Waking up in the universe - Richard Dawkins 1991 Christmas Lectures 1/5

[@EdwardHinton-qs4ry]

That baby is 34 now.

[@koenth2359]

I saw these lectures on television, around christmas 1991, and they struck me as exceptionally good, and I was instantly hooked for 5 days. I found out it was Dawkins, the author of The Selfish Gene. 33 years went by, and two weeks ago he was interviewed in Amsterdam, as a part of his farewell tour. I was lucky enough to be in the audience.

[@adiands850]

How did you find out about the farewell tour in Amsterdam? I had no idea about that. Do you know if there is a complete list of the tours?

[@koenth2359]

@adiands850 He advertised it at the beginning of his videos a while ago. Google it, it's quite easy to find. But I'm afraid that the tour is over by now.

[@koenth2359]

My longer answer disappeared for no reason, but in short, you can Google it.

[@koenth2359]

​@@adiands850test

[@ImmyYousafzai]

you are that psychic kid 😂

[@Stephen_Lafferty]

My favourite of all of the Christmas lecture series! I look forward to watching this again over the Christmas break, 33 years since the initial broadcast of the BBC!

[@leedsdrumacademy]

That baby moment was weirdly theatrical during a science talk haha

[@t.dizzle83]

Brilliant video, Brilliant man.

[@siddharthaghimire2415]

The british architecture is such a lovely piece to marvel at, small,compact,optimized for smaller country with limited resource with a reflection of its historical beauty it holds.

[@YourWealthCome]

Bella we don't hit babies...4 min into this and I was like Oh this is going to be rough.

[@amitkasliwal2115]

Richard Dawkins never ceases to inspire! A true legend! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@Durrpadil]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@GeorgeHampton1st]

These are epic

[@FarbotBurunetNia]

I thank you professor. Great lecture. Nia

[@jarneyfs1]

He certainly needed the notes for the silly arithmetical comparisons, however he had his notes when he wrote his childlike description of helicopter flight like a wafting jet of air pushing it up. The evolution of flight, Dickie? Do you know how a wing works? Because you didn't in your book, but that is how it evolved? Flights of Fancy.

[@siddharthaghimire2415]

Beautiful 10:23 visualization

[@siddharthaghimire2415]

Such were thw beautiful tv shows that pursuid a generation of schorals of my generation.

[@EyesOfByes]

1:53 I think Boston Dynamics have put a lot more into that. Never mind the cost of all AI datatraining :/

[@Amethyst_Friend]

Of course; it was a reasonable ballpark kind of number though, I think

[@JusticeAlways]

Great lecture! Wish there were more....😊👍

[@therealcaldini]

They’ve done them every year since 1825 and they’ve been televised since the mid-1960s. The RI has many of them available to view for free. I suspect you knew that though ;-)

[@PBeringer]

And the lecture series that the RI hasn't published themselves are often available on people's personal channels, digitised from their own VHS recordings of the television broadcasts, and the like. But it seems the RI is getting around to publishing the high quality versions of the best ones. I watched an out-of-sync VHS capture of Carl Sagan's 1977 lectures countless times before the RI got around to doing it properly. But thank God (pardon the pun) they did. They've got Dawkins, Attenborough and Sagan up so far - and probably others I don't know about. Not sure they'll do Susan Greenfield's 1994 series, given that she might consider KZbin to be brain-rotting. Hehe ;) I've never seen that series; it's probably fascinating all the same.

[@RollingOwls]

Greatest ever popular lecture series on Evolution Biology

[@1eV]

Baby crying in the background. You don't hear them anymore.

[@Durrpadil]

I miss when intelligent people had children and held their composure (I am a child of the 80's). It seems these days infants belong to some parents that are on par mentally with their uneducated offspring (America, where I'm from).

[@PBeringer]

@@Durrpadil Same here in Australia. It operates differently in the "developed" world, but (in a more general context) it's a worldwide phenomenon - poverty increases the birthrate, but I can't remember exactly why. The weirdest thing is that the most intelligent and all round wonderfully human friends of mine, who are the ones who _should_ be procreating, have all had complications conceiving and carrying pregnancies to full term, etc., but the people I know who definitely should not be procreating seem to pump out children like they've got nothing better to do. It's so weird ... and quite upsetting, really.

[@Durrpadil]

@PBeringer This is infuriating. I notice a very similar circumstance here. For the powers that be, I wonder if they had any reservation allowing essentially all of humanity to breed. There is no doubt this could be a root complexity causing conflict on Earth, without an extensive education many would resort to violence within less developed nations. Ugh.

[@Sett86]

I came here for the Nightwish lyrics

[@Chickston]

That's the 2nd biggest ruler I've ever seen.

[@SodiumInteresting]

What's the biggest?

[@RaglansElectricBaboon]

Bryson!

[@shabbirahmeddar7765]

Brilliant explanation of evolution of life.

[@lsynno]

This is great but it's sad to see Dawkin's decline. Gender politics. Not. Even. Once!

[@PBeringer]

*YAWN* ...

[@tinkletink1403]

poor old bryson ...

[@therealcaldini]

According to his LinkedIn page he was only there for ten years from 87 to 97. I could have sworn he was there from the late seventies until forever. Funny how the mind plays tricks on you.

[@PBeringer]

@@therealcaldini Is it possible you're think of Bill Coates? He is a true legend of the RI, and he assisted lecturers from the 60s until the 90s. I think Bryson might've been hired to take some pressure off Bill as he got older.

[@therealcaldini]

@@PBeringer probably not, because I’ll always remember the name Bryson. I will look into Bill Coates though as I’ve not heard that name before. Thank you.

[@ralphjenkins1507]

❤ Dawkins

[@badger1296]

46:02 First, we need to understand the reasons humans seek out religion and then proceed to fulfill that need.

[@Amethyst_Friend]

Because they want certainties could be one reason

[@michellefranklin3182]

Love Richard Dawkins.

[@Durrpadil]

Fantastic lecture. Frustrating baby.

[@bendybruce]

A very expensive thing to make? No it won't. According to Elon Musk it will cost you about Thirty thousand US dollars. That said, the price probably doesn't include the human operating it via remote control.

[@peterpain6625]

According to Elon we'd be on Mars by 2017 and have self driving cars that don't go full on ED-209 by 2016. I'm not conviced that muppet is anything more than an excellent snake oil salesman who's companies thrive DESPITE him not because of him. But heyho. What do i know with 2 PhDs ;)

[@bendybruce]

@@peterpain6625 I mean, I certainly hope you don't think my post was serious. Especially not with that flex of yours..

[@peterpain6625]

@@bendybruce Nah. But i had to make sure though. I mean it's a cult basically when it comes to Elon.

[@bendybruce]

@@peterpain6625 Poe's law strikes again. btw Just in case you aren't aware. Present day Richard Dawkins is a card carrying member of Elon Musk's fan club. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

[@adiands850]

@@peterpain6625 just curious, what is the relevance of the 2 PhDs?

[@vladvlog9677]

One of the few sane voices still left.

[@merrickhurst4150]

Shame that as a biologist he missed the chapters on intersex people.

[@spindoctor6385]

He needed another 64 chapters. One for each gender. It is a shame they also double every year

[@firstlylastly9155]

That’s culture not Biology

[@MatthiasYReich]

@firstlylastly9155 Intersex is not, that referes to people diverging form the ‚normal‘ 2 chromosome types. There are many (obviously still rare as a percentage, but many nevertheless) people that are born with two sets of genitalia, and more still that have similar features‘ less visible.

[@koenth2359]

He is well aware of (the relatively rare occurrences of) intersex. There was absolutely no need to mention that in a course for laymen children. Only now it is made bigger than it is.

[@marcognudi664]

Shame you missed Biology classes altogether 😂

[@danatowne5498]

You have really, really got to be kidding me.....

[@therealcaldini]

Eh?

[@TheFrostySloth]

Either he learned something new and is in awe or he has been drinking the churches kool-aid for years. Hopefully the former …

[@John__-ie3od]

Richard Dawkins is a hypocrite.

[@theradgegadgie6352]

Oh? Care to elucidate?

[@YuzuruA]

I think he is more of a biggot

[@John__-ie3od]

@@theradgegadgie6352 He claims to despise Religion, particularly Christianity. But at the same time claim to want to live in a Christian nation, that he is a "cultural Christian". In other words, he wants to live among Christians but would like to tell them that their religion is abhorrent.

[@theradgegadgie6352]

@John__-ie3od Christopher Hitchens said something vaguely similar. He said if it came down to the last Christian on Earth and him and he had the power to destroy or convert, he wouldn't want to do it. Funnily enough, he said it to Dawkins, who replied, "Wtf not?!", or words to that effect.

[@John__-ie3od]

@@theradgegadgie6352 Exactly why I find them as hypocrites. They despise the culture that brought them up, and then attempt to "rationalize" that all that culture brought was evil and destruction. I have my own gripes with religion but I don't just label it as something to be completely eradicated. Hence, why I don't like atheists who preach that religion should be removed.

[@cptrikester2671]

Can't stand Dawkins. Not watching this at all.

[@Myd-z7s]

don't leave comment litter on videos you didn't even watch

[@cptrikester2671]

@Myd-z7s whatever!

[@ickebins6948]

But you took time to post a comment... Bright move xD

[@therealcaldini]

Your loss

[@cptrikester2671]

​@@therealcaldiniI loose nothing. In the end, Dawkins may loose everything, unless he has a change of heart.

[@spindoctor6385]

Great strawmanning to justify "the government" spending money on his research.

[@PBeringer]

Ohh, "strawman"; one of the calls of the right-wing knucklehead - their fondness for conformity and buzzwords is fascinating. Care to elaborate on your "point" (if there even is one)?

[@fraMOON635]

Effing baby cries... not liking his futur!

[@Amethyst_Friend]

Who needs 'em!