completed your life

1998
02:04:16.400 --> 02:04:18.400
You're still in your work in progress

1999
02:04:19.120 --> 02:04:24.080
You're 33 so last year when you were 31 you would have lived your 1 billionth second

2000
02:04:24.800 --> 02:04:33.200
Okay, and if you if you lead a healthy life you should get 3 billion seconds out of it you get to 93 at least that so

2001
02:04:34.320 --> 02:04:35.840
Time passes

2002
02:04:35.840 --> 02:04:41.120
If you learn something new every day that forces extra context for extra perspective

2003
02:04:41.920 --> 02:04:44.160
New perspective on whatever you knew yesterday

2004
02:04:44.880 --> 02:04:46.880
You have to stay open to death

2005
02:04:47.520 --> 02:04:49.520
And I read old science books

2006
02:04:50.400 --> 02:04:53.840
Because I watched people's confidence that they had in what they thought they knew

2007
02:04:54.400 --> 02:04:56.400
It can be embarrassing in some cases

2008
02:04:56.400 --> 02:05:01.280
And it's very humbling to look back at people writing about their own world

2009
02:05:02.400 --> 02:05:05.680
There's a book from 1899 the guy said on the Sun and it says

2010
02:05:06.240 --> 02:05:11.920
We've learned so much about the Sun in the last three years. I had to up the edition of this book. I wrote three years ago

2011
02:05:12.640 --> 02:05:15.200
And I'm saying you don't know shit about the Sun

2012
02:05:15.440 --> 02:05:17.440
Okay

2013
02:05:17.440 --> 02:05:22.640
In 1899 but he's feeling it. He's feeling that joy and so I

2014
02:05:23.440 --> 02:05:25.440
It

2015
02:05:25.440 --> 02:05:30.160
It keeps me humble on the frontier on this perimeter of ignorance

2016
02:05:30.960 --> 02:05:34.480
Because it's way more to discover than anything you already learned

2017
02:05:36.160 --> 02:05:39.280
Maybe that's the antidote medicine that society needs right now too

2018
02:05:40.000 --> 02:05:44.480
I think so because everybody is running things thinking they know better than everybody else

2019
02:05:45.200 --> 02:05:47.200
You