StarTalk All-Stars at NY Comic Con – The Science of Science Fiction

On 10/8/2016, the StarTalk All-Stars packed NY Comic Con to discuss the real science in science fiction. Now you can get your geek on with All-Stars hosts Charles Liu and Emily Rice, co-host Chuck Nice, and Phillip K. Dick Award nominated author PJ Manney. NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is StarTalk.

• 0:09Charles Liu?

  Welcome to StarTalk All-Stars Live at the New York Comic-Con.

• 0:23Charles Liu?

  What a pleasure it is to be here. Hello, I am Charles Liu and it is my great pleasure to bring on our panelists and my co-host. Let's bring them on right now. My co-host, comedic co-host, longtime StarTalk awesome guy, Chuck Nice.

• 0:41Chuck Nice?

  Hey, buddy.

• 0:46Chuck Nice?

  Hey, everybody.

• 0:47Charles Liu?

  Now Chuck, we've done a lot of StarTalk together and it's been such a great pleasure all the time.

• 0:51Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 0:52Charles Liu?

  And these folks need to know that as much a comedian and a celebrity and a star as this guy is, he also seriously knows his sci-fi.

• 1:01Chuck Nice?

  That would be a lie.

• 1:04Chuck Nice?

  No, I am a fan. I don't consider myself an aficionado. I consider myself a fan and a true fan. And I just love that society has finally caught up to my nerdiness. Because I had to hide it for so long.

• 1:23Charles Liu?

  That's right. That's right.

• 1:27Chuck Nice?

  You know, I'll never forget when Star Trek: Next Generation came out. I was so excited about a new Star Trek and I started having Next Generation parties with my nerdy little friends at my house. And so I was at a bar bartending and a friend of mine who was coming to the party was at the bar. He goes, "Dude, I'll see you at the Star Trek party."

• 1:54Chuck Nice?

  And everybody at the bar was like, "What the f-"

• 2:00Charles Liu?

  Family show, family show, yes. Okay, we have two wonderful guests on this episode. And let me introduce the first one, who happens also to be my colleague, a fellow astrophysicist, astrophysics professor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Please welcome Emily Rice.

• 2:28Charles Liu?

  Emily, thank you.

• 2:29Speaker 03

  I feel like I get a superhero entrance.

• 2:30Charles Liu?

  Absolutely.

• 2:31Speaker 03

  She's pretty awesome.

• 2:32Charles Liu?

  Thank you so much for coming today. The audience should know that you are a researcher in brown dwarfs and possibly exoplanets, if we want to extend that far in.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  If we could only tell the difference between the two of them, that would be really awesome.

• 2:45Charles Liu?

  Well, probably if you got on one, you could probably figure out the difference.

• 2:49Speaker 03

  And I would love to do that, yeah.

• 2:51Charles Liu?

  Fantastic. And I want you to also mention that you are involved with something called Star Tori List and something called Astronomy on Tap. Please tell us a little bit about it.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I essentially have no hobbies outside of my work, which is kind of embarrassing to admit.

• 3:06Charles Liu?

  Typical of all of us. That's okay, Emily.

• 3:08Speaker 03

  But they're still pretty fun. So I do two different things. One of them is called Astronomy on Tap, which is basically what it sounds like. It's astronomy presentations. I don't like to call them lectures, because that's boring. But it's astronomy in bars.

• 3:21Charles Liu?

  Hmm.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  Because why not, right?

• 3:24Chuck Nice?

  That's one way to promote science, that's for sure.

• 3:27Charles Liu?

  Absolutely.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  And to make scientists loosen up a little bit.

• 3:31Chuck Nice?

  Ain't no party like an astronomy party.

• 3:34Speaker 03

  How do you, but how do you, like, organize an astronomy party?

• 3:38Charles Liu?

  How would?

• 3:39Speaker 03

  That's the tricky thing.

• 3:40Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  It's, you plan it.

• 3:42Chuck Nice?

  Oh. Oh, my God.

• 3:47Speaker 04

  All week.

• 3:48Speaker 03

  Sorry.

• 3:49Chuck Nice?

  She made me feel like a Cosby kid. I was just like, ahhhh.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Professional scientist, amateur, everything else. And Star Tori List is my, so Astronomy on Tap started in New York City and has now spread across the country, which is very fun. And Star Tori List is an astronomy-themed fashion blog. And so myself and a colleague, yeah, should I do a little bit of that?

• 4:12Chuck Nice?

  This part, yeah. There you go.

• 4:14Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 4:15Chuck Nice?

  And tell them about this area right here. What area of the cosmos would this be?

• 4:21Speaker 03

  The star-forming region.

• 4:22Chuck Nice?

  Ah, I see.

• 4:25Charles Liu?

  Yes, wonderful. Thank you, Emily, for being here. And, yeah, sure, let's give that a little applause. Why not? And it is my great pleasure to introduce our other guest, an author, a futurist, a writer for all kinds of great stuff, P.J. Manning. P.J. Manning, ladies and gentlemen.

• 4:52Charles Liu?

  Now, for those of you who remember Hercules the Legendary Journeys and Xena the Warrior Princess.

• 5:03Charles Liu?

  Now, you guest-spotted as Gabrielle once or twice, is that right?

• 5:06Speaker 05

  No, but I was a member of the gladiatorial audience that really wanted Hercules to die.

• 5:14Charles Liu?

  And your book, Revolution, which we will waive here, has just been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Awards for 2016. Congratulations.

• 5:23Speaker 05

  Thank you. Thank you very much.

• 5:26Charles Liu?

  Now, as many of the audience know, Philip K. Dick was a revolutionary, groundbreaking sci-fi author who wrote all kinds of things that have made it to the present day in different formats. For example, his short story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? became Blade Runner. That's right. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale became Old Recall. And The Man in the High Castle became A Man in the High Castle. That's right.

• 5:57Speaker 05

  You know there was gonna be a quiz?

• 5:59Chuck Nice?

  That's it. No, pop quiz. That's what I love about Chuck Lou. Everywhere you go, it's a pop quiz.

• 6:03Charles Liu?

  I'm sorry. Astronomy professors, we have a hard time not giving pop quizzes. But nevertheless, PJ, tell us about this book and why it fits in so well with that tradition of sci-fi that Philip Dick really pioneered and brought for us today.

• 6:17Speaker 05

  Well, this is a near-term techno-thriller. So it's science fiction in the sense that I use real science to see what's happening with the future of brain-computer interfaces and other kinds of brain technologies. As you know, Philip K. Dick was all about reality. And I play a lot in my book with if we start messing around with different ways of perception, if we start connecting ourselves directly to the internet, if we start...

• 6:43Speaker 05

  Altering our minds so that we can think smarter, faster, quote-unquote, "better." What if we don't forget? What will that do to us? So, because I deal a lot in the trippiness of the protagonist experiencing these things, I think that's kind of why the Philip K. Dick people were interested in the book, because no one was trippier than Mr. Dick.

• 7:05Charles Liu?

  Hundred percent true. And tell us about Humanity Plus, of which you were the chairman. Board of directors, is that right?

• 7:13Speaker 05

  I was on the board and the chair. Humanity Plus is an organization, umbrella organization, that hopes to promote ideas of transhumanism. So, the idea that humans, we're not the last step in evolution. I know I'm speaking to the choir in this kind of room. And looking forward to, what are the ethical implications? What do we need to worry about? What can we look forward to? What's actually possible? What's in research right now? And it's a place for people to discuss the ideas that come around the next step of humanity. And that's what I write about, is what the next step of humanity is.

• 7:52Charles Liu?

  Makes total sense to all of us here at New York Comic-Con, right? The next step of humanity. We could go the biological route, say, X-Men, for example, mutants and so on. Mutants? Mutants. Or we could go the technology route. Cyborgs. Oh, yes. Okay.

• 8:10Speaker 05

  And it'll be both.

• 8:11Charles Liu?

  It will be both. Mutant cyborgs. Oh, my god. Wow. Yeah, what would happen if you took cyborg from the Titans and mixed them with, say, Magneto of the X-Men? He would, like, stuck to the wall. He would never go anywhere. I can't move again. I am paralyzed.

• 8:33Charles Liu?

  All right, but you know, this is a very interesting point and we'll, we'll bring up AI right now because as you say, artificial intelligence may well represent a significant part of the next step of the evolution of humanity. Now, there's enhancing human intelligence in the form of AI and then there's completely artificial intelligence, right? In the comics, how many of you are familiar with the Cree Supreme Intelligence? Yeah, good guy, bad guy, maybe we'll see. But long ago, when this Cree Supreme Intelligence was created, it was the idea that all the great minds of the Cree civilization after they died were sort of dumped into this vat and somehow like joined together to create a gigantic AI. All right, and this AI, of course, has this weird shape in a vat.

• 9:18Charles Liu?

  I don't know why they need a vat anymore, but it's still in a vat.

• 9:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, brain in a vat, Cree in a vat.

• 9:24Charles Liu?

  So the Cree Supreme, yeah, the Cree Supreme Intelligence is kind of a little crazy and kind of dangerous and scary and has more than once sought the destruction of Earth or different parts of it, right? On the other hand, I think sometimes an AI of the Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke Time Odyssey series where AIs are created and actually there is a huge one that basically sacrifices itself to save humanity on Earth.

• 9:47Chuck Nice?

  That's the kind I like.

• 9:49Charles Liu?

  Well, there's also Wally, right? The little tiny guy who saves, who saves humanity also. There's both benevolent and kind of evil worried parts of it. Which one do you think we're going for, PJ?

• 10:04Speaker 06

  Both.

• 10:05Speaker 05

  Not hedging my bets either. It really depends also on the kind of AI we're talking about. So, you know, we've got, we already live in a world of AI.

• 10:15Charles Liu?

  Yes.

• 10:16Speaker 05

  Connect to the worldwide mind. We have, when you go on kayak.com, right? You're, you're using very narrow AI to find those flights. You're telling the AI what you want and it has a goal to find you the flights. AI, in theory, if you keep on giving it a goal that can't turn around and bite us in the butt, should be fine.

• 10:43Chuck Nice?

  What if you like getting bitten in the butt?

• 10:47Speaker 05

  Oh Chuck, you just told me a whole lot about you, baby.

• 10:53Charles Liu?

  Family show, family show.

• 10:57Charles Liu?

  And you programmed kayak to bite you in the butt. Now that's a scary.

• 11:01Chuck Nice?

  That's my hotel.

• 11:03Speaker 05

  But to the larger question you're asking is, you know, for instance, we have people who give us warnings about AI. We have Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk.

• 11:13Charles Liu?

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, Hawking's concern is, in my personal opinion, a little bit of a movie concern. That somehow the people making AI will have absolutely no clue about what they're making, and it'll suddenly run away with itself.

• 11:29Charles Liu?

  Like Ultron.

• 11:30Chuck Nice?

  Right. Isn't that, isn't that premised upon the fact that the AI itself becomes sentient in that it's self-aware? So now it becomes self-determining because it has some awareness.

• 11:42Speaker 05

  But then you've got an issue of consciousness, right? I don't know about, I don't know about your consciousness.

• 11:49Charles Liu?

  Okay.

• 11:49Speaker 05

  But sentience is, is actually quite difficult to achieve.

• 11:52Charles Liu?

  And, and Elon Musk's concern is that?

• 11:55Speaker 05

  Elon Musk's concern is that he doesn't want bad actors making AI. That's actually a different, a slightly different concern. He's concerned that someone will consciously decide to create a bad AI. And that his big concern, and this is actually my, where my interest lies, is he understands, he's developing neural lace right now, which originally came from Ian Bank's culture series. So he's actually making it. So it's, and I write about it in my next book, it's a little lace that lays between the membrane and your brain, and it interconnects, it creates a higher level of connectivity with the different parts of your brain.

• 12:37Chuck Nice?

  It's like a neural net booster.

• 12:39Speaker 05

  Right. And it's also allows outside connectivity as well.

• 12:42Charles Liu?

  Neuro hairnet.

• 12:43Speaker 05

  Neuro hairnet. There you go. There you go.

• 12:46Charles Liu?

  Now, another thing that Elon Musk is well-known for is SpaceX, right? And he's trying to launch stuff up there and spacecraft, and he recently made a bold statement about wanting to send people to Mars over the, you know, thousands and thousands of them over the next several decades. Now Emily, your research has to do with things like exoplanets nearby. That we can't find. Your sense of Elon Musk, what is your take that whether or not that's science fiction or science fact? Do you have any ideas of whether or not we could get to Mars in the next few decades?

• 13:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I have a, from my very, very uninformed opinion, I think we can do it. Like, what, you know, if, if somebody's gonna, the technology is there, we need the program, we need the money, we need the interest of people willing to go. And I don't think there's a shorthand of people willing to go to Mars. Do we dare?

• 13:32Chuck Nice?

  My applause.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  How many people in this room would go to fucking Mars? Yeah. And there was actually.

• 13:38Chuck Nice?

  Very brave souls.

• 13:40Speaker 03

  So the first astronomy on tap that we did in Baltimore, one of our speakers was not actually a professional astronomer, but was one of the Mars One finalists.

• 13:49Chuck Nice?

  Whoa.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  And that was a huge, it was, she had made the round, she was on the Larry Wilmore Show, I had seen her before. And it was just fascinating to see her, like, you know, talk about her career, talk about her family, and then be like, I want to go die on another planet.

• 14:04Charles Liu?

  Oh.

• 14:04Speaker 03

  And it, I, I thought it was a really admirable, we're all gonna die here, right? Unless we can do something about it.

• 14:10Charles Liu?

  I'd, I'd rather live. We're working on.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:12Charles Liu?

  I'd rather live on a planet, another planet, than die on another planet. But speaking of other planets, of course, because you're doing things that are dim and nearby and hard to find, obviously, we're talking exoplanets, right?

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:26Charles Liu?

  And there was recent information that after 25 plus years of searching and possible detections that were borderline here and there, now astronomers in Europe have now pretty certainly found some sort of planet orbiting the star closest to the sun. Tell us about that.

• 14:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, oh, this is super exciting. So not only do we have some phenomenal places in the solar system that we should explore, but now I think we have the next place to go outside of the solar system.

• 14:54Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  Has everybody heard about this planet? It's called Proxima B.

• 14:57Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 14:58Speaker 03

  So Proxima is actually the closest star to the sun. There's Alpha Centauri A and B, which are visible in the night sky if you're in the southern hemisphere. And then Proxima happens to be this much lower mass star that's.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  Just like orbiting the two other, the two other stars are more massive, they're more sun-like stars, and then Proxima B is orbiting them on a very, very wide orbit. And right now, it happens to be closer to Earth than those other two stars are. And that's like, this is just mind-blowing to me that, you know, 20 years ago or so, we only had an inkling that there was even planets around other stars. Any kind of sci-fi that involved that was just, you know, maybe it's true, we think it's true, but we had no direct evidence. And now, there's thousands of planets that we know about, and one of them is right next door.

• 15:47Charles Liu?

  Now, is Proxima-

• 15:48Speaker 03

  It's been there the whole time.

• 15:49Charles Liu?

  Is Proxima B, based on your scientific evaluation of the data that's come in so far, actually habitable?

• 15:54Speaker 03

  (laughing)

• 15:55Charles Liu?

  Because, you know, news reports are suggesting, "Well, it might be in the Goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too cold, and whatever." But what's your, are there subtleties that aren't being expressed right now?

• 16:05Speaker 03

  There's a lot of stuff that goes into it. So, I don't want to downplay anything, because it is super-duper-incredibly exciting that we have a planet four light-years away. Like, this is something that we can talk to. All these other planets, you know, everybody always asks how far away they are. They're hundreds, thousands of light-years away. Communication is even difficult. And so, you know, travel, don't even think about it. But this one is so close, that there is a real possibility of, you know, communicating on some kind of normal timescale. It's the target for the Starshot.

• 16:34Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 16:35Speaker 03

  That's what it's called, the Starshot of actually sending something to there within 10 years or something like that, a spacecraft there. But, so not only is it around not a star like the Sun, and a star that we don't understand very well, it's an M-dwarf star, which is the lowest-mass type of star, very different from the Sun. It's luckily the type of stars that I study, and we don't understand them at all. So, I like that for job security.

• 17:01Chuck Nice?

  Wait, that's nice.

• 17:02Speaker 03

  If not for anything else.

• 17:03Chuck Nice?

  They're like the teenagers of stars.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  A little bit, yeah. Except that they also, they never become not teenagers.

• 17:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:13Speaker 03

  They're frustrating.

• 17:14Chuck Nice?

  Oh, then they're like the Chuck Nice of stars.

• 17:19Speaker 03

  It's a good thing and a bad thing because they also like the sun is gonna explode in five billion years. It's got a really limited lifetime.

• 17:26Chuck Nice?

  Happy thoughts.

• 17:28Speaker 03

  But these stars, because they're so low mass, they last forever. Right. So they're actually a great, like in sci-fi terms, they're a great way to think about developing a really complex civilization around another star because you don't have a time limit of the lifetime of that star.

• 17:45Charles Liu?

  So Chuck.

• 17:46Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 17:47Charles Liu?

  Teenager forever, dude.

• 17:49Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 17:50Charles Liu?

  If you were able to live a billion years on this star that won't die for a trillion years, is there something particular you would like to achieve under these circumstances?

• 18:02Chuck Nice?

  No, I'm a teenager, dude. I don't know what I want to do. Stop harshing me, man. I'm gonna make up my mind, maybe when I'm 30, but I'll never be 30.

• 18:12Charles Liu?

  Well said, sir. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna take a short break right now, but more StarTalk All Stars live from New York Comic Con when we come back.

• 18:29Charles Liu?

  And we are back at StarTalk All Stars, live at the New York Comic Con.

• 18:38Charles Liu?

  We have a wonderful crowd here today, and of course, there are thousands of people out there. New York Comic Con exceeds, what, 100,000 attendees every year? It's an amazing group.

• 18:47Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it is.

• 18:48Charles Liu?

  And so we're all-

• 18:49Speaker 03

  Well more, 150?

• 18:50Chuck Nice?

  Holy-

• 18:51Speaker 03

  It's like an off-

• 18:51Speaker 05

  You guys beat San Diego. I think you-

• 18:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 18:58Charles Liu?

  Well-

• 18:58Chuck Nice?

  And you know, the great thing about it is the kind of time and effort that people put in to, you know, the costuming and, you know, it's, there's so much inventiveness and creativity on display here. It really is astonishing. And it's, there's, there's nothing better. I don't care what anyone says. There's nothing more inspiring. There is nothing more hopeful than seeing a fat guy in a Flash outfit.

• 19:30Charles Liu?

  That is awesome. Oh, well, speaking of awesome, all right, Chuck Nice, Emily Rice, PJ Manny. PJ, your book and your sort of raison d'etre has a lot to do with the future and a positive vision of the future coming forward. In the next few years, maybe 10, 15, 20 at most, what do you see as one of the most promising and fascinating technological advances to benefit humanity that you will be watching with great interest?

• 20:05Speaker 05

  I don't write about it, but genomics. I'm really fascinated to see what's going to happen in an ethical way. This is the big key. Technology, swords and plowshares, guys. It's morally neutral. It's what we do with it. From the beginning of humanity to the future of humanity. So with genome alteration, we could do some incredible things to stop horrible diseases, to create longevity, to create a happier humanity, but we got to do it right.

• 20:43Chuck Nice?

  Don't forget making a minotaur.

• 20:46Charles Liu?

  I think my favorite comic version of genomic stuff are the Inhumans, right? They expose their children, their babies, to the tarragon mists and then they wind up with very unusual and interesting mutations. And it's only the royal family that gets it, but anybody else who wants it. And then over the decades, of course, people have messed with it a lot, right? And you mentioned this a little bit earlier, the idea of pluses and minuses, right? And good actors and bad actors using genomics. Is there a particular fear you have for using genomics in a bad way? In the next 20 years, not like far, far future stuff, but what could we really do bad aside from, say, creating a super germ that kills 99.9% of us and turns the rest of us into zombies?

• 21:31Speaker 05

  Right, aside from the classic sci-fi runaway bug or runaway anything scenario, I think it's the... I'm actually afraid of the homogenization of humanity. I'm afraid that people will think that there's a certain... Advantage that's preferable, that everyone will start to want that. I'm really interested in the therapeutic value right now. I want to see diseases go away as much as possible. But when we start making the designer baby thing, while on one hand you could argue that it's a moral necessity to create children who will not have the problems of the past, you could also argue that you don't want them to be created in a way that just gets

• 22:16Speaker 05

  rid of our differences.

• 22:17Charles Liu?

  Now, Emily, this might resonate with you just a little bit because as we all know, you have a star.

• 22:24Speaker 03

  My own designer baby.

• 22:25Charles Liu?

  Which is great. And what I want to ask you, sort of the same question. Let's go with PJ's idea first, and this idea of designer babies from a very personal point of view as you're thinking about the next month or years to come. And then sort of your idea of what may be a technological advance, some sort of scientific advance in the next few years that might really move us forward in a way that's remarkable.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  I think, looking at Comic Con, it's kind of hard to imagine that we could ever homogenize humanity. I think this is my first Comic Con.

• 23:03Charles Liu?

  Oh, we have to give her a hand for that one. All right.

• 23:08Speaker 03

  It is amazing. I have never, like, you know, I tend to dress like this kind of normally because of my fashion blog and stuff, and I have never felt so under dressed in my life. Which is just amazing. And also, like, the, yeah. What was the question? Technology.

• 23:29Charles Liu?

  Yes, technology and children right now, but then 20 years from now, what will your child, you know, be doing that we are, you know, like, I can't work this, here, fix it for me?

• 23:42Speaker 03

  I can't even think about it.

• 23:43Charles Liu?

  Your child will be like, no, this is easy. Look, this is part of life, you know?

• 23:46Speaker 03

  I mean... Okay, this is a little bit personal, but also like I would not be pregnant if I were born 30 years ago because I had IVF.

• 23:55Charles Liu?

  Oh.

• 23:56Speaker 03

  And so that's like something that did not exist, was not readily accessible in my parents' generation.

• 24:03Charles Liu?

  Ah.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  And it's something like if you, you know, ask like a handful of women, you're more likely to do it on the Upper East Side, but you know, if you ask the pregnant woman, like one out of two are pregnant using IVF. And so it's like, it's actually a fairly commonplace thing, which is fantastic. And it's, you know, it's not quite designer babies. I think it's very, very ethical. But it's, it's fantastic to think about, you know, living in this time when so many things that just weren't possible a little while ago are now entirely possible and knows what's going to be happening in the future.

• 24:35Charles Liu?

  I remember as a child, the first in vitro fertilized children.

• 24:39Speaker 03

  It was a huge, what?

• 24:40Charles Liu?

  Test two babies.

• 24:41Speaker 03

  Test two baby. Yeah, it's actually like much.

• 24:43Charles Liu?

  And they, it was a tremendous moral issue. People were protesting some of these doctors, saying, you know, you are creating Frankensteins and monsters and so forth. And a decade later, decades later, PJ.

• 24:54Speaker 05

  But it's always the same argument. We've had the same argument about the natural order of things, that you could actually just take out the technology, and we've had the same argument since the Middle Ages.

• 25:03Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Speaker 05

  And, you know.

• 25:05Charles Liu?

  Excellent point. So that's a thing that really matters now. Now, for me, I believe that in the next 10 to 20 years, the thing that we will appreciate the most is actually space travel. Interstellar, no, absolutely not. Okay? That's just not happening. The Martian, though, yes. I believe that Andy Weir and his techno knowledge and so forth is right there. But for me, that opens up an interesting can of worms. Now, PJ, as an author, and you understand this, you know, people like Andy Weir, they've got. That technical knowledge that's showing sci fi as it very likely will be in the next couple of years. But then there are the greats like Ursula Le Guin.

• 25:47Charles Liu?

  Ursula was all psycho stuff and really understanding what happens to people as you go forward. Then you have mixtures, people like Greg Bear. Moving Mars was one of the seminal sci fi novels of my youth, where you're talking about what happens if indeed people go colonize Mars and then they decide they don't want Mars in the solar system anymore. And what does that happen to society and so on? From your perspective, I mean, can you see the same kind of psychological changes in humanity when we start going to the moon again and to Mars again on a regular basis?

• 26:20Speaker 05

  I think it's going to open up an enormous amount of possibility that we went to the moon and then we forgot about it. And it was, you know, we had other fish to fry and recessions.

• 26:32Charles Liu?

  If we had found gold on the moon, we would not have forgotten about it.

• 26:36Speaker 05

  We have that now. We've got an asteroid space race.

• 26:39Charles Liu?

  Mining asteroids.

• 26:40Speaker 05

  Asteroid mining. And that's actually going to happen, guys. That's not just, oh, you know, hypey articles and stuff. I have friends who are actually in the companies. They're developing the technologies. They're studying the asteroids and that's going to happen. So I do think we're going to start sending, if not people, certainly a lot of stuff going out into space.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Very charismatic robots.

• 27:04Charles Liu?

  Wow.

• 27:05Speaker 03

  No joke. I mean, how many people cried when when Philly died and Rosetta? You guys know about the Rosetta Comet mission?

• 27:12Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 27:13Speaker 03

  And Rosetta just crashed into the comet and the Philly lander like kind of made it onto the comet and that was heartbreaking because the...

• 27:19Charles Liu?

  True. Rosetta tweeted out, "It's been a pleasure, folks."

• 27:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. Little character.

• 27:26Charles Liu?

  We put humanity in our machines, right? And that's why, to me, when we explore the universe with robots, it counts.

• 27:34Speaker 05

  Absolutely counts.

• 27:35Charles Liu?

  It counts. Chuck?

• 27:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 27:38Charles Liu?

  Give me a technological advance that you see in the next 10 to 20 years that you think will improve and revolutionize our lives.

• 27:46Chuck Nice?

  Well, in the next 10 to 20 years, I am, just like for you, I am looking forward to being able to get pregnant.

• 27:55Charles Liu?

  Oh.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Woo!

• 27:57Charles Liu?

  Whoa.

• 27:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:59Chuck Nice?

  And why not? You know what I mean? I just want to be able to say, "Not without my baby."

• 28:08Chuck Nice?

  You and Sally Field.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  Very, very fun.

• 28:11Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 28:11Speaker 03

  Cut in line at the bathroom. I'm sorry if I've cut anybody in line for the bathroom. But I have that to look forward to.

• 28:17Chuck Nice?

  No, I think that, quite frankly, we're already on the precipice with two things. So this device right here. Your tricorder? This is my tricorder. Thank you very much. And it no longer flips. It used to flip. You mean like this transporter? Oh my God. Oh my God.

• 28:40Chuck Nice?

  I can't believe you have a flip phone. Do me a favor. Just open that up and go Kirk to Enterprise. Kirk to Enterprise.

• 28:52Chuck Nice?

  Dude, that is stellar. So I believe that we are already on the precipice of some of the most astounding technological advances that will actually stem from this right here. Combined with wearables, okay? So, and I'm talking about medical technology where you will be able to monitor everything from your own insulin to talking to your doctor who will be in California because he's a specialist that will be able to treat you because you are holding this in your hand while he is doing and making whatever diagnostic assessment that he must make.

• 29:34Speaker 03

  Or she.

• 29:34Chuck Nice?

  Or she. Sorry. Sorry. Gotta be gender neutral. You are correct. Well said, Dr. Rice. Well said, doctor.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  Not that kind of doctor.

• 29:46Chuck Nice?

  Astronomer, not a doctor, damn it.

• 29:52Chuck Nice?

  So I think that we're already there and that the changes that are coming about are going to be absolutely massive and astounding. And I also believe that we're going to have to change the way we run our world economy because along with these advancements, we are going to see a shift, tectonic shift in economies and economies of scale. Oh, wow. If we do not get away from this mind. Mind, gimme, gimme, gimme, gotta get more type of society. We are going to screw ourselves royally. Amen. What I love about Comic Con is that when you bring the type of people who have this mentality that we have in this room together, we are looking beyond ourselves to a greater good

• 30:35Chuck Nice?

  and a greater future and in the hope of mankind. And that, my friend, as corny as it may sound, is going to be the foundation for our advancement going forward.

• 30:45Charles Liu?

  Well said, sir. Well done. Well said. Very nice.

• 30:56Charles Liu?

  So it is now time for us to move to questions and answers. All of you who would like to ask a question about this wonderful panel on any topic, please come to the microphone. And we already have one right there. Go ahead. Yes, please.

• 31:10Speaker 07

  All right, so my question's basically about inequality and technologically, technological advancements.

• 31:16Charles Liu?

  Uh huh.

• 31:16Speaker 07

  So a lot of what you've talked about, as we know, is only going to be available to the top whatever percent of people. So do you see this pushing the inequality gap to the point where we essentially kill off those who are at the lower end? Or do you see technological advancements that appeal to the younger or the, I guess, like the less equal, like lower end spectrum?

• 31:38Charles Liu?

  PJ, this is obviously in your strike zone.

• 31:42Speaker 05

  There, there are two schools of thought and they work simultaneously. And one thing you'll always hear from me is I often say both answers because the world is complex and we live in paradoxes and there is no easy answer. Okay?

• 31:57Speaker 05

  So the cell phones are actually a perfect example of a top down technology that now suffuses the entire globe. I remember when my dad had the brick in the eighties, like it was this giant thing and no one had, you know, and you were so excited to find somebody else you could actually talk to and it was ridiculous.

• 32:18Charles Liu?

  Hello, mobile operator. Hey.

• 32:20Speaker 05

  Right, right, exactly.

• 32:21Charles Liu?

  Guess what? I'm calling you with a cellphone. Yeah.

• 32:24Speaker 05

  No, really. So, this is a perfect example of a technology that did, it needed the early adopters to pay ridiculously high prices, or to eventually suffuse to a ubiquitous technological item. But, when it comes to the stuff that goes inside of us, and is considered medical technology, I think we're gonna have a harder time because of how our economics of medicine work. And there're going to be things that you can only afford if you're very rich, and medicine won't pay for yet, etc. So, the possibility is there for an eventual ubiquity, but we have to fight for it.

• 33:06Speaker 05

  If it's about human technologies. So, that would be my answer is I do believe we're gonna have to keep on top of our governments, our institutions, and make sure that these technologies are not only available for the very rich.

• 33:23Chuck Nice?

  Nerds of the world, unite!

• 33:25Speaker 05

  Amen!

• 33:29Speaker 05

  You can say that for pretty much anything.

• 33:31Charles Liu?

  And now we have Ash Ketchum, who's about to say something?

• 33:34Speaker 08

  No.

• 33:34Charles Liu?

  No.

• 33:36Speaker 05

  Someone, can someone help with the mic? Yeah, can we?

• 33:39Speaker 08

  Gravity Falls.

• 33:40Charles Liu?

  Oh, yes, that's right.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  Neil on Gravity Falls?

• 33:42Charles Liu?

  Gravity Falls. Was I on Gravity Falls?

• 33:44Speaker 05

  Neil was, wasn't he?

• 33:45Charles Liu?

  Neil, Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes, he sure was on Gravity Falls.

• 33:48Speaker 05

  We've gotta give him some kind of shout out, right?

• 33:50Charles Liu?

  That's true. StarTalk All-Stars with...

• 33:52Speaker 08

  Not, not, not, come on.

• 33:55Charles Liu?

  It's okay, Gravity Falls. Yep, it's all good. Sometimes it's hard, because, you know, gotta catch 'em all. All right.

• 34:04Charles Liu?

  Your question, sir. Uh, yes?

• 34:08Speaker 08

  Um, if there, or per se, if there were to be an exoplanet, or a planet, that sustained life, that we could communicate with and travel to, what would be the next step?

• 34:25Charles Liu?

  Like after we got there, what would we do next?

• 34:27Speaker 08

  Like, after we've found this planet that we can communicate with, and that there's definitely life on, what would be the next step?

• 34:36Charles Liu?

  Oh, nice. Let's say we found Earth 2, right?

• 34:38Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, very cool.

• 34:39Charles Liu?

  How many of you remember the TV show Earth 2? Aired on Sunday nights at 7:00 PM, right, on NBC? I liked it, it was great. A little kid called Ulysses, yeah, it was lots... It eventually jumped the shark, but it was a cool idea for a few moments, yeah. Emily, what do you think? What would we do next?

• 34:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, so let's say we're not there yet. It's a lot of things that you said, but I like that you said all of the things. We have to find one that's Earth... Maybe we don't need to find one that's Earth-like, honestly, but we have to find one with life on it, and we have to find one we can communicate with. And once we do, that's a lot of big steps to take, but once we do, oh my goodness, it's gonna be a game changer. Throw all of our money at it.

• 35:14Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 35:15Speaker 03

  All of our money, all of our scientists, seriously. There is... I cannot think of a bigger seismic shift in our understanding of our place in the universe. We... And it's probably out there, that's the great thing. There are so many planets, there's such a diversity of life on Earth. There's just so many planets out there that there has to be life somewhere. But finding that, and finding it at the same time as we are... The universe is 13.7 billion years old. We've only been here for, you know, a flicker. 10 years, 100 years that we've been able to communicate. And space is also a problem. We have to find something close by enough that we can communicate at the speed of light at a regular, at a decent amount of time.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  You know, four years, 10 years, back and forth for each message. And after that, just throw everything at it. If we do find something that close, and that communicable, go for it, everything.

• 36:12Chuck Nice?

  But first, we have to make sure there are nothing like the Borg.

• 36:19Speaker 05

  I don't know about that, Chuck. I actually think, you know, if you're a Borg, you're pretty happy.

• 36:25Speaker 09

  Your existence, as you know it, is coming.

• 36:28Speaker 08

  Am I allowed, am I permitted to say two things?

• 36:32Charles Liu?

  Okay. Um, well, you know, look, we've got Mortal Kombat, Booster Gold, the Squire of Gothos, Spider Woman. Uh, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, real quick.

• 36:41Speaker 08

  I... I wanted to mention, um, space elevators, or... What you wanna call it? I can't think of the name. Um...

• 36:55Charles Liu?

  The technology of space elevators?

• 36:57Speaker 08

  Yeah, the technology of the, uh, those large, like, what?

• 37:08Speaker 08

  Not superstructures.

• 37:10Charles Liu?

  Uh huh.

• 37:10Speaker 08

  There's been talk of creating something involving like a tether.

• 37:17Charles Liu?

  Oh, yeah.

• 37:18Chuck Nice?

  That is, isn't that a space elevator?

• 37:20Charles Liu?

  Let's talk about that, yeah.

• 37:21Chuck Nice?

  Right? Why is a space elevator where you?

• 37:23Charles Liu?

  Space elevator and a tether, yes.

• 37:24Chuck Nice?

  Where you have the station above, but go ahead.

• 37:26Charles Liu?

  Right.

• 37:26Speaker 08

  Like, um, a mechanism that allows easier travel into space.

• 37:34Charles Liu?

  I believe, I believe that a space elevator is about 50 years away. And the reason I say that is because you can't make something that's 22,000 miles long that can get all the way up into what is essentially geostationary orbit around the Earth and have it not break, ever. Because if it breaks, 11,000 miles of cable landing on your house is no, no, no fun. Thank you very much for your question.

• 38:00Chuck Nice?

  Very cool, very cool.

• 38:01Charles Liu?

  Moving on to the next person, thank you.

• 38:09Charles Liu?

  You know, maybe 20 years from now, we'll have microphone stands that just come up and down.

• 38:12Chuck Nice?

  Automatically.

• 38:14Speaker 10

  So actually, going off the, uh, space elevator question.

• 38:17Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 38:18Speaker 10

  Um, which brings me to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars project.

• 38:22Charles Liu?

  Wonderful stuff.

• 38:23Speaker 10

  So I was wondering, do you think it would be possible to have an engineered ecology for terraforming that would actually be robust enough to be self-sustaining?

• 38:33Charles Liu?

  Terraforming. Emily, I think, I think you're the one who can think about environments most effectively. I know that, uh, there are Martian, uh, thinkers who suggest that 1,000 years would be a reasonable time length to eco-form or terraform Mars. But, uh, do you have any insight on whether or not it would be faster?

• 38:52Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, we've got one example of how quickly we're terraforming something, although it's kind of anti-terraforming.

• 38:59Charles Liu?

  Uh, yeah.

• 39:00Speaker 03

  So it can happen pretty quickly. And I think, like, you know, we've got to understand the one that we're on and what we're doing with it and be honest about what's happening and what's causing it. I think the scientists know, and for some reason, we don't want to believe that it's something that we've done ourselves or that it's as catastrophic as it actually is. And it's pretty damn bad. But I mean, that bodes well for being able to do it to other planets, because exactly what we're doing to Earth right now is basically what we would have to do to Mars to make it habitable. Pump CO2 into the atmosphere, you know, warm it up a little bit.

• 39:35Charles Liu?

  Shipping some cows over to Mars, Chuck, what do you think?

• 39:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes, without a doubt. Get your ass to Mars.

• 39:40Charles Liu?

  Thank you for your question. Yes, Mortal Kombat.

• 39:46Speaker 06

  Undercat.

• 39:47Charles Liu?

  Undercats.

• 39:48Speaker 06

  I was locked on here.

• 39:50Charles Liu?

  All right.

• 39:51Chuck Nice?

  All right, Lionel, give it to us.

• 39:53Speaker 06

  So my question is going back to genetic alteration. So assuming that technology was in place for interplanetary travel and extreme genetic alteration, what would be the most beneficial human enhancement to exist on other planets? And would it be ethical to breed it into our children?

• 40:11Chuck Nice?

  Wow, dude, that is a great question.

• 40:14Speaker 05

  Excellent question.

• 40:15Charles Liu?

  You know, just from a purely entertainment perspective, I would love to be able to genetically engineer it so that my hands are gigantic.

• 40:23Speaker 05

  That is the weirdest superpower ever.

• 40:27Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. That's the same power Donald Trump wants.

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Can I take a guess? I want to guess, knowing nothing, but I am absolutely, like, even this stuff is a mystery to me still. But I want to guess that our biggest weakness is psychological.

• 40:48Speaker 05

  Oh, I wasn't going to go there.

• 40:50Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. I was going to say tell that to radiation.

• 40:53Speaker 05

  Thank you, Chuck. You took the wind right out of my sails.

• 40:58Charles Liu?

  So PJ, you think?

• 40:59Speaker 05

  Radiation is definitely going to be a big issue.

• 41:03Speaker 05

  We already have a slight radiation issue when we're still within the Earth's, you know, we're in orbit and we're still within the Earth's gravitational pull and our protective,

• 41:15Speaker 05

  somebody's actually an astrophysicist.

• 41:18Charles Liu?

  Atmosphere from cosmic.

• 41:19Speaker 05

  The atmos, right.

• 41:20Charles Liu?

  So you're saying that.

• 41:21Speaker 05

  When we're going to Mars, we don't have the production. There's no ozone, there's nothing. And I do worry about DNA degradation.

• 41:30Charles Liu?

  So let's genetically.

• 41:31Speaker 03

  If you send enough people, yeah, it's still random, right? So it's like, you know, even flying, like going a little bit higher in the atmosphere, you get more.

• 41:39Charles Liu?

  Exposure.

• 41:40Speaker 03

  High energy radiation, and so you're more likely to have genetic mutations.

• 41:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, we're talking factors.

• 41:45Speaker 03

  But are astronauts like having, you know, astronauts that have gone to the moon like haven't died of cancer?

• 41:49Charles Liu?

  So far, so good, yes.

• 41:51Speaker 05

  They're not there long enough, we're talking about Mars.

• 41:53Charles Liu?

  Yeah, we're talking, you know, eight months, 16 months. So.

• 41:56Speaker 03

  So we'll have to watch, there's like genetic studies like of the Kelly astronauts.

• 42:00Speaker 05

  Right, exactly.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  Twin studies that are, that are being done and things like that to see what the long-term effects are.

• 42:04Charles Liu?

  So let's engineer like a space rat that is completely resistant to radiation poisoning and then splice those genes into us and then turn us into that, right? And we out there and all good. What's the thought?

• 42:16Speaker 05

  I'm actually not worried about the psychological issues as much because when we look at the history of humanity and we see how many people have moved so far, so long in small groups, we're actually by nature as a species wanderers. So I think we're going to do pretty fine as we get, yeah, there's going to be tensions, there are going to be issues and et cetera, and you want the people who are best suited to overcome those issues. But I do believe that it's much more going to be medical issues because we also have.

• 42:49Speaker 03

  It's very reassuring, actually. I've never thought about it that way. Yeah, I like that kind of longer-term perspective.

• 42:55Charles Liu?

  Okay, let's get some more questions in. Thank you so much for that question. Thank you. Yeah. Very nice.

• 43:02Speaker 11

  Hello, I'm John and I have a question for Chuck specifically.

• 43:06Chuck Nice?

  Oh, ah, okay.

• 43:07Speaker 11

  So, I've been listening to your entertainment comedy in various ways for a long time, since you were on The Radio Chick back when 92.3 was free FM.

• 43:15Chuck Nice?

  Yes, sir. You go way back.

• 43:17Speaker 11

  So, since we're on the topic, it changed today. I wanted to know what, what kind of meaning did comedy have in your life back then? How has it changed now that you've kind of moved into the nerd sphere? And where do you think it's gonna be five years from now, 10 years?

• 43:30Chuck Nice?

  Um, to be honest, so I was always in the nerd sphere. I was just closeted.

• 43:36Speaker 05

  Well done. It's nice to have you.

• 43:38Chuck Nice?

  It's just like, I'm out and proud now.

• 43:43Chuck Nice?

  Uh, and working with Dr. Tyson has, you know, allowed that to pretty much manifest itself. But no, comedy and comedians always, it always stems from one thing, and that is the deeper thought. So, how do I find a different perspective? And that's how you write and present comedy. It's always about, everyone looks at things this way. How do I switch the, the view so that I can find a humor in it? And, you know, and that I don't think will change ever, to be honest. I don't care how old I get, and by the way, I'm 22.

• 44:23Charles Liu?

  Thank you for your question. Wonderful. All right.

• 44:28Charles Liu?

  Yes.

• 44:30Speaker 12

  First off, thank you for correctly identifying me.

• 44:32Charles Liu?

  Hey, Booster Gold, the man.

• 44:35Speaker 12

  Uh, secondly, my question is regarding AI and robotic ethics and robo-psychology. And what do you see in the future for that? Because even with the relatively rudimentary AIs we have today, we are witnessing emergent behaviors that could not have been predicted by simply sniffing through the line of code. You have Twitter bots that accidentally become Nazis.

• 44:53Charles Liu?

  Oh, yeah.

• 44:55Speaker 05

  That was a great example, you know, if, if you're not familiar with it, this was the Microsoft, uh, bot that they, chatbot that they created. And they put it on Twitter and they wanted her to learn. And what she learned was to be an absolute neo-Nazi.

• 45:09Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 45:09Speaker 05

  A sexist, racist, everything, horror show. So, uh, they quickly pulled it, but it was, it was extraordinary to watch in virtually no time. So, yes, I mean, this was actually a perfect example of an experiment where they went, woo, wow, okay, that's not the direction to go in.

• 45:31Speaker 05

  There's so many different directions right now in terms of if you isolate the AI from the robotics, in terms of people who are trying to engineer, let me figure out what human consciousness is, and then I can try to figure out AI. Then there are people who are just trying to figure out just natural language. So the Turing test is enough for them, as long as it can chat, and they're good with that. And then you have people who are looking at AI from the neural net standpoint. It's actually learning to learn. So you've got all these different kinds of AIs. Everybody's working in a different sphere. It's a race, like many technological races. In terms of robotics, and you can laugh all you want, but in terms of human-style robotics, the first thing you're going to see, and I

• 46:14Speaker 05

  don't know if I can actually say this on a family-friendly show, sex bots.

• 46:18Charles Liu?

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 05

  So...

• 46:20Charles Liu?

  No one's ever thought of that before.

• 46:22Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, but you know, there's a reason why that industry leads in technologies as the wedge into technologies. So I think we're going to see a lot of very...

• 46:34Charles Liu?

  You said wedge.

• 46:36Speaker 05

  So I think we're going to see the humanoid, the android, that's where we're going to start with androids. And then they'll become more and more useful.

• 46:49Speaker 03

  There's got to be a demand for something, right? Like, the reason we went to the moon was because we wanted to beat the Russians there. Like, the reason we're going to develop AI is because we want to have sex with things. Perfect sense.

• 47:03Charles Liu?

  In a perfect sense.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  Like, as long as something good comes out of it, let's go back to the moon. By the way... I'm getting with that.

• 47:11Chuck Nice?

  That is such an awesome outfit that you could leave here and go to any disco in New York City. They would lift the rope for you.

• 47:22Charles Liu?

  All right. Thank you very much for your question. All credit to Blue Beetle for the costume.

• 47:25Chuck Nice?

  Chuck, we only have eight minutes. Chuck, we have eight minutes.

• 47:28Charles Liu?

  Yeah, we are running low on time. This is what I need to do. Okay, I want to get to as many questions as possible. We have to do at least one closeout of the show right now. And so we'll do that. And then if all you all do need to go elsewhere, because there are a lot of amazing things going on, don't feel like sad that you have to go. But then we're gonna try to answer as many questions as possible before 1:15, when we actually are kicked out.

• 47:49Chuck Nice?

  And if I may, right afterwards, I'm gonna go out front here in the area. And anybody for StarTalk All Access, I'm going to be filming questions for Dr. Tyson. So if you want to ask a question, and then it will be played directly on the air. And so if you have a question that you, he won't, I won't answer it. Okay, just let you know.

• 48:12Charles Liu?

  So, so we're gonna do show outro number one right now. But then, stay if you want, go if you need. And then we will do more questions till the very last moment, and then do show outro number two. Okay? Are we ready to do show outro number one? This has been an amazing, fun time for us. Chuck Nice, thank you so much for being the co-host, as always. Wonderful to work with you.

• 48:32Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, sir.

• 48:33Charles Liu?

  Uh huh. Dr. Emily Rice, my colleague, my friend. Thank you so much for bringing us the science of the sci-fi. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And PJ, thank you so much, as always. Make sure you get this book, PJ Manning, Revolution, nominated for the Philip K. Dick 2016 Award. Thank you so much for bringing all your knowledge.

• 48:53Speaker 05

  Thank you so much. This has been awesome, guys!

• 48:56Charles Liu?

  Ladies and gentlemen, this is StarTalk All Stars, live at New York Comic Con. I'm Charles Liu. Thank you so much for being part of all of this wonderful fun. Enjoy the universe, everyone. See you later.

• 49:08Speaker 04

  Thank you!

• 49:13Charles Liu?

  All right, thank you. And yes, a Starfleet Academy alum. Yes, which class?

• 49:18Speaker 13

  Definitely Next Generation.

• 49:20Charles Liu?

  So you graduated with Picard?

• 49:22Speaker 13

  No, he was ahead of me. He was ahead of me.

• 49:24Charles Liu?

  He was ahead of you, okay.

• 49:25Speaker 13

  Right, so...

• 49:27Charles Liu?

  Yes, as you may, ladies and gentlemen, be a little bit quiet because we are still taping, but thank you so, so much, really. I wish we could get to everybody. Thank you. Shhh.

• 49:35Speaker 13

  In the vein of Star Trek, you did mention that we probably would use all of our resources if we found life on another planet, but don't we have as a species a responsibility to the Prime Directive? We wouldn't want aliens to have colonized us or come to us in our infantile stage before we achieved any kind of species awareness. And it just, how responsible would it be ethically for us to go to another planet if there is life there and impose whatever form that life is? I mean, don't we have a responsibility to let it evolve on its own path until it at least achieves some level of consciousness?

• 50:13Charles Liu?

  Yeah, Emily first.

• 50:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're, I mean, we, it's more realistic to think about that in the solar system even, and we've been really, really careful about that. And I mean by us, I mean NASA. We probably haven't always, it's like, as our technology advances, our kind of bar for protecting potential life in other places also gets higher. And so there was a little bit of worry with one of the older Mars missions.

• 50:41Charles Liu?

  Viking?

• 50:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, Viking, with the Viking mission, that we might have contaminated Viking before we sent it to Mars. And so any kind of life that might have been detected, it was, I forget exactly if it was something that we put there or something that we didn't calibrate well enough or something like that. But there's actually somebody whose job it is at NASA to make sure that things are as clean as possible, and that things are as like, least disruptive as possible. Because that's the, we don't want to get there, I'm sure that's a, am I thinking of it from Futurama or something like that? Like the lander like, squishes the bug as it lands on the planet. And it's like, that's exactly what we don't want to do. And we also have to kind of keep an open mind for... What life is, that's also the fantastic thing is that, you know, we can talk about

• 51:26Speaker 03

  life as we know it, which is one thing, and we can also talk about, we don't even know what life potentially means. And so, keeping our minds and our instruments open to detect something that might be living in a sense that's totally different from the way we live, I think is really important to keep track of. And it's an ethical responsibility, yeah.

• 51:47Charles Liu?

  Excellent. Thank you for your question.

• 51:48Chuck Nice?

  Our own prime directive, that's basically it. We got to adhere to it.

• 51:52Charles Liu?

  Right. Yes.

• 51:54Speaker 14

  Okay, assuming and hoping for a very successful launch of the James Webb Telescope.

• 51:59Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 51:59Charles Liu?

  Thank you.

• 51:59Speaker 14

  What are you hoping to find, and how do you think that'll affect your research?

• 52:02Charles Liu?

  Well, I'm a galaxies guy. So, for me, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the successor intellectually to the Hubble Space Telescope, hopefully to be launched in just a year or two. Yeah.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  October 2018. Mark your calendars.

• 52:16Charles Liu?

  Mark it on your calendars. I'm going on sabbatical that month. The James Webb Space Telescope will really allow us to look at the origins of galaxies the way they are. As many of you know, sun is just one star amongst hundreds of billions within our own Milky Way galaxy, and yet there are billions of galaxies out in the universe, too. So, I'm looking at cosmological origins, our understanding of where our really big neighborhood came from to the present day. These are things that have never been seen before and will not be seeable with anything less powerful than the James Webb Space Telescope.

• 52:50Speaker 03

  And I'm kind of interested in the other scales, because with the James Webb Space Telescope, we'll be able to study the atmospheres of extrasolar planets much more than we ever have been before. Like, so we know about these thousands of planets, but for the vast majority of them, we're making very, very simple measurements, either just mass, and then even a lower limit on mass, or just a radius. And so, if we're lucky enough to have both, we might be able to get a bulk density from basic physics, but we know nothing about its atmosphere. We might be able to get a little bit of composition from that bulk density. But the atmosphere is the important thing. I mean, think about the difference between Earth and Venus. They're very similar in terms of mass, very similar in terms of radius, hugely different in terms of atmosphere. But with the James Webb Space Telescope, we'll

• 53:35Speaker 03

  be able to directly detect some exoplanet atmospheres. Still a very small number, but it's a huge step forward in our understanding of where to potentially search for life on other planets.

• 53:46Charles Liu?

  Wonderful.

• 53:47Chuck Nice?

  Good question.

• 53:48Charles Liu?

  Yes. All

• 53:50Charles Liu?

  We are out of time. But all of you who are lined up for questions, I will not leave. I'll come out here, we'll happy to answer questions as you come out, okay? Thank you so much. Let's do the second outro. We are done for today. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. My co-host Chuck Nice. Yes. My colleague Dr. Emily Rice. Our friend and new doc PJ Manny. Hi. This has been StarTalk, live at New York Comic Con. StarTalk All-Stars, live at the New York Comic Con. Thank you all so much for coming here. Enjoy the universe, everyone.

• 54:21Speaker 00

  This is StarTalk.