David Kipping is a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, where he runs Cool Worlds Lab and researches planets and moons that revolve around stars other than our own, in addition to his own work on the search for—and theorization about—alien life. In this episode, David and Robinson have a wide-ranging conversation about extraterrestrials. They discuss alien civilizations, propulsion, megastructures, Oumuamua, quantum immortality, Dyson spheres, simulation theory, ancient aliens, and much more. David also runs the YouTube channel Cool Worlds Lab, where he has produced many videos on these topics.
Cool Worlds Lab (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsLab
David’s Website: http://davidkipping.co.uk
OUTLINE
00:01:05 Astronomy or Aliens?
00:06:12 How Scientists Get Burned by Alien Research
00:16:52 Three Big Obstacles to UFO Science
00:23:59 What is the Kardashev Scale of Alien Civilizations?
00:30:28 Cloaking Devices
00:33:46 How To Detect Alien Civilizations with Heat Signatures
00:37:21 Other Schemes for Detecting Civilizations
00:47:22 Does Alien Life Need Water to Exist?
00:51:46 Why Would Aliens Have Very Different Technology From Us?
00:55:54 When Did the First Life Form in the Universe?
01:07:23 Is the Universe Filled with Ancient Alien Civilizations?
01:16:45 What Is the Great Filter Hypothesis For Alien Life?
01:19:31 Artificial Intelligence, Aliens, and the End of Humanity
01:25:05 How Rare Is the Creation of Life From Nothing?
01:31:53 Communicating with Extraterrestrials
01:37:28 What Are Alien Megastructures?
01:47:07 Can We Engineer the Sun to Live Longer?
01:51:08 Clark Belt Detection
01:54:35 Should We Look for Alien Life on Exomoons?
02:01:33 Could We Find Alien Life on Planets in the Interstellar Medium?
02:04:34 Future Telescopes
02:13:35 What Is a Warp Drive and Why Can’t We Build One?
02:21:47 On Time Travel and the Best Time Machines
02:26:40 What Are the Best Interstellar Propulsion Technologies?
02:34:07 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft?
02:43:09 Are the TicTac UFOs Alien Spacecraft?
02:56:58 Do We Live in a Simulation?
03:00:17 What Is Quantum Immortality?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.