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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ส.ค. 2018
- The universe is incredibly old, astoundingly vast and populated by trillions of planets -- so where are all the aliens? Astronomer Stephen Webb has an explanation: we're alone in the universe. In a mind-expanding talk, he spells out the remarkable barriers a planet would need to clear in order to host an extraterrestrial civilization -- and makes a case for the beauty of our potential cosmic loneliness. "The silence of the universe is shouting, 'We're the creatures who got lucky,'" Webb says.
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Me: I should probably go to sleep it’s like 3 am.
Brain: WHERE are all the ALIENS?!
Lol same here
Same here bro
This is me at 8 am lol
Andrew Zaitsev same! 😂😂😂
same it’s 4am here 🤣
Arthur C. Clarke - 'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.'
Excuse me, but, given that I tend to be an observant person, I think being born into such a hostile world, and being granted mortal life involving inevitable/inescapable suffering is far worse than either of those two possibilities.
Those two are not so bad, especially the first one (we are alone). What is terrifying is that we live in a very violent and hostile universe. Black holes, asteroids, neutron blasts, and here on earth disease, human stupidity and ignorance, greed. Yet it is what it is, so we either thrive despite all of that, or we die as a species.
that is obvious i could have said that myself
ladies and gentlemen meet the man who is afraid of everything ...
why?
When he said, "I think we are alone" that totally caught me off guard. Did not expect that at all.
Yes, especially given the high ratio of upvotes to downvotes. The true believers must not have found this one yet, or else they didn’t make it to the end of the video.
I think because we don’t have a starship with warp drive, and cannot travel to the other quadrants of the galaxy, he can say, today, we are alone.
We obviously don't even know if the math actually supports his claims of probability. Furthermore, although he's obviously smart, I believe he's way in over his head if he actually thinks it's this simple. I get the feeling it's likely not, this simple.
@Bill Dan Courtney what if we live in a multiverse?
@@AndreSilva-wp1dn good question! Even if we are in a multi verse the change that there is live in other universes is really small
I'm unconvinced we're alone due to our limited knowledge at this time, but I love his inspiring closing message. We imagine all these advanced alien civilizations one day reaching us, but it hasn't happened... So we can BE that advanced civilization that reaches out instead. Absolutely exciting!
Oh, we have not limited knowledge. We have the bank of info from ... man-made scifi entertainment fiction. Most ppl who think there are aliens derive from the man-made entertainment ... but not from actual conversations with space aliens. Where are the artifacts? Where are the cadavers of space aliens preserved for all to see? Nowhere but inside the bag of ideas from man's fiction. Most TV shows, flicks of space life, present the same old ideas from ... scifi entertainment. It is sad to think that we are full of fiction make-believe knowledge while thin on facts, confirmable knowldge, objective science peer-reviewed. These space alien space life productions ask lots of questions, but, always end up being answered by the non-existent, unprovable things in the scifi realm.
@@rcayers1700 finally somebody with sense its like 99% of people believe in aliens except me you and maybe a few others
Don’t get too excited we won’t see that in our lifetime
Hahahaha, guys need to search for more... We don't believe in Aliens xD xP
Yeah maybe we are the first “intelligent” species out there. If life is so so rare and hard to come by then maybe we are that advanced civilization.
When aliens fly by our planet they roll up their windows and avoid eye contact.
In terms of a technologically superior species or race visiting our planet, they may not even be conscious, or present. In many cases what we witness in terms of UFOs may merely be probes or drones, designed to investigate, survey, observe, and/or ferry goods, and nothing more. This is something that we might do down the road as we develop, if we encounter other races. It would be very dangerous to actually physically encounter another biological non-human race. They may carry diseases we have no immunity to, or there may be such a dramatic language barrier that we have no means by which to translate. There is no Rosetta stone for non-terrans. Perhaps they possess superior technology with computers capable of translating our language, but would they even be interested? It's very possible that they are subject to the same industry-standard fatigue that comes from digesting person-to-person interactions which forces MANY social individuals to become introverted. How much more introverted toward less-developed civilizations would they be? Just because they stop by and wave (tic-tac probes) as they refuel (just beneath the surface of the ocean, Nimitz encounter, recently released Navy reports and footage) doesn't mean they're remotely interested in actually communicating with us. You might wave at a coworker or friend as they drive by in their car, but they wouldn't stop to chat. They're on a deadline or some other arbitrary time limitation. Just because you can travel insanely fast doesn't mean you have no deadline to meet.
On the other hand they could exist in a higher dimension, even the 4th spatial dimension and while they perceive us, in our 3 dimensions, as we would perceive a cartoon on a tv screen, we may have no method by which to perceive them in their higher dimension. A 2-dimensional organism would never be able to fathom 3 dimensions without some sort of interface medium. We have no medium for higher dimensions yet.
@@Insert639 Without speculation and experimentation, innovation doesn't exist.
Tbh if they did that...I wouldn’t blame them 😂
@@DavidBixler Very good critical thinking !
They would scream. "" Pedal to the.metal ""
i am 20 and i just wish that atleast before i die,i get to see a real proof of intelligent aliens.i just dont wanna die knowing that we dont share this incredible universe with any other intelligent being.
We’re not alone - we share the universe with a few billion other people, which is nice. We get to talk about it with each other, which I find comforting. I think when people look for aliens, they’re really looking for the knowledge that that discovery would entail - they’re looking for answers about so many things. I think people are really looking for God, but, since humans are averse to being told what to do, they instead try to find something else god-like, preferably an alien species that will give us answers and then let us blow them up and retain our independence and feeling of superiority. Thus: aliens. That’s my theory, anyway. Personally, I believe in God and think that He wants us to colonize the universe... eventually... once we realize that we can’t really sort ourselves out without him. I think humans were not designed to be alone or go it alone like we keep doing. We’re meant to be connected to the divine. Trouble is, religion is a huge mess.
@@KatyaKean humans have always been wanderers, it's in our genes.
The will to learn and grow.
You are kinda right stating that we look for aliens so that we can find answers to unresolved mysteries but God plays no role in it, God is just an imaginary being that never existed.
There can be a positive/negative energies which maintains balance between good/bad but there God doesn't exist.
@@unknownentity2112 dude, if god not exist then how can you explain ghost, if u dont believe ghost, then come to south east asia
I also wish it.
@@unknownentity2112 I don't believe in ghosts.. I just never see any real proof
The problem with the argument against other intelligent life is that it is based on the limited perception of Humans, which in turn is based on our limited existence on Earth and the theories/formula's proposed to explain what we have encountered since. No doubt, other life may exist on a plane that we have not even come close to conceiving of yet. We think we're 'intelligent' as a species by our own standards, but may be considered inanimate by a species who has existed for millennia longer. A cave man could never have conceived of Virtual Reality, TH-cam, cell phones or the like and if presented with it may even think it was another way of existing altogether - which maybe it is.
You are right. Sumerian clay tablets describe the Annunaki aliens that created us. The tablets indicate the Annunaki came to earth 450,000 years ago in flying rocket ships like Elon Musk is developing today. Just consider that Scholars say our knowledge is growing exponentially. The volume of human knowledge doubling rate used to be 25 years in 1945 but is currently doubling every 12 hours. Just think how advanced the Annunaki should be with a 450,000 plus years head start on humans measly 4 thousand years of development. Their knowledge, if they have not met some extinction disaster, may be doubling every 1/1000 th of a second. Just think, scientist now think they can prove the existence of a fifth dimension by using recently detected gravitational waves. The Annunaki should be so far advanced they may know how to move between the different 12 dimensions, and they may not exist in a form we can recognize.
I'd say that's all based on an assumption that Human's have a limited perception of our limited existence. The scientific method is what we use to divorce ourselves from those limitations and biases. We've looked. That's the whole crux of the paradox. We AREN'T limited, we are very capable of making the required observations. And we did. And that's when we realized there's a problem because there isn't anyone else out there despite our intuitions making us feel as if there must be.
But if he was born now he would understand them
That's kind of the way I see it. And we aren't that important either.
@@iamacepaul Humans are all that there is!
Ive always thought we're alone for many of these same reasons. I never found it depressing either, I found myself feeling incredibly lucky.
I dint understand how any scuentist can actually believe that we are alone. The universe is infinite, and odds would have to be statistically that we are NOT the only special ones in the whole infinite space
Humans have been broadcasting radio waves for about 100 years, so our furthest signal is about 100 light years away. If the universe (~93 billion light years across) were the size of the pacific ocean (~11,000 km across), then our furthest radio waves have reached about 12 millimeters. But we can't even observe our nearest star in any detail and that's only 4 light years away (~half a millimeter). On this scale the Milky Way galaxy is about 12 meters across and Pluto would be about 75,000th of a millimeter away.
So it'll be about another 90k years before our signal reaches the edge of just our own galaxy, and then double that to receive a response. A civilization could have started much sooner than ours and have been broadcasting a lot sooner as well, but depending on how far away it is, it could take 1000's of years to respond, so we might as well be alone. A conversation with Mars could take up to 20 minutes for a response, so I couldn't imagine how excruciating it would be to try to have a conversation with someone 10k light years away lol.
It doesn't have to travel to the edge. Just to the next responder.
YOU! I like you....and that is so correct.
Nice written @ Eternal Reign.
Now that I think about it if you observe any random 12mm in the Pacific ocean you probably won't come across life. Probably not even if you observe 12 meters of the ocean. You would conclude there is no life there.
You should be talking on Ted, not some pessimist disguised as a realist
If aliens are anything like us then lets hope there aren't any.
@Ibraheem Warrior 🤔😂😂😂 That has 2 b tongue in cheek sarcasm, if not, then pls get help.
@vallejo ca 😂
There are different types of aliens there are the good aliens that watch over us humans and then there bad mean aliens that wants to hurt us.
Michael Bannerman-Roberts why human beings are irrational, destructive, and stupid. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg
@@ninajewett180 not hurt but experiment
Scientists: where are all the aliens??
Aliens: dude we’re literally buzzing your navy ships
And they claimed them as potentially Chinese or Russian advanced saucers.
@@junhotan2096 if the Russians or Chinese had aircrafts that advanced our intelligence agencies would know about it
@@oneirishpoet exactly. people forget that these events that are being talked about happened years ago. the tictac encounter that Commander Fravor talks about on the news happened almost 20 years ago.
@@junhotan2096 china doesnt have the means for a seabourne invasion of taiwan let alone have craft faster than the speef of light the same people who believe its china or russia are the same people who claimed iraq had wmds and anna nicole married for love!
@@oneirishpoet we would be fucked up
THIS GUY IS AN ALIEN TRYING TO DEFLECT HIS EXISTENCE IN OUR MINDS! 😂
Nope his part of the cover up.
@@RobertK1993 Exactly! The CIA have been using several peopled the media to cause doubt or make us think they're hostile, abducting us or that they don't exist at all.
Wym
Tyson said it best. Humans take a glass of water from the ocean and say "There are no whales in the ocean!"
Nautilus1972 it takes more faith to believe there are lifeforms in our universe than to believe in God.
Tyson also stated if there are only so many elements/atoms in the universe then the universe continues to grow taking these atoms etc and continually putting them together in infinite ways then at some point the universe has to reproduce the same thing. It has to repeat there for some where out there there is a replication of our selves. almost like we have a twin of our selves and identical.
Its a terrible way of explaining his theory by me but it makes total sense. Secondly if time travel is possible in a million years then what we are seeing may well be us from the future. Why not?
@@naturalLin No not really. We know for a fact that life on a planet is possible as we all are the living proof of that, but we have yet to find our first living and real god. So indeed it takes faith to believe god exists, but we know for sure that life exists. You statement is therefore false.
Yes believe in God takes faith because we don't see him, hence faith. We have not found any life forms yet in our universe. We can do math to solve the probabilities of life in our universe. And as of now, with how good the odds are. We have yet to observe any. So we are still hoping that one day there might be a life form simple or complex.
Actually, you inadvertently said something which actually points to the truth. We never found any lifeforms in the universe? What about all the life here on earth? We are in the universe right? Except we can not actually confirm the existence of even the lifeforms here on earth. We can not know the thing itself. We must take it on faith that what our senses tell us correlates with actually existing external reality.
Our perceptions are pure abstraction. Light describes things to the eye, which sends signals to the brain, which processes signals and describes images to the mind. All our senses work similarly, the nervous system sending signals, the brain processing signals and creating impressions in the mind. That is pure abstraction. The mind itself seems to be a construction of pure abstraction as well.
The only thing which has any persistence, the only thing which is the thing itself rather than abstraction, the only thing we can experience and know directly, is awareness. Even our notion of "self" is an abstraction. There is only one thing we can be certain of, only one thing which is not abstraction. Some would call it God. After all, in one's own life, which is all one knows, awareness is the all seeing eye... Belief in awareness does not require faith, indeed it is the only thing which does not require faith. It is the only truly self evident thing. Awareness is... All else is debatable.
So in a sense it takes more faith to believe in anything other than God, since God is the only thing which requires no faith at all. I don't believe in God though, because I don't even exist. God doesn't believe in me either, rather merely aware of the abstraction which I believe is me.
Nobody:
Me: looks up aliens on TH-cam @ 4am
Lol its 3:48 where i am
Meeee 😩😭
Least ur not alone on that 😂🚀
Hehe, it's 04:12 over here
It's 6:47 am where I am
I love this idea...that we are possibly the first civilization that will in time ( a long time) visit other planets and lend a hand overcoming the barriers those younger life forms face...we have a lot of growing up to do here in the meantime...
or whe are the Stragglers. Maybe there was a lot of intelligent life before us, but they all died out.
We are not alone. I agree with this pastor in this video 👇
@@EXTREMETECHs44 you pointing to the dislike button 😁
@@christianmarx3249 really
We’re going to lend a hand in developing civilizations??? Jesus,Mary and Joseph there’s a strong possibility that there is planetary annihilation just around the corner!!
I never hear scientists explain how time might be a crucial factor. Considering we've only been around for a short time, isn't it possible other intelligent life could have existed during before multi-cell species on Earth existed? Or maybe after we're gone? I'm not sure if these theories and their equations take time into account.
I agree with you. Universe is so old. Who would precisely know what happened in past.
The Drake equation does take time into account. It's a fascinating equation that has been widely accepted by the scientific community.
You are completely correct. And the Drake equation does not adequately address the vastness of the differing time windows.
Maybe alien existed for a long time but then died out and there is a lot of life but time just made it so we could not contact each other
@@fanatic632 Universe isn't old yet. Maybe for humans yes, but It's actually only the beginning of the universe. A lot of stars and planets will be formed in the future
The sad paradox is that the size of the universe means there is almost certainly life out there, and we will almost certainly never find them.
Don't forget, it's not just the distance, it's the time.
Well not with that attitude.
@@shaundouglas2057 By the time any information got back, the whole earth would be quite different.
By the nature of time even if you could travel at light speed you wouldn't be much older but a minute for you is thousands of years when you finally slow down.
I’ve thought this and it’s hard to wrap my head around it. We are not alone in the universe but we’ll be alone in our system forever.
No matter what they say, Earth is our only home right now. So, protect it. Nobody wants to live in a dirty home.
But Earth is not a house. Probably overlive us and swallow all plastic left.
The Earth is all we'll ever inhabit, not just for "right now".
@@GodsMistake There's been small minded people like you throughout history who never thought mankind would fly, reach space, etc etc. Stop undermining our abilities.
biased
Im mexican so i can argue that
Interesting scope. Very well laid out. Thank you for your time. 🖤
Extremely interesting and eye opening video, but I fail to believe there's no other intelligent life in this vast universe of ours with its trillions of galaxies.
We probably haven't heard from them yet because they're thousands if not millions of light years away.
Intelligent life can come about out there in different ways to how it has evolved on Earth- especially if its non- carbon based.
They aren't talking, they are listening. Just like we are mostly just listening.
Yes that’s true, however unless aliens exist in our galaxy cluster they are basically as good as non existant
Doesn’t matter if there’s billions of life forms…they won’t be coming here because of the distances involved.
There's a load of unfounded assumptions in even what you've written there. For one, why would we think any such intelligent life would want to communicate with us? Because we do?
Almost everything about this topic is still unknowable and unknown.
This guy doesn't know anything more about whether Life exists elsewhere than you or me or anyone else.
Where are all the aliens?
Alien places, probably doing alien things.
My thoughts exactly
underrated thougths there
Lol...good 1
Best answer to be honest.
They're all at Walmart
Do Aliens really need our same properties of life? What about intelligent life forms that have developed qualities that allow them to live under extreme circumstances? Maybe an octopus that’s adapted a way to leave its environment and can still thrive in space without any repercussions all while colonizing different planets and yet adapting even more durable features?
Exactly, my thoughts.
We're viewing this all through OUR lens.
Those life forms are probably really difficult to create didn't you hear his probabilities
@@elijahf8 well...yeah, it's called science and it's based in observation and experiment, if we don't look at it "through OUR lens" then it is just science fiction or imagination....I am not saying imagination is bad but if we just imagine anything is possible and then what is the point?
@@pvsrod , YEAH, you didn't understand my comment.
@@elijahf8 yes, I did "do aliens really need or same properties of life?", Well, our type of life is the only one we know of, so what else are the scientists gonna base their studies on?, Anything else is just a hypotesis with no way of measuring. Those "extreme circunstances" are still within the scope of environments on planet earth, aren't they?. Yes, you can imagine and speculate whatever you want, nothing wrong with that, by that principle anything is possible but that is not how the scientific method works
It's ridiculous to think that we're alone.
That's just a meaningless assertion. Did you even listen to the talk? Which part of the argument do you dispute and why? You cannot and do not know whether we are alone.
@@Living_Matrix1 lol you can't be serious
I don’t think that in the entire universe the conditions required for life is exactly the same as here. I think there will be all sorts of outcomes on different planets that we would never understand.
No, you're wrong; he is an astronomer, you are a business owner.
Shut the front door.
S P That's totally illogical. You might as well speculate that there is a planet of flying spaghetti monsters out there somewhere
"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite STAGGERING" Arthur Clarke.
Alien speak to another alien "do we need to invade", "nah just wait, human kill each other"
so original
Reinardus Darryl that can be a reality
Maybe they are kind
I think that they will stop us before it happens
We are still here aren't we?
I have watched this video easily twenty times over the last few years. I love the sense of wonder.
there are so many variables to the development of life its almost impossible to say whether we're alone or not. Such an interesting field of research, especially in how life began on earth
It’s self evident, Life is too complex to just ‘emerge’. We are clearly designed and made.
@@mbukukanyau Well perhaps, but I doubt it. What’s certain is that we were not created by any god made up by humans.
@@gabrielmartinelli2549 Why? How do you explain theories that mathematically show we cannot account for 96% of the universe , using them? Of course, everyone has a god they worship, even as they claim there is no God.
God created it in 6 days then was so worn out he had to rest for a day.
@@gabrielmartinelli2549 - "big bang" blows up n away +Never happend + cannot put stuff back together - Nothing's formed w/out thinking - mainly complex life forms- Look in microscope at DNA
All of the aliens are in a party where humans aren't invited because we're not cool enough to be.
amazing 👏👏👏 you must to be there. not with us. believe me.
Who will want to invite the crazy ones . Always fighting among themselves. 🤣
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. -Arthur C. Clarke.
A lot of people think humanity is a form of virus. What if aliens have isolated us to this system of the galaxy? Maybe we are just too far away/isolated to see or interact with other species.
I believe we were meant to have our resources exploited, and thus a population decrease is inevitable. Ebs and flows. Humans have an innate ability to adapt and create. I don't believe human beings will ever need to leave the planet, for they will course correct when conditions become extreme
@@SpyderDobro Thats probably that most realistic answer. But we all like to think of crazy things to entertain ourselves :D
Conspiracies are a blast to think about. The truth is boring, agreed! @@keenfire8151
If we are alone, that is both gratifying but also that would mean that we have an extremely lonesome existence. The universe is far too vast for human beings to be the only complex life form in my opinion. I also think being alone is a bit frightening and just boring generally.
more like we are either unnecessary or "unworthy" to be contacted with alien species for our resources and the fact that we are self-destructive and aggressive life form who kills its own race specimen for no reason, of course we might as well just be too far from the other nearest intelligent life civilization... and as a bonus our space research material is so feeble its kind a joke compared to the size of universe, or even our own galaxy...
I was wondering where he was going with the speech but I knew he was leading us to something. Awesome message. Thanks Stephen!
This is my 1st simply flat TED talk I ever listened....but bring 's about 1000 questions in my mind .... quiet interesting 👍🏻
To me his accent and voice are soothing and satisfying
His voice reminds me voice of scientist from Half-Life 1
It's more logical to belive that they are so advanced or so different from life on Earth that they are pratically undetectable with current technology
I think u r on the money aliens look like human
Earth might be one of a kind gift from the universe. There are no word in our vocabulary to define how precious it is.
To me the key question is, if you have all the conditions for life; chemicals, conditions, etc; how likely is it for lifeforms to spontaneously generate.
If it is easy for life to generate then there is very likely other life that originated independently on other planets. If it is difficult then maybe either life has only originated once and that is here on earth, or the seeds of life were carried here from somewhere else and have spread around the galaxy or the universe.
Imagine if we are the only life forms in the Universe and life on Earth is ended by war, disease, etc. In that moment it means all life in the Universe would be gone, no life to live, just rocks and dust drifting throughout.
He said it better himself, that planet on proxima centari went to dust by its own sun.
It seems Man got really, like REALLY lucky to exist at all. There's just so many and big forces that can end our streak of luck.
Well the bacteria and virus would live
incorrect rick grimes doesn’t die
@@YiannissB. Lucky? Maybe the rocks got lucky.
We aren't even the only life forms on this planet, notice he was talking about intelligent life like humanity, if we went extinct because of a disease animals immune to the disease would continue to exist, same with the thought that there could be lots of life in the universe but at a less intelligent stage like as bacteria or non intelligent multi-cellular life forms.
Aliens: "oh, there is life on that blue planet" ... "oh, it's underdeveloped and stuck in evolution phase 2x7b" ... "that's sooo boooring!" ... "let's drive by... before they notice us" :)
They didn't see our women I guess ..
Of course not ! BUT the opposite happens ! many animals actually have shown that they attracting by human beings ( Don't lough , it's true ). We also talking about intelligent beings that most likely look like us and not like animals for many reasons . I also can not believe that they haven't a natural way to reproduce because this is the only way for perpetuation and evolving .
Andrey Koschey Oh my god man calm down and take a break in nature without any cell phones or friends
Brilliant answer.
Yes additionally we are a galactic park reserve, just like our earthly nature reserves. It has been shown that if we stay out of the parks, they are the richest in nature, where constant park visitors leave barren wasteland. Its not a choice for passerby's to pass us by, its the law. They will learn from us from afar, but leave us to our animal kingdom.
I believe Stephen Webb’s idea and the Rare Earth Hypothesis at the Galaxy level is probably closer to being true then the Galaxy is teaming with intelligent multi cellular life
Very well spoken. Kudos to you sir!
I’ve said it before I’ll say it again if we are the only intelligent beings in all the galaxy’s what a waste of space.
Cecil McKeithan... that’ll be Carl Sagan that said that mate, nice try though
@@kajenbop No- it was Jodi Foster's dad who said it 😂😂😂😂
assuming the universe has a purpose
The purpose of life is LOVE.
God made aliens as well....lets just say they’re different..check out the Dead Sea scrolls on here 2
👍
Imagine aliens come and watches all the movies we made.. their first target would be LA
New York
My theory is, aliens got intelligent enough to create their own big bang, and we are their experiment kind of like a worldly reality show and they are visiting us and keeping an eye on us because we have scientists trying to create their own big bang.
With Superman being invincible I don’t think they’ll be too mad lol
When they watches youtube..they come to area51
@@ikanbakar7239 I think you figured it out
To say that humanity is the only life in universe is a trully extraordinary statement really. Even a suspiciously religious one. Having in mind all that vastness, and potential infinity of stars / planets, the number 1 just seems somewhat like a magical wishful statement. If there is one there has to be others. We are not so special for sure.
if we occured in this environment, it is not rational to think it's only once - why even think so? We are the proof of life in universe. It occurs.
What a great talk ....I could listen to the speaker for hours. There is a part of me that really wants to believe that there is "intelligent" life on another planet, but every point made in this talk makes that unlikely.
Plus, I'm not sure we are even "intelligent" life, given the current state of things on this fragile Earth.
Glad you liked his talk. He is eloquent. However, he doesn't know any more about the subject than either of us do. And I don't claim to know the answer either, but the sheer numbers of stars planets and galaxies make him most likely wrong. Very wrong. Remember Arthur C Clarke's 1st law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
@@iamacepaul Yes, the fact that there is an uncountable number of stars and a limitless universe would seem to preclude the possibility that we are alone in this vast universe. The quote is quite correct. And I am certainly not is possession of the answers, that is for certain. Thanks for the comment.....
Most people are not that smart. i'm not saying we're stupid, but most can't engineer interstellar travel and communication.
2 Aliens in a ship observing Earth.
1st Alien "I see Humankind have developed nuclear weapon technology."
2nd Alien "But are they dangerous?"
1st Alien "I don't think so. They have them all pointed at each other."
Thats so not funny your trying to hard
😂😂😂😂😂😂
when man walked out of the cave, he turned the wrong way, not left, not right
rawdog42 hahaha
Awesome ✌️
I experience alien life forms every single time I venture into a Walmart.
My thoughts at WalMart: "That's not what a normal person is shaped like."
Hey, you’re probably not to far off cause there are probably some aliens in human suits going into Wal-mart buying their food. Aliens gotta eat to. ;)
Just left one, can confirm.
Coletrain72 😂😂😂😂👈👍🏻Ain’t that the truth!
Haha
Such an amazing talk.
No one in the talk knows enough to declare we are alone
"In any TH-cam discussion of aliens, two possibilities exist: either someone will cite Arthur C Clarke's "alone in the universe" quote within the first 20 comments, or within the first 50 comments... both are equally annoying"
-me
lmfaooooo so true
hahah I just found the quote below ur comment 😂🤞
yep mosts humans are not taught to think but to just repeat what the mass media tells them too. Ive spoken to aliens face to face. I have no use for "expurts"(not a typo)
Yet you also stated the very quote your slamming other about.
Hypocrite much?
Person : Arthur C. Clarke quote. I’m so smart.
Commenters: “OMG SO PROFOUND 2.5k likes!” *Jerkjerkjerkjerkjerkjerkjerkjerk*
Aliens: "ah universe is so peaceful"
Humans: *entered the chat
Aliens: "Aight im out"
I'm Brazilian hi
Oumuamua HQ: *entered the ch- left the chat
I'd have to agree with you sir.. There's far too many unlikely events that had to transpire for us to be here and to also evolve intelligence..
At 11:44 he states: “I think we’re alone.” And in our solar system we are. We have to be an experiment of an advance civilization to see how we turn out. The “creators” will either advance us or let us kill ourselves as not worthy of advancing. Let’s prove them wrong!
we should probably delete tiktok from this planet then hahah
Even if there was a spacefaring civilization the way I like to imagine or describe the problem of contact with an alien species is to imagine every planet in the galaxy being a grain of sand on a beach, and one of those grains of sand is blue and that's Earth, and then you take a few wooden planks each one represents a spacefaring civilization, you then drop those wooden planks on to the beach at random, now each wooden plank is going to be touching dozens if not hundreds of grains of sand, which represents touching hundreds of planets with their space travel, but the chances of those planks touching that one blue Speck of sand is still incredibly small.
It's not just space, but also time. We could go extinct at any time. So you could have approx. 100 grains of sand turn blue at random times, but they're only blue for 10 minutes. The odds of making contact are not just whether the stick touches two blue grains, but also whether a snail crawling along the stick encounters two grains that are blue at the exact moment he passes.
(I don't know why there's a snail on a sandy beach.)
Good analogy. Wouldn't you say though, that as the blue spec we could still look out and see the wood if we tried hard enough? I mean we have a much better chance at see the wood then it does of see us
Indeed, we can see way more "grains" of sand and our ability to see ever further will only increase :D
I like how he says a trillion may be a small number. This helps me understand that aliens, despite the trillions of planets, or galaxies, or universes, are still too few and far between. With more time, I think the ones evolved in the "summer months" will be contacting us before we contact them.
There are planets just about a trillion light yrs away.. these life forms can be extremely far outta reach
@@aquaflow1264 Are you saying that they are so far away from us, they could not travel here (just like we could not travel there) because they could not live after so much time in travel?
*They take too long.*
Being contacted isn't always something to wish for. Logic would dictate that, to ensure the survival of your species, you would naturally exterminate all present or perceived threats to that survival.
Many alien civilizations have probaby arisen and disappeared before we even existed and will after our existence ends. The Universe exists well beyond Earth's lifetime.
So he and his friend BOTH saw same ufo together?
And he says that mind played a trick for BOTH of them at the same time?
Two is amateur numbers, hundreds of people can trick themselves into agreeing on something they think they saw. As social creatures we tend to conform to group interpretation and opinion.
@@AceofDlamonds true
What is even more startling is that life on this planet has been nearly wiped out several times.
The Yoyozo.
Yes , if the dinosaurs had not been wiped out , land mammals would not have flourished and intelligent humans would not have developed ........there was a lot of lucky events that lead to us being here.
Life is frail, but is hard to kill. It's like the most persistent virus possible.
Nickoli Lion. I agree, life is hard to kill but extinctions seems to happen easier to the life that is at the top, the specialists suffer most. Things like ants and small creatures always seem able to survive catastrophe .
When the next extinction happens it just might be humans that are wiped out ......but other life on earth will continue ........and the earths environment will recover without us around, earth will cleanse itself.
just us, humans, hava survived 4 apocalyptic events till now i think. and that is shocking
Advanced life yes, not the bacteria.
I see flying saucers all the time, then occasionally, she'll throw the cup as well at me. 😂 😂 😂
Gerry McDonnell what
@@reeve8640 please tell me you really got this joke and you aren't that dull....
Wyatt Smith enlighten me with your intellectual
@@reeve8640 hes simply saying his wife/girlfriend throws saucer/plates at him aka "flying saucer" and throws the occasional cup too... as in he sees flying saucers often as she throws them.
@@wyattsmith9791still don't get it!!
amazing, thank you!
Fantastic talk.
WOW!!!! Beautiful exposition presented with style and grace,
I reject the whole "goldilocks zone" hypothesis. It's assuming all aliens have to be like us. If we ever find life on other planets it won't be immediately recognized as such because it's so different from anything on earth
its based off of the facets of life being carbon based. the likely hood of it being DNA based and the abundance of hydrogen and oxygen in the universe and the necessity of liquid water given the previous mentioned facets to combine and make life.
of course in the entirety of universe there will a possibility for life outside of these standards but you can assume the majority of life or this version of life has the highest probability of existing.
rejecting the idea of the "Goldilocks Zone" is to reject observable and understood facts of the universe.
if there is more to your rejection to support why, id be very interested in your reasoning if they are factual or supported by anything other your given reasoning
What "observerable facts" are there for alien life? It's based entirely on an assumption that all life is carbon based. Is silicone based life impossible? There are bacterial organisms living inside hot lava and tardigrades can survive with very litte oxygen. If they can survive that then they can survive on a planet closer to a star then Earth is to the Sun even if they are carbon based
True, Tardigrades, for instance, have been found to survive any extreme we throw at it. There could be alien life somehow birthed on a planet right up close to the star.
What habitable zone is relative...e.g...species from pluto thinks...that we should search only last planets of other solar system...bcoz third planet can't host life...
Yup... Not habitable by humans doesnt mean its not habitable by aliens... We have diff sets of norms.
Last summer ( 2019 ) I believe it was around July. I had just gotten of work at 11pm and my job at that time was about 300 yards from my home. I had to cross two streets and pass through a grass reservoir to get to the fence to my backyard. That night, as I was crossing the second street that leads to the reservoir, I noticed what looked like head lights ( like the lights of a Cessna airplane and then as I got closer, I noticed it was very low, like 100 ft from the ground and then I noticed it was stationary and I wasn’t moving and it was hovering above a neighbors house, two houses to the left of my home. As I got to within 50 yards of this object, I saw that it was all black and was shaped like a triangle, but it subtly curved and was making a low humming sound. My reaction was to call my wife and tell her to come out to the backyard to witness what I was seeing. She was asleep. After I tried to call her I watched this object turn from facing south to facing East ( it turned in its stationary position ) at that point my adrenaline rushed and I felt panicked. The humming sound started increasing and this object slowly headed East and gradually increased its speed until it was out of my sight. The thing I found odd was that any video I’ve ever seen of a UFO , they had lights around the edges or underneath, but this craft had headlights. This was in Tulsa Oklahoma. Immediately tried to research any military bases that might’ve been close and the only base I found was Tinker Air Force base in the OKC area, but this object headed East. I couldn’t find any images of this object / craft reported anywhere else and I didn’t want to call the police and sound like a loony. I didn’t have the presence of mind to record a video, but I was very shaken up from witnessing this. I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my 40 years on earth, but this took the cake. I haven’t seen this object since or anything like it since. On a funny note, I didn’t see any bodies being lifted or transported out of their home.
I too saw one back in 1976 timeframe. It was dead silent though, it was triangle shape with one white light on each point. It slowly flew over a drive in theater in Wichita, KS, it was rotating very slowly as it flew over and then in a split second, it shot off out of sight. I'm talking like a blur. If i saw one today, I might think of a drone or something, but back in 1976, I just wonder what it could've been. Over 100 people at the drive in saw it that night, everyone was getting out their cars and pointing, and then when it shot off, I remember hearing everyone gasp and saying wow, what was that, etc., etc. Those who have seen one, know that it isn't normal. I just hope that before i die, there will be concrete proof of either us developing this technology, or that it came from extraterrestrials. Either way, I want to know.
@@Roybwatchin I hope I get to see a craft again someday and be able to video record it.
@@daniels3795 There are several videos out there from others that have seen them, but sadly the videos never come out really clear and or just don't show the detail that we need to see. And, everyone always tries to pick them apart and explain them away. I was about 11 or 12 when I saw mine, I'm now 57 and have never seen another one. I would love to get another chance!
@@Roybwatchin I’m sure if you went camping in the four corners area, you probably see a lot of activity.
@@Roybwatchin Maybe the reason videos of alien spaceship are always unclear is that, if they were clear, we would be able to see that they aren't alien spaceships? Its probably not a coincidence.
Of all the debates and talks i have heard and watched to date.This is the one that makes sense in the real world.We are the ones that will civilise space.If we dont destroy ourselves.
"Technology itself forms the barrier to a truly advanced civilization" That's a very valid point. Another thing to consider, as he said, we've only really had advanced civilization for seconds on the day of the universe. Perhaps they only check in every 15 minutes.
How is technology today a valid point as a barrier when technology is improving daily?
@@patrickhannon4188 You're looking at it backwards. It's that constant improvement that is dangerous. 100 years ago, the idea of humanity wiping itself out was science fiction. 50 years ago, it was a very realistic scenario and we created the doomsday clock. Making a mistake in 1870 couldn't destroy us. Making a mistake in 2100 could destroy all life on Earth easily.
How is it valid? You may have evolved past the point of needing technology. An evolved being able to use zero point energy as nourishment and able to manipulate it for locomotion no need for aerobic metabolism (don’t need to breathe) and evolved past the point of needing heat to enact enzymes for cell growth or repair. Technology then becomes arbitrary for all the uses in survival as we use today. So not in all cases is it a valid point, push your thoughts to the extreme ends of imagination as all maybe possible.
@@pepewhisker2966 Earthquakes were reported close to Iran's only nuclear reactor. They're threatening to attack Israel is US retaliates. Israel has nuclear weapons. We're on the verge, at this very moment, of destroying all life on Earth. That's the point being made. Technology is incredibly beneficial but we're in that dangerous "can wipe ourselves out with a mistake or through war" stage. It's possible that that forms a barrier for other civilizations as well.
Maybe aliens stopping to talk to us would be like us stopping to talk to an ant on the sidewalk.
That's a common view, but since our universe is "uniform" - so should be any life within (for example, carbon-based).
Scientists on Earth study ants everyday. Even kids with magnifying glasses study ants. If aliens found us I can't see why they wouldn't observe us or destroy us
@@patstaysuckafreeboss8006 , how many people do you know who stop on the sidewalk to communicate with an ant? Why? Your answer could be the same with ET and us.
@@reaality3860 I couldn't give you an exact number but I've seen dozens of people kill insects for no reason. Just because we're lightyears more intelligent than an ant doesn't mean people neverinteract with them. Instead of arguing how about you use some logic. It's not hard to agree with someone unless you're being stubborn 🤷♂️
@@reaality3860 I'm just pointing out the flaws of your ant analogy. I know what you think you're trying to say but you obviously aren't grasping the concept of what I'm trying to say. You're argument is we never interact with ants because of the wide gap in intelligence when in reality people literally have ant farms in their bedrooms observing ants and the ants have no clue the human exists. There's no way for you to prove we aren't being observed by aliens right now. Just think about it
It's interesting that he mentions the self-replicating probes (Von Neuman Machines) that one alien technological civilization out of millions (it only takes one to perfect this process) might construct... If it takes a 1,000, 000 years for a probe to replicate itself then in 100m years there should be more probes than there are planets in the entire universe. Earth itself should be host to thousands of such probes and yet...crickets.
I’m 18, and I hope in my lifetime we’re able to make some sort of breakthrough or contact with other worldly beings. With the advancements of technology I’m hopeful by the time I’m older we’ll have some sort of way of finding out if intelligent life is truly out there. Idk why but the idea of humans being the only advanced forms of intelligent life in a universe full of trillions of planets is unnerving. Even if we discovered intelligent life once existing out there, would be extremely fascinating.
I encourage you to read C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. It will make you think about one possibility for life on other planets.
Malacandra and Perelandra can only be reached from the 1940s.
Beautiful message in the end. With the amount of fortunate events that have occurred in order for intelligent life to exist, it is a real shame that life is not intelligent enough to take care of their special oasis in the middle of an almost infinitely and apparently empty desert.
But but stockholder rights and quarterly profits!
What if aliens are watching us like vlogs 24/7. 😳
I concur with the speaker "We are alone" and are comforted by this, because the opposite would be if we ever did detect the existence of other intelligent life forms our species would destroy its self over the the fact we were not alone.
im so fuggen high
stefanos2691 , douchebag!
Alex Greist , your mom goes to college....
CedrikAberle At least you have interest in tedtalks...
look at that guys ears...he is an alien himself. i think there is life everywhere...but not all organisms take mushrooms and other hallucinogenic plants...which uplifted a couple of individuals and the rest copied the skills....it could be that some ape in our history ate hallucinogenic plants and he was so high that he made fire.
#metoo
On nights (like this) when I lie awake in bed unable to sleep, I often come back to this talk. Stephen's perspective is not new, but his own belief in it - that we're the lucky one and that we have so much to be grateful for - shines through. A wise man once said "a true thing, poorly expressed, is a lie". I don't know if the perspective here is the truth, but I feel there's probably no purer expression of it. Thank you. We've got a lot of work to do.
@Agnostic Realist thank you
Funny, I found his talk to be a completely unscientific series of beliefs and prejudices based on assumptions we don't have nearly enough data to assume. Maybe you should just go back to sleep.
Terence Mckenna once said "The truth doesn't need your participation to exist, Bullshit does".Just because he doesn't have awareness of Alien life, has no bearing on whether they exist or not.if you want proof of Alien existence, look at the Sumerians!
Yeahh mizo ma le, im also super interested of the universe and its mysteries, good to see there are other mizos like me
When Oumuamua past by it either drop some off or it started something since early 2017 until the December. Its closets fly by was Oct 16 2017. Lots of sightings around that time.
Everybody is talking about "Where are aliens?"
But nobody is talking about "How are aliens?"
It's not just where, it's also when.
We are able to observe so little of the universe and yet we are astonished by it's size.
That's why more and more people are buying into this "Simulation theory". We simply can't wrap our heads around it all.
Its simple. To travel from star to star, a creature needs to travel very fast, perhaps at light speed. If we could not reach that speed, then we are not intelligent enough to be recognised. Also if they travel, they travel in hyper-space. They are there and we see them daily as a ray of light.
My suggestion, only 2 things 1. Try to achieve the speed of light, even an unmanned vehicle, then they say, hey there's one out there.
2. We develop an ultra high speed camera that when we slowed it down the travelling image could be seen, perhaps we could see a space craft
Been reading his book If the Universe is Teeming with Life, Where is everybody?. A great book with seemingly logical answers as to why we’ve not heard from or met Aliens. Worth reading
Agreed. Great book. His conclusion is compelling and sobering.
According to that clock of 24 hours, we've only been looking for 0.000001 seconds... Still, its plausible its just us and yet we still can't work out how to put on a quilt cover alone without getting angry.
That's only if you assume the age of the universe. Remember it fluctuates all the time. Anytime modern science cant explain stuff they just add more years lol. If we are honest nobody knows how old we are.
"Opens door to house in middle of the artic scanning the horizon*
"WHERE ARE ALL THE HUMANS?! Guess there aren't any!"
dumb as a rock. havent you heard the data, genius?
Goes back inside and designs a device, capable of atmospheric flight, sight and communications. Years later, goes back outside and deploys it. After collecting years of data, looking all over the known world, sees no other life.
@@fidstang I think they'd see the plastic floating by
we are energy beings but those words were created by man
@@reggiemac7693 we are a virus
I’ve always wondered, what if we’re first? Everyone talks about “oh the universe is so large there HAS to be others” well maybe, but someone has to be first and what if that’s us?
Happy that Satya Nadella is an active speaker on Ted.
Absolutely amazing. Chills running down my spine at the end of this talk. Wow!
What a last name.
Northfire
Do humans try to communicate with ants? I mean, we've observed them. Learned about them. But they pose no threat. Insignificant.
SBlaze89 I have tried. I once tried to become their king and I fed them sugar
If aliens are ao evolved, they'd also be smart enough to notice the difference between a bug and a human
@@elrushbo clearly you didnt get the comparison. in their eyes, WE are the bugs.
yet, we have found them and studied them, we've showed ourselves to them, not in a will to show them we exist but still
SBlaze89 how if they’re so intelligent they can obviously communicate with us. Curiosity lives in every intelligent life form. Plus Idk if you’re that ignorant but it’s very clear that aliens are already hear, like tf are you talking about.
Mr. Webb said something that is very interesting; he said "what we expect". maybe that is the problem, from where , or who gave us the idea that what we expect is important to other forms of life.
It is important to know that saying, believing "we are alone" and "we are not alone" does not even matter. Each is right, each is wrong. Ultimately, it really does not matter. What matters is you just keep looking, honestly searching...most of all...having some form of hope....Hope is what will keep us humans moving through time, for days to come...
You're being a bit patronizing to be honest. Why do you think its your place to tell everyone what does or does not matter? I for one will make up my own mind about that thanks.
The first question to be asked, according to my twisted way of reasoning, is, "What is your definition of the term 'Alien'"?
The second is: "If an alien were standing behind you in a supermarket check-out queue, are you so sure that you would recognize him/her/it as such"?
The only way you would (or perhaps wouldn't) freakout is if the alien looked exactly like your preconceived idea of what an alien should/would look like.
When I was a young, ten years old boy in 1950's Ohio, the subject of aliens came up while on an overnight, cat-fishing trip with my older brother and our grandfather. We were all gazing at the stars and talking about aliens (aliens were a big thing in low budget, black and white, Sci-Fi movies then) while waiting for the fish to bite. During our conversation, I happened to say, quite honestly, "I wish that I could meet someone from Outer Space".
With that, my grandfather stuck out his hand and said, "Hello there, Earthling, nice to meet you".
"Aw, common, grandpa, you're not from Outer Space, you came from right here on Earth", I complained.
He said, "Pick out a star up there" and he waved his arm in a wide arch through the star-filled night sky.
"Now, imagine," he said "if another group was on one of the planets orbiting around that star. and that they were looking up into their night sky looking back at us... follow?" "Then, where would we be?"
"In outer space", I cried. That means that we are aliens... we are from outer space!"
At that moment, my entire perspective of relationships of all sorts changed. I realized that the answer to any question depended, entirely, on own's own perspective.
A lioness killing a lamb might seem to us like a bad thing; however, for the two hungry lion cubs waiting at home for the mother to bring dinner, it's very much a good thing.
So, "Where are all the Aliens? You're looking at them."
Thank you for reminding me of that magical moment so long ago.
Love this!!! Thanks for sharing !!
Thank you, eM.
Glad something I wrote helped someone else.
I hadn't thought of it like this, that really is awesome
Absolutely.
Grandfathers are fantastic! Wonderful story,thank you Sir!
"We have searched thousands of these floor tiles for several types of pheromone trails. If there were intelligent life out there we would have found it by now." - Ants :P
"there are multiple barriers to the formation of intelligent life out there. The first is what's called the "Goldilocks Anthill". If the grain size of dirt were just 43 millimeters wider than there would be no possibility of building anthills of any size sustainable for intelligent life. So already there are major barriers to the formation of social animals like us" -Ants
@@clementello "We assume that if life existed elsewhere in the universe it would operate in the same way as it does on earth. If human existence lasted for another million years it would more than likely be unrecognisable to current human life." - Space faring super ghost ants 😜🤣🤣
@@48Ender48 ants come across different species all the time. Even on tile floors. I just saw my dog lick one up off the tile floor just the other day. Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you but how is this analogy relevant to humans searching for human life on other planets?
It demonstrates how only using your own living conditions as prerequisites for other intelligent lifeforms in the universe is very narrow minded indeed. There might very well be life out there that developed intelligence and technology/abilities through means we might not be able to conceive through extrapolating from ourselves, seeing as an ant cant extrapolate how we live from their own conditions and they are also a living species on this planet with arguably a complex social structure. We have to understand that life is more resilient than we think (extremophiles) and that there are levels of life in the cosmos perhaps that we have not yet discovered or been able to study properly (life in other dimensons).
@@awegahn Thank you for explaining it better than I ever could Andreas! 😛
I actually missed part of the quote that said "Ants end their search for humans" or something along those lines. We don't respond to their pheromones as aliens might not respond to our radio waves or whatever means of communication we use. When we say "We're yet to discover alien life elsewhere in the universe" what we're really saying is 'We're yet to discover anything that resembles us on earth out there'. There could be life all around us, we just don't recognise it as life. Hypothetically if life evolved on Jupiter it would be completely different to life on earth. Life may even evolve elsewhere that's not even carbon based. Who knows? It wasn't that long ago we didnt think life could survive in the deepest depths of the ocean, or under the ice of Antarctic etc but we keep finding it in the most supposedly inhospitable places.
He said exactly how I feel about alien life. I'm so glad scientists agree with me. Just because we are here and there are many other planets, doesn't mean there HAS to be other life anywhere. That's the absolute truth. All we know is that life is possible, and only carbon based life at the moment.
If we are alone in this huge cosmos thats damn sad and makes me very melancolic.
We're in no position right now to say that we are alone. We're just beginning to understand how the universe works. We've barely scratched the surface. I disagree completely with him. Though I believe intelligent life is probably very rare, maybe only a few examples per galaxy. But it's there! It's also the type of thing that could be another 100 years before we conclusively know..
Nah, we just probably have no clue what it looks like. The more likely theory nowadays is that most "alien" life would actually be mechanical or artificial intelligence in nature, as the ultimate goal of any species would be to seemingly live forever or create non-biological clones of themselves in order to lead out their likely very long lives. Who knows if we've already interacted with alien life and just didn't know it was due to our own human classification for what alien life even is.
.
agreed. these "skeptics" are ridiculous.
@@swahiliranger1022 Thats possible youre right. It is thought that if we were to encounter alien life - it could well be machine/ clones/ AI etc. possibly even self replicating. Easier to send something artificial to go and do the inspections of the galaxy!
yep...
but the way he summed it was pretty satisfying... because i had a thought about this a lil while before(like months) ...nd i had the same thought...just because we have not discovered it doesn't mean it doesn't exist... I for a Matter of fact thought that it would be in favour if we considered their existence than not....better to keep looking than to not...
nd yep the later part...the point is they are alien species we have NO clue how they can be... they can be charges ..or microorganisms...or just beams of light.... something which doesn't have a physical form...it could be anything...(i dnt have much knowledge about the typical physics term .. I am a biology student)... I hope my points are understandable...and really...we haven't even discovered the universe in sight...let alone the universe we are ought to even see...and still very far from knowing about them... and also i read people in the comments saying he is a fool to think tht we are superior... IMO...wht can't we that... why do we often perceive aliens as something stronger than us or hostile...or as a matter of fact something with a physical body ....
It could be anything and we should keep our understandings about them in the same status...
Anybody who asks "where are the aliens" really doesn't appreciate how big and old the universe is. We started listening to the radio noise in the sky within the last hundred years. But we have *never* listened to the whole sky at once, we simply can't. We pick and choose little bits of sky and hope that maybe we will catch a snippet of something sent at just the right time so as to reach us when we happen to be listening. It's profoundly ignorant to conclude based on a few decades of observation that we are alone in the universe... the universe doesn't operate on scales so small.
Consider if our galaxy had one million civilizations in it, existing at different times in the past, present, and future. For some length of time these civilizations use radio communications before they die out or move to some other form of communication. Assume on average that each of these civilizations transmits for 500 years (that's WAY longer than we've been transmitting, and there's no guarantee that we'll be here in 500 years). If you take these assumptions and consider the size of the galaxy, it immediately becomes apparent that:
1. many of these civs communications started and stopped before we were listening
2. many of these civs communications started, but are so far away (galaxy is 100,000 LY wide folks), they won't reach us for thousands of years
3. for those few civs who's communications could have reached us in the few decades we have been listening, we have to have been listening at the exact right time, in the exact right direction
As a thought experiment, I once did this computation. Over a stretch of 9 billion years, assume 1 million civilizations arise in our galaxy (including ours at the 4.5 billion year mark). Assume they transmit radio for a span of 100-1000 years each. Question: if we could listen NON STOP in ALL DIRECTIONS for 1,000 years, what is the chance we would hear nothing at all? Answer: 87%. There would be an 11% chance of hearing one civilization, and a minute chance of hearing two.
The universe is really, really big. If you are asking "why don't we hear anything" you don't get how big it is. In my opinion, it is likely that the universe is teeming with life, and there are undoubtedly multiple intelligent civilizations located in our own galaxy. We will almost certainly NEVER ENCOUNTER ANY OF THEM.
Why haven't we heard anything? LOL. Get back to me after 10,000 years of constant observation in all directions. If you haven't done that yet, you haven't even started listening.
PlasteredDragon Von Neumann probes already eliminate the possibility that the universe is teaming with radio signals
Also, if civilizations are themselves engaged in space travel, communications from ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet would involve EM signals. If there were just a few of these civilizations then signals, although arguably quite weak, should be abundant.
Asking why we can't detect aliens is the wrong question. The real question is why aren't they here. Why aren't they everywhere? If a civilization has reached our level of technology only a million years ago (which is nothing compared to the age of the universe) and if they have the desire to expand, the entire galaxy sholud be colonized by them by now.
There's a possibility of course that a civilization decides not to colonize the galaxy and to actively hide from others but then you get the problem of non-exclusivity. If there are for example a thousand civilizations more advanced than us and 999 of them follow this rule, if only 1 of them doesn't, we would be aware of it's existance.
That's true, but you would always have to know the relative location of the receiver to do that. It's hard to believe that absolutely no omni-directional EM communications would exist.
I'll start now, ye? I'll come back to u in 10,000 years
How saddened I felt when he said, "We are alone", the thought is scary and amazing. So much out there.
So much out there does not automatically mean so much probability. Check again, there’s so much NON-LIFE out there. Life in the universe is an accident, remember that.
@@gbowers that’s definitely a possibility. This galaxy is so large we really don’t know what’s out there.
i like him. he's good. calm and smooth.
"If the universe was the size of the pacific ocean, our search for aliens covers the volume of a cup of water."
- Me, just now
and thats only observable universe tho..
And that's the observable universe, and looking and searching this very moment. Imagine if you throw TIME in the equation. We are looking RIGHT NOW, but the universe is 13500 million years old, civilizations may have already been and gone, or developing, or whatever. Mind blowing
The One Who Knocks This was said by Neil Degrass Tyson. It gives you a proper scale of how much space we've been able to investigate so far. It means almost none. Therefore thinking that we are alone in the universe is plain silly.
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
armandoes pretty sure it’s billion not million
someone beat me to it, but indulge me;
absence of proof doesn't mean proof of absence..
Hey Thanks for that Captain Obvious! I knew that when I was 6 years old!
WillTheThrill like i said; indulge me 😊
No, thanks to Martin Luther indulgences are no more allowed.
Did you know that most stars are binary, they don't like to tell you that.
A valid but weak argument. One of the main ones for proving God exists.
Instead of focusing on other planets, our focus must be on earth itself।
We have many information yet to be explored।
This guy is a pleasant-sounding, narrow-minded speaker. If a person was born in the woods, 500 miles away from his nearest neighbor, and never left his home (except once, to go to the shed), he could easily think he's alone on Earth. Especially if he saw a plane fly by and his parents told him he must be crazy.
We are just atoms of a bigger ‘host’
Was thinking about that a lot lately
How come?
Yeah when you think about it, we're part of a much bigger system. Just like how our cells are us whether it be our skin cells or blood cells.
I hope we're not corrupted part.
yee.. thinking that alot... not much different than cells and atoms... maybe we can one day see civilizations under a microscope ^^