Michio Kaku: Would Aliens Destroy Us? | AI Podcast Clips
00:00:00.000 | - So if aliens do, alien species were to make contact,
00:00:05.000 | forgive me for staying on aliens for a bit longer,
00:00:10.140 | do you think they're more likely to be friendly,
00:00:15.700 | to befriend us or to destroy us?
00:00:18.780 | - Well, I think for the most part,
00:00:20.680 | they'll pretty much ignore us.
00:00:22.980 | If you were a deer in the forest, who do you fear the most?
00:00:26.040 | Do you fear the hunter with his gigantic 16 gauge shotgun?
00:00:30.600 | Or do you fear the guy with a briefcase and glasses?
00:00:35.520 | Well, the guy with a briefcase could be a developer
00:00:39.160 | about to basically flatten the entire forest,
00:00:42.520 | destroying your livelihood.
00:00:44.320 | So instinctively, you may be afraid of the hunter,
00:00:47.820 | but actually the problem with deers in the forest
00:00:51.440 | is that they should fear developers
00:00:54.280 | because developers look at deer
00:00:56.320 | as simply getting in the way.
00:00:58.720 | I mean, in "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells,
00:01:02.680 | the aliens did not hate us.
00:01:04.880 | If you read the book,
00:01:06.080 | the aliens did not have evil intentions
00:01:09.240 | toward homo sapiens, no, we were in the way.
00:01:13.700 | So I think we have to realize that alien civilizations
00:01:19.200 | may view us quite differently
00:01:20.620 | than in science fiction novels.
00:01:22.400 | However, I personally believe,
00:01:24.100 | and I cannot prove any of this,
00:01:25.880 | I personally believe that they're probably
00:01:27.300 | gonna be peaceful because there's nothing
00:01:29.920 | that they want from our world.
00:01:33.080 | I mean, what are they gonna take us?
00:01:34.620 | What are they gonna take us for, gold?
00:01:36.660 | No, gold is a useless metal for the most part.
00:01:40.680 | It's silver, I mean, it's gold in color,
00:01:43.720 | but that only affects homo sapiens.
00:01:45.740 | Squirrels don't care about gold.
00:01:47.880 | And so gold is a rather useless element.
00:01:50.680 | Rare earths, maybe, platinum-based elements,
00:01:53.240 | rare earths for their electronics, yeah, maybe.
00:01:55.800 | But other than that, we have nothing to offer them.
00:01:59.380 | I mean, think about it for a moment.
00:02:01.720 | People love Shakespeare and they love the arts and poetry,
00:02:06.660 | but outside of the earth, they mean nothing,
00:02:10.320 | absolutely nothing.
00:02:12.440 | I mean, when I write down an equation in string theory,
00:02:15.920 | I would hope that on the other side of the galaxy,
00:02:19.880 | there's an alien writing down that very same equation
00:02:22.960 | in different notation, but that alien on the other side
00:02:26.320 | of the galaxy, Shakespeare, poetry, Hemingway,
00:02:30.440 | it would mean nothing to him or her or it.
00:02:34.040 | [ Silence ]
00:02:43.020 | [ Silence ]
00:02:53.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]