The Fermi Paradox

Astonishing Legends

Scott Philbrook

History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 9.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2015

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Background:

While having lunch near the Los Alamos National Laboratory one day with the likes of Edward Teller, "father of the nuclear bomb" Nobel Prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi wondered out loud (after the topic of recent UFO sightings came up) "Where is everybody?" Basically what he meant was, if the universe is so seemingly infinite and old, and it's mathematically probable that other star systems have developed intelligent life like ours has, and it's also theoretically possible that an alien civilization with tens or even hundreds of thousands of years of technological advancement could have made it to our galaxy by now, even with sub-lightspeed travel, why haven't we seen any aliens yet? Tonight, in one of our more conversational shows, we take a broad look at the paradox that bears his name. By the way, supposed UFO sightings are commonly reported around atomic activities.

Tonight's Quote:

“It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life. But we shall not get to them and they will not come to us.”― P.D. James, The Children of Men

Show Links:

Jon Stewart Interviews Elizabeth Kolbert In a Nutshell – Kurzgesagt's YouTube video on "The Fermi Paradox" Enrico Fermi The Fermi Paradox Frank Drake The Drake Equation Arecibo Message Song: Frank Black - "Parry the Wind High, Low" (WARNING - F Bomb!) Jill Tarter The Hubble Deep Field Image The TED Blog: "Peering Into Space" The TED Radio Hour featuring Jill Tarter and Brian Greene Jill Tarter's full TED Talk regarding SETI Space Travel in Ancient Art (Site is in German so visit with a browser that does translation.) "Why Aren't The Aliens Here Already?" - an article by Adam Frank on NPR's 13.7 blog Former Lockheed "Skunkworks" director Ben Rich and some interesting confessions Tardigrades/Water Bears Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny The CARET Documents Ezekiel and the Wheel The Nuremburg UFO Battle The Basel Switzerland Incident Seth Shostak's Piece in the NY Times about Contacting Other Civilizations

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Credits:

Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick reminder to our listeners that we have a free app available in the app store for
0:04.3	iPhones and iPads, as well as for the Android on Google Play.
0:08.7	Just search for astonishing legends and you'll find it.
0:11.3	Oh man, if it's not one thing it's another.
0:13.9	It is the curse of Oak Island that it lives.
0:17.1	Yeah.
0:18.1	Yeah, as you guys know, or maybe don't because a lot of people don't listen to our altos,
0:21.9	but we were attempting to take a one week hiatus after finishing the fourth part of Oak Island.
0:27.4	Ideally to collect our thoughts and get ready for our next topic, which is tonight's show.
0:31.4	But a sudden laptop failure, mid-record during Oak Island Part 4, way laid most of that break
0:37.1	and we wound up posting late.
0:38.5	Well thank you for your patience.
0:39.6	I can't even remember what was happened over the last three weeks with all the turmoil
0:44.3	and it's a blur.
0:46.3	But the good news is AppleCare is covering the repair of the old machine so it can become
0:50.1	a dedicated studio laptop for us.
0:52.1	Although it's a little late because we were already forced to buy a brand new Mac.
0:56.7	Yeah, because we wanted to get posted.
0:59.0	The bad news is seven days ago the air conditioning in my house died as in the entire system in my
1:07.2	house in the San Fernando Valley during not one but two heat waves, one of which is currently
1:14.4	happening.
1:15.9	So since I had to move my whole family into our studio, which has stellar AC, well we are
	...

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