Welcome to within reason. My name is Alex O'Connor. My guest today is Neil degrass Tyson.

Dr Tyson is an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City,

as well as being one of the most recognizable

communicators of science in the world. His most recent book, Starry

Messenger, is subtitled Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization. And so we spoke

about what it means to take a cosmic perspective,

viewing ourselves in our universal context and the nihilism that this can inspire in

some people when they realize just how small we are in relation to the rest of the universe.

We spend the bulk of the conversation, however, talking about threats to civilization.

We talk about the internal threat of artificial intelligence and Dr Tyson's rather optimistic views about its development,

as well as external threats. What does he think is the greatest threat to planet Earth from outer space?

There are many more things that I would like to talk to

Dr Tyson about. There are entire chapters of this most recent book that I really wanted to

press him on, but as things progressed I realized that there simply wasn't going to be time.

Hey, perhaps this leaves room for a future potential episode, only time will tell.

Nonetheless, this was an incredibly enjoyable conversation.

It was a privilege to sit down with Neil de Gras Tyson. I hope

you get some enjoyment out of the following podcast as I know that I certainly did. Neil Degrass Tyson, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Sure, thanks for having that.

I love the overarching themes that drive your conversation.

So I'm delighted to participate. Well, I thought it would be good to sit down with you. your given that it's got the word cosmic in it which is also in my YouTube channel name

I think there be some overlap at the very least I wanted to begin by asking

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