Neil deGrasse Tyson worries about stupid humans.

[goldring21]

He is baaically a brilliant scientist and a comidian combined lol

[bizso09]

This is argument is wrong. Aliens could still talk to us at our intelligence level so we understand that they exist. We can talk to dogs and cats or chimps. For example if I shout at a cat, it gets scared. When a cat meows at the door, it tells me it wants to go out. A dog can understand if I'm friendly or hostile towards it, just like I understand if a dog is friendly or hostile towards me. This is all communication happening.

[bizso09]

@bizso09 Second, it assumes being intelligent is somehow a better than being not intelligent. In my view, intelligence is just a survival tactic. In terms of survival and replication, the bacteria's dna achieves pretty much the same success as humans' dna. So in this regard, humans are not better than bacteria.

[TheArcadianFlame]

@bizso09 a dog or cat's mind is different to our own.

[No1warp9]

The chimp, as with most other animals, are more aware than your average human. A chimp somehow knows, for example, that to cure a specific stomach ailment, it needs to trek many miles to reach a specific herb, and then consume whole, without any chewing, the entire leaf of this herb. We've lost the ability to 'talk' to nature...hence we've become fearful & dependent on technology. This has only weakened the species. The human potential is buried beneath a sea of numbers and wires.

[confettibrains]

I blame the religions for giving us a superiority complex. Religion treats us like we're special divine creations, and God has invested in us the power to "trample on," dominate, and exploit the Earth and animals for all their resources. Christianity is why we allow people to blast apart mountains for coal and why we allow livestock to live in atrocious conditions, or why we don't give a damn about polluting the planet. God gives us the right to destroy Earth as much as we want. Fuck religion!

[x234gm]

@confettibrains So what about countries like China where there is no religion and they have no respect for the environment or human rights. While it's true that religion that religion has done a lot of harm, it seems like some atheists care more about bashing religion than making the world better. Religion is just one of many means that people use or invent to justify their selfish nature, which was there before there was religion.

[confettibrains]

@x234gm

"So what about countries like China where there is no religion and they have no respect for the environment or human rights"

That has nothing to do with the absence of religion but rather their communistic rule. Many people in China live under poverty, and when someone is poor they often care more about keeping their families supported than caring for the environment. Also, spirituality has presided over religion for thousands of years in China so it's not like they're all atheists

[CoryTheRaven]

@confettibrains We didn't start having a global ecological crisis until the Industrial Revolution. Christianity is only to blame insofar as it gave us the philosophical idea that human beings are set apart from the rest of the world. This philosophy was inherited by science, which treated the natural world as an object of observation. This information was then used by industry to manipulate the natural world. Atheists pin this all on religion with a vested interest.

[confettibrains]

@CoryTheRaven

Christians are just about the only people in modern times who deny global warming. Anyone with scientific literacy, acknowledges the data and thinks we should do something about it.

Christians/republicans think God controls the weather and ecosystem and thus we don't need to worry at all about it. These christians/republicans have a lot of control over imposing environmental regulations, so yes I pin America's unworldly attitude towards nature on religion.

[CoryTheRaven]

@confettibrains You are making an absolutely false conflation bordering on a strawman. The people denying anthropogenic climate change are those with monied interests in modern industry. By in large, those people support economically conservative political parties and candidates. In the US, fiscal conservatives (at least those in name) tend to also appeal to social conservatives, which tend to be American Evangelicals...

[CoryTheRaven]

@confettibrains ...The fact that you conflate Christians and the Republican Party only demonstrates how out of touch you are. Most Christians are NOT AMERICAN, let alone Republican. MOST Christians in the world are Catholic, which has a far more complex political atmosphere than what fits into the American dialectic. Furthermore the American political dialectic skews the fact that both parties are doing nothing about ACC.

Really now, please, remove head from ass.

[TwistedMind6969]

It's all about being humble and open-minded. We humans have always thought that we are better than everything else, that we are smarter than anyone else, that we unique. Yeah, alright!

Even the cameraman had to put down the recording device to applaud this man.

[willyolio]

well, this speech alone proved, at the very least, that every hollywood alien invasion movie is wrong.

they'd never ever make first contact in the United States.

or maybe that's why they keep abducting cows instead of humans.

[blamstam]

I never thought that I would compare Dr. Tyson to Franz Kafka, but he seems very down on the human race in several of his speeches, this one in particular. He seems to view the human race as the Samsa family came to view Gregor in The Metamorphosis.

[Juniversal]

@blamstam...he's totally right. Our species isn't as "special" as we'd like to believe. In the eyes of nature we're just another multi-cellular organism. I don't believe he's "down" on the human race as much as he's honest about it.

[l1lMikel1l]

Imagine a species like ours where everyone is like one of those baby Einsteins we have today. His comparison of having a toddler smarter then someone who has studied something their whole seems dead on since we have it happening right now. What future Einsteins will be born? It will be exciting to find out

[sushanalone]

Crap i gota tell my species , the humans know it !

[test123ok]

LOL I love this guy. He has a unique way of spreading knowledge..just like Carl Sagan did.

[Maximusz62]

Karl Pilkington is wondering what the worm is thinking.

[hznfrst]

That was hilarious!



[pacifiedfools]

He is so cool

[Smertopia]

Love the works of Neil but he needs a new repertoire.. He uses the optical illusion joke in nearly every speech.

[JRBendixen]

The man is made of pure win

[Wassamattawityou]

I can see the guy filming this in this video. /watch?v=EVwjmbuY8UE

he's the guy near the upper left of the screen wearing a red t-shirt and jeans.

[MrWrldpce]

I would attend his "church" lol

[katateochi]

Its our arrogance which sets us aside. Only we have the audacity to presume that our attributes are the best. Even thou we are so weak, so incapable of survival on our own (in our native environment) without the crutch of technology.

We are not the greatest species, we are the only species that can't stand naked in the wild and survive.

[basmithtx]

@katateochi Well, our cleverness, adaptability and tool making are inherent to us. They are what define us as a species and are what have made us the dominant apex predator on this planet. Of course, it naturally follows that if you deprive us of these faculties we would be severely disadvantaged.

[1n354a]

awesome material...and a very good point brought up...next time I see a worm, Im going to stop and say hi.

[Johnandvanessa]

nice camera work

sarcastic

[TheCoolMovement]

How can anyone laugh at that. He just trashed the human race!



[saxoman1]

@TheCoolMovement "How can anyone laugh at that."

By not being so egotistical about yourself and/or your species that the possibility of a species being smarter than us offends you... lol.

Come on man, lighten up xD

[TheCoolMovement]

@saxoman1 The thing that pisses me off is that most of us settle in an easy-routine state of mind to avoid mental stress, when our brains are capable of alot more (See George W Bush).

[saxoman1]

@TheCoolMovement "What pisses me off is that most of us settle in an easy-routine state of mind to avoid mental stress"

Oh, well that is totally different! Yes, with all the HUMAN potential of the mind,it is sad to see so many people waste it (actually, more often than not, it seems to me that these people never had brains capable of such heights from birth. lol). Of course,I'm not saying that my mind is all that, but I try my best to remain knowledgeable/inquisitive about the world around us!

[swizzbeats1212]

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

[Armigo91]

And we might evolve on the less important traits, perhaps for the next 2million years, and we would travel back in a time machine, and find out we really havent become that much smarter ever since.

[Armigo91]

A alien would roll stephen hawkings in fron of their leader and compared his mathetmatics to their toddles, only if that 2% change was in the direction of us to chimps, based on the same traits.

And there are thousands of traits in evolution. Cognitive thinking was in that 2% Perhaps the next big changes in our dna arent really that great, as it doesnt enhance the cognitive thinking,

but something entirely else,

perhaps something we cant even see positive change off.

[Armigo91]

Perhaps that 1-2% difference within the past 200.000years was really a blessing to our capability. But perhaps the next 2% in evolution is nothing else then a small change in biology. As the content of the added dna doesnt have to supply that great of perks or traits.

Hypothetical aliens could have evolved quiker over a shorter time period, or be more succesfull with less complex dna as they miss human traits of which humans have a dozen we dont actualy need anymore.

[Armigo91]

Btw, i do want to note that all life is based upon past life. Humans are evolved from apes. But what are apes evolved from?

And what is that creature evolved from?

And the creature before that?

In the end, the bottom of the ladder in evolution is the first microbia to walk the surface of earth.

Meaning that the whole development in our evolution doesnt dates back from 200.000years ago. But from 3billion years ago. It took 3billion years to get a ape. Another 200.000years to get a human.

[Armigo91]

I compared humans to humans obviously.

I completely agree what the video is about.

Its obvious that were pets to aliens, or perhaps even lower on the ladder in evolution.

Depening on which alien ofcourse:P

[Armigo91]

some people dont use them, but they might have used it if the environment around such people demaned or encouraged them to use their brain. The patriotic slogan "we are all free, and we can do anything we want" isnt really contributing to the mental persuit for knowledge,

Its more like, "we suggest you to become and be ignorant for the rest of your life"

You should hardly take a person serious when he says your stupid.

Cause he has the same amount of neurons in his brain as yours,

[Armigo91]

To me theres no difference in intelligence. Apart from mentally impaired people ofcourse. But some people use their neurons to inherit alcohol, listen to pop/rock music, hunting bitches and play the capatalistic chess game to be succesfull, capital wise.

And other people, use there brains to do school, learn subjects, and supply the world with anything it might get better with.

I dont think theres a very great difference in the potention or trafficing between two persons brains.

[ChrisMMMMerritt]

@tanvirul23 I never said anything about them being greedy or selfish. As far as science knows, all life evolves. My point was merely that any intelligent life in the universe would have come from more modest roots, comparable to humans now, or at earlier stages in our evolution, merely in terms of our realized intelligence versus our potential (through evolution or technology). You can't just go from bacteria to God-like super-being overnight. Religious philosophy disagrees, of course.

[amazinero]

@ChrisMMMMerritt . Sure a society can go from ignorance to god-like-super-being in a lot less time than it has taken us to get to where we are. All it has do do to accelerate evolution is not introduce money and class systems. Don't you agree that many ideas are viewed as incredible (as in unworthy of listening to) just because of the "type" of person that offers the idea?

[Kruezoraxe]

@amazinero No, the best way to accelerate evolution is to create an adapt or die bottleneck solution. The best thing to do would be to create a global catastrophe which would force all the nations and scientists of the world to stop their petty squabbles and work together. Bring in a third party danger and force humanity to adapt or die. Research has shown that such situations assist in healing old wounds and promoting peace between groups. Though this has only been conducted on small groups.

[katateochi]

@Kruezoraxe Problem with that is genetic convergence. All evolutionary graphs of genetic convergence over time show the same pattern; massive variation to start, boundless potential to adapt. However as recombination fixes characteristics the level of variation drops exponentially, until the point where variation is exactly==to the rate of mutation(very small). The majority of mutations are bad, so the chance for radical adaption is ~0. We can just tweak what we have; taller, bigger boobs etc.

[kashlineboy]

I love how someone's plate fell on the floor at the end. :)

[AutodidacticPhd]

THE difference between humans, and everything else on the planet is this... we are entirely capable of creating other intelligences from scratch.

[tanvirul23]

@AutodidacticPhd

what the fuck are you talking about, first off wtf does "creating other intelligences from scratch" mean, if you mean what i think you mean, your an idiot, because humans have yet to create anything capable of intelligence. And i mean similar to human intelligence, robots, a.i. are not the same class of intelligence.

[AutodidacticPhd]

@tanvirul23 I can see how that might be confusing to someone whose definition of intelligence is somewhat limited. Of course, the funniest thing about your post, is that you admit in the end that the word can apply to that which we have already accomplished. I didn't specify one kind of intelligence over another. In addition, "entirely capable of" and "have done it" are two distinct ideas, so whether or not we have done it already is irrelevant to my comment.

[etniko]

hermantinkly777: optical illusion.

Brain failure.

[Shisho2k]

I have to agree with Tyson simply because of the woman putting her foot in a plate with pie on it at the end of the video.

[hermantinkly777]

This man is sadly mistaken (and brainwashed). Extraterrestrials do exist, and are visiting this planet, and I have personally seen them with my own eyes, and so have many other people all over the world. They have been here for thousands of years. Maybe people should actually take the time out to look for the evidence. It does exist, you have to find it though. You won't be told about it on public t.v. Modern science is a thought-controlling, corporate-sponsored, government sanctioned doctrine.

[DancesWithVaginas]

@hermantinkly777

Coo coo, coo coo, you batshit crazy tin foil hat wearing simpleton. CooCoo....

[hermantinkly777]

How do we expect to shift this paradigm when you have ignorant, closed-minded people like DaciesWithVaginas lashing out at you and insulting people who say things that don't fit their firm mold of reality?

[DancesWithVaginas]

@hermantinkly777

Stop talking about a sense of reality. You, who has seen the aliens with his own eyes....bahahaaa

I guess SETI is wasting their time with their billion dollar equipment scanning the universe for alien life forms. All they have to do is 'take the time out to look for the evidence' or maybe they should give you a call? maybe you took pictures?

I have no doubt there's some form of life out there, somewhere, but they ain't on this planet you delusional fool.

[hermantinkly777]

I don't normally engage people like you -- negative, closed-minded, judgmental, arrogant douchebags -- but I'll bite the bullet. I actually did record my sighting for about 28 minutes; the objects of pulsing light were hovering above the ground, clustering in pairs like balloons. It was out of this world, albeit absolutely beautiful. I "know" they exist, I don't think or believe. It's been proven to me that they exist. Go prove to me 99% of the things published by scientists in their journals.

[BulletMagnetOWI]

@hermantinkly777 The fact is, the things scientists publish in their journals come with instructions to repeat their experiments yourself. Other scientists are supposed to do this. The only thing stopping you is laziness.

As for these objects, are they not UFOs? Remember what the U stands for. Have you not simply leapt from Unidentified to Identified? How do you justify that? Astronomers, who stare at the sky all the time, NEVER report aliens. Because they KNOW what they're looking at.

[hermantinkly777]

Go prove to me -- yourself -- 99% of the things published by scientists in their journals. The fact of the matter is, you can't. You don't have the means to. If I told you to show me proof that the leaders of this world were human, you wouldn't be able to because you've never examined their bodies and looked at their DNA under a microscope; you've never met them; you weren't present when they were birthed, etc. You need proof to believe in aliens but none to believe the word of a scientist.

[hermantinkly777]

At some point in your life you decided to become loyal to science because you were under the impression that science stood for "all things rational and reasonable." In actuality, modern science is a thought-controlling, government-sanctioned, corporate-sponsored limiting doctrine full of irrelevant and grossly inaccurate information meant to deceive and control you, much like religion. I don't follow religion either. I believe humans are the result of an experiment conducted by extraterrestrials

[AzureDrag0n1]

@hermantinkly777 I stare in wonder and ask myself does this person really believe the stuff he says he thinks is real?

[hermantinkly777]

@AzureDrag0n1 I do the same of you too. Ofcourse, I know that they exist and are here because it has been proven to me that they exist, and my experience has been shared by many other people around the world. In other words there is much corroborating evidence, you just need to take the time to find it. In your case, you can't prove anything your scientists claim as "official." You need evidence to believe in extraterrestrials but none to believe the word of a scientist. Selective reasoning.

[AzureDrag0n1]

@hermantinkly777 While some of those things about science being abused might be true. It does not matter. What science stands for is worth looking up to despite its human problems.

Abuse of religion is far worse and even when it is perfect is not worth looking up to at least for me.

It is a question of fundamental ideals. Science has a future. Religion does not. Although they are pretty different in fundamental ways. In some cases polar opposites.

[krissyeh]

@hermantinkly777. Just saying that you have personally seen them is not proof. I could say that I have seen a green dragon in my back yard (which I haven't) but when I keep saying that I have I would be asked "where is your proof, show me". You have the burden of proof when you make these claims. So where are they?

[hermantinkly777]

@krissyeh My purpose isn't to prove to anyone about the existence of extraterrestrials. My sighting was proof to me; It was proven to ME that extraterrestrials exist, do you understand this? I can say that ETs are real because I lived the experience and saw them with my own two eyes. Now, with that said, I want you to go prove to me -- YOURSELF -- 99% of the things published by scientists in their scientific journals. Good luck.

[hermantinkly777]

My point is, you need hard, concrete, undeniable proof to believe that extraterrestrials are visiting this planet, but you don't need it to believe anything deemed "official fact" from science. People like you ignore the fact that human beings lie and are capable of intentional deception. Have you ever considered, that Joe Astrophysicist from Harvard's Biology department may be working on behalf of someone, or something else's agenda with intentions of keeping you in the dark.

[ChrisMMMMerritt]

@devarkk wow - interesting point! mind-boggling - maybe the end of the universe is total understanding. Not to sound mystical - more like, maybe the end of the universe is total lack of entropy and total information. Even possible I wonder?

[Squiglypig]

@ChrisMMMMerritt Sounds like something from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

[devarkk]

Makes me wonder, if a living creature did understand everything about the universe, how would it be explicitly apparent? It wouldn't be deeply involved in science, it wouldn't be looking for meaning, or making poetry about speculative worth. It wouldn't have to because it would already have cleared that hurdle. Nothing left to do but exist, or do what you do when you have reached the limit of knowledge (which obviously we have no way of knowing what that would be like). *head explodes*

[ChrisMMMMerritt]

@ Hapafall - I totally agree. I would have wanted to point out two things - first, that humans have reason, can conceptualize and interface with technology, which theoretically makes our species pretty unlimited in what knowledge it can obtain, which is cool. Second, any alien being that was out there that was so much smarter than us would have had to have come from more modest roots - they would have had to evolve just like us. Neil seems to invent this God-like super-being that just exists.

[tanvirul23]

@ChrisMMMMerritt

absolutely closed minded thought, you should look up alien life theories....

they may not even be carbon based like we are let alone, act, look OR MOST IMPORTANT THINK LIKE US.

they might not even have the coutner productive flaws of humans, like selfishness, greed etc... they may just have 1 characteristically of humans that allow them to be beyond our form of intelligent, which is curiosity.

they already proven life forms can live on ammonia based molecules... imagine.

[tanvirul23]

@ChrisMMMMerritt

absolutely closed minded thought, you should look up alien life theories....

they may not even be carbon based like we are let alone, act, look OR MOST IMPORTANT THINK LIKE US.

they might not even have the coutner productive flaws of humans, like selfishness, greed etc... they may just have 1 characteristically of humans that allow them to be beyond our form of intelligent, which is curiosity.

they already proven life can form on ammonia based biology ....... imagine.

[sheppaul]

great insight