Dimitar Sasselov - What Would Intelligent Aliens Mean?
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2023
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Do intelligent aliens exist? Who knows? But here’s what we do know: the potential existence of intelligent aliens probes meaning and purpose in the universe. What would it mean if the universe were teeming with life? What would it mean if we humans were alone?
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Dimitar Sasselov has been a professor at Harvard since 1998. He arrived to CfA in 1990 as a Harvard-Smithsonian Center post-doctoral fellow. Between 1999 and 2003 he was the Head Tutor of the Astronomy Department.
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Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
A better question- what would stupid aliens mean ?
Guys sick liar absolutetly. Science never spot life in the universe so far. Billions stars galaxies show found life is nil. Guys shows nothing that How figure out life in universe honestly though phich proceendings. Earth place in milk way is tiny Blue point fotographed by voyage . In relations with others galaxies and stars It means scientist havent instrument to pictures alien. This guys liars no Focus How solve this problems.
They would do insane things like launch nukes at themselves
He would begin the same, we have examples of stupid here on earth lol!
The ones that crashed in Roswell or in Las Vegas
Stupid intelligent life just wouldn’t survive....!
“Scarcity” is reality everywhere/anywhere.... therefore those that can’t compete (aka stupid) will go extinct quickly...
I can only imagine that intelligent aliens would monitor this asylum from a good safe distance.
They probably lock the doors on their saucer, as they fly by.
@@JAv-ti8uqLOL😂
I wonder if they’re as self loathing as we are.
...and stash the hubcaps in the trunk as well.@@JAv-ti8uq
@@JAv-ti8uq how original
He answered the question of this video in the very first sentence … ‘ we only know a bit about the universe’. Honestly … nobody knows if there is advanced intelligent life out there because, quite simply it could be indistinguishable and unrecognisable to anything we have currently that we feel is appropriate to detect advanced intelligence.
By far, the biggest issue that the guest mentioned is the fact that we only have one sample of life. This simply isn't enough to have any kind of idea of knowing how much life there could possibly be. The cell based form of life of which we are familiar with, could be a real odd ball form of life. We speculate about the potential of life elsewhere in the universe as if cell based life is the only type of life there is. We really don't know. We can't think of any other form of life, and the fact is we wouldn't be able to conceive of cell based life if we didn't have a model to work with. We just have one sample to work with, and that is simply not enough to do a great deal of speculating with.
Exactly!
Yes, even finding one other example of life however simple in form would tell us a great deal of what we need to know.
@browngreen933
Yes, we could really learn a lot.
@kumiblm
Yes, we are not very far along at understanding life's potential.
@@kumiblm Actually we have a very good grasp on reality. True, there is certainly a great deal that we don't know, but life may be similar wherever it arises because the laws of Nature are similar everywhere. Even within that scenario there are probably crazy worlds out there. Just think of our Dinosaur Age.
Good holidays & Christmas to Mr. Kuhn & folks and families.
I view CTT and consider the questions religiously.
Am a big fan of yours, Mr. Kuhn. Thx you.
Can't wait for next topic.
Because of logistics (distance) it seems that we have a better chance of finding alien life within our own solar system than around distant stars. I'm intrigued by the possibility of life being found on the moons circling our gas giant planets. Moons we can actually send robotic probes to.
This fixation on the idea that aliens would get here by traveling here linearly across the galaxy in spaceships is very naive. When we are talking about beings hypothetically millions of years more advanced than us, it’s just as likely they can get here via some way we can hardly conceive of. The universe may even not be real, in the way we think of it. Our entire universe may exist in a trans-dimensional quantum computer somewhere.
@@user-pn8dq6vt4sthe idea of the universe being a program running in some sort of computer - not as primitive as a quantum one, but I understand the analogy - is really interesting and completely out of the ego anthropomorphic trend of thinking of the masses. Anyway the same logic can be applied to all the ridiculous historical theogony.
@browngreen933, exactly, and this always makes me think about the stupidity of taking man to Mars, for example, considering how much could be done with the same resource by sending robots to all the celestial bodies in our planetary system, after all we already have an enormous amount of stupid films that serve well to enchant stupid and ignorant people.
@@user-pn8dq6vt4s If there were aliens in existence for millions or even billions of years that didn't need to travel linearly across the galaxy it's much more likely that we'd have long been aware of their existence.
Occam's Razor suggests otherwise.
@@Santos.Sarmento There's only one star in our planetary system, and sending 'robots' to other solar systems isn't something we will be able to do anytime soon.
The main reason for human exploration of Mars isn't to look for extraterrestrial life (sending people there wouldn't really add anything so far as that question is concerned anyway) but to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial colonization.
It would mean life is a component of the universe like stars, asteroids, and planets. Vast implications.
If we have only one evidence ,our planet, how we can assume that life is spread in the universe. Science is not belief but numbers, knowledge and facts.
@@lz43p15 we cannot assume anything. SCIENCE!
At 2:34 Robert opens with the suggestion that life can be divided into 2 broad categories: 1. Microbial (life "per se") and 2. Sentient. Sasselov's response went off on a physicalist tangent, & the significance of these 2 categories was lost. Microbial vs sentient relate to agency theory & the "swarming" metaphor for self-organisation. Cells swarm into structured purpose (amoeba, slime mold) just as neurons swarm into functional specialisations in neuroplastic brains just as humans swarm into functional specialisations in human-plastic cities. The precursor to sentient life on *any* planet must always be in the swarming of cells into structured, collaborative purpose, where meaning is primary. Physicalism isn't receptive to this kind of interpretation.
Hi Closer To Truth, it was only last week that an answer to this question appeared, it was not one which I had given much thought to before but I was still quite surprised tomfind such a simple answer. Whatever definition of intelligence is chosen if humans qualify as intelligent then by that definition simply by being alien to the rest of the universe alien life does already exist!, we are that alien life from the point of view of any other observers, the fact that they are out there somewhere is =established on the basis that if we can exist here in this environment then there must be many others given the probable number of similar environments elsewhere.. This on only the assumption that other totally differing forms of 'life' with totally different metabolisms are excluded.
Cheers, Richard.
Time for this excellent channel to really examine the UAP/UFO phenomena.
Steady Will that would mean stepping out of the box and we can’t do that now can we….
It’s a nontrivial task to come up with an all-encompassing definition for ‘intelligent aliens’, but their access to, and utilization of, technology seems to be a good practical measure of how smart they are - regardless of whether we could ultimately relate to, or communicate with them or not. Their ability to easily wipe us out, if they so chose to is another. Or perhaps they have evolved enough to realize that access to certain technologies could lead to self-destructive behaviors and scenarios, and that long-term survival and peaceful coexistence are the ultimate measures of intelligence.
The distance and the speed limit would certainly seem to make any meaningful interaction with extraterrestrial life impossible, of course. Our resources would be better spent on avoiding extinction on THIS planet, I think. Even as much as we've managed to screw it up, it's *still* the best environment for humans that we could ever hope to realistically attain.
impossible to us right now with our current technology. things change. there are solar systems out there with planets around them FAR older than ours. which means they could harbor intelligent life that is hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of years ahead of us.
And can we talk to them? Can we learn anything from them? No. EARTH is really our mother (in a manner of speaking). We must do what we can to preserve/protect "her". @@nefariousalien
@catkeys6911 they're already here. Haven't you been paying attention to what's been going on since the new york times story first dropped in 2017? If you think these uap are from China or Russia you're kidding yourself
If you could go back to our early mammal ancestors and ask them what the future would be like in 200 million years, they probably wouldn’t say we would look like humans have iPhones with FaceTime, be sending telescopes and probes into outer space and be able to adjust DNA. Just as we have absolutely no possible concept of what life 200 million years in the future will be like. There will probably be different species evolved from humans doing things to space time that we can’t conceive now. So other contemporary E.T intelligent species that are more advanced than us by an any considerable time will have science and discoveries that make us look like lab rats.
@@catkeys6911You are correct on us needing to take care of earth, that's the only way we will become a type 1. But that has nothing to do with an intelligent civilization coming into contact with us. If they are passive and helpful maybe they could teach us how to finally become one and ascend to a type 1 civilization. Maybe we could teach them something as well.
We use pardolia of mind to correlate symmetry and beauty found in the reality around us but this bias suggests something is ugly or is chaotic. Our human dashboard adds increments of time as if step by step excersizes in our heads is projected onto the universe.
This can blind us from so much.
The fascinating thing about alien life is that anything we can imagine may be possible . Also true is anything we cannot imagine is also possible.
Just one look at a Hubble or James Webb photo, and you can see the millions and trillions of stars/galaxies. It would be nature's biggest blunder if Earth was the smartest life in the universe. I doubt Earth is the smartest planet in the Milky Way.
It doesn’t matter....
...Intelligent life is just Few and Far-in-between...
Space is so big; that Civilizations just miss each other in Time and Space...
Guess that’s all cleared up then….
@@MultiBikerboy1
Yes it does..
@@oskarngo9138 all those pilots, military and civilian plus air traffic controllers who keep making up reports about silent flying discs….sack em all the rascals!!!
@@MultiBikerboy1
Vast majority are not making it up...
Many times you do see things that are just illusions/artifacts/energy-like things .........and Not Spaceships
It’s like taking a picture of a mirage; it’s recorded on the photo but not actually there...
@@oskarngo9138 ‘not actually there’…but get’s tracked on radar? 🤔
They’re already here but they’re treating us the way we treat a wild animal when we tag it and don’t want to disturb its natural behavior by being seen. How do you study something smarter than you that chooses to be evasive?
"What would AGI mean for our future?" is the most important question of our time. We will be creating godlike alien beings of our own but will we lose control of them?
A very good insight to understand the intellectual thinking of serious thinkers that do not know their reality is much deeper than they are willing to look at or understand. Oh well. Soon they will have to face the reality of other life in the Universe . This is not " feet on the ground " but is ignorance about reality itself . Of course this is the type of thinking we all have grown up with in schools and Universities around the world and it turns out they are incomplete in the assumptions they make . It is hard watching thinkers struggling to understand reality and knowing that road leads nowhere . Soon everyone will know that there have always been other types of beings , other than human , and consciousness will expand . Until then it is painful to watch and listen discussions such as this. Thank you for sharing. :O)
Good introspection into the existence of microbial life; especially how long it has been around. Wondering if there is a mechanic in the universe that promotes slow evolution so that an intelligence that would damage the universe is not built?
"What Would Intelligent Aliens Mean?" is one question, but a better question might be, "What would extremely ignorant (relatively-speaking) Humans mean?".....i.e., what if human intelligence is at a level that's less than 5% of what is possible? One result, amongst many is that we would occasionally observe phenomenon impossible to explain using our current technologies and laws of physics, e.g., the "Tic Tac's". This latter question is the better one, IMO, and provides much better potential answers to the ET dilemma.
Planets with an electromagnetic field are a strong indicator of whether or not there IS, has been or "will" be life on it at some point in the future.
What would intelligent aliens mean? Well, it would mean that aliens are intelligent.
Maybe intelligent conversation!
Remember, "habitable" means good enough for a microbe or two. Earth like life takes more than being in the zone. And you need to be around a G or K star to start with. Not going to happen around any M class stars. But finding a microbe in another system is huge.
The intelligent life in far away galaxy's are saying and asking the same question. Is there life out there?? Most definitely I would say.
For anyone wanting a scientifically plausible look at what aliens might look like I highly recommend looking into speculative biology
Why would people ASSume that we could hear alien communication? We might not be advanced enough to detect them. And we have no idea what they'd be listening for or if they could hear us.
we will never find life elsewhere by design, it is for preservation of life, ours and theirs
“Now that we’ve been in contact with nonhuman intelligence for the better part of a century, let’s apply science to precisely what that means “.
WTF? 😳
He is right. Let’s find evidence of microbial life. Once you find that, then by extrapolation, complex life must also exist.
intelligent aliens may help determine if there is a strong anthropic principle, weak anthropic principle or typical random universe, depending on how many different ones and where found?
would help to figure out how intelligent life develops?
Maybe we are the sum totality of us and our microbiome at any given moment in time, in the same way as an image is comprised of dots per inch.
I think there could be an infinite number of life forms and intelligences.
If there is life here on Earth, based on all the minerals, elements and conditions, it makes perfect sense that life elsewhere is sure to exist. Whether "aliens" have or are visiting here is another question, one that is wrought within conspiracy, myth, science fiction and religion. From a scientific or anthropological viewpoint to have such an encounter is not only tumultuous and upsetting to our way of life regarding our civilization and awareness, it is also quite disruptive. Given out chaotic innocence, we do not need to have such an encounter, not now and certainly not until our civilization has moved beyond war, strife, hatred, subjugation and division. If, by some chance "they" are hearing this or reading this reply... "stay away, we don't want you interfering".
'Is there life in the Universe'', i feel like i'm watching a very old video from 200 years ago....
I’m going to assume all aliens we meet are intelligent. Compassionate and kind, now that’s a different question.
What would it mean? Humans aren’t as smart as we like to believe ?
Wishful thinking. But if, by some stretch, there is alien life out there the last thing we wanna do is contact it. Be it intelligent or microbial it spells disaster for us.
Life is you and yhe space between you and others
ET really does want to phone home.
First, What does an intelligent human mean/look like?
Oh I've never heard that one before
@@mikecummings6593 only the intelligent humans probably have
What arrogance to just assume and describe ourselves as “advanced life “. We have absolutely no idea whether we’re advanced. I’d hazard a guess that our assumption that we are advanced is probably an indication of how untrue that is…. The fact that the only life we seem able to try to find is our kind seems to suggest how far we have to go in our understanding of the universe…
And another thought about advanced intelligent life - - wouldn’t you think that a prerequisite to thinking of a life form as being “advanced” would be that it was advanced enough not to destroy the special environment that gave rise to this life and sustains it? Might another life form somewhere else in the universe take a look at ours and dismiss it as hopelessly stupid/unadvanced?
I don’t think they come from another planet although there probably is life on other planets. But this phenomenon we’ve been seeing I believe is coming from another dimension
When was the question answered?
Because we are a “power based” species, most of us would not be able to understand, nor want to live in peace, regardless of the entity that could show us a better way to coexist. We already know we are fools, but make very little attempt to change.
AGI is the alien that we’re creating as a species and this is a higher-order emergent property of our civilization, much like a beehive is an emergent property of the colony of bees
Life in the universe asking whether there is life in the universe.
Alien life could so very different from ours we may not even be able to detect it, in fact they might not be able to detect us.
I recently read the book "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe" by Ward and Brownlee. The authors contend that simple, single-cell life, such as bacteria, is likely quit common in the universe, but more complex multi-cellular life may be exceedingly rare and so-called "intelligent life" (whatever that means) would be rarer still. Excellent, thought-provoking book for those interested in the subject. Spoiler alert: Don't hold your breath waiting for that signal from outer space.
I think the opposite is true. If we find microbial alien life that means advanced alien life likely exists somewhere too even if we don't have direct evidence. Evolution may be a natural law of the entire universe. Robert should have a segment about that possibility.
@@browngreen933It’s difficult to be sure. Life on Earth was single celled for three quarters of our evolutionary history, and the jump to multicellular life only happened once. It may be that the mutations that lead to multicellularity are very rare.
@@simonhibbs887We might be on the short bus.
@@simonhibbs887
Yes, possibly rare but the bigger hurdle is getting to life itself. After that it may just be a waiting game.
"Don't hold your breath waiting for that signal from outer space." Absolutely. But not because life is rare, but because it is abundant but beyond reach. Keyword: ROI (Return On Investment). Waiting 500 centuries for ROI between Arecibo 1974 and Globular Cluster M13 *within our own galaxy* are not promising investment odds for aliens anywhere.
Intelligent aliens would be something we would be unable to comprehend or understand.
Should have asked him whether he thinks the rare earth hypothesis is too anthropic
Instead of having an astronomer answer such a nebulous and philosophical question, maybe we should pose a more concrete question to our own governments: Where are the NHI bodies being kept?
Redacted redacted national security redacted nothing to see here so stop looking
You guys are hilarious, but always consistent! 😂
We have no aliens..and if they do exist the traveling distances are to vast..
Are there aliens, life in universe? Yes, we are here. Can there be others? Yes, if we are here, why couldn't there be others?
The question is , does intelligent (not “other”) life want to deal with us ?
Why would they need to deal with us at all, and what makes you think somehow they would be morally superior?
The earth like planet would also have to be of a " goldilocks " mass....?
What the heck kind of question is that?
Surely they'd "mean" the same thing that humans do, right?
Why would we assume that theyre from another planet in the first place?
"What Would Intelligent Aliens Mean?"
Aliens that could travel to earth.
@@LifesInsight Rare.
Limited thinking from a human perspective about life anywhere else in the universe. We find life on our planet in some of the most harsh conditions. Life finds a way. Why does it have to be like us . Need more open minds.
Has anybody ever thought that maybe … just maybe … we just don’t have the capabilities to detect advanced intelligence. Guess not!
So basically the universe's is teeming with life the only thing we have to worry about is hostile intelligences
I know water is essential on earth. But, is water essential for life elsewhere?
Of course a number of aliens could share one planet or more, advanced enough to have the good sense to share such precious resources that enable life. We would not have the capacity to share, possibly the reason aliens are not willing to contact us.
I wonder how they eliminate all their EM radiation from reaching us.
Intelligent aliens would understand the purpose of otherness is love.
Humanity is Toast
One with the ability to fit your business, good or bad.
Much more likely to encounter aliens in parallel dimensions rather than expecting them to step out of flying tin cans.
What if we worked together
And not what we always goto
Destruction
I think humans are a protected species like a zoo habitat where other life visits from time to time
Would that aliens have vocal fry?
If there are aliens who can travel to earth from afar I'm sure we'd be like infants to them ?
Are there natrium star with black flame in the outer space that cannot be seen and known as dark matter
Amazing how many of these smart guys don't know of the craft flying with impunity in Earth's skies; and they don't know of the thousands of abductees and contactees. Impressive.
Talked about something completely aside from the title of the video
The end of cold coffee I am praying for. And rude drivers.
They would turn earth into a reality tv show. 😉
It would mean intelligent alien life, that's all.
Intelligent Aliens means we are very uninteresting and have been for a very long time. Aliens just see us like we see chimps.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
UAP
My 1st question to an intelligent alien would be: Who is God?
2nd question: how the hell did you get here? Are you capable of exceeding the speed of light?
And then: what is God
They’d probably conclude we’re a superstitious cult of primitive loonies, and have nothing to do with us. Unfortunately they’d be largely right.
And their reply would be: “ If that’s your first question, then your species is more primitive than we thought”
@@robmic3261exactly. They’d think they violated the ‘prime directive.’ 😂
Is there life in the universe?
Maybe. Is there water in rain?
They arrive with tons of a miracle substance they call ENIACAC, which is my fear.
Just make sure you feed your mitochondria so you can enjoy your sentinel ways
This is the problem with consulting "scientists" on this topic. They see the world through a very flawed perspective. This is a spiritual matter, and to the natural man this is foolishness; to the spiritual man, this is easily understood.
People who talk about the impossibility of traveling great distances really need to wake up. Space can be stretched and shrunk by amplifying the strong force. This can be done by using the force of a heavy element like 117, where the stong force extends outside the particles and amplifying this. Point it at a distant star and the space between you and it will have been reduced astronomically, pun intended. This is how UFOs travel these distances and how they defy gravity and inertia and fly through space, water and solid matter like the earth or the sun. They fly through space, not in space.
if life appeared on earth by lucky chance due to the existing chemical-physical conditions, then if it happened on earth sooner or later it will also happen on other planets having the same conditions as earth when the life event took shape. If, however, there was an external plan (God) then everything change. Until this question is not answered, everything remains a matter of speculation.
Earth 🌎 having a moon 🌙 probably very important.
We are going to occupie two other planets.
Buy a dictionary and learn how to spell
It means that the goal of evolution is to eventually achieve in a human an animal body and an alien brain.
@@user-iz9zb6zh4f Biodiversification, where 99% of the four billion species (1% range of survival) that have evolved on Earth are now extinct, represents a common problem in fuzzy logic far beyond the realm of today knowledge.
@@user-iz9zb6zh4f Please take a look at Self-creation self-creation.org based on the patent postscience.com/pspatent.pdf
Would mean Aliens be intelligent?
Why are we assuming they need the same things as our earth, water, etc etc etc.....we are also assuming that they are visible, and assuming they will be Heard ....in other words we are assuming they are going to be like us... what bullshit....
THERE IS LIVE YES WHERE NOT ALONE LIVE IS LIGHT OR PLANET IS DANGER WE D ONT RESPECT NATURE
If there are any intelligent aliens, they won't come here.
Oh we've never heard that one before
Intelligent aliens would mean that there are intelligent aliens.
Title not answered!
"Intelligent aliens" mean those aliens who do not blow up their own planet, damage it with pollution, or cause species to go extinct. Man obviously isn't intelligent since he's guilty of everything I mentioned.
Any aliens who were actually intelligent would take one look at this dumpster fire Earth and put yellow tape around it to let any future visitors know not to waste their time.