This is a clip from a conversation with Michio Kaku from Oct 2019. New full episodes once or twice a week and 1-2 new clips or a new non-podcast video on all other days. You can watch the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5yc1LQrpQ
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Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, futurist, and professor at the City College of New York. He is the author of many fascinating books on the nature of our reality and the future of our civilization.

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You've mentioned that we just might make contact with aliens or at least hear from them within this century.

Can you elaborate on your intuition behind that optimism?

Well, this is pure speculation, of course.

But given the fact that we've already identified 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars, and we have a census of the Milky Way galaxy for the first time, we know that on average, every single star on average has a planet going around it, and about one-fifth or so of them have Earth-sized planets going around them.

We're talking about, out of a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, We're talking about billions of potential earth-sized planets.

And to believe that we're the only 1 is, I think, rather ridiculous, given the odds.

Within sight of the Hubble Space Telescope, there are about 100 billion galaxies.

How many stars are there in the visible universe?

100 billion galaxies times 100 billion stars per galaxy, we're talking about a number beyond human imagination.

And to believe that we're the only ones, I think, is rather ridiculous.

So, you've talked about different types of, type 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 even, of the Kardashev scale of the different kind of civilizations.

What do you think it takes, if it is indeed a ridiculous notion that we're alone in the universe, what do you think it takes to reach out, first to reach out through communication and connect?

Well, first of all, we have to understand the level of sophistication of an alien life form if we make contact with them.

I think in this century, we'll probably pick up signals, signals from an extraterrestrial civilization.

We'll pick up their I Love Lucy and their Leave it to Beaver, just ordinary day-to-day transmissions that they emit.

And the first thing we want to do is to a decipher their language, of course, but B, figure out at what level they are advanced on the Kardashev scale.

We rank things by 2 parameters, energy and information.

That's how we rank civilizations in outer space so a type 1 civilization is capable of harnessing planetary power They control the weather for example Earthquakes volcanoes they can modify the course of geological events, sort of like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

They use the entire energy output of a star, sort of like Star Trek.

The Federation of Planets have colonized the nearby stars.

So a Type II would be somewhat similar to Star Trek.

And type 3 would be like Star Wars, a galactic civilization.

Now 1 day I was giving this talk in London at the planetarium there, and the little boy comes up to me and he says, Professor, you're wrong.

And I told him, look, kid, there are planets, stars, and galaxies.

And he kept persisting and saying, no, there's type 4, the power of the continuum.

And I said to myself, is there an extra galactic source of energy, the continuum of Star Trek?

And the answer is yes, there could be a Type 4, and that's dark energy.

We now know that 73% of the energy of the universe is dark energy.

Dark matter represents maybe 23% or so, and we only represent 4%.

And so you begin to realize that yeah, there could be type 4, maybe even type 5.

So type 4, you're saying being able to harness sort of like dark energy, something that permeates the entire universe.

So be able to plug into the entire universe as a source of energy.

And dark energy is the energy of the Big Bang.

It's why the galaxies are being pushed apart.

The more nothing you have, the more dark energy that's repulsive.

And so the acceleration of the universe is accelerating because the more you have, the more you can have.

And that of course is by definition an exponential curve.

It's called the de Sutter expansion, and that's the current state of the universe.


Speaker 0: You've mentioned that we just might make contact with aliens or at least hear from them within this century. Can you elaborate on your intuition behind that optimism?

Speaker 1: Well, this is pure speculation, of course. But given the fact that we've already identified 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars, and we have a census of the Milky Way galaxy for the first time, we know that on average, every single star on average has a planet going around it, and about one-fifth or so of them have Earth-sized planets going around them. So just do the math. We're talking about, out of a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, We're talking about billions of potential earth-sized planets. And to believe that we're the only 1 is, I think, rather ridiculous, given the odds.

And how many galaxies are there? Within sight of the Hubble Space Telescope, there are about 100 billion galaxies. So do the math. How many stars are there in the visible universe? 100 billion galaxies times 100 billion stars per galaxy, we're talking about a number beyond human imagination.

And to believe that we're the only ones, I think, is rather ridiculous.

Speaker 0: So, you've talked about different types of, type 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 even, of the Kardashev scale of the different kind of civilizations. What do you think it takes, if it is indeed a ridiculous notion that we're alone in the universe, what do you think it takes to reach out, first to reach out through communication and connect?

Speaker 1: Well, first of all, we have to understand the level of sophistication of an alien life form if we make contact with them. I think in this century, we'll probably pick up signals, signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. We'll pick up their I Love Lucy and their Leave it to Beaver, just ordinary day-to-day transmissions that they emit. And the first thing we want to do is to a decipher their language, of course, but B, figure out at what level they are advanced on the Kardashev scale. I'm a physicist.

We rank things by 2 parameters, energy and information. That's how we rank black holes. That's how we rank stars. That's how we rank civilizations in outer space so a type 1 civilization is capable of harnessing planetary power They control the weather for example Earthquakes volcanoes they can modify the course of geological events, sort of like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. Type 2 would be stellar.

They play with stars, entire stars. They use the entire energy output of a star, sort of like Star Trek. The Federation of Planets have colonized the nearby stars. So a Type II would be somewhat similar to Star Trek. Type III would be galactic.

They roam the galactic space lanes. And type 3 would be like Star Wars, a galactic civilization. Now 1 day I was giving this talk in London at the planetarium there, and the little boy comes up to me and he says, Professor, you're wrong. You're wrong. There's type 4.

And I told him, look, kid, there are planets, stars, and galaxies. That's it, folks. And he kept persisting and saying, no, there's type 4, the power of the continuum. And I thought about it for a moment. And I said to myself, is there an extra galactic source of energy, the continuum of Star Trek?

And the answer is yes, there could be a Type 4, and that's dark energy. We now know that 73% of the energy of the universe is dark energy. Dark matter represents maybe 23% or so, and we only represent 4%. We're the oddballs. And so you begin to realize that yeah, there could be type 4, maybe even type 5.

Speaker 0: So type 4, you're saying being able to harness sort of like dark energy, something that permeates the entire universe. So be able to plug into the entire universe as a source of energy.

Speaker 1: That's right. And dark energy is the energy of the Big Bang. It's why the galaxies are being pushed apart. It's the energy of nothing. The more nothing you have, the more dark energy that's repulsive.

And so the acceleration of the universe is accelerating because the more you have, the more you can have. And that of course is by definition an exponential curve. It's called the de Sutter expansion, and that's the current state of the universe. You

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Michio Kaku: We'll Make Contact with Aliens in This Century | AI Podcast Clips