Jill Tarter: Why the search for alien intelligence matters

[@Ramshobraja]

You can tell how passionate she is about this. Truly an amazing individual. SETI is an amazing quest, too bad it has recently been shut down.

[@SuperYtc1]

It's open.

[@ketchupcommander]

her lies need shut down

[@cweefy]

i hope that Jill Tarter is idolized by millions of young women and girls . what a gem of a human being

[@TheFallibleFiend]

They didn't mention it in the side bar: SHE was actually the inspiration for Carl's book "Contact."

[@1ucasvb]

Sure, there are lots of problems down here on Earth. There will always be problems. But we still need to put some effort on something higher than that, something that has more meaning to mankind as a whole than to individual people. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde

[@taratarotweb]

this woman is brilliant. We are not the top dog, we are not the culmination of Life's chain on earth. we are but one small branch of organisms here.

[@Hottides]

Carl Sagan was Jill Tartar's colleague and collaborator in the search for extraterrestrial life. Many sources also credit her with being the model for Contact's heroine Ellie Arroway. Quite possibly some of Sagan's signature cosmic prose was in fact Tartar's.

[@kakudmi]

I am not joining the club. I am getting a farm and growing my own food and this club you're talking about can be on its way to wherever it is going. I don't have to be a part of this and I currently have the whole community of like-minded people who actually see what is being done in the world today and we all say: you can keep it! Yes I did find it and the knowledge is called the Vedas. If you're interested you can study it. I've been studying it for the past 15 years and I am so happy with it.

[@Iamstupid51]

If the universe is so big and the speed of light is so relatively slow, it should be no surprise that we haven't found aliens yet.

[@EricKlien]

Any civilization in our galaxy would have had plenty of time to colonize every solar system in this galaxy.

[@SuperYtc1]

@@EricKlien I don't agree with this. We don't know how difficult it may be to colonize the galaxy. Even with all of our technology we haven't even been able to land a human on the planet nearest to us. And technology doesn't improve indefinitely. There will be limits.

[@grahamwohlers7130]

@@SuperYtc1 Those are a lot of assumptions you just made to detest eric's theory. How do you know technological advancement has limits? There is no evidence of that. Why is not having landed on a planet yet proof that it is improbable that alien life could do it?

[@LindiFleeman]

Trees are so critical to Bee 🐝 with as Family Tree❤

[@liamnute5032]

Id love to see the architecture of civilizations advanced enough to communicate on such a puzzling intergalactic or universal and possibly an inter-dimensional level, two words; ferocious astonishment. Their crafts alone display superior knowledge, style, capability and sheer BADASSNESS. In mans ever growing Goliath of space travel, we are throwing pretty well refined stones.

[@Promatheos]

I agree. It's important that all of us, children of this wonderful cosmos, look for each other. As it has been said, "Either we're alone or we're not alone, but both are equally thrilling to think about."

[@Stringbean421]

On the contrary, I think Dr Jill Tarter is an excellent speaker. Obviously very educated and passionate in what she does and believes in. I like her a great deal.

[@kittimcconnell2633]

Good point; SETI is a better focus for thought than petty differences such as race or religion.

[@xdoriandanger]

This blows my mind. It is bittersweet, the idea that a signal we could receive would be "old" by the time it reaches us. Could you imagine hearing a signal of peace and a promise of beauty from another human-inhabited planet, only to have us travel there somehow and find it in ruins? How interesting, yet bittersweet...

[@nobody-mq6qi]

The first ever TED TALK that I’ve listened and watched from beginning to end. I love Jill Tarter ☺️

[@Bamboo4U2]

My absolute FAVORITE Ted Talk EVER. I LOVE Jill Tarter.

[@andyfrancolive]

Me too!

[@georgeburke4575]

SETI is a fraud. so is She! antiquated thinking. are we alone? she ask's. thing's like ufo's in our airspace. abduction's these thing's happen daily,around the world! Seth Shoshtek another of you SETI.,was put in his place by Stanton Freidman in a debate. he wiped the floor with Seth!

[@redmd9772]

@@georgeburke4575 😂😂😂

[@Desert2GardenLV]

This lady is not a typical ted talk. She has a quite low vibration. I didnt feel inspired. She does have a few good ideas if you call them that. Regretful that she won an award. Cant wait for the next talk.

[@kindofpoetry]

I see what you're saying, but if the only thing that results from SETI is a change in human perspective, it will still be a monumental achievement. right now, we see ourselves as distinct societies, separated from each other by culture and geography. with the discovery of other civilizations on entirely different planets, we could find a sense of unity that has been lacking since the human race began. it sounds unlikely, but I really think that it's what the earth needs.

[@ancalites]

Excellent quality. One thing to point out about her comment regarding Andromeda being the closet galaxy, though; What she means is that Andromeda is the closet large spiral galaxy of kind similar to our own. The actual closet galaxy that can be called as such is a small "dwarf" galaxy known as the Canis Major Dwarf - just 25 000 light years from Sol.

[@Kevin-xs8xn]

some notes... “we live on a fragile island of life” “if we’re alone…incredible waste of space” discovering other cultured civilizations could enhance humanity’s bonds with each other “we’re a billion year lineage of wandering stardust” SETI began 50 years ago sun is one of 400 billion stars in Milky Way, among 100 billion other galaxies (!) the more we learn the wider our “livable space” becomes (eg, the more habitable stars we’ve discovered, the more species we’ve discovered here on Earth that live in extreme environments) SETI is the archaeology of the future (when we look into the night sky, we’re looking into our past) on Earth, life happened quickly, Earth spent majority of its time (90+%) developing life, not waiting for it to arise Copernican revolution changed our thinking in many areas (astronomy, physics, theology), discovery of ETI would be comparable Drake conducted first SETI observation of distant stars “we all belong to one tribe, Earthlings” kevinhabits.com/ted-talk-notes-2-jill-tarter-why-the-search-for-alien-intelligence-matters/

[@MewFushisDad]

Brilliant! Ms Tarter is an exceptional speaker.

[@shack6000]

This is the best TED talk ever!!!

[@sirachman]

While we have many other problems, this other than moving ourselves physically into permanent residence off planet and preserving Earth is the most important thing we can do. Discovery of other intelligent life would be a massive wakeup call that would help every other science pursuit in a way unmatchable by any other method.

[@newmac]

Deciphering the technical information in such a message will keep us busy for years.

[@orlando098]

One thing that occurs to me with all this - there are probably 10s of millions of species on Earth and we are the only one that could really be said to be "intelligent", so that makes the search for such life even harder, considering we have not yet even got evidence for any ET life of any kind yet.

[@Megneous]

For those of you who didn't realize, this is a very old recording. Kepler has confirmed, as of the writing of this comment, 861 extrasolar planets, with thousands more candidates waiting to be confirmed. The future will soon be not about finding extrasolar planets... but how to design feasible methods of getting there.

[@TechNed]

You missed a step - deciding which candidates to search first.

[@LetoAtreides82]

Wonderful speech, I wish it were longer.

[@adamatepsilon9858]

the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy is hard to fathom as it is so far away. But I did a rough calculation out of interest a few months ago and came to the result that the distance to the Andromeda galaxy equals 20 Milky-Way galaxy diameters.

[@araptuga]

True dat. But with a little patience (say, a couple billion years), it'll only be half that!

[@naryanr]

Yeah it is. He's saying that introducing something we totally can't handle will somehow magically make us realise how bad the thing we've been experiencing has been all along.

[@havocman100]

no worries man. trying to get a point across on the internet is not the easiest thing in the world to do

[@bobopatchy]

People have always been searching for more room(i forgot the theory or whatever its called) but people have always found another continent or place to live. So, first I think humans will be able to live in the ocean, then sky, then space. Its just an opinion, so id appreciate it if no one starts arguing about it :)

[@ikeusa]

I agree that alien life will do away with our "humans&God only" assumptions. But this will only expand a believer's awe in an infinite, creative, powerful God.

[@profjaykay]

im 17 and i have devoted my life to this

[@redmd9772]

Your 25 now, still devoted? Ha

[@amirdoit]

Dr. Jill is one of the best no doubts, but we need to define the word LIFE itself in a new way.

[@amacuro]

I'm not a person who would spend time and energy looking for alien life but to answer your message, I think if most people spent time looking for alien life, a lot of the issues we have amongst ourselves would disappear, if only because we dont focus on race or religion anymore

[@amirdoit]

the best video so far i have seen on youtube

[@magicalgold010]

" the story of humans is a story of idead, that shine light into dark corners "

[@Airave]

Graduate and live a good life, my friend. All the best to you. My whole point is that Reality, here and now, trumps wishful thinking. It must- for wishful thinking to play out and perhaps become reality. I personally don't take drugs btw. My above comment has some Truth and Irony in it still. Why so many thumbs down in this thread??? :(

[@havocman100]

hence why i said time is "relative", the clock on a spaceship moving at light speed would be ticking normally", but from an observer on the outside that same clock would be not moving. and with regards to superstring and multi-dimensions, but no technology allows for a particle to move faster than light (that we know of), i did not mention tricking space-time with something like a wormhole, allowing u to beat light to a particular destination whilst moving slower than light

[@ellalions3622]

Jill tarter is my HERO!!!

[@pcpolarbear1]

every thing we know points to the fact that there must be life elsewhere in this gigantic universe, it is mathmatically impossibly for there to not be.

[@momentary_]

As others have said, the scale of distance and time involved is an enormous hurdle. I would love it if we found a signal, but I don't think it is all that important to moving forward as a species or as a civilization.

[@kakudmi]

Naturally, if you imagine only two realities: The one we have now, and the one we have in the dark ages, then yes, one would resist to change. But I've never suggested dark ages, you did. If the child turns out to be a bad person, it's his parents to blame. They had a chance to raise him properly but they didn't, regardless of the excuses. So scientists today, while developing a-bomb or a similar destruction, are like those parents, fully able to make rational decisions, not just work for money.

[@NeedsEvidence]

Excellent speech.

[@eleanorfitz2143]

This was so wonderful and inspiring! Thank you!! I share the same wish, and I hope to see more young people become interested in this vast unknown universe. I have always thought that the day we discover life on another planet, is the day we will finally see our common bond on Earth. Our perspective as humans will fundamentally change for the better. I hope that is the day where discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion etc its seen for what it really is... a shameful short-coming in our species potential.

[@raymondanielson8438]

Eleanor Fitz I don't find it inspiring because there is has been already contact with ETs the reason why this is not out yet is due to the fact that people would panic. SETI is used as a distraction just like "entertainment".

[@devonike]

Eleanor Fitz Advancement in space travel is the only way to travel to another planet( unless aliens visit our planet.)

[@raymondanielson8438]

devonike Are you assuming that once we met with ETs, they will give us space travel technology ? if so you're wrongly mistaken.

[@Neueregel]

Eleanor Fitz ain't gonna happen. aliens don't exist!

[@Lars16]

Raymon Danielson I both agree and disagree. But it's like walking up to a civilisation of ants and teaching them about a highway and how it works and why it's efficient to build one. Why would we as a superior race compared to the ants even bother to teach them a concept they most likely won't even understand.

[@Airave]

Funny, but good question I guess. Yes and no. No, it is the most important mission in my Life. What is yours? And Yes, because cooking is a hobby of mine. I really dig creating great food for Family, Friends and myself. It is Art and Nourishment (Survival) all at the same time. Thanks for understanding and being so cool. Rock on, Bro.

[@AR333]

this is on par with sagan's pale blue dot... this is science at its best

[@garvess]

Congratulations JIll, you've read all Carl Sagans books. This video should have been titled, why the search for extraterrestrial life matters during a world economic crisis. Then the lecture would have been two words long "It doesn't".

[@JimJWalker]

I am not so optimistic that a revelation such as the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence would hold the human imagination for as long as one may think. It would simply become an empty footnote to be acknowledged, as sadly the distances and time differentials prevent any interaction after the fact of discovery.

[@carlacavallimariotti8325]

Got your point, but it would be a blink to the "open mind"

[@araptuga]

Of course that depends on just how far away they are. Chances of anyone to talk to being within say 30 light years (so that we could send a message and get a reply within your lifetime) are admittedly small. But even if we detected someone 1000 light years away, just knowing someone is out there will, I think, have profound effects over time. Knowing there's another race out there (and if one, likely many) -- and statistically, one far advanced than our own -- is bound to get people thinking and discussing what that means for us. Are they dangerous? Can they provide us with clues on how to survive or even thrive? Or at least, give us context for those persistent questions about our origins, and the meaning of life.

[@the_mastermage]

@@araptuga my biggest wish would be if someday some highly advanced Civilization that has the means to travel lightyears in seconds would just blink in and be like you wanna explore the universe

[@OliverPatrickLoughnan]

Evert school should show this ounce a week befor classes!5 stars

[@freenational]

Outstanding speech but the speaker did not address about the probability of extraterrestrial civilizations being hostile ones or that Earthlings may be considered too hostile for extraterrestrial civilizations to want to contact us.

[@BlackMetalSwan]

Even after watching this talk, I don't think SETI should get much money, especially now with so many out of work

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

If the stars all consist of old light, how can we possibly ever observe universe in it's current state? How can we know all the stars are still there if they're dead and we're just seeing the afterglow of a universe long gone? Just sharing my thoughts.

[@araptuga]

Yes, the light is "old" by the time it reaches us, but only by somewhere in the range of a few years to a few thousand years. That's nothing compared to the lifetime of stars. More than 95% of stars live billions to trillions of years -- meaning almost all of them are still in existence today, since the universe itself is less than 14 billion years old. (even the rare stars with shorter lifetimes live millions of years -- but those aren't likely to have intelligent life anyway, so we won't be in contact with anyone there). So basically, if we hear from anyone, the chances are 99.99999999999% that they will still be there, now and for a VERY long time into the future.

[@WhiteRussianBC]

She is the only person that can even make me consider the existence of extraterrestrial life. But when she's done talking logic comes back to me and I forget all about it. However, great speech!

[@Bleppe]

I'm trying to lead by example. I'm not telling you to read between any lines either. I'm deliberately trying to be as broad as possible though, because the subject at hand is the nature of the human mind and how we stop repeating not only the mistakes of days gone by but the ones we are repeating during the present.

[@chilledhoney]

SETI SIGNAL 6EQUJ5 "WOW" Code meaning maybe: The "EQUJ" is Equine meaning "horse" hence the constellation Sagittarius. the "6" is a beginning greeting, and the "5" is an ending salutation. The signal is Strongest at the "U" The "J" is also sometimes used as vowel instead of "I". The 6EQUJ5 code meaning is as follows: "Hello (6), from the "horse" (EQUJ or EQUI)constellation Sagittaruis, (5) Goodbye". This message may have taken 10,000 years to reach earth. Signal is from Sagittaruis, research it

[@Tsujanryo]

Owned a shirt since jr. high school. Upon it's back is a symbol encompassing the words, in a funky font: EARTH TRIBE. Seven years after this TED Talk takes place I find out about her & sure enough, she espouses the very same notion. No-brainer really. heh Good stuff. Awesome talk. Glad to know one more person making this obvious information a topic for public discourse.

[@illisssy]

"Is it really just us? Are we alone in this vast universe of energy and matter and chemistry and physics? Well, if we are, that's an awful waste of space." LOL heehee~ I love this quote.

[@sokabampendulo9306]

U have to think deep wild stop boxing your mind. free your mind .

[@Bleppe]

If you want to boil it down that much i'd say "take everything with a grain of salt, find out for yourself and don't take someone else's word for it" would be a better analogue. I'm not saying we should always distrust authorities, the media, researchers, our friends or our peers but just because you are told something doesn't make it true, and vice versa.

[@Flyborg]

With our current level of technology, looking for intelligent life in the universe is sort of like looking for humans on Earth, by going out into the middle of a desert, reaching your arms out, and seeing if you feel anyone within 2 feet of you. The amount of our galaxy that we can even partially see from the Earth is a tiny fraction of a fraction of 0.1%, and this is just one galaxy of at least 80 billion.

[@theragemachineau3855]

Try 100 billion galaxies. First we need to work on uniting ourselves, before we go out and start exploring for others. Because we don’t even truly know who we are as a species yet. We fight over the trivial and horde materialistic values. First unite the planet, solve our own issues first. Then reach out into the cosmos.

[@PedanticNo1]

The pacing of her lecture really bothered me, but I enjoyed the content. Does anyone else get annoyed when the speaker uses pauses and stresses words far too often, as if every other sentence is something profound. I can be amazed or inspired without such obvious vocal cues, thank-you.

[@rwwalker721]

TED is excellent.

[@randy95023]

Agree or Disagree, this is an interesting lecture. Not to be pessimistic but if she thinks we will overcome our "Tribalism" and become "one with each other as Earthlings" I'm afraid we are going the wrong direction. When I was a kid in the 50's we all knew our neighbors and quite a bit about their families and personal lives. NOW, few of us even know our next door neighbors. We have gone away from what she envisions for our future. One Tribe? Sorry, not gonna happen...

[@camilogonzalez8903]

Ellie Arroway 😍👌🏽

[@Promatheos]

We won't find intelligent life elsewhere. Considering the size of the distance and timescales involved, the chances may as well be equal to zero. And even if, against all odds, we found signals of intelligence, we wouldn't be able to communicate with them anyway. Not only because of a language barrier, but because by the time our message got back it would be thousands of years later at least.

[@Bleppe]

I was trying to paint a bigger picture about the nature of humanity and how it has been herded throughout history. Peer pressure, argument by authority and taking things at face value. Stephen Hawking actually said something along those lines though. "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians."

[@Trazynn]

I really like the episode 'Rare Earth' by the BBC and presented by Iain Stewart. It's on youtube somewhere. Really worth checking (stunning visuals as well).

[@Evenstar100]

It would seem that a number of the previous comments are founded in our present scientific and technological understanding and capability. Would Early Man have thought that technology would progress to time when the humans would travel into space? Technologies have been and are being developed that allow us to see deeper into the universe than ever before. Human beings arrived here through experimentation, risk taking and determination it is this that moves us forward. SETI is doing just that.

[@rudy4histo]

A very sophisticated talk, great animations and use of imagery. I very much enjoyed this...

[@jacquelinea.6025]

"[A signal] tells us about their past, but the detection of a signal tells us that it is possible to have a long future."

[@redlabel2112]

Well said my dear madame.

[@JonathanChaseHypnotist]

The problem - we rely on technology to discover something that, if it is part of nature, we already have the equipment to discover. The solution - we look into our minds and spend some time becomming less reliant on what our machines can interpret and turn the job over to understanding the thing that invents and interprets that discovery. Lets start thinking with a capital "T"

[@alecthefish]

Thank you, thank you. From a bipedal mammal, in one of those small Island's, New Zealand..

[@Cocoshunt]

"fail", "women", "Science", "lol".. Some groundbreaking intelligent comments there, keep it up guys. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the results from Keppler!

[@Casmige]

True, true...succinct & well made point. Bravisimo!!

[@ancalites]

We'll almost certainly have confirmation of life on other planets within the next few decades, once various spectroscopy programs come to fruition.

[@havocman100]

.. spacetime to a position faster than light could arrive, of course. my point is that to scale it up and somehow apply that to a spacecraft, we simply dont have any way of doing it (yet). wormholes appear to be unstable, warp drives require too much energy and are also too unstable due to their antimatter bubble, and multi-dimensions are still purely theoretical. thats all i was saying

[@artaudian]

...exploration is the keyword for scientific progress.

[@KT45]

Picking up where Carl Sagan left off. Great job!

[@hla27b]

CERN found what they were looking for. Now it is SETI's turn.

[@Za7a7aZ]

The thing I do not understand is that Seth Shostak (senior scientist at SETI) does not belief that Earth is being visited by ET. His argument is that the distance for a visit is too far. Such thoughts are too narrow minded for a scientist working at an organisation like SETI.

[@stevenaudet]

What about finding some intelligent people among us, first! -Every civilization that comes to the point of being able to self-destruct will ultimately make it in a short period of time. The time-line and this critical point is so thin that the chance of an encounter with a highly developed civilization is almost impossible.

[@Destro7000]

come here? nooo you're thinking way too far ahead, we might be able to see each other, maybe even talk (if we're VERY lucky).... but due to the distances involved it would be many generations away for either us or them to reach each other with anything.

[@drew8996]

"The story of humans is the story of ideas that shines light into dark corners."

[@stellabella841]

If you're saying that all the planets with life are the same age and formed at the same time I don't think that's the case. See some stars are billions of yrs. older than ours so if there was a planet in the right spot life would have evolved a lot sooner than here, giving that species if intelligent much more time to evolve. That and new stars and planets are formed all the time. Actually about 4000 stars every sec. are formed. So there's likely life developing on another planet at this moment.

[@1schwererziehbar1]

agreed. what would without a doubt help the economy is to stop pointless occupations and wars. that's where the money hole is. not a bunch of satellite dishes in the desert.

[@t3hgir]

She's no Sagan, but it was a good speech.

[@havocman100]

yes i have also heard of these, as i recall they only last for a tiny amount of time (probably as long as a micro-black hole) due to their radiation feedback (much like a speaker and guitar sound feedback) and are probably just as small. this is an interesting discussion, always fun to talk science with someone

[@sokabampendulo9306]

She is right u have to pick a frequency of thier past not their present that will give u a lead

[@LynxChan]

The goal of finding life on other planets is a great one and it's impact cannot be understated, I disagree about it changing things so much as to make us a global community. The same thing was said when we got the first images of Earth from space; humans would realize we're all in the same boat together, that our differences are insignificant. Obviously that prediction did not come true. It would be a great discovery, but it would not cure people like Punniabi here, I'm afraid.

[@thalamay]

Well, at this point, SETI just listens at random directions. Given the vastness of space (and most of it is incredibly empty), it's extremely unlikely to find anything. However, once Keppler is in Space and finds potential earths, they could direct their telescopes towards these planets. So SETI's time hasn't even come yet.

[@kakudmi]

If everyone is responsible then no one is responsible. I am not talking about the blame or quilt, I am against those feelings, but I am talking about responsibility. Who are those scientists I am talking about but people like you and me. So yes of course it begins at the individual level, but scientists just like politicians always act irresponsibly, meaning, they don't take responsibility for THEIR OWN actions. Since they make BIG decisions, they should take BIG responsibility. But they don't.

[@kakudmi]

I've mentioned scientists because they were supposed to be the brains of our society, and if the society is rotten, it means that the brain is rotten.You cannot blame your mother for buying a plastic cup, but the ones that decided that plastic cups should be made and sold publicly. It is a sign of irresponsible actions and if scientists are not responsible for their actions,they should stop doing their work and do something else.Responsibility is hard to get these days,everyone is washing hands.

[@mcdus78]

Wow this was 10 years ago?

[@AlgisKemezys]

great speech.Keep up the great work.

[@Mjhavok]

That quote is from a Carl Sagan novel called Contact. The female protagonist says it.

[@infectbnl]

this even makes the fact that she did not mention his name even worse. Excuse me for being so pro-Sagan, but he definitely deserves more popularity and appreciation for what he had achieved fir popularizing science.

[@TheSUPERDMT]

Knowing your neighbour is all about Tribalism. The 50s are the perfect example of it. Not giving a sh(t bout anything but yourself is how we'll become 'one' with each other.

[@theodoresweger4948]

So well done thank you very much...

[@davidshaw7454]

Excellent talk !!!!

[@havocman100]

i think you misunderstood my comment, when i say "tricking space time", i mean to cheat and use a wormhole, or use some type of warp drive to compress and expand space time, without going faster than light. and with regards to the neutrinos, it was reported that they had some loose cables, is that possible, certainly. but more data is needed. all i am saying is that, sure theoretically is it possible to pull some tricky quantum physics and move particles around in terms of dimensions and...