S01.E11: The Immortals

[Tara Ariano]

Why civilizations perish and the possibility of beings that live forever are explored. Also: a look at what can be learned from science about the future.

[Rhetorica]

I liked the comparison of Enheduana writing stories to the written "words" of our DNA. And also find it enchanting that our DNA can perhaps implant other star systems. 

Enjoyable episode. Very assertive about climate change, warfare, and all the other perils of humans to the Earth. I know some may think it too aggressive compared to Sagan; however, thirty years ago people thirsted for knowledge. Today, many reject it. 

[WhoAmIWorkingFor]

The quibble I've read concerning the idea that our TV broadcasts are announcing our presence to the galaxy is that the signal strength will have decreased to essentially nothing at interstellar distances, so they won't really alert other civilizations to us unless they're already in the system.

[futurechemist]

I thought the episode did a good job of hitting climate change head on and still remaining optimistic about our future.  The bit about what the next cosmic calendar will look like reminded me of a book I recently read, "2312" by Kim Robinson, a very good scifi book that explores what the solar system will look like in 300 years when pretty much all planets and moons have been terraformed, but human civilization still has many of the same flaws as now.

 

1 quibble about the segment on life travelling between worlds.  It may be true that life on Earth was seeded by a comet from some other solar system.  But that doesn't actually answer anything about the origin of life, it just pushes the explanation back.  To me the origin of life is 1 of the most interesting unanswered questions in biology and chemistry.

[millahnna]

"2312" by Kim Robinson, a very good scifi book that explores what the solar system will look like in 300 years when pretty much all planets and moons have been terraformed, but human civilization still has many of the same flaws as now.

 

Thanks for that.  I'm an old fan of that guy's (the Mars Trilogy is my favorite thing ever) but haven't checked new book lists in a long time.  He tends to continue certain themes across books (they could all be set in the same universe) that I really dig (Terminator).