Do we have evidence for alien life? | Matt O'Dowd clashes with Avi Loeb

Matt O'Dowd and Avi Loeb debate the current evidence for extraterrestrial life.

Do we already have proof that intelligent life exists outside of Earth?

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Space has a strange hold over us. Star Trek and Star Wars are amongst the most watched films of all time, while the moon landing gripped an era and was the most watched TV event ever. Now new generations are once again hooked by a return to the moon and the prospect of Mars. But what drives us to explore space is puzzling and unknown. The closest planets are desolate rocks. More distant planets have no surface being composed of freezing gas. Earth by comparison is a spectacular paradise. It would currently take 80,000 years to reach the next star and no known future technology is likely to change this by the orders of magnitude required to make it plausible.

Is the desire to explore space not practical but psychological, an urge to adventure into the unknown and escape our current limitations? Or should we take seriously Musk's claim that we need to go to Mars to find an alternative to Earth, however inhospitable? Or is the project profoundly mistaken and the consequence of pursuing an evolutionary trait to explore when in this case there is little or nothing to be gained?

#space #spacetravel #aliens

Matt O'Dowd is a renowned professor of astrophysics and host and writer of the biggest physics and space show on YouTube, PBS Space Time. Avi Loeb is a leading theoretical astrophysicist and the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. Carol Cleland is Director of the Center for the Study of Origins and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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00:00 Introduction
00:14 Matt O'Dowd on the issues with supposed evidence for alien life
01:08 Avi Loeb on Oumuamua
03:06 Matt O'Dowd on obsession and Urbain Le Verrier
05:09 Avi Loeb on the bias of mainstream science