Benevolent Aliens

Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

Isaac Arthur

Technology, Energy Abundance, Future Of Humanity, Spacecraft, Genetics, Space Infrastructure, Scifi, Post Scarcity, Sci Fi, Technological Future, Interstellar Travel, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Space Station, Space, Long Term Future, Human Civilizaiton, Civilizaiton, Cybernetics, Science, Futurism, Space Megastructures, Space Colonization, Space Industry, Future Philosophy, Transhumanism, Spaceship, Megastructures, Physics, Starship, Astronomy, Future

4.9 • 782 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Science fiction often shows us seemingly benevolent aliens whose UFOs come in peace then turn out to have sinister motives and hidden conspiracies, but what would a genuinely friendly group of extraterrestrials be like? Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/xWcEXBikPgw The first 1000 people who click the link in the description will get 2 free months of Skillshare Premium: https://skl.sh/isaacarthur17 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur SFIA Merchandise available: https://www.signil.com/sfia/ Social Media: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode's Audio-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/benevolent-aliens Episode's Narration-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/benevolent-aliens-narration-only Credits: Alien Civilizations: Conspiratorial Aliens Episode 240, Season 6 E22 Written by: Isaac Arthur Editors: Darius Said Jerry Guern Keith Blockus Matthew Campbell Cover Art: Jakub Grygier https://www.artstation.com/jakub_grygier Graphics by: Jeremy Jozwik https://www.artstation.com/zeuxis_of_losdiajana Ken York https://www.facebook.com/YDVisual/ LegionTech Studios https://hades9.com Music: Martin Rezny, "Lifelight" https://soundcloud.com/martin-re-n-1 Aerium, "Waters of Atlantis" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnUJY3l5vIJFGsY3XvW4dQ AJ Prasad of Dark Future, "Cold Shadow" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8-7qwaEPU Paradox Interactive, "Distant Nebula" https://www.paradoxplaza.com Lombus, "Goldilocks Analemma" https://lombus.bandcamp.com Ross Bugden, "City Lights" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQKGLOK2FqmVgVwYferltKQ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, Big Alien Theory,
0:05.0	we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge. To hear
0:10.8	it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content, check out go.nebola.t.
0:16.4	TV slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. This episode is brought to you by Skillshare.
0:23.9	Science fiction has taught us to be skeptical if aliens claim, we come in peace.
0:29.0	But what if they actually meant it? Quite a few tales in science fiction and theories among UFO watchers involve rather sinister aliens,
0:50.3	or those that appear nice but are not as benevolent as they seem. But occasionally we do get examples where those aliens really are nice and enlightened folks.
0:59.2	I suspect their relative rarely tends to come from them being a bit boring from a storywriting
1:04.0	perspective, no conflict or conspiracy, no fun.
1:08.3	I thought we would ask ourselves what a benevolent group of aliens would be like,
1:12.1	what they probably would not be like, and what we might be like to other civilizations if we
1:17.1	got to be nicer people and encountered some fledgling alien civilization ourselves.
1:22.5	We must start though by acknowledging the obvious, benevolent is a bit of a subjective term,
1:28.3	to say the least.
1:29.9	As we discussed in the former paradox zoo hypothesis, an alien race might think they were
1:34.7	doing us a favor by keeping us tucked away from interference by others and ignorant of their
1:39.2	own existence.
1:40.3	Indeed as we noted there, a post-biological race might flat out kill us for our own good,
1:46.5	simply because they thought we'd be a lot safer if they came in, scanned our brains, turned
1:51.0	us off in real life, and rebooted us in some nice, safe simulated reality somewhere in time.
1:57.5	That would be an example of where a civilization with high-minded intent literally committed
2:02.0	genocide from a certain point of view, and it's not the only one.
	...

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