Cosmic Queries – ALIENS! with Jake Roper

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

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

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk, Cosmic Queries Edition. Chuck.

• 0:20Chuck Nice?

  Hey Neil.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People love them Cosmic Queries.

• 0:22Chuck Nice?

  They do. We have a lot of inquiring minds.

• 0:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a good thi- that's a good thing.

• 0:26Chuck Nice?

  That is a good thing.

• 0:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, actually, in Cosmic Queries, we bring in other people who are the experts, and I just get to sit and listen.

• 0:31Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 0:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I learn too.

• 0:32Chuck Nice?

  So, there you have it. Who knew you were still capable of learning something?

• 0:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What kind of, what?

• 0:39Chuck Nice?

  The man who knows everything?

• 0:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I never said I don't know everything. Okay.

• 0:43Chuck Nice?

  There's very, well, okay.

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Today's subject: aliens in film and TV.

• 0:47Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 0:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Big subject.

• 0:49Chuck Nice?

  That is a big subject.

• 0:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Big subject.

• 0:51Chuck Nice?

  Huge subject.

• 0:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For something for which there's no data.

• 0:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Aliens. Now, I got my own thoughts about aliens, but there are people out there who are more alien fluent than I am.

• 1:02Chuck Nice?

  All right, before we get to our alien fluency, do you believe in aliens?

• 1:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not about a believe, no.

• 1:10Chuck Nice?

  Okay, do you believe that we are alone in the universe?

• 1:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Isn't that, is that one of the questions?

• 1:13Chuck Nice?

  No, I just ask, I'm asking you personally.

• 1:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I... It would be inexcusably egocentric for anyone to suggest that we on Earth are alone in the universe. Given how old the universe is, the prevalence of the chemistry that manifests in life, we see that biochemistry, that organic chemistry, all across the universe. And how long it took life to show up on Earth, it's pretty quick. About 100 million years, sounds like a long time, short compared to the span of the Earth. And of the universe, so it would be astonishing if we were alone.

• 1:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 1:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I'm saying.

• 1:56Chuck Nice?

  All right, very diplomatically placed without actually saying yes or no. But I, I know exactly what you mean, so it's great.

• 2:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I'm giving you.

• 2:04Chuck Nice?

  It's a good answer.

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I'm giving you.

• 2:05Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 2:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, what we have, who we have here.

• 2:07Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 2:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is the one and only Jake Roper.

• 2:09Chuck Nice?

  What?

• 2:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake!

• 2:11Chuck Nice?

  Hello.

• 2:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got your resume here. Host of Vsauce 3 Science Channel on YouTube.

• 2:17Chuck Nice?

  Vsauce.

• 2:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Could you guess that? He's got a YouTube pillow over his left shoulder.

• 2:21Chuck Nice?

  Good for him.

• 2:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. And you host the YouTube series, Could You Survive the Movies? That is a brilliant concept. Putting people through what goes on in the movies.

• 2:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? That's a brilliant concept. And so do you just never leave home and you watch movies all the time? Or did you like study this in school?

• 2:40Speaker 02

  I mean, it worked out well because yes, like my job is to watch movies and then explore them scientifically.

• 2:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's his job.

• 2:46Speaker 02

  Pretty well.

• 2:47Chuck Nice?

  What a great job.

• 2:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Somebody pays you to do that?

• 2:50Chuck Nice?

  Pays you to watch movies.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  I know. I don't know why, don't tell me.

• 2:54Chuck Nice?

  How do you get my son that job? Okay, because he's actually doing it for free.

• 3:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So in Cosmic Queries, we solicit questions from our audience, and they've been primed on this subject.

• 3:08Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 3:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they're coming in and they know you, but many of them, if not most, are fans of yours. So we're gonna do this in a StarTalk way.

• 3:15Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 3:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So let's do it, Chuck. What do you have?

• 3:17Chuck Nice?

  All right. Well, can I start with my own personal question for you? Uh, is that okay? All right, before we-

• 3:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why are you asking him if it's okay? It's my show.

• 3:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Damn.

• 3:30Chuck Nice?

  Oh, you caught me off guard, man.

• 3:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 3:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, you have my permission to ask him the first question.

• 3:36Chuck Nice?

  Instead of the people who actually-

• 3:40Chuck Nice?

  So I just want to know, in your estimation, what is the easiest movie to survive?

• 3:47Speaker 02

  The easiest movie to survive? If we're talking physically?

• 3:50Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  I would say-

• 3:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of what genre? Of alien movies.

• 3:55Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 3:55Speaker 02

  Like any? Oh, an alien film.

• 3:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  An alien film.

• 3:59Speaker 02

  Hmm, the easiest one to survive?

• 4:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It'd be E.T.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  Well, so here's the thing. I would say E.T. That's what really immediately popped in my head. But then you do have that whole segment where like, oh, we need to quarantine them because who knows what bacteria or viruses you might have.

• 4:13Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  And that to me is kind of the interesting thing. You have this foreign creature here on Earth.

• 4:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:20Speaker 02

  We don't know what it's like.

• 4:20Chuck Nice?

  We have no idea.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  We don't know what it is susceptible to or what we're susceptible to from it.

• 4:26Chuck Nice?

  So at the end of the movie,

• 4:28Speaker 02

  but in reality.

• 4:29Chuck Nice?

  When the kids get him back to the ship, what they don't show you is five weeks later, when they all have these horrible growths coming out the size of their faces. And, yeah, but he's already gone.

• 4:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, and the movie ended.

• 4:43Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 4:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, then they were like, we can't make a sequel because all the kids have horrible tumors.

• 4:48Chuck Nice?

  Awesome.

• 4:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I have a, I have a, two reflections on this.

• 4:52Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One, I've had Steven Spielberg in that chair over there in my office tell me,

• 4:58Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  upon being asked something related, that E.T., what he imagined E.T. as a vegetable and not as an animal.

• 5:07Chuck Nice?

  So he's a plant-based life form?

• 5:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plant-based life, that's correct. Which is, which is how he would have that relationship with the plants, remember?

• 5:16Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yes.

• 5:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it would rebloom. And so that was imagined, but since it's walking and talking and has eyeballs and shoulders, the natural way to think of him is as living.

• 5:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As, as animal life rather than plant life. So that's my first one. Yeah, second point.

• 5:33Chuck Nice?

  Wow, that is a really cool little factoid.

• 5:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, second point.

• 5:37Chuck Nice?

  That is really cool, go ahead.

• 5:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I, and you say, what are your sources? Steven Spielberg.

• 5:42Chuck Nice?

  That's like, that is the ultimate cocktail party smackdown. Yeah, well, I don't know if you know this, but E.T. is actually a plant-based, plant-based life. It's like, yeah, where do you get that from? Steven Spielberg.

• 5:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 5:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 5:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's, it's, I've had people come up to me and say, what, what Wiki page did you get that information from? And I, for other calculations, I said, I calculated it. Somebody actually creates information that goes on the Wiki page.

• 6:08Chuck Nice?

  I'm one of those people.

• 6:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's what it is. So.

• 6:11Chuck Nice?

  It's called math.

• 6:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's called math.

• 6:13Chuck Nice?

  It's called math, dude. What Wiki page did you get that from? Uh, math.

• 6:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What app? The Brain app.

• 6:18Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, what, what app? Yeah, yeah, right here. Go ahead.

• 6:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, also, you can ask, what are the chances we would catch an E.T. disease? If he comes to Earth, what's the chance of that?

• 6:29Chuck Nice?

  Contamination.

• 6:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And here's the problem, the kinds of diseases we think about and know about tend to be very specific to the life forms.

• 6:36Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Think about it, so an oak tree is not gonna get whooping coughed.

• 6:41Chuck Nice?

  Correct. Right. And just like there are certain viruses that, you know, that will not, uh, will not be, um, what's it transmitted, trans-species?

• 6:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, across species, they have to mutate.

• 6:51Chuck Nice?

  They have to mutate in order for that to happen.

• 6:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the idea that an alien from another planet is, has something that's contagious to us, is kinda, is kinda low.

• 7:02Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 7:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause a lot of things that are contagious to other life forms on Earth with whom we have DNA in common are not contagious to us.

• 7:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 7:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I'm saying.

• 7:08Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 7:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But still, we gotta be cautious, just as you said.

• 7:11Chuck Nice?

  Excellent. All right, well, let's get to the queries now, and of course, we always start with the Patreon patron because they support us.

• 7:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 7:19Chuck Nice?

  And we love them for it. This is JB from Patreon, who says, "Hi Neil and Jake, this is Jessica from Arizona. In 2005, the movie War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise, these machines driven by aliens start eviscerating people with white laser beams, effectively turning them into ash. Would it be possible to harness light this way into a kind of super laser? If so, where would you go to stay safe?"

• 7:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which would be in defense against-

• 7:55Chuck Nice?

  In defense against-

• 7:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, yeah, so Jake, yeah, Jake.

• 7:58Speaker 02

  All right, so just to clarify, they're asking if the weapon that the War of the Worlds aliens use could be possible?

• 8:07Chuck Nice?

  Uh, well, she's saying, yes, is it possible to use light in this manner? So that is a different way of saying, is that weapon possible?

• 8:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And in that way, you could, you could fight with a weapon equivalent to what they're using, perhaps?

• 8:19Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Or you could defend against it.

• 8:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  Well, actually, this is funny, because if we just, spoilers for everyone that hasn't seen the movie yet, gonna give you a second. Okay.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The movie's 14 years old, forget it. They haven't seen the movie yet, I don't care, go.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  Well, hopefully, they just heard the original War of the Worlds from back in the day when you were a kid, Neil. Uh, anyway.

• 8:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  So-

• 8:42Speaker 02

  The way that they destroyed the aliens to defeat them is by like a virus. A human virus gets them ill and they all just die.

• 8:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  So this kind of goes back to the ET conversation where we actually are the this contaminant that kills them.

• 8:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're the weapon.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  Anywho, yeah, we are the weapon, just us existing. And that's kind of the par for the course for humans anyway. So, I mean, I would say it is possible. You can, I mean, harness light. Is that what they're harnessing? We don't really know. You could generate enough energy where you could just completely eviscerate a person. I mean, that's possible.

• 9:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  True. Well, I mean, if it's just a matter of energy, right? Light is a form of energy. Right. Now, laser beams are kind of cooler than other forms of it, but it's just energy. Right. So, you know, a bow and arrow is putting energy here and taking energy over here and putting it over there. Right. A laser's got energy here, put it over there. Right. A bullet, I got energy over here, it's in the gunpowder and now the energy's in there. So if you can abstract this question to just say, what are the ways you can have energy over here and put it over there? And you have more energy than they have? That's kind of what that comes down to. Right. But I wonder maybe, what do you think the question was? What does it take to turn them into a pile of ash? Well. Do you think maybe that was the question?

• 9:58Speaker 02

  So that's what I'm thinking right now. In that regard, I mean, it would have to be whatever this beam is, let's say this energy beam, it would have to encompass the entirety of the person's body for all of them to instantaneously turn to ash.

• 10:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  If you just focus here, well then, it would just pop a hole right through you the same way that a bullet, when it impacts, it doesn't blow apart your whole entire external body, internal just boop. So I guess it would be so, if we just go by heat, so hot that it would immediately vaporize all of the moisture in your body. Right? It would just completely dry you out to such a degree that you are just dust afterwards.

• 10:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Absolutely, yeah. Right, so Jake has mentioned an important point because it's hard to burn something that has a lot of liquid in it. Right. The liquid, you got to first get rid of liquid, then you can burn what's left, right? So you're talking about ash, if you're gonna be a pile of ash, your blood had to evaporate in some way before you even get to the ash. So, so the instantane- instantaneity, is that a word? Nice. It's. It is now.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  It is now.

• 11:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The instantaneity. Sounds like a great, a great Quaker Oats commercial.

• 11:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Instantanaity.

• 11:12Chuck Nice?

  Instantanaity. It's delicious. All right, go ahead.

• 11:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so it would require enough energy to instantly take your blood to a rolling boil and then evaporate it. Get rid of all the liquid and then.

• 11:25Chuck Nice?

  And then consume the rest of the material.

• 11:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that seems to me, it had to take a little longer than how long that took in the movie.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:32Chuck Nice?

  Right, because the other thing too is, if you're talking about that kind of energy, it only did that to the person. The beam didn't, as it continued, it didn't like shoot holes into the ground. It didn't take out buildings.

• 11:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, or the plant life.

• 11:47Chuck Nice?

  Or the plant life behind it. Only the people, so.

• 11:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 11:52Speaker 02

  So maybe it was attuned to human chemistry then.

• 11:55Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's a good, I see you think about this stuff.

• 11:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is very evident that you think about this crap all day long, okay? Because, well, no, okay, I got one for you. So, the military and large municipalities have what's called non-lethal weaponry.

• 12:14Chuck Nice?

  Okay, yeah.

• 12:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the taser is an example of one.

• 12:17Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But another one is this truck that rolls around with this huge beam and sends microwaves into a crowd.

• 12:24Chuck Nice?

  You feel like you're burning.

• 12:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 12:36Chuck Nice?

  So they can disperse the crowd.

• 12:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 12:57Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That could vaporize you, but not the stuff behind you.

• 13:01Chuck Nice?

  Oh, excellent.

• 13:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? What do you think of that?

• 13:05Speaker 02

  I mean, I think that that sounds fair, because they do have those specific things. They have the microwave weapons that you're talking about. I mean, I remember reading an article years ago about how in the UK to stop teens from loitering in stores, stores could play this frequency that only teenagers could hear, because they still had those hairs in their hair, right? They could still hear the frequency. It would be annoying to them.

• 13:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So old folks just don't even hear it, and so we can chill.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, what?

• 13:29Chuck Nice?

  Well, exactly.

• 13:32Chuck Nice?

  The same way we are with teens.

• 13:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why they don't listen, they don't hear.

• 13:38Chuck Nice?

  Wow, that's great. Alright, well, that's a great question, uh, Jay, Jessica. That was really cool. Are you ready for another one? Here we go.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 13:46Chuck Nice?

  Uh, this is Shivang, Shivang Srivastava. Srivastava. Yes, Shivang Srivastava.

• 13:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Shivang Shivastava.

• 13:59Chuck Nice?

  Shivastava. Oh, so, so, oh, so you're gonna, you're gonna, uh...

• 14:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 14:04Chuck Nice?

  I put the wrong emphasis on the syllable.

• 14:09Chuck Nice?

  Alright, here we go. Uh, she says, "Hi, Dr. Tyson. Do you think, uh, an organization such as MIB, or Men in Black, can be established secretly if the government finds aliens? I'm also really eager to know what changes will you and Jake, would you and Jake like to make in the movies so they are more bound to reality?" Ooh, thank you both for your encouraging science education.

• 14:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Jake, can MIB be real? Would it, would it be real? First, is it real? Second, would, would the government do it? If in fact, we were sort of shielding aliens? What, what's your?

• 14:51Speaker 02

  I would say yes.

• 14:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 14:54Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't really have, I mean, everything right now is just hypothetical, but I would assume that, yes, they would create an organization. Would it be as cool and sexy as Men in Black? Probably not.

• 15:06Chuck Nice?

  Here's what I want to know from both of you. Do you think the government, uh, the scientific community especially, would shield the public from the knowledge that we are not alone?

• 15:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna ask Jake about this.

• 15:16Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  I, I mean, I think, this is a tough one because we are hunting for life out there in the universe, right? That's what we're actively doing when we go to Mars, when we just are trying to go to Europa, all these different missions. That is kind of the point, but that is a different kind of life than I think what most people assume life to be. We think of life as sentient human beings that can walk around, move around, have conversations, think for themselves, not microorganisms.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  So when it comes to that level of, I assume an alien is this living, breathing thing that can move around and shake my hand, that I would kind of assume that the government, if it did, if it were happening now, they would hide from us. Because it kind of is a disruptive thought or disruptive information to know.

• 16:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So with an MIB kind of, uh, uh, uh, secret keepers?

• 16:12Speaker 02

  To a degree, not, not as cool as MIB. I don't think they have like fancy alien weapons and like cool cars and, you know, they're doing all these actions, giving birth to aliens on the like

• 16:26Chuck Nice?

  Side of the road.

• 16:27Speaker 02

  expressway or whatever. But like, I do think if aliens, well, you're okay, aliens exist, I think.

• 16:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, just a quick thing. In Men in Black, one of the aliens was, he was like bug life, right? I mean, he was like roaches. So it's not, not all of them were fully manifested as humanoid forms. I mean, he was humanoid, but he was still made of bugs or, or, yeah.

• 16:53Speaker 02

  If we're just throwing a theory, it's like, I have a strong theory that if we go to the deep ocean, that ultimately is alien. It looks so foreign from what we experience here in our world of on land, that it is so different. Like, that could be aliens for all we know.

• 17:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually.

• 17:12Speaker 02

  It's a totally different environment.

• 17:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 17:14Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. Okay. I'm, I'm gonna say no, but, but I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say, no, they're not aliens.

• 17:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, it's very testable. You look at, you check their DNA, with overlapping DNA, but otherwise it's fun to think about.

• 17:27Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 17:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We gotta take a quick break. When we come back, more with Jake on Aliens in the Universe.

• 17:34Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 17:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On StarTalk.

• 17:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. StarTalk, Cosmic Queries, Aliens in the Movies and TV.

• 17:53Chuck Nice?

  Yes!

• 17:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A subject as big as the universe itself.

• 17:55Chuck Nice?

  You know what? It probably is.

• 17:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I got Jake Roper on.

• 17:58Chuck Nice?

  Thank God we got Jake Roper on.

• 18:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know, right? Because he thinks about this stuff.

• 18:02Chuck Nice?

  All the time.

• 18:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Professionally.

• 18:04Chuck Nice?

  Professionally.

• 18:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If somebody pays him.

• 18:06Chuck Nice?

  Let me tell you, your parents should be so proud of you. I'll tell you right now, I'm proud of you. I am proud of you, Jake. You are what America is about. I want to be able to save somebody at a cocktail party. So what's your son do? My son talks about aliens on YouTube and they pay him. Defensively.

• 18:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And he bought my house.

• 18:26Chuck Nice?

  And he bought my house. My son, who does not play basketball, bought my house on YouTube. Love it, bro. I love it.

• 18:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so what's your question? You got the next question?

• 18:38Chuck Nice?

  We got the next question.

• 18:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 18:41Chuck Nice?

  Let's keep going. This is, um, Jason Mogridge. Jason says, "Hey, what's up, guys? What's yours, Neil's, and Jake's favorite fictional alien movie or game? And why?"

• 18:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 18:58Chuck Nice?

  Nice question. That's a good one.

• 19:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, go on, Jake.

• 19:02Chuck Nice?

  Jake, this is...

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Oh, no, please, I think Chuck, no, Chuck, you go first on this one.

• 19:08Speaker 02

  So I can think.

• 19:09Chuck Nice?

  So you can think. You got me. Okay, so I'm gonna give you my favorite movie alien.

• 19:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let me hear it.

• 19:14Chuck Nice?

  And it's gonna be very pedestrian because you're gonna say it's just the... It's the oldest trope ever.

• 19:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Don't tell me what I'm gonna say about your alien.

• 19:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay, you're right. You're right about that.

• 19:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 19:26Chuck Nice?

  All right. The alien. The alien.

• 19:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the movie, the alien.

• 19:30Chuck Nice?

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

• 20:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I didn't know you felt this way.

• 20:01Chuck Nice?

  Wait a minute. He ain't done. That's not it. I'm not done yet. Wait a minute. Here's the... And you cut it and it bleeds acid.

• 20:12Chuck Nice?

  Come on, this thing is awesome. Whoever thought of this alien, I'm telling you, they put a little bit of time in, that's all I'm saying.

• 20:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it scurries when it escaped down the hallway.

• 20:20Chuck Nice?

  No, forget it.

• 20:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was scary.

• 20:22Chuck Nice?

  Look how fast it is.

• 20:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know.

• 20:23Chuck Nice?

  Right, and by the way, look at its transformation. It's, it goes in you as who knows what.

• 20:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're just host.

• 20:30Chuck Nice?

  A little crab monster actually grabs you by the face and puts the baby alien in you, and then it comes out as a little snake man. It's crazy. It's crazy.

• 20:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake, have you had enough time to think now? Are you so distracted by Chuck's?

• 20:46Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm really amazed. Like, that was, that was great. That was a good monologue. Um, I mean, okay, so Alien is fantastic. I'm wearing an Alien hat, um, Mustromo the ship from the first one.

• 20:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's right.

• 21:00Speaker 02

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

• 21:15Chuck Nice?

  The Thing?

• 21:15Speaker 02

  From the movie, The Thing.

• 21:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I forgot what The Thing was.

• 21:18Chuck Nice?

  Is The Thing like the Blob? What is The Thing?

• 21:20Speaker 02

  No, so The Thing is...

• 21:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But don't get, and don't confuse The Thing with Them, because Them were ants.

• 21:27Chuck Nice?

  Them were the ants?

• 21:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They were ants.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  Them is ants.

• 21:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Them is ants.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  That is something entirely different. The Thing, alright, so back on track, Chuck, come on.

• 21:34Chuck Nice?

  Okay, sorry.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  So The Thing is a, uh, well, the remake was, which is the one that's most popular, is this 1980s movie with Kurt Russell, directed by John Carpenter. And The Thing is this organism that takes the shape...

• 21:49Chuck Nice?

  I saw it.

• 21:49Speaker 02

  Of whatever the host is.

• 21:50Chuck Nice?

  I didn't realize that that was what I was watching, but it's a, a shapeshifter, and you don't know who it is, because it can be anything, and then at one point it became the dog or something like that, right?

• 22:01Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 22:01Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, okay, I forgot I saw that movie.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  It can take any form, and it's, the thing that scared me about it is, one is, it really is a parasite, but an intergalactic parasite. And it just takes upon, like, you have things like the jewel wasp here on Earth, right, which is more similar to the xenomorph in Alien, where it impregnates the cockroach, basically, and then the larvae bursts out and becomes a full-on wasp, flies away. But The Thing, I love, because it brings up this conundrum where, does the person who it took the body of, the form of, is it aware that it's not human? Or does it think that it's human? But it has something else controlling its mind? And I think that's a really nice conundrum.

• 22:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you look in the mirror, the mirror tells you you're human, right?

• 22:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:47Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. So, so you like the fact that you could be infested with this parasite? Or occupied by this parasite and still think you are you, but just going about your life. But really, you're just a puppet of a galactic parasite.

• 23:03Speaker 02

  And you have no idea, potentially, the people around you have no idea that you are no longer you.

• 23:08Chuck Nice?

  Right, right. That's pretty cool.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  And I think that's pretty spooky, whereas with like traditional aliens or an alien, you know it's an alien. Like, okay, you're terrifying. You're not, you're not friendly, but if it was just Neil, we're like, oh Neil, how you doing? And for all this time, he's been this parasitic alien.

• 23:25Chuck Nice?

  I am fine.

• 23:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's the difference between them and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, fundamentally?

• 23:33Speaker 02

  So, that's a great question. There isn't much.

• 23:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  It is similar.

• 23:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  I think it's just in the style and, yes, they're both these alien creatures that take over humans. I think in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, its motivation is much more clear. It's there to take over the planet.

• 23:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:50Speaker 02

  And the thing, they just find this crashed spaceship from like thousands of years ago. And there's no reason as to why it's there or what the purpose of this alien is. The alien never expresses its intent. It's just this vicious force.

• 24:04Chuck Nice?

  Okay, that's a good one. All right, Neil.

• 24:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, I, I have a, a good answer and then a cop out answer.

• 24:11Chuck Nice?

  Uh oh.

• 24:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I, my good answer is I think the Blob is the best alien ever.

• 24:15Chuck Nice?

  The Blob?

• 24:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because it didn't walk, it didn't talk, it didn't have two eyes, shoulders, mouth, nose, feet. You know, as much as we like Alien versus Predator.

• 24:25Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 24:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Predator was great, right? But it's still very humanoid.

• 24:29Chuck Nice?

  Yes, right.

• 24:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's even the approximate height of a human. You could look, you know, Arnold stared him straight in his eyes. Kill me now, right here, right, kill me. If it bleeds, we can kill it. Right, okay. So, I'm, I'm thinking this was the most creative alien Hollywood has ever come up with. Because it was not an actor in a costume.

• 24:50Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 24:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And people forget, but what color is the Blob? Do you remember? Red. Red, except when it first landed. It was completely transparent. Oh. After it ate its first person, then it was red. Oh, I gotta go back and check that out. Yes, yes. Did you, Jake, did you know that?

• 25:06Speaker 02

  I did know that.

• 25:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, I can't, I can't stop, I can't stop. Unstoppable, Jake.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  I'm sorry, well, I just showed my girlfriend the blog because she'd never seen it. So we just watched it the other week.

• 25:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so it's fresh, it's fresh, it might, it might have been Steve McQueen's first movie or very early in his, in his repertoire. Anyways, that's my, I think that's the most imaginative. Plus, it comes through the grill. Right, it comes through everything. Of the, of the air conditioning ducts. Any, any opening. Any opening. Any opening. It oozes, oozes its way through. Under the door. Yeah. Yeah. Ew. So that and, uh, favorite alien, I think is from, uh, Contact. Contact with Jodie Foster? Yes. Wait a minute. So you mean when she was inside of that, that portal? You never see the alien. That's why it's my favorite alien. Oh, right, because he says, "I've taken on this for him to make you comfortable."

• 25:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, well, that's, yes, yes, sir. But the alien, you do not know what the alien looks like. The alien exists in some way that is not material, that does not lend itself to material presence for your eyes. Okay. So I, and that way, and by the way, 2001, and its sequel, 2010, neither of those showed the alien either. Right. So I like it when they don't show it to you. Okay. That's all.

• 26:25Speaker 02

  I like that. This actually brings up, I love your thoughts on this. I always like to think that if we were to see an alien, that we wouldn't really be able to comprehend it, which is why I always think that the old school look of like the, the gray alien, you know, big head, big black eyes. Because we only understand things in the shapes that we can currently comprehend. But if something we're not bound by our understanding. Of the world, could it look entirely different in a form that we just don't understand? Have to put it into a form that we do understand?

• 26:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 27:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's alive as a rock.

• 27:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That doesn't look like any alien anyone's dreamt of before.

• 27:18Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it can move through silicates like we move through air because the rock is silicon based, most of them. So I thought that was cool. Would you agree that was a creative attempt?

• 27:27Speaker 02

  That is really creative.

• 27:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just to think outside of the box, the Horta.

• 27:30Chuck Nice?

  Cool, cool, very cool.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  No, that is, sorry, just back to the blob there real quick. I know we got more questions. But that's to your point, what makes the blob so great is that it isn't this traditional flesh and blood, looks like a, has legs and arms kind of characters. This blob, this shapeless form that just moves around, go through objects or things that we can't physically or that a physical being couldn't.

• 27:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus a bullet doesn't stop it, right?

• 27:56Speaker 02

  No.

• 27:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And not because it's impervious, it's just irrelevant.

• 28:00Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly. It is like shooting water.

• 28:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 28:04Chuck Nice?

  Or shooting air.

• 28:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that's my vote. So we got our three votes there.

• 28:09Chuck Nice?

  Nice stuff, good stuff, guys. All right, so shall we move on to Ryan Ramboer? And Ryan wants to know this. In the movie Arrival, the government sends two different scientists from two different fields of study. If you had to choose two people, who would you send into an alien spacecraft?

• 28:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hmm.

• 28:29Chuck Nice?

  Interesting.

• 28:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just to remind people, in Arrival, the recent Arrival. Recent Arrival.

• 28:33Chuck Nice?

  Recent Arrival.

• 28:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry, I just got here. So they sent a physicist, a particle physicist and a linguist. Okay, would you, Jake, would you have sent different people in? I totally would have sent different people in. Who, what would you have sent in other than yourself? Who would you have sent?

• 28:53Speaker 02

  I mean, I think, but that was also a very specific thing where they, they chose a linguist because they knew there was some kind of communication happening and they needed someone there to help decipher it.

• 29:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, after the fact.

• 29:03Speaker 02

  So we're starting.

• 29:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a tune in after the fact.

• 29:05Chuck Nice?

  Okay. But when you said.

• 29:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So first.

• 29:08Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 29:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm, I'm, I'm gonna let you.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Oh, I was gonna say, but if we're starting from that point, then I think that can make, a particle physicist doesn't seem, like, wouldn't you want some sort of biologist?

• 29:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I think so too.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  To be there.

• 29:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why I would have sent an astrobiologist.

• 29:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 29:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And a cryptographer.

• 29:24Chuck Nice?

  And a cryptographer, right, right, right. That makes sense. See, I, I agree with that and/or I would have sent like a theoretical mathematician. What's, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that?

• 29:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Fine.

• 29:40Chuck Nice?

  Because, I mean, listen, if, for them to get here, they had to use math.

• 29:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sure.

• 29:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 29:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sure.

• 29:48Chuck Nice?

  And I think that math would be the same for us.

• 29:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but, but astrobiologists know math, so we're good here.

• 29:53Chuck Nice?

  Okay, alright.

• 29:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's part of our curriculum.

• 29:55Chuck Nice?

  Oh, see, you know, you just think that physicists are so damn great.

• 29:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, but I just, I just, I just removed the physicist from that equation.

• 30:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Put in an astrobiologist. And a cryptographer. The cryptographer's gonna know math too, right Jake? Cryptographer knows some math.

• 30:11Chuck Nice?

  Yep, of course.

• 30:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's my question to you Jake.

• 30:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How do they know that the septopod, or whatever it's called?

• 30:20Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that, the thingy thing.

• 30:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was communicating in the direction they are looking, rather than in his own direction, and they should then be studying the mirror image of it?

• 30:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, flipping it.

• 30:37Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 30:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I think.

• 30:39Chuck Nice?

  You thought too hard about that. You just ruined the movie.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  My.

• 30:44Chuck Nice?

  My answer.

• 30:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What you saying?

• 30:46Chuck Nice?

  Because.

• 30:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The thing is writing on transparent glass.

• 30:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's writing what it thinks and everyone is thinking it's it's its own.

• 30:53Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Somebody's got to, we need a mirror in there at some point. Jake, what's your, what's your take?

• 30:58Speaker 02

  My opinion is that the aliens are very considerate. So they were like, we're gonna make it easy for you guys. We traveled all this distance. We are smart enough to know that we're gonna flip it for you. We're gonna draw.

• 31:08Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  Backwards.

• 31:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I will tell you this, wait, wait, if aliens come up to me and they put it as a glass window.

• 31:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 31:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't writing shit backwards.

• 31:18Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I'm not writing. But here's my point, and this is my only.

• 31:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Making faces.

• 31:22Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, my, my only problem with the movie is this.

• 31:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What?

• 31:25Chuck Nice?

  If you are smart enough for intergalactic travel, are you going to tell me that you can't learn English in a few days? I'm just saying.

• 31:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I, I, I agree.

• 31:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 31:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was, that was my problem. That was my problem with, with, with, um, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

• 31:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 31:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Do you remember that scene where they figure out where they're gonna land? Do you remember that scene?

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The teletype gives the, the, the, the, the longitude and latitude. It's like, wait a minute, that's a coordinates on Earth. And then they go get the map and if it's Devil's Tower, it's like, oh my gosh. And I'm, you know my issue here, Jake? It's our latitude goes from zero to ninety. Who thought that up? Okay. And between zero and one and one and two, it's split into sixty parts. Okay. And the longitude is an act of politics that put the prime meridian through Greenwich. So if you were an alien and you know our coordinate system, you come up upon Earth, there's no grid lines on Earth, right?

• 32:32Chuck Nice?

  Hey, look at that. It's a planet made by world map.

• 32:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's no grid lines. So if you come up to the Earth, you have to understand our weird sexagesimal counting system for angles. And you have to know the politics that put the prime meridian going down through Greenwich. And if you knew that much about human culture, you'd just say, hey.

• 32:54Chuck Nice?

  What's happening?

• 32:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's happening? I'm gonna land to the left of Devil's Tower.

• 32:57Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At four thirty this afternoon. See you then. Boom.

• 33:00Chuck Nice?

  Now, did you tell Steven Spielberg that when he was here?

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, what's the next question? Go. Go.

• 33:12Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 33:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next question.

• 33:13Chuck Nice?

  Next question? Here we go. All right. This is... Oh, I like it. This is 72 underscore O5 underscore 72. And thank you so much for that name, by the way. If our planet was being attacked by aliens, what's the first thing you would do? Now, this is an attack, guys.

• 33:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Attack.

• 33:32Chuck Nice?

  Not a visit. An attack.

• 33:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 33:34Chuck Nice?

  What's the first thing you would do?

• 33:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We don't have time in this segment.

• 33:37Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 33:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When we come back, we're gonna find out what's the first thing Jake is gonna do when aliens attack when StarTalk returns.

• 33:51Chuck Nice?

  Hey, we'd like to give a Patreon shout out to the following Patreon patrons: Matthew Iskander and Cody Stanley. Guys, thanks so much for your support. Without you, we couldn't do this. And if you're listening and you'd like your very own Patreon shout out, go to patreon.com/starTalkRadio and support us. Thanks.

• 34:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. StarTalk, segment three of Cosmic Queries: Aliens in the Movies.

• 34:24Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 34:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With Jake Roper.

• 34:25Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 34:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, this is what he does.

• 34:28Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, awesome. It's a great job.

• 34:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not only what he does, that's all he does.

• 34:32Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my goodness. I'm so jealous.

• 34:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He's actually sitting on a toilet right now. He never leaves.

• 34:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He just never leaves that space.

• 34:41Speaker 02

  He said you wouldn't tell.

• 34:43Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's too funny. Okay. So, before we went off, here's the question. 72 underscore O5 underscore 72 says this: If our planet was being attacked, guys, by aliens, what is the first thing you would do? Not a visit, an attack.

• 35:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  First thing I would do is probably just, relax, you know? What could I do to help stave it off? I'm just gonna chill. Turn on some StarTalk Radio. Pour a nice Merlot.

• 35:17Chuck Nice?

  Very nice.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  Is that a wine? I think that's a wine. And then just...

• 35:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's a wine.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  ...wait for death.

• 35:22Chuck Nice?

  Glass of wine and chill. Yes, instead of Netflix and chill, alien attack and chill.

• 35:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting.

• 35:33Chuck Nice?

  I'll tell you what I would not do, which is what they do in the movies.

• 35:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Shoot your gun at it.

• 35:39Chuck Nice?

  Go outside and start shooting at the sky.

• 35:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's a mothership.

• 35:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you think, you think, you think.

• 35:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so.

• 35:49Speaker 02

  Neil, what would you do?

• 35:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Jake, you have, you have, you have surrendered to them, correct?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  Well, if they're attacking, like, I'm sorry, so I guess my assumption was that it's the ship that's attacking us. If they sent ground troops and were going like house by house, door by, door to door, then yeah, I'd probably fight back. But if there's just a giant mothership blasting Earth, similar to Independence Day, then I'd just hang out and hope that it all clears.

• 36:15Chuck Nice?

  Man, yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm kinda with you.

• 36:18Speaker 02

  What am I supposed to do?

• 36:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean, listen, like, you know, I'm not go, like, when you brought up Independence Day, the scene that really burned my shorts was when all the people got on top of the Capitol Records building to look at the aliens.

• 36:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To get a better view.

• 36:33Chuck Nice?

  To get a better view of the aliens, and then, of course, they were all incinerated by a, a particle beam that wiped them, like, I don't get that. What, what, I don't, I don't, I don't wanna meet aliens that bad.

• 36:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You realize Independence Day is war of the world.

• 36:50Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 36:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How do we attack, how do we triumph over the aliens? With a virus.

• 36:55Chuck Nice?

  Oh, look at you.

• 36:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh!

• 36:59Chuck Nice?

  That was good.

• 37:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got me, I'm gonna tell you, that was good.

• 37:03Chuck Nice?

  So a biological virus and a cyber logical virus.

• 37:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, so I, I'd like Jake, and I like keeping him around, so I'll put him in with his bottle of Merlot.

• 37:12Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 37:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll get him a good bottle of Merlot.

• 37:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 37:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get you a Chateau Petrus, okay, from maybe.

• 37:18Speaker 02

  Mercy.

• 37:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, 1989 would be a really good bottle of Merlot for you, okay?

• 37:24Chuck Nice?

  Very nice.

• 37:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And look that one up. And so then, I, I like him, I'll keep him around, and I'll go out and try to figure out how to kick some alien ass.

• 37:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay, Neil is full of it. Because what you don't know Jake is that Neil has many government connections. Many, many government connections. He will be in a bunker, safely secured, drinking that Chateau, okay? Who's sharing it with a couple generals who will be consulting him on what we should or should not be doing with these. Chuck, you can't let people know that. Yeah, man.

• 38:00Speaker 02

  I don't think Neil was lying when he said that he would, you know, check on me. And then when he did leave though, yes, he would go to his bunker. He'd be like, "I'll be right back. No, no, of course I'll be right back." In his bunker, hanging out, smoking cigars, living his best life.

• 38:13Chuck Nice?

  Cool.

• 38:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, what's the next one?

• 38:15Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go. This is Zevi coming to us. She's a YouTube fan. What is the most believable depiction of aliens you've seen in modern sci-fi? Good question. What's the most believable alien?

• 38:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's go modern, let's define it 1980s onward.

• 38:31Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, let's say 1980s onward.

• 38:33Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 38:35Speaker 02

  I mean, the first thing that pops my head, I think, would be arrival.

• 38:41Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 38:41Speaker 02

  I think the way that they handled it, the way that they interacted with the aliens, the way that the aliens interacted with us.

• 38:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How about the fact that it was a septupod that didn't disturb you at all?

• 38:51Speaker 02

  Because I think, no, the issue that I have with most, not an issue because I do enjoy them, but with most alien invasion films when they come to Earth, is why do they always want to destroy us? Why is it their immediate instinct is like, "Let's just kill everybody."

• 39:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's because that's what we could do if we landed on their planet. In fact, that's what we've done to each other when we land on each other's continents.

• 39:11Speaker 02

  So that's why I think though we write it that way. Because that's what we would do. So we put our own self in those scripts when we write aliens. But if they were smart enough, if they could traverse these incredible distances, would their first action be aggression?

• 39:27Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think only if we were food would there, because otherwise

• 39:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To serve man.

• 39:33Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. You, you got, you got the Twilight Zone episode.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To serve man.

• 39:40Speaker 02

  What is it, there was like, it's resource gathering, they do a lot of that. But I feel like Arrival had a pretty, in my mind, good depiction where, obviously it took liberties with some of the science, but it felt still in this world of science realism, or at least they were trying to obtain that. And I, I really appreciated that.

• 39:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What about, uh, The Day the Earth Stood Still?

• 40:01Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 40:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Keanu Reeves one?

• 40:03Speaker 02

  The sort of the new one with Keanu Reeves?

• 40:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Either, well, either, I mean, there was the robot in the first one, but that wasn't really the alien.

• 40:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? There's something else controlled something else. So, uh, because you, you're trying to, uh, oh, I, I got it. I got you here. Okay. In that same vein, I'm gonna go back to Contact. Because it was, I thought that was an authentic representation of how we as a society would react to the knowledge that there's an intelligent species out there. So I agree with you. You want some authenticity that isn't always violence.

• 40:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? But then, if you're creative enough as the screenwriter or as the storyteller, you would put some of those authentic reactions in it, as I agree they did with Arrival.

• 40:51Chuck Nice?

  See, I think when you said The Day the Earth Stood Still is even, even more so, because it is, it is a non-biological life form. Like, I think our first contact, if we send something out, it's not gonna be a human being. We're gonna send something out that might make contact.

• 41:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I see.

• 41:09Chuck Nice?

  So that would be the first encounter that, from, from the opposite way.

• 41:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, next question.

• 41:13Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go. Uh, this is Wes Miller. Would you rather aliens be far more intelligent than humans, or far less intelligent than humans?

• 41:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's the thing, if aliens visited us, they're clearly more intelligent.

• 41:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. That's what I'm trying to, because I guess, again, we're assuming aliens are these life-form style creatures.

• 41:40Speaker 02

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

• 41:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake, if they got here in a spaceship across, in a galactic space, they know more about everything than we've ever known about anything.

• 42:06Chuck Nice?

  That's probably the case, unless of course-

• 42:08Speaker 02

  But are they gonna know about delicious, like tacos and nachos, Neil? Will they know that?

• 42:14Chuck Nice?

  They will, once they take over the Earth, that's for sure.

• 42:21Chuck Nice?

  But what if they're like, what was the movie, uh, Wally?

• 42:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wally?

• 42:26Chuck Nice?

  Well, and they were escaping a planet, put on a ship that was run by an AI that took care of their every knee, and they just became dumb fatties floating around on chairs, right? Then they arrive someplace-

• 42:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Damn, you just ruined that whole movie. Dumb fatties riding on chairs.

• 42:45Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's what that's what they- But then, instead of trying to wait until their planet was healed, it just takes them on an intergalactic mission. So here are people living in this enclosed society for all these, like, it could be millennia if you wanted it, then they get someplace, which is Earth, they find us, and what we end up seeing is incredible technology with a bunch of dumb fatties flying around on chairs.

• 43:12Speaker 02

  True, well, I'm, sorry, last thing I wanna say about really smart aliens, I will go back to ET, though, as a consideration where ET was able to get to Earth, yet didn't even know what Reese's Pieces were. What an idiot.

• 43:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What an idiot.

• 43:24Speaker 02

  What a dumb alien.

• 43:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  ET's an idiot.

• 43:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. All right, next.

• 43:33Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go.

• 43:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Run it short in time, see if we can get a couple in here.

• 43:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay, go. This is, uh, Prabhanjan Telang says this, "If we ever contact an alien species, is there a first-contact protocol? A true-to-life first-contact protocol?"

• 43:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake, I don't know if there is, but if there was one, what would you want it to be?

• 43:56Speaker 02

  Ah, I mean, I, you know what? I never even thought about this question before.

• 44:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, we stumped Jake.

• 44:02Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 44:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  Well, because I always assumed, because you have the light cone, right? Which we don't have to go into in detail, but information there, unless we can figure out tachyons or anything, there's a speed limit to how fast information can travel.

• 44:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tachyons travel faster and move backwards in time.

• 44:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:17Speaker 02

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

• 44:30Chuck Nice?

  Interesting.

• 44:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, why does a protocol for when you would send a radio signal? If we communicated that way, but if they just showed up? Do you send your diplomats? Do you send your diplomats? You send your head of state?

• 44:43Chuck Nice?

  Oh, let's hope not.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  No, I'd send like, I'd send Paul Rudd. Everyone likes Paul Rudd.

• 44:50Chuck Nice?

  That is an excellent answer.

• 44:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, you need likable people. Very good. If you send the most likable human, then that's your best chance.

• 44:59Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Let's send the delightful Paul Rudd.

• 45:04Chuck Nice?

  How could we go wrong?

• 45:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a brilliant answer.

• 45:06Chuck Nice?

  I like it.

• 45:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Send the most friendly among us.

• 45:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if they think he's evil in some way, then we're in big trouble.

• 45:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're bottomed.

• 45:16Chuck Nice?

  If we send Paul Rudd and they kill Paul Rudd, the rest of us are doomed.

• 45:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where there's no hope for humanity. We're done, we're cooked.

• 45:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, give me another question. Last one.

• 45:29Chuck Nice?

  Last one, okay, here we go. Hi, Dr. Tyson and Mr. Roper. Ooh, look at that. This, this is.

• 45:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got a mister out of this.

• 45:37Chuck Nice?

  This is Elias, Elias from London, and I wanted to ask your thoughts on aliens like replicators from the Stargate series, series. Robots who replicated themselves using available resources on every planet. Do you believe this is the most probable form of alien life that we will ever encounter? Wow, what a.

• 45:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow, excellent question.

• 45:55Chuck Nice?

  Real good question.

• 45:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jake, what do you have on that?

• 45:58Speaker 02

  I mean, this brings up what kind of Chuck mentioned earlier, that it does seem more reasonable that if we were to get a first contact moment, it would be with some sort of machine, some sort of non or inorganic built thing. And then also, when it comes to replicating it, this is the whole idea about the singularity that I always love, or just advanced AI, where if you were able to create an AI, like a machine that is so advanced, it no longer needs you to create it. It can create itself now. So I do think that could be a very real possibility, because I mean, I'm still stuck on that brilliant idea that Chuck had, because Chuck is a brilliant, attractive, smart, humble person. Which is that it would be some sort of robotic creature would probably be the first contact.

• 46:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Chuck, very nice there. Well, thanks, yeah. He complimented you. He did, yes. Twelve ways from Sunday, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use every day I can.

• 46:52Speaker 02

  Fantastic.

• 46:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I wanna, I just put some emphasis on that. Okay. So the Fermi paradox, which is, how come the aliens haven't been here? Well, why would we expect that to happen? Because in the lifetime of the universe, they would have colonized every planet in the galaxy. Well, how do you justify that? Well, if you send a robot that can duplicate itself, then it goes to a planet, and then it makes two of itself, and then they go to two planets. Ah. And then they make two of themselves, and they go to four planets, and then eight, and then sixteen. It doesn't take many doubling times to have a robot on every single habitable planet in the galaxy. That will take much less time than the amount of time the galaxy has been around.

• 47:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So either you bring humans there and duplicate themselves, or you bring robots, but there would have been some evidence if they really were of a colonizing species. Right. So, so, yeah, this idea that you can duplicate yourself, that's really the only realistic way. That's the only realistic way. That is the most realistic way. Most realistic way. Fantastic. Right. Oh, that's great. We speak English in the United States because England sent a colony that spoke English. That's right. All right, so now, we went to the moon, not England. Right. Okay. England sent the colony that then went to the moon. Right. So that's, you wanna think about... What you've actually put into motion. Right.

• 48:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, yeah, yeah, that's good. Good stuff, man. Great way to think about it. Yeah. Jake, love you, man. Hey, that was fun, Jake. Oh, thank you, guys, so much. This is great. We gotta do this. We will. We're gonna find a way to get your ass back on here. Do Matrix. Do it. I'm down. Do a whole thing on just a Matrix? Well, yeah, well, because there's three movies. No, no, there's only one Matrix. Okay, I'm gonna agree with you. I don't know what the hell the other two movies were. I'm gonna tell you the truth. I don't know what happened the other two. Something happened. I'm not sure. I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna be honest. But the first one was great. I can overanalyze Matrix, okay? Okay. I've seen that movie. How many times have you seen The Matrix? Too many. Too many. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I'm kind of there, too. Well, actually, you know what? I shouldn't say too many. That sounds negative. Not enough. Oh! Wow. Okay. Okay.

• 49:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Matrix is. The question is, are you a virus on this earth? Ooh. A virus.

• 49:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, Jake, we gotta call it quits there. Chuck, thanks for being on. Always a pleasure. Jake, we'll find you again. I don't know where you're hiding, but we'll find you. All right. This has been StarTalk, Cosmic Queries Aliens Edition. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, as always, bidding you to keep looking up.