StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: Star Trek

Episode Date: February 22, 2015

Join Neil deGrasse Tyson and Leighann Lord as they boldly go where no one has gone before: answering fan questions about “Star Trek,” from transporter beams and warp drives to Klingons and the Borg. 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. Welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. My day job is as director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Come on by sometime. Just come to the front door and say, you know Neil deGrasse Tyson? And they'll still charge you. I was going to say, I've done that and they still want money.

So that voice is Leanne Lord. Leanne, you're welcome to Star Talk Radio. Thank you. Can I just say, I love that you say your day job. Like your night job is being a science superhero. No, my night job is astrophysicist. At night. We work at night.

Yes. Yes, yes. So you're a geek-tress. I am. As I understand. I am a geek-tress. And you. As I understand. I am a geek-tress. And you've demonstrated this a few times in the past. But let's see if you really got what it takes.

Uh-oh. To be she who delivers to me the cosmic queries. This is StarTalk Cosmic Queries Hour. I love it. I love it. You've got some really, really interesting questions here. We get questions from our Facebook page, which is just – you can find us there at – like us at StarTalk Radio. And sometimes we get questions on our Twitter stream, StarTalk Radio there.

And so – Sometimes I get questions and I'm like, oh, I'm not Neil. I'm just on the show sometimes. Pocket those and you bring them. Oh, absolutely. Bring them to Cosmic Queries. So what do you got for me? All right.

I've got a bunch of stuff. So I'm going to. By the way, I just let people know I've not seen these questions yet. So this is all off the cuff. No, there's no advanced knowledge of these questions. Which will be evidenced on how badly I say some of them. All right. We're going to start with an easy one.

And that's more for me than for you. How do you know the answer is easy? You have no idea. Oh, I don't mean the answer. I mean just the question. This one's short. me than for you. How do you know the answer is easy? You have no idea. Oh, I don't mean the answer. I mean just the question. This one's short. Okay. All right.

Which would you rather have? A medical tricorder, a universal translator, or a mobile hollow emitter? And why? Wow. Yeah. So tricorder, universal translator, or mobile hollow emitter? So these are people who are huge Star Trek, science fiction fans. I should have prefaced with this is purely from the Star Trek universe.

Yeah, so these are cosmic queries from the Star Trek universe. Yes, from a Star Trek fan. And it's from Facebook, and it's Emily Camille who asked this question. All right. I kind of like the universal translator. Really? Yeah. Okay.

And you know what gets me, though, is on Earth, when we say something is universal, they're really only talking about Earth. That's true. Like Miss Universe or Mr. Universe. That's Earth. Yeah. Yeah, we don't have any Bajoran women or no Kardashians. Right.

Nobody trying to challenge us, no. Right, exactly. And so a universal translator, if it's truly universal, would translate all languages on Earth as well as all languages from communicating alien species anywhere else. But you know the first species I would listen to with my universal translator? Who? The whales. Oh, wow. It's really universal, universal.

Well, yeah, don't be humanoid-centric on this. Oh, sorry. Did you mean to be speciesist? Don't you want, yeah, you're speciesist. Is that a word? We just invented a word. Let the record show. That is the magic of English.

Leanne Lord, who in her Twitter stream, Leanne Lord, gives a word of the day. I do. I give a word of the day every day. Occasionally, now you have the right to make up a word. That's what I've crossed over to. So speciesist. Speciesist.

Speciesist. That means you care only about About humans. bipedal walking. Yeah, and I'm not sure that's compatible with being a native New Yorker.

I really have to do some soul searching on that. So I wonder what the whales will say if they're like doing high level math in their heads They have huge freaking brains You do Their brain is like Is the biggest brains on earth

That there ever was on earth And so I didn't actually know that Well whose brain do you think would be bigger than that of a whale? Are we factoring in ego? To size? I did not, excuse me Are you going with actual mass?

So, yeah, maybe they're doing calculus. Maybe they're wondering if the humans can survive themselves. Right. Or maybe they're trying to build the spaceships and get out of here. Get the hell out of here. Our stewardship of the planet isn't working out. Exactly. That was, of course, the theme to Star Trek IV, the movie.

The subtitle was Save the whales right on that one so you got another question i do i have tons of questions okay let's see if i can get this one okay this is from scott scott harkness um oh he says as a kid watching star trek next generation i was often amazed not only by the peaceful nature of mankind in the future, but also by the level of technology. Do you think a Star Trek-like technological level could be a reality in a few hundred years? Well, I think anyone a couple of hundred years ago looking at our technology today would be as mind-blown as we looking today at the technology of Star Trek centuries to come. I don't even think you need to go back 100 years. I think you can go back a decade.

I've often said that, you know, you don't have to go back that far. If you whipped out a smartphone, they would resurrect the witch burning laws. Oh, absolutely. For the power that you wielded in the palm of your hand. Heretic! Burn her! So I think we first pause and reflect on what technology has done for the present. Right.

All right? I try never to lose sight of that and to take none of it for granted. But that was a two-part question. Yes, it was. Everyone's peaceful. Humans are peaceful. And that wasn't really his question. Right, it wasn't.

But I don't know that I guarantee that. Why should we think that, you know, there are all these peace treaties for space, the peaceful use of space. Right, right. When we go to space, let us be kind to one another. And I'm thinking, wait a minute, but pause. All right? If you can't be kind to each other on Earth, what confidence are you giving me that space is going to make you kind? I love it.

me that space is going to make you kind. I love it. I, there's no, why, if, and if you succeed in being kind in space, then do the same damn thing on earth. Right. I'm screaming at you here. No, no, no, no. You're, you're, you're preaching to the choir. Cause I love that that wasn't even his, he didn't even pose that we could be peaceful

to each other in the future. He just was all about the technology. Like I've given up on that. It's peaceful. That's a fantasy. That's science fiction. What about the technology? But the technology.

So I think a lot of it is there. One of my favorite bits going from the Next Generation series that he's referring to, because that's what influenced him as a kid, I loved the multi-spectrum visor that Geordi wore. Geordi's banana clip. Yeah, because as an astrophysicist, one of our greatest challenges over the centuries was how many ways can we look at the universe? The universe is not speaking to us only with visible light that our biological retinas happen to detect.

Right. Our biology is not the be all and end all of what the universe is up to. Can we say that again? The universe is talking to us in x-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, ultraviolet, infrared. These are bands of light that the eye cannot see, but we can, with the methods and tools of science, invent ways to make that happen. And so this is how we discovered black holes and the beginning signature of the Big Bang in the universe, the cosmic microwave background.

So we are so there. And so, yes, technology can totally transform life as it has done thus far. This is StarTalk Cosmic Queries. And I've got you here because in this hour, we're talking Star Trek queries. And I love it. I love it. Because you've got some Star Trek street cred. I do.

Well, you know, I try. The girl can do that, you're saying Because you've got some Star Trek street cred I do, well, you know, I try The girl can do that, you're saying It's a misspent youth watching Star Trek So what do you got? Well, I actually had a question based on our last question You know, you were talking about how the human body is built That we're not perfect and we're not seeing everything the universe has to offer Not only are we not perfect

We interfere with the actual information that is out there, creating a world that is not objectively true. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So this is why, for example, I'm sure at home you can rummage through your books and you'll find one on optical illusions. Who doesn't love a good optical illusion? Who doesn't? Usually when one is dating and out at the bar, whoo, he looks great. That's an optical illusion. Who doesn't? Usually when one is dating and out at the bar, whoo, he looks great. That's an optical illusion, everybody. Optical, there you go.

And so what actually is happening is what we don't, what we should really call those books are brain failures. But we don't. Because that wouldn't sell well. It wouldn't sell well. So we celebrate occasions when our brain fools us and we chuckle. We're entertained by it and we chuckle.

But in fact, these are simple line drawings that your brain eye system cannot interpret unambiguously. Right. And that's an example of our sensory system failing to interpret an actual reality that's out there. interpret an actual reality that's out there. And science did not advance until we figured out how to remove our senses from the act of discovering the universe. Yeah.

But now, here's my question. What's that? And I'm going to bring it back to Star Trek. Okay, I'll allow you to ask a question, even though we got a whole list of them here. But it's based on the same question. Go ahead. It's based on something you said. I said I'll allow it.

Okay. Geordi's Visor. Geordi's Visor from Star Trek Next Generation. Yes. Then allowed him, because he was blind, to then see a fuller spectrum. Therefore, he wasn't blind. Therefore, he wasn't blind. He saw not only visible light as the rest of us do, but all the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.

So he then, in essence, is seeing better than everyone else. So then why wouldn't everyone on Star Trek have a visor? Oh, I can't answer that. Okay. I mean, were they just sold at Kmart at the checkout line? Yeah, I'll take a visor, please. Thank you. All right, let's get back to our...

Right, if it's the visor that did it, then why give everybody a visor? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. I don't know. A flaw in the Star Trek universe? I don't know. You know, I like Star Trek, but I wasn't like crazy geek Star Trek.

But just so you know. Don't just stare me down with silent piercing glare. I'm sorry, but this is the hell of a time to tell me. I can't work under these conditions. All right. Who else you got? Okay. I have a question from, oh, I think it's Manu.

Oh, Manu, I'm not sure. Patrice is the last name. And the question is, it seems to me that the most implausible thing in Star Trek, even harder to think of as transportation or warp technology, is the fact that the Klingons have become a space-traveling civilization without having themselves destroyed before. Your stand on this, sir? Yes, I take stands on things such as this.

Well, okay, so a few things. First, there are, it's been suggested that if you are warlike, let's say, and you're always getting into fights and you're not peaceful and you are into land grabbing, if you're territorial, that your civilization is, as we say in science, self-limiting. So you'll go out and you'll say, oh, there's a planet I want to conquer. So you go conquer it and then it's your planet. And's a planet I want to conquer. So you go conquer it. And then it's your planet. And then your relatives who also want to conquer planets, they conquer.

And so you spread out. But then you reach a point where there are no more planets to conquer. Then you conquer each other. Right. on itself because that which got them off their base planet to begin with ends up having them kill each other to reacquire land that had been obtained by others among their own their own community and so that would be a self-limiting future for what would be a warring land grabbing culture okay but Like modern humans. Yeah, I don't know any species like that at all.

So the culture of war is not inconsistent with the culture of technology. In fact, wars drive science. It's a pain to admit that, but it's true. The urge to survive creates extraordinary creative impulses in people to invent something that will make one person survive better than the other. Right. And it's usually in the form of weaponry. Yeah, usually. Yeah, when the longbow was invented, the longbow, that, the arrow could pierce armor.

So it rendered armor completely obsolete. That's why there's no armor anymore. Right. Although the 300, whew, I'll take an army of that. Oh, I mean the movie. The movie. Oh, I saw that. Yeah, a lot of buff guys.

A lot of buff guys. Ooh, is it warm in here? Okay. All right. But now, you know, but now, now, I understand that war, you know, propels technology, but the Klingons, you know, to his question, wouldn't they have killed themselves before they even got off the planet? I mean, they didn't, but shouldn't they have? Well, sure, but this is science fiction. I forget that.

I act as if these are real people that I'm having over to dinner. So it is a little harder to believe, I agree, but once you get off the planet, the universe is vast. That's true. If they're creative in killing each other, they'll find a way to get off the planet for sure. Wow. Note to self. Okay. You ready for another question?

Yeah, go for it. All right. What, in the doctor's opinion, and it says doctor here, is the biggest or most egregious scientific error in Star Trek? Like, do they have an equivalent to the Kessel Run in six parsecs? Oh, the Kessel Run in six parsecs. Oh, my gosh.

Which I believe is actually 12 if our in-studio fact checkers are correct. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so let's back up for a minute. Yeah, there's a lot in this question that we need to cover. The Kessel Run in six parsecs,

the 12 parsecs, that was uttered by Han Solo in the original Star Wars film. Yes. Where he is boasting of the speed of the Millennium Falcon. Allegedly, yes. The Millennium Falcon. And he's saying it did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. And when I saw that, I was like, oh, my God.

A parsec is a unit of distance, all right? It equals about three and a quarter light years. How we come up with a parsec is obscure and not even worth retelling. But in astrophysics, we have a unit of distance called the parsec. Okay. And it sounds cool. It does. And it's the stapled together fragments of two different words, parallax and second.

So it is the distance. So when you observe an object from one side of the sun versus another, as Earth orbits the sun, you have a different angle of view on a star. Yeah. Because you see it in front of a different background as you jiggle to the left and the right of the sun. Okay. It's like holding your thumb out at arm's distance and you wink left eye to right eye. Right. Your thumb will align with a different part of the background.

That angle through which your thumb swings by blinking your eyes left and right is called the parallax angle. So, a parsec. I'm going to ask my eye doctor about that. Parallax. So, anyhow, it's a unit of distance and there he is boasting of the speed of the Millennium Falcon in 12 parsecs. So this is a completely scientifically illiterate statement. Later on, there'd be this revisionist discussion of that very sentence

by Star Wars fans trying to salvage the illiteracy of that sentence, asserting that, oh, no, what he meant was the Millennium Falcon went past a warp in space-time, making the distance shorter so that, in fact, the longer distance that it actually was, he was able to do it in a shorter distance. I wouldn't have even gone that way. That is the, that is, that's what we, how we say revisionist reworking. That's spin. That's spin. That is sci-fi spin at its finest.

So in Star Trek, I remembered, because I'm a fan of the original series. Okay. For me, the most unbelievable thing was that you could walk up to a door and it would open. Seriously? Yes. Yes. Yes. I confess. We have that now. I know, but at the time we didn't. Are you actually dating yourself?

I don't think I'm the one who should say what is the least possible thing in Star Trek. Because I got that one really wrong. Yeah. Okay. I have another that one really wrong. Yeah. Okay. I have another question. I have many questions here. This is from Sean Game Brown.

If the teleporter, and I'm assuming he means transporter, really worked like it did on the show, wouldn't the process essentially just create a clone of you wherever you were transported to, or would it still be the same person? This is Star Trek 101 to me. That's excellent. Now, you're a big Star Trek fan. Have you ever wondered that yourself? No, not really.

Why not? Just get me there. I'm good. You're good. You trust the technology. I'm not Bones. Jim, I hate the technology. I'm going to die.

That's not me. We get there quick, boom, I'm good. You're good to go. I'm good to go. So, here's not me. Like, we get there quick. Boom. I'm good. You're good to go. I'm good to go. So here's the thing. Before this whole discussion of the singularity, not the black hole singularity, but. The other singularity. The other singularity where I'm still angry they took our word.

Don't get me started. The singularity proposed where computers become so good, so fast, so effective that you can completely upload your entire consciousness into them. Because what is your consciousness if not the neurosynaptic snapshot of your brain at any given moment? I also think it's a cute outfit, but that's just me. Okay, all right. So it seems to me back when the show was created,

it was making just replicas of all of your molecules. Okay? Fine. And you reassemble them. Fine. You're beamed as this energy beam, and then the energy goes back into matter. Fine. But to be you, yes, it would be a clone if that's all it did.

You'd be your twin. Right. Yes, it would be a clone if that's all it did. It would be your twin. Right. But if you duplicated every single neurosynaptic impulse in your brain, not just is the molecule there, not just is the dendrite, the axon, not just theic phenomenon in your brain, then whatever gets beamed to Earth should have exactly the mind that you had on the spaceship that you started from. And you'd have all this. So even if it is a copy of you, even if it is a clone of you, it is a clone with every

single one of your thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams. memories and dreams. So that's the difference between that copy of you and a twin of you, which is an exact molecular copy, but doesn't have the same neurosynaptic impulses. So you're coming down on the side

that it is a clone when that's what it was. No, it is a perfect clone where, no, I can clone you right now and that person would behave like your twin that's why all this talk about we shouldn't have human cloning because we'll harvest their organs well we already have clones in society they're called identical twins they are clones of their siblings and do we harvest their organ no so why think we behave differently if we produce clones in another way?

That's all I'm saying. We already have evidence of how we conduct ourselves in the face of clones. That is a clone without an identical neurosynaptic map. Okay. And so there you have it. So now we make that map. You don't exist on the ship anymore. You exist on the ground.

And it is you for all intents and purposes. See, I guess I never thought of it that way. I never thought of it as being cloning. I thought they were just moving you. Like you were being deconstructed where you were and recreated to where you were going. Yeah, but once you become energy, you're not, I mean, it's energy at that point. You could do other things with that energy where it no longer becomes you. You're a packet of energy moving through space.

So I could take that energy to heat my hot dog, and that's the end. Leanne? You know, I would hope to be used for at least a piece of steak. Don't waste me on a hot dog. My goodness. So if I focus your energy in a different way, I got, you know, that's my, you know, heat up a can of beans. So you got to reassemble it in the way that matters.

And so, yeah. Okay. But it would still be the same person. Yeah, only if you have the proper electrical impulses of the brain. When we come back, more of Cosmic Queries on StarTalk Radio I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson and I'm with Leanne Lord So this is Cosmic Queries

I kind of think the Cosmic Queries. I kind of think the Cosmic Queries part of StarTalk is StarTalk after hours. Yeah. I think about it that way. So you've got questions that called from our Facebook page. From our Facebook page. So what do you got? What do you got?

I have a question. These are Star Trek related questions. Well, yeah, most of these. Well, we had one that was Star Wars. Thanks for chiming in there. But it seems to be mostly Star Trek related questions. Well, yeah, most of these. Well, we had one that was Star Wars. Thanks for chiming in there. But it seems to be mostly Star Trek, which warms the cockles, whatever those scientifically are. Yeah, I never knew what cockles are. I don't either.

I don't either. More discoveries to be done. I have a question from Nick Westendorf. And Nick, I apologize in advance because I'm going to mess this up, so I'm going to need a little help. He says here, so Star Trek's warp drive is pretty awesome, of no doubt. That phrase doesn't need the word pretty. Sorry.

I'm reading it as Nick sent it to us. Pretty awesome is like it is totally awesome. It's not like partially awesome. It doesn't add to the awesomeness of awesome. Exactly. Thank you. You don't have to qualify awesome in that phrase, but go on. Okay.

And something along those lines will probably be a necessity if we want to leave the solar system. What are some of the most promising warp-like technologies? And is the, and here's where I'm going to mess this up, Alcubierre or Alcubierre drive realistic? I'm regretting not taking French in high school. I don't even know how to say that. Alcubierre?

There's recent discussion about NASA devoting some funds to a warp drive. First, it's true. We ain't going anywhere unless we figure out how to warp space. Because even at the speed of light, if I send your behind on a spaceship to go to the nearest star, and I watch you do that four years to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri system. By the way, we just recently, I have planetary brethren who discover these things.

The planet hunters among my colleagues found a planet in orbit in the Alpha Centauri system. Bonus? That's bonus. Very good, very good. So it's four years there, four years, but it's an eight-year mission. So that's a major fraction of the life expectancy of the human species, of a human organism, right?

So you want to be able to get around faster than that. And the diameter of the galaxy itself is 100,000 light years. So even at the speed of light, we would watch you take 100,000 years to cross the galaxy and come back. Relativity would have time dilation within your craft. And so you wouldn't age 100,000 years, but we would. And so by the time you came back, we would have long forgotten about you. So in order to cross the galaxy, you got to have to warp space. And you take the galaxy, warp the space between where you are and where you're going.

And in so doing, then you take a little bridge between those warped edges. And then you unwarp it, and there you got to where you're going fast. Right. Fast, without dying en route. Or running out of oil of old age, absolutely. Oil of old age, yeah. Just saying. So it's, and I don't see the energy it takes to warp space because gravity and energy are both create a, sorry, mass and energy can create a force that will, it's a gravitational force that will curve the fabric of space and time.

So a warp drive would have to harness the energy necessary to accomplish this. And back of the envelope calculations, that's what we say in science. It's the scientific version of a quickie. Back of the envelope calculations. Wow, is that the version of a quickie then? How sad is that, everybody? I'm just saying. Some calculations need reams of paper. But you say, well, let me just do a quickie on this.

You flip over an envelope. You jot down some quick equations and some quick plug-in numbers. Young people are going, what's an envelope? They don't do mail. Oh, an envelope. Oh, gosh. Sorry. We'll roll with it.

We'll roll with it. Stick with me. Trust me on this one. Trust me. There's something called an envelope, children And so you do that And you have to wield the energy of like A billion stars, okay That amount of energy

Just to pack into one space To curve the fabric of space and time To create a wormhole, which is essentially The consequence of invoking a warp drive So I think until that happens We are basically hopelessly stuck here on Earth or to jet around the solar system. So you're saying the problem isn't theoretically folding space, it's what we would create in order to fold space that would cause the problem.

Oh, yeah, yeah, the act of folding space, I can do that. I'm sorry? No, no, no, no. On a random Tuesday, Neil Tyson is folding space, everybody. No, no. There is no law of physics that prevents folding space. That's the point. Okay.

So. So we can. No, we know how to. No, we know how. Okay. No, no. We know how to. The physics of folding space is straightforward.

Okay. There you go. Got it. The technology of folding space is so far Okay. There you go. Got it. The technology of folding space is so far beyond anything that is even... You gotcha. Okay. That was eloquently said, sir.

We've baffled you so that... Yeah, no, I'm just saying there's not even... So there's been some talk about working on a warp drive and I think it's more fantasy

than fact. Right. I'm not going to stop it, keep people dreaming it. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, I think there's more fantasy than fact. Right. I'm not going to stop it, keep people dreaming it. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, I think there are even more practical questions. What about the toll structure?

Who's collecting those? Where's the revenue for the planet? Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Tolls are basically two-dimensional barriers. You're on a surface and you're driving and you're stuck on that surface and they put a barrier in front of you. It's really hard to create a three-dimensional toll. Think about it.

You put up a gate, I just go around you. There are 92 ways I can get around you if you put up a barrier in space. So Leanne, what's next? What's next is I have a great question for you. This is from Eloise Ann Prime. Is it theoretically possible? Eloise. The only Eloise we know is the columnist, right? Yes. Actually, I don't know any Eloises.

This is my first Eloise. Yeah, me too. Okay, go on. Is it theoretically possible to have a cloaking device as the Klingons and Romulans use? Totally. Completely. I missed that on Amazon. What?

I'm disappointed by the Federation that they didn't have a cloaking device. They got smart people working for the Federation. Okay, well, first of all, the Federation didn't invest in its shields because two hits and it's down. I know, right? That ain't right. So, no, they don't have good cloaking. I just don't understand. Why do the Klingons have, and we don't.

I've never felt good about that, just between you and me. Maybe the Klingons cornered the technology. Maybe they held the patents. Maybe it was copyrighted. Whatever that is to make a product exclusive, the Klingons beat the Federation. Exactly. So we've actually, the military has actually been

working on cloaking devices. Really? I cannot speak any further. Next question. Wow. No, no, no. Who's this man from the NSA? What are you doing, sir?

I've done nothing wrong. Wait, wait, wait. That's my microphone. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. No, so I just hit the microphone. I don't know what that sounded like. I have no idea. Yeah, okay.

I just, the man on the other side of the booth is very angry at us now. Yes. So, where was I? What was I talking about? Oh, right. Yeah, cloaking devices. Why don't, is it possible? Yeah, so here it is.

Is that theoretically possible to have a cloaking device? Let us open up to the concept of cloaking in ways you might not have thought of before. I'm ready. Okay. So we're surrounded by walls in this recording studio. You cannot see through the walls, can you? No.

If you had eyesight in radio waves, these walls would be completely transparent to you. In fact, they'd be invisible. In fact, to radio waves, radio waves are in effect cloaking vision to these walls. So in other words, what's the point of a cloaking device? It's so that you don't even know it's there and you end up seeing through it. Correct? Yes.

So all you have to do is find, one of many ways to cloak something, is to find the kind of light that passes through something rather than gets blocked by it. Yes. Then the object is cloaked. It's there, you just don't know it's there. That's what windows are. Windows are transparent to visible light.

They have cloaked themselves, so that when you look out a window, you don't say to yourself, I'm looking at a window. You say, I'm looking at the park and the trees and the clouds and the buildings. That is a different way of looking at it. It's a different way of looking at it. Or not looking at it. Correct. So it's all about, does your means of detection of this object pass through it or not?

Or does it not reflect off of it so that you have no information that it's even there? So stealth technology takes the light that you beam to it and never sends it back to you. So as far as you're concerned, the light kept going through, came out the other side and never returned. Okay. So no, this is cool. This is subtle. Yeah, yeah.

Cool, right? So the B-2 bomber and the other cloaking, the other stealth airplanes that are made by the military, if you send radio waves to it in the normal sort of radar, you know, how far away is it? Let's beam a radar signal to it. That signal will either get absorbed by the skin, never come back to you, or reflect off the wing pattern in such a way that the reflection never comes back in your direction. It goes off in a different direction.

So as far as you're concerned, it's not even there. Nice. So an entire airplane can have like the cross section of a bumblebee. That's how much radio waves come back to you and you have no idea that's an airplane ready to come bomb you. That is stealth technology. Okay. So a Klingon vessel, I don't know the exact way that they cloaked their vessel, but if we were to do it today, they would take whatever beams of light you were sending to it and just not send it back to you.

However, you might be able to see an outline where there are no stars behind it because it's being blocked. Right, right. So now you need to have other light from behind you pass through so that the person, it's not only that you can't see them, it's that you can't even see their shadow. Right. And so these are different ways you might cloak. And I'm still disappointed. They're in the 25th freaking, 4th century, whenever, 23rd century, and they don't have,

the Federation doesn't have a cloaking device. I got one in my garage. Well. And I don't even have a garage. Maybe they feel. Because it's cloaked. And there's a dragon in there too? There's a dragon in my garage And I don't even have a garage Because it's cloaked And there's a dragon in there too There's a dragon in your garage

Well maybe they feel that that's being transparent They want to be, the Federation wants to be transparent They want to be open, they want to be honest So maybe that's why they didn't invest I'm sure that's exactly why That's another way to do it, they want to make a car That disappears, and this was a feature In a recent James Bond film So what you can have have is you have light that from you hits the car and the car says i know

what that light is i'm going to send it around to the other side of the car pass it out in the direction you're looking so if there's a tree behind a car the the skin of the car takes the image of that tree brings it to the other side of the car where you're standing, and then it sends it on to you. So you think the tree is just still there and the car is not even in the way. That's another way. So this is a skin that transmits light around its borders and projects it off to the other side. And we can do that. Well, isn't that Wonder Woman's jet, her invisible jet?

I don't know that they put that much thought behind her jet. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just saying, she had all of this before everybody else. Okay. Of course it was a woman. Yeah. Had to do a plug for women. More Cosmic Queries.

And I've got Leanne Lord. So you're reading me questions. I haven't seen these. But you've got another one. And these are inspired by Star Trek. So you're reading me questions. I haven't seen these. So what, you got another one. And these are inspired by Star Trek. These are inspired by Star Trek. And I had, yeah, let me do this one. Okay, what do you got?

Let me see. Okay, this is a sweet one, I think. This is from Kevin Ziegler on Facebook. And it's regarding, of course, the science of Star Trek. And he says, considering the vast distance between stars, the speed limits implemented by the laws of physics, and the rarity of intelligent life, do you think multi-alien species communities will ever exist and or could currently exist in other parts of the universe? That's a brilliant question. saying is that intelligent species as we've come to divine it can't be all that common because if it were there'd be plenty of other intelligent species in our own tree of life here on earth right look at how vast and how diverse life forms are on earth and we define ourselves as essentially

the only ones that were intelligent given the diversity of life that has come along. And of course, that is a debatable point. Yes, you see me chomping at the bit here. But if we look at other planets and there's life, if Earth is any indication, if it has life, it won't likely have intelligent life. Microbial life, most of the billions of years of life on Earth, Earth was populated by microbial life. All the stuff with life that has limbs and eyeballs and hair and fur and legs,

that's in the last half a billion years since the Cambrian explosion of life. Half a billion years ago. Before then, life was not, well, by our standards, not interesting on Earth. Right. It was not interesting. It was pond scum. Okay? They didn't on Earth. Right. It was not interesting. It was pond scum. Okay? They didn't have Netflix.

Okay. So, the notion that there could be a planet with alien species cohabitating, I agree. That sounds like a really rare thing. If most planets that have life Don't have intelligent life at all What does it mean to find a planet Where all the aliens get together Like at the galactic bar You know

Like in Star Wars The cantina bar That bar scene Where the aliens come to hang out And if bars are that cool You wouldn't need one so far away From wherever their homes are You just have one back at the home base

That's true That's true. That's true. You don't have to go to the corner of the galaxy just to get a drink. Wow. So. Import beer takes a whole different meaning there. Imported beer. That's exactly.

So, yeah, it's a fascinating point with which I agree. Wow. So you don't think it's possible then? No, I don't think it's likely. Likely. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

The motivation I don't think is there. Okay. Yeah. another question for me i do i do it's okay here we go this is from marcel oh marcel i apologize dwelstra i don't know do you think the knowledge of extra extraterrestrial intelligent life will lead to harmonious and prosperous life as star trek i'm not even sure that's English. And it's not Marcel. It's me. It's my reading of it. Oh, so do I think that alien life, intelligent alien life that we discover would have some

positive... Right. Will it lead to... Will we be able to take their knowledge and have it lead to a harmonious and prosperous life? Oh, that's so Star Trek-y. Yeah, yeah. Because Star Trek had very hopeful futures

that were portrayed, hopeful moral futures of life, not only Earth-based life, but life elsewhere. So if the alien species is more advanced than we are technologically, presumably we would use that for good. But, of course, course we know As history demonstrates That every advance of technology Comes along with the flip side of that Every knife that can cut food can kill a person

Right Every, the dynamite stick that can That can level a mountain Can also blow up a village So all of And Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite. Thanks, Al. Was concerned about the evil uses of it,

and he left his estate to fund the Nobel Prize for science to advance the good causes of technology. Write that down, kids. Yeah. So that's very Star Trek-y in principle. So if the technology is ahead of us, I don't know that we'd be able to wield it in ways that are responsible, given my read of the history of human conduct. Now, if they're not as advanced as we are, then we would just, of course, dominate them and make them our pets. We wouldn't do that.

You got a quick question here. Okay, yeah, I do have a quick question. I like this one. This is from Don Rim, or Rime. I hope I'm pronoun do that. You got a quick question here. Okay, yeah, I do have a quick question. I like this one. This is from Don Rim, or Rime, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. In Star Trek, the Borg are depicted as evil, but what do you see as the pros and cons of a collective consciousness? Also, do you see the internet as the precursor to this, given that it's a global collection of knowledge? Thank you, Don. to this given that it's a global collection of knowledge thank you i think anyone who is opposite your sense of morality you will say is evil but do the borgs does the borg think of itself as evil people never think of themselves of course and so evil is what side of the fence you're on yes

in any given war in every in any given and usually people who win declare that they were right and that's just how that is it That's how humans have behaved forever. So that is interesting that the Internet might be our entire consciousness. The Internet. Yes, I have to go with that. The Internet is the Borg. Nice. I have a great question from Matt Rufo.

Which ship is better? Is it the USS Enterprise or the ship of the imagination? I know. It's so unfair. I know. I am so biased here. Of course you are. What are the odds?

Well, I mean, if anyone who is listening doesn't know the ship of the imagination, it's what I got around in, around the cosmos in space and in time during cosmos. And that's, that's, that's the spaceship of the imagination version to the original one. Carl Sagan wrote around the universe in back in 1980. So I would say you have to ask, is there anything the enterprise can do that the spaceshipaceship of the Imagination can't do?

No, Spaceship of the Imagination does not have photon torpedoes or phasers or anything like that because it doesn't need it. Exactly. Wherever it arrives, there is peace and love. You know, I thought the answer for that would be really easy,

but it's not. No, no. It's, I think, and because it emanates from my thoughts, the ship, there's a cool scene where I'm on there talking about the extinction of the dinosaurs, and I just walk to the side of the ship, the ship dissolves, and I'm in a primordial forest forest because that's what I needed the ship to do for me. So if the ship emanates from my thoughts and my thoughts are eternally peaceful.

Fingers crossed. I don't need the photon torpedoes. Wow. I don't need a transporter. As I'm remembering when Sagan introduced the concept, it seems a little bit more democratic and universal. Not everybody gets to be on the Enterprise, but anybody can be on the ship of the imagination. In fact, that's perceptive of you to notice. Because originally, when we had this whole, you wouldn't know, we spent days discussing, what am I going to wear on this ship of the imagination?

Of course. Should I have some little emblem on my breast pocket? Should there be some epaulets? Should there be some chevrons? And Andrian said flat out, if you wore anything indicating that you are a ship captain, it means no one else is. And that's not the point of this journey.

Right. And I had no rebuttal to that. And so I just dressed in a black sort of, just a black suit. You looked snappy. Not even a tie, just because a tie is, well, I'm doing something more formal

than I'd otherwise do if I took off the tie. Right. And we're really all in this together. So there it was. Well, thank you, Snappy. I haven't heard that expressed since 1968. You look snappy. Oh, sorry.

Oh, dear. Did I just date myself from an era I'm not from? All righty then. Moving on. Okay, what else do you have? I have a question from Lars Olsen. Mm-hmm. Do we know where any of these people are from?

No, Lars doesn't say. Okay. I can make assumptions, but I won't. Okay. You're allowed to. You're a stand-up comedian. You can make any assumptions you want. He is from Walnut Grove, Little House on the Prairie, Lars Olsen.

In the series Star Trek Voyager, they claim that to travel at warp 10 would be to travel at infinite velocity, meaning that a spacecraft would exist simultaneously at every point in the universe. Does any scientific evidence support this? Well, here's an interesting fact about light. All right. We all know that sort of warp one is the speed of light. Okay. Here's something interesting about light.

Do you remember your relativity from Einstein? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's just that easy reference. No, no. Relativity 101 is as you go faster, your time ticks more slowly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's just that easy reference. No, no. Relativity 101 is as you go faster, your time ticks more slowly relative to people who are looking at you. So it's called time dilation.

You learn that like the first three days of relativity. And I dropped second day, so that explains that. So, all right. So if time slows down for you and it continues to slow down as you approach the speed of light, then you can ask a legitimate question, what happens at the speed of light?

You do run out the equations and you find out that time stops. Right. And so we conclude that photons, which are the very manifestation of light, since they exist at the speed of light, they have no internal clock. And if you don't have an internal clock, it means whenever you are emitted anywhere in the universe, in that very same instant, you are absorbed by whatever else in the universe you hit. So you can send a photon of light from the edge of the universe and it travels as far as you're concerned for billions of years. And it ends up in my detector in a telescope. And I measured and I conclude that there's a star born at the edge of the universe.

But if you're that photon, no time elapsed for you. You're absorbed in my detector the very instant you are emitted. So as far as you're concerned, you're going infinitely fast because your time is going infinitely slow. And what is speed if not distance divided by time? So I would assert. You're looking at me like, okay, I got to bring this around. She's still looking really confused. Yeah, she's got a little puzzle.

There's a little befuddlement. A little. So a warp factor 10 to be infinitely fast. I don't know that that's different to you than it would be by traveling at the speed of light to you. I don't know that that would be different. Okay. And, but that being said, if you want to travel infinitely fast. So if you travel infinitely fast, that is 10 amount to having no time elapse on your clock, no matter where you're going.

So in fact, you don't need to go warp 10 to have no time elapse between where you left and where you arrived. You can just travel at the speed of light yourself. So they got sold a feature on a starship they didn't need. I think so. That was an extra thing. That's how I'm. Like the sunroof. They didn't need the sunroof.

They didn't need warp tent. Is that what I'm hearing? A salesman just made extra commission on that. No, it's a moonroof. I'm sorry, a moonroof. Heated seats. Yeah. So to me, it's a moonroof. To everyone else, it's a sunroof. To me, it's a moonroof. I'm sorry, a moonroof. Heated seats. Yeah. So to me, it's a moonroof. To everyone else, it's a sunroof.

To me, it's a moonroof. Of course it would be. So yeah. Yeah. So that's intriguing. But I don't think you needed it. Okay. Yeah.

We've got to wrap it up. Oh, my gosh. Thanks for being here. Oh, thank you for having me. On Cosmic Queries. I love it. Portion of StarTalk Radio. You Queries portion of StarTalk Radio. You've been listening to StarTalk Radio.

I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. You can find us on the web, startalkradio.net. We tweet, startalkradio. Leanne, you tweet. I do tweet. At Leanne Lord. At Leanne Lord. Just spell Leanne right.

L-E-I-G-H-A-N-N. You got them there, too, at Neil Tyson, if you want to follow my cosmic brain droppings. You got them there too at Neil Tyson if you want to follow my cosmic brain droppings. As always, I sign off from StarTalk bidding you to keep looking up.