Freeman Dyson: Let's look for life in the outer solar system

www.ted.com Physicist Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks about what such life would be like -- and how we might find it.

[@LuciFeric137]

Professor Dyson was a unique genius. Astounding imagination. And he is so right. The solar system has HUGE resources for mankind.

[@novella_media]

Freeman Dyson is a gorgeous man. Brilliance should not only be the light illuminating the future, but brilliance should also be fun. He gets this. It's in his whole being. I'm grateful we had him for 90+ years.

[@TobioEdolvesMark]

Growing up, Dyson was one of my most inspirational figures. R.I.P. Sir. Your work has inspired tons of curious minds and shall continue to do so.

[@dougg1075]

Loved him. So soft spoken in conversation but he belts it out during a presentation. A pure academic.

[@sof54321]

freeman dyson is fantastic, his ideas are certainatly both origional and quite abstract, he is the kind of person who will introduce ideas to be looked into, instead of grinding the same formulas and ideas over and over...

[@sheridankeefe7274]

Rest in Peace! :(

[@SpaceyStacey1975]

Aside from the (brilliant)science, Dyson has some of the best humor found in the academic world.

[@sjenk5000]

This man is truely brilliant and has has a vitality that most people half of his age do not possess !

[@TheResilient5689]

It's a shame that this man doesn't have a Nobel prize. He was (and still is) one of the greatest physicists that ever lived. Listening to Dyson is almost never boring.

[@OM3N1R]

somebody out there has the coolest gramps EVER! I hope they respect and appreciate him.

[@trefod]

Apart from his contributions to physics, this guy gave us Sci-fi nerds The Dyson Sphere.

[@angelalovell5669]

Fantastic. I love Dyson's enthusiasm, creativity and child like ability to go to places others can't imagine - in addition to his brilliance. I hope at least 20, 000 of these views are other scientific minds, willing to put all these ideas to purpose. At least one BBC writer - you can't argue this wouldn't make an amazing episode of Doctor Who, bare minimum. I really appreciate these astrophysical talks, because I absolutely do not understand the concepts written on paper - I need them explained, with verbal or literal pictures. English Lit brain here, not equipped for all that dry physics.

[@anthonyortiz9405]

i wish this man was my grandfather lol. hes funny

[@FHB71]

Well, of course it is not likely that those creatures exist, but it is extremely interesting to think about the possibility. I connect Dyson always to his idea of a Dyson sphere, a giant sphere surrounding a star in the distance of e.g. an earth orbit, think of that! No energy from the star is lost, the inside is unimaginably big and inhabitable. Those are ideas that Dyson came up with. And who knows, someday in the distant future ...

[@vasiligoyal7956]

You will always be remebered R.I.P

[@WormholeJim]

We got a win-win situation on our hands! I just love this guy.

[@WormholeJim]

+Neo Karn Seeing the vid again, to recollect why I said what I said, I can only conclude that you're one of those people. Have fun with the trolls, they'll e a t you up. I can't be bothered, anyway.

[@Humbertocr]

That is definitely my favourite Ted Talk ever!

[@onemanenclave]

really underrated talk

[@nickodevoe]

awesome speech, very inspiring

[@psyekl]

Hey takes a while to get to his point, but it's a good one.

[@derman077]

Very informative. Very speculative.

[@TomFynn]

I remember raptly watching the events unfold live with the Cassini-Huygens landing on Titan. A mission to the moon Europa for drilling under the ice would be...awesome.

[@iseslc]

I love this man

[@CO2Junkie]

Here's my answer Johannas: No living things absorb sunlight with 100% efficiency. Also organisms tend to absorb certain wavelengths (the ones they find most useful) and reflect other wavelengths (the ones they find most harmful). Trick is since we don't know what to expect (they probably don't have cat's eyes) we wouldn't know for sure what pattern of reflectivity to look for other than something 'un-geological'.

[@mikemalo6336]

Life originating below ice giving rise to another/extension form of life. Maybe an earthbound analogy would be ferns. Spores give rise to gametes which give rise to ferns (over-simplified). Also, doesn't the welwichia plant (a desert conifer) do something similar: a deep tap root and surface dna dispersion?

[@NicMc]

Highly underrated squid joke @ 6:11

[@dominicjose3660]

How so?🤔

[@nudsh]

What a brilliant and charming man....

[@wkboonec]

This talk was dated February 2003, when Freeman Dyson was 79 years old. He will be 90 on December 15, 2013.

[@TechNed]

May 2018 and still kicking at 94!

[@nifaladam1711]

Now he is 95 :)

[@patrickzhao7591]

Prof Dyson not only consummated life, but died at right time! thanks for your brilliant modeling

[@MegaCasperdog]

His son is just as interesting, in both very similar yet very opposite ways. The seem attracted to the same basic things, but in areas one is highly studied in, the other seems to just see naturally. They are like mirror images of each other in many ways. Identical opposites, but both are fascinating people to listen to.

[@Hrurak]

I love how the man thinks and how original he is, but... if the reflectors of these plants reflect the light to the plant itself, they are not going to reflect the light back to the source.... so shining light on them does not increase detect-ability (in the way he says it will, by reflecting it back), contrary to the animal example who ultimately sends the light back because it has no use of it after having it reflected a couple times onto (or through) it's sensors.

[@ivlfounder]

@kristianpagh Wow. You may be right. I'm going to have to listen to him more now.

[@SvataPanenka]

Insanely beautiful... :)

[@doomsdayZen]

I never thought about intentionally colonizing the universe with non-human organisms but I like the idea. Currently, however, there is a great paranoia at places like NASA about not contaminating places like Mars with microorganisms from Earth. I think people born 250 years from now will live in a very interesting time.

[@breaneainn]

The core statement seemed to be to look for what can be detected rather than to dectect what we're looking for. ..the sunflower thing is a bit odd, but it's just an analogy I'm sure.

[@illliterati]

orangeblueandlavenda, good question... stars probably will not collide, but interstellar gas will. The gas will heat up and expand, so it won't condense to form as many new stars in the galaxy. If by chance an Andromedan star passes very close to the solar system, it might disrupt the orbits of the planets and change their eccentricity.

[@MentalParadox]

It's funny how he sometimes has to search for the correct word. But he sure does have a point!

[@omegavalerius]

@MrAfurlong You can simulate gravity with angular acceleration although I'm not sure if long term effects of simulated gravity are known. Radiation I suppose is a more complex issua unless you can go underground somehow.

[@nighthawkviper6791]

Heat. Use the momentum and heat from the propulsion & atmospheric descent-energy(I don't know what that would look like on Europa) and it should have enough to safely get under the surface.

[@ellipsis00]

A lifeform in the Oort cloud, equipt with lenses and mirrors for capturing sunlight, would want to minimise the amount of light/heat that it reflects back into space, if not stop it all together. Equal odds at least.

[@doloppost]

Actually that's some pretty solid thinking he shares... If I could give a suggestion on the bio-engineering? Space orks. They can invent tellyporta's and Squig-on-a-stick for you too!

[@Phosphoreessence]

Merci aux traducteurs

[@JonLikes2Jam]

Brilliant

[@Finnlander132]

@rahulilrplac I agree, it would be harder to find because of absorption. Even tho "sunflowers" don't make much since because if a creature is to evolve a giant organ for refracting the equivalent of moon light to stay warm, why doesn't it just make the refracting lens be the solar absorber instead of having another separate organ for absorbing the light. Plants on Europa would be dark green. Under the ice creatures would be blind for lack of light. Tho, i love this subject =)

[@singedrac]

He reminds me of professor Farnsworth. Try and tell me you can't imagine him saying "Good news everyone!"

[@DannyOvox3]

Interesting idea, of creating an organism or creature based on what we know about genetics, create that creature to sustain such temperatures of Europa.

[@geoffreylummis2206]

Excellent 👍😎🌏🐨

[@Chaloonoupada]

Rest in peace.

[@manasl]

Let's not be too hasty to write away space exploration & research. Maybe a quick search on benefits of space program would explain why.

[@kabong257]

we keep hoping for worm hole travel, particle beaming, warping lightspeed and what not. we don't want to realize 'astronomical distances' for what they are: astronomical. the cubic area of exploration is indeed the new frontier - but we should appreciate, sooner the better, how vast the frontier is, if visiting even 5 or 6 of the millions of obviously existing life bear planets there are in just the Milky Way. I'm hoping for realistic Ted talks before I die!, lol.

[@nighthawkviper6791]

It may be hard to get there because of Jupiter's POWERFUL magnetosphere.

[@matthewj1985]

Marijuana growers are some of the best practical biologist of our time.

[@inthefade]

you mean to say it is a "hypothesis". In science the destinction between a hypothesis and a theory is very different than the regular english usage.

[@curiousbit9228]

At early stages of our solar system when the average temperatures were still high, there was indeed life on europa.

[@boomtao]

How would we "make" these creatures "reflective"?

[@sillysad3198]

I Love the granpa !!!!!

[@crudhousefull]

I think that there might be more chance of there being animals that use other chemicals as fuels as animals that live deep beneath in our oceans

[@riplox1986]

I wonder if he's heard of the Tardigrade...our little microscopic friend might be on more bodies in the cosmos than we think. Also, it's far more probable that microscopic organisms exist rather than complex forms, especially in such extreme conditions.

[@ancalites]

@UnluckyGambler Guy was in his late 70's at the time of this presentation (he's 86 now). Give him a break.

[@RickeyBowers]

No doubt he was attempting to be more inspiring than anything else; and he succeeded, imho.

[@chromophore]

Yes indeed, However in the star trek the real idea that Dyson had talked of got distorted and actually led to misconceptions about it. The Dyson sphere was thought of to be something like a sphere. However Dyson thought of it originally as a swarm. The star trek made an incorrect "version" of it rather famous, that kind of a Dyson sphere (in start trek) would be an an almost impossible engineering construct . At least for the next millenia. Thedyson swarm is more feasible and the original idea.

[@amritsharma5373]

Feynman taught him how to joke!

[@fudgedogbannana]

I love Freeman Dyson, I know that he was a great scientist, but that was a bit much.

[@sonictommo22]

He's really thinking outside the dyson sphere..

[@lordmcted]

agreed

[@MrRi3m4nn]

"I have no use for a theology that claims to know the answers to deep questions but bases its arguments on the beliefs of a single tribe. I am a practicing Christian but not a believing Christian. To me, to worship God means to recognize that mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our comprehension." -Freeman Dyson

[@Wilifeee]

New Zealand used in a physicist example.

[@holdinmuhl4959]

We won't detect the "sunflowers" because they do not reflect the sunlight. They will be dark, almost deep black. Sunlight is to vauable out there to reflect it. It has to be used almost perfectly. Abd this means absorption, not reflection. Solar panels on our house roofs also don't look like mirrors but the are black and cool as they also absorb the sunlight. But the reflect a bit of the light because they have not to be perfect. We have plenty of sunlight on earth. But in the outer space sunlight is so rear that the evolution would have created such creatures that absorb almost all light. Survival of the fittest. Thus we have to go there to see whether there si some life out there. The idea is fascinating.

[@narcberry]

This idea is predicated on several very unlikely possibilities. Assuming they are true, and that life does exist on TNO's in the form he suggests, the test is too crude to positively identify them as life. It's far more likely a reflection indicates ice, not a biological mirror structure, which in and of itself violates its own purpose.

[@kurtilein3]

a great talk, i agree with the conclusions and most of his arguments, but i think he missed something. you can almost call it a mistake. when you need to isolate against cold temperature and want to use sunlight as an additional source of heat or for photosynthesis, evolution on earth doesnt produce lenses and mirrors, but always crystal white hair, it actually focuses the light very effectively. you should watch out for fiberglass, or things that look like white carpets.

[@KrustyKlown]

Try looking for a Dyson Sphere with Shkadov Thruster moving through the galaxy ... type II civilizations will build these for the purpose of capturing a NEW Star to replace the original one before it burns out. Any civilization capable of building a Dyson Sphere will immediately need to start moving their Star & Dyson Sphere in order to have enough time to travel to a new star .. could take 1 Billion years to travel to and capture a new star. Shkadov Thruster ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine

[@weirdodude550]

lil weird but weirdder things have been discovered in science

[@mozkitolife5437]

Sunflowers! Lueeeeewuuuu hates them... and chmeee, too.

[@OMG_BeCkY]

CONFIRMED!

[@1WaySafe]

we could send out swarm drones of straws to hoover up information first ;)

[@schwarg]

fucking lol'd at 1:28

[@milky_wayan]

Yeah, but dyson, how is something supposed to evolve reflectors if it needs them to get energy? Wherever life started on Earth it was probably bathed in chemicals and energy. How do you start life on a cold, airless kuiper belt object? There just isn't enough energy to begin with.

[@anothersucker-Youcantfixstupid]

What do you think your eyes are?

[@MrAlexkyra]

The idea is that the life started inside an ocean geologically active moon/kuiper belt object, using the geothermal energy. There are plenty of geologically active ice-moons (Europa, Enceladus definitely and probably Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton) and we know that Pluto is party geologically active which implies that similar Kuiper belt objects may be as well. All these places are considered likely to have subsurface oceans. If life develops on some of them, then it may be remotely possible that the life could adapt to migrate towards the surface and use solar energy. Very far fetched, and I don't think it's likely we'd find it in our solar system (and shouldn't we have seen it on Europa and Enceladus with the Galileo and Cassini probes?). But, since ice moons and Kuiper-belt like objects are far more common than Earth like planets in the universe, I'd say that there's a good chance that something like a Dyson sunflower could exist somewhere.

[@nemesisnick66]

3:09 grow your own pfft lol. I like the cold =) What about humanoid fish type people living in an atlantis sort of city, that would make Europa awesome. Old guy ftw stutters a little annoying though :/

[@SummerBreeze106]

Indeed, shame we weren't. The thing about Mars life if it still exists is it could share DNA with Earth life, therefore would be related, or it could be entirely alien. If it is related to Earth life perhaps the two would coexist & find their niches on a Mars we would be changing. Earth life would be likely the greater threat to the Mars life though, being surely vastly more varied & complex. So I doubt we would have anything to fear from Martian organisms. They'd be pretty basic most likely.

[@nighthawkviper6791]

We also don't want to infect Europa either. Mycelial networks invade, and I don't know enough about life on/in Europa to make that call.

[@JonLikes2Jam]

i can sense the LSD within this man. What a mind Brilliance We are the predecessors of a great generations.

[@MentalParadox]

Did he actually say "real estate"? Huh?

[@illliterati]

fringefries, how could batman not exist if I AM BATMAN?

[@KipIngram]

Oh my gosh - I can't tell if he's joking or not, re: putting biotech in the hands of children. I mean - I get his point; he's right in an important way. But let's not forget that some of the biotech stuff is stuff that can kill us. I'd rather my kindergarten age kid now whip up the "Captain Tripp's plague" from King's The Stand. I don't really know what the right approach toward managing this is. I know I want my nation to "get there first," because some of this will be weaponizable, and I want it in our hands rather than someone else's. But just "throwing the gates wide open" doesn't quite seem like the right answer.

[@inthefade]

lawl. I think his mouth made that sound.

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

If a body in space is explored entirely and with after all thinkable efforts declared totally void of any form of life then there would be less ethical problems in seeding the place with artificial life. We will propably regret our first efforts after a few decades as our exo biotech will be very primitive and a bit dangerous to begin with.

[@ricfregian1]

Why everybody laugh when he said that what happened with toys should happen wtih biotech??

[@sophiedash4026]

Because of the irony of commercialism.

[@matthewgutz]

y does this talk remind me of the game spore?..

[@jaimewismann6935]

Y lo llamaban loco y ahora se descubrió una esfera de dyson

[@nexos6]

Sorry but we do not have material to make a Sphere it will have to be a Ring World. Unless we can sort out this Dark Matter thing loads of that around. Joking aside even though Freeman Dyson was one of the Nuke eggheads his energy and passion for high end Physic's and Mathematics ( A lot still classified on smaller size stuff) is second to none, I would put him up in the top ten brightest people around today. Not so sure about his idea on cloning on the kitchen table any one remember Boys from Brazil, or how about that boy David Hahn trying to make a Breeder Reactor in the shed. Beware the pods from Europa

[@swapanjain892]

Yeah!Nerdfest.

[@Anarkiados]

Yeah, as Willy Wonka and Bambi meeting Godzilla does. So, I'm just gonna change a few things on your little text here: "Well, your love of bambi godzilla and pwilly wonka doesn't say much for your intellectual or aesthetic prowess so I'll take that as a complement. When you turn 10 or your I.Q. hits 10 . . .SELL!!!"

[@goodsirknight]

he is 84 though

[@nighthawkviper6791]

Affix Astrochicken w/genomes, mycelial networks, and non-invasive microscopic life and have it crash-land on Europa. The extreme heat temperature of the body entering the ice-surface should create a pocket sustainable for biological life for a time period. Have instruments and sensors aboard to get invaluable knowledge for populating other parts of the galaxy.

[@epicmonkeysandapes9896]

rip

[@myarchive667]

"Freeman Dyson: Let's look for life in the outer solar system " ???

[@redglazedeyez6652]

this is all based on life as we know it

[@quackerzdb]

He's right, he's no biologist.

[@elizabethhestevold1340]

God help us, I feel for the Creatures. No doubt, hope by then, humans has learned more kindness towards life .Artist point off view, but we all need each other. So, it is.🇩🇰🇺🇸🦅🐬

[@MentalParadox]

And fuck up those planets as well, of course.