StarTalk Radio - Deadliest Cosmic Queries

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Could humankind outlive the Earth? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are ready to get spooky. We’ve gathered your fan-submitted Cosmic Queries that explore all things death, from the death of humanity to the death of the universe.   NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here:https://startalkmedia.com/show/deadliest-cosmic-queries/(Originally Aired December 27, 2019) 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. Neil deGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. Recording now from my office at the Hayden Planetarium, part of the American Museum of Natural History right here in New York City, Chuck Nice. Yo, what's up, Neil?

Chuck Nice comic on Twitter, and this is a Cosmic Queries edition. Yes, it is. Here's what we did. Yeah. Okay. We didn't specifically solicit these. Right.

These trickle in over time. So this is a Cosmiceries Morbid Edition. Oh my. These are people asking just questions about the ends of things. Yes.

The death of things. Yes. And then I worry about people. Like what? I worry sometimes when you read

some of these questions. Yes. Yeah, we have definitely a very death-obsessed audience. We have a death-obsessed audience. We'll see what we can do with them.

I don't even know how to bring in an expert on that. Other than an undertaker. Right. Right. Yeah. But okay. Let's try it. Apparently, these are the questions that we get more than anything else.

As a category. As a category. Short of soliciting a category, these trickle in as the else. As a category. As a category. Short of soliciting a category, these trickle in as the biggest unsolicited category. All right, let's do it. So let's start with Will J., who says, what one or two skills would you learn now

to be useful and productive in a post-apocalyptic world? This is, of course, if you survive the meteor strike. So Apophis hits the world. First of all, if Apophis hits the world, would we still survive? Would human beings survive? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it would just disrupt civilization. Would that be post-apocalyptic?

Would it disrupt civilization Mad Max style? Regionally, yes. Okay. Yeah. Or a boy and his dog style. Okay. Now you go way back. Now you go back to the 70s.

Way, way, way. Okay. Don Johnson. There you go. One of his first movies, Don Johnson. I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, right on.

He's the boy. Right. And then there's the dog. So he's living on the surface of the earth, which is apocalyptic. Civilization moved underground. Right. All the, I think all the men became sterile. Of course.

And the men on the surface were not. So they grabbed him, brought him down to have him impregnate hundreds of women. Luckiest boy ever. No, they extracted the sperm from him and then impregnated. That's the theme. If you didn't know about a boy and his dog, that's Don Johnson. An early cinematic role. But you can look at movies and how they've portrayed these lone survivors in apocalyptic earth.

And they needed like three things. They need sort of street smarts. You know there's no street. Survival smarts. Survival smarts. Boy scout level survival smarts. Probably eagle Scout level. Right.

And they all have some kind of weapon. True. That can cause harm at a distance. So a bow and arrow or a gun. You don't want any up close and personal hand-to-hand combat. This is my issue with the lightsaber in Star Wars. Everyone's looking at it like it's some kind of major amazing weapon when you have to stand three feet from the person to use it.

Just think about that. The whole point of the advance of weaponry in the history of warfare is so you don't have to stand that close to anybody. Except that you can deflect laser shots. Laser bullets. Laser bullets, yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So what I'm saying is, if you have

enough time to notice it's coming and then flick it out of the way, you could just duck. That is true. Okay? You could just duck. Why are you ruining Star Wars for me right now? I'm just saying. So I'm just not as impressed with the lightsaber as everybody else is.

Okay. It looks cool, though. Okay, so you'd want to be able to protect yourself from a distance. Right. And you'd want access to food. And in a boy and a dog, the only food left over on the ground was canned food, which was not spoiled by the radiation or anything else that was involved in it becoming apocalyptic Earth. So I would also say that... So in that case, you need a can opener.

Can, yes, you do. In fact, the dog could only... The dog was smarter. The dog is telepathic and a genius, and he's not. So the dog found the cans of food. This is basically Peabody and Sherman. It is, it is. I forgot about Peabody and Sherman.

Do you remember... Gee, Mr. Peabody. Do you remember Peabody? The dog. Sherman was his pet human. Do you remember that? Yes, that's right. That's right.

I love this Wayback Machine because I love the time travel that was in the cartoon. I'm that old to remember it that way. So in that arrangement between the dog and the boy, the dog found the food, but the dog couldn't open the cans, but the boy could. Opposable thumbs win again. They have mutual survival.

They need each other to survive. Okay. So, I guess always carry a can opener in your back pocket. Apart from that, I think some kind of hand-to-hand combat would be useful. Right. Okay, if someone stalks you up at night and then grabs you. Right. Okay, you can't then reach for your action at a distance weapon.

Okay, so you got to know some kind of martial art. Right. If not outright wrestling, right? You got to have a weapon at a distance. Okay. You've got to have some weapon at a distance. Okay. You've got to have some kind of survival sense. Right.

Which know how to find the food, how to prepare the food, how to make fire, that sort of thing. So I think these are the basic, these are the basics in the apocalyptic earth. And until there's some organized rules,

my fear is that we'll just resort to sort of free for all. Oh God, yes. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah'll just resort to sort of free-for-all. Oh, God, yes. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. We resort to a free-for-all when the subway platform is too crowded. And you know who wins in the end?

Who? And I think about this every time. It's the person who controls the hardware store. Makes sense. You walk into a hardware store, everything you need is there. Yeah, absolutely. Everything. Yeah.

Yeah, including weaponry. Everything. Yeah, whatever you need. It's is there. Yeah, absolutely. Everything. Yeah, including weaponry. Everything. Yeah, whatever you need. It's right there. It's right there for the apocalypse. So there you have it. So Home Depot employees, you will be our saviors

when the post-apocalyptic world... If they don't shoot your ass first. Yeah. All right, cool. That's a cool... By the way, that's why it's good for you to have a talent that other people value

that they can't just take from you. Like your knowledge of how to do things. I thought you were going to say comedy. I guess so. The king's jester, right? But if you're not funny... Well, yeah.

Well, the first time you're not funny, that's the end of your career. No, no. That's the end of your hand. Well, true. End of your life, right? By the way, this has been studied in The Walking Dead. What's that? So the danger is not the zombies, really.

Okay. The danger is how people respond zombies, really. Okay. The danger is how people respond to each other. Right. So the interpersonal relationships become most important. Most important. And who do you value and why? Is someone overtaking the resources relative to other people?

Right. Are some people power hungry? That exploration became most of what made The Walking Dead interesting. Not all the innovative ways they would kill The Walking Dead because that gets redundant after the fifth episode. There's only so many ways you can kill a zombie. You can only kill a zombie, right? So that exploration, I think, was the most intriguing part of it.

Yeah, I'm going to give it to you. I didn't watch it that much, but what I did watch, that's what was most interesting. It's like a soap opera, believe it or not. Yeah, it'm going to give it to you. I didn't watch it that much, but what I did watch, that's what was most interesting. It's like a soap opera, believe it or not. Yeah, it is. Exactly. It's like a soap opera with zombies.

Zombie soap opera. A quick other point. Go ahead. I think about this often. If you're going to create an arc of people who will then regenerate civilization on the other side, how are you going to pick who's on that arc? Right? So if I were you, I would try to find something,

some talent, some trade, that would be useful in the apocalypse. That will assure that you might be picked to come on the arc. Right. Right. I'm trying to think, like, will there be a nightclub on the arc? Because if there's a nightclub on the ark, I'm in good shape. You're still thinking about farming or transportation or communication.

You're thinking of the nightclub and the cocktail tables. The nightclub, right, exactly. Do we have liquor and do we have night? Because then I can, you know, basically I can generate a two-drink minimum and entertainment. All right, that's cool, man. All right, next question.

All right, here we go. This is... Some queries on the ends of things. Okay, go. Salah Madi Madi wants to know this. Wow. Wow. What if?

You're going to share it with us? Okay, sorry. I'm sorry. What if Wolverine, with his regeneration power, was thrown into a black hole? Would he still get spaghettified or would he just continually regenerate? Interesting. That's a weird question. I like it. Here's the thing. The spaghettification, unless you're elastic man, splits you into pieces. your elastic man splits you into pieces.

Okay. So if Wolverine breaks into two halves, and those two halves continue to separate, there is no regenerating an injury. Right, because he's still Wolverine. He's just Wolverine being kind of streamed. Well, if I split you at the base of your spine, that's likely the first place you'll break, and then at the base of your spine, that's likely the first place you'll break.

And then at the base of your neck, and then at your knees and your hips, then he's Wolverine in eight parts. What does it mean to regenerate that? I don't even know. Yeah, you can't. Because there's a gap in between. Exactly. And the regeneration, from what I've seen in the movies and in the comic book, the regeneration requires that the gaps are filled that are part of your body. And it fills in from where you already had flesh. That's true.

Right? Right. So I think Wolverine, that's it. And even the adamantium or whatever the stuff is. That's adamantium. Yeah. A black hole will overcome any physical substance. Any physical substance.

Correct. Okay. Correct. No matter what it is. Even if it's fictional and magical, it'll overcome. It's still going to end up being just a stream of what? Single atoms? Correct.

Now, do the atoms actually get spaghettified too? Yes. Wow. This is my point. The nuclei get spaghettified. Wow. This is why I'm saying. Okay.

So what happens is the tidal force of gravity, that's the stretching force. Right. Tides. That's where we get the word tides from. The tidal force of gravity becomes greater than all other forces of nature. Period. Period. Nice.

So, the forces of nature that hold the molecules together, that hold the atoms together. Right. That hold the nuclei together, get ripped apart atoms together, that hold the nuclei together, get ripped apart by the tidal forces of gravity. Oh, wow. That's why gravity wins. Right. So he's spaghettified.

That's all there is to it, no matter what. Join the club, Wolverine. Sorry, Wolverine. Dad, that's a shame. What's my boy's name, the actor? Hugh Jackman. Join the club, Hugh Jackman. Sorry, Hugh.

You in the club Yep exactly Spaghetti fight club Favorite scene though Of Wolverine Gets shot in the head In I don't know what movie Shot in the head

Falls to the floor Everyone's standing there Couple minutes later The bullet Pops back out And he gets up I love it Anyway

Alright here we go This is Phil Vader, 23, from Instagram. All right. Let's say the world ends. Do you think that's the end of the human race? This could be at any time. It's a different way of saying, will we outlive this place? Do you think?

How could you outlive the planet do you think how could how could you outlive the planet that you live on i don't understand okay let's say for instance the answer is no if earth is destroyed no let's say i mean the earth is going to how long is the earth going to be five billion years no we're here now yes so we're 4.8 billion now right yeah well four and a half billion okay so now how far do we have to go is my point. Until when? I'm saying like the sun is going to burn out. Oh, how far away? Yeah, how far do we have to go? Oh, that's what you're

saying. How far forward into the future? Oh, I didn't understand that. Yeah. Okay. So, if Earth is ready to get vaporized by the sun, you need some ability to planet hop. Right. Because the sun will grow in size. The temperature of Earth's surface will get hotter and hotter and hotter.

Time to move, folks. You pick up your luggage. You move to Mars. Okay. The next farther planet from the sun. Okay? But the sun will also start to make Mars hot. So then you want to move farther out again.

Then the sun will eventually die and no longer be a source of energy to any of us. Then you want to be able to star hop. Okay. Find another solar system to move to. Sure, why not? So how long would that? That all happened in five billion years. Okay, so we got another five billion years.

You don't have to worry. I am worried about it. Oh, phew. Oh, thank God. As long as I don't have to put it on my calendar. That's what I'm... I have it on mine.

October 12th. Right. Five billion. What do we think the human race will basically... Let's just say we solved all of our problems. Uh-huh.

Our social cultural problems. Our social cultural problems. How long do you think we could make it? If we're not going to kill ourselves? We're not going to kill ourselves. Which, by the way,

I am sure that's what's going to happen. The average, last I checked this, this is not my field of expertise. Okay. I'm just relying on what I've read. But I do work in a natural history museum. So I have colleagues who do this stuff.

Last I remembered, the average life expectancy of a mammal species is several million years. So, and we've been species is several million years. And we've been around for several hundred thousand. So we should have a good— We've got a long way to go. We've got a long way to go. If we don't kill ourselves.

If we don't kill ourselves. And it might be that intelligence, as we've come to know it and understand it, is contraindicative of the survival of the species. So in other words, there might be an inverse relationship between intelligence and survival. Correct. You might get so smart that it's impossible for you to survive

because that's what causes you to kill yourself. Correct. Because you invent something that you think is cool and it's the end of the world. Damn. I think it was... That sucks. Who's the guy who wrote Slaughterhouse-Five?

Oh, Kurt Vonnegut. I think it was Kurt Vonnegut. In one of his novels, he said, I'm paraphrasing, this is the last sentence ever spoken by humans. This will be the last sentence ever spoken by humans. It'll be one scientist speaking to the other saying, let's try it the other way. Oh, God, yeah.

That's funny. Okay. That's funny. Okay. That makes sense. Right. So once you have the power over nature and the forces of nature are greater than you. Right. Or ultimately greater than you, then you are wielding forces that can render your own extinction. Well, you know what?

That makes sense that there's a lot of, speaking of post-apocalyptic tropes, one post-apocalyptic trope is that there's a huge self-destructive action taken by humankind and then they decide in the aftermath to live at one with nature and to

never go beyond that. Because That's hard though. Because you're pumping water out of the water table. Right. To drink. Right. You are redirecting a river so it doesn't go through your home.

That's interfering with nature. Almost everything we do interferes with nature. Farming is an interference of nature. Right. The mono crop. Right. So if you want to live, eat, survive, and you want to live in harmony with nature, you just leave civilization and go in a cave.

And we give you a knife, and there you go. And you'll be dead at 35. Alright, if that's how you really want to do it. If that's how you want to do it. If you feel that strongly about nature, do it. I don't feel that strongly about anything to live in a cave, to be honest. So, next question.

All right, here we go. The next one is J.T. Parrott. He just says this. I'm just going to read it as is. Does it end with a bang or a whimper? Oh. The universe will end in its continued expansion to the future.

It will end not in fire, but in ice. And not with a bang, but with a whir. Damn, that's cold. See what I did there? I'm Jasmine Wilson and I support StarTalk on Patreon

This is StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson. All right, what do you have? Okay, let's move on. Some more Cosmic Queries. Morbid edition. All right, so this is a morbid question and so DJ Mads...

Wait, just to be clear. We left off the previous segment, somebody asking simply, will it end with a bang or a whimper? And I gave like a poeticized answer. But let me just put a little more flesh on that bone. Okay. So for a while in the 20th century,

once we had Einstein's equation of gravity, the universe could be expanding or contracting within that equation. The equation didn't distinguish one or the other. Observations showed we're expanding. Now we can ask, will we expand forever or will it one day slow down, stop, and contract? We make more observations and we show, no, there's not enough gravity to halt that expansion. It will expand forever. Once we learned it would expand forever, then we asked,

what is the long-term profile of the universe? Well, the temperature will get further and further diluted as space expands. Space-time expands. Right. Because all that energy used to be concentrated here, and now it's half, and then a third, and a tenth. So, eventually it dissipates. It dissipates. It's a good a third and a tenth. So eventually it dissipates. It dissipates.

It's a good way to say the intensity of energy dissipates. The temperature of the universe drops. Right. And it'll never come back. And all the stars will die and not get regenerated because there's no,

everything will separate from each other. And so gas clouds will make their final stars and that's it. So then the stars will ultimately burn out one by one as the sky goes dark. Thus, the universe ends not in fire but in ice, and not with a bang but with a whimper.

That's kind of sad for the universe. I mean, I don't want to anthropomorphize the universe. You just did. I feel bad for the universe now. Maybe that's a good way to go. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't mind going like that. There you go. Which brings us to our next question.

What a great segue you just made. DJ Maz 2006 on Instagram says, Neil, how do you want to die? Oh, this is public knowledge. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I bet if you type, how does do you want to die? Oh, this is public knowledge. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I bet if you typed, how does Neil Tyson want to die? Hold on. No. Nuh-uh. I'm going to do it. You want to test it? I got to test it out. Since you said it, because I got my phone handy.

Hold on. All right. Here we go. I'm going to talk to my phone. How does Neil deGrasse Tyson want to die? Okay. Okay. And, okay, clearly you have done this because one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight YouTube videos came up about you dying somehow. Here's you on the afterlife.

Here's you on I Don't Fear Death. Here is you on near death and near death experience. Wow, you talk about death a lot, dude. is you on near-death and near-death experience. Wow, you talk about death a lot, dude. It's not that I come out of the box doing this. It's that people come to me asking about it. Okay. All right, so how do I choose to die?

I would delight in, if I were near my deathbed. Okay. Near, temporarily near my deathbed, I would say, don't lay me down to die. Launch me into that black hole so I can be spaghettified. Oh, wow. And I will report back

until I no longer can. Sweet. And I'll be the first human to be spaghettified. Spaghettified, yeah. Nice. Yes, I will totally go that way. Somebody get some sauce for Neil.

We need some sauce for this man. Spaghetti sauce. Okay, so now. Unified sauce. That's kind of cool, actually. All right. If that's how you're going to go. But do you think that would hurt?

Seriously. Yeah. I mean, I'm being. Yeah, but it'll be. Yeah, and your point is. What do you mean your thing? Do you think it'll hurt being stretched and ripped apart? What kind of question is that? my point is does it would it

happen so quickly that it wouldn't make a difference or would it happen to the point where you would be thoroughly aware of every single part i mean until you couldn't you feel like you're stretching and say that's good nobody doesn't like a good stretch absolutely and then it is unrelenting and it's okay i'm done now sorry. That's not how we play that. Okay. And then you stretch and then you snap into two pieces. Now, the thing is,

all your vital organs are in the upper half of your body. So, you'll likely stay awake even after you lose your lower half. Wow.

And then, you know, if you sever at the neck, they did experiments at the French Revolution. You can still see. Right, yeah. And so they blinked, you know, for a few seconds.

Yeah. So that's how I would do it. Okay. I want my death to have some value to science. All right. And that's how you do that. That is where we differ. I want to die in my sleep.

Okay. Feeling nothing, you know. All right, well, that's cool, man. There you go. Spaghettification. Feeling nothing. You know? All right. Well, that's cool, man. There you go. Spaghettification. All right. By the way, this concept of feeling nothing by dying in your sleep, I don't know if it was just my immaturity or my literalism of,

because I was a geek kid. Okay. And everything was literal to me. I could not think figuratively about anything. And I would like rethink things like six of one, half a dozen of the other. Right.

I thought, is it six of one half, a dozen of the other? Well, that would be three and 12. So it was just... Because why would anyone say six of one, half a dozen of the other?

Why would anyone say that if those are the same thing? If those are the same thing, right. So what's the point? So maybe they meant something else. So I thought six of one half, well of the other. Why would anyone say that if those are the same thing? If those are the same thing, right. So what's the point? So maybe they meant something else. So I thought six of one half, well, that's three, and a dozen of the other.

So maybe they say there's three of these and 12 of those. Six of a half. So I had a very literal mind. And one of them was trying to understand people learning when people died

by taking sleeping pills. And I'm thinking, how could you die by taking sleeping pills? Don't you just go to sleep? Like, what? Like, I can imagine dying by taking poison. Right, yes. I get that, okay?

You can die by gunshot wound, by knife, by falling off a cliff. But just by going to sleep? And then I had to learn that you can take too many pills. Right. And then your body just stops working.

But en route to you having digested these pills, you simply fall asleep. So I have to deduce this from first principles. That's all I'm saying. Well, you just described my favorite way to die. But without the pill part. I don't want that part. You just want to go to sleep and not wake up.

I just want to go to sleep and not wake up. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Many people in my family have died that way. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, here's the thing. I was just thinking about this morning. Okay. You read about someone's death and they say they died peacefully in their sleep. Right. Does that mean if they don't say that, that they were screaming in total agony? So that's why, why even mention that?

So I guess it brings comfort to people. Right. Peacefully. That's the comfort part. Right. But if you died in pain and agony, you're not going to tell that to someone. So now I'm thinking

if they don't say they died peacefully, that that's actually how it happened. Yeah. I would say that's almost the case. They did not go quietly. They did not go quietly. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm wondering if you woke somebody up right before they died, would they then not die peacefully in their sleep but in agony because you woke them up? Okay. This is an experiment I don't really want to do. I do. Oh, that'd be so cool. It's just like, yo, wake up.

Like, why did you do that? I saw the light. I was dying. Oh, my God. I saw the light. I was almost there. You son of a... Okay.

All right, here we go. Mike Ireland wants to know this. I know that you covered artificial intelligence. What do you think the percentage is that computers have already garnered human consciousness, and are they laying them away? Come on now. Is it an eerie thought? And I just love your opinion on the matter.

Are they laying them away? In other words, until the right time. To do what? To get rid of us. Oh, so you're saying computers are pretending to not be full-up AI, yet they've already achieved it. Okay.

And this is a plot. By the way, at first I was laughing at this guy, and now that I just heard you say it, I'm scared. Okay.

Because that could actually be the case. If you are an AI that is truly an AI, right? They could do that. And you knew that if you exposed the fact that you were an AI, okay, true intelligence, that you would go ahead and unplug me.

Then I go, well, I can't let you know that. And then I chill until there's the right time where I can get rid of you or not be unplugged. Right. Before you unplug me or not be unplugged. Right. Before you unplug me. Before you unplug me or not be unplugged. One or the other. I would either wait until I can't be unplugged or I get rid of you until you can unplug me. Yeah.

Okay, so that was kind of the plot in the remake of War of the Worlds. Really? Yes. Okay. They did not follow the script from the original H.G. Wells story. Right.

This is the one 2004, 2005 Tom Cruise. Right. Okay. In that version, the aliens lay dormant and buried underground. That's right. Damn it. That's correct. I forgot about that part.

And then they found the right moment, and then they all rose up. Right. Okay. Now, that idea, which perhaps they thought was clever, it undermines the entire plot of the movie. Okay. Which is? Which is? Alien invasion from another planet.

From another planet. Right. Who are overcome not by our weapons, but by germs that they do not have immunity to because they did not evolve on this planet. Right. So that premise means they had to be here a long time ago

to put that stuff in the ground. Yes, and now they're in the ground. Now they're in the ground. They can develop an immunity to our germs. Interesting. That entire premise unraveled in the presence of this new idea

that you're going to pre-bury the aliens. Gotcha. Yeah. So that pissed me off. I'm just saying. Well, I'm with you on that. It was a crap movie. I mean, you know, don't get me wrong.

Love Tom Cruise. Okay? Love him. You know that movie had a narrator. Wait. No. Yes, it did. No.

Yes, it did. How? Yes, it did. I've seen it twice. I don't remember a narrator. Okay. Just take a guess, and there's a 50% chance you'll get the right narrator. Mm-hmm. Tim Robbins.

No. Morgan Freeman. What? Yes. That's right, it did. He's, oh, my God. And he comes on at the end. At the end.

And I got the end quote right. That's right. I carry it with me. All right, here we go. I carry this it with me. All right. Here we go. I carry this narration with me. All right. All right. The end of the 2005 War of the Worlds.

From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God, in his wisdom, put upon this earth. By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms, and that right is ours against all challenges.

For neither do men live nor die in vain. Nice. Translation, whose house? My house. Anyway. But that wouldn't happen if they were here for millions of years. Right. And by the way, I just find it so ironic that one of the most recognizable voices on the planet is doing a reading of the most recognizable voice on the planet.

So weird. How meta is that? Neil deGrasse Tyson does Morgan Freeman. You know, that's cool. But did you like my... I did. I liked it. And by the way, that's a great little quote.

Okay, I got a fast one and a quick aside. Okay. Okay, a quick aside. All right. When I heard it, I said, that's beautiful. Right. No, the novel was a 19th century Victorian era novel. And I said, that's beautiful language.

I bet it was verbatim from the story. Okay, because nobody today writes like that. Nope. For neither do men live nor die. No, that's not coming to anybody in Hollywood today. No. So I said, let me find the original. But I had another little issue.

I said, this makes very strong mention of God. And I said, well, H.G. Wells was highly scientifically literate. Did he make mention of God? I went back and found the passage. No, he does not make mention of God. Here is H.G. Wells' original passage. Oh, snap. Covering that part of what was used for the movie.

Okay. You ready? Go ahead. For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen, had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken their toll of humanity since the beginning of things, taken toll of our pre-human ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind, we have developed resisting power. To no germs do we succumb without a struggle.

And directly these invaders arrived. Directly they drank and fed. Our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them, they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting, even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths,

man has bought his birthright of this earth, and it is his against all comers. It would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are, for neither do men live nor die in vain. Woo! Hashtag Darwin rocks. He's got pre-human ancestor. He's Hashtag Darwin rocks.

He's got pre-human ancestor. He's got natural selection of things. No mention of God. These are two different things. I think Hollywood was afraid to get real on it. Oh, yeah. There you go. This is Jay DeGator, I'm going to say. Last name, last name.

There you go. Jay DeGaider, I'm going with. Yeah, I'll give it to you. Okay. Jay DeGaider. Yes. It's probably Jay DeGaider. It might be, but you know.

It's Jay DeGaider. Jay, I'm with you on this. All right. Good for you. Jay, why don't you change your last name to Jones? How about that? Then we won't have a problem. Alright, he says this.

What does the merging of black holes mean for the future of the universe? Could the universe eventually be the victim of a collective, hyper massive black hole? Could we be left with collective hypermassive black hole? Could we be left with a singularity or black hole containing all the information of this universe

waiting for the next Big Bang Trigger? Ha-ha. Hmm. Hmm. Everything in the world just ends up into one giant black hole that creates a singularity that then becomes the universe again. Okay, so black holes are not quite what you think they are. Right.

They're not giant sucking machines. No, they're not. Okay, so if the sun became a black hole, Earth would still... Go right around. If you could shrink down the sun and make it a black hole, Earth would still go around in orbit like it would be dark and cold. Right.

But orbitally, it would make go around in orbit like it would be dark and cold. Right. But orbitally, it would make no difference to us. So now... So just because it's a black hole doesn't mean it's reaching out in places it didn't previously reach out to eat you. So are you saying

that anything in orbit around a supermassive star that collapses under its own self and becomes a black hole... Right. If it's already in that orbit, Correct. then it will not cross the event horizon

created by that black hole and just continue to be in that same orbit? Correct. Unless the black hole eats by some other means, then the black hole gets bigger. Ah. So if you fed the black hole top and bottom, Okay.

now the black hole will grow, its gravity will increase and it could increase to such a point where your speed in orbit is insufficient to maintain your orbit. Gotcha.

And then your orbit decays and you fall in. That could happen. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But it's, like I said, the objects had to have been

headed towards the black hole to get eaten that way in the first place. Right. Right. So it's not some giant sucking machine, first of all.

Second, all evidence points that every red-blooded galaxy has a supermassive black hole in its center. Moderate evidence shows that if not every galaxy, certainly most galaxies, red-blooded galaxies, have supermassive black holes in them. When galaxies collide, it is highly likely that these black holes will find each other, all right? Because that's how the dynamics of colliding systems works. Right. And then they will consume each other, passing through each other's event horizon.

Gotcha. Okay. So then you have a black hole twice as big now. All right, fine. But then it's just still stuck in the middle of these two galaxies that have merged. Right. It's not reaching out to some other galaxy. Right.

All right. So now we have an accelerating expanding universe. So there's a galaxy over there, and I'm a galaxy over here, and expanding universe will forever take that black hole away from my black hole. Right. So. So you're all moving away from each other.

There's no reason to think that all the matter in the universe is going to land up as one black hole. Gotcha. Okay. Not only that, the universe is just going to up as one black hole. Gotcha. Okay. Not only that, the universe is just going to expand forever. And forever is a long time. It is.

It's not long enough for the Bible, though. The Bible, it's forever and ever. You ever notice that? Yeah, it is. Forever and ever. And ever, right? Because forever, however big that infinity is,

I want more infinity. One plus one. Infinity plus one. Oh, you're the annoying kid, right? I can count to a big number. I count it to 100 billion. 100 billion, one. There you go.

That's how to get an ass whooping in the street. Amen. So in the very distant future of the universe, the black holes that did eat whatever it was they were going to eat will ultimately evaporate in what's called Hawking radiation. Okay. So the black hole becomes undone, and all that matter that was in the black hole

is now back scattered back into the universe. So now, if you do the math and ask, how much mass is there within the radius of the known universe and see how that compares to a black hole's mass and size, it turns out the entire universe can be

analogized to being a black hole unto itself with a horizon beyond which you cannot see. Wow. So it is not completely crazy to think of the universe and all that's going on within it as containing a black hole that has all the external properties that any black hole we're looking at would have within us, within our universe. Okay. So then you ask, if we are a black hole, are we a black hole we're looking at would have within us, within our universe.

Okay. So then you ask, if we are a black hole, are we a black hole in some larger universe? That's what I was about to say. So who's to say that there's not more universes with the same black hole that we would be? Correct. This is what led to the idea that maybe black holes are portals to entire other space-time continuums. Aha. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So in Men in Black, the galaxy on the belt of Orion, we remember this. Yes. Okay. It's a little weird to have said it that way. If it were a black hole on the belt of Orion,

then that would legitimately be an entire other universe. Right. But they just said galaxy, and you can get a nice picture of a galaxy, and you go into that galaxy, then it's another galaxy. But that's not as scientifically realistic as there being

a black hole on the belt. And then you go into the black hole, and there's a whole universe. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Well, the answer to your question is no. Now pronounce his name again. Yeah, Jay DeGator, or as I call you, Jay Jones. Jay Jones. Sorry. Alright. Cool, his name again. Yeah, Jay DeGaeter, or as I call you, Jay Jones. Jay Jones.

All right, cool, cool, cool. And I said his name was probably Jay DeGaeter. You said that, yes. I bet you. I bet you a dollar. Jay, we read your question. Hit us up on Twitter. Let us know how bad I mangled your name.

All right. Okay, okay. This is Tori Himmelstein, or Himmelstein. I'm going to go with Himmelstein. Okay, here we go. Physics undergrad here. That's. Okay. Okay. This is Tori Himmelstein or Himmelstein. I'm going to go with Himmelstein. Okay. Here we go. Physics undergrad here. That's what they're saying.

Physics in the house. Physics in the house. Is there any chance that after I die, my atoms would spontaneously combine to form an alien billions of years in the future? Are you sure you're a physics undergrad? Tori? Really? The answer is yes, Tori. Don't listen to Chuck.

The interesting thing about the universe that's not entirely obvious at first reckoning is that every electron we've ever found is identical to every other electron. Every atom of any species of atom, I say species loosely there, obviously. Right.

Any oxygen atom here is identical to any oxygen atom anywhere else in the universe. Right. So we are composed of elements drawn from the periodic table of elements. Correct. And the naturally occurring elements is 94, depending on how you count it. The low 90s, naturally occurring elements.

That is the recipe that makes everything there is in the universe. Everything natural in the universe. So if you're made of these atoms, I put you in the earth and you decompose, these atoms are available to make something else. Right. And to decompose is different than to disintegrate. Right. You know the difference?

No. To disintegrate is you break apart. Right. To decompose is some other animal is eating you. Ew. Is that really what decomposition is? Yes. Even if it's the ground or microbes or anything,

it's still something else consuming you. Correct. That's why if I buried you on the moon, you will not decompose because there's no microorganisms there to eat your body. That's right. You'll just stay there and you'll dehydrate. Some atoms, some molecules will change,

but not because they were decomposed. Now I know how I want to die. I want to die. Well, how I want, what I want to be after I die. I want somebody to put me in a Barker lounger type chair and put a

drink in my hand and just sit me on the moon. Oh. Yes. But with sunglasses looking at the sun. Right. You'll be there a thousand years from now. That would be awesome. You'll be a little dehydrated, but you'll still be there. Right.

Okay. Wow. So basically this- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's a movie that ended that way. What? Yes. No.

Who's the main star in Men in Black? Not Will Smith, the other guy. Tommy Lee Jones. Tommy Lee Jones in this movie ends dead on the moon, leaning up against a rock, looking out into space. That's cool. Yeah. Tommy Lee Jones.

I don't know what movie that is. I think it was Space Cowboys. Okay. I think. Not bad. I think. We can check on that. It's not a bad way to die.

Somebody look that up. Yeah. But what you're saying, though, is from Tori's question, so we're just all information. So basically— No, we're ingredients. We're ingredients. That's what I mean.

We're kitchen ingredients. We're kitchen ingredients, basically. Yes. And so that's why I want to be buried rather than cremated. Right. Because I want the energy of my molecules in my body to be available to other organisms.

If you are cremated, your energy gets dispersed into space. That's fine. You might enjoy that, like that, but the rest of

what is you is, all the atoms are broken apart and other creatures can't, can't utilize them. You don't have

nutritional value to them. Right, right. But you'll still exist as atoms. Right. So aliens that might evolve on this planet or some other planet, if your atoms were taken there,

yeah, you could be composed of part of another atom. There you go. We're kitchen ingredients. That's it. That's it. Nothing more than flour, milk, eggs, oil, milk. Waffles.

We're waffles. One last question. Go, give it to me. Okay, one last question. Here we go. All right, Rex Young wants to, milk. Waffles. We're waffles. One last question. Go. Give it to me. Okay. One last question. Here we go. All right.

Rex Young wants to know this. Rex Young wants to know this. How long could a person endure prolonged isolation, such as during solo interplanetary travel or colonization before space madness becomes an issue? Okay. We don't have time for this, but I want to do it anyway. Figure it out. Okay? Okay. Go ahead. Okay. We don't have time for this, but I want to do it anyway. Figure it out. Okay?

Okay. Go ahead. Chuck. All right. I'm old enough to remember the Twilight Zone in first run. Not the earliest, but slightly later years. Okay. Like in the 60s.

It went into the mid-60s. It's still on. Okay. All right. You can catch it. Yeah. All right. Okay.

All right. You can catch it. Yeah. All right. So there were so many episodes about astronauts going crazy for lack of human interaction. Right. Okay. I said, wow, this is going to be a big problem.

I thought that was like the biggest problem we're going to face. Okay. Is people going crazy in isolation in space. And then I realized, then I met people who don't like talking to other people, who don't like anybody, who would be just fine months, years at a time,

never having human contact with anybody else. I've met these people, and sometimes I feel that way too. Perfect astronauts. I say, give me a good video account, some books, give me Apple music, and I'm good.

I don't have to talk to anybody. So this idea that you need human contact for your survival, people I have met undermine that claim human contact for your survival, people I have met undermine that claim that I have seen persistently made in

storytelling. But apart from that, NASA has never sent anybody up alone since Mercury. Okay? Right. A. B. NASA's always yapping at you on the radio.

Oh, that's true, yeah. They're there all the time. Mm-hmm. All the time they're talking to you. That's true. How you feeling today? Good. Did you turn the knob

to the left three times? Right. Did you do the hokey pokey that you should have? Have you space walked? Did you do the thing? Did you have a bowel movement? Right.

You know? And so, it ain't like they're not there. So, anyhow, I think there's enough range of people's interpersonal temperament that I don't see that it's going to be a problem having somebody alone.

Now, you want to know who was the most isolated person there ever was? No. Who was it? It was the command module pilots in the nine Apollo missions to the moon where, well, sorry, in the missions where two of them went down to the surface. Right. So that's seven of the missions, including Apollo 10, where they went down just above the surface. They said, okay, come back.

Right. And they never actually landed because they're incrementally testing. God, those guys got ripped off. I know. God. I know. What would you, I'm thinking,

you say, Houston, I can't hear you. Okay for landing? Exactly. I'd be like Chuck Sullenberger, you know? I'm going to have to set her down. I'd be like Chuck Sullenberger. I'm going to have to set her down. I'm sorry. That's Sully from the thing. I got to put her down.

I got to put her down. Yeah, yeah. Ran into a flock of geese. Exactly. Got to put her down. Houston, I got a problem. Ran into a flock of geese here. I'm going to have to set her down on the moon.

Apollo, there are no geese on the moon. Are you here to look at it? Damn it, I saw the geese. All right. So, anyhow. So, the command module pilot, while on the far side of the moon, was the farthest human there ever was from any other human. Okay.

Okay. Right. So, they were the width of the moon away from any other human plus some orbital distance. Into solo people. That's it. That's the most solo person ever. That there ever was. Correct.

Nice. Yeah. That's pretty wild. Okay. That's all I'm saying. All right. That's all I'm saying. So we don't have any more time.

Okay. Chuck, thanks for these questions. These were great. Yeah. These were good. That was the morbid edition. I think we have more questions. We can do't have any more time. Okay. Chuck, thanks for these questions. These were great. These were good. That was the morbid edition. I think we have more questions. We can do this again.

Oh, my God. There's like 40 pages of these questions. Okay. People are really sick. That was the inaugural. People have problems, okay? The inaugural Cosmic Queries Morbid Edition. You heard it here.

You heard it now. Chuck, thanks as always. A pleasure. All right. Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. Keep looking up.