Cosmos Episode 12: Encyclopedia Galactica Part 4 of 7

[sokidjalga]

god can be everything, but it is highly unlikey that it (or he or she) is religilous as we know religion to be. god can be a big bang, god can even be nothing-> in whitch universe has always been here... but beliving god by a 2000 yo book is not god. if god is real, it is the universe- god is us and all the rocks and bugs and turds if you like

[destructcode21]

while I find it comforting that the possibility that we re not the only ones is geometrically increasing with our expansion of our knowledge base in astrology...i hope we entertain the possibility that they may be like us....

[misinglink15]

My main concern with our eventual space expansion (fingers crossed) is resources. Earth can't possibly provide all the necessary resources to expand far, so if asteroids could possibly help us greatly...we should try that first

[JohnF30Music]

it's amazing that there are other civilizations out there right now... scary and thrilling

[swampyziggy123]

7:45 - why does he say there are 10 planets in our solar system?

[karkovice10]

It is widely believed now that the galactic Rosetta stone would probably be mathematics.

I've seen another show where they made reference to the Drake equation. It was a Discovery Channel show called "UFOs: Down To Earth". I'll see what the final result of the early 80s calculation was in a moment; but at the time "Down To Earth" came out, they've estimated the total number of advanced civilizations in the milky way galaxy to be 100 million MILLION!

[Wittgensteinism]

There's a slight revision to be made at 0:20 when sagan says, "the same gravitational forces are at work" and it shows the computer simulation of a what is presumably a spiral galaxy. The problem is that spiral galaxies don't actually move like that. Astronomers have discovered that stars on the periphery of the spiral arms are moving just as fast as the stars close to the galactic center, opposing Kepler's laws of motion that govern our solar system.

To fix this astronomers invent Dark Matter

[tskasa1]

@SmokeWeedEveryHour

Is that the same stuff that is in his book Physics of the Impossible? I have that book and it is quite frankly goddamn fascinating. Sure, why dont't you send them to me, I'd love to see them.

Although my one problem is really when people try to discuss technological capabilities beyond a hundred years, or sometimes even fifty. Because, let's be frank, after the 20th Century it's hard to say that technological progress is as constant as we had believed beforehand.

[tskasa1]

@SmokeWeedEveryHour

Like I said, I agree with you.

And as for its being doable, mine friend haven't we already seen much of the "undoable" and "impossible" happen in jus the last century? By the means of modern technology it might seem as such, but you never know what will show up later in the future.

[tskasa1]

@SmokeWeedEveryHour

Well, it's not theoretical because we know it's possible. We see it happening every day with galaxies speeding away from it.

My only problems with a lot of those proposals, however, is that they are inefficient. Then again, I'm a greedy bastard. I want something that is plausible and efficient from the get go. But I must admit, we'll be making craft like those long before we make the USS Enterprise....

[tskasa1]

@SmokeWeedEveryHour

Oh yes, I know. Like I said, one is literally a warp drive that works by compressing and expanding space time. In this manner spacetime is what is pushing you and you can reach theoretically infinite speeds so long as you have the energy for it. It's perfectly doable, we just don't have the tech to manipulate spacetime in such a manner...yet...

[tskasa1]

@SmokeWeedEveryHour

Oh, that much I defininntely agree with.

Unfortunately a warp drive is still at least a few centuries away because we haven't yet gained the ability to manipulate space time and cause it to expand and contract =(

But within the next millenia or so we will definitely develop the capabilities for large scale, efficient, relatively fast interstellar travel. It's man's only hope for the future.

[tskasa1]

I'll laugh my ass of if we finally get the tech, go to Jupiter and find life there. His prophecy hasth come true!

Why worship God when you can worship The Magnificent Carl Sagan? :33

[DandAinTac]

I believe life itself is common--but development into advanced life is far more rare. Amongst biospheres that have complex multi-cellular organisms, sentient intelligence is even more rare, and amongst planets with sentient organisms, advanced technological beings as advanced as ourselves or more so are even more rare. I'm not saying they're not out there, just that there are not many of them. If there were, we would most likely have conclusive proof of their existence.

[tskasa1]

@DandAinTac

"I believe life itself is common--but development into advanced life is far more rare. "

Lol, you BELIEVE that?! Dude, don't worry that IS true. More complex lifeforms are FAR rarer than simpler ones (just look at Earth for an example). But still, granted that there may be a few billion habitable planets in the Milky Way ALONE, that's STILL a lot of intelligent life even if we take just a TINY fraction of them.

[Jcorp67]

My sister has tried to convince me that faith in God is all that is needed. I do believe in God but at the same time I really want proof. Faith is not enough because it does nt stand up under the scientific method.

I also do not have faith in the bible because it was written by humans. The stories are great for living a moral life but they do not provide proof of Gods existence because humans wrote them. They may have had a divine experience or they could have been taking hallucinogens.

[SkumBanana]

I respect you sir. I do not believe in god... I'm studying to be a scientist. I see you are a believer, but a keen and bright one because you understand that blind faith and dogmas should not conduct our lives. If every religious person could understand that our world would be a better place!

[eagle6702]

Unfortunately many religious people do think that way. I am not religious though.

God is the explanation that people give when they cannot explain something.

Science seeks to explain things and bring us out of the dark.

[HeyHeyHarmonicaLuke]

yar thats called the 'god-of-the-gaps', the idea that god's place in creation retracts as science's understanding advances

[adric137]

amazing!

[runaldinjo]

Fantastic!

[stevehunniford]

Proof god is a fake

[Jcorp67]

I don't know if it's proof that God is fake but thi is proof that science is the best way to explain th answers to the many questions we have.

Sagana and others are right when they tell us to question preconceived notions and accept facts even when they do not agree with what was previously thought.