StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries – ALIENS! with Jake Roper

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice explore aliens in film with YouTuber Jake Roper including E.T., Men in Black, The Blob, The Thing, War of the Worlds, WALL-E, Contact, Arrival, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and more. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Thanks to this week’s Patrons for supporting us: Matthew Iskander, Cody Stanley, David Adair Wolford Jr, Kim Shoemaker, Dawn Jordan. Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk, Cosmic Queries edition. Chuck. Hey, Neil. People love them Cosmic Queries. They do. We have a lot of inquiring minds.

That's a good thing. That is a good thing. Plus, actually, in Cosmic Queries, we bring in other people who are the experts, and I just get to sit and listen. Ah. And I learn, too. So there you have it. Who knew you were still capable of learning something? What kind of?

What? The man who knows everything? No, I've never said I don't know everything. Okay. There's very. Well, okay. Today's subject. Aliens in film and everything. Okay. There's very well. Okay. Today's subject aliens in film and TV. Oh, big subject. That is a big subject. Big subject. Huge subject for something

for which there's no data. Aliens. Now I got my own thoughts about aliens, but there are people out there who are more alien fluent than I am. All right, before we get to our alien fluency, do you believe in aliens? It's not about a belief. No. Okay, do you believe that we are alone in the universe? Is that one of the questions? No.

I just ask. I'm asking you personally. Okay. It would be inexcusably egocentric for anyone to suggest that we on Earth are alone in the universe. Given how old the universe is, the prevalence of the chemistry that manifests in life, we see that biochemistry, that organic chemistry all across the universe, and how long it took life to show up on Earth. It's pretty quick.

About 100 million years sounds like a long time, but short compared to the span of the Earth and of the universe. So it would be astonishing if we were alone. Okay. That's all I'm saying. All right. Very diplomatically placed without actually saying yes or no. But I know exactly what you mean, so it's great.

That's all I'm giving you. That's a good answer. That's all I'm giving you. All right. good answer. That's all I'm giving you. All right. Well, who we have here is the one and only Jake Rober. Jake.

What? Jake. Hello. I got your resume here. Host of Vsauce3 Science Channel on YouTube. Vsauce. Could you have guessed that?

He's got a YouTube pillow over his left shoulder. Good for him. Okay. And you host the YouTube series Could You Survive the Movies? That is a brilliant concept, putting people through what goes on in the movies. Right.

Right? That's a brilliant concept. And so do you just never leave home and you watch movies all the time? Or do you like study this in school? I mean, it worked out well because, yes, my job is to watch movies and then explore them scientifically. That's his job. What a great job. Somebody pays you to do that?

Somebody pays you to watch movies. I know. I don't know why. Don't tell them. How do you get my son that job? He's actually doing it for free. So, in Cosmic Queries, we solicit questions from our audience, and they've been primed on this subject.

That's right. So they're coming in, and they know you, but many of them, if not most, are fans of yours. So we could do this in a StarTalk way. Absolutely. So let's do it, Chuck. What do you have? All right.

Well, can I start with my own personal question for you? Is that okay? All right. Why are you asking him if it's okay? It's my show. Damn. for you? Is that okay? Why are you asking him if it's okay? It's my show. Damn! Oh, you caught me off guard, man. All right.

Yes, you have my permission to ask him the first question instead of the people who actually... All right. So I just want to know, in your estimation, what is the easiest movie

to survive? The easiest movie to survive? The easiest movie to survive? If we're talking physically. Yes. I would say. Of what genre? Of alien movies. Yeah.

Like any? Oh, an alien film. An alien film. Hmm. The easiest one to survive. It'd be E.T. Well, so here's the thing. I would say E.T.

That's really immediately popped in my head. But then you do have that whole segment where like, oh, we need to quarantine them because who knows what bacteria or viruses they might have. That's right. And that to me is kind of the interesting thing. You have this foreign creature here on Earth. Right. We don't know what its biology is. We have no idea.

We don't know what it is susceptible to or what we're susceptible to from it. So, yes. So, at the end of the movie. But in reality. When the kids get him back to the ship, what they don't show you is five weeks later when they all have these horrible growths coming out the sides of their faces. Yeah. But he's already gone. Yeah.

And the movie ended. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Then they were like, we can't make a sequel because all the kids have horrible tumors. Awesome. So I have two reflections on this. Okay.

One, I've had Steven Spielberg in that chair over there in my office. Tell me. Okay. Upon being asked something related, that E.T., what he imagined E.T. as a vegetable and not as an animal. So he's a plant-based life form. Plant-based life. That's correct. Okay.

Which is how he would have that relationship with the plants. Remember? Oh, yes. Because he made them flowers. And they would re-bloom. Right. And so that was imagined. But since he's walking and talking and has eyeballs and shoulders, the natural way to think of them is as living.

Right. As animal life rather than plant life. So that's my first one. Yeah. Second point. Wow, that is a really cool little factoid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Second point.

That is really cool. Go ahead. And you would say, what are your sources? Steve is real. Yeah. I know. That is the ultimate cocktail party smackdown. Just like, yeah, well, I don't know if you know this,

but E.T. is actually a plant-based life. It's like, yeah, where do you get that from? Steven Spielberg. I'm just saying. I've had people come up to me and say, what wiki page did you get that information from? And for other calculations, I said, I calculated it. Somebody actually creates information that goes on the Wikipedia.

Right. I'm one of those people. I'm one of those people. Right, okay. It's called math. It's called math. It's called math, dude. What Wikipedia did you get that from?

Math. What app? The brain app. What app? Yeah, right here. Go ahead. All right. Also, you can ask, what are the chances we would catch an ET disease if he comes to Earth?

Right. What's the chance of that? Contamination. And here's the problem. The kinds of diseases we think about and know about tend to be very specific to the life forms. Right. Think about it. So, an oak tree is not going to get whooping cough.

Correct. Right. And just like there are certain viruses that will not be transmitted trans-species. Across species. They have to mutate in order for that to happen. So the idea that an alien from another planet

has something that's contagious to us is kind of low. Because a lot of things that are contagious to other life forms on Earth with whom we have DNA in common are not contagious to us. Right. That's all I'm saying.

Okay. But still, we got to be cautious just as you said. Okay. All right. Well, let's get to the queries now. And of course, we always start with the Patreon patron

because they support us. Yes. And we love them for it. This is JB from Patreon who says, Hi, Neil and Jake. This is Jessica from Arizona. says, hi Neil and Jake, this is Jessica from Arizona. In 2005, the movie War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise, these machines driven by aliens start

eviscerating people with white laser beams, effectively turning them into ash. Would it be possible to harness light this way into a kind of super laser? If so, where would you go to stay safe? Which would be in defense against. In defense against. Okay, yeah. So Jake, yeah, Jake. All right. So just to clarify, they're asking if the weapon that the War of the Worlds aliens use could be possible. Well, she's saying, yes. Is it possible to use light in this manner? So that is a different way of saying, is that weapon possible? And in that way, you could fight with a weapon equivalent to what they're using, perhaps.

Okay. Or you could defend against it. Right. Well, actually, this is funny because if we just, spoilers for everyone that hasn't seen the movie yet. I'm going to give you a defend against it. Right. Well, actually, this is funny because if we just... Spoilers for everyone that hasn't seen the movie yet. I'm going to give you a second. Okay. The movie's 14 years old.

Forget them. If they haven't seen a movie yet, I don't care. Go. Well, hopefully they just heard the original War of the Worlds from back in the day when you were a kid, Neil. Anyway. Exactly. So, the way that they destroy the aliens or defeat them is by like a virus. A human virus gets them ill and they all just die.

Right. So this kind of goes back to the ET conversation where we actually are this contaminant that kills them. We're the weapon. Anywho. Yeah, we are the weapon. Just us existing. And that's kind of the par for the course for humans anyway. So, I mean, I would say it is possible.

You can't, I mean, harness light. Is that what they're harnessing? We don't really know. You could generate enough energy where you could just completely eviscerate a person. I mean, that's possible. True. Well, I mean, if it's just a matter of energy, right? Light is a form of energy.

Now, laser beams are kind of cooler than other forms of it but it's just energy right so you know a bow and arrow is putting energy here and taking energy over here and putting it over there right a laser's got energy here put it over there right a bullet a bullet i got energy over here it's in the gunpowder and now the energy is over so if you can abstract this question to just say what are the ways you can have energy over here and put it over there? And you have more energy than they have. That's kind of what that comes down to. Right.

But I wonder maybe the question, do you think the question was, what does it take to turn them into a pile of ash? Do you think maybe that was the question? So that's what I'm thinking right now. In that regard, I mean, it would have to be whatever this beam is, let's say this energy beam, it would have to encompass the entirety of the person's body for all of them to instantaneously turn to ash. If it was just focused here, it would just pop a hole right through you the same way that a would immediately vaporize all of the moisture in your body right it just completely dry you out to such a degree

that you are just dust afterwards absolutely yeah right so jake has mentioned an important point because it's hard to burn something that has a lot of liquid in it. The liquid, you got to first get rid of liquid, then you can burn what's left, right? So you're talking about ash. If you're going to be a pile of ash, your blood had to evaporate in some way before you even get to the ash. So the instantaneity, is that a word? Nice. It is now. It is now. The instantaneity. Sounds like a word? Nice. It is now. It is now. Instant tinnayity.

Instant tinnayity. Sounds like a great Quaker oats commercial. Instant tinnayity. Instant tinnayity. It's delicious. All right, go ahead. So it would require enough energy to instantly take your blood to a rolling boil and then evaporate it. Get rid of all the liquid and then...

And then consume the rest of the material. And that seems to me, it had to take a little longer than how long that took in the movie. Yeah. Right, because the other thing too is, if you're talking about that kind of energy, it only did that to the person.

The beam didn't, as it continued, it didn't like shoot holes into the ground. It didn't take out buildings. Right, or the plant life behind it. Or the plant life behind it. Okay. Only the people, so. All right.

So maybe it was attuned to human chemistry then. Well, that's a good, I see you think about this stuff often. It is very evident that you think about this crap all day long. Okay? Because, well, no, okay, I got one for you. So, the military and large municipalities have what's called non-lethal

weaponry. Okay, yes. The taser is an example of one. But another one is this truck that rolls around with this huge beam and it sends microwaves into a crowd. You feel like you're burning. You feel like your skin is burning, so you want to get out with this huge beam. Oh, I saw that. And it sends microwaves into a crowd. And the microwaves...

You feel like you're burning. You feel like your skin is burning, so you want to get out of that beam. And basically, they aim it for the focus points wherever people are gathering and getting the most ornery. So they can disperse the crowd.

Disperse the crowd. So, the cool thing about microwaves is water responds to microwaves, which is why your plate doesn't get hot, but your food does in the microwave oven. So if you have one of these weapons that targets human molecules, then you could have a beam that's sort of wide enough to just enclose you that could vaporize you, but not the stuff behind you. Oh, excellent. Right?

What do you think of that? I mean, I think that that sounds fair because they do have those specific things. They have the microwave weapons that you're talking about. I mean, I remember reading

an article years ago about how in the UK to stop teens from loitering in stores, stores could play this frequency that only teenagers could hear

because they still had those hairs in their ear, right? That's right. They could still hear the frequency. I forgot about that. It would be annoying to them. Old folks just don't even hear it and so we can chill. those hairs in their ear, right? That's right. They could still hear the frequency. I forgot about that. It would be annoying to them. Old folks just don't even hear it, and so we can chill.

Yeah, they're like, what? Wow, exactly. Keep it straight. The same way we are with teens. That's why they don't listen because they don't hear. That's why they don't hear. All right. Wow, that's great.

All right, well, that's a great question, Jessica. That was really cool. Are you ready for another one? Here we go. Yes, sir. This is... Yes. Oh, so you're going to...

Yes. I put the wrong emphasis on the syllable. All right, here we go. She says, Hi, Dr. Tyson. Do you think an organization such as MIB, or Men in Black, can be established secretly

if the government finds aliens? I'm also really eager to know what changes will you and Jake, would you and Jake like to make in the movies so they are more bound to reality? Ooh, thank you both for your encouraging science education.

So Jake, can MIB be real? Would it be real? First, is it real? Second, would the government do it if in in fact, we were sort of shielding aliens? What's your? I would say yes. Really? I mean, I don't really have.

I mean, everything right now is just hypothetical, but I would assume that, yes, they would create an organization. Would it be as cool and sexy as Men in Black? Probably not. So here's what I want to know from both of you. Do you think the government, the scientific community especially, would shield the public from the knowledge that we are not alone? I'm going to ask Jake about this. Okay. I mean, I think this is a tough one because we are hunting for life out there in the universe,

right? That's what we're actively doing when we go to Mars, when we just are trying to go to Europa, all these different missions. That is kind of the point, but that is a different kind of life than I think what most people assume life to be. We think of life as sentient human beings that can walk around, move around, have conversations, think for themselves, not microorganisms. So when it comes to that level of, I assume an alien is this living, breathing thing that can move around and shake my hand, that I would kind of assume that the government, if it were happening now, they would hide from us. Because it kind of is a disruptive thought or disruptive information to know. So with an MIB kind of,

uh, uh, uh, secret keepers to a degree, not, not as cool as MIB. I don't think they have like fancy alien weapons and like cool cars and,

you know, they're going on all these action, giving birth to aliens on the like side of the expressway or whatever but right like i do think if aliens well you're okay aliens exist i think well just a quick thing in men in black one of the aliens was he was like bug life right i mean he was like roaches. So it's not, not all of them were fully manifested as humanoid forms. I mean, he was humanoid, but he was still made of bugs.

Or, yeah, he was made of bugs. If we're just throwing it through, it's like I have a strong theory that if we go to the deep ocean, that all to me is alien. It looks so foreign from what we experience here in our world of on land, that it is so different.

That could be aliens for all we know. It's a totally different environment. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to say no, but I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, no, they're not aliens. Well, it's very testable. You check the DNA, the overlapping DNA, but otherwise it's fun to, they're not aliens. Well, it's very testable. You look at the detected DNA.

Right. The overlapping DNA. But otherwise, it's fun to think about it that way. Exactly. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, more with Jake on Aliens in the Universe. Yes. On StarTalk. We're back.

Star Talk. Cosmic Queries. Aliens in the movies and TV. Yes. A subject as big as the universe itself. You know what? It probably is. And I got Jake Roper on.

Thank God we got Jake Roper on. I know, right? Because he thinks about this stuff. All the time. Professionally. Professionally. Somebody pays him. Let me tell you, your parents should he thinks about this stuff. All the time. Professionally. Professionally. Somebody pays him. Let me tell you, your parents should be so proud of you.

I'll tell you right now, I'm proud of you. I am proud of you, Jay. You are what America is about. I want to be able to save somebody at a cocktail party. So what's your son do? My son talks about aliens on YouTube and they pay him. And he bought my house. And he bought my house. My son who does not play basketball bought my house on YouTube. Love it, bro. I love it. All right. So what's the question? You got the next question. We got the next question. Let's keep going this is Jason Mogridge

Jason says hey what's up guys what's yours Neil's and Jake's favorite fictional alien movie or game and why nice question that's a good one

go on Jake Chuck you go first on this one. So I can think. So you can think. You got me. Okay. So I'm going to give you my favorite movie, Alien. Let me hear it.

And it's going to be very pedestrian because you're going to say it's the oldest trope ever. Don't tell me what I'm going to say about your Alien. Okay, you're right. You're right about that. All right. All right. The alien. The alien.

In the movie, the alien. In the movie, the alien. That thing is amazing. First of all, it's super cunning and intelligent, okay? Secondly, we don't know what motivates this thing. It kills everything, but why? Why is it doing it third it loves to fight why are you so angry bro calm down third it's got a mouth in a mouth in a mouth that

is amazing what is that tiny little mouth for why why do you have a tiny little mouth i didn't know you felt this way. Wait a minute. He's done. That's not it. I'm not done. Wait a minute. Here's the end. You cut it and it bleeds acid. Come on. This thing is awesome. Whoever thought of this alien, I'm telling you, they put a little bit of time in. That's all I'm saying. And it scurries when it escapes

down the hallway. No, forget it. That's scary. Look how fast it is. I know. Right. And by the way, look at its transformation. It goes in you as who knows what. You're just host. A little crab monster actually grabs you by the face, puts the baby alien in you, and then it comes out as a little snake man. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Jake, have you had enough time to think now? Or are you so distracted by Chuck's panic attack? I'm really amazed. Like, that was great. That was a good monologue. I mean, okay, so Alien is fantastic. I'm wearing an Alien hat. Nostromo the ship from the first one.

I do love Alien. But actually, in a similar vein to Alien, because I think of Alien as a parasite, right? The whole entire way that it gestates and bursts out, it is this parasitic relationship. So with that in mind, The Thing is my favorite Alien. The Thing? From the movie The Thing. I forgot what The Thing was.

What's The Thing? Is The Thing like the blob? What is The Thing? No, so The Thing is- But don't confuse The Thing with them. Because them with ants. Them with ants? Them is ants. Them is ants.

Them is ants. That is something entirely different. Okay. All right, so back on track, Chuck. Come on. Okay, sorry. So the thing is a... Well, the remake, which is the one that's most popular,

is this 1980s movie with Kurt Russell, directed by John Carpenter. And the thing is this organism that takes the shape of whatever the host is. I didn't realize that that was what I was watching, but it's a shapeshifter and you don't know who it is because it can be anything. And then at one point it became the dog or something like that, right? Yep. Yeah.

Okay. I forgot I saw that movie. It can take any form. And it's the thing that scared me about is one is it really is a parasite, but an intergalactic parasite. And it just takes upon, like you have things like the jewel wasp here on earth, right? Which is more similar to the xenomorph,

an alien where it impregnates the cockroach basically. And then the larvae bursts out and it becomes a full on wasp flies away. But the thing I love because it brings up this conundrum where does the person who it took the body of, the form of, is it aware that it's not human? Or does it think that it's human? But it has something else controlling its mind. And I think that's a really nice conundrum. Right. If you look in the mirror mirror the mirror tells you you're human right right yeah yeah so so you like the fact that you could be infested with this parasite

or occupied by this parasite and still think you are you but just going about your life but really you're just a puppet of a galactic parasite and And you have no idea, potentially, the people around you have no idea that you are no longer you. Right. That's pretty cool. And I think that's pretty spooky, whereas with like traditional aliens or an alien, you know it's an alien. Like, okay, you're terrifying.

You're not friendly. But if it was just Neil, we're like, oh, Neil, how you doing? And for all this time he's been this parasitic alien. I am fine. So what's the difference between them and Invasion of the Body Snatchers fundamentally? So that's a great question. There isn't much.

Okay. It is similar. Okay. I think it's just in the style. They're both these alien creatures that take over humans. I think in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, its motivation is much more clear. It alien creatures that take over humans i think in invasion of body snatchers its motivation is much more clear it's there to take over the planet right and the thing they just find this crass spaceship from like thousands of years ago and there's no reason as

to why it's there or what the purpose of this alien is the alien never expresses its intent it's just this vicious force okay that's a good one all right neil uh i i have a a good answer and then a cop-out answer oh my good answer is i think the blob is the best alien ever the blob because it didn't walk it didn't talk it didn't have two eyes shoulders mouth nose feet you know as much as we like alien versus predator. Yeah. The predator was great, right? Right. But it's still very humanoid.

Yes, right. It's even the approximate height of a human. You could look, you know, Arnold, stare him straight in his eyes. Kill me now. Right here. Right. Kill me. If it bleeds, we can kill it.

Right. Okay. So I'm thinking this was the most creative alien Hollywood has ever come up with because it was not an actor in a costume

okay and people forget what color is the blob you remember red red except when it first landed it was completely transparent

oh after it ate its first person then it was red oh I gotta go back and check that out yes yes did you

Jake did you know that? I did know that. Oh, I can't stump you. Unstumpable Jake. I'm sorry. Well, I just showed my girlfriend the blog because she'd never seen it, so we just watched it the other week. Okay, so it's fresh and fresh. It might have been Steve McQueen's first movie, or very early

in his repertoire. I think that's the most imaginative. Plus, it comes through the grill. Right, it comes through everything. Of the air conditioning ducts. Any opening. Any opening. Any opening.

It oozes its way through. Under the door. Yeah. Ew. So that. And favorite alien, I think, is from Contact. Contact. Contact. With Jodie Foster?

Yes. Wait a minute. So you mean when she was inside of that portal? You never see the alien. That's why it's my favorite alien. Right, because he says, I've taken on this for him to make you comfortable. No, no.

Well, that's... Yes, yes. But the alien, you do not know what the alien looks like. The alien exists in some way that is not material, that does not lend itself to material presence for your eyes. Okay. So, and that way, and by the way, 2001 and its sequel, 2010,

neither of those show the alien either. Right. So I like it when they don't show it to you. Okay. That's all. That's cool. I feel like that like it when they don't show it to you. Okay. That's all. That's cool. I feel like that. This actually brings up, I'd love your thoughts on this.

I always like to think that if we were to see an alien, that we wouldn't really be able to comprehend it. Which is why I always think that the old school look of like the gray alien, you know, big head, big black eyes. Because we only understand things in the shapes that we can currently comprehend. But if something were not bound by our understanding of the world, could it look entirely different in a form that we just don't understand and have to put it into a form that we do understand?

No, I don't think so. If you're open enough to what can be, it's just a thing that now, no, you don't have a reference for it, but it's a new thing that you make new references for. So, for example, in Star Trek, you have the Horda. The Horda is basically a rock. Right.

And it's alive as a rock. Right. That doesn't look like any alien anyone's dreamt of before. Right. But it can move through silicates like we move through air because the rock is silicon-based, most of them. So I thought that was cool. Would you agree that was a creative attempt? That is really

creative. Just to think outside of the box, the Horda. Cool. Very cool. Sorry, just back to the blob real quick. I know we have more questions. But that's, to your point, what makes the blob so great is that it isn't this traditional flesh and blood, looks like a, has legs and arms kind of

character. It's this blah this shapeless form that just moves around and go through objects or things that we can't physically or that a physical being couldn't plus a bullet doesn't stop it right it's it's not it's not because it's impervious it's just irrelevant right exactly it is like shooting water yeah or air yeah right that's my vote so we got our three votes there nice stuff good stuff guys all right so shall we move on to uh ryan rambler and ryan wants to know this in the movie arrival the government sends two different scientists from two different fields of study if If you had to choose two people, who would you send

into an alien spacecraft? Interesting. Just to remind people, in Arrival, the recent Arrival, recent Arrival. Sorry, I just got here. So they sent a physicist,

a particle physicist, and a linguist. Okay. Jake, would you have sent different people in? I totally would have sent different people in? I totally would have sent different people in. What would you have sent in? Other than yourself, who would you have sent?

I mean, I think, but that was also a very specific thing where they chose a linguist because they knew there was some kind of communication happening. And they needed someone there to help decipher it. Right. After the fact. Okay. It's a tune-in after the fact. Okay. But wouldn't you have sent... Go ahead. I'm going to help decipher it. Right. After the fact. So we're starting. It's a tune in after the fact. Okay.

Okay. But when you said. Go ahead. I'm going to let you. I was going to say, but if we're starting from that point, then I think that can make. A particle physicist doesn't seem. Like, wouldn't you want some sort of biologist? Yeah.

I think so too. That's why I would have sent an astrobiologist. Okay. And a cryptographer. And a cryptographer. Right. Right. Right. That, right.

That makes sense. See, I agree with that. Or I would have sent, like, a theoretical mathematician. What's wrong with that? He's like, what's wrong with that? Fine. Because, I mean, listen, for them to get here, they had to use math. Sure.

Right. Sure. And I think that math would be the same for us. Yeah, but astrobiologists know math, so we're good here. Okay, all right. It's part of our curriculum. Oh, see, you know, you just think that physicists are so damn great. No, no, but I just remove the physicists from that equation.

Right. Put in an astrobiologist and a cryptographer. The cryptographer is going to know math too, right, Jake? Cryptographer knows some math. Of course. Here's my question to you, Jake. Yeah. How do they know that the septopod or whatever it's called.

Yeah, the thingy thing. Was communicating in the direction they are looking rather than in his own direction, and they should then be studying the mirror image of it. Yeah, flipping it. Wow. You thought too hard

about that. You just ruined the movie. My... The movie sucks now. What are you saying? The thing is writing on transparent glass. It's writing what it thinks and everyone is thinking it's its own. We need a mirror in there

at some point. Jake, what's your take? My opinion is that the aliens are very considerate. They were like, we're going to make it easy for you guys. We traveled all this distance. We are smart enough to know that we're going to make it easy for you guys. We traveled all this distance. We are smart enough to know that we're going to flip it for you. We're going to draw backwards.

I'm going to tell you this. If aliens come up to me and they put it as a glass window, I ain't writing shit backwards. I'm not writing. But here's my point. And this is my only... Making faces.

Yeah. My only problem with the movie is this. What? If you are smart enough for intergalactic travel, are you going to tell me that you can't learn English in a few days? I'm just saying. Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

That was my problem. That was my problem with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Right. Okay? Do you remember that scene where they figure out where they. Right. Okay? Do you remember that scene where they figure out where they're going to land? Do you remember that scene? The teletype gives the longitude and latitude.

They say, wait a minute, that's a coordinates on Earth. And then they go get the map. And it's Devil's Tower. It's like, oh my gosh. And you know my issue here, Jake? It's our latitude goes from zero to 90. Who thought that up?

Okay? And between zero and one and one and two, it's split into 60 parts. Okay? And the longitude is an act of politics that put the prime meridian through Greenwich. So if you were an alien and you know our coordinate system, if you come up upon Earth, there's no grid lines on Earth, right?

Hey, look at that. It's a planet made by world math. There's no grid lines. So if you come up to the Earth, you have to understand our weird sexagesimal counting system for angles, and you have to know the politics that put the prime meridian

going down through Greenwich. And if you knew that much about human culture, you'd just say, hey, what's happening? What's happening? I'm going to land to the left of Devil's Tower

at 4.30 this afternoon. See you then. Boom. Now, did you tell Steven Spielberg that when he was here? Boom. Now, did you tell Steven Spielberg that when he was here?

All right. What's the next question? Go. Go. Okay. Next question. Next question. Here we go. All right.

This is... Oh, I like it. This is 72 underscore 05 underscore 72. And thank you so much for that name, by the way. If our planet was being attacked by aliens, what's the first thing you would do? Now, this is an attack, guys. Not a visit.

An attack. Okay. What's the first thing you would do? We don't have time in this segment. Oh. When we come back, we're going to find out what's the first thing Jake is going to do when aliens attack in StarTalk Returns.

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Aliens in the Mov movies with Jake Roper. That's right. Yeah, that's what he does. Yeah, awesome. It's a great job. It's not only what he does, that's all he does. Oh my goodness, I'm so jealous. He's actually sitting on a toilet right now.

He never leaves. He just never leaves that space. He said you wouldn't tell. Oh, that's too funny. Okay, so before we went Oh, that's too funny. Okay. So before we went off, here's the question. 72 underscore 05 underscore 72 says this. If our planet was being attacked, guys, by aliens, what is the first thing you would do?

Not a visit. An attack. Jay. First thing I would do is probably just relax, you know? What could I do to help stave it off? I'm just going to chill,

turn on some StarTalk radio, pour a nice Merlot. Very nice. Is that a wine? I think that's a wine. And then just wait for death. Glass of wine and chill.

Yes, instead of Netflix and chill, alien attack and chill. Okay. Interesting. I'll tell you what I would not do, which is what they do in the movies. Shoot your gun at it. Go outside and start shooting at the sky. Here's a mothership. Right.

And you think. You think. You think. Right. And you think, you think, you think. Right. All right, so. Neil, what would you do? So, Jake, you have, you have,

you have surrendered to them. Correct? Well, if they're attacking, like, I'm sorry. So I guess my assumption was that it's the ship that's attacking us.

If they sent ground troops and were going like house by house, door by door to door, then yeah, I'd probably fight back. But if there's just a giant mothership blasting earth similar to Independence Day, then I'd just hang out and hope that it all clears. Man. Yeah. I'm kind of with you. Because what am I supposed to do? Yeah.

I mean, listen, like, you know, I'm not going to like when you brought up Independence Day, the scene that really burned my shorts was when all the people got on top of the Capitol Records building to look at the aliens. To get a better view. To get a better view of the aliens. And then, of course, they were all incinerated by a particle beam that wiped them. Like, I don't get that. I don't want to meet aliens that bad. You realize Independence Day is War of the Worlds. Really?

How do we triumph over the aliens? With a virus. Oh, look at you. Oh! Oh, you didn't know that, Chuck. That was good. You got me. I'm going to tell you.

That was good. Chuck! So a biological virus and a cyberlogical virus. Okay, so I like Jake and I like keeping him around, so I'll put him in with his bottle of Merlot. Okay. I'll get him a good bottle of Merlot. Right.

Get you a Chateau Petrus, okay? From maybe 1989 would be a really good bottle of Merlot for you. Okay? Very nice. And look that one up. And so then I like him. I keep him around. And I'll go out and try to figure out how to kick some alien ass.

Okay. Neil is full of it. Because what you don't know, Jake, is that Neil has many government connections. Many, many government connections. He will be in a bunker safely secured drinking that Chateau okay, who's sharing it

with a couple generals who will be consulting him on what we should or should not be doing with these people know that I don't think Neil was lying when he said that he would, you know, check on me and then when he did leave though, yes, he would go to his bunker. I'll be right back.

No, no, of course I'll be right back. The bunker. Hanging out, smoking cigars, living his best life. Cool. Chuck, what's the next one? All right, here we go. This is Zevi coming to us. She's a YouTube fan.

What is the most believable depiction of aliens you've seen in modern sci-fi? Good question. What's the most believable depiction of aliens you've seen in modern sci-fi? Good question. What's the most believable alien? Let's go modern. Let's define it 1980s onwards. Yeah, let's say 1980s onwards. Okay. I mean, the first thing that pops in my head, I think, would be Arrival.

Okay. I think the way that they handled it, the way that they interacted with aliens the way that the aliens interacted with us how about the fact that it was a septipod that didn't disturb you at all because i think no the issue that i have with most not an issue because i do enjoy them but with most alien invasion films when they come to earth is why do they always want to destroy us why is that their immediate instinct is like let's just kill everybody that's because that's what we would do if we landed on their planet. In fact, that's what we've done to

each other when we land on each other's continents. So that's why I think that we write it that way. Because that's what we would do so we put our own self in those scripts when we write aliens. But if they were smart enough, if they could traverse these incredible distances,

would their first action be aggression? Yeah. I mean, I think only if we were food. Because otherwise... To serve man. Right. Right. You got the Twilight Zone episode.

Yeah. To serve man. It's resource gathering. They do a lot of that. But I feel like arrival had a pretty in my mind good depiction where obviously it took liberties with some of the science but it felt still in this world of science realism or at least they were trying to obtain that um and i i really appreciated that what about uh the day the earth stood still The Day the Earth Stood Still. Ooh. The Keanu Reeves one? The new one with Keanu Reeves? Either.

Well, either. I mean, there was the robot in the first one, but that wasn't really the alien, right? Something else controlled something else. So, because you're trying to, oh, I got it. I got you here. Okay. In that same vein, I'm going to go back to Contact.

Because I thought that was an authentic representation of how we as a society would react to the knowledge that there's an intelligent species out there so i agree with you you want some authenticity that isn't always violence right right but then if you're creative enough, as the screenwriter or as the storyteller, you would put some of those authentic reactions in it. As I agree they did with Arrival. See, I think when you said the Day of the Earth

still is even more so because it is a non- biological life form. I think our first contact, if we send something out, it's not going to be a human being. We're going to send

something out that might make contact. So that would be the first encounter from the opposite way. All right, next question. All right, here we go. This is Wes Miller.

Would you rather aliens be far more intelligent than humans or far less intelligent than humans? Here's the thing. If aliens visited us, they're clearly more intelligent. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to, because I guess, again, we're assuming aliens are these life form style creatures.

And we're not finding them to your point, Neil. They're like coming to find us. So, yeah, I guess they just intrinsically would be more intelligent. But then I guess, sorry, now I'm just being pedantic, but like, what is intelligence? They'll know more than us about certain things, but I'm sure there'll be different verticals of information that we are much well-versed in than they are.

Jake, if they got here in a spaceship, of course, in a galactic space, they know more about everything than we've ever known about anything. That's probably the in a spaceship, of course, in a galactic space, they know more about everything than we've ever known about anything. That's probably the case. Unless, of course. But are they going to know about delicious tacos and nachos, Neil? Will they know that?

They will once they take over the Earth. That's for sure. But what if they're like, what was the movie, WALL-E? WALL-E. Well, and they were escaping a planet, put on a ship that was run by an AI that took care of their every need, and they just became dumb fatties floating around on chairs. Right? Then they arrive someplace. Damn, you just ruined that whole movie.

Dumb fatties riding on chairs. But then, instead of trying to wait until their planet was healed, it just takes them on an intergalactic mission. So here are people living in this enclosed society for all these, like, it could be millennia if you wanted it. Then they get someplace

which is Earth. They find us and what we end up seeing is incredible technology with a bunch of dumb fatties flying around on chairs. Sorry, the last thing I want to say about Really Smart Aliens, I will go back to E.T. though, as a consideration where E.T.

was able to get to Earth, yet didn't even know what Reese's Pieces were. What an idiot. What a dumb alien. What an idiot. What an idiot. What a dumb alien. What an idiot. Reese's Pieces. Idiot. That's funny.

Okay. All right, next. All right, here we go. We're running short on time. See if we can get a couple in here. Okay, go. This is... Prabhjorn Talang says this.

If we ever contact an alien species, is there a first contact protocol? A true to life first contact protocol? Jake, I don't know if there is, but if there was one, what would you want it to be? Ah, I mean, you know what? I never even thought about this question before. Oh, we stumped Jake. Wow.

Jake. Well, because I always assumed, well, because you have the light cone, right? Which we don't have to go into any detail, but information, unless we can figure out tachyons and all these different things,

there's a speed limit to how fast information can travel. Tachyons travel fast and move backwards in time. Right. Far enough away to send us a message.

By the time we were able to send anything back, whoever sent it is probably long gone. So I've never really thought about the idea of what would we say? There has to be a protocol. Interesting.

There's a protocol for when you would send a radio signal, if we communicated that way, but if they just showed up, do you send your diplomats? Do you send your diplomats? Do you send your head of state? Oh, let's hope not. No, I'd send Paul Rudd. Everyone likes Paul Rudd.

Oh! That is an excellent answer. Oh! You need likable people. Very good. If you send the most likable human, then that's your best chance. There you go.

Let's send the delightful Paul Rudd. How could we go wrong? That's a brilliant answer. I like it. Send the most friendly among us. And if they think he's evil in some way, then we're in big trouble. If we send Paul Rudd

and they kill Paul Rudd, the rest of us are doomed. There's no hope for humanity. We're done. We're cooked. Chuck, give me another question. Last one. Last one. Okay, here we go.

Hi, Dr. Tyson and Mr. Roper. Ooh, look at that. This is... He got a mister out of this. This is Elias from London, and I wanted to ask your thoughts on aliens like replicators from the Stargate series. Robots who replicated themselves using available resources on every planet.

Do you believe this is the most probable form of alien life that we will ever encounter? Wow. What a question. Whoa. Excellent question. What a real good question. Jake, what do you have on that? I mean, this brings up what kind of Chuck mentioned earlier, that it does seem more reasonable that if we were to get a first contact moment, it would be with some sort of machine, some sort of non or

inorganic built thing. And then also when it comes to replicating it, this is the whole idea about the singularity that I always love, or just advanced AI, where if you were able to create an AI, like a machine that is so advanced, it no longer needs you to create it. It can create itself now. So I do think that could be a very real possibility because I'm still stuck on that brilliant idea that Chuck had because Chuck is a brilliant, attractive, smart, humble person, which is that it would be some sort of robotic creature

would probably be the first contact. Okay. Chuck, very nice there. Well, thanks. Yeah. He complimented you. He did, yes. 12 ways from Sunday, and I'm going to use every day I can.

That's fantastic. So I want to just put some emphasis on that. Okay. So the Fermi paradox, which is how come the aliens haven't been here? Well, why would we expect that to happen? Because in the lifetime of the universe, they would have colonized every planet in the galaxy. Well, how do you justify that?

Well, if you send a robot that can duplicate itself, then it goes to a planet, and then it makes two of itself, and then they go to two planets. And then they make two of themselves, and they go to four planets, and then eight and then 16. It doesn't take many doubling times to have a robot on every single habitable planet in the galaxy.

That will take much less time than the amount of time the galaxy has been around. So either you bring humans there and duplicate themselves or you bring robots, but there would have been some evidence if they really were of a colonizing species. Right. So, yeah, this idea that you can duplicate yourself, that's really the only realistic way.

That is the most realistic way. The most realistic way. Fantastic. We speak English in the United States because England sent the colony that spoke English. So now, we went to the United States because England sent the colony that spoke English. That's right. We went to the moon, not England. Right.

Okay. England sent the colony that then went to the moon. You want to think about what you've actually put into motion. Right. That's good. Good stuff, man. That's a great way to think about it.

Jake, love you, man. That was fun, Jake. Thank you that's good. Good stuff, man. That's a great way to think about it. Yeah. Jake, love you, man. Hey, that was fun, Jake. Oh, thank you guys so much. This was great. We got to do this again. We will. We're going to find a way to get your ass back on here. We got to do Matrix.

Do it. I'm down. Do a whole thing on just the Matrix? Well, yeah. Well, because there's three movies. No, no. There's only one Matrix. I don't know what the other two movies were.

I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't know what happened in the other two. Something happened. I'm not sure. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't know what happened in the other two. Something happened. I'm not sure. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest. But the first one was great. I can overanalyze Matrix, okay?

Okay. I've seen that movie. How many times have you seen The Matrix? Too many. Too many. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I'm kind of there too. Well, actually, you know what?

I shouldn't say too many. That sounds negative. Not enough. Oh! Wow. Nice. Okay. Okay. All right. Matrix it wow. Nice. Okay. Okay.

All right. Matrix it is. The question is, are you a virus on this earth? Oh. A virus. All right, Jake. We got to call it quits there.

Chuck, thanks for being on. Always a pleasure. Jake, we'll find you again. I don't know where you're hiding, but we'll find you. All right. This has been StarTalk, Cosmic Queries, Aliens Edition.

I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, as always, bidding you to keep looking up.