Image: FOX
Q:
Q:
Tyson: Asteroid impacts disrupting civilization.
Human induced climate change disrupting civilization.
Airborne virus with a long incubation period. (These are
all bigger threats to humanity.)
It’s hubris to believe that we would be of any
interest to alien invaders. Any alien with technologies
capable of visiting Earth from across the galaxy, upon
observing the conduct of humans, will surely conclude
that there’s no sign of intelligent life on Earth, and go
elsewhere.
If we build artificially intelligent robots, I’d instead
turn to them for advice on how to run a better world.
Tyson: We are not targeting all of cosmic knowledge,
we instead explore how selected cosmic knowledge,
obtained via the methods and tools of science, can
foster a cosmic perspective, which, by many measures
needs to be the centerpiece of wisdom for the 21st
century.
Which is more of a threat to the long term survival
of mankind – hostile aliens invading Earth or
artificially-intelligent robots turning on humanity?
With an entire universe of knowledge to cover
in just 13 hours, was there any specific subject
you were not able to address in the new Cosmos? Or
one where you would have liked to devote even more
time explaining it than you did, but just weren’t able
to do so?
Q:
If you were to take a long journey into space, and
weight and space were not a concern, what
personal items would you desire to bring with you?
Q:
Tyson: Nothing comes to mind. I’m not particularly
laden with personal items.
Tyson: Any light from the big bang comes to us from
Q:
Q:
Tyson: 10% of the federal budget each year should
be invested in R&D – the kind that brings returns on
investment across time periods longer than what can
be expected for Corporate investment R&D. Five
years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years. And in that
investment, we would create a suite of launch vehicles
suitable for any task in space that we have or can
imagine, be it touristic, military, scientific, or otherwise
commercial. Be it the Moon, Mars, asteroids, comets,
outer planets, or libration points in space. That would
transform the country and ultimately the world.
If we had a space telescope powerful enough
to see 13.8 billion light-years away, would we be
seeing the light coming from the moment of the Big
Bang itself, or is this light forever unobservable?
about a half-billion years after the explosion, when the
glow became transparent to light. To see farther back
in time we cannot use telescopes that require light. The
frontier of this effort is now in gravity wave and neutrino
telescopes. These can penetrate the haze of light,
taking us back to the first fractions of a second of time.
If you could take a trip into space on any fictional
or nonfictional spaceship, which would you
choose, and why?
Tyson: The Ship of the Imagination. As featured in
“Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey” When you see it, you
will know why.
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You are given dictatorial control of the U.S. for
one day. What is the first decree/policy you
make to benefit the advancement of science in the
United States?
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