alien life

Once more, it's time for a weekly dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail...

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Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, author, and science educator. He is featured in the UFO/UAP documentary "A Tear in the Sky," now available on all VOD and digital platforms. 

http://www.atearinthesky.com/ 

https://mkaku.org/

Even as humans reach out into the void with robotic probes and turn to artificial intelligence to aid in the search for extraterrestrial life, we face the possibility that the life we find out there might be mechanical and governed by artificial intelligence as well. In this classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe discuss alien AI and post-organic life. (originally published 3/30/2021)

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10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about to give up, something happened that changed Justin forever.

We're taking this week off from publishing new episodes, so today we're bringing you an episode from "The Argument" about one of my favorite topics: aliens. We'll be back with new episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" on Tuesday.

With the U.S. government puzzling over U.F.O.s, and potentially habitable exoplanets in our telescopes, earthlings are closer than ever to finding other intelligent life in the universe. So the existential question is: Should we try to communicate with whatever we think might be out there?

That’s the argument this week between Douglas Vakoch and Michio Kaku. Vakoch, the president of the research and educational nonprofit METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International, has dedicated his life’s work to intentionally broadcasting messages beyond our solar system.

Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and a co-founder of string field theory, thinks reaching out to unknown aliens is a catastrophically bad idea and “would be the biggest mistake in human history.”

Together, they join Jane  to debate the question of making first contact and our place in the cosmos.

Mentioned in this episode:

Adam Mann, The New Yorker: “Intelligent Ways to Search for Extraterrestrials”

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker: “How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously”

Arik Kershenbaum, The Wall Street Journal, “Alien Languages May Not Be Entirely Alien to Us”

“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Season 4, Episode 15: “First Contact” (Netflix)

The Ezra Klein Show: “Obama Explains How America Went From ‘Yes We Can’ to ‘MAGA’”

You can find more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.

Robert Bigelow is an aerospace entrepreneur and founder of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies: an organization supporting research into the survival of human consciousness after death.

Mike Baker is a former CIA covert operations officer, host of the Science Channel series Black Files Declassified, and current president and cofounder of Diligence LLC, a global intelligence and security firm.

SETI Institute Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak, is back to host StarTalk All-Stars and go exploring exoplanets with guest Jason Wright, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Penn State, and co-host Chuck Nice.
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/

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice tackle an eclectic mix of your questions that take us from the boiling surface of the Sun to the dark side of the moon and Earth’s distant past to the last moments of the universe.

Have you ever seen mysterious lights in the sky, or glimpsed an alien spacecraft? This show provides a probing yet playful discussion about Unidentified Flying Objects.

Scientists have been searching for aliens in our solar system and beyond, but have not yet found evidence that life exists beyond Earth. SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has been scanning the stars for alien radio beacons for 50 years. Radio and TV broadcasts have been leaking from Earth’s atmosphere for over a century, and these traveling time capsules could eventually reach a broader audience than ever imagined. Neil and Lynne review the methods used to locate aliens, and discuss what to do if you’re ever abducted.