Are We the Only Advanced Civilization in Our Observable Universe?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

There aren't any other technologically advanced alien civilizations out there, as we would recognize. And so the idea is that rather than sending delicate protoplasm to the far reachers of the galaxy, you send some sort of a, i'm not sure its gon o be a great deal of use,. Ase they don't know how to think, know, yee, yes. You need, you need a human there. I mean, when firmy asked that question and lost alamosthat the gist was probably, what is the feasibility of interstellar travel? It could be that that actually really is a quarantine zone. it may be thathowever hard we try, it just is

Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But as much as people know about evolution, we also find the growth of corresponding myths. Simon Conway Morris is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who’s new book is From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution. He is known as a defender of evolutionary convergence and adaptationism — even when there is a mass extinction, he argues, the resulting shake-up simply accelerates the developments evolution would have made anyway. We talk about this, and also about the possible role of God in an evolutionary worldview.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Simon Conway Morris received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cambridge. He is currently an emeritus professor of evolutionary paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge. Among his awards are the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.