Cosmic Queries – ALIENS! with Jake Roper

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Hey, Star Talkians, Neil here. You're about to listen to an episode specially drawn from our archives to serve your cosmic curiosities.
Check it out.

Welcome to Star Talk,

your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide.

Star Talk begins right now.

This is Star Talk,

Cosmic Queries Edition. Chuck.
Hey, Neil. People love them Cosmic Queries.
They do. We have a lot of inquiring minds.
That's a good thing. That's a good thing.
That is a good thing.

Plus, actually, in Cosmic Queries, we bring in other people who are the experts, and I just get to sit and listen. Ah.

I learn too. So there you have it.
you who knew you were still capable of learning something what kind of what's what the man who knows everything no i know

i don't know everything okay there's very well okay today today's subject aliens in film and tv oh big subject that is a big subject big subject huge subject for something for which there's no data

aliens now i got my own thoughts about aliens but there are people out there who are more alien fluent than i am all right before we get to our alien fluency,

do you believe in aliens? It's not about a belie.

No, okay, do you believe that we are alone in the universe? Isn't that one of the questions? No, I just asked, I'm asking you personally. Okay, I

it would be inexcusably egocentric for anyone to suggest that we on Earth are alone in the universe, given how old the universe is, the prevalence of the chemistry that manifests in life we see that biochemistry that organic chemistry all across the universe and how long it took life to show up on earth pretty quick about a hundred million years sounds like a long time short compared to that span

of the earth and and of the universe so it would be astonishing if we were alone Okay, that's all I'm saying. All right.
Very diplomatically placed without actually saying yes or no.

I know exactly what you mean. So it's great.
That's all I'm giving. It's It's a good answer.
That's all I'm giving you. All right.
Well, what we have, who we have here

is the one and only Jake Robert. Jake?

Jake?

I got your resume here. Host of Vsauce 3 Science Channel on YouTube.
Vsauce. Could you have guessed that? He's got a YouTube pillow over his left shoulder.

Good for him. Okay.

And you host the YouTube series, Could You Survive the Movies? That is a brilliant concept. Putting people through what goes on in the movies.
Right. Right.
That's a brilliant concept. And

so do you just never leave home and you watch movies all the time? Or did you like study this in school?

I mean, it worked out well because, yes, my job is to watch movies and then explore them scientifically. That's a job.

I say well. What a great job.

Somebody pays you to do that? He pays you to watch movies. I know.
I don't know why. Don't tell me.

How do you get my son that job? Okay.

He's actually doing it for free.

So in Cosmic Queries, queries we solicit questions from our audience and they've been primed on this subject that's right so they're coming in and they know you but many of them if not most are fans of yours so we're gonna do this in a star talk way absolutely so let's do it chuck what do you have all right well can i start with my own personal question for you huh is that okay all right before why you asking him if it's okay it's my show i love it

damn

oh you caught me off guard man all right

yes you have my permission to ask him the first question

instead of the people who actually

all right. So I just want to know, in your estimation, what is the easiest movie to survive?

The easiest movie to survive, if we're talking physically,

I would say. Of what of what genre?

Of alien movies. Yeah.
Like any? Oh, an alien film. Okay.
An alien film.

Hmm. The easiest one to survive.
It'd be E.T. Well, so

here's the thing. I would say E.T.
That's really immediately popped in my head.

But then you do have that whole segment where they're like, oh, we need to quarantine him because who knows what bacteria or viruses he might catch. Right.

And that to me is kind of the interesting thing. You have this foreign creature here on Earth.
Right. We don't know what's going on.

We don't know what it is susceptible to or what we're susceptible to from it. So yes,

at the end of the movie, but in reality, when the kids get them back to the ship, what they don't show you is five weeks later, when they all have these horrible growths coming out of the sides of their faces, and oh, yeah, but he's already gone, yeah.

And the movie ended, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and they were like, Well, we can't make a sequel because all the kids have horrible tumors, so

awesome. So, I have a

two reflections on this. Okay, one,

I've had Steven Spielberg in that chair over there in my office

tell me, okay, upon being asked something related that E.T.

imagined imagined E.T.

as a vegetable and not as an animal. So he's a plant-based life form.
Plant-based life. That's correct.

Which is how he would have that relationship with the plants, remember? Oh, yes, because he might have got flowers that got flowers. And they would rebloom.

And so that was imagined, but since it's walking and talking and has eyeballs and shoulders,

the natural way to think of him is as living,

as animal life rather than plant life.

So that's my first point.

Yeah. Second point.
Wow, that is a really cool

tool.

Second point. That is really cool.
Go ahead. And I, and you say, what are your sources? Steven Spoiler.

That's like, that is the ultimate cocktail party SmackDown. Just like, yeah, well, I don't know if you know this, but E.T.
is actually a

plant-based life. It's like, yeah, where do you get that from? Steven Spiller.
I'm just saying.

I've had people come up to me and say,

what wiki page did you get that information from? And for other calculations, I said, I calculated it.

somebody actually creates information that goes on the wiki page right and i'm one of those i'm one of those people right okay that's what it is so it's called math

it's called math dude what wiki page did you get that from a math what app the brain app yeah what what what app yeah yeah right here but go ahead all right also

uh you can ask what are the chances we would catch an et disease uh if he comes to earth right what's the chances contamination and here's the problem the kinds of diseases we think about and know about tend to be very specific to the life forms.

Right. Think about it.
So an oak tree is not going to get whooping cough. Correct.
Right. And just like there are certain viruses that

will not be,

what's it, transmitted trans species. Well, cross-species.
They have to mutate.

In order for that to happen. So the idea that an alien from another planet is

has something that's contagious to us is kind of, it's kind of low.

Because a lot of things that are contagious to other life life forms on earth with whom we have DNA in common are not contagious to us. That's all I'm saying.
Okay.

But still, we got to be cautious, just as you said.

Okay.

All right. Well, let's get to the queries now.
And of course, we always start with a Patreon patron because they support us. Yes.
And we love them for it. This is JB from Patreon.

He says, hi, Neil and Jake. This is Jessica from Arizona.

In 2005, the movie War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise, these machines, driven by aliens, start eviscerating people with white laser beams, effectively turning them into ash.

Would it be possible to harness light this way into a kind of super laser? If so,

where would you go to stay safe?

Which would be in defense against. In defense against.
Okay, yeah. So, Jake, yeah, Jake.

All right, so just to clarify, they're asking if the weapon that the War of the Worlds aliens use could be possible.

Well, she's saying, yes, is it possible to use light in this manner? So that is a different way of saying, is that weapon possible? And in that way,

you could fight with a weapon equivalent to what they're using, perhaps. Okay.
Or you could defend against it. Right.

Well, and actually, this is funny because if we just, spoilers for everyone that hasn't seen the movie yet, I'm going to give you a second. Okay.
The movie is 14 years old.

Forget them. They haven't seen the movie yet.
I don't care. Go.
Well, hopefully they just heard the original War of the Worlds from back in the day when you were a kid, Neil. Anyway, exactly.
So

the way that they destroy the aliens and defeat them is by like a virus. A human virus gets them ill and they all just die.
Right.

So this kind of goes back to the ET conversation where we actually are

this contaminant that kills them. We're the weapon.
Anywho. Yeah, we are the weapon, just us existing.
And that's kind of the par for the course for humans anyway. So,

i mean i would say it is possible you can i mean i harness light is that what they're harnessing we don't really know you could generate enough energy where you could just completely eviscerate a person i mean that's possible

true well i mean if it's just a matter of energy right light is a form of energy right now laser beams are kind of cooler than other forms of it but it's just energy right so you know a bow and arrow is putting energy here and taking energy over here and putting it over there Right.

A laser's got energy over here, put it over there. Right.
A bullet. A bullet.
I got energy over here. It's in the gunpowder.
And now the energy is.

So if you can abstract this question to just say, what are the ways you can have energy over here and put it over there? And you have more energy than they have.

That's kind of what that comes down to. Right.
But I wonder maybe

what do you think the question was?

What does it take to turn them into a pile of ash? Well, do you think maybe that was the question? So that's what I'm thinking right now.

And in that regard, I mean, it would have to be whatever this beam is, let's say this energy beam, it would have to encompass the entirety of the person's body for all of them to instantaneously turn to ash.

So it was just focused here.

Well, then it would just pop a hole right through you, the same way that a bullet, when it impacts, it doesn't blow apart your whole entire external body, internal, just boop.

So, I guess it would be so,

if we just go by heat, so hot that it would immediately vaporize all of the moisture in your body.

Right? It would just completely dry you out to such a degree that you are just dust afterwards. Absolutely.
Yeah. Right.

So, Jake is mentioning an important point because it's hard to burn something that has a lot of liquid in it. Right.

The liquid, you got to first get rid of the liquid, then you can burn what's left, right? So you're talking about ash. If you're going to be a pile of ash,

your blood had to evaporate in some way before you even get to the ash.

So, so the instantaneous, instantaneity, is that a word? Nice. It's instantaneous.
It is now.

It is now.

Instantaneity. Sounds like a great Quaker Oats commercial.

Instantaneity. Instantaneity.
It's delicious. All right.
Go ahead.

So it would require enough energy to instantly take your blood to a rolling boil and then evaporate. Evaporate.
Get rid of all the liquid and then

consume the rest of the material. And that seems to me have to take a little longer than how long that took in the movie.
Yeah, right.

Because the other thing, too, is if you're talking about that kind of energy, it only did that to the person.

The beam didn't, as it continued, it didn't like shoot holes into the ground, it didn't take out buildings, right? Or the plant life or the plant life behind it. Okay, only the people.
So,

all right.

So, maybe it was a tune to human chemistry then.

Well, that's a good that I see you think about this stuff.

It is very evident that you're not going to be able to do that. I'm really talking about this crap all day long.
Okay, because,

oh, no, okay, I got one for you.

So the military and large municipalities have what's called non-lethal

weaponry. Okay.
Okay. And the taser is an example of one.
But another one is this truck that rolls around with this huge beam and sends microwaves

into a crowd. And the microwaves.
You feel like you're burning. You feel like your skin is burning.
So you want to get out of that beam.

And basically they aim it for the focus points wherever people are gathering and get and getting the most ornery so they can disperse the crowd to disperse the crowd so the cool thing about microwaves is water responds to microwaves which is why your plate doesn't get hot but your food does right in the microwave oven so if you have one of these weapons that targets human molecules then you could have a beam that's sort of wide enough to just enclose you right that could

that could vaporize you, but not the stuff behind you. Oh, right.
Excellent. Right.

What do you think of that?

I mean, I think that that sounds fair because they do have those specific things. They have the microwave weapons that you're talking about.

I mean, I remember reading an article years ago about how in the UK, to stop teens from loitering in stores, stores could play this frequency that only teenagers could hear because they still had those hairs in their ear, right?

That's right. They can still hear the frequency.
I forgot about it. It would be annoying to them.

So all folks just don't even hear it. And so we can show

you that way we are with teens.

That's why they don't listen. That's why we're here.

All right. Wow, that's great.
All right. Well, that's a great question, Jay, Jessica.
That was really cool. All right, you ready for another one? Here we go.
Yes, sir.

This is

Shivang Sri Shivang Srivastada.

Shrivastava.

Yes, Shivang Srivasta. Shivang Shivastava.
Shivasta. Oh, so, so, oh, so you're going to, you're going to, uh, yes,

I put them all fast on the syllabus.

All right, here we go. She says, hi, Dr.
Tyson. Do you think an organization such as MIB, we're men in black, can be established secretly if the government finds aliens?

I'm also really eager to know what changes will you and Jake, would you and Jake like to make in the movies so they are more bound to reality?

Ooh, thank you both for your encouraging science education. So, Jay, can MIB be real?

Would it be real?

First, is it real? Second,

would the government do it if, in fact, we were sort of shielding aliens?

What's your

I would say yes.

Really? I mean, I don't really have, I mean, everything right now is just hypothetical, but I would assume that, yes, they would create an organization.

Would it be as cool and sexy as Men in black probably not so here's what i want to know from both of you do you think the government uh the scientific community especially would shield the public from the knowledge that we are not alone i'm going to ask jake about this okay

i

i mean i think this is a tough one because we are hunting for life

out there in the universe right that's what we're actively doing when we go to mars when we just are trying to go to europa all these different missions that is kind of the point.

But that is a different kind of life than I think what most people assume life to be.

We think of life as sentient human beings that can walk around, move around, have conversations, think for themselves, not microorganisms.

So when it comes to that level of, I assume an alien is this living, breathing thing that can move around and shake my hand.

That I would kind of assume that the government, if it did, if it were happening now, they would hide from us. Because it kind of is a disruptive thought or disruptive information to know.

So, with an MIB kind of

secret keepers

to a degree, not as cool as MIB. I don't think they have like fancy alien weapons and like cool cars, and you know, they're going on all these action missions, giving birth to aliens on the like long

pressway or whatever. But, right, like

I do think if aliens,

well, here's okay. Aliens exist, I think.
Well, wait, just a quick thing.

In Men in Black, one of the aliens was, he was like bug life, right? I mean, he was like roaches. So it's not, not all of them were fully manifested as humanoid forms.

I mean, he was humanoid, but he was still made of bugs.

Yeah, he was made of bugs. He was made of bugs.

We're just throwing a three. It's like, I have a...

strong theory that if we go to the deep ocean, that all to me is alien. It looks so foreign from what we experience here in our world of on land that it is so different.

Like that could be aliens for all we know. Actually, it's a totally different environment.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
I'm going to say no, but I'm going to say that.

But I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, no, they're not aliens.

Well, it's very testable. You look at the DNA, right? They've overlapping DNA, but otherwise, it's fun to think about it.
Exactly. We got to take a quick break when we come back.

More with Jake on Aliens in the Universe. Yes.
On Star Talk.

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This is Ken the Nerdneck Zabara from Michigan, and I support Star Talk on Patreon. This is Star Talk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

We're back. Star Talk, Cosmic Aquarius, Aliens in the Movies and TV.
Yeah. A subject as big as the universe itself.
You know what? It probably is. And I got Jake Roper on.

Thank God we got Jake Roper on. I know, right? Because

he thinks about this stuff. All the time.
Professionally. Professionally.
Because somebody pays him. Let me take his.
Your parents should be so proud of you.

I'll tell you right now. I'm proud of you.

I am proud of you, Jake. You are what America is about.

I want to be able to save somebody at a cocktail party. So, what's your son do? My son talks about aliens on YouTube, and they pay him

and he bought my house.

My son, who does not play basketball, bought my house

on YouTube. Love it, bro.
I love it. All right.
So, what's the question? What you got the next question? We got the next question.

Let's keep going. This is

Jason Mogridge. Jason says, Hey, what's up, guys? What's yours, Neil's, and Jake's favorite fictional alien movie or game, and why?

Nice question. That's a good one.
All right, go on, Jake. Jake, this is the first thing.
No, no, please.

No, Chuck,

you go first on this one.

So I can think. So you can think.
You got me.

Okay, so I'm going to give you my favorite movie alien and it's going to be very

pedestrian because you're going to say it's just the, it's the, it's the oldest trope ever. Don't tell me what I'm going to say about your alien.
Okay, you're right. You're right about that.

All right. All right.
The alien.

The alien. In the, in the movie, in the movie, the alien.
That is my, that thing is amazing. First of all, it's super cunning and intelligent.
Okay.

Secondly, we don't know what motivates this thing. It kills everything, but why? Why is it doing it? Third, it loves to fight.
Why are you so angry, bro? Calm down.

Third, it's got a mouth in a mouth and a mouth. That is amazing.
What is that tiny little mouth for? Why? Why do you have a tiny little mouth? I didn't know you felt this way. Wait a minute.

He ain't done. That's not it.
I'm not digesting.

Wait a minute. Here's the end.

You cut it and it bleeds acid.

Come on. This thing is awesome.
Whoever thought of this alien? I'm telling you, they put a little bit of time in. That's all I'm saying.
And it scurries when it it escapes down the hallway.

No, forget it. It was scary.
Look how fast it is. I know.
Right. And by the way, look at its transformation.

It goes in you as who knows what. You're just hosting.
A little crab monster actually grabs you by the face, puts the baby alien in you, and then it comes out as a little snake man. It's crazy.

It's crazy.

Jake, have you had enough time to think now? Are you so distracted by Chuck's?

Chuck's panicking. I was amazed.
Like, that was that was great.

That was a good monologue.

I mean, okay, so Alien is fantastic. I'm wearing an alien hat.
Nostromo, the ship from the first one. I do love alien.
But actually, in a similar vein to alien, because

I like to think of alien as a parasite, right? The whole entire way that it gestates and bursts out, it is this parasitic relationship. So with that in mind, the thing is my favorite alien.
The thing?

From the movie, The Thing. I forgot what the thing is.
What? The thing. Is the thing like the blob? What is the thing? No, so the thing.
But don't confuse the thing with them.

Because them were ants.

Them with ants? They were ants. Them is ants.
Them is ants.

They is something entirely different.

The thing.

All right, so back on track, Chuck. Come on.
Okay, sorry. So the thing

is a, well, the remake was, which is the one that's most popular is this 1980s movie with Kurt Russell, directed by John Carpenter. And the thing is this

organism that takes the shape

of whatever the host is. I didn't realize that that was what I was watching, but it's a shapeshifter and you don't know who it is because it can be anything.

And then at one point it became the dog or something like that, right? Yep. Yeah.
Okay. I'm forgotten I saw that movie.
It can take any form. And it's the thing that scared me about it is one,

it really is a parasite, but an intergalactic parasite. And it just takes upon, like you have things like the jewel wasp here on Earth, right?

Which is more similar to the xenomorphinalien, where it impregnates the cockroach, basically, and then the larvae bursts out and becomes a full-on wasp, flies away.

But the thing I love, because it brings up this conundrum where does the person who it took the body of the form of, is it aware that it's not human? Or does it think that it's human?

But it has something else controlling its mind.

And I mean, that's a really nice conundrum. Right.
Look in the mirror. The mirror tells you you're human.
Right. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.

So, so you like the fact that you could be infested with this parasite or occupied by this parasite and still think you are you but just going about your life but really you're just a puppet of a galactic parasite

and you have no idea potentially the people around you have no idea that you are no longer you right right that's uh that's pretty cool and i think that's pretty spooky whereas with like traditional aliens or an alien you know it's an alien like okay you're terrifying you're not you're not friendly.

But if it was just Neil, we're like, oh, Neil, how you doing? And for all this time, he's been this parasitic alien. I am fine.

So what's the difference between them and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, fundamentally?

So that's a great question. There isn't much.
Okay.

It is similar. Okay.
I think it's just

in the style.

Yes, they're both these alien creatures that take over humans. I think in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, its motivation is much more clear.
It's there to take over the planet.

And the thing, they just find this crass spaceship from like thousands of years ago. And there's no reason as to why it's there or what the purpose of this alien is.

The alien never expresses its intent. It's just this vicious force.

Okay, that's a good one. All right, Neil.

I have a good answer and then a cop-out answer. Uh-oh.

My good answer is I think the blob. is the best alien ever.
The blob.

Because it didn't walk, it didn't talk, it didn't have two eyes, eyes shoulders mouth nose feet you know as much as we like alien versus predator yeah the predator was great right but it's still very humanoid yes it's even the approximate height of a human you could look you know arnold stared straight in his eyes kill me now right here right kill me if it bleeds we can kill it right okay all right so i'm i'm thinking this was the most creative alien hollywood has ever come up with because it was not an actor in a a costume.

Okay. And people forget.
What color is the blog? Do you remember? Red. Red.
Except when it first landed. It was completely transparent.
Oh. After it ate its first person, then it was red.

Oh, I got to go back and check that out. Yes.
Yes. Did you, did you, Jake? Did you know that? I didn't know that.
Oh,

I can't stump it. Yeah, I can't stop it.
Unstumpable. I'm sorry.

I just showed my girlfriend the blog because she'd never seen it. So we just watched it the other week.
Okay, so it's fresh and it's fresh.

It might have been Steve McQueen's first movie or very very early in his in his repertoire anyways that's right

i think that's the most imaginative plus it comes through the grill right it comes through everything of the of the air air conditioning ducts any any opening any opening any opening it can oozes ooze its way through the door yeah yeah

so that and

uh favorite alien i think is from

uh contact

Contact with Jodie Foss? Yes. Wait a minute.
So you mean when she was inside of that portal? You never see the alien. That's why it's my favorite alien.

Right. Cause he says, I've taken on this for him to make you comfortable.
No, no. Well, that's.

Yes. Yes.
But the alien, you do not know what the alien looks like. The alien exists in some way

that is not material, that does not lend itself to material presence for your eyes. Okay.
So I, and that way, and by the way, 2001 and its sequel, 2010, neither of those showed the alien either.

Right. So I like it when they don't show it to you.
Okay. That's all.
That's cool. I feel like that.
This actually brings up, I love your thoughts on this.

I always like to think that if we were to see an alien, that we wouldn't really be able to comprehend it, which is why I always think that the old school look of like the gray alien, you know, big head, big black eyes.

Because we only understand things in the shapes that we can currently comprehend.

But if something were not bound by our understanding of the world, could it look entirely different in a form that we just don't understand and have to put it into a form that we do understand?

No, I don't think so. If you're open enough to what can be, it's just a thing that now, no, you don't have a reference for it, but it's a new thing that you make new references for.

So for example, in Star Trek, you have the Horta.

The Horta is basically a rock. Right.
And it's alive as a rock.

That doesn't look like any alien anyone's dreamt of before, but it can move through silicates like we move through air because the rock is silicon-based, most of them.

So I thought that was, would you agree that was a creative attempt?

That is really creative. Just to think outside of the box, the horta.
Cool. Cool.
Very cool. No, that is a sorry, just back to the blob, though, real quick.
I know we got more questions.

But that's, to your point, what makes the blob so great is that it isn't this traditional flesh and blood, looks like a, has legs and arms kind of character.

It's this blob, this shapeless form that just moves around and and go through objects or things that we can't physically or that a physical being couldn't. Plus, a bullet doesn't stop it, right?

It's not, and not because it's impervious, it's just irrelevant. Right.
Exactly. It is like shooting water

or shooting air. Right.
So that's my vote. So we got our three votes there.
There she goes. Nice stuff.
Good stuff, guys. All right.
So shall we move on to Ryan Ramboer? And Ryan wants to know this.

In the movie Arrival, the government sends two different scientists from two different fields of study. If you had to choose two people, who would you send into an alien spacecraft?

Interesting. Just to remind people, in arrival, the recent arrival, recent arrival, recently arrived recently.

Sorry, I just got here.

So they sent a physicist,

a particle physicist, and a linguist. Okay, would you have, Jake, would you have sent different people in?

I totally would have sent different people in. What would you have sent in? Other than yourself, who would you have sent?

I mean, I think, but that was also a very specific thing where they chose a linguist because they knew there was some kind of communication happening and they needed someone there to help decipher it.

Right. After the fact.
So if we're starting, it's a tune in after the fact. Okay.
Okay. But wouldn't you send

me ahead? I'm going to let you know. I was going to say, but if we're starting from that point,

then I think that can make a particle physicist doesn't seem

like, wouldn't you want some sort of biologist? Yeah, I think so, too.

that's why i would have sent an astrobiologist okay and a cryptographer and a cryptographer right right right that makes sense see i'm i agree with that and or i would have sent like a theoretical mathematician

what's what's wrong with that

what's wrong with that

fine because I mean, listen, if for them to get here, they had to use math. Sure.
Right. Sure.
And I think that math would be the same for us, yeah.

But but astrobiologists know math, so we're good here, okay, all right, it's part of our curriculum. Oh, see, you know, see, you just think that physicists are so damn great.
No, no, you're not right.

I just, I just, I just remove the physicist from that equation, right? Put in an astrobiologist and a cryptographer. The cryptographer is going to know math too, right, Jake?

Cryptographer knows some math. Of course, here's my question to you, Jake.

Yeah. How do they know

that the septopod, or whatever it was called? Yeah, that the thingy thing was communicating

in

the direction they are looking

rather than in his own direction, and they should then be studying the mirror image of it. Yeah, flipping it.
Wow. Well,

you thought too hard about that. You just ruined the movie for me.

The movie's

not just saying, because the thing is writing it on transparent glass right it's writing what it thinks and everyone is thinking that's it's its own right somebody's got to we need a mirror in there at some point jake what's your opinion what's your take my opinion is that the aliens are very considerate so they were like we're gonna make it easy for you guys we traveled all this distance we are smart enough to know that we're gonna flip it for you we're gonna draw right backwards i will tell you this

if aliens come up to me and they put it as a glass window right i ain't writing shit backwards

yeah i'm not writing But here's my point. And this is my only making faces.

My only problem with the movie is this. What? If you are smart enough for intergalactic travel, are you going to tell me that you can't learn English in a few days? I'm just saying.
Yeah, I agree.

Yeah.

That was my problem. That was my problem with

close encounters of the third kind. Right.
Okay. Do you remember that scene where they figure out where they're going to land? Do you remember that scene? The teletype gives

the longitude and latitude. They say, wait a minute, that's a coordinates on Earth.
And then they go get the map and it's devil's tower. It's like, oh my gosh.

And I'm hitting, you know, my issue here, Jake? It's

our latitude goes from zero to 90.

Who thought that up? Okay.

And between.

0 and 1 and 1 and 2, it's split into 60 parts.

Okay.

And the longitude longitude is an act of politics that put the prime meridian through Greenwich.

So if you were an alien and you know our coordinate system, because you come up upon earth, there's no grid lines on earth,

right?

Hey, look at that. It's a planet made by world map.

There's no grid lines.

So if you come up to the earth, you have to understand our weird sexagesimal counting system for angles and you have to know the politics that put the prime meridian going down through Greenwich.

And if you knew that much about human culture, you just say, Hey, what's happening? What's happening

to the left of Devil's Tower at 4:30 this afternoon? See you then. Boom! Now, did you tell Stephen Spillburn that when he was here?

All right, what's the next question? Go,

go.

Okay, next question. Next question, here we go.
All right.

This is, oh, I like it. This is 72 underscore 05 underscore 72.

And thank you so much for that name, by the way.

If our planet was being attacked by aliens, what's the first thing you would do? Now, this is an attack, guys, not a visit. An attack.
Okay. What's the first thing you would do?

We don't have time in this segment.

But when we come back, we're going to find out what's the first thing Jake is going to do when aliens attack and Star Talk returns.

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We're back, Star Talk segment three of Cosmic Queries: Aliens in the Movies with Jake Roper. That's right, yeah, this dude, this is what he does.
Yeah, awesome. It's a great job.

It's not only what he does, that's all he does. Oh my goodness.
I'm so jealous. I'm so

sitting on a toilet right now. He never leaves.

He just never leaves that space. You said you wouldn't tell.

Oh, that's too funny. Okay.
So before we went off, here's the question. 72 underscore 05 underscore 72 says this.

If our planet was being attacked, guys, by aliens, what is the first thing you would do? Not a visit and attack. Jake.

First thing I would do is probably just

relax, you know?

What could I do to help stave it off? I'm just going to chill, turn on some Star Talk radio, pour a nice Merlot.

Very nice. Is that a wine? I think that's a wine.
And then just

wait for death. Glass of wine and chill.
Yes. Instead of Netflix and chill, alien attack and chill.

Interesting. I'll tell you what I would not do, which is what they do in the movies.
Which is shoot your gun at it.

Go outside and start shooting at the sky.

It's a mothership. Right.
And you think

you think, you think, right.

All right. So Neil, what would you do? So, Jake,

you have surrendered to them, correct?

Well, if they're attacking, like, I'm sorry. So I guess my assumption was that it's the ship that's attacking us.

If If they sent ground troops and we're going like house by house, door by, door to door, then yeah, I'd probably fight back.

But if there's just a giant mothership blasting Earth similar to Independence Day, then I just hang out and hope that it all clears. Man.
Yeah.

I'm kind of. That's what am I supposed to do? Yeah.

I mean, listen, like, you know, I'm not going, like, when you brought up Independence Day, the scene that really burned my shorts was when all the people got on top of the Capitol Records building to look at the aliens, to get a better

view of the aliens. And then, of course, they were all incinerated by a particle beam that wiped them.
Like, I don't get that. What do you, I don't, I don't, I don't want to meet aliens like that.

You realize Independence Day is War of the Worlds.

Really? How do we attack? How do we triumph over the aliens?

With a virus. Oh, look at you.
Oh,

you didn't know that, Jack. That was good.

You got me. I'm going to tell you.
That was good.

So, a biological virus and a cyberlogical virus. Okay, so

I'd like Jake and I like keeping him around. So, I'll put him in with his bottom of Merlot.
Okay. I'll get him a good bottle of Merlot.
Right. I'll get you a Chateau Petrus, okay, from maybe

1989 would be a really good bottle of Merlot for you. Okay.
Very nice. And look that one up.
And so then I like him. We'll keep him around.

And I'll go out and try to figure out how to kick some alien ass. Okay, Neil is full of it

because what you don't know, Jake, is that Neil has many government connections, many,

many government connections. He will be in a bunker safely secured dress

that's checked on. Okay.

Who's sharing it with a couple generals who will be consulting him on what we should or should not be doing with these people know? Yeah, man.

I don't think Neil was lying when he said that he would, you know, check on me. And then when he did leave, though, yes, he would go to his bunker.
No, I'll be right back.

No, no, of course I'll be right back. The bunker.

Hanging out, smoking cigars, living his best life. Cool.
Chuck, what's the next one? All right, here we go. This is Zebby coming to us.

She's a YouTube fan. What is the most believable depiction of aliens you've seen in modern sci-fi? Good question.
What's the most believable alien? Let's go modern. Let's define it 1980s onwards.

Yeah, let's say the 80s onward. Okay.

I mean,

the first thing that pops my head, I think, would be arrival.

Okay. I think the way that they handled it, the way that they interacted with the aliens, the way that the aliens interacted with us.

How about the fact that it was a septopod that didn't disturb you at all?

Because I think, no,

the issue that I have with...

most not an issue because i do enjoy them but with most alien invasion films where they come to earth is why do they always want to destroy us why is that their immediate instinct is like like, let's just kill everybody.

That's because that's what we would do

if we landed on their planet. In fact, that's what we've done to each other when we land on each other's continents.

So I think that's why I think, though, we'd write it that way, because that's what we would do. So we put our own self in those scripts when we write aliens.

But if they were smart enough, if they could traverse these incredible distances, would their first action be aggression?

Yeah. I mean,

I think only if we were food would that, because otherwise we were to serve man, right?

Right.

You got, you got the Twilight Zone episode.

Yeah. To serve man.
But I said, there was like, it's resource gathering. They do a lot of that.

But I feel like Arrival had a pretty, in my mind, good depiction where obviously they took liberties with some of the science, but it felt still in this world of science realism, or at least they were trying to obtain that.

And I really appreciated that. What about The Day the Earth Stood Still?

Ooh.

The

new one with Keanu Reeves? Either. Well, either.
I mean, there was the robot in the first one, but that wasn't really the alien, right? There's something else controlled something else. So

because you're trying to.

Oh, I got it. I got you here.
Okay. In that same vein, I'm going to go back to contact because it was that.

I thought that was an authentic representation of how we as a society would react to the knowledge that there's an intelligent species out there. So I agree with you.

You want some authenticity that isn't always

violence. Right.
Right. But then,

if you're creative enough as the screenwriter or as the storyteller, you would put some of those authentic reactions in it, as I agree they did with Arrival.

See, I think when you said the Day to the Earths is still is even

more so because

it is a non-biological life form. Like, I think our our first contact, if we send something out, it's not going to be a human being.
We're going to send something out that might make contact.

So that would be the first encounter from the opposite way. All right, next question.
All right, here we go.

This is Wes Miller. Would you rather aliens be far more intelligent than humans or far less intelligence? and than humans.

Here's the thing. If aliens visited us, they're clearly more intelligent.
They're more intelligent. Yeah.

that's what I'm trying to, because I guess, again, we're assuming aliens are these life form style creatures.

And we're not finding them to your point. Neil, they're like coming to find us.
So yeah, I guess they just intrinsically would be more intelligent.

But then I guess, sorry, now I'm just being pedantic, but like, what is intelligence? Do they, they'll know more than us about certain things, but I'm sure there'll be.

different verticals of information that we are much well versed in than they are.

Jake, if they got here in a spaceship across the intergalactic space, they know more about everything that we've ever known about anything. That's probably the case, unless of course.

But are they going to know about delicious like tacos and nachos? Neil, will they know that?

They will once they take over the earth, that's for sure.

But what if they're like, what was the movie,

Wally?

Wally.

Well, and they were escaping a planet, put on a ship that was run by an AI that took care of their every need, and they just became dumb fatties floating around on chairs, right?

Then they arrived someplace. Damn, you just ruined that whole movie.

Dumb fatties riding on chairs.

But then instead of trying to wait until their planet was healed, it just takes them on an intergalactic mission.

So here are people living in this enclosed society for all these, like it could be millennia if you wanted it. Then they get someplace, which is Earth.
They find us.

and what we end up seeing is incredible technology with a bunch of dumb fatties flying around on chairs.

True. Well, I sorry, last thing I want to say about really smart aliens.
I will go back to E.T., though, as a consideration where E.T.

was able to get to Earth, yet didn't even know what Reese's pieces were. What an idiot.
What an idiot. What a dumb alien.

E.T. suit.

That's funny.

Okay.

All right, next. All right, here we go.
We're running short on time. See if we can get a couple in here.
Okay, go. This is

Prabhuhanjan Talang says this. If we ever contact an alien species, is there a first contact protocol, a true to life first contact protocol?

Jake, I don't know if there is, but if there was one, what would you want it to be?

Ah, I mean,

you know what? I never even thought about this question before. Oh, we stumped Jake.
Wow. Jake.
Well, because I always assumed, well, because you have the light cone, right?

Which we don't have to go too into detail, but information, unless we can figure out tachyons, all these different things, there's a speed limit to how fast information can travel.

Tachyons travel fast enough. They move backwards in time.
Right.

Far enough away to send us a message. By the time you were able to send anything back, whoever sent it is probably long gone.

So I've never really thought about the idea of what would we say. There has to be a protocol.

Interesting.

There's a protocol for what you would send a radio signal if we communicated that way but if they just showed up do you send your diplomat

do you send your diplomats you send your head of state oh let's hope not no i'd send like i send paul rudd everyone likes paul ruddy

that is an excellent answer

you need likable people

very good if you send the most likable human

then that's your best chance there you go let's send the delightful paul Rudd.

How could we go wrong? Well, that's a brilliant answer. I like it.
Just send the most friendly among us. Right.
And if they think he's evil in some way, then we're in big trouble.

Right. Yeah, we're both.
Yeah, if we send Paul Rudd and they kill Paul Rudd, the rest of us are doomed.

There's no hope for humanity. We're done.
We're cooked.

Chuck, give me another question. Last one.
Last one. Okay, here we go.
Hi, Dr. Tyson and Mr.
Roper. Ooh, look at that.

You got a mister out of this.

This is

Elias from London, and I wanted to ask your thoughts on aliens like replicators from the Stargate

series, robots who replicated themselves using available resources on every planet. Do you believe this is the most probable form of alien life that we will ever encounter? Wow.
What a

real good question. Jake, what do you have on that?

I mean, this brings up what kind of Chuck mentioned earlier, that it does seem more reasonable that if we were to get a first contact moment, it would be with some sort of machine, some sort of non or inorganic built thing.

And then also, when it comes to replicating it, this is the whole idea about the singularity that I always love, or just advanced AI, where if you're able to create an AI, like a machine that is so advanced, it no longer needs you to create it.

It can create itself now.

So I do think that could be a very real possibility because I mean, I'm still stuck on that brilliant idea that Chuck had, because Chuck is a brilliant uh attractive smart humble person um

which is that it would be some sort of robotic creature would probably be the first contact okay

chuck very nice there well thanks yeah he complimented you he did yes 12 ways from sunday and i'll flip that i'm gonna i'm gonna use every day i can

um so i want to i just put some emphasis on that. Okay.
So the Fermi paradox, which is how come the aliens haven't been here? Well, why would we expect that to happen?

Because in the lifetime of the universe, they would have colonized every planet in the galaxy. Well, how do you justify that? Well, if you send a robot that can duplicate itself,

then it goes to a planet, and then it makes two of itself, and then they go to two planets.

And then they make two of themselves, and they go to four planets, and then eight, and then 16. It doesn't take many doubling times to have a robot on every single habitable planet in the galaxy.

That will take much less time than the amount of time the galaxy has been around.

So either you bring humans there and duplicate themselves, or you bring robots, but there would have been some evidence if

they really were of

a colonizing species.

So, so yeah, this idea that you can duplicate yourself, that's really the only realistic way. That's the only realistic way.
That is the most realistic way. The most realistic way.
Fantastic. Right.

Oh, that's great. We speak English in the United States because England sent a colony that spoke English.
That's right. All right.
So now we went to the moon, not England.

Right. Okay.

England sent the colony that then went to the moon. Right.
So that's you want to think about what you've actually

put into motion. Right.
And so, yeah, yeah, that's good. Good stuff, man.
That's a great way to think about it. Yeah.
Jake, love you, man. Hey, that was fun, Jake.
Oh, thank you guys so much.

This is great. We got to do this.

We will. We're going to find a way to get your ass back on here.

Do Matrix. Do it.
I'm done. Do a whole thing on just a Matrix? Well, yeah.
Well, because there's three movies. No, no.
There's only one Matrix.

I'm going to agree with you.

The other two movies. I'm going to tell you the truth.
I don't know what happened to the other two. Something happened.

I'm not sure. I'm going to be honest.
I'm going to be honest. But the first one was

over-analyzed Matrix, okay? Okay. I've seen that movie.
How many times have you seen The Matrix?

Too many. Too many.
Yeah, me too. Yeah,

I'm kind of there too.

Well, actually, you know what? I shouldn't say too many. That sounds negative.
Not enough. Oh,

okay.

Okay. All right.
Matrix of this. The question is: are you a virus on this earth?

A virus.

All right, Jake. We got to call Chris there.
Chuck, thanks for being on. Always a pleasure.
Jake, we'll find you again. I don't know where you're hiding, but we'll find you.

All right. This has been Star Talk, Cosmic Query's Aliens Edition.
I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, as always, bidding you to keep looking up.

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