Frank Drake - Where are All Those Aliens?

[@cebineragn8339]

Just found out that Drake left us this year in September. I wish his family the best, and may his wisdom and curiosity of the cosmos stay with us. Rest in Peace Frank

[@snowman374th]

I lost my mother Sept 26th. She killed by the Covid stuff in my opinion. I say stuff, not a shot. She never missed any doctors appointments, and she always come back clean. 2012 fought Lung cancer. They removed half of her left lung. She was good to go. From, 2012- 2018. Until Covid. Then Diagnosed with three and 3 months to live. . She took chemo lived 5.1/2 months. Greatest woman I've ever known. She was 77 years old and full of life. RIP Momma.

[@ahmedp800]

Disappointing yet realistic answer

[@philliprobinson129]

We dont have enough information about our Universe to call this realistic one way or the other.

[@youtubisashoe]

Phillip Robinson we’ll forget”realistic” we are looking for the most probable answer

[@chuckschillingvideos]

@@philliprobinson129 We certainly have enough information about our own capabilities/limitations to say without any dispute that we do not have the ANY of the capabilities necessary to make even interstellar space travel even worth thinking about, much less a plausible possibility.

[@philliprobinson129]

@@chuckschillingvideos no we don't have that at all. We can say we don't have that capability now, but our knowledge of our capabilities is always evolving.

[@aguy923]

@@philliprobinson129 this is an argument you can make in response to any claim. You can ALWAYS say that, "well our knowledge always changes so this could be wrong in the future." True. Absolute certainty is never possible. We can't know with absolute certainty whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow, whether other humans other than yourself really exist, whether you're a brain in a vat, etc. Our future states of knowledge will always change. Rather than state that obvious fact and say "knowledge will change so this may not be true", you should take what we know today and form opinions from it. If you say that we can't/shouldn't derive conclusions from what we currently understand in physics because it will change in the future, logically you have to do the same with medicine, chemistry, biology, etc. I doubt you would say that its not realistic to derive conclusions on how the heart works, or how hormones work using our current state of knowledge even though our state of knowledge if these will no doubt update in the future. It seems to me that arguments of this kind indicate confirmation bias. One wants something to be true (aliens exist and have visited us for example) and rejects the implications of all modern physics in a way they wouldn't with any other branch of scientific inquiry.

[@jameszelaznysr.2681]

Frank I'm very happy to have found you on KZbin you do the best explanation about space travel, the average American can't comprehend what it's all about.

[@RuthwikRao]

"an intelligent civilization would not attempt interstellar space flight, only the dumb ones would and they don't know how to do it." LMAO there you have it.

[@questionreality6003]

funny. and added to that fact, is that earth is not 'in a cluster' and would not be a horizon targe for 'good huntings' :)

[@jant.carlsson5061]

That's a good perspective. Touche! Considering the distances, your remark may very well be true. People talk about reversed engineering before we have proof for life out there whatsoever. And while these people talk about wonderful civilizations among the stars, our scientists search for life in the form of bacteria. There we are today and that is what we know. But tell that to the scifi community who are one step ahead of themselves. They are beyond reason.

[@tonyh9401]

Another statement to add to the List of "we will never need more than 16MB of memory on our computer" among others.

[@sdmods619]

@@tonyh9401 Far easier to reduce distances than to travel impossibly huge ones

[@ronschlorff7089]

@Zardoz Right, to the bravest belong the stars, to the timid belongs the safety of the "cave". In a cave you can not look up to see the stars. As for our destroying ourselves first: "When it is the darkest,..... you can see the stars"!!

[@paulmurphy42]

He wasn't asked, and didn't say, why we haven't received radio or tv signals...has he been asked this in any other interview here on KZbin?

[@jameszelaznysr.2681]

Best explanation of space travel .

[@johnbravo7542]

James Zelazny sr no its not,this guy is an idiot,who knows zero about space and time,and they have been visiting the Earth more recently when human beings started to play with nuclear weapons.

[@CosmosZeroX]

@@johnbravo7542 agree. I also think the nuclear weapons play a role. They saw these testings. They probably thought, how fucking stupid are those humans. Playing around with nuclear bombs, contaminating the whole planet. UFOs are real. They are advanced. Therefore they figured out how to manipulate space-time. Bob Lazar explained it and it makes all sense. A gravitational propulsion system.

[@ModernGentleman]

@@johnbravo7542 😄

[@charmerwatt1329]

The fact that the Sun is 'boring' and nothing really happens to it over long periods of time means our solar system is relatively stable, and that's one reason why Earth has thrived and evolved life so successfully.

[@SenjusS-zw8hw]

That means life can evolve from scratch ❤? Till date there's no evidence for that ( life from scratch) 😅that means " no life exists "😅 😅we need evidence first 😅

[@ΓιάννηςΓουμαράς]

I wouldn't expect anything less from Frank Drake himself - to the point and realistic. No matter how advanced telescopes or how fast ships we build, the universe has limitations that can't be reached, no matter what technology we obtain.

[@philliprobinson129]

We are in no position at our current level of understanding to know that for certain.

[@ZlaRah]

@@philliprobinson129 We definitely know many things. If they are “for certain” or not doesn’t really matter. For example, we know to a high degree that interstellar space travel will require huge amount of energy, that knowledge will not change. So not everything will be revised moving forward. A table will always be made of atoms, that will never change moving forward. Maybe we will learn more about them but it will still be made of atoms.

[@lits0_042]

My favorite interviewer

[@CanadianPrepper]

This doesnt factor in A.I or exponential technological growth in general. The pebble idea is something I hadn't thought of. They also dont factor in interdimensional travel, I.e. intelligence projected in energy. Lots of myopia with this guy but he makes good points. It has that bill Gates "no one will need more than a fee kilobytes" feel

[@WyrdBlogger01]

His myopia is in part trying to justify the original equation, which represented the dawn of radio astronomy. TBQH, the equation makes a lot of assumptions about things we haven't really verified. The most cryptic parts are based on assumptions, which are very important parts of the equation.

[@fishoutofmind4943]

It doesn't matter how exponential the technology gets, we're still bound to the laws of physics. As for interdimensional travel, that's just science fiction.

[@erixoz8535]

It factors in the speed of light, the one thing meat headed dreamers don't factor in.

[@harbajgrewal6031]

I know exactly what u r saying, he's opaque to the idea of singularity. " Intelligent civilization wouldn't attempt space travel" that's just a dumb argument. We can't comprehend what will happen after singularity. We'll discover new things every milli second

[@harbajgrewal6031]

@@fishoutofmind4943 laws of nature which we don't even know, it has everything to do with exponential growth of technology and general AI. After singularity, if we do reach it, it will be pretty clear how easy it would become for us(or them I should say). We might witness in the near future 50 years maybe

[@Sheer-i-Zheeaan]

smart man. Thanks for these videos, i've been searching for answers to the fermi paradox that make sense to me and i luckily stumbled onto your youtube channel.

[@donwheeler1208]

Hajir Moghaddam the Fermi paradox is a bunch of BS. Their here and have been for quite some time. It’s time for the world to awaken! Just watch some of the NASA space videos or you could just click on me to see them. I’ve seen over twenty five of these things and captured a handful on video. Watch the four minute video entitled “orbs around us all the time”

[@nerforeos675]

Well said. This man is brilliant.

[@johnbravo7542]

Nerf Oreos LMAFO

[@propheticdreams8703]

Yeah. No. Sorry. Bad equation. Bad thinking.

[@HakWilliams]

Why don't we see light or radio communication?

[@magicsinglez]

This is the second scientist I’ve totally loved. Total, total love. 2nd scientist - second figure - after Jared Diamond I’ve totally loved.

[@jjt1881]

Same thing here, minus Jared Diamond.

[@FollowFunk]

I think humans just have real trouble comprehending what a million years really is. It's just way too much time to expect nothing to go wrong while traveling through space, let alone even just expect an organism to survive.

[@afterthefox]

exactly...humans cannot fathom the enormity of space...

[@switchlaserflip9243]

We would have to freeze ourselves somehow and hibernate.

[@goyonman9655]

@@afterthefox Cringe

[@afterthefox]

@@goyonman9655 ???

[@D97mgtow]

Life will be out there but there’s too many variables for us meet them. Time, distance etc I certainly take the zoo hypothesis seriously, we do no less with primitive uncontacted tribes here on earth. If we discovered a race of people on Mars living in the Bronze Age then it’s almost certain we would not try to contact them. We would simply observe them. From an aliens perspective to visit the earth with blatantly superior technology will obviously cause problems for the human race. For one we will want access to that technology and secondly huge swathes of the population will react with fear and terror. ET will be clever enough to know this.

[@renaissanceman5847]

true... but then again... ET will realize that humans are a destructive animal that is destroying itself and the planet... so like a zoo... they would probably hose the planet down with a human equivalent of weed killer.

[@jezebulls]

You’re assuming other organisms will evolve exactly like us.

[@johnxantoro5511]

I find the zoo hypothesis pretty unsettling from an ethical perspective. There is a lot of horrible stuff going on (from child cancer to wars, sicknesses, abuse, factory farming etc.) and just observing that without trying to improve the situation might sound "reasonable" (aka Star Trek first directive) but really it's fucked up. Because all those victims who suffer didn't choose it, it's not like to people stepping willingly in the octagong to MMA each other.

[@renaissanceman5847]

@@johnxantoro5511 the issue with your view is thinking that an advanced alien race has anything like morals or ethics...

[@johnxantoro5511]

@@renaissanceman5847 But that is my point. It would be unsettling because it would basically prove that they don't live ethically.

[@Dra741]

We actually can track the flying saucers and flying Tic tack now some of them, only if they want us to see them

[@Dan.50]

We have observed NO life outside of our planet. No time travelers, no beings from other dimensions, no nothing. The probability of life arising on earth is a statistical impossibility. Until proven otherwise by observable evidence, we are alone.

[@redglazedeyez6652]

we are alone. no evidence no probes nothing out there. just us.

[@blunttime1089]

Well that doesn’t mean anything... I mean there’s more stars in the universe than there is grains of sand on every beach in the world. I bet we haven’t looked at every star....

[@stephenbrand5661]

I have a family friend who claims to have been abducted by aliens along with his brother, he was even interviewed about it for a show on the Discovery Channel back in the 90s. This answer is the one I favor, that the distances involved make it so that we might as well be alone.

[@mollykeane2571]

As I've just commented elsewhere: Distance isn't an issue with inter-dimensional beings.

[@harbajgrewal6031]

@@mollykeane2571 there are always ppl who I don't know why are too opaque to future discoveries. I mean after singularity, it's probably peanuts for AI

[@billyhallmon6867]

1:26. You have to be joking! I witnessed an intelligent non-human machine at 11-pm CDT on 6-12-2014 for three minutes over Dallas Texas. Get Real!

[@ChrisTopher-vs9zz]

good mushrooms, huh?

[@jj4460]

I have witnessed crafts too. There are only 2 ways. Either back engineered or real stuff. I do believe in the last. There has been so many encounters as well down to abduction cases. I think they in secret try to develop a new hybrid race. They have been here for ages and we might even have been seeded by them. If you think that rock up there called the moon is a natural object, wrong. It was brought into orbit billion of years ago and does have a function. A good read, the book, "Who built the moon". What I am trying to say, not only do they observe us, they even seeded this planet with the human race of today.

[@geoden]

''Only the dumb ones would do it, and they don't know how'' , well said Frank!

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

When watching these, one needs to remember that, speaking in strictly scientific terms, "intelligent life" means "carnivorous hunters."

[@COURTESAN_BAND_UK]

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

[@roarblast7332]

Is that hitchhikers? It sounds like it.

[@philpritchard8772]

A human answer to a non human question. Doesn’t matter how clever a human you are your brain is looking at it from a perspective that is incomprehensible to us

[@uprightape100]

Cool vid. Wish I'd taken a class from Frank when I was a UCSC student sooooo long ago.

[@mael-strom9707]

You would be where you are now ...only sooner. ...lol.

[@username6135]

10:33 so telepathic communication is ruled out then?

[@jeremywinston7199]

First lesson learned out in the field as a civil engineer is it might look good on paper but will it work in the real world.

[@AnaLuizaHella]

They are here, always have.

[@Dra741]

But we do see evidence of extraterrestrial visitors visiting us, and the evidence is overwhelming

[@mechanicjobs]

Very cool interview.

[@michaelp3122]

Frank is a wise man

[@BIngeilski]

Wow! what wise arguments from Frank Drake!

[@billyjohn9192]

How so? All he is doing, is trying to back up his flawed equation.

[@mrkcioffi]

What I love about Frank is he never proposes anything preposterous. He's only saying that the probability that we are alone doesn't add up. The universes is most likely filled with life. Whether that life is intelligent or capable was never part of his reasoning. The problem with homo sapiens is that we view the universe as human centric. We always think that just because we are a certain way that the rest of the universe must be like us. It's just a ridiculous assumption. Other life forms may or may not be anything remotely close to human evolution.

[@justgivemethetruth]

The smartest most reasonable comments on this subject I've ever heard. No one wants to do this, or spend the money and time to do this. The only problem is that we do not know how to build self-reproducing probes, and in fact we cannot probably sustain our own species with all our supposed brilliance.

[@donpowlen]

Wonderful interview!!

[@sotiriospapafragkou4422]

Would have loved to hear Sagan’s answer...

[@jjt1881]

Frank Drake: Father of us all. Yours are the words of wisdom. We listen in awe.

[@mickmalkemus5019]

They are visiting us. Just because limited nascent human technology can't detect them is irrelevant.

[@dh101010]

Our Sun by being boring and nothing special by itself, could actually BE special! Our perception may not be the other person's perception; perception is NOT reality :)

[@mael-strom9707]

There are alien intelligences here on Earth ...the octopus is one example ...we eat them. ^^

[@jamese9283]

A smart man, but his ideas are very weak starting at 9:19. Our sun is a unique star, far more calm and stable than average. He also does not consider the very narrow range of environments that any life beyond bacteria can exist, and the statistical near impossibility of cell machinery self-developing. Most modern educated assessments say we are likely the only ones, especially in our own galaxy.

[@kanishkchaturvedi1745]

Sources?

[@billnorris8457]

Sorry. Billions of years and radio waves at the speed of light? It is an interesting thought experiment that logically self-defeats. Self-replicating automatons will exist. As a tool of exploration. Gravity and time are the interesting bits.

[@ChrisTopher-vs9zz]

Mr Kuhn you MISSED the BIG question: "If there are intelligent species in the universe, they'd be sending TRILLIONS of various radio/ laser/ light signals --- WHY haven't we seen a single one?"

[@paimannamazi1128]

How would you know that? Maybe they use different types of technology to transmit information.

[@SenjusS-zw8hw]

​​@@paimannamazi1128😅😅we the humans are dumb!!! That's why we are into moon and send crafts into mars😅 and exploring beyond 😅 Even before right brothers peoples reported seeing objects in the sky😅😅😅 they are the lucky ones 😅 because Russian Chinese and US. balloons syndrome never affected them😅

[@johns294]

His equation just sets the mathematical estimations of life producing possibilities out there in the universe . It says nothing about there actually being any life out there .....

[@johnk7302]

What is that piece of equipment behind Mr. Drake?

[@Great_WOK_Must_Be_Done]

Good answer!

[@194decibels]

He doesn't fully reckon with the fermi paradox. He says travel is too costly to expect to find evidence of travel, but that's not the only way to gather or provide evidence. As he indicated, light and radio waves can also furnish evidence to us, and yet, we are empty handed. The costliness of travel does not explain why.

[@bonysminiatures3123]

physics does not tell us anything about traveling to the stars, what i`m saying is physics is still in its infancy theirs so much more to discover and learn

[@Bobbylopezcreative]

The hubris is astounding.

[@jimmybrice6360]

drake makes a huge mistake, when he answers the question about "might we be the only ones" cuz all of his answer had to do with how average our sun is but that is only one of many, many variables - regarding the existence of life on a planet i dont dare try to give an answer, because of the variables and even the famous drake equation has scientists ranging from almost surely to almost surely not

[@DavidBush-wm1fe]

At 6:45 that is NOT all correct. True that after 40 generations enough probes exist to equal the number of stars in the Milky Way. But if stars are on average 4 light years apart (plus or minus a few light years) and it takes a million years for the self replicating probe to travel from one star to another, after 40 million years the probes have only spread out to a distance of 160 light years from point of origin. Not nearly far enough to encompass an entire galaxy 100,000 or so light years across.

[@mc1dash1b]

You neglect to consider dilithium crystals and warp drive.

[@iordanisiordanidis1289]

Priceless

[@Dra741]

None of those hypotheses are consistent with the reality that we're picking these things up on radar and we're seeing them and we're getting independent confirmation from various sources and can no way can you dispute the fact that we have extraterrestrial visitors because of your cache a you could fool a lot

[@matthew944]

Wow, you got to have a conversation with Frank Drake! So awesome.

[@martijn7627]

o man plse wake up, they are already here probably for a long time to. Universe is teaming with life.

[@mollykeane2571]

@@rubiks6 Plenty of people have.

[@mollykeane2571]

@@rubiks6 It doesn't mean it's not there though.

[@erixoz8535]

Exactly, the distances are far too great.

[@DANNYtheBOY11]

I don't know why they keep asking the same stupid question over and over when the answer is so stupidly evident; even with some billions of intelligent lifes like ours or above in our own galaxy (which is already a terrible large place to consider and it does not make any sense think larger than that), the closest neighbourhood would not be detectable and reachable by any means....

[@erixoz8535]

AI systems could travel far enough and probably have, not living beings.

[@DANNYtheBOY11]

@@erixoz8535 even for that kind of "life" (I would guess not super common) those iperlong trips are incredibly challeging, much more chances that something goes wrong during every trip they could make.

[@Dra741]

The reason we don't see evidence of extraterrestrial civilization is because our ability to observe them

[@kevinkitton]

Andre Williams inability

[@UnconsciousQualms]

I think he's looking at the long level analysis; once you look at it from a biological perspective you'll realize that "intelligence" works as a deleterious mutation of some sort, meaning the survival of a species is inversely related to the level of "intelligence" it possesses.Ernest Mayer wrote a fantastic paper on this issue back in the 90s. So maybe we are indeed alone and maybe that has more to do with biology rather than physics and cosmology.

[@Man_fay_the_Bru]

But probably far more probable they aren’t coming here because of the distances which are astronomical.

[@ClassicRock1973]

This clears it up . It is logistically impossible to achieve meaningful or even ANY communication with aliens because of the distance problem.

[@dougzembiec9995]

That still doesn't answer the question "why aren't we hearing from these aliens via radio waves"

[@MacMic333]

Try telepathy?

[@ariesmars29]

Because they don't exist. There are simply too many variables against the formation of life. We are, in fact, special on Earth.

[@jant.carlsson5061]

What a wonderful thing it is to listen to this guy among all the people that so obviously consider themselves bright, but just destroy the subject with their fantasies. There has to be reason. That's right! Reason! This man gives the necessary perspectives. It's a good thing to start with the obvious questions how and why? How are the aliens travel and why would they come here? It's easy to say reversed enginering, but try to sort it out in the real world. There are observations I believe might be alien crafts, but there is not one solid proof for it. Until we have that, I think it's healthy to keep one's imagination in check.

[@videosbymathew]

He starts with the most outlandish and unrealistic hypothesis (to point out their outlandishness), but glad that he finished with the most realistic... the Universe 'isn't that way', and distance and time is enormous. Life and especially civilization just doesn't last long enough to meet others. Everyone is alone during their times in existence, more or less.

[@colingeorgejenkins2885]

We aren't in contact with aliens and we aren't the aliens. We are all little children inside

[@enigmaticmusic6242]

He just laid it all without saying it directly. The greys that we are familiar with are not biological living creatures, they are essentially robots

[@DavidBrocekArt]

People just can't put down the thrill of the mystery about the aliens. They just think that every alien in the universe must visit earth or else they don't exist at all.

[@johnaugsburger6192]

Thanks

[@8dioproductions]

Beautiful, brilliant science mind!

[@billyjohn9192]

Who?

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

If interstellar travel so difficult for us, the how close would an intelligent alien civilization have to be in galaxy for it to be possible and worthwhile to travel to earth, even to just send a probe? Such an intelligent alien civilization would probably have to be millions of years old and not too many light years away in galaxy? Can the Drake equation factor in intelligent alien civilizations that are at least a million years old and a feasible number of light years away?

[@Raydensheraj]

I think about this regularly. First of all look at the great issues concerning Space. We are still at the very beginning but already know, to realistic space "travel" we first of all need to master the forces of Nature, especially Gravity - Quantum Gravity in particular. We need better Propulsion, a better solution concerning space radiation, cryo sleep chambers. We need perfect Artificial intelligence to predict Astroids and other abnormalies on our way. We still don't know what for medical solutions will be needed to survive longer times in space. Then we need better Telescopes and a strong radio network, expierenced Astronauts etc. We are in somewhat in a still stand - which is sad. There been multiple extinction events... Who knows how long our little blue dot will keep humanity part of its lifespan. We are special because we have consciousness understanding more then most when not all other biological lifeforms - we can't let anything happen to our species... This is Darwin's Natural selection in a bigger scope, when we don't get together and start moving we might disappear from reality one day...

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Comments full of illiterate KZbin geniuses who all know more about astronomy than famous astronomers, as usual.

[@kevindolan6697]

Scientists don't know either.

[@augustadawber4378]

The Fermi Paradox explained. There is a beautiful loving Universe many people claim they experience when they are undergoing an NDE. Long before any Advanced Civilization gains the technology necessary for Interstellar Travel - they find a way to escape to that Universe. In other words, it is technologically easier to get to that other very pleasant and safer place, than it is to develop the Type II Civilization Technology necessary for Interstellar Travel. This explains why we have found no sign of an Advanced Alien Civilization anywhere in the Universe.

[@compellingpoint7802]

Compelling Points.

[@johnweaver4564]

Great points. I would like to see something that suggests life out there one day. I’ve always wondered about our history here on earth with the “Gods” that ancient humans encountered were of possible extraterrestrial origin. A lot of lost history. An artifact or radio signal would be encouraging.

[@williamhcarlton]

It's actually not true that our solar system is not unique. Now that we have mapped many other solar systems, we can now see that planet sizes tend to be very homogeneous. The range of size variation between the planets in our solar system appears to be unusual.

[@rekenney100]

Fun Video ... but everything Frank noted as the "boring" attributes of our star or the exact reason it is interesting, unique and different.

[@Dra741]

If we look at the evidence it appears to me that the variety of craft and the performance characteristics of these vehicles which we have tracked on radar are not consistent with the normal pattern that goes with coming from one place, apparently we have multiple phenomena if you want to call it that oh, it's not coming from one place oh, but their technology and capabilities are quite similar because they're able to do things that are out of the scope of even the comprehension is the most advanced science on Earth

[@frankb.southernwing]

Dr Frank Drake you probably have seen #Unacknowledged this will answer every Question

[@markandrewsolis2049]

The aliens are planning a surprise party for us and they just haven't sprung it yet.

[@theopoiesis]

Legend

[@aclearlight]

Wonderfully intelligent discussion.

[@mdilascio]

Smart and knowledgeable answers to opinionated shady questions

[@neurozero]

this guy is so optimistic

[@synthartist69]

The distances are too great and they are getting greater every minute. What kills me is that I believe that the Universe is teaming with intelligent life but yet we will likely never get a chance to see it or learn from it.

[@mollykeane2571]

Distance isn't an issue with inter-dimensional beings.

[@synthartist69]

@@mollykeane2571 True, if they actually exist

[@mollykeane2571]

@@synthartist69 If the first person accounts are to be trusted which I dare say a number are then it would be irrational to ignore them simply because you haven't seen an E.T. yourself.

[@RalphDratman]

Drake's da man.

[@paimannamazi1128]

Aliens have been here for a very long time protected by the shadow government. Just recently the Air Force released video from their pilots Chasing UFOs, so give me a break with this bullshit idea that we are alone. It was so cringy to listen to these two go back and forth, I really love this show but I have to draw a line here. The guy is speaking about technology that hasn't been able to surpass the imagination. Just because we haven't been able to figure out all the obstacles for space travel, doesn't mean aliens can't either. There's plenty of evidence of alien beings visiting this planet, just ask all the police officers, airline pilots, and many other reputable people who have witnessed it with their own eyes. And I'm sure there are many others who haven't spoken because of fear of losing their jobs. This interview would have been normal in the 1930s, but come on give me a break, in this day and age, and you still believe aliens don't exist that have the technology to travel not using conventional means? They have to be able to surpass the speed of light. And just because we can't wrap our heads around it, doesn't mean the technology is not there.

[@joevignolor4u949]

It's much easier to think things up than it is to do them in physical reality. I used to tell my ex-wife that all the time. It's one of the reasons we're not married anymore.

[@TheHighlanderprime]

Frank is a mainstream scientist who can only see it from our vantage point of course. But let’s consider that our understanding of space and space travel is incredibly limited; if so, other possibilities exist that not even Frank can wrap his head around in terms of physics. So while I respect Frank’s knowledge and perspective, I don’t think he knows the full story.

[@Man_fay_the_Bru]

Yeah but he bases his theory on facts not Star Trek😏

[@ronjohnson4566]

about time someone said this. We ain't gonna go to another star or galaxy. silliness. Is it just my area or is all of PBS not showing this wonderful show?

[@victorgiacobbe4453]

ron johnson I guess we'll never be able to fly people use to say how out dated they sound

[@Woodchopper666]

Well, look into the mirror and you see an alien.

[@horkade]

There is an episode of Cosmos in which Sagan adresses the space travel and its troubles. I noticed that, unlike Drake, he explained it taking the speed of light effect on time. Sagan, for example, says we could reach the center of our galaxy in 21 years, ship time, at the speed of light. But the center of the galaxy is 30,000 light years from us, which means that this would be time passed for the organisms that didn't take part of the travel. Drake seems to think that the time will pass the same way to the passangers. One of them must be wrong.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

They're both right. Sagan was talking about (sci fi) traveling at >99% light speed. Drake was talking about (reality) 1% light speed. Some day, with fusion or antimatter, we might go 10-30% light speed - not fast enough for time dilation to matter.

[@ancaro8771]

and what will be the reason that will stop us from reaching 99%+ of light speed? Also have you heard of teleportation? Why doesn't drake acknowledge teleportation?

[@georgeshirtcliffe7361]

I think dumb aliens have visited us. They showed our ancestors how to build giant sand castles out of blocks of stone. Lol😂

[@drjojo5551]

Why not build space settlement mock-ups here on earth! AND start from scratch!! As would a mars lander landing in dirt!!

[@warrenrae32]

Refreshing to hear some honest logic for a change

[@jzamb]

Come on folks, Aliens probably zoom pass Earth all the time. First they roll-up their windows, then lock the docks, and finally get the hell away as fast as they can!

[@Dra741]

The Drake equation doesn't take into consideration everything else that's out there

[@yang8244]

These arguments dont hold water historically. "How can you cross a continent in your tiny boat"? "How can you have a world wide communication system using smoke signals"? It used to take us months to get from Europe to the US. Nobody could ever imagine metal objects would be carrying passengers from one to the other in a matter of hours. Thats a decrease of a few thousand folds.

[@billyjohn9192]

Exactly, he doesn't take into account the exponential growth of technology. In a thousand years we will have all the energy we need. His equation is terribly flawed in the first place.

[@yang8244]

@@billyjohn9192 I disagree with you on this one. There is no "all the energy we need". energy follows productive capabilities. We will never get to a state where we have all the energy we need, or rather we are always at this state, even now. There is no economic rational to have excess energy so we produce as much as we need and can make use of at any given moment.

[@yang8244]

@@billyjohn9192 also the exponantiality of technology is an optimistic take on the subject.

[@billyjohn9192]

Well have you read anything about AI? If we hit the singularity by mid-century like many people in the computer game seem to think will happen, life will dramatically change. These computers will have the entirety of human knowledge at their fingertips and will be able to do in seconds what it would take a human a lifetime to do. They already write their own programming which is so complex even computer scientists can't make sense of it. Of course it could all end in a terminator like holocaust, but the singularity will happen.

[@billyjohn9192]

You may be correct that there will always be a price to be paid for energy but that doesn't mean we won't be able to have as much energy as we need. With fusion reactors we could drastically bring down the price enough to supply even the third world with cheap energy. Not to mention all of the advances in other areas of green energy, solar cells may be 99% efficient and wind power may be commonplace on every house. It's hard to say but I don't believe we will ever be energy hungry once fusion reactors are up and running. It may take awhile but I believe by the time we need it, it will be ready.

[@joegeorge3889]

The universe is telling us something it's not meant for humans to travel the stars

[@mickmalkemus5019]

Time for travel between stars is enormous for our technology. Not for civilizations enormously advanced of ours.

[@mickmalkemus5019]

I seriously hope this video exists 100 years from now. It will be a prime example of how antiquated our current thinking is. A good comedy.