Galactic Colonization

Have you ever wondered if there’s a Galactic Empire out there? How long would it take a space faring civilization to colonize the entire galaxy? Remarkably even traveling at sub-light speeds this should be possible within a fraction of our galaxy’s lifetime. Which raises the question - why hasn’t this happened yet? Today we dive into the repercussions of “Fact A” - the simple observation that Earth has not been colonized by an alien civilization. I sit down with Prof. Jason Wright who has recently co-authored a new paper that provides the most sophisticated treatment to date of this problem, and what it means for our place in the Universe.

Interview with Prof. Jason Wright. Presented & Written by Prof. David Kipping.

References:

Video materials and graphics used:

Movies/TV scenes used:
► Contact (1997)/Warnes Bros.
► Alien: Covenant (2017)/20th Century Fox
► Interstellar (2014)/Paramount
► Star Trek/Paramount
► Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine (2003)/Warner Bros.
► Alien (1979)/Warner Bros.

Music used, in chronological order:

And also...

THANKS FOR WATCHING!!

#GalacticColonization #FermiParadox #FactA

[knowwhentofoldem]

I had a wonderful physics professor in college in the 1960's who was able to engage and amaze me. At the end of his lectures the class would just sit in exhaustion and edification. He would actually get applause. You are his progeny. I can't believe I can have this again at the end of my life. Thank you.

[kylespencer]

Love this professor. When he talks and emphasizes his sentences, it actually keeps you awake and focused to keep learning clearly.

[ThePopbanks]

From the time I was a small child, astronomy was always my favorite topic, even ahead of dinosaurs. My prized Christmas gift was a telescope when I was ten years old. I devoured any and all material related to astronomy and astrophysics.

As an adult, life got in the way as it so often does. School, bills, responsibilities, relationships, etc etc etc.

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[reluginbuhl]

I am so glad that this kind of content is available on the internet. Especially when you consider how much garbage or even outright nonsense there is. Thank you! I really enjoy these videos!

[JAnderson-xogo]

I really wish you could release these more often. Love the subject matter, the music, narration. This is genuinely amazing, inspiring, calming, thought provoking. Thank you!

[danielleshovlin]

I can't believe this type of content is just free for us to watch whenever we want. Thanks for your service friend!

[glennrestvedt]

In a world that seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, once again Cool Worlds delivers a calming description of our place in the vasteness. I believe we all needed this. CHEERS

[TalismancerM]

On the graph: "Systems that are settleable" may mean something very different to a species that predominantly doesn't live on planets (our likely future).

[hasanlaila]

Your voice is so calming. Takes me back to my childhood, the Cosmos, and Carl Sagan. Thank you.

[imsen_Ao]

There is some comfort in knowing the people who have the same passion, enthusiasm and Curiosity! Our universe bears an untold story and there is no greater agony than that! Ty Prof

[metalikmike]

That guy was as amazing to listen to as you are. God what a great session it would be listening to you two discuss thing between you.

[mikecummings]

This is the fourth time that I watch this episode and I can honestly tell everyone that this cool worlds channel is done as well as anything I've ever seen

[MaddEndd]

This riddle has many ways to approach it, and finding exoplanets is the part I will take. It's like a strategy game, the better you know the map the better you know where the other player could be. So back to the TESS-data.

[nikolatasev]

This is an extremely interesting and informative video. Thank you!
I think there is another conclusion we can obtain from this.
Sending colony ships shorter distances should be vastly easier and safer - travel time is shorter, speeds are lower and thus collisions are less destructive, ships need less energy to send and more importantly - stop the journey at the end. So colonizing a system half a light year (e.g. in a globular cluster center) away should take a lot shorter than colonizing a system 4 light-years away.
Therefore a civilization that manages to establish itself in a dense star location has much greater chance of having a habitable star nearby, and greater opportunities to colonize even with a shorter life span. I think this is where we need to look for intelligent life, as it is the easiest place to sustain life. You simply need a critical mass of stars to start a chain colonization.
It would be nice to plug in stellar density in the graphic to show how it changes the chances. Maybe we are living in a region where stars are simply too far away from each other to be worth expanding into, and this is why we don't see aliens in our solar system. I did not see this in the simulation shown, but I think tweaking the parameters would show it.

[Chad_Dabal]

Getting a new Cool World Vid makes me excited like a kid everytime

[alexohana]

I think chances are we’re not alone. Two people who spent their whole lives isolated on a island might think smoke signals are the most sophisticated form of long distance communication. They may also believe no one else exists. Little do they know there are billions of other people who use radio frequency signals to communicate. We might be on that island right now

[SeltsamerAttraktor]

"Compelled to spread their seed" Hol' up there, Sagan

[disko]

Always waiting for new videos honestly could watch your channel all day. My 5 year old son also has an interest in astronomy he watches your videos with me and I can't wait till he fully grasps it all. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and knowledge.

[EpicFail]

Beautiful video....keep up the great work cool labs...hands down yall are my favorite science based channel

[lfletcher]

sorry, if this has already been noted, but the Carroll-Nellenback chart shown at ~19:50 seems to be wrong. The X-axis, in log scale, shows the fraction of systems that are settleable. The 100% mark is to the left of the end of the chart. The maximum is 100%. There is no possibility for more than 100%. Even if you count multiple planets in a system, the maximum is still 100%. This is really important as the blue area is what we really want (e.g., *intelligent technology civilization* is common). As it is, the bulk of the blue area is beyond 100%, suggesting that unless you have 100%, the chances are significantly reduced, and quickly. If the scale on the X-axis is properly shifted to the end, then I believe that the key blue area would be covered by 10% with 10^5 lifetime years as the lower limit, and that is pretty exciting (10^4 is more plausible, but I'm happy to give 10^5 a whirl). Additionally, you've not clearly defined the separation between life and *intelligent* life. This differentiation should be made a lot more clear in your discussion. Given our ever expanding understanding of the limits of *Earth* type life (basic carbon based life cycles), and not even counting more exotic life (phosphorus DNA backbone, silicon or aluminium based, etc.), and combined with the exponentially expanding discovery of Exo-planets, the probability for Life being common (Parts of the Drake Equation) is increasing rapidly. You also don't discuss the differentiation between Intelligent life and life within a *Technology Civilization* . There are plenty of examples of intelligent life on earth (dogs, cats, dolphins, etc.). The Universe very well may be teaming with Life, and even Intelligent life, and that we are not alone. But the Probability that our civilization has evolved a technology capability to detect other remote technology civilizations within the *same* time-window as that other civilization exists within a detectable distance, continues to be extraordinarily small. Overall, I quite liked your presentation and the Video Blog of Dr. Wright was very interesting.