Are we alone in the Universe? - Dr Arik Kershenbaum, University of Cambridge
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- Опубліковано 28 лют 2023
- Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? If not, does that mean that we humans are utterly alone in creation? Recent technological developments make the discovery of life on other planets almost expected within the coming decades. But most of the inhabited planets we hope to discover may well be populated by no more than alien bacteria. Will that make us feel any less alone? What we really hope to find are aliens with whom we can communicate and hold a conversation. When we ask ,“Are we alone?”, what we really mean is, “Do we have anyone to talk to in the universe?” Our gnawing concern about being isolated in the universe ironically mirrors the situation we face on our own planet. We are proud of the status of human beings as the most intelligent of animals, and indeed the only species with language. But that very uniqueness isolates us from all the other intelligent animals on the planet. Sure, we can communicate with our pet dogs and cats, but we can’t hold a conversation with them. Why not? What is the nature of the barrier between us and dolphins or chimpanzees? Some would say that if we aren’t capable of understanding dolphins and whales, we have no chance of understanding any alien civilisation we encounter. Perhaps we are doomed to galactic isolation, no matter how many alien civilisations exist. However, I believe that we can be more optimistic than that. As we reach out to the stars to seek out new life and new civilisations, now is the time to consider: for what are we actually searching?
Dr Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist, Director of Studies, and Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge, and an expert on animal vocal communication, which he has researched for the past 14 years. He received his PhD at the University of Haifa in Israel, and holds a Higher Doctorate from the University of Cambridge. His first popular science book, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy was a Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year, and received accolades from among others, Richard Dawkins and Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal. Dr Kershenbaum travels the world researching the nature of information in the communication of wolves, dolphins, primates, and other species, looking for indications of the similarities - and differences - with human speech. The evolution of different forms of animal communication is the subject of his second popular science book: How Animals Talk, which will be published in 2023.
essentially alone. if one is on a deserted island 2000 mi away from anyone one else you are alone. knowing someone else exists doesn;t change alone
Life might be as rare as the universe is big.
This has been absolutely fascinating! I think I'm a natural pessimist wrt life elsewhere in the universe. I have no interest in single celled life, it is an irrelevance to me in this regard. The enormous step to multicellular life may be unique but even if it isn't, will we be able to meet advanced life that we can converse with in any meaningful way?
No, not in my opinion - the odds are too vast, even if there are billions of earth-like planets
We're probably the only intelligent life and we're only here by the thinnest of good luck
Communication is dependent on nurture.
" Honaraler Ihdnag from NGC 370, what do you think of human intelligence?"
"I think it would be a good idea."
😂 Indeed
Step by step we're getting over our central narcissistic delusion that "we are unique." Just try to grasp the scale and complexity of the universe---"we are unique and alone" is simply preposterous.
Discover fire.
No, just look out from the stage and you will see !
This is a bit narrow minded. The question "Are we alone?" does not simply reduce to "Can the aliens talk to us?".
The key question is: "Can we find species that have the complex level of thought we have, that can Design and Plan, and Invent Tools and Strategies to physically execute their plans?".
Language is simply a Tool we have invented using the rudimentary means of burping we inherited from our ancestors, but it is not the only tool. We have invented running shoes, pianos, cars, and scuba diving equipment. Just like language, we have invented physical forms of communication such as martial arts and dancing.
Therefore, the statement at 40:54 is wrong. The "evolutionary rigor" is not about whether the language came first. Obviously, it did not, because it was a purposefully and intentionally evolved tool by us humans in order to more optimally communicate our Designs and Plans to each other.
The ability for complex and diverse Design and Planning is the first trait we are looking for in aliens, and this is precisely the element that is lacking in animals here on earth.
Most animals have some specialized Design capability: birds can build nests, spiders can spin webs, but birds cannot spin threads, and spiders cannot build nests out of sticks. Humans can do both, and a lot more, aided by our hands and arms capable of complex movements and the brain power to execute those movements.
In conclusion, Language is but one of the many Tools that is a Symptom, not a Cause, of the kind of traits we are looking for in order to not feel alone in the universe.
Only by being able to communicate and co-ordinate amongst ourselves were humanity able to pass on the complex designs, plans and strategies you use as examples. So far as we know, that is what sets us apart from other intelligent life on the planet and enabled us to build on what our predecessors developed. It is reasonable to assume that other intelligent life elsewhere in the universe must also have a method of storing information over generations to develop advanced technology that will allows us to discover each other.
It is vanishingly unlikely but possible that we could discover a world similar to earth - trees, dolphins, rooks etc. but we would still be alone in the universe if we couldn't communicate with them. We need to discover a lifeform at least as similar to humanity prior to the industrial revolution - intelligent life like us, and able to communicate amongst themselves for us not to be alone in the universe.
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But the notion language was developed by humans skirts against the one that propensity for language is innate (Chomsky)?
The real question is ‘Why on Earth would any alien species communicate with such a horrid species?’
Have any of the thousands of exoplanets discovered so far been earth-like planets orbiting a sun like star in the habitable zone with a single moon and having a orbital period similar to that of the earth and sun (365 days) ... why waste time n money exploring exoplanets in orbit around so-called red dwarf stars when red dwarves tend to have many more CME's
We are still limited in our resolution ability. Also, most stars are red dwarfs so naturally if we do a survey of a section of sky most of the stars who’s planetary orbit is lined up correctly for transit occlusion will be red dwarfs.
No we're not alone we are surrounded by animals. LOL
The question should be: “Do we have anyone to talk to in the Milky Way?”
We had our DNA CHANGED MORE THAN ONCE! THIS GUY I😊S JUST MAKING STUFF UP!
I guess everything is inherent to constant change. The question is why....
ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? Here is my answer to that question; and I hope you astrophysicists and thinkers will look at it from this angle and pounder on it.
Just imagine an alien civilization, unable of intergalactic travel, sitting somewhere right now on an alien planet in the far reaches of the universe, and asking themselves the same question: "Are we alone in the universe?" The answer is a resounding NO; because though they don't yet know it, we too exist, and we are here. Now, turn around and think that we are that alien civilization asking that question. It becomes obvious that though we do not yet know it, they too exist and they are out there. Therefore we are not alone. If 1 can exist, 2 can exist because 2 is just 1 here and 1 there. and 3 can exist and so on. But if 1 cannot exist, 2 cannot exist, and 3 and so on cannot exist. We are a proof that something called consciousness can exist on a rocky planet in the goldilocks zone of a solar system in this universe; and since Earth is not the only rocky planet that can exist in the goldilocks zone of a solar system, and the elements that make us up are not exclusive to Earth, therefore consciousness MUST exist somewhere else also. There is no shortage of habitable planets, no shortage elements for life to exist somewhere else. If life is the creation of higher beings, that already make us not being alone, and we should seek to uncover them. But if so, why would they create here and not also create there on other planets? If merely the product of random evolution, why wouldn't it be able to start and evolve somewhere else also? Either way you look at it, we are not alone. The beings living on those remote planets across the universe are asking themselves the same question we do; where is everybody else? The distances are astronomically great, and interstellar/intergalactic travel is extremely hard and perilous (currently impossible for us). The reason why they haven't yet gotten to us is the same reason why we haven't yet gotten to them. When we are finally able to do, or when they are finally able to do, we will all find out we have been here together all along, kept apart by the enormous distances and the gravitational force that glue us to our host planets.
If you are eager to one day find out, remember to Love NASA and support SpaceX.
Hey Doc, you don't know shit about the Universe. When you cash your chops in, you will know a bit more.
nice SCIFI lecture to justify research grants