Neil deGrasse Tyson on UFOs, Government Files, and the Physics of Alien Claims
Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player
Until you show me an alien, it's a belief system. So what is your answer to the Feremy paradox? Where's everybody? Assuming they're not here yet. The one that I like best is the one that has geopolitical implications. And this w was first put forth by Steve Soder, a colleague of mine. It has to do with I let's say you do figure out how to Colonized planets. So the way you would do it is you launch a rocket from one planet, it goes to another planet, and then you make two rockets, then you launch to two planets from there. And each of those m builds two rockets and then you do so it doubles. Okay? There's not many doubling times.
Before you can completely populate one hundred percent of the planets in the galaxy. You could do that in a much smaller time than the lifetime of the galaxy itself. So where are they? So the argument is the primary reason why anything is classified is uh especially with regard to equipment, is so that our enemy adversaries do not know the precision with which we can make an observation or a measurement. It's not that we have some craft that is completely unknown or un it's it's generally it's the specs on the thing that was designed that gets classified. Just so people know. The laws of physics That nowhere in the universe where we have seen matter and energy interact have there been a violation of these laws. So we have no expectation that an alien of this universe is violating physical laws routinely. Period.
Hey everybody, it's Michael Shermer, time for another episode of the Michael Shermer Show. My returning guest today is the champ returning champion, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I think this is your third or fourth time on the show. He's an astrophysicist and author of the number one best selling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, along with Here we go. To infinity and beyond, Cosmic Quarries, Death by Black Hole, Letters from an Astrophysicist, Accessory to War, and Starry Messenger, the last two you were on for. He's the director of the Hayden Planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History, where he has served since nineteen ninety six. Doc Tyson is also a host and co founder of the Emmy nominated popular podcast Star Talk, and it's spin off Star Talk Sports Edition, which combines humor, science and pop culture.
We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (75 minutes, 12,116 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.
No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.