Cosmos Episode 12: Encyclopedia Galactica Part 4 of 7

Are there alien intelligences? How could we communicate with them? What about UFOs? The answers to these questions take us to Egypt to decode ancient hieroglyphics, to the largest radio telescope on Earth and, in the Spaceship of the Imagination, to visit other civilizations in space.

Dr. Sagan answers questions such as: "What is the life span of a planetary civilization?" and "Will we one day hook up with a network of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy?"

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Cosmos
• Sagan
• Encyclopedia
• Galactica
• Episode

[HeyHeyHarmonicaLuke]

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

[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!

[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

[SmokeWeedEveryHour]

@tskasa1 It is, it's actually a show based on the book.

And I agree, but he only predicts on things that are already in the works, and things that are in fact possible. He does this by moore's law, which basically says computer capabillities double every 18 month. Which they do have done consistently for a while now, consistently enough to make accurate predictions on. The whole series is actually on youtube (/watch?v=ziJMDUYr8hc) from that link you can find all the episod

[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.

[SmokeWeedEveryHour]

@tskasa1 Great videos for you that very accurately predict the technology and progress of the future, by Dr. Michio Kaku. It's a little "dumbed down" for tv audiences (not meaning to offend anyone) but it's very cool indeed, just let me know if you want em.