What Would Alien Life & Intelligences Mean? | Closer To Truth

What could life be as we don’t know it? Three transitions in astrobiology. Non-life to life. Life to intelligent life. Intelligent life to technological civilization. For alien life, would Darwinian evolution hold? Fermi’s Paradox is profound: with at least 10 22 planets in the known universe, we find no evidence of alien life, anywhere, much less alien intelligence. Is there a great filter?

Featuring interviews with Carol Cleland, Richard Dawkins, Rachell Powell, Massimo Pigliucci, and Helen De Cruz.

Episode 5, Season 23

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Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

00:00 Introduction
00:24 History of astrobiology
02:57 Interview with Carol Cleland
05:25: Exploring the potential characteristics of extraterrestrial life and intelligence, including the likelihood of Darwinian life and the importance of questioning biased definitions of life
06:45 Interview with Richard Dawkins
09:31: Exploring the implications of alien life and intelligence in the universe
10:25 Intelligent life to technological civilization
11:02 Interview with Rachel Powell
13:16: Implications of extraterrestrial intelligences and the replicability of minds in the universe
16:54 Interview with Massimo Pigliucci
21:02 Interview with Helen De Cruz
24:20 Outro