Why We Might Be Alone in the Universe

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Why does it appear, that humanity is the lone intelligence in the universe? The answer might be that planet Earth is more unique than we've previously assumed. The rare earth hypothesis posits exactly this - that a range of factors made Earth exceptionally unusual and uniquely able to produce intelligent life.

In upcoming episodes we’ll be exploring the anthropic principle and its two main versions - the strong and the weak anthropic principles. The strong anthropic principle tells us that the observed universe must be able to produce observers - including the contentious idea that this predicts the existence of universes beyond our own. But in today's episode we’re going to focus on the weak anthropic principle. It says that we must find ourselves in a part of the universe capable of supporting us. For example, in a planetary biosphere rather than floating in the void between the galaxies. This may seems tautological, but accounting for this observer selection bias is important to understanding why the universe looks the way it does from our perspective. And the weak anthropic principle is much more useful than that. When combined with the apparent absence of alien civilizations, it may tell us why intelligent life is incredibly rare in our universe.

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano Leal
Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

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[pbsspacetime]

Hey Everyone! So this is our first episode released in 4K. Hope you enjoy the upgrade.

[daumantasdaniel]

No matter if we are alone or not, we can all agree that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

[leandrolapa]

Even if advanced life is not SO rare, the sheer dimension of space may be an insurmountable barrier to any possible contact.

[The.Kyle.Scott.]

Still cannot wrap my head around the idea of organic, living things emerging from inorganic, lifeless things. Abiogenesis is mind blowing to me

[JB-kxbx]

The thing that made me think life may be rare is that we see very little phosphorus in the cosmos which was essential to life on Earth.

[andreylebedenko]

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." /Arthur C. Clarke/

[A_A_train]

Can my hours logged watching this channel transfer over to college credits?

[kevinmayer]

That our wonderful planet is so finely tuned for life makes me reflect on the monstrous ingratitude of our thoughtless and careless disregard for the stability of its climate system. If we could only appreciate the gift we have been given!

[jameswallace]

Science and math channels like this should be mandatory study for students of all ages. Not tested on necessarily. But to help people develope understanding of what is scientific and what is not. Our current age of misinformation might not be so prevalent.

[vin-ccnk]

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” Alan Watts

[SlanderMoralesRamos]

Ah so Jupiter is like Earths bouncer from weirdos and murderers

[nigeldepledge]

I can't speak for the universe as a whole, but intelligent life on Earth is pretty rare.

Why else would this channel not have a billion subscribers?

[randomshittutorials]

As a biologist I can tell you, once life comes to exist, it's hard to kill.

As long as the oceans don't get affected too much life will not die.
The oceans are very stable, even from meteorite impact (depending on the size).
Also, life already existed way before oxygen, mitochondria and the cambrian but in smaller unicellular forms.

Seasons and daylength doesn't matter that much as long as a start is made (allthough enough light is important for life to form). Today, life thrives in the extremest of conditions thanks to the time it had to develop, including INSIDE LAVA AND ICE.

As soon as protocells exist and develop widely, life get's harder and harder to kill.
It's like a disease: easy to prevent but once it expands in your body, very hard to get rid of.

This video is a big list of reasons why life might be really rare. However, most of these reasons are in my eyes at least, completely unable to prevent life from forming. It might make it take more time though.

Intelligent life however, might indeed be rare, and for protocells to form (for life to start) on a planet probably takes a very specific combination of chemicals, stability and other factors like a spin and magnetic protection field..

Statistically speaking there is a BIG chance protocells were created many times but simply couldn't survive due to instability.
Life could easily have started from more than one place.
New protocells can be formed today as well.

Humans have managed to recreate those conditions and even if they didn't create LIFE, they observed some RNA like structures..
It's funny how we don't even yet (completely) know what it takes for protocells to form naturally.

Great video.
Excuse my English I'm not a native speaker.

[nareshsahu]

Me: Are we alone in the universe?
Oracle: yes.
Me: then there's no life out there?
Oracle: there is.
.
.
They're alone too.

[squadalawereoff]

Y'all don't have to remind me I'm alone in the universe. I live it everyday

[txmoney]

“...when I say we’re alone, we’re alone. Life is only on Earth, and not for long.”
That line from the film, Melancholia, shook me to my core and saddened me. I always naturally assumed, due to the size of the universe, that the universe is teaming with life. But Melancholia made me consider that, for the first time, we may actually be a unique cosmic anomaly.

[jje]

Getting hit by a planet, surviving, and winding up with an axial tilt that promotes seasons and a giant orbiting moon that promotes tides...this could be an impossibly rare set of circumstances. The band of possibilities where that collision doesn't simply destroy both planets may be absurdly narrow. So if seasons, tectonic plates, and tides are prerequisites for life and the only way to get that is for two planets to crash together in exactly the right way...yes it might be so rare as to be essentially impossible. Except for us.

[DJWOWW]

How life started on earth is so strange to me. It baffles me.

[michaelmeyers]

Nobody mentions the other solution to the Fermi Paradox: someone has to be first.

[CatBack]

Im happy that we got a universe that has dogs 🐕