What Would First Contact with Aliens Really Be Like?

[@insertfunnyhandlehere]

The resource argument always seemed odd to me considering any resource they would be trying to get from Earth can be found in Greater abundance among the asteroid field. About the only resource that you can't get anywhere but Earth Is Us.

[@chrisyoung9653]

wood coal and oil.everything we use for energy when an early civilisation

[@Forsworcen]

And we’re not particularly remarkable either if other intelligent creatures exist

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Water. Also Earth itself is a resource, especially if the planet they were from was similar enough that their life could thrive here.

[@Forsworcen]

@@ThatWriterKevin water is literally all over the universe in the form of ice and if colonization of our planet is the goal then they wouldn’t introduce themselves. We’d be dead already before we knew what hit us. Also it’s surprisingly simple to make habitats to live in especially with the level of tech they’d have to reach us in the first place. Isaac Arthur goes over all of these points in detail.

[@mwolkove]

I think it was Michio Kaku who said something like this on a discovery Channel show. It makes a lot of sense. If you need resources you can find everything somewhere else, in much higher abundance, than you can here. Why stir up the ants nest and risk getting bitten?

[@TheStevedie]

Dont forget even if the aliens come in peace I'm sure humans will find a way to fuck it up.

[@imarchello]

it goes both ways, probably.

[@whoozyyy]

@@imarchelloa species so intelligent they can traverse the galaxy wouldn’t be dumb enough to fuck it up.

[@subninja8069]

Especially if they look like us cultural differences on top of maybe they want to conquer us... hey, Hot alien women I'm all for it. I honestly that's probably how we would get into a war with them

[@ryanm9566]

"How many editing effects do you want?" Simon: "Yes."

[@TeeJMoFii1]

As an editor in CRYIN

[@georgemetcalf8763]

Lenny: "It's bringing peace! Don't let it get away!" Carl: "Break its legs!"

[@kakhead]

It's resisting hit it harder

[@bodavidson2804]

Willie "Kill it! Kill it!"

[@RAS_Squints]

Good Morning Starshine~~~!

[@NeoTechni]

This: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4naZ5t5bM2reKM

[@heywoodjablomi719]

I for one am looking forward to a life of servitude under our new alien, robot, giant insect overlords. I would also like to remind them I am house trained and easily learn new tricks.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

I would just let it slip that we were preparing a massive revolt in Australia. And then give the Ducking Emu's Ducking Railguns. Sit back and watch the show.

[@lauraknight5973]

Right? If they created the technology for interstellar travel, then they can probably run this planet better than us. Just tell me what to do, Alien Overlords

[@A13X_H_22]

There was a show done about how life would evolve on other planet’s. At the end one guy said something like “the universe is incredibly tough and if something evolved on one of those planets you don’t want that thing coming here”

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

Ask Isaac Arthur says we stand at the top of Darwin's billions years tall bloody corpse pile. No species becomes dominant by being timid and indifferent.

[@eateddie1995]

Also, any alien race Thats could travel interstellerly would likely be able to find resources almost anywhere without inhabitants. If you could choose between a planet thats completely devoid of life and one that is, it would be much easier to take the one devoid of life.

[@strudo76]

Except one with life already has workers

[@dutchthenightmonkey3457]

@@strudo76 yes but they are either so advanced that they don’t care bout gravity and workers or they are normal and then the best they will do is use us as a slave population to mine on smaller things(moons/asteroids)cause the cost to get somin into space with an atmosphere compared to without is just huge (but this is not 100% because they might have somin weird like a space elevator or somin)

[@chickenhunter4694]

@@strudo76 we are nothing compared to robots, we would just get in the way

[@sensora9646]

@@strudo76 you're telling me that a civilization that has developed interstellar travel doesn't have the capabilities to create infinite manual labour using machines? Bruh enslaving a planet would be time and resource consuming and overall not worth it. Unless they're a sadistic and barbaric civilization highly doubt it.

[@Shoelessjoe78]

​@@chickenhunter4694 they'll just hunt us for sport then.

[@bneskylights1152]

I always love the idea that aliens would fight us for the planet instead of popping off to the asteroid belt and just yeeting a planetoid at us.

[@henrymng]

@Peter from NZ that would require the xenos to be almost (at least 98%) same as us, which is so unlikely that it won't happen. And i guess it is just projecting the image of barbarians of old into aliens

[@gregrowe1168]

In reality aliens would only come here to steal our resources and then leave. They would have no interest in interacting with us. Making us slaves would be another reason. If they were advanced enough to visit us, any technology we have would be primitive to them and totally useless. Any attempt to stop them would be futile as well, our weapons would be useless.

[@bneskylights1152]

@@gregrowe1168 are there any resources that we have that are not more abundant and easier to retrieve in space? The only options I see are either preemptive extermination or farm space.

[@seunmejule651]

Humans already know the perils of first contact for the less advanced side, and we try to mitigate it with still isolated human groups. Humans also put effort into conserving nature. I don't get why everyone thinks a more advnaced alien civilization would not do the same things.

[@Yukimaru0]

Also why would you travel millions of light years for resources when everything we use can be found in space in much more abundance. Assuming a similar distribution of available resources then it would be way more efficient to just mine what's in your own system first. And even then if we assume a scenario where they need to travel to the closest star and we happen to be it they would just mine asteroids. It's not like we could stop them or even be in their way.

[@kutkuknight]

If you have near light speed travel then all you need is one maniac to ram a ship into earth and kill us all though

[@PetrSojnek]

I think the comparison to ants or dogs is very fitting. humans also don't go out and kill every dog and anthill out there... unless they get in our way of course. But unless they want to make a star highway through solar system... Joking aside, they would probably just take us as very interesting curiosity.... with our technical inferiority we would mean no danger to them (the same way anthill isn't any danger to us). I can imagine they would study us the same way our scientists study unusual breeds of animals found in some isolated biotopes. Maybe take a few specimens as gift for their children or to put in museums and "terrariums" :) To be honest... what makes us think that doesn't already happen...

[@kukipett]

Why would you travel so far away to just destroy the only thing valuable, studying a new life form and a civilisation !! Those who think aliens would come for our ressources just think as uneducated people, why colonising a planet which ressources have already been mostly used. And more those ressources can be found everywhere in the universe and biologic ressources can't be used by another civilisation based on another biology. A very advanced civilisation would probably not see the need to expand and colonise but will focus on preserving and optimising it's life space. The fact that people think aliens would colonise the galaxy and kill any other civilisation just shows how primitive we are. We still fight wars for stupid reasons, we waste our ressources, we destroy our lifespace. I don't think any primitive civilisation would ever manage to travel to another system, it will maybe possible in a far future if we manage to handle ourselves!

[@craftlawrence6390]

​@@Yukimaru0 the resource they need could be biomass, also it might be far more efficient to take resources by force from barbarians in a known location instead of using even more resources to search unknown regions. For millennia humans could have expanded to uninhabited regions to search for e.g. salt or metal or whatever but they chose to rather fight each other over resources in known locations.

[@socket_error1000]

The biggest obstacle with alien biology being harmful to us has to do with proteins and sugars. This is because of the chirality of Amino Acids and Sugars used by all organic life. These molecules exhibit an alignment makeup that orients in one of two different directions, often referred to as Right-handed and Left-handed - to identify the alignment that is identical in make-up but simply a formed in mirror alignment. There are four different possible combinations and on Earth all organic life utilizes Right-handed Sugars and Left-handed Amino Acids. We can't make any use of the opposite alignment of these molecules. This would also apply to an alien species if their organic material utilized one of the other 3 potential combinations, a 75% probability. Unless they had the same organic makeup as us, only a 25% chance, we would have nothing to fear from any transmissible diseases or scary microbes. However this rarity of compatibility does increase the potential for a hostile planetary invasion. If we find that true Earth-like planets are indeed as rare as it seems, then it would be even more rare to find one with the same organic chirality of amino acids and sugars. This could make the discovery of a compatible planet very rare and worth invading and the genocide of the current inhabitants.

[@LiveoneLee]

This is why they’ve been sending visitors to anally probe us for years so that they can adapt, but they either get bad samples or they lose them and have to come back for more 😂😂

[@kutkuknight]

You’re forgetting that building a habitat that’s earth like is infinitely easier than invading another planet, there is no reason to exterminate other life other than being afraid they might exterminate you if they get advanced enough.

[@Sepaedius]

The possibility for peaceful trade becomes more likely with the understanding that it's a lot cheaper to make friends than to invade an alien world they know nothing about. Economics have evolved dramatically since the colonial era, and the potential economic impact of an entire world's worth of wealth to trade with cannot be understated. Regardless of technology level, the fact that we offer new products, experiences, ideas, and innumerable other things that can be traded, researched, or manufactured means that if they ARE more advanced, they'll recognize that we have more value as we are because their economics will value things more complex and profitable than materials they could pull off of any dead world. Life is likely rare, and intelligent life even rarer. Everything on this world we take for granted, from plants to mushrooms and critters big and small, would have some value in a wider interstellar market because it's *unique*. We should value that uniqueness, and come up with economics to deal with non-hostile first contacts if the aliens are interested in interacting with us positively.

[@lollerich]

You've played a bit too much Mass Effect haven't you

[@PetrSojnek]

What do you mean Earth-like planets are rare as it seems? I think nowaday it actually shows it's not as rare as we once thought? Not mentioning that aliens capable of space travel would probably have technology to terraform planets like Mars or maybe even Venus to make them habitable (or at least in my head, we will very probably colonize Mars or so before we even attempt to reach different solar system).

[@AlmostEthical]

If AI is advanced enough to come all this way, it would probably certainly study us at a safe distance to avoid contaminating the "specimens", just like we are ultra careful to avoid contaminating Mars.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

They could pull up quite close and still be able to remain safely out of our atmosphere making the chance of contamination practically zero. They could place their probe, relay, or ship (whichever they have) in Lagrange 4 or 5 in Lunar Orbit. These points have had rocks floating in stable orbit around us for millions and millions of years. So if something happened with their craft it would most likely stay in that area and not fall to Earth. And from that orbit signal lag would not be that long allowing for near instant communication.

[@AlmostEthical]

@@davidtherwhanger6795 It's hard to know how advanced AI would do it. But they would surely be more likely to do something covert like that than barge in. Wild animals are far less interesting when they are aware of humans watching. All they do is watch us back, flee or attack. In rare cases the very intelligent ones might want to play. When animals (and people) are going about their daily business, their behaviours are much more complex and subtle. That's why we love hidden camera footage.

[@erichloehr5992]

Way to reference the “Star Trekkin” parody song from the late 80s with the come in peace shoot to kill quote

[@BrianHartman]

I don't think it's very likely that aliens would invade for resources. Space is big. *REALLY* big. The nearest star (other than the Sun) is 4.2 light years away. And we can't even be sure there's life there. The closest intelligent life (let alone life intelligent enough for interstellar space travel) would, at a minimum, have to travel several years to get here. You're telling me that a civilization capable of doing that wouldn't be able to get resources closer to home? That just doesn't seem likely to me. Or to put it another way: Can you name a resource we would have to go to Alpha Centauri to get? It seems to me much more likely that any probe would have the same ultimate mission we would have: To find intelligent life. It would be a scientific mission. Intelligent life, unlike minerals or some other natural resource, probably *is* rare enough to warrant a trip.

[@BrianHartman]

@@EternalGaze8 KILL ALL HUMANS!!! :D

[@freerideziege6047]

6:00 Factboy cruising in a Yellow Submarine? WTF 🤯😁 Very factastic and dystopessimistic 👍💪 video as usual good Sir.

[@Dr.Schlitz]

Aliens coming to earth for its resources seems about as plausible as walking halfway around the earth to pick up a single grain of sand. You could do it, but it would take forever and the payoff would be effectively zilch.

[@aaronak2005]

Absolutely loving this new channel!

[@badluck5647]

It is funny to see a British man be terrified of being colonized. 🤣

[@Jessepigman69]

Yes because colonisation is one of our weekend hobbies

[@cleverusername9369]

Even funnier when you remember that this specific British man lives with his family in Prague, so he's low-key colonizing the Czech Republic on a very small scale.

[@cleverusername9369]

@@Jessepigman69 is Zombiefied Piglee by any chance a reference to "Archer"?

[@EAWanderer]

The upper elites realistically created and ruled the empire 🇬🇧, not lower plebs like me OR Simon 😂😂 As far as aliens go 12:08 - I agree with that

[@ilajoie3]

@@cleverusername9369 His wife's czech, so not exactly that bad

[@mwolkove]

This just reminded me of a book I read, where aliens came to earth and the government got frustrated with scientists failing to anticipate them. When the scientists failed, they turned to science fiction authors, because they had the most experience with understanding aliens and how they might think.

[@DigbertDayZ]

Sounds like a book I would like to read, what was it called if you remember 👍👌

[@mwolkove]

@@DigbertDayZ I wish I could. It was a good story, and I can't even remember the author.

[@Michael75579]

@@DigbertDayZ Sounds a little bit like Niven and Pournelle's Footfall.

[@cinderheart2720]

I've noticed that we tend to imagine that our first contact would be with aliens that are *also* going through their first contact, with us. What if instead, we have first contact with aliens who already have many protocols in place for meeting new species, fixing issues like the skin bacteria and diplomacy.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

IIRC that is already part of any first contact protocol set up by the UN. And in any case there will most likely be a very long communication lag so our response to any received communication or contact would not be rushed. After all if it would take 100 years just to get your response back to the aliens, taking a year or two to carefully draft a response wouldn't be that big of a deal.

[@nobodyfamousX]

They did that in Mass Effect, but that's the only piece of media I've seen that done in.

[@camwyn256]

We haven't found any life out there yet, and we already have protocols to prevent possible contamination. We sterilize everything we send to Mars (at least lately. I'm not sure about the earliest things sent to Mars)

[@adamwu4565]

This scenario could be one that increases the likelihood that the aliens we contact would look recognizably humanoid. As one of these established protocols the aliens might have would be to make their first emissaries, be it a robotic probe, a mind downloaded into a cyborg body, or a genetically engineered biological form, take on an appearance that is familiar and comforting to the target contactee species.

[@pterodactylptroll]

For sure! The aliens could have a set of directives that guide them in how to handle first contact situations.

[@anicoleww]

AMAZING WORK GUYS!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:50 - Chapter 1 - 1st 1st contact 5:00 - Chapter 2 - We are not so different you & I 7:50 - Chapter 3 - We come in peace, shoot to kill 11:40 - Chapter 4 - Wrap up

[@vickiewallace415]

I should have known this was a Kevin Jennings piece. I loved it!

[@EmilyJelassi]

Before he died, Stephen Hawking warned us about AI and said that we shouldn’t be broadcasting our location to the universe.. that any alien that finds us is more than likely to want to destroy us. I think we should listen to his warnings

[@KaapoKallio]

Imagine how weird and exotic aliens could really be! They could be intelligent slime molds, silicon- based organisms that breathe out sand, self- replicating ai, self- aware ecosystems... The possibilities are infinite.

[@melllvar4262]

Aliens visited us not too long ago. They came here looking to feed on intelligent life. The poor guys almost starved to death... 👽

[@MarkHardKnox]

Aliens could potentially look completely different than what we would expect. We do see similarities between animals on earth whose common ancestors lived over 300 million years ago BUT the Aliens would have no common ancestor besides single or multicellular organisms.

[@theg.c.142]

President Biden: "Welcome back jack!" Aliens: "Did he just sniff us?"

[@stevestarr9769]

Something I just thought of, in none of the images of aliens visiting Earth they are never in some sort of space suit. There's no reason to believe that our atmosphere would be safe for them.

[@glennrugar554]

The most interesting part of this great video was the convergent evolution thing. Could you do a video about more of that?

[@vic5015]

It's unlikely that convergent evolution would apply. The aliens would likely evolve under *vastly* different circumstances than us and so there is no real reason to expect anything more than a *very* basic similarity.

[@Eddie-jt5wv]

@The Program I like how you took the time to write all that, even though none of it is provable. Cool story, bro.

[@Eddie-jt5wv]

@The Program ‘Virtually’ all??? Which parts aren’t well established and how pivotal are they to the overall belief?

[@sayharris1361]

Hopefully Simon what goes around comes around. 😂😝🤣😆🤪😜

[@justindixon7441]

I have a few things to say. Because *shrug* I've actually given this topic a lot of thought for a book that I'm writing. 1: There is a LOT of stuff up there. a /LOT/ of stuff and a /LOT/ of energy. Hyper efficient fusion is the least you can expect from a more advanced species. That's a LOT of energy, again. More than enough for high fractions of C. At that point, relativistic effects take over the the journey for the aliens is quite short even if it takes forever from an exterior observer's point of view. 2: Convergent evolution IS a likelihood but it's also not quite like that in this case. We all share a kind of DNA blueprint, which you did touch on. Every single mammal shares that blueprint, every single plant shares it and every single... everything... shares it. It is also likely very unique to OUR specific biosphere and our solar system or planet. The reason for this comes down to biochemistry. The DNA molecule itself may be unique to our world or system as well. We know that other forms of molecular data storage (the genome portion of the DNA) can exist which have the same functionality as ours. That being said - other worlds may spawn intelligent species that share some traits, though likely more as a from necessity. Something like an eye ball will likely evolve on a world in a system similar to ours where we're bathed with bright visible spectrum light. Though that eyeball on another species may see short and near IR, some fraction of the visible, and maybe even bits beyond it. That depends on the specific conditions under which such an organ evolves. In system with less visible and way more IR, I can easily see an eyeball evolve which can primarily see in the infrared spectrum. Super useful when it's dark outside too. 3: While true that there would likely be variation among the species, it likely wouldn't be as much as is suggested here. Appearances will likely homogenize over time as mixing of various previously separate cultures and ethnic groups occur. This mixing would eventually lead to, on a planetary scale at least, very similar appearances with variations likely in sexual dimorphism and various "up to chance" genetic variations. Thanks, Mendel! -_- 4: There is no real validity behind the concept that an advanced alien species would necessarily be malevolent. I'd consider it rather unlikely actually. The more advanced we, as a species become, the more peaceful we actually are. That's proven throughout history. We're more peaceful right now as a world than at any other time in history. Literally. The trend continues there too. We've, over the last 10,000 years fought less wars, and as wars continue to advance, less people are actually dying in them. Additionally, trends currently put us on a cusp between world peace or global nuclear destruction. It can go either way but is trending toward world peace. There is no reason what so ever to assume an alien species would be any different. Cooperation and peace foster advancement. War can only get you so far technologically. You'll wipe yourselves out well before you start exploring or even travelling to the stars. 4.1: Side note: Intelligence knows intelligence. They may see us as a novelty but I doubt very much that the probability favors them straight up wiping us out because we exist. Unless that's just their thing and they ethically justify it somehow. *shrug* You know, like the Primes in Pandora's Star. (excellent book) 5: The trope about Earth being useful as a resource... it's wrong. 100%, gloriously wrong. Every single other body up there is easy as all hell to extract from with the exception of large rocky worlds with deep gravity wells. All resources that ARE on Earth of any notable value to technology are also only truly abundant deep in the mantle and core of the world. However, those same exact resources are available in space on asteroids and small moons which are orders of magnitudes easier to mine. Coming to Earth for resources is a pretty bad one. Please don't use it again. lol 6: Biologically speaking, it's rather unlikely that an alien microbe would actually do much of anything other than maybe just be toxic from a chemical standpoint. Like I said about the genetic differences between convergent species - They'd be made from a different programming language essentially. Our body wouldn't likely read their biomolecules well, if at all. That means that pathogens are unlikely unless we get super unlucky and the aliens are genetically quite similar. In which case, I'd start looking into panspermia. I'd love to post sources for these but... you know... KZbin.

[@Hakugarawe]

Left nothing out :3

[@ladaux]

I came here for this.

[@edpoell2876]

I was hoping a sci-fi smith would weigh in on this episode.

[@Hakugarawe]

@@edpoell2876 I wish Isaac Arthur would respond to this^^

[@justindixon7441]

@@Hakugarawe I was on his team for years. :) good man.

[@Lafiel17]

Awesome shout out to the song "Star Tekkin" with the lyric "We come in peace, shoot to kill."

[@insilencea4599]

You could name this channel That'd Be Cool, but It's Really Unlikely. I tend to think that complex life is fairly rare in the universe. When I consider the sequence of very specific events in the solar system that made Earth the way it is, and then the even more specific chain of events leading to humanity, and then to our space program, plus the fact that out of billions of life forms we're the only ones interested in going to space... yeah, I'm not surprised we haven't heard from anyone. Our civilization is almost incalculably unlikely. But that's what makes the idea of aliens so amazing.

[@jphilb]

Since some people think aliens have already visited us, I propose a bet. I’ll wager $100,000 in a trust that says there will not be a V or Avengers or ST First Contact type worldwide alien media event in the next 30 years. I just don’t believe there are aliens anywhere. What is so bad about being alone in the universe?

[@DanaVastman]

Appreciate your witty reflections 💖

[@jdiluigi]

Just remember. There is plenty of resources that are found on Earth available in the Asteroid belt etc. They wouldn't want to waste resources messing with is if they just wanted our elements.

[@chrisyoung9653]

wood coal oil.everything we used to make energy

[@Forsworcen]

Right. In a resource grabbing situation they’d likely rock up and start consuming everything from the outer objects moving inward gradually. Then and only then would they possibly interact with us at all. More than likely though is that they’d ignore us completely unless life is particularly rare

[@ThatWriterKevin]

A planet that is hospitable to life is a resource in and of itself.

[@bigsprucerabbitry6238]

@@chrisyoung9653 That stuff is low energy compaired to uranium and other nuclear fuels. Earth's early geology consentrated it so could be useful, but it seems it would be easier going to Mars or one of Jupiter's moons with similar processes to get it. Wood, oil, and coal are the only things unique to earth, but those would be useless compared to other fuels, and if they have fussion figured out then I can see no reason any biofuel would have any appeal.

[@edpoell2876]

@@Forsworcen Mining resources out of the buildings and vehicles in Manhattan... even finding traces of gold. Where humans and other beings are boiled off in the slag.

[@fearfx1]

Best channel yet. Science, comedy and Simon

[@pamelamays4186]

When aliens invade Earth, Danny and the other denizens of the Blazement will be safe and secure, enjoying the pirated WiFi from Simon's office.👽🌌🛸

[@adityarajan592]

I think its highly implausible aliens would look anything like us and the convergent evolution argument misses one incredibly important detail, sharks and dolphins and all life on earth has the same building blocks. They have similar cells, similar DNA and similar biomes too, which makes convergent evolution possible. There is no reason to believe that alien life will have the same molecules we do.

[@karlharvymarx2650]

Evolution might conserve reacting to violence with violence but not violence as the primary way of getting stuff done. Many animal interactions even across species are cooperative rather than competitive. If you put a cow and horse in the same nice pasture, they usually won't fight to the death to get all the grass to themselves. In my experience, they generally become friends. Maybe they won't help the other find the best grass, but they'll mostly peacefully coexist even if the grass gets a little sparse. Presumably they might fight to avoid starvation but I never put them in that situation so I don't personally know. Perhaps more importantly, highly technically advanced aliens, even if they have remained flesh, probably long ago gave up on natural evolution. We often aren't the nicest beings on the planet, but we do generally want to be better than we are. Who doesn't want world peace? Who would rather go to bed at night knowing no one has to do without life's essentials? Who doesn't even want even animals to have good lives? There are human exceptions, but I think most people wish everything well. I think a lot of that originates from being social beings and I think there is a good chance it would be an almost universal trait of social beings. So, I can see us eventually tweaking our DNA and cultural norms to get what we want. Ditto for most aliens. If they show up at our door I think they'll just be curious and generally altruistic simply because it makes them happy. Other than that, I can't see a compelling reason to come here.

[@mikehawk2610]

why choose two of the most docile skittish animals for your example? take a bear and a tiger, or hyena and wild dog fighting over a carcase or squirrels fighting over nuts even. they all fight even with a abundance of recourses. the only reason i could see aliens would come here is by happen stance through exploration, or to come to a already habitable planet assuming they require a roughly similar gas composition to survive among over things. or out curiosity, which would be the best outcome for us. recourses wouldn't be a good reason if you've already conquered space travel since you already have access to an abundance of what ever resources you would desire.

[@greenanubis]

I find it hard to accept that kumbaya idea. It could work, if it satisfies the main principle: helping their genes to survive and propagate. How likely is that on the grand scale? For their interests to align often and with any degree of longevity? Im not sure.

[@possumgrits825]

What if the "aliens" have a hive mind, ant or bee like in there social construct? We would only be in the way of there objective. Feed the queen, make more larvae.

[@alexanders.1359]

Yeah but if you put a mating pair of cows and goats each in that pen and provide finite resources that are only enough for let's say 10 animals... Those cows and goats will reproduce peacefully until they reach the number of 10. After this darwinistic evolution kicks in and the stronger or smarter animals will continue to feed and reproduce while the others will starve

[@jiub1916]

Love this channel! keep it up.

[@maryellencook9528]

Beam me up, Mr. Scott; there is no intellegent life on this planet."

[@paulceglinski3087]

Yup. Ever since I got dumps on this rock, I've been shouting for a pick-up. Cheers.

[@demonicusa.k.a.theblindguy3929]

I know some intelligent people including my wife. Unfortunately that group is overwhelmed by the moron majority.☺️

[@johnlowdon6269]

Aliens would probably build a fucking big wall around earth to stop us getting out !!!! 😳😜🤣

[@raybod1775]

Odds of a comparable alien civilization occurring at the same time within a thousand light years of Earth are about zero.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

Yup. For all intents and purposes, we've got the place to ourselves.

[@lijohnyoutube101]

Actually current drake estimates are higher than zero but drake has a fundamental flaw. Its bit on basis of radio, what if radio is comparable to smoke signals.

[@adeyemi120]

This is a false statement as we know of a couple earth like planets already and there is an estimated billion more in our galaxy. So it’s possible just due to the fact that everything is so fucking far away we can’t really tell.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

@@lijohnyoutube101 That is a huge if. And even if aliens do have radically different communication systems, which is possible, they would still monitor radio wave signals to observe and study stars. Any of their scientists would definitely see a repeating signal as something different and designed by intelligence.

[@lijohnyoutube101]

@@davidtherwhanger6795 they may have used radio in the past but what if there is something beyond our current understanding? Its pretty likely if there are aliens capable of finding us and if they have the transportation means why would they interact with us? We are complete savages and barely have functioning intelligence levels and our quality of living across society is a giant joke. We are like two small steps out of cave people status. Humanity at our current level of functioning is pretty much a cesspool. For flipping sake we are so ass backwards we still have millions of silly people engaged in religion and believing there are gods and that’s just for starters. We also have trillionaires, many billionaires and tons and tons and tons of millionaires, at the same time we have things like the working poor, refugees in camps, people dying every single day from lack of food and lack of basic healthcare. We aren’t a civilization, we are pathetic at what we accept and allow to be okay on this planet.

[@BrianPseivaD]

Brilliant subject to cover Simon, thanks.

[@danielreuben1058]

This is my new favorite channel you have. I would hope an alien species that can traverse an enormous amount of space would be so advanced, that they have transcended war, colonizing, slavery, etc. to the point of peaceful existence. However, knowing humans, give the aliens five years among us, and they would annihilate us because we're horrible and insignificant and annoying. I, somehow doubt, an advanced civilization would have Tik Tok.

[@PetrSojnek]

Think humans 1000 years from now. Do you think we will transcend war, colonizing and slavery? I'm sorry, but I find it unlikely, maybe if we find an infinite source... or at least source big enough that it realistically doesn't matter if it's finite. Why would be the alien race different?

[@gobbagu]

This is the planet of art, music, and humor, if they want a party planet go to the reptilian planet not the monkey planet

[@Vexas345]

Personally, I'd have hoped the aliens would've move passed the whole "kids these days and their iPads and TikTaks" phase but I guess we'll see.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

Since it's unlikely that they'd need anything from us and interstellar travel is hellishly expensive they'd need to have a good reason to come here. The one that springs to mind is missionary work. they're here to give us the good news about the Great Prophet Zarquon or the mysterious doctrines of Anti-Dematerializationalism. Whether it's Spaniards in the Americas or a sweet little old lady knocking at the door it's going to be wrenching to us monkeys.

[@NihilistAlien]

They must. If you get that much power while being as immature as we are now, they could not have survived

[@MassEffect1988]

My favourite quote was in Contact. One dude compares humanity being wiped out by aliens like a person stamping on a few thousand ants. But then the guy replies "and how guilty would you feel if you stood on a few hundred ants?" Lol

[@AirWolfAT6]

Humans: "What's with the aпаl fixation?" Aliens: "You sent us a mixed tape, nudes, and a map."

[@manticore2804]

You saying the aliens are laid back just makes me imagine first contact as the aliens being super polite and nice and speaking in a Canadian accent

[@pohldriver]

The power of radio waves diminishes exponentially the further you're from the source. Any species capable sending a message powerful enough to be detected over the roar of their star, would also have the technology to have death rays. Listening for alien transmissions is like feeling for a fart in a hurricane.

[@IamnotJohnFord]

What if they do have cold fusion, eat only grown veggies, and are peace loving monks of the universe?

[@Thirdleg4sale]

First contact will more than likely be us saying hi to a single cell organism under a microscope.

[@-F4K3-]

I wonder if aliens have their own version of the tiktok trend of a person holding a blanket up to a dog and "vanishes" when it drops for UFO sightings

[@lowerthetone]

What if the aliens were invaded by aliens that were far superior to them, so they use their technology (far superior to ours still) to locate and take refuge on our planet. Eventually they join forces with us and use our resources to get back their planet? That should be a friendly encounter 😀 Might make that into a movie

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

One of the many possible scenarios of us getting a signal from aliens is that civilization is being wiped out by another. The defender civ then sends out a last ditch message to anyone, broadcasting in the clear and as far as possible. Sending all their science and tech they can along with everything they know about the aggressor civ. Hoping if nothing else to make the aggressor pay harder trying to take down the next defender civ.

[@chrislong3938]

It's a COOKBOOK!!!!!!!! Kanamit: Mr. Chambers, eat up! We wouldn't want you to get skinny, now would we!

[@Forsworcen]

Isaac Arther goes over this in detail but the basic gist is that it’s unlikely an alien coming to us would actually be hostile, not impossible of course, but unlikely. Let’s say we’re the first they’ve meet and they’re within a few hundred years of our technology. If they are intelligent enough to get to us in the first place they’ll think about how exactly wiping us out would look to any outside observers that they haven’t met yet and taking the risk that said observer themselves wouldn’t be THEIR technological superior isn’t a good bet. Unless there is some alien super predator out there wiping out anything it encounters, certainly a possibility, it’s unlikely their actions would be overtly aggressive. And as far as resources are concerned? Earth wouldn’t be the first target in such a case. Asteroids and the various outer planets are much better options for just about every resource imaginable. On top of that if these aliens are anywhere nearby they’d have known about our presence since before we even made it to the Industrial Age. Our planet has very clear bio-markers that would be giant “WE ARE HERE” signs to anything looking through a telescope. I could go on but Isaac does a better job in his many videos on why this type of scenario is unlikely.

[@MelvinGr_]

This :)

[@motherdragon67]

Another Simon channel!!!!! 💚💚💚

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

While I am quite certain there exists life somewhere else in the universe, I do not believe for a minute that they’ve ever visited Earth. That concept is as much a creation of human minds as the concept of god. Interstellar travel really isn’t possible, nor is it practical.

[@RaelNikolaidis]

How To Serve Man made an unfortunate impression on me. I feel like we basically sent out an interstellar lunch menu.

[@jamesfry8983]

Well if it gets dangerous, we could always just sneeze on them

[@JJM8043]

Wrong. We wouldn't be able to.

[@gapratt4955]

Maybe less like dogs and more like cattle?! As in the famous line; "It's a COOKBOOK!" LOL

[@donalddeorio2237]

Resources are abundant throughout the universe, why come here when everything a civilization could want is available for the taking. If they can travel between stars then mining should be a piece of cake. Other than using us for food, probably not likely as having totally different biology. As far as wanting our planet there seems to be plenty of real estate to be had with no hassle from natives

[@djapothecary]

I think the Predator movie series sums this up or expands on this episode perfectly

[@phillip6083]

I remember a story of a couple who were abducted by aliens and put in a simulated earth environment. But they figured by how it was set up(woodland enclosure)and them having had no clothing they deduced the aliens were unaware they were intelligent creatures.they did not undrstand our language.they tried math and music and sign....but they did not get it. So they settled in and made new clothing, built a shelter, started a fire and resolved to become an exhibit.then they duscovered a weird alien mouse like creature.they caught it snd made a wood cage for it. Once the aliens saw this they realised their error. They learned to communicate and apologized for imprisoning them. When they asked how they figured out they were intelligent they exlplained that they had observed many lower life forms that used math without understanding.like a spider and its web.or that built dwellings like birds and beavers.or that wore matter on their bodies as camouflage or protection like various moth larvae and hermit crabs.even some birds use fire to flush prey. But in their explorations they had found that only intelligent creatures kept creatures in cages.

[@bigsprucerabbitry6238]

Problem with that is the slaver ants, the build cages to keep other types of ants as slaves. Maybe we could reconsider our place on this planet....

[@JaseNeverSleeps]

that was a great Rick and Morty episode

[@kevingriffith598]

Spot on. Everything you said is exactly what I've been trying to explain to everyone in my life.

[@TheKalaxis]

Simon: "Aliens would probably kill us all" Me: And that would be a *checks notes* "bad" thing?

[@AndrewManook]

Yes it would be, to any sane person, now you might not value your own life but you can't speak for the rest of humanity.

[@evilmark443]

Aliens: "We come in peace." Every human on Earth: "OMG IT'S AN ALIEN INVASION, NUKE 'EM!!"

[@mickmccrory8534]

The alien craft landed in an open field, & was surrounded by tanks & soldiers with guns. The door slid open & the spaceman walked down the ramp. He offered a medical device that could cure all illness'. One of the soldiers shot him. The Day the Earth Stood Still

[@jasoncallow860]

Yeah, it landed in the USA...

[@jons4Jesus]

How do you differentiate between convergent evolution and a recent common ancestor?

[@thekingofcardboard]

"you don't go into a forest to have a conversation with an anthill." I've always taken issue with that argument. Imagine you sit on a park bench and spot bunch of ants living in a sidewalk. A bunch of them look up at you and go back inside their colony. 5 minutes later you spot a pile of bits of food, and no ants at all. You lean in to look close and spot 4 or 5 ants peeking up at you in fear. You realize the tiny pile of food bits is actually an offering to you, in the hopes you won't kill them. You obviously destroy them all, right? Personally, i would find this incredibly fascinating, and would probably leave them some food, maybe leave a sign saying "don't step on the ants, they're super cute." I don't know why people assume aliens would destroy us because we're like ants to them(except that it makes good television)

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

Isaac Arthur brought up this point many times. His response was to point out how many people here on Earth devote their lives to studying ants. Out of billions of people you have a number in at least the hundreds. Now imagine an alien civilization with a population in the quadrillions or more. That civilization would have hundreds of millions, possibly even a few billion, scientists who would devote their lives to studying us. So yes that person might not, but others would do and have done just that.

[@captainspaulding5963]

Using ants as an example does this thought experiment an injustice. We already know what ants are, and for the most part, what they are capable of. You have to use an unknown species, that we know absolutely nothing about. The VAST majority of humanity would kill that species without hesitation.

[@cas1652]

It's weird because people do do that and they also anthropomorphise nearly everything. I mean some people have pet rocks that they speak to. Any animal that shows the slightest sign of intelligence is endlessly fascinating to us and we end up having a great deal of respect for them.

[@JJM8043]

That still wouldn't make them equal to us, which is the point of the Ant comparison. Any aliens that could reach earth would be so superior to humanity, that we'd never be equal to them.

[@JJM8043]

​@@davidtherwhanger6795 They still wouldn't treat or see us as equals to them. If they can reach earth, they are vastly superior to humanity. That's the entire point of the Ant comparison.

[@Chef_PC]

Really need to drop the music/effects volume and those graphics….oof.

[@hotarusama5826]

Honestly, this is simplified to the point of inaccuracy. A significantly more in-depth analysis of various possible first-contact scenarios is done by Isaac Arthur, and most logical analysis of possible motivations for contact, including those motivations which are not particularly logical, result in peaceful contact being more likely than violent contact.

[@reecedrury4145]

his voice sends me to sleep though....

[@reecedrury4145]

prefer John Michael Godier

[@-MarcusAurelius]

I like the idea that a class 3 alien civilization has already taken over the galaxy and they are fully aware of us, but have chosen to isolate us so that we can evolve in peace. We’re like the ant hill that they make sure not to kick over because letting the ants live is harmless.

[@Yukimaru0]

Isaac Arthur is a good speaker but needs to learn to get to the point quicker, rather than restating something he already said for like the 10th time. It's hard to justify watching an hour long video when the topic can be summed up in like 20-30 min.

[@Alec0124]

what exactly is inaccurate.

[@OllyKilo]

Maybe aliens will come to steal our clothes. They must be freezing walking around naked like that.

[@djdksf1]

The Three-Body Problem series by Cixin Liu is about the most realistic (and horrific) description of first contact I've ever read. The likelihood that the universe is NOT a dark forest filled with dangers that we puny humans can't even comprehend, let alone combat is... well, quite remote, to put it mildly. We really should have kept our big mouth shut, IMO.

[@XNY_Music]

The Aliens would be laughing their arses off at the thought that we would actually build spacecraft to attempt to travel through space, rather than use localised wormhole devices to travel "through" space. Wait until we allow AI chips to organise the contents of our brains and unlock the other 90% of our brains capabilities and see solutions that we never dreamed possible.

[@Nefville]

I was always disappointed with the way Close Encounters portrayed alien contact because that is definitely not how it goes. My grandfather was there at Edwards when they made contact back in the 60s and again in the late 80s and I can say for sure that they weren't playing EDM. You see this was right after the 70s and the aliens HATED disco, when they landed they played Cool Jerk. And the light in the ship? They don't have ears, how are they going to wear sunglasses?!?

[@vikingdrengenspiders7875]

Aliens: we come in peace Humans: we don’t

[@connoroshaughnessy4327]

I honestly think the reason aliens haven’t contacted us is because of where our solar system is located; we are right in the middle of this big ass void in the milky way galaxy there isn’t much of anything in it so just getting to earth would be a big pain without some kind of warp technology.

[@gregrowe1168]

In reality they don’t know we exist just like we don’t know they exist either. The only sign that we are here beyond our own solar system is radio waves we have sent and those would be hard to detect. And they wouldn’t have arrived yet anyway, we’ve still got thousands of years before they receive them, if they do at all. Even if they do, they may have no interest in where they came from. They will figure out we are so far away that we’re not even worth the effort.

[@dingusdingus2152]

@@gregrowe1168 they have no doubt detected old broadcasts of I love Lucy, and are so baffled that they are motivated by sheer curiosity to find us and examine us...

[@stevewiles7132]

They came, they saw, they buggered off.

[@DJL78]

I love this channel! Is it Simon’s best? Very possibly….

[@KyoShinda457]

In Spore I left the 'lower civilizations' alone in the space stage. There's plenty of places to expand and I didn't feel like interfering/taking the time to contact those civilizations.

[@sijoneyyan]

Oh Simon, did you go and make another channel again? well, I am running out of time to do other stuff. There are too many podcasts and channels to keep up with. Love your content.

[@PayasoLoco1328]

I feel like the microbes would be one of the biggest issues as far as coming into direct physical contact. We've already seen the devastation of disease of what happens when one part of the world comes into contact with another part of the world who have been isolated from each other. And that is on the same planet from the same species. Just imagine what microbes from an alien world would do.

[@arvintyree1109]

Hopefully not anything as horrific as turning us into necromorphs

[@granienasniadanie8322]

Probably it would be aliens dying from our microbes, because spaceships are clean and sterile, compared to this a inhabitated planet is an bacetria breeding ground.

[@mhmt1453]

One word Simon: “FOOD.”

[@capq57]

After the past couple of years, I'm fairly certain our first contact will be the Borg.

[@DrMuFFinMan]

This always brings back the saying of "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced" Clarke's third Law

[@Me64034]

Imagine if aliens are like some people in power. Smart in some ways but unbelievably dim in other ways.

[@oxylepy2]

An alien already looked at the directions to Earth. They were missing 3 screws and their junk is caught in a ceiling fan

[@jasonburt7160]

What a great channel Simon. It is almost as fun as Business Blaze used to be. That channel back then was CRAZY. lol So, when are we going to learn about transporters, laser guns, railguns, interdimensional travel, or Deep Space 9? oh And the afterlife. wait, that is fantasy. Alright, how bout tricorders and sci fi medical stuff. My apologies for all the technical jargon.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Transporters are coming, laser rifles are already in development by the US government and Israel has a laser defense system for shooting down missiles, and railguns exist, they just need more work to be practical.

[@edpoell2876]

I want to know about Q.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@edpoell2876 check out Decoding the Unknown,that video came out recently

[@SamIAm1260]

Ok, I am starting to wonder about myself now. This is my new favorite channel, but I think it says something about me that my last favorite Simon channel had him yelling at the screen, aggressively hitting his script, throwing things, etc and now my current favorite has him destroying all my dreams of science fiction. 😅😂

[@dontmindmeimjustspectating2871]

You really started ANOTHER channel 😂

[@TheLumpyShield]

11:20 one acronym PPE. Personal Protective Equipment. Ie: A hazmat Suit. They could use one, we could use one ...

[@GrandviewKing]

“Narcissistic in the extreme to think we are alone” Now you gotta do the Fermi Paradox and rethink that🤣(I happen to agree but…)

[@Leftyotism]

9:20 Uhm, you could get those ressources much easier in space, water too btw.. And there is way more out there than down here, plus you save yourself having to come down. D:

[@lennyusefof8077]

Why are all aliens always naked. I mean, you’d think if they were that advanced they’d see the advantage of pockets.

[@JonMichaelDeShazer]

The song "Pets" by Porno for Pyros seems to fit into this conversation quite nicely.

[@oldgrouch3503]

if the aliens come here i suspect it will be to steal our clothes as they are tired of running around nekked. good grief

[@speckledjim_]

I have always thought that anouncing our presence and location was a REALLY bad idea. Cause we just dont know whats out there

[@sagitta98]

I would love to imagine our first contact like "humans are space orcs" scenario. They will see us inferior at first, but that will change drastically after knowing human nature, ethos, and culture. Hell, they will call us daredevils for going to space with a massive bullet called rocket, a same device that also can be used as projectile weapon.

[@aavideos6986]

The other big thing is what are the chances of us existing at the same time as said aliens.

[@rickcullarn1347]

Oh Dear! haven't you all realized that it is much too late... THEY ARE ALREADY HERE !