↓ More info below ↓
Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!
https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime
Check out the Space Time Merch Store
https://pbsspacetime.com/
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
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRl6-nb4iOnsij-vnpAjp0Q
Special Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters
BIg Bang Supporters:
Alexander Tamas
David Barnholdt
David Nicklas
Fabrice Eap
John S
Juan Benet
matt miller
Morgan Hough
Quasar Supporters
Mark Heising
Mark Rosenthal
Vinnie Falco
Hypernova
chuck zegar
Danton Spivey
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
Hank S
joe pearce
John Hofmann
John R. Slavik
Jordan Young
Joseph Salomone
Mathew
Matthew O’Connor
Syed Ansar
Gamma Ray Burst
A G
Adrian Hatch
Adrien Molyneux
AlecZero
Andreas Nautsch
Bradley Jenkins
Brandon labonte
Dan Warren
Daniel Lyons
David Bethala
DFaulk
Frederic Simon
Geoffrey Short
Graydon Goss
Greg Smith
James Flowers
John Funai
John Griffith
John Michael Kerr
John Pollock
John Robinson
Jonathan Nesfeder
Joseph Dillman
Josh Thomas
Kevin Lee
Kevin Warne
Kyle Hofer
Malte Ubl
Nick Virtue
Nick Wright
Paul Rose
Scott Gossett
Sean Warniaha
Tim Stephani
Tonyface
Yurii Konovaliuk