Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life - with Ian Crawford

[@NPC-np6dz]

Finding intelligent life on Earth should be the first priority.

[@ctdvargas]

Its astounding that we are a species in which a fraction of us are intelligent, thoughtful, curious creatures meanwhile the rest of us are ignorant, thoughless, predjedice, waring, shady, low class, stupid, etc ad astra...What might aliens think of creatures with so much potential yet so instrinsically flawed?

[@halhosmer1820]

NPC111 1010101010 It was a search driven with great hope but somewhere in the 60s it became disappointingly appearant that they weren't going to find intelligent life here on earth. Murdering heads of state, trying to shoot down visitors, and blowing off nuclear weapons all indicated a lack of self interest here.

[@halhosmer1820]

@@ctdvargas The sad truth is that our DNA might have more value to extraterrestrials than any intelligent thinking we might possess.

[@ctdvargas]

@@halhosmer1820 Interesting and scary perspective...would make sense though...

[@brothermaleuspraetor9505]

you do realise someone already wrote this here a year ago...

[@rrryan9719]

Ian is my Professor at UoL. He is easily one of the smartest and most knowledgable people I've heard speak on this topic. Very lucky to have him!

[@bradbryant3482]

He's very "stuck" in reductionist Science. It's men like him that are slowing disclosure of reality. My I.Q. is probably higher than his...duh! (151) You people need to start listening to some of those you have relegated to the "Fringe"!

[@rrryan9719]

@@bradbryant3482 Nobody cares about your I.Q. It's arrogance like yours that is to blame for the slowing of anything.

[@greypowergav]

NO HES NOT

[@rrryan9719]

@@greypowergav Oh get a grip. Also, "one of the most knowledgable people I'VE heard" is subjective to me. So your comment makes no sense.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Just heard this week that Mensa or high IQ isn't usually found in scientists, probably because the advancement of science involves tedious repeated experiment. Previous to that I thought there might be an advantage to educate genius-level youth so they might have the knowledge to think something new when their brains are at their peak, maybe ages 17-21. Think pictures of young Einstein and young Darwin instead of the old Aristotle-like wise-man images common in our culture when they were mostly past it.

[@mattwhite399]

If a civilization is 1000 light years away and they started transmitting radio signals at the exact same moment we did, we still have about 900 years until our signals reach each other. That’s what a light year means. The distances involved in this search are so vast, it’s almost unfathomable.

[@richardcaves3601]

Exactly.

[@DwayneShaw1]

The Fermi Paradox is not all that paradoxical when you consider the vastness of space and time that makes other lifeforms inevitable also provides plenty of room for our paths to never cross.

[@orangefield100]

the aliens are here already

[@nmarbletoe8210]

@@orangefield100 something's here. they might call themselves earthlings because they might have been here longer than our species! all i know is there's stuff flying like no plane has ever flown

[@richardcaves3601]

The Fermi Paradox is absolutely right. If you correctly apply the Drake Equation, count up the incredibly large number of Goldilocks events that have to happen to produce us. Stable sun. Stable planets in circular orbits. Goldilocks zone Goldilocks tilt. Goldilocks moon size. Goldilocks moon distance Goldilocks gas giants in the right place. Goldilocks iron core with Goldilocks magnetosphere. Goldilocks extinction events to allow mammalian life. Goldilocks part of the galaxy. Need I go on? Sorry, pal, but the shear number of really rare things that need to happen just right, in order for Earth to exist, then for humanity to evolve, means we are extremely rare - probably the only example in this galaxy. There probably was others in other galaxies, but they're long gone. There will be others like us, after we're long gone.

[@Widkey]

So here's the thing.. until a couple of decades ago there was no evidence that other planets existed outside of our solar system..we've looked at the heavens for thousands of years and just now find exo-planets.. we could have easily concluded that these planets just didn't exist, but low and behold after finding the first one they now seem to be everywhere. I suspect the same pattern will hold for life in the universe.

[@ultimathule1000]

@Widkey : WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT !!!??? Maybe you didn't know that the planets axists everywhere. But for astronomers it was OBVIOUS. Giordano Bruno told about it 500 years ago. Laplace created his model of evolution of a solar system 200 years ago. In XIX and XX centuries there was no single astronomer who would have a smallest doubt about it. The discovering of a first exoplanet was only an excercise in measurements, but added nothing to the general idea about the evolution of planetary systems. So there is no "pattern" as you called it.

[@waldolatte]

Ultima Thule There was not factual experimental evidence of exoplanets until about 1995 when astronomers started observing dips in the light levels of stars. Yes people have theorized that they were common but it was nothing more than a guess. It was actually more common of a theory to believe they were rare.

[@Spiritual_AJ01]

Widkey I agree with that

[@RonJohn63]

_we could have easily concluded that these planets just didn't exist,_ We *could* have, but that's the least likely conclusion. What's so unlikely is that we've discovered exoplanets at all from such *VAST* distances. _I suspect the same pattern will hold for life in the universe._ Life spans everything from the simplest chemotrophs to humans, elephants and whales. Given what we know about #1 how violent much of the Universe is, #2 how dim much of the rest of it is, and #3 how vast the distances are, I doubt we'll ever have direct evidence of alien life, and I doubt there's much more complex life out there. But, given enough time and enough planets, some will be sufficiently like Earth to allow complex life to eventually evolve.

[@garymingy8671]

I knew there were planets in 1984 , many tempting indications no verifiable evedence , or weak evidence , but stat s said ...they are there...now , loci mass spin , density , now we got proofs galore , stats indicates ,..why are there planets at so many stars ?...it marches on !

[@lyndseychadwick7503]

Why do we think life can only exist with what we need to exist🤔

[@larjkok1184]

Because that’s all we’ve got to go on.

[@stefanguels]

The underlying assumption from the the astrobiological viewpoint is that we are nothing special and just represent the average life form in the universe. What we're trying to find out is if the formation of life is a likely or even unavoidable consequence if the conditions are right. There might, of course, be other design patterns for life, consciousness and intelligence which do not depend on carbon and water (or even planets). This is what the SETI guys are looking for.

[@alganhar1]

To expand a little on what stefanguels already mentioned, it boils down to chemistry and physics. Carbon based organisms using water as a solvent just have so many more options available than with any other combination. Some other elements in the Carbon group, say Boron or Silicon, may be able to form many different amino acids and thus proteins, but not the sheer scale available to Carbon. This is not to say organisms using other chemistries is not possible, but simply stating that it seems most likely given what we know about life on Earth, and the chemical and physical properties of carbon and Water, that carbon/oxygen/water based life forms are probably going to be the most common, and almost certainly among the most likely for intelligent life in the Universe. So the main interest is really down to answering one basic question. Given the right chemical and physical building blocks being present, how likely is life to evolve? Is it something that is almost unavoidable if the building blocks are there? Or does it require a potentially rare series of events to kickstart it?

[@sidzifus7083]

alganhar1 Didn't Helgi Pjeturss expand on this. He was the original astrobiologist...

[@stefanguels]

@@alganhar1 Thanks for that clarifying expansion. /tongue in cheek mode Imagine we find that the formation of life is an inherent property of matter.. Uh oh... I would have to join some church., that can't be by accident. Probably i'd choose the Pastafaris /tongue in cheek mode off

[@CloveHitchJack]

Was drawn in by this man's alienesque appearance, stayed for the quality presentation

[@dannymckenzie8329]

I legit said as I picked the video "gonna watch this extra terrestrial talk about celestial bodies"

[@MadderMel]

He looks a bit like Mr Bean !

[@mehridin]

Fallacy #1: there is no correlation between the time it takes for a phenomenon to occur, such as life on a planet, and the actual chance for it to happen. This is a common misconception even among scientists. Seems counter intuitive, but still a statistical fact. In other words, his argument on "how quickly life arose", that it indicates "an abundance of life", is a fallacy; it indicates no such thing.

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@mehridin Yep, not a fan of the "one in a Powerball's chance" comments. We have insufficient data until we get a signal or scan Earth-sized exoplanets and count the number with oxygen atmospheres.

[@cneuhauser1]

Really enjoyed this seminar...would be interesting to sit down and speak with this gentleman!

[@mycount64]

finding extraterrestrial life will have the same impact as discovering the earth goes around the sun had.

[@mattstorr7473]

Yes and one imagines that in 500 years' time people will still be debating whether the earth is truly spherical, and whether, indeed, it is at the centre of the universe

[@Spiritual_AJ01]

AW Crowe I feel like as soon as they find the first alien civilization they will start finding more alien civilizations fast

[@BillyMeierInFrenchBM]

Indeed, that is why aliens are taking their time and wait for terrestrial humans to evolve. See the Billy Meier case.

[@Boulos-cb2un]

Not even close...

[@JohnyG29]

Why?

[@mathersdavid5113]

Easily the best presentation I've seen on this topic.

[@TR4zest]

As a species, we have been here for 200,000 years only. We became communicative (radio signals into space) only 50 years ago. Through a number of routes (war, disease, climate change) we might lose the ability to communicate or become extinct relatively soon. This is not a huge window of opportunity for finding alien life.

[@Dan-mm1yl]

they could have come found us- But ET does not exist we are on our own

[@marcmarc172]

Thanks RI for getting the laser pointer on the slides - it's really important.

[@marcmarc172]

Thank you Ian Crawford for that inspiring and non-biased overview on the search for extra terrestrial life - a question which must have been pondered by billions of intelligent creatures on this planet, at least.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks, Marc Marc, quite a few people were asking for it so we gave it a go. We're glad you're enjoying it.

[@donfox1036]

Marc Marc yes, it is uncomfortable to have to guess.

[@zimbabwe_twinnedwithanfield]

iv watched about 7 lectures and still do not see the laser pointer ?

[@gilesleggett]

@@donfox1036 you actually don't need to guess when you use logic.

[@brothermaleuspraetor9505]

If, during telescopic and electro-magnetic scans of distant planets, we find evidence for microbial life... There will be more advanced life there in real time. The further we look, the more back in time we are seeing. Likewise, if we do in fact receive a signal from a distant planet, there's no guarantee that they are still there.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Going back 75,000 years is most we should expect from our galaxy's radius, which is our Stone Age. Romans 2000 years ago were smelting lead and silver which detectable pollution may have shown up in our atmosphere. If we get a message then N≥1 goes to N≥2, more if the message says so. Also we could get their Encyclopedia Galactica.

[@coolmodee]

We don't even know how big the universe is. There's no way we're alone

[@coolmodee]

@@gallbrothersmma9437 You might be right. It's big in comparison to us but it actually might just be only a small part of reality .

[@davemckay4359]

We're not. There's things flying around here on Earth. Tic tac craft, other craft...

[@bradbryant3482]

Bravo!

[@GH-oi2jf]

CoolMoDee - The size of the universe is irrelevant, because practically everything in the universe is vastly far away in both space and time. You may believe whatever you like about life in other galaxies, because they are too remote to investigate. All that matters is our own galaxy.

[@traceygauntlett2679]

@@GH-oi2jf the universe is so vast that we will never find other life forms out there,but that doesn't mean that it does not exist

[@mycount64]

One of the key contributors to intelligent life on our planet is the 5 or 6 mass extinctions that happened where near 90% of the species were wiped out bringing about another epoch or era. If the meteor had not struck the earth 65 million years ago dinosaurs would still be roaming the earth. They were on the planet for 300 million years

[@lartele9517]

AW Crowe yep,right, and these are the known facts. How many contributors/enablers of life are not known to us??? Human life and nature and human intelligence are in my view certainly not the be all and end all even in only this galaxy. Could it be there is life out there that the limited human mind and imagination cannot even concieve of??? We are not even anywhere close to being done exploring life and its different forms here on earth!! I am sure this universe is teeming with life. We cannot find it as long as we decide what that has to be like thus precluding the possible finds and even potential encounters. There's some wisdom, folks: we don't know what we don't know! All the best to everyone out there!! :)

[@ulfpe]

Dinosaurs could have evolved to a higher intellegence as well. Now we had a differen development but we do not know how the alternstives would have looked like. But perhaps the very hard selection in one of these events promotes intellgence in itself.. mammals or no mamals

[@mycount64]

ulfpe the conditions must be such that having intelligence is an advantage and require time to evolve. Anyway, we agree.

[@puppeli]

"They were on the planet 300 million years" Are you sure about that? Dinosaurs died about 66 million years ago (76% of all species died). 34 million years before that, there was another extinction event (80% of all species died). If you go back in time 51 million years from that time, there was another extinction event (96% of all species died). I could argue that were it not for the mass extinction events, a technological species could have evolved sooner that it did. Like for example, when the dinosaurs died off. The first thing mammals and birds did, is evolve into gigantic forms to fill in the niche that dinosaurs left by dying out. Intelligence and tool use only evolved later. One thing that probably did contribute to the emergence of intelligence was climate change and all the little extinction events that forced species adapt to new circumstances. The giant mass extinctions on the other hand, did more harm than good (in my opinion). Also consider how long it took for complex multi cellular life to emerge (about 3 billion years) versus how long it took for said multi cellular life to build computers and go to the Moon (about 600 million years). To me its pretty incredible how little time it took from the time the first animals evolved to our technological civilization today. Whether the major mass extinctions slowed or accelerated the evolution of intelligence by a few tens or even hundreds of millions years. Its still not all that much compared to how long single celled organisms have been here.

[@larjkok1184]

Huh? Well that’s one way of arriving where we’re at. But what about continuous evolution without major catastrophes?

[@dennisnicholson952]

I recall that, in the movie, Contact, Ellie Arroway, asked the alien, who was disguised as her father, "How many of you are there", his answer was "billions of us". We may be living in a Universe where we are either rare or unique ( which I doubt) or it may just happen that we ended up in a more sparsely populated part of our Galaxy. Maybe?

[@sandal_thong8631]

Keep going with SETI and LaserSETI. Advance the technology to find exoplanets until we can determine the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets and count the number with oxygen (a sign of life).

[@richardcaves3601]

Alas Contact is sci-fi, not reality. As Brian Cox explains, there are some absolute rules of physics, chemistry and biology that we know. The speed of light, the composition of stars, the formation of the 93 natural elements. These are all the same in our universe, no matter which galaxy. The deep time and distances involved mean what we see, even in our own galaxy, is long gone. All this supports the Rare Earth Theory, meaning that human life is an extremely rare property, so rare in fact, that we may be the only current example. Keep in mind that our solar system is but 4.5 billion years old, while the universe is 13.9. so we're about one third of the age of the universe. There probably was others, and probably will be more, just not in our existence. That all means we should treat each other with the respect and kindness such rarity deserves.

[@shawnjesseman664]

Well, for one thing, SETI searches have not even reached within 100 light years of Earth. This galaxy is 100,000 Light Years across. Not to mention that a highly technologically advanced civilization millions of years older than us probably wouldn't be using radio transmitters.

[@redglazedeyez6652]

no.... but that advanced technological civilisation would be farming its surrounding planets...or at least have satellites orbitting its planet... theres none.

[@paganphil100]

Shawn Jesseman: Yes, and SETI has so far only searched a relatively tiny portion of the galaxy (and there are millions of other galaxies).....who can say what they'll find in the future?

[@maximuscomfort]

@@paganphil100, the Hubble telescope has gone deep space almost to the big bang start. If intelligent life made it beyond AI. They would arrange a light show for anyone to see.

[@oldman2800]

The distances in space between systems are obscenely massive, completely underrated as a problem for observing anything intelligent

[@nmarbletoe8210]

@@maximuscomfort Well that's a good thought. We do of course see certain mysterious "signals" from the ancient eons. Perhaps dark energy is a show of the existence of Early Aliens! Say these aliens converted all the antimatter into dark energy by use of a negative probability collider. That took a lot of megawatts, and the leftover material is known as dark matter. It has no light left to give. Ironically these ancient aliens were actually luminous due to the CMB being so bright back then. They evolved before planets existed when the entire universe was a habitable zone.

[@anderss5913]

First thing of note is that the stars almost certainly required for life are G and K which only account for 20% in our galaxy. If you want to say "sunlike" stars then it's 7%. I plugged these numbers into the equation with huge lifespans (100,000 years and 10,000 years) and I got 1152 civilizations and 1 civilization. You'd also expect that, if intelligent life was relatively common, 1 civilization would have colonized the galaxy in the past 10 Billion years. Now, maybe they died off and the remnants disappeared... but then if it were common, another would have done the same at some point and that pattern would continue, polluting the galaxy so to speak with more evidence. So it's not that there isn't anyone else, or there has never been anyone else... but it's also not as far-fetched as you might think to believe it's just us.

[@richardcaves3601]

You need to read and research the Rare Earth Theory. Then plug into your computer all the Goldilocks events necessary for us to evolve. That'll give you a better idea.

[@TheEyez187]

Arthur C. Clarke summed it up well. There are two possibilities. WE are either alone or we are not, both are equally possible and both are equally terrifying!

[@daviddean707]

Existential dread

[@brucegelman5582]

Are you sure you want to find alien life? Be very careful what you wish for my delicious protein lifeforms.

[@johnharris6691]

TheEyez187 terrifying to whom ?

[@brucegelman5582]

@@johnharris6691 terrifying to humans...this is why people cant live without protecting old men sitting on thrones in the clouds.Or Jesus is coming back or a thousand other pieces of mumbo jumbo.And if they arrive and are looking for a protein source that numbers in the billions and weighs on average 100lbs wouldn't you be slightly terrified?

[@johnharris6691]

Bruce i would say equally interesting , and not terrifying .

[@jeffknott7360]

I wait for the day a rover on a planet finds a fossil or even better life itself. If this is found before I die I will die a happy chap!

[@musclerussell8109]

Jeff Knott your brainwashed. Look it up your deceived.

[@keithmayes4358]

EXPLORING WITH MUSCLE THE RUSSELL oh yeah, he forgot about the dome, we can’t get past that can we?

[@warp65]

Since finding amino acids on asteroids 2010 it's only a matter of time before fossilsed microbes are found on Mars. Hopefully in my lifetime, although I am 3/4 through that little episode so hurry up guys.

[@keithmayes4358]

vnewarp9 I think you’re right, I think they will find signs of life on Mars, be it a living thing, such as a bacteria, or a fossil, because all said and done it’s obvious water once flowed across its surface and in our experience where there’s water there’s life.

[@jasmitsirah]

Excellent talk 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@AustralianLeprechaun]

This is such a brilliant lecture! I've watched it several times.

[@onderozenc4470]

Around every star, there is habitable zone such as starting from Venus to Mars for our solar system.

[@pizzafrenzyman]

The Goldilocks zone ignores the importance of the moon on the formation of life on earth.

[@warrenny]

@@pizzafrenzyman There are 200 moons in our solar system. I think we can assume that moons are common in other solar systems

[@Knowty]

@@warrenny The formation(Thea probably gave us a more iron heavy core=better protection form the sun) and influence(by far biggest in comparison to the planet) of our moon is quite special and very random.

[@watleythewizard2381]

Incorrect. Most stars are not like ours. Only g type stars have a Goldilocks zone.

[@watleythewizard2381]

@@pizzafrenzyman totally right.

[@Korokukanas]

Mr. Crawford is very down to Earth so to speak in his assessment. Even negative results educate us.

[@Supernova_2244]

I love watching the RI series of videos on youtube. Makes me wish I had shown an interest in science at school.

[@Inertia888]

Finding organics on Mars in june of 2018 has given me much hope for finding some sort of life in the universe other than here on Earth.

[@Yatukih_001]

Science has confirmed nothing which was made on Earth actually landed on Mars.Thanks for the video.

[@montanamike7948]

@@Yatukih_001 what? A lot of thinks made on Earth land on mars??? Not sure you're point either

[@Yatukih_001]

@@montanamike7948 No evidence.

[@av1l]

@@Yatukih_001 there's also no evidence that's accesible for me that you are not just merely a script / AI algorithm. Yet you are as real to me as a Mars Rover ;)

[@GH-oi2jf]

Mr Crawford is more rational than most people who speak on this subject, in that he recognizes that we know nothing at all of the probabilities that life will arise from nonliving material and that life will evolve toward intelligent beings, meaning those who can understand and control the electromagnetic spectrum. But I have two criticisms: First, he casually moves between the galaxy and the universe, an error most speakers on the subject make. There is no point in considering the universe as a whole, because hypotheses about extragalactic life are untestable. We cannot expect to find and study planets in even the closest large galaxy, M31, and the rest of the large galaxies are vastly farther away. Nor can we expect to detect intelligent extragalactic radio signals, because galaxies contain many powerful sources of radio noise and the power required for transmission of radio signals between galaxies is unfeasible. So the only interesting scales for searching for extraterrestrial life are the solar system and the Milky Way galaxy. Second, at the end, he does what most speakers on the subject do. Despite his admission that we have no scientific theory of the creation of life, or of the probability of intelligent life, we should nevertheless continue with SETI efforts just in case. In my opinion, this is a fool’s errand. There are two bases for searching for particular phenomena heretofore unknown. Either we have experience which suggests that we should look for something similar, or we have a good theory which predicts something we should look for. An example of the first is that we observe that our solar system contains several planets and a lot of other junk, and we have a good theory of gravitation that explains how such things form and behave. We have good reason to believe that gravitation is universal, so it is reasonable to believe that other stars will also have planets and that we might find evidence of them at nearby stars. So we have done. An example of the second is the Big Bang theory, which predicted the cosmic background radiation. Although it was discovered accidentally by men who were not expecting it, others were already thinking about how to look for it. Regarding intelligent life, we have very little to justify a search which requires a great deal of time and effort. We know of only one species, our own, which has mastered radio communication. We know that there are many special conditions which allow Earth to support our species, but we know very little about how those conditions are met, and nothing at all about how life on Earth originated. We know how to use radio, but we have only been doing so for 150 years or so. We have no idea how long an advanced civilization can last, because beings smart enough to use radio can also invent several technologies capable of destroying civilization. In summary, I do not believe there is enough evidence to suggest that there are so many advanced civilizations in the galaxy that we should expect to find evidence of them. Even if the galaxy produced hundreds of advanced civilizations, it may be that they do not endure long enough to be detected by other advanced civilizations. Searching for signals from hypothetical civilizations isn’t good science because it is not motivated by evidence or theory, but only by emotion.

[@jakobfromthefence]

Even if the equation looks bad for another advanced civilization, I suppose the positive note is that probability increases dramatically that there are many garden planets (or other) with some degree of evolution out there. Still plenty of exciting things to discover I’d say.

[@Kenlwallace]

Anyone who is actually interested will soon discover that ETs have been around for Millenia. It beggars belief that there are still people like this who just can’t look at it because it will totally upset everything they used to believe. Admittedly this is scary but “If you seek - AND actually want to know - you WILL find”. If ‘knowing’ would be too scary or damaging to you you will not be forced to know.

[@DKGCustom]

And dont forget that their L has to overlap with our L during the habitual time of the Universe

[@TR4zest]

Not even that: Their communicable part (when they mastered radio technology) of their lifespan must overlap with the part of our lifespan when we have been equipped to listen - 60 years so far only.

[@BeastmodeBeats]

Big Facts, eternally

[@Pyriold]

The drake equation is completely missing the possibility that a civilization may have spread across the galaxy. In that case, just 1 civilization would be enough to spread eveidence all over the galaxy. And it would be a very reasonal assumption. I would expect us to do the same given enought stability.

[@lisaj2269]

How many times will I be walked through or have explained the Drake equation in my life? It's frustrating. Can't they ever assume that those interested have likely had that explained many times. Every single talk about the search for alien life goes over this and the Fermi paradox. It's like having to repeat an introduction course over and over and over before any discussion of the topic can happen

[@DWinegarden2]

That’s because Drake and Fermi expressed science fiction fantasies about what life is. Humans still expect other life forms to be entities we can directly relate to. It is the very same religious notion that we were made in “gods form”. The expectation of finding “intelligent life” is simple anthropo-centric fantasy.

[@michaelcox1071]

This is why all graduate texts are “Introduction to ...”. No one wants to be on the hook for speculation that they can’t back up.

[@awegahn]

Look into UFOlogy (The Disclosure Project), The Secret Space Program (Cosmic Disclosure etc.), ET Contactees (Cosmic Agency, Alex Collier, Billy Meier, James Gilliland etc.) They have the real answers.

[@biggstavros5876]

@Lisa J - I hope you have matured over the last 3 years and realise that a lot of people watching this have no idea of the Fermi Paradox etc. I would suspect the Royal Inst. should have made a video just for you.

[@blackhand7294]

​@@awegahn 😂lol ufology is all conjecture, and complete conspiracy bs.

[@mikefinn]

Wonderful presentation on this topic.

[@mad636man]

I don’t understand why he says “four and a half thousand million” he even has a chart that just shows 4.0 and says it’s in thousands of millions. Why doesn’t he just say billion?

[@porcu12345]

He's old school. A billion meant something different in the UK when he was at University.

[@AM-sd9bu]

In British English, billion means a million millions. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion

[@jeffknott7360]

Good question, my theory is: Its more discriptive to our brains! Our brains find it hard to process just how big a billion is, a thousand million discribes the number better!

[@davidf2281]

I expect it's because, despite it being a settled thing for several decades, some people still consider a billion to be a million million (10 to the power 12) rather than a thousand million (10 to the power 9).

[@howtomoscow4764]

Nerd speak

[@wildone106]

Yes and what about the UAPS involved with the US Navy fleet...

[@richardcaves3601]

Drone development you idiot. What better way to hide a secret than within a "conspiracy". Well done sucker, you fell for it.

[@kronovore3583]

A thoughtful and thought provoking presentation. Thank you.

[@vladimirp2674]

Always asking myself, why sci-fi authors considered aliens as a hostile creatures, on the other hand, many true scientists believed to establish safe connection between our civilization and others far beyond... Absolutely intriguing one. Life existing on other planets is a major issue among scientific community to the present days.

[@richardcaves3601]

Microbial life, sure. Multicellular intelligent life, nah. Read the Rare Earth Theory.

[@XjestR]

When I was very young, I always thought that other galaxies could be our own multiverses. That each one had an earth with human life all trying to find each other hoping we weren’t alone in this dark cold void.

[@John-tc9gp]

Understanding biogenesis is key to reaching reasonable assumptions about life in the universe. Without that crucial knowledge, all can engage in is wild speculation that goes nowhere. Forget about looking on other planets - earth has life but as far as we know it's only started here once. If this planet is so perfect for life, why isn't it originating from scratch over and over?

[@1OldWriter]

It's far more likely that the universe is teeming with life, even intelligent life. Finding that life could take thousands of years especially with the way it's being looked for. Radio signals from most solar systems are going to be competing with far stronger solar and larger sources. Yes I know we have sensitive equipment, but the people involved are skeptical enough that they'll throw out almost every source. They're also looking for human like life and they will never find that unless some progenitor seeded the galaxy with human life which is unlikely.

[@anyone9689]

even if each galaxy has only one form of intelligent life , thats trillions , but they are so far away physically or temporally we could never contact them

[@Trigger-Happy03]

It would be unlikely that Planet Earth is the only one with some form of life. Honestly, we can't get to conclusions when we haven't yet explored and searched the vast indefinite universe, it would be unlikely to give a solid conclusion to this question without proper exploration. Life goes on. We will know in the distant unknown future...

[@wulphstein]

Apparently, the aliens have been hanging out with the US Navy.

[@Tumasch]

the navy guys and gals throw the best parties

[@junestorm]

Regarding the question how long a civilization lives: even if a civilization gets extinct it doesn't mean that all life on that planet also gets distinct so there are chances that the remaing lifeforms develop again into a civilization. Wouldn't this increase the probabilities of fi and fc?

[@jamiboothe]

This was a very well done performance and information wise, it was well done also. I have similar skepticism toward the likely hood of finding interstellar communicating life in our galaxy. However, I do suspect it is there or has been there or will be there. It is the vast distances and necessary time intervals for one civilization to find one another that may be the significent issue. It may be like two ships passing in the moonless night and neither has a candle burning in that tiny moment.

[@richardcaves3601]

Read Rare Earth Theory

[@arm4ix]

A good question is how far can radiowaves penetrate space until they get incohorent and undetectable? Bc if technological life had evolved we would probably already hear it since it's highly unlikely that it would have evolved at the same time as did we. They would have been there for a long time probably, making the Earth already engulfed in thw waves. But they're not there, so it's either that the waves do not penetrate the space, or we're alone (technologically) at least to the extent to which they can.

[@solarnaut]

32:59 "150 years later, we're still at that boundary" (between knowledge and ignorance), as described in 1853, on the subject of searching for life elsewhere in the universe... maybe this talk should have begun with that conclusion ?

[@richardsleep2045]

Interesting stuff. Currently I don't think we could detect ourselves from proxima centura, because the emitted radio/tv etc are too week for our own radio telescopes.

[@sandal_thong8631]

At least one video said they calibrate SETI receivers by looking for Voyagers' signals. Of course those are beamed directly, but a radio signal sent to a satellite likely keeps going with some degradation with the square law. I don't think a few light years is enough to degrade radio signals to the point of static.

[@hartburg356]

If they have been coming to earth for over 10,000 yrs. There lifespan must be very long, or there time travelers which means they could be from anywhere in the Universe...even Earth ! If its generation after generation doing the same things that's hard to imagine... do you think our children will follow in our footsteps and keep the same original game plan....forever??? But If there Time Travelers they could live forever I guess...

[@narrator69]

A new factor to the Drake equation seems to have cropped up, phosphorous may be far more rare then we expected. This element is considered a necessity for complex life.

[@beenaplumber8379]

I think that falls under the fraction of planets capable of supporting life. Less P might mean that fraction just got smaller.

[@Raydensheraj]

Life as we know it...or concieve it. The study lacks imagination using only what we know works on Earth. Obviously we don't know much ( Dark matter, Dark energy, never seen a black hole, no theory of everything etc ,

[@sandal_thong8631]

Phosphorous: necessary for DNA. _E.T._ (1982): "He has DNA!"

[@blizzrd6578]

I believe that the universe is absolutely teeming with life. To me this is an almost obvious conclusion. Intelligent life however, is something that may very well be extremely rare. I do not believe that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe but I feel that it's very likely there are only 1-3 intelligent civilizations per galaxy. However, I completely disagree with the pessimistic lifetime of a civilization. I believe civilizations for the most part can last millions or billions of years. What's a very interesting thought is suppose there was at least ONE intelligent civilization that basically has no end and say they were at the point we are now, 1 billion years ago. Just imagine the kind of knowledge and technology they would have now. When I think of that, it really does give a little bit of credibility to those crazy ancient aliens guys . A civilization 1 billion years ahead of us would basically be like gods to us now. They could possibly be immortal, time travelling, dimension hopping, even things we can't even think of. Time and space could possibility be inconsequential to them. I meant to just write the first paragraph and suddenly I had the second thought and couldn't stop writing. I apologize if that second paragraph sounded crazy but damn it really does make a lot of sense to me.

[@unf3z4nt]

Billions of years is a stretch. Many thousand to a few million years would be more realistic before the main civilisation decays after losing its will to go on further.

[@lorenmark]

I find this thought extremely interesting. Theoretically, if a civilization had the technology - it could potentially survive almost any death or permanent end. In fact, you could make the argument that life here, could be an extension of some other civilization. Perhaps all life everywhere is extensions of one single original form.

[@donfox1036]

Blizzrd correct. Intelligent life is unusual on Earth so why shouldn't that be true extraterrestrially?

[@BillyMeierInFrenchBM]

Exactly. That is what is claimed in the Meier case (see my channel).

[@michaelellis8214]

If or when we do make contact with other civilisations just what exactly will benefit them?

[@larjkok1184]

They can eat us.

[@epicworldvideos6689]

If you think that there is no other life out there you are just crazy

[@babyrazor6887]

maybe you should read the book "Who Built the Moon". After all you search the galaxy for potential cognizable planets you don't just X the map and move on. A stocked supply base would be more suitable for when you return.

[@nicevideomancanada]

They are in The Pentagon.

[@erictaylor5462]

5:00 Life is not currently flourishing on the surface of Mars. That doesn't mean life hasn't flourished before. In another billion years when the sun has become hot enough to boil the oceans, and strip most of it's atmosphere away there will be very little life left on Earth. You would never say life was flourishing. In fact, the Surface of Earth may look a lot like the surface of Mars today.

[@davidrutherford3345]

Or you could ask people from Earth that have seen or had interaction with aliens.. These people include Pilots, Generals, Police, The armed forces, The general public or even people from the Special forces teams that are sent out to secure areas where alien craft have crash before the removal teams get there..

[@Flypidge]

And they all have a human brain that we all know isn't perfect.

[@Floki_631]

David Rutherford ok boomer

[@dermmerd2644]

lol

[@ibcoull]

I see the nay sayers here posted a couple of years ago. That would be pre Nimitz ‘official’ acknowledgment of the UAP, or the even more recent undersea, space versions of the same phenomena being given ‘official’ acknowledgment.

[@jacklee6224]

I appreciate all of this. Thank you. 🙏🏼

[@LochMorar]

Where are the aliens? They’re flying around in the tic tac.

[@vcoonrod]

They certainly are. Good grief has anyone not seen one? You'd have to not look up.

[@davemckay4359]

Yeah, real af.

[@bradbryant3482]

That's where a few of them are!

[@gypsyjr1371]

This is why I have computers running BOINC, project SETI@home (and one other project). Because in the miraculous chance (and it would be a true miracle) a technological signal reaches earth after traveling 10,000 years through space, we need to know. Anyone with a computer at home that isn't doing anything for a few hours a day can participate. Mine run full time, but on a fast pc, a project file takes only 2-3 hours to process. If all you do is one or two a day, it helps.

[@joops110]

Pretty ironic they had a Vogon do this lecture.

[@stacyhaynes4832]

joops110 ...saaaay whaaaaaaat? 😂 😝 I had a feeling he was a Vulcan 🖖 like Spock. Because of his eyebrows.heeheehee 😆. But what the heck is a Vogon?

[@joops110]

@@stacyhaynes4832 Vogons are from 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy'. Read the book or watch the movie, they're both great!

[@Thefreedmind88]

I personally don’t feel that we’re that special, maybe the way life occurred on our planet is extremely rare but it doesn’t mean that’s the only way life can form, and it sure doesn’t mean that intelligent life must resemble us with two legs and two arms. Our modern technology is only a few hundred years old compared to an earth that’s several billion years old. We might not even be the first technically advanced civilization on this planet. Obviously, we can say where’s the evidence, but I still think humans are incredibly arrogant, we’re absolutely nothing compared to the age and the span of the universe to think we remotely play any significant role.

[@Uthuriel]

We haven't even found evidence of intelligent life on this planet...

[@donfox1036]

Uthuriel, one fairly strong possibility is, as I've said before, a no-go zone for intelligent extraterrestrial life.

[@royhobbs2425]

Very original . Not

[@yelsmlaugh]

We are the missing link.

[@woodwookas8496]

Crows and dolphins are insulted

[@johnklar5131]

I find it odd there are people that ask where other life is. We have not really even made it out of our solar system, and the universe is unimaginably huge. People who go into this Fermi "Paradox" thinking don't have much imagination.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Or religiously constrained since they didn't have revelations of Uranus and Neptune or extraterrestrial civilizations.

[@woohoo273]

I've seen and heard the same variation of this same speech a hundred times in the last 50 years ..... wake me when you find an alien .......

[@pumpuppthevolume]

Woo Hoo well statistics of exoplanets r cool... also missions to icy moons and other bodies in the solar system

[@BattleBunny1979]

will do. continue yr nap sir

[@andrewpaulhart]

found one!

[@andrewpaulhart]

no wait, false alarm

[@TechNed]

Kinda' think the words yelled out will be, "Woo Hoo!" so you're good. Sleep on.

[@zpitfiyer]

Question: if we are looking at images of planets from billions of years ago, how can we be sure that there isn't any life there presently? When human life itself hasn't yet existed when these images actually happen?

[@alganhar1]

Answer, we can't.

[@macbuff81]

The great filter

[@Killerwolfd777]

I think it’s interesting that I never see anyone discussing the unlikely coincidence that two different intelligent life forms would develop technologies that allow detection/exploration at the same time. Humans have only had the ability to communicate with radio waves for about 100 years. 100 years is nothing on a cosmic timescale. If the development of an alien civilization that’s close enough for us to communicate with was only a few hundred years behind us we would never know.

[@jordiewalters871]

Well I just hope we find someone out there one day, just imagine that😐

[@BattleBunny1979]

ill be happy when i find someone out here :-)

[@dreadfog]

Jordie Walters Imagine the excitement in the scientific community if an insect like creature is finally found on a planet 100 light years away, yet on earth we step on them.

[@tonyinhk888]

While Drake's equation points to intelligent life, how about the probability of any life at all on these exoplanets? There are several places in the Solar System that such places, other than Earth, could exist. Could we find evidence of any life, including microbes, at all in these places? The Mars experience is so far disappointing, I would hope that more thorough investigations can be carried out soon for Mars, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus to enable us to answer this question -- is it possible that life, in whatever form, exists in habitable environments, other than on planet Earth? I worry about this because so far artificial creation of living cells from non-living matters has not been successful, despite numerous carefully engineered trials by many relentless biologists. If we also cannot find even microbes in other supposedly habitable environments in the Solar System, coupled with the lack of response to Seti, then these strongly suggest that something very likely must have happened, unique to Earth, at a single peculiar moment, which resulted in life here, but cannot be copied anywhere or anytime else in the Universe. This could mean that we would then be the only intelligent life in the entire Universe.

[@shmookins]

Where are the aliens? You obviously haven't met my in-laws... _ba dum dish_

[@Johncornwell103]

Well the chance of intelligent life developing on a planet that has life isn't the biggest disqualifier. The biggest disqualifier is whether that intelligent life form is a social species to develop a civilization. Every person in human history could have the intelligence of Einstein, Newton, Ramanujan, Mohammad al-Khwarizmi, etc... but if the biggest social groups we a species had was the family unit, we would never get passed early civilization technology.

[@oldman2800]

Or simply if their planet was a massive size and getting craft or anything off it into space impossible then their interest and curiosity to look outward may well be completely ignored

[@robotaholic]

This should have been called "A review of the Drake equation"

[@aprylvanryn5898]

No doubt. Its unfortunate that the drake equation doesn't take gravity and the way it effects time into account. I'm not sure the numbers but I do know that gravity slows time. Looking for life anywhere in the middle of a galaxy is in my opinion futile

[@alganhar1]

@@aprylvanryn5898 Not only gravity, you seen the radiation levels in the Galactic centre? All those stars so (relatively) tightly crammed together and you are looking at solar winds carrying radiation levels outright inimicable to life. Most likely life, and almost certainly complex life will be found on the spiral arms or towards the outer edges, which hugely increases the distances involved.....

[@steviejd5803]

A concise and erudite lecture.

[@oldboy5001]

There's hard evidence we have been visited many times by intelligent extraterrestrials (Recent US Navy footage, Disclosure Project etc) , so why are you still grivelling around looking for microbes? XD

[@oldboy5001]

@@stephenpack2202 Wrong. We can say there's no hard proof, but there is hard evidence. Witness testimony of so many respected professionals in government agencies and national defence positions has to be considered hard evidence. Their testimony would be considered as such in a court of law.

[@RalphDratman]

Judging by the statistics of living species as we observe them here on Earth, the development of advanced technology is uncommon. So even if life is widespread in the universe, and even if intelligent species are numerous, it may nevertheless turn out that technologically-enhanced species are rare, and that our level of technological advancement is very rare indeed.

[@sandal_thong8631]

We were in the Stone Age for 3.4 million years. The 100 years of technology is a short time in comparison. It would be a crime against Life if we extinguished ourselves and our biosphere. We developed science 500 years ago and it's still fighting to catch on. COVID was a test to see if people would follow science and medical experts and they largely haven't.

[@nmarbletoe8210]

Yes! Life should be abundant, technology very rare as it is often toxic to its creators. But when it survives, it may colonize the galaxy... but it will do so gently, because only gentle creatures survive themselves.

[@kennatco7916]

The aliens haven't invented space travel yet and they are waiting for us to come and give them a ride. "Galactic Uber"--Elon is probably working on it right now.

[@SwedishDoomGoblin]

Ken Natco. universeinsideyou.net/interdimensional-beings-are-visiting-us/

[@lalomelena3663]

Ken Natco a

[@kennatco7916]

Hey Croc, in technical terms, that's forked up.

[@Yatukih_001]

We don´t care what atheism today thinks about things - as long as they stay focused on bbc bullshit, cnn, fox news and so on we don´t care. If they try to pursue aliens, ghosts, ufos...if they have jobs, they should be pushed go get new ones...

[@Prasadll0803]

What about all those flying saucers

[@richardcaves3601]

Legends in their own minds.

[@savtraffic]

I am the alien, shutup. Talking irritates us.

[@afvro75]

Mars’ core is way smaller than earth’s and that’s one main reason why life didn’t develop on Mars if that’s in fact the case. So Earth and Mars aren’t comparable in that sense. On the other hand and despite the latter, if there is evidence of some kind of life on Mars then the evidence of life in the universe will keep on piling on and on.

[@tactical_philanthropy]

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing the short summary is (as with every scientific approximation on alien life): "Could be everywhere, could be nowhere. We're not sure."

[@sandal_thong8631]

This is the second time I've heard that fp (f-sub-p) is being considered 1 due to discovery of exoplanets. I've heard The Milky Way has a 3-digit number of globular clusters made up of many Generation II stars (number ?). Such stars might not have planets, or only H & He planets due to low-metallicity, or the high-density of stars in limited space could eject them. Similarly supernova remnants might have lost all of their planets. So how many stars in the Milky Way are (1) in globular clusters, (2) Generation II, and (3) supernova remnants? If 1/10 of stars in the galaxy that would make f-sub-p 9/10 instead of 1.

[@RonJohn63]

16:38 *We* build radio telescopes and sure as hell *aren't even trying to communicate* outside our planet. 20:56 Why in the hell would they transmit to us? 23:00 You're ignoring the magnetosphere, which only formed when "Theia" crashed into Earth. How likely is *that?*

[@danielarevalo6222]

Ian Crawford surprises me> he says there is only one place with intelligence in the universe that we know of. This is correct. However, how much of the universe has been searched???? a little little tiny amount.

[@Nickle314]

The problem with the Drake equation is the probability technological life exists, not the probability of detecting it. It's missing a r^-2 term

[@donfox1036]

Nickle, what is r?

[@ryanfitzalan8634]

there are so many potential concepts to consider. perhaps the probability for stable earth like planetary solar systems is the rare factor, BUT once such a quite stable system does form, life is essentially guaranteed to form on earth like planets. Looking at our own evolutionary history does tell us so much though. like that 3 billion year gap of molecular life we could easily nickname "the great Filter". also important to note from our own planet..... we only have evidence that life formed independently once on Earth. thats kinda significant, given we had the BEST place for it to form and evolution shows a tendency towards convergent paths whenever possible. also important factor of Earth, we are a primarily oceanic planet in a warm stable place, with a magneticly active core so technically still a "hot" active planet.

[@burtlangoustine1]

Life is a frequency specifically evolved to its star as its powering function.

[@larjkok1184]

And characteristics of planets.

[@abouttime5000]

Due to the vast distances that space travellers would have to over come to make connection viable it makes more sense that aliens who are visiting us now, from a distance mind you, must be time travelling from our future. Or, moving through a space continuum.

[@momentsoftruth7712]

Are Man's preconceived ideas & attachments to outcomes regarding the types of life forms he's looking for, really the stumbling block to finding the forms who exist much closer than we think?

[@tonystephen6312]

anybody know what the chances of random background noise forming a false signal - although it wouldn't repeat i know?

[@zactwentythree]

I like this one and the Stephen Webb talk is good

[@ChrisOakesCO]

Aliens don't come from outer space, they come from other planes of existence that are here in the same place just as all TV stations are in the same room with you but you watch the station on TV that you tune to. A matter of what you focus your thoughts on.

[@no-bozos]

Given all of the technology humans have at their disposal, we have not been able to replicate a cell, or single cellular, creature from scratch. We can't even create protein chains from scratch. With all that, how could life have just "emerged" from nothing? It's important that we begin to take a broader look at this. It's not a complete study to only look at certain assertions and ignore others.

[@davidmyersretiredaerospace8038]

They are here and been here since at least 400 thousand years.

[@maximuscomfort]

I would go with bacteria in the universe. Intelligent life from running down deer and avoiding the competition to star ships. We are a rare indeed.

[@donfox1036]

maximuscomfort of course we are rare butée could be fried longer.

[@robclark4626]

What is the trigger of primitive life? What is the trigger of complex life that could evolve into intelligent life? It could be that the second question is astronomically rare. Perhaps we are the only ones in our galaxy.

[@daviddean707]

A ramped up version of the talk I heard at the local natural science society, with some inane audience members weighing in obviously cosseted by too much telly and look it can't get away from addressing existential loneliness when it tries as hard as this.

[@donfox1036]

David Dean, being an introvert I welcome "existential loneliness." So sue me.

[@jeromegoodwin3848]

With the chaos on Earth would you want to contact us?

[@bcherbs]

Only 1 question , the rover has been sending back beautiful picture of the red planet of dust, but who cleans the camera lens on the rover ?

[@whirledpeas3477]

Is it the drugs? Fetal alcohol syndrome?

[@egosystem9959]

The factor of "1" for “f” sub “I” in the Drake equation that represents "intelligent" life being present on planets that sustain life seems bizarre to me. It always causes me to shake my head. While humans are everywhere we go, humans are actually very, very rare. Let me explain - how many species of life have evolved (or were created) on earth ? Current estimates are about 6.5 million species on land and 2.2 million in oceans. Only one of those species is human. Therefore, a much more reasonable factor would be 1(human species) divided by 8,700,000 (species of life) or a factor of about 0.000000114942 which is quite different than the assumed factor of one.

[@benthere4380]

Considering the size of the “known” universe, the number of galaxies, stars, planets etc.… Even if we do not detect or verify life “elsewhere” … that will prove nothing. Point being - We will only be able to detect and verify life elsewhere. We will never be able to rule out the possibility.

[@PIX_BMS]

If life starts fairly easily on Earth-like planets, why has it only happened once here? Why can't biogenesis happen multiple times in parallel?

[@richardcaves3601]

No it doesn't start easily here. Look at the Drake Equation and count the number of Goldilocks events that lead to us.