Conventional wisdom and mainstream science fiction often take for granted that intelligent, complex life must be abundant throughout the cosmos. In this 60-minute presentation, astrophysicist Dr. Nathan Kaib plays cosmic devil’s advocate to examine the opposing hypothesis: that intelligent life is exceedingly rare in the Universe.
We will discuss a few properties of the solar system that are quite unusual including the formation of the Earth’s moon, Jupiter’s existence and orbit, the Sun’s prevalence of heavy elements, and the asteroid collision that killed the dinosaurs. If intelligent life requires an environment with all of these unusual properties, it may very well be that species comparable to our own are quite hard to come by. Dr. Kaib says, “Full disclosure: I am truly undecided in my beliefs about eh prevalence of intelligent life in the Universe, but I do find it entertaining to make the contrarian case!”
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