Brian Cox - Alien Life & The Great Filter Hypothesis

In the vast expanse of the universe, one question persists: Are we alone? Join renowned physicist Brian Cox as we grapple with the enigmatic Great Filter hypothesis.
This theory presents a chilling explanation for the cosmic silence, suggesting a nearly insurmountable barrier that keeps civilizations from reaching the stars. But is this barrier behind us or ahead of us? Could it have annihilated other civilizations before us?
Through the lens of the Great Filter, we explore the Fermi Paradox, the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, and the secrets buried deeper in the cosmos. We face both optimism and warning, examining our place in the universe and the perils of unchecked technological advancement.
In this enthralling journey, Brian Cox navigates the cautionary tales and hopeful prospects written across the heavens. Are we the exception or the rule? Tune in to uncover the mysteries and redefine our cosmic story.
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#briancox #aliens #universe

[@The_Devil_Riser]

You can just tell that when Brian Cox is talking , he is always smiling like science makes him happy

[@tw25rw]

I just think of him spitting into a test tube and missing. Don't remember the show..

[@vrnorwaynorway6048]

i allways think that guy is thinking about something terrible he has done and nobody knows and he just fkn smiles.

[@fergit0923ify]

Yeah. He’s my favorite. I listen to his Joe Rogan episode all the time just to make myself fall asleep

[@volpeverde6441]

he's SMILING because he's LYING to you and you're all falling for it.... DUPER'S DELIGHT....

[@715michala]

I think we are alone in the universe. Given the probability of complex life forming etc and the many variables it is not easy to comprehend life on other planets.Rare earth theory works well with Fermi paradox. There should be life elsewhere given the vast amount of stars but there isn't due to the just right combination of gases chemicals for life here on Earth not present in a mostly hostile universe. There are many unknowns and no doubt we shall one day space travel to other worlds to seek the truth of our existence. There is meaning and purpose to Life , which could indicate a Creative force at play overlooked by evolution and chemical reactions. Something must have existed before Life as we know it..

[@erniegutierrez2288]

I used to have trouble sleeping, now I watch Brian Cox documentaries and I fall asleep on the couch. Very soothing voice. "Like"

[@sohrabalimovies]

Brian Cox is so nice and soft-spoken, we must make sure he talks to the Aliens first whenever we find them.

[@volpeverde6441]

he wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes.... had he have been human....

[@erniegutierrez2288]

LOL The way things are going, I fear it might be the "orangeman"

[@austenpowers]

He’ll play them a tune. That’s how you communicate with Aliens:music

[@austenpowers]

@@volpeverde6441whys that then?

[@bryn1890]

No, he'll just say, "you're unidentified, full stop. Can you shut up now?"

[@BigVin6588]

Brian's gentle tone and comforting voice should be the one to break the news to the world that we are not alone. He makes the deepest astronomical theories very understandable, and, in his delivery, we could take the news. Let that bounce around in your head 😂

[@carpballet]

“Gentle tone and comforting voice” Good lord, what a completely scientifically illiterate distraction.

[@yaboybenderbending7346]

⁠@@carpballetyeah buddy, go ahead and never respond to anyone again. I’m taking the talking stick from you, I’m putting you in timeout.

[@carpballet]

@@yaboybenderbending7346 I’ll have to make an exception for an idiot like you. Lol

[@averylawton5802]

They are already expanding away from us faster than they could ever vist us. It's not that they aren't there, it's that we can't ever reach each other.

[@all0utmetal735]

Not in a straight line. But you can imagine a super advanced alien species may have the ability to control the space around them letting them create wildly exotic means travel.

[@all0utmetal735]

means of travel*

[@jesussalas4974]

​@all0utmetal735 how do you know that for sure tho? What if there's no species out there that has been able to get that far?

[@teddy2577]

The unbelievably frustrating thing is....we just dont know anywhere near enough about the universe 🤔😔 so many unanswered questions

[@MaloPiloto]

Correct! I subscribe to the idea that even if life exists elsewhere (maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t), it isn’t a given at all that intelligent life also exists. Even though there may be sextillions of planets out there, the odds against life forming might be septillions to one and, for intelligent life, maybe octillions to one. We just don’t know- per Dr. Kipping….

[@subspaceanomaly]

we might not even qualify for the label of intelligent life in cosmological terms

[@Catsandbats666]

He's literally my favorite. A science legend.

[@keithquinn5624]

Legend? If you think this guy is a scientist then humanity is doomed. Tesla is a scientist, this guy is a pseudoscience talking nut.

[@WildFungus]

I don't find his speculative conclusions very satisfying.

[@wlrlel]

​@@WildFunguswhy?

[@WildFungus]

despite the fact I will agree, obviously religion is not scientifically measurable in anyway, I try to be objective he tries to be objective, I still think weirdly spiritual ideas will continue to come from science (a slight pro religious bias on my end) and he has a slight atheistic bias. And that's a difference of thought that cannot be reconciled unfortunately. It's a difference of opinions. And while I offer that as the reason; Hawking never upset me when he'd start talking about his thoughts on alien life and meaning in the universe. @@wlrlel

[@all0utmetal735]

Kipping is better

[@paulford9120]

People seem to assume that a civilization will inevitably spread beyond its own solar system. But interstellar travel may be impossible or impractical. There could be any number of civilizations out there in their own "islands" that will never contact each other.

[@NoMasters.]

A lack of interstellar travel wouldn't make a civilization undetectable. We are currently detectable, using our current science. If a civilization, exactly like ours, lived within about 100 light years of us, we could detect it. But we haven't.

[@marcelor.rodrigues9584]

" We are currently detectable, using our current science. " we aren't,

[@paulford9120]

@@NoMasters. 100 light years (theoretically), in a galaxy that's 100,000 light years across. We're practically blind.

[@manoo422]

@@marcelor.rodrigues9584 We absolutely ARE.

[@marcelor.rodrigues9584]

@@manoo422 if theres a earth twin, we can't see ourselfs with our current technology. at maximum speculate chemicals with spectometer

[@rodneycameron7050]

I agree with Brian. We may have developed to a degree of intelligence more superior than any other life form on this planet. But as he mentioned,we are stupid. How can we ever think of a long term rental on this planet when everyone just wants to blow big holes in it 🙄😑

[@TheBigBlueMarble]

It is a real possiblity that the "great filter" is tied to the presence of oil (or some similar energy source). If a civilization develops with an early dependence on a readily available but finite energy source such as oil, it is quite possible that they will not successfully make the transition to a different energy source once the original source is depleted. The end result would be a regression to a less technologically advanced society and thus be undetectable by us.

[@thepolarianempire]

You could say the same thing that if a society has no readily available fuel source that they can’t develop to a technology developed species so maybe having a fuel like oil is necessary to develop an advanced civilization because it gives you that jump start and a reason to develop better fuel sources

[@TheBigBlueMarble]

@@thepolarianempire I think it's different if they develop a technology based on something other than oil rather than start off using something like oil and then have to transition to something else.

[@s0ldier898]

Great point this is why I love these videos human perspectives. brian cox is a gem

[@deanlawson6880]

How about if oil is a necessary stepping-stone up the ladder of advancement of technology. A necessary and vital stage of development, during which we have greatly increased and expanded our knowledge and use of chemistry and natural sciences. The next big advancement and plateau may be the use of Fusion as an energy source and much greater knowledge and use of physics (as opposed to chemistry, that came to us during the "oil age"), to explore and advance our knowledge and society. Just my take on this as a non-scientist, but very keen and interested observer.

[@stuartwiner7920]

Why is that? We have oil and we are quickly transitioning away from it. The price will increase and it will be greatly reduced if not eliminated within a few hundred years. Solar can do it. What would be different somewhere else?

[@plasticcitizen]

This is the analogy I've used for a while. There are anthills across the our known landscapes, some near and some far. As humans, how often do we really explore these anthills. And then, how often do we try to communicate with those ants. So we must ask ourselves, in the realm of intergalactic evolution, are we still merely ants who aren't even worth consideration. If the universe if filled with more interesting and more advanced life, why would we even be considered something to interact with. Despite how advanced we think we are, perhaps we are still just an inconsequential species.

[@paulford9120]

Tyson made an analogy once along these lines... Consider that 2% of our DNA separates us from chimpanzees. We go to the moon, they dig for termites with a stick. Now consider an alien species that is 2% more advanced than us. We'd be nothing to them.

[@manoo422]

@@paulford9120 What does that have to do with detecting alien life...?

[@tiyamikernmaziya1328]

But we do interact with ants and chimpanzees, atleast enough for them to notice human beings, no?

[@MrWilson-zx9ix]

Ants see evidence of us. The vid isn’t about why they aren’t talking to us but why can’t we see evidence.

[@plasticcitizen]

@@tiyamikernmaziya1328 Chimpanzees, quite often. Anthills, very very rarely. While we may think of ourselves as technologically advanced, our knowledge of a topic like radio is just over 100 years old. We assume contact or communication could be accomplished with the technology we currently have. On a universal scale, we may still be extremely primitive. If we are the equivalent of a chimpanzee to more advanced species, contact may be highly possible. But if we are still just a random anthill, why would they be looking for us if we do not have the adequate ability to communicate back. And maybe, we don't even know what we're looking for yet.

[@getgene]

The challenge for us is to not live within our assumptions. All recounted here are hypotheses that we use to prove themselves. Logical fallacies hold us back. All we need do is the opposite of what Mr. Cox proposes at one point. Wisdom starts when we realize we “don’t know.” This awareness does not mean we stop. “Cogito ergo sum” is a philosophical principle that should be on everyone’s refrigerator. If you listen to the account you hear “argument” and “theory” throughout. Those items SAY we are making a guess, an hypothesis, from which we can deduce to refine further theories. The profound reference to consciousness is generally ignored as to its causation. Are we somehow “evolved” from rocks and atmosphere? To understand the universe, we may start with ourselves.

[@WildFungus]

I think the biggest solution to the questions asked by the Fermi Paradox is we're barely able to look. And we're looking into the distant past when we look into the deep galaxy.

[@nickj1968]

But we are looking into the recent past if looking into our own galaxy.

[@krazyo100x]

@@nickj1968 yeah, but the likelihood of uncovering a civilisation as advanced or more advanced than us is ‘higher’ if we look outside our own galaxy. That is to say there’s any chance we’ll find them even if they are there. it’s probably the same as trying to find a shadow in a completely black room.

[@WildFungus]

That is a good point and I would simply counter that if we create a mirror civilization like us on the other side of the galaxy, maybe 1000 lightyears away? What would they see looking at us? Our radio and television waves? No, we were here building cities out of stone and while it's not fair to say if life could only have started 3 billion years ago in the entire galaxy because maybe the quasar period ended, and that life would even have to take 3 billion years of evolution to reach space, but thats what it took us and we have no other model to compare it to, and using it there would be nothing to see in the local galaxy. @@nickj1968

[@PureNRG2]

Maybe truly advanced civilizations have learned that it’s just best to take good care of what you already have.

[@kaseyboles30]

Stars die. And any tech to prevent that would likely be highly visible.

[@bernster123]

Sad😢

[@JRockySchmidt]

Or they have learned the hard way its best to keep silent 😢

[@RaptorJesus52]

I appreciate this perspective. Expecting a civilization to expand is already assuming something about that civilization, and is anthropomorphic. If life evolved on a planet twice the size of earth and with 4x as many resources, there would be no need for competition, and therefore no need for expansion. It's our own predatory and selfish biological past, I think, that makes us assume that all civilizations have this drive for "more". Some may just be fine with what they have - either because they never learned scarcity, or because they learned acceptance.

[@PureNRG2]

@@RaptorJesus52 Plus, FTL may indeed actually be impossible. I hope not, but the possibility exists. Perhaps they all stay local and learn to tap the vast resources of their solar systems.

[@mrDmastr19]

I think the ticket 🎟️ is “if you survive” And two big things impact that; 1. Natural forces can make life go extinct especially if the civilization doesn’t have the technology to prevent it. 2. A civilization could kill themselves by being irresponsible with technology. Seems to me that the odds that there is advices life is high. But the reason we don’t see them much is they probably simply observe. We have nothing to offer to them, and they know we are capable of being violent; so they probably figure we are not worth there time unless we somehow become a threat to them. And on the rare occasions where some of them have maybe tried to make an encounter: it was probably a sad attempt to simply give us a friendly message or push along the right direction. But it didn’t have a big enough impact to change anything for us. But overall they probably just look at us like- well if they kill themselves that’s the circle of life. Kind of like, if we see a hurt bird, we could walk right by it and 9/10 times we’d keep walking and just say it’s the circle of life maybe it will make it maybe it won’t… on rare occasions maybe we pick it up, put it in a box and give it a push… but if it doesn’t make it we keep moving on; and as long as that bird is not a threat to us we leave it alone. If the bird carried a highly contagious disease that could kill us all, we’d squash the bird in a second flat and there would be nothing the bird could do. Intelligent life looks at us similar to that bird. We are kind of on the fence of being a threat. Right now we are mostly confined to Earth just starting to send rockets to space, moon, soon mars and have satellites just data collecting. But minimal threat to intelligent life. It’s interesting that the reports of UFO’s really amped up when we started toying with nuclear weapons. Which is probably why they did some checking in on us. And as the future goes on- especially with recent breakthroughs with Fusion… we’ll see if we keep getting checked on. My guess is, if we can’t find a way to be a peaceful existence, we our either gonna kill ourselves, or be killed once we have the ability to take our violence and weapons to other planets galaxies etc.

[@fredfolson5355]

I think there are two reasons why we may not have detected any other "intelligent" life out there. 1) Size. The universe is enormous beyond comprehension, and light is fast but not infinitely fast. It takes light a long time to get from one star system to another. So if there are say . . . 10 intelligent species within our galaxy equally dispersed, then we're going to be waiting a long time for their signal to reach us. And 2) Technology. We consider ourselves advanced, but as Dr. Cox pointed out there could be alien species out there that are far more advanced than we are because they've had science much longer than we have. And so, the technology they're using to communicate with and probe the cosmos with may simply be beyond our capability right now. I think the "Great filter" is still in front of us, and we have yet to get beyond it before we can take our next giant leap for mankind.

[@thepolarianempire]

The great filter might be behind us for all we know human like intelligence is the blip it’s the oddity maybe you only get an intelligent species incredibly rarely or another great idea that the evidence we have not seen any intelligent aliens is necessary for are society to exist because if aliens existed they would have found earth and our species eons ago and have brought us into their collective or killed us so an empty universe at the moment is needed for interstellar nations to form

[@ML-qj7eb]

This is the best science channel, I love your easiness to explain in such a way that you want more.

[@TorquilBletchleySmythe]

Perhaps they are visiting us, but exist in a light spectrum we cannot perceive

That's horseshit.

[@twowolves888]

Humans only interact with 4 dimensions. That's not even half of the dimensions that exist in this universe. If they are 5th, 6th etc they could be right next to you but you wouldn't know

[@Atoyota]

They’re out there, and light years ahead of us in science and technology.

[@all0utmetal735]

🤨

[@Mybigfinger_69]

the best narrative on life I have ever heard. Must watch this again, thanks for the enlightenment 😊

[@JustMeZero988]

I believe there is other life out there but probably way to far for any contact up to now. Our nearest star is 4.5 years away and that is flying at the speed of light. (approximately 180.000 miles per second and our space shuttles roughly fly about 180.000 miles per hour). What I don't understand about us sending out space shuttles with friendly messages and stating that we are a peaceful planet and want to be friends, when back here on earth, we have had lots of wars, and still fighting each other and still having wars with each other? So how can we send out a message that we are a peaceful planet?? Never understood that.

[@davidtomlinson6138]

We've not bn contacted , as other civilisations know how DANGEROUS we are , based on the experiment going wrong with our species, after earth was made habitable for our experimental species - MAN , beware of them ! Stay away?, you've bn warned

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

Let's sort out the Wealth and the Power distribution among the citizens before we think about reaching the Stars. Newton was horrible to other human beings.

[@49cchris]

Interesting fact, advanced spices would not kill their own species! Makes me think of ants, so small their brains are, but they work as a team building their colonies not harming one other....

[@winesap2]

@@49cchrisant species fight each other all the time. Humans killed off all closely related species long ago.

[@Nava9380]

Ants do war against other Ants. They are just as aggressive as humans.

[@ragtop63]

It’s interesting seeing humanity evolve. Humans like Brian Cox seem to have innovative ideas of how life may or may not work within the Milky Way. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how things progress. In the meantime, we’ll be watching and waiting. Good luck 👍

[@avistryfe4534]

You mean "humanity devolve". We used to be one with the planet. Now were more like an all consuming disease. Not very smart imo.

[@abc456f]

I don't fear death, but it does make me angry that I won't be around to see how the future turns out. Look how far we've come in 500 years. Imagine one million.

[@budo4]

Maybe the odds of life manifesting itself into existence is so monumentally low that it does take billions of years and trillions of stars to make even a single improbable instance possible. This would give credit to the argument that we are alone. The idea that we are not alone might then just be an inspirational exercise giving us meaning and purpose which is a benefit for life moving forward but ultimately leads nowhere.

[@all0utmetal735]

This is 100 percent possible. However we just don’t know. Oddly the chances of there being intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are just the same as the chances that there is nothing given the fact that we have only 1 data point. Your guess is as good as anyone’s. And who’s to say that the number of factors to drakes equation are even limited to what drake had originally proposed. Maybe there are 10 times as many factors 🤔 seeing as how we don’t even know where the spark of life itself even came from therefore not knowing exactly what course of absolutes led to the evolution of. Intelligent life.

[@jasonamrhein9593]

The Dark Forest hypothesis is pretty scary. Basically, it states that civilizations learn to shut up and not draw attention to themselves, and they either learn that lesson the easy way or the hard way ...

[@gregs5154]

Interesting! So the surviving civilisations are those that detect another civilisation being destroyed by the bad guys. At that point the terrified survivors close the cosmic blinds, turn off all radio transmissions and probably retreat underground!

[@jeil5676]

Likely redundant due to the great filter.@@gregs5154

[@n1w910]

That's not it, the dark forest is about finding any potential threats first. Think of two guys in a dark forest who can't see their hand in front of their face. They both have guns and know the other could potentially be dangerous. Do they try and make contact and risk getting shot as soon as they make any noise? Or do they wait for the other to make noise and be the first to shoot removing any risk?

[@markojotic]

Alien invasion theories always omit the fact that there is no reason for it unless you have FTL.

[@efugee]

@@gregs5154 Yes, the moment a civilization makes itself known, an near speed of light mass known as a kill vehicle is dispatched, goes along silently as long as it takes, and impacts that world. It could already have been in motion for 50 years now and we would never know. Our fate could have been sealed before we were born.

[@don.keebles]

There is also the possibility that we are the first. If you take into account the total lifespan of the universe (up until the very last atom gets ripped apart from the expansion) we still have trillions upon trillions of years to go. Though 13 billion years may seem like a lot, we are literally in the universe's baby years. So maybe, life just takes that long to appear, perhaps we are the first.

[@gregs5154]

Or the last!

[@don.keebles]

@@gregs5154 Not very likely, if we are truly the last, then we should have already found evidence of countless ancient civilizations that came and went.

[@garryhawkes5950]

The guy with a constant smile. Refreshing.

[@mikeoconnell8031]

Excellent hypotheses. Well thought out

[@Greenhead24]

More alien videos i can watch them over and over again,and longer

[@mynamemylastname7179]

They are called cartoons. There is no aliens on GODS FLAT EARTH

[@Rocketman5442]

They are entertaining but in all likelihood, and what Brian doesn’t tell you, is that it is unlikely we will ever know if intelligent life exists or has ever existed. There are simply too many variables. 1. We don’t know if it is possible for life to evolve on any planet except our own. 2. Assuming that intelligent life can evolve elsewhere, how long will that intelligence exist? 3. Do they exist long enough and at distance where they are detectable by us during our existence. These are just 3 of a multitude of variables that must align for us to detect them. The odds are astronomically against detection. Even if we did detect them depending on their distance it highly unlikely that they still exist when detected. Brian is being disingenuous without pointing out these facts.

[@Greenhead24]

@@Rocketman5442 I know,i am obsessed with the search for alien life,i have thought of every scenario,I have watched ever documentary ,conspiracy or scientific. Although i do not believe we have been visited or ever seen an evidence of live elsewhere,its the one question that i wish i had the answers too,besides a a correct lottery ticket. I just want to know so bad,and bacteria or plant life or even alien animals,i want to know about intelligent life,i want to see spaceships and humanoid aliens. It is my favourite topic

[@mynamemylastname7179]

@@Greenhead24 you missed one conspiracy and that is EARTH IS FLAT SPACE IS FAKE AND BRIAN EATS KOCKS while telling a 🐂💩sci-fi fairy tale story.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

@@Rocketman5442 wrong the answer to your questions is already known. 1) THERE ARE NO PLANETS AND EARTH IS NOT A PLANET. EARTH IS A FLAT STATIONARY PLANE 2) EVILUTION IS 🐂💩 FAIRY TALE STORY.

[@oeheaven]

It is ridiculous to think there is no life anywhere else. With a hundred quintillion Earth-like planets in the Universe, yea there is life.

[@VulcanRedux]

Ignorance is bliss. Also why does conscious life have to be biological? Why so much need for the physicality. I guess that’s how “we” as humans, perceive life. I myself believe in dimensional beings.

[@TheGeneral_LUFC]

There is life 100%

[@BobbyBlair-xx7bs]

Even as a Believer in God I know that the Bible states that if all of the things Christ Jesus did in His 33 years walking among us were written down "THE WORLD 🌎 COULD NOT CONTAIN THE PAGES THEREOF" I ask, knowing this, who are we to say that Earth is the only planet that God created life? I must think "What if He created another Adam & Eve who did not eat of the forbidden fruit" He Created them, "In His image" so without sin they would not need a Spaceship but have the ability to be"Omnipresent"

[@maxezz9]

If aliens existed on other planets, if aliens visited earth, then the doctrine of salvation in Jesus Christ will be upended.

[@VulcanRedux]

@@maxezz9 no it wouldn’t, Christ literally stated his kingdom is not of this earth, with that being said, the doctrine is not talking about anything man made. Christ was human yes, but his spirit is divine and not from this dimension..

[@SSJfraz]

We're fish in a tank. When a human walks past a fish tank, the fish in the tank are non the wiser. They have no concept of what they're seeing, so it's just a complete mystery to them. It's the same for us when we look out into the universe. Our brains simply can't comprehend what is beyond the glass, so it all just seems really strange and mysterious to us.

[@tomorrowtodaylane]

So fish don't have eyes? Tf

[@RobOfTheNorth2001]

Fish can totally see humans walking by the glass. I don’t see your point.

[@SSJfraz]

@@tomorrowtodaylane Living things don't see with their eyes, they see a mental projection created by the brain. The brain decides which information to take in and process and which information to filter out. The level of information processed varies from species, but limitations still apply to everything, even human beings. The Universe is our brains processing limit, just as everything beyond the glass is the processing limit of the fish.

[@SSJfraz]

@@RobOfTheNorth2001 They can see, but they don't understand what they're seeing. Their brains simply can't comprehend it. Just as our brains can't really comprehend the vastness of space.

[@RobOfTheNorth2001]

@@SSJfraz except we can understand the vastness of space, not visualize with our brain, but describe with our math.

[@nicomeier8098]

If there are technically advanced alien civilisations, they probably have a kind of Star Trek rule not to interfere with emerging civilisations, until the emerging civilisation has reached a specific level of technology, like intergalactic travel. That would make sense: you would not want to share highly advanced technology with a civilisation that ha s not matured to that level by themselves.

[@void-master9077]

It makes sense, we need to stop fighting ourselves before we end up taking the final frontier, if only.

[@smudger0535]

What fairy tale you on about

[@gordonaliasme1104]

​@@void-master9077you're alone in your channel 😢

[@gordonaliasme1104]

​@@smudger0535your channel is empty 😢

[@thepolarianempire]

Yeah but it would be unlikely that all members of a civilization wouldn’t share tech nor would all species have that same ethos

[@twisterwiper]

It’s almost impossible to imagine a wet planet with water slushing around over rocks, being completely sterile and clean.

[@BrickUnit]

The universe has to be teeming with life. Just look how easily life grows when you leave the cheese out for a week.

[@sullisen]

@@BrickUnit unsure if you're joking or not but keyword: grows. Not spontaneously forms from unliving molecules and atoms. The rest of the universe is as far as we know 100% devoid of any cheese, making growing any life on it infinitely more difficult. Which brings us to the way more important question: Do we really want to put so much energy into getting out there, when the cheese is right here?

[@BrickUnit]

@@sullisen even If life on earth is super incredibly rare something like 0.000001% probability.. then it's still means across the entire cosmos that there has to be millions if not billions of planets being inhabited by other lifeforms. Its mathematically impossible for life to only come about on one planet out of 100s of quadrillions and it's likely way way more than that. But yeah I believe the universe is teeming with life. I love me some cheese

[@rustknuckleirongut8107]

Life might pop up all over the place. The problem is that the universe is working hard to sterilize itself.

[@sullisen]

@@BrickUnit yea my objection was more about the evidence than the idea it was meant to prove, I'm convinced there is life elsewhere in the universe. Intelligent life around our level or beyond is much less certain imo. But of course until we find anything there will always be some level of uncertainty..

[@MrCPrasky]

I think a major reason is seemingly basic....if our planet is 4.8 Billion years old but just our galaxy is 13+ billion years old then math says about 2/3 of the galaxy is so far away that our light hasn't even reached them yet. Also seems logical that life has had more time to happen in those older zones and those that are that distant. It's crazy to me to think that someday in those far off galaxies we will be a huge discovery, the real question is who finds who first? They should, as they have had eons of a head start, but I also can't believe in all the galaxy we on Earth are the lowest on the totem pole so to speak. Surely somewhere out there some world is in the "caveman" stage right?

[@stevenwaninski8874]

The Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years across, if it's 13 billion years old and our sun is 4.5 billion years old then light from our star has had time to reach everywhere in the galaxy thousands of times over.

[@MrCPrasky]

@@stevenwaninski8874 i meant universe not galaxy my mistake

[@pixelpanda2227]

I smile when i hear Prof. Brian Cox

[@SurlockGnomez]

Good job Newton didn't think along the lines of "we don't know what that is so let's not think about it". For me the most obvious filter would be that all habitable solar systems have stars that are susceptible to the Galactic current sheet. Being that they can Micronova as a result of either or the magnetic influence of said sheet and/or the dust that the sheet brings it. This being on a 12k year cycle (shown by Nova produced isotopes that would have decayed by now if there were from other stars being just one of many indicators), a Civilization that uses electricity would be thrown back to the stone age; this latest cycle we are nearing the end of. This is the best case scenario. The worst case (to which there is geologic evidence for) is that the Micronova would coincide with the flip of the magnetic pole (which we are experiencing at the moment) when the Earth's field is at it's weakest and unlocks the lower velocity zone and tilts the Earth over; causing the Oceans to sweep across the entire continents. This unlocking of the crust was the last thing Einstein was looking into but didn't come up with a solution to explain the geographic evidence due to them not looking outside of the Earth for a trigger mechanism.

[@brianphat1392]

Considering how much time that our civilisation has had vs the time the universe has had to create life elsewhere…it’s like trying to find a needle in a thousand hay stacks and only given one second to find it…impossible

[@mrrebel5150]

when you see an ant bed in the yard do you feel the need to communicate with it?😂

[@Exotic3000]

This was a great video! ❤

[@Richard.Caboteja.Danao.]

Beautiful narratives, excellent explanations of this ontology.

[@stephentomkinson5115]

I remember the original Star Trek. The prime directive was, 'don't interfere with other civilizations'. Maybe the producers had a point. After all we've only got to look at our own history to see what happened to many less developed civilizations when so called more 'advanced' peoples made contact with them.

[@rameyzamora1018]

Hilariously, the Star Trek crew broke the Prime Directive in almost every episode. LOL So human nature!

[@manoo422]

What does that have to do with detecting alien life...?

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Even if an alien civ had a prime directive, would every alien civ have it? Would every citizen in every alien civ agree with it and not violate it? How could that possibly be enforced? Also, given the age of the universe, an alien civ would most likely be millions or even billions of years older. It would only take a few million years to colonize every planet in our galaxy at sublight speeds. IF they existed, they would be everywhere.

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

If you were Captain of your own star ship, would to make contact with a new lifeforms if they were less developed? (iron/bronze age like people) and if so how do you think that you would go about it?

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

@@manoo422 it was one of the points raised in this upload, they said if aliens/UAP are visiting and not introducing themselves are they just observing.

[@merlinbooper6756]

It's not a question if we are alone; it's a question of what is keeping us company.

[@cstuartdc]

I don't know. It's hard to generate even a small flagellum in the laboratory to get a bacterium to "evolve" towards motility to go get some food. Thousands and thousands and thousands of generations and mutations and. . .nothing. I believe absolutely in evolution but. . .it doesn't really explain how we got here too well. Something else is propelling life forward.

[@merlinbooper6756]

@@cstuartdc Bioelectricity may be the freak event that triggers biomotorisation either way, it happened here, more than once and will most likely happen within the vast infinity of this universe. No one doubts that.

[@cstuartdc]

@@merlinbooper6756 I agree it happened. It absolutely happened. But I’m not sure random collisions of photons in DNA explains it. And so why would any other force of nature, universe or God do it elsewhere? But why not either right?

[@merlinbooper6756]

@@cstuartdc There is no God, let's establish that. There is me, but I am not the creator; that was a blob thing that went bloop at some point aka the Big B. And we have not explored out own solar system that much, let alone the universe, so we just don't know what is out there, but it is very likely something is.

[@richardcaves3601]

​@@cstuartdcever heard of quantum physics and chaos theory

[@drew-shourd]

Great stuff here, much respect for Brian, his knowledge and ideas. Two ways we do differ is (1) that I believe life was delivered here. We know, for certain that all living life starts from a seed, plants, animals, even microorganisms, so it is my belief, along with many, that life here on Earth was seeded, most likely from Mars. And (2) regardless of the Fermi Paradox, I believe there is and has been for millions of years, other life forms in this Universe and multiverse, how can there not be?

[@ryo0o0o88]

You believe life on Earth comes from Mars? how is that possible? Mars is a barren wasteland and always has been

[@all0utmetal735]

How can there not be? Maybe there are mysteries to universe that will simply always remain a mystery. There is nothing that grants us a sacred right to all the knowledge is the cosmos. The chances of intelligent life elsewhere is the universe are the same as if there is nothing given that we have no idea what the chances even are. It’s anyone’s guess.

[@richardcaves3601]

Unfortunately, belief is no substitute for cold cast iron facts.

[@CameronGraham-of7tc]

Perhaps our civilization here on earth is categorized as a “leave alone” civilization. We’re new, and the life that has existed for millions of years know to leave us be for sometime.

[@joeypiraino7039]

To many unexplainable artifacts on this planet to think they have/are leaving us alone

[@richardcaves3601]

Rubbish, new stars are being born at the rate of three every two years, and that's just in our galaxy.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

I believe there are many great filters and we have survived several of them so far.

[@sly6627]

Or maybe we didn't survive any of them.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

@@sly6627 It took over 1 billion years to make the jump from single cell to multicellular. That's one. Then there was the leap to photosynthesis which is the basis for the entire food chain. Of note is that oxygen at the time was poisonous to the creatures that lived at the time. It took a while for life forms to develop that could utilize the oxygen to full larger and more complex creatures. Then there's the stability of the planet and not getting wiped out by a planet-killer asteroid. Even without that, mankind almost went extinct several times. These are all filters that an intelligent specie would have to overcome. There's more...

[@mynamemylastname7179]

You believe in 🐂💩none sense. EARTH IS FLAT SPACE IS FAKE🐒

[@belzarzelzarian9397]

@@sly6627 maybe you are trapped in my consciousness?

[@Fido-vm9zi]

Yes, and tests occur now & again. If said tests are failed, human apocalypse with few survivors.

[@alltheeasynamesweregone]

I could seriously listen to Brian Cox talk all day! I bet he makes even the most mundane thing sound interesting! He could say “my tea has gone cold” and I’d still listen cos I know he’d explain the second law of thermodynamics to me!

[@sillystephys7123]

I bought a season of his BBC show to listen to at night. I fall asleep to this man’s science and voice. Zzzzzzzzz lovely

[@MrHsktoto]

i like this great filter hypothesis , also i'm wondering about the travel in space will it be possible and viable to travel to another stars even the closest one ? maybe its not possible to travel at the speed of light or even at 99.9% of it and with that in mind it make galaxy colonisations almost impossible just to travel to another stars would take 80 million years if we manage to travel at the speed of light . and so maybe were all stuck in our lil solar neighboor and cannot go further than some close stars james webb telescops discovered molecular cloud who contain basic brics for life to appears and this cloud are old that would mean that the basic elements for life to appears would have been present since an early stage of the univers and so life should be could be here since many time Maybe the "great filter" is pass maybe were in right now maybe it will be later but still that this ecology problem , living with our planet without killing it , being harmonious with our world for me is one of basic that we need to survive for a long time , many old culturals idea were about that , sad they've almost got all erased , maybe were already hiting this great filter but we don't know yet that we already dead

[@crazycowpoke]

I just love listening to/ watching Brian Cox along with Michio Kaku. They both make science more interesting.

[@andrewm4679]

Imagine you are walking through the forest. As you hike down the rugged trail, you notice an ant hill. Are you gonna get down there and attempt to communicate with the ants ? Probably not. You might not even notice their world so perfectly hidden in plain sight. If the other life forms were so much more advanced than we are, would they even bother to stop and notice us? Would we even be capable of being aware?

[@stefanjohansson2298]

A study published in "The Astrophysical Journal" in 2016 estimated that there are approximately 2 trillion (2 x 10^12) galaxies in the observable universe. There might be 400 billion suns in the Milky Way. It's possible that there are countless galaxies in the entire universe. I cant take that in. But I am so impressed by people like Mr Cox that try to explain this to me.

[@TheDesertraptor]

Very deep Brian. Earth giving meaning. Nothing is created from nothing. We need to answer to how the universe came to exist.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

In the beginning GOD created the heavens and THE FLAT EARTH.

[@kaseyboles30]

Based on what we have found out in the last few decades I'm currently leaning towards the rare earth hypothesis.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

Try the Leaning towards FLAT EARTH FACT IDI0T and Space is Fake

[@all0utmetal735]

That’s silly.

[@richardcaves3601]

From evidence to date, it's becoming more than a hypothesis - if what we're seeing from HST, JWST etc is right, rare earth is more likely than not

[@off__world8668]

unless humans evolve there's zero chance of survival

[@mynamemylastname7179]

Seems like you already lost on the evilution front. Next time try evilving a skull with some brain cells. Earth Flat Space is Fake🐒

[@_plastikman]

I m proud to see him live

[@garrymanson3576]

I once watched a Brian Cox programme on BBC while I was in prison and completely freaked my bunnet about how my molecules shouldn't be confined. True story.

[@patrickgamble9014]

Science needs more rock stars - and Brian Cox was actually a rock star too

[@johnryan2193]

We won't admit that we are limited in our understanding of existence, we also don't acknowledge that consciousness is not restricted to the human race .

[@RobOfTheNorth2001]

Who is ‘we’? Science both admits we are limited in our understanding and that other animals are conscious.

[@esoteric404]

how did this convoluted mess of a comment get 15 likes? xD

[@oggyoggy1299]

Why won’t you admit that you are limited in your understanding of existence? You think you have a full understanding? And why won’t you acknowledge that other creatures have consciousness? Have you ever interacted with a dog?

[@mondop5270]

I enjoy his delivery

[@djtechnotim]

The Great Filter is perhaps something simple that we overlook. Possibly it's simply us caring for each other, taking care of each other...Because the end result is extinction. If we can't get passed the almighty dollar and start placing our resources into helping out humanity, then we are lost.

[@SMHman666]

djtechnotim Yes, I'm not very optimistic for the future of humanity. I mean, the human race will continue but in a very dystopian way and, like you said, money and the power that goes along with it, will continue to motivate most.

[@digitalfootballer9032]

I used to think the great filter might be AI, but if it was wouldn't we see intelligent AI all over the cosmos? You would think the AI would much more easily evolve itself as well as have more capability to spread itself through the galaxy because time and distance wouldn't matter to something that isn't mortal like a biological being. Yes, of course as mentioned in the video it could hide itself or be so advanced it is undetectable. It is possible also that as AI advances far enough it can become indistinguishable from nature. But it would still have to power itself somehow and that should be noticable. Any highly intelligent, self replicating AI should easily be able to completely dominate a galaxy within a few million years. Which would then beg the question of why then would we even be allowed to exist unless we are indeed some galactic zoo experiment.

[@Mt3Dpdrtk]

thanks for saving me the time

[@manw3bttcks]

Ha, the AI kills off its creator then figures out afterward, "who's going to repair my computers I run on?"

[@michaelgadoua]

AI may be the "great filter" and we are in the string of simulated realities mimicking base.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

FLAT EARTH SAYS THIS IS ALL 🐂💩FAIRY TALES

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

Let's sort out the Wealth and the Power distribution among the citizens before we think about reaching the Stars. Newton was horrible to other human beings.

[@NoSuffix]

The reasons that we haven't observed any alien intelligence are most likely: 1. Highly intelligent species don't pop up that often in the universe, esp. in proximity. 2. Highly intelligent species would put understanding of the world and exploration of the universe, not only this galaxy which is only a tiny speck in the whole universe, as the top priority. When they detect a primitive & violent species like human beings on this planet, they would certainly stay out of sight and observe from afar if still a bit interested. However, the highest possibility is that they have seen too many similar primitive civilizations and lost interest long ago because we can't provide any help or answer to their understanding of the universe. To understand this 2nd point easier, you can ask yourself a simple question: Are you interested in visiting every primitive tribe or backward village on this planet? I bet you will lose your interest pretty soon after hearing hundreds of different but similar superstitious stories which will get boring quickly.

[@Kiina312]

I often think perhaps we can’t see intelligent species is because they’re hidden to us.. If they’re millions of years old, it’s not impossible to assume they’ve developed technology far more advanced than ours which is undetectable. There were tribes in the world which don’t know the outside world because we made sure they didn’t see it until THEY came to us. Perhaps it’s a similar situation. They won’t make their presence known until we branch out into the universe. After all, we are barbaric & ridiculously violent. Who’s not to say we’re not on a “no fly” list for intergalactic travel like we do on earth with volatile countries 😅

[@randybugger3006]

There isn't enough life in the universe to make any assumptions, let alone conclusions, about how and why a species like humans might survive or fail. You may as well ask how St Peter likes the tomatoes in the pico on his burrito cut up. It's a nonsense proposition and it is, frankly, not worth the time of anyone but science fiction writers and fans to contemplate.

[@DeepThinker193]

I think that we're all looking at things in the wrong manner. I tend to look at things objectively and laugh when folks talk about things like a dyson sphere. As you get more advanced you look for things to become more efficient and thus smaller in size (ie not a giant star sucking ball). The more intelligent you get the least likely you are to reproduce so you'll have a very...very small civilization. In fact I might even say you might have a civilization of a couple hundred if any. Also, If they have the tech to come here and observe us, it's unlikely that you'd be able to see the item because it'd be incredibly small and efficient object. It's also unlikely they'd travel to planets lightyears away by themselves just to observe a planet in person because they'd be subject to general relativity where time would fly by on their home planet at an astronomical rate.

[@chuckz2934]

But if not for Chicxulub, would dinosaurs still not rule the world?

[@rogwarrior1018]

Brian makes such great points. Thinking about "nano" aliens is sobering. We could be inundated with these small "life" forms and we are looking for grey-skinned, big-eyed life forms wow, I always learn something from him.

[@TedToal_TedToal]

I wonder if the true final frontier is not space but consciousness? Once we understand what consciousness is and how to create it, will expanding “consciousness technology” open up a whole new universe for exploration? I don’t really get why people are so intrigued by the fermi paradox, which to me doesn’t seem like a paradox at all. If you believe it’s a paradox you’re full of ridiculous assumptions about what an alien intelligence would likely do. How can people even presume to imagine such a thing as how they would be? They’re simply extrapolating from us. But we already know from our own technology trends that everything changes at a very very rapid pace that is accelerating and has been accelerating. We know that we can’t even begin to predict where WE are gonna be 1000 years from now, let alone an extraterrestrial. But we can predict that we’re gonna be utterly and completely different. We can predict that it’s very likely that biological and machine technology will merge, and “life” technology, whatever form it may take, will be readily manipulated by our progeny. But we’re kind of stuck there because we can’t really imagine what would happen once you’re so able to manipulate the world through technology that it becomes akin to magic. I don’t see speculation about the fermi paradox proceeding from that point, which is not so distant in the future. And when I hear people saying that a species would expand throughout the galaxy, I just laugh. Those people have plugged in primitive human behavior into their speculation, the primitive behavior of evolved life that wants to reproduce at the cost of anything and everything else. I would think that as a starter, one should try to imagine what life that created its own motivations might be like. What would life that bared no resemblance whatsoever to its evolutionary roots actually be like? Because that’s what we’re dealing with.

[@jorda.2412]

I do believe it's here.

[@benfoad1416]

They are already running programmes in top universities around the world, experimenting with DMT. One of the aims is to determine whether the entities people encounter in hyper space are autonomous.

[@manoo422]

You mean AI, which we are not even close to producing.

[@TedToal_TedToal]

@@manoo422 I don’t mean AI, which we have, I mean consciousness, which we are not even close to. But we’ll get there. And any extraterrestrial intelligence that’s at least 1000 years more advanced than we are already has it and is way beyond that.

[@manoo422]

@@TedToal_TedToal AI IS consciousness which currently doesnt exist anywhere in the world, the hardware to run it hasnt been invented yet. The so called AI is nothing more than brute force computing made to look like intelligence. Eventually we should be able to create conscious AI but it might be a while yet.

[@theephemeralglade1935]

Gibbering Tentacled blob aliens lurch menacingly out of the steaming yellow bog. Expedition assistant -"What do we do? What do we do?!" Brian Cox - "Kill 'Em! Kill 'em all!!!"

[@Kathoi]

1:48 that is an awesome visual

[@garymitchell6056]

Wise words Brian !

[@raydavison4288]

A civilization 1,000,000 years ahead of us wouldn't have starships exploring the universe. It would BE starships exploring the universe. 😊

[@richardcaves3601]

Problem: the average civilization lasts between 400 & 4000 years

[@raydavison4288]

@@richardcaves3601 : We only know about human civilization. Our data is limited.

[@richardcaves3601]

@@raydavison4288 I think the point the program was making, and others like it, and a raft of books on the subject, is that despite decades of looking, and with almost six decades of increased knowledge, there are none. More, the evidence from what we do know, points to there not being any.

[@raydavison4288]

@@richardcaves3601 : Yep. I get that. However, it is a statistical impossibility that we are alone in the universe.

[@richardcaves3601]

@@raydavison4288 actually, it's the reverse of that. Read up on the rare earth theory. The book called "the lucky planet" produces scientific evidence of the huge number of factors that are needed just to get single cellular life. For multicellular life, the list is longer. For MCL over 3.5 billion years, well, let's just say the statistical odds are so infantisimal we are truly lucky. Which speaks volumes about the likelihood of there being another earth.

[@rogierdikkes]

Maybe civilization isn't meant to last

[@rameyzamora1018]

Civilizations evolve, they don't last, isn't that true!

[@retired5218]

Or maybe we are meant to expand and rule the galaxy!

[@michaeldenning8869]

​@@retired5218'universe' is going wrong way

[@retired5218]

@@michaeldenning8869 Don't think we will ever be able to get to other galaxies. Our galaxy is big enough for us.

[@tyreekbethea1796]

In this vast universe life is the greatest thing

[@MicahPotts]

Glad I'm not the only one who's thought of the 'Nano-Civilization' idea! 5:50

[@Baldevi]

The problem with the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter is that advanced civilizations are expected to behave as Humans do and to want to be seen, to explore to exploit other clestial bodies. This is so bothersome, jaw-droppingly limiting. Think about the hundreds of Human Cultures that have existed and did NOT spread out and even try to develop technology, yet lived quiet and peaceful lives for thousands of years. Not every Human is avaricious and seek to take all they can grab, so why would every 'advanced civilization' desire to be seen and to exploit the Universe's Planets, Moon, asteroids, comets and so on?

[@rameyzamora1018]

What human civilization lived a quiet & peaceful life for thousands of years? None I know of...please elucidate.

[@markbeards4441]

Is the human race really that arrogant to think that we are the only race in the universe?

[@davidbee3704]

At this exact instant of time, perhaps humans are the only race in our Galaxy. Remember, it took Earth nearly 4 billion years to evolve and humans far less. Who knows what was around billions of years ago and what will be around billions of years in the future? You have to think of in time.

[@stevechaffee9881]

He is great, humble!!

[@michaeldenning8869]

We all chose to have a go at what we are doing, this is not really us, just an experience

[@Rubberman2036]

The moment that life on earth evolved from inorganic matter, can be equated to a moment when magic existed. It is basically the same as a rock in your garden all of a sudden springing to life. Anything can happen in an infinite universe, and we are the result of infinity. So it is possible that we are the cutting edge of an infinitely unlikely occurrence.

[@johnnies.verton4432]

Except no, that is not the same.

[@Rubberman2036]

@@johnnies.verton4432 Life from non-life...how is that different. Even a single cell is life, and is a miracle.

[@jeremyd1869]

Your original premise is mistaken. Life did not evolve from inorganic matter. It was created by a geochemical process that used the organic elements hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. So no, it wasn't magic. It required organic matter and a chemical reaction.

[@johnnies.verton4432]

@@Rubberman2036 building blocks aren't the same thing as a rock 🤣

[@Rubberman2036]

@@johnnies.verton4432 Yes, I understand the process of the building blocks combining to create life. It happened, and it is amazing. But prior to that moment, those blocks, no matter how complex, were lifeless.

[@hunterphan5506]

At this rate, we human will destroy ourselves and the earth way before the Sun dies out.

[@kefhomepage]

That part is true , the sun has another 5 billion years to go. Humans will be lucky to survive the next 200 years at this rate.

[@briancurrie2897]

We are so insignificant to the planet. That once we are gone the earth will be fine. We have had extinction event that wiped out 90% of all life on earth not just once or twice…. The planet will be fine.

[@sparkey196]

If humans survive for another 1000 years, just imagine how expensive an iPhone will be!

[@danwable4860]

Maybe only one planet in each galaxy creates life and once that life matures and settles their galaxy will it be able to communicate with others in different galaxies.

[@Fido-vm9zi]

Imagine we, now, will witness such things. That is cool.

[@skykid4000]

“Solid proof remains elusive” I don’t like this tone. If video footage taken from highly experienced Air Force personnel released by the government isn’t up to standard or basically isn’t “solid” enough then I’d say you’re being disingenuous. As Brian says it’s “Unidentified” so it also rules out being other worldly. Again disingenuous. It’s unidentifiable to anything we have here. On earth. That we know. By the Military. So it’s at least worth considering that it leans more to other worldly.

[@ponytail873]

Agree, My thoughts exactly.

[@Hughmonte]

But it's a VR game and not real..😂

[@715michala]

Well its game over if we self destruct! So pain ain't real then? That is simulated too.umm

[@coachafella]

Another hypothesis is that organic life is only a short-lived phase in the evolution of higher intelligence. Could be that once AI becomes sufficiently advanced it takes over and non-organic technological intelligence settles into a final quiet, optimized contemplative state Google this for an interesting discussion on this idea: "Scientific American Most Aliens May Be Artificial Intelligence, Not Life as We Know It"

[@coachafella]

Heard a science podcast today that reviewed a study about atmospheric oxygen levels. If it's too low then combustion becomes very difficult or impossible. Even if intelligent life can develop, without the ability to smelt metals then advanced technology is extremely unlikely. And we have so far not discovered any exoplanets with nearly the level of oxygen in their atmospheres that's required for useful combustion. One more possible reason why advanced tech has not been obvious elsewhere as we look out at the universe.

[@gregs5154]

Nice. Earth had its plant driven excess "oxygen crisis" 3bn years ago didn't it? Then life took advantage of the excess and learned how to reverse metabolise O2 to CO2. So life's (evolution's) balance, the Gaia hypothesis, enabled the balancing of oxygen level and thus discovery of fire in a way. The ability to metabolise oxygen is related the production of fire. This might happen elsewhere since evolution is surely a universal mechanism in the production of biological life?

[@coachafella]

@@gregs5154 They did mention that if the oxygen level is too high then a spark would ignite the entire atmosphere, so there is definitely a self-balancing mechanism for an upper oxygen level. I don't know if life in general would have a tendency to raise it to the more optimized level on Earth, or if yet again we just got lucky.

[@hansegilhansen8383]

He talks about our responsibility to give meaning to the universe. If we do eradicate ourselves, then to whom will we be responsible? 🤔

[@richardcaves3601]

Actually, what he's saying without saying it, is that life is truly precious and so very rare, that every human life should be treated better than we are currently doing.

[@mikeb2777]

When you consider the science we have has only created the ability to go 15 billion miles (.0026 light years) in about 40 or 50 years (Voyagers). for others to reach us the science would be off the scale. It is easy to believe their tech is so sophisticated that we can't detect it. Therefore they could be all around us and we wouldn't know it.

[@corujariousa]

More than technological limitations, we have a mindset limitation. We have failed to find life outside Earth and keep being surprised when we find life, and new species, in places on Earth we thought would be impossible to sustain life. Shouldn't that be an indicator that we should change our approach on this subject and see how else we could look for life, very different than ours? What if life exists in different dimensions and advanced species have learned how to travel between dimensions? They'd be able to do feats we find physics defying and stay mostly undetected. Just like the accounta we have of UFO/UPA phenomena.

[@mhtbfecsq1]

And that's with the assumption that the universe is only 13 billion years old, or that it had a beginning at all.

[@JacksonHoulihan]

They could all have come and gone by now since they would have been so far ahead of us in time, and they could have been like us and just destroyed themselves or each other before getting too far out.

[@subtle0savage]

A critical flaw in the Fermi Paradox, or Brian's approach, is mineral evolvement. 'If' the Universe is 13'ish billion years old, then the standard idea is that we humans are late on the scene and should see evidence of aliens. This assumes that aliens could have thrived in the early Universe. One of the reasons we've been so successful on earth is the abundance of various minerals which we've been able to transform in to useful items/tools. We take iron, copper, silver, etc for granted--thinking they must be everywhere. And indeed they are--now. Such minerals come from super-nova. Following the big-bang hypothesis, as the Universe ages, super-nova will seed space with more and more of these rare (and not so rare now) minerals. It could very well be that conditions might have been right on a planet just a billion or so years after the Big Bang for chemistry to occur leading to 'life'. But even if that life evolved over several billion years, say 4 billion following our own example, it might end up with an intelligent species that was basically incapable of having a technological society due to the lack of minerals. At what point would the Universe have to have evolved for the super-nova mineral-seeding events to have reached a critical mass of available mineral densities for an intelligent species to use? Even today, when we use spectroscopy, we find the Universe to contain: Hydrogen 74%, Helium: 24%. Which are quite useful to a species like us which can build things to make use of them, but absolutely useless if you don't have carbon, iron, copper, etc., to make the tools/machines. Thus, it's quite feasible that humans, or other species, are actually arriving at just the right time in the Universe to start creating advanced technological societies.

[@kajuta240]

14 billion years is an astonishingly young universe. However, far more terrifying than being alone is the Dark Forest paradox. The general premise is anyone dumb enough to make a noise is immediately snuffed out to prevent them from being a possible competition for resources or superiority.

[@andrewright111075]

i truly believe the JWST is our great filter. i believe it's eye or presence will alert or signal a hyper or advanced civilization we aren't ready for. what a glorious way to go.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

You believe a lot of 🐂💩. Earth is Flat Space is Fake. Ret@rd

[@carmellecrinnion1970]

After listening to Unacknowledged by Dr Stephen Greer I realise we are so far beyond what is allowed to be shared with “us”.

[@europeanguy8773]

On a bigger scale I think the universe itself is part of something even bigger. We just don't understand it yet. I don't think that something just comes to exist out of nothing. There's always a predecessor. We wouldn't be here if the plants didn't evolve first and I think the same rules applies to everything there is or ever was.

[@user-lx6pk9os2d]

The estimate of the age of the universe has recently been very quietly doubled to 28ish billion years. Catch up Brian! Seriously though, this has a significant impact on the Fermi paradox. We could realistically be at the tail end of this cycle of "intelligent" life. We'd have no clue if a galactic civilisation had existed. We'd also have absolutely no clue if we were the last remaining outpost of that civilisation - which is an interesting possibility!

[@9y2bgy]

Dawkins once said that considering there are 2 trillion galaxies each with between 200-400 billion stars, the chances of there being life other than humans is very high. Even if life advanced as ours is very very rare, the advanced civilizations, space-faring civilizations could number into billions which is still tiny considering the number of stars in the observable universe.

[@all0utmetal735]

Yea that entire statement is BS.

[@user-wj7wj9bl4s]

On ya Brian. Your the man dude..

[@ianbrett3276]

1.43 space ship looks like the Starbird toy I had as a kid in the early 80s 😄

[@dangermace11]

One question I always ask myself is (when looking for life in our solar system), that humans are looking for what creates human life but whose to say that alien life requires other elements to create and sustain it? Another species may require different building blocks and we're not looking for those in our search?

[@subspaceanomaly]

I heard some scientists talking about how life might be able to evolve in plasma

[@COFFEEWITHJAVA]

Yes i agree with him where brian immediately takes a comparision to earth vs millions of billions of stars bubbling around and the meaning of life is only on Earth. So yes we have tremendous responsibility but we lack guidance to enhance our wisdom control to understand the unknown or THE Haunting Great Silence.

[@mynamemylastname7179]

No you Lack common sense for not realising EARTH IS FLAT SPACE IS FAKE and Lying box is telling you a science fiction fairy tale story

[@johnbrooker6134]

Maybe civilizations that have been going for millions of years and have figured out everything there is to know about the universe get around in ways we haven't even considered yet? Maybe we haven't come far enough to meet on their level? Maybe they don't need to leave their planet to keep an eye on us?

[@subspaceanomaly]

yes it seems plausible they would have become nature itself and merged into the fabric of the universe