Deadliest Cosmic Queries

0:00Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

0:16This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. Recording now from my office at the Hayden Planetarium, part of the American Museum of Natural History right here in New York City. Chuck Nice. Yo, what's up, Neil? Chuck Nice Comic on Twitter. And this is a Cosmic Queries edition. Yes, it is. Here's what we did. Yeah. Okay. We didn't specifically solicit these. Right. These trickle in over time. So this is a Cosmic Queries morbid edition. Oh, my. These are people asking just questions about the ends of things. Yes. The death of things. Yes. And then I worry about people.

0:57Like, what? I worry sometimes. When you read some of these questions. Yes. Yeah, we have definitely a very death-obsessed audience. We have a death-obsessed audience. We'll see what we can do with them. I don't even know how to bring in an expert on that. Other than an undertaker. Right. Right. Yeah. But, okay. Let's try it. Apparently, these are the questions that we get more than anything else. As a category. As a category. Short of soliciting a category, these trickle in as the biggest unsolicited category. All right, let's do it. All right, so let's start with Will J, who says, what one or two skills would you learn now to be useful and productive in a post-apocalyptic world?

1:44This is, of course, if you survive the meteor strike. So Apophis hits the world. First of all, if Apophis hits the world, would we still survive? Would human beings survive? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it would just disrupt civilization. Would that be post-apocalyptic? Would it disrupt civilization Mad Max style? Regionally, yes. Okay. Yeah. Or a boy and his dog style. Okay. Now you go way back. Now you go back to the 70s. Way, way, way. Okay. Don Johnson. There you go. One of his first movies, Don Johnson. I didn't know that. Yeah. All right. He's the boy. Right. And then there's the dog. So he's living on the surface of the earth, which is apocalyptic.

2:25Civilization moved underground. Right. Right. All the, I think all the men became sterile. Of course. And the men on the surface were not. So they grabbed him, brought him down to have him impregnate hundreds of women. Luckiest boy ever. No, they extracted the sperm from him. That's the theme. If you didn't know about a boy and his dog, that's Don Johnson. An early cinematic role. But you can look at movies and how they've portrayed these lone survivors in apocalyptic earth. And they needed like three things. They need sort of a street smarts. You know there's no street. Survival smarts. Survival smarts.

3:01Boy Scout level survival smarts. Probably Eagle Scout level. Right. And they all have some kind of weapon that can cause harm at a distance. So a bow and arrow or a gun. You don't want any up close and personal hand-to-hand combat. This is my issue with the lightsaber in Star Wars. Everyone's looking at it like it's some kind of major amazing weapon. when you have to stand three feet from the person to use it. Just think about that. The whole point of the advance of weaponry in the history of warfare is so you don't have to stand that close to anybody. Except that you can deflect laser shots. Laser bullets.

3:41Laser bullets, yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So what I'm saying is, if you have enough time to notice it's coming and then flick it out of the way, you could just duck. That is true. Okay? You can just duck. Why are you ruining Star Wars for me right now? I'm just saying. So I'm just not as impressed with the lightsaber as everybody else is. Okay. All right. It looks cool, though. Okay. So you'd want to be able to protect yourself from a distance. Right. And you'd want access to food. And in a boy and a dog, the only food left over on the ground was canned food, which was not spoiled by the radiation or anything else that was involved in it becoming apocalyptic Earth.

4:22So I would also say that - So in that case, you need a can opener. Yes, you do. In fact, the dog could only - The dog was smarter. The dog is telepathic and a genius, and he's not. So the dog found the cans of food. This is basically Peabody and Sherman. It is, it is. I forgot about Peabody and Sherman. Do you remember - Gee, Mr. Peabody! Do you remember Peabody? The dog, Sherman was his pet human. Do you remember that? Yes, that's right. That's right. I love this Wayback Machine because I love the time travel that was in the cartoon. I'm that old to remember it that way. So you, in that arrangement between the dog and the boy, the dog found the food, but the dog couldn't open the cans, but the boy could.

5:12Opposable thumbs win again. Their mutual survival depend. They need each other to survive. Okay, so I guess always carry a can opener in your back pocket. Apart from that, I think some kind of hand-to-hand combat would be useful. Right. Okay, if someone stalks you up at night and then grabs you. Right. Okay, you can then reach for your action at a distance weapon. Okay, so you got to know some kind of martial art. Right. If not outright wrestling, right? You got to have a weapon at a distance. Okay. You've got to have some kind of survival sense. Right. Which know how to find the food, how to prepare the food, how to make fire, that sort of thing.

5:52So I think these are the basics in the apocalyptic earth. And until there's some organized rules, my fear is that we'll just resort to sort of free-for-all. Oh, God, yes. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. We resort to a free-for-all when the subway platform is too crowded. And you know who wins in the end? Who? And I think about this every time. It's the person who controls the hardware store. Makes sense. You walk into a hardware store, everything you need is there. Yeah, absolutely. Everything. Yeah. Yeah, including weaponry. Everything. Yeah, whatever you need. It's right there. It's right there for the apocalypse.

6:30So there you have it. So Home Depot employees, you will be our saviors when the post-apocalyptic world— If they don't shoot your ass first. Well, yeah. All right, cool. That's a cool— By the way, that's why it's good for you to have a talent that other people value that they can't just take from you. Like your knowledge of how to do things. I thought you were going to say comedy.

7:01I guess so. The king's jester, right? But if you're not funny. Well, yeah. Well, the first time you're not funny, that's the end of your career. No, no. It's the end of your hand. Well, true. End of your life, right? By the way, this has been studied in The Walking Dead. What's that? So the danger is not the zombies, really. Okay. The danger is how people respond to each other. Right. So the interpersonal relationships become most important. Most important. And who do you value and why? Is someone overtaking the resources relative to other people? Right. Are some people power hungry? that exploration became most of what made The Walking Dead interesting.

7:46Not all the innovative ways they would kill The Walking Dead because that gets redundant after like the fifth episode. There's only so many ways you can kill a zombie. You can only kill a zombie, right? So that exploration, I think, was the most intriguing part of it. Yeah, I'm going to give it to you. I didn't watch it that much, but what I did watch, that's what was most interesting. It's like a soap opera, believe it or not. Yeah, it is, exactly. It's like a soap opera with zombies. Yeah. Zombie so - A quick other point. Go ahead. I think about this often. If you're going to create an arc of people who will then regenerate civilization on the other side.

8:23Okay. How are you going to pick who's on that arc? Right? So if I were you, I would try to find something, some talent, some trade that would be useful in the apocalypse. That will assure that you might be picked to come on the arc. Right. Right. I'm trying to think, like, will there be a nightclub on the ark? Because if there's a nightclub on the ark, I'm in good shape. You're still thinking? I'm not thinking about farming or transportation or communication. You're thinking of the nightclub and the cocktail tables. The nightclub, right, exactly. Do we have liquor and do we have night? Because then I can, you know, basically I can generate a two-drink minimum and entertainment.

9:12All right. That's cool, man. All right. Next question. All right. Here we go. This is... Queries on the ends of things. Okay. Go. Salah Madi Madi. Wants to know this. Wow. Wow. What if... You want to share it with us? Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry.

9:37What if Wolverine, with his regeneration power, was thrown into a black hole? Would he still get spaghettified? Or would he just continually regenerate? Interesting. Ooh. That's a weird question. I like it. Here's the thing. The spaghettification, unless you're elastic man, splits you into pieces. Okay. So if Wolverine breaks into two halves and those two halves continue to separate, there is no regenerating an injury. Right, because he's still— That's not really an injury. He's still Wolverine. He's just Wolverine being, like, kind of streamed. Well, if I split you at the base of your spine, that's likely the first place you'll break.

10:25and then at the base of your neck and then at your knees and your hips, then he's Wolverine in eight parts. What does it mean to regenerate that? I don't even know. Yeah, you can't. Because there's a gap in between. Exactly. And the regeneration, from what I've seen in the movies and in the comic book, the regeneration requires that the gaps are filled that are part of your body and it fills in from where you already had flesh. That's true. Right? Right. So I think Wolverine, that's it. And even the adamantium or whatever is the stuff is. That's adamantium. Yeah. A black hole will overcome any physical substance.

11:00Any physical substance? Correct. Okay. Correct. No matter what it is. Even if it's fictional and magical, it'll overcome. Right. It's still going to end up being just a stream of what? Single atoms? Correct. Now, do the atoms actually get spaghettified too? Yes. Wow. This is my point. The nuclei get spaghettified. Wow. This is why I'm saying. Okay. So what happens is the tidal force of gravity, that's the stretching force. Right. Tides, that's where we get the word tides from. The tidal force of gravity becomes greater than all other forces of nature. Period. Period. Nice. So the forces of nature that hold the molecules together, that hold the atoms together, that hold the nuclei together, get ripped apart by the tidal forces of gravity.

11:48Oh, wow. That's why gravity wins. Right. So he's spaghettified That's all there is to it No matter what Join the club Yeah sorry Wolverine Sorry Wolverine Dad that's a shame What's my boy's name The actor Hugh Jackman Join the club Hugh Jackman Sorry Hugh You in the club Yep exactly Spaghettified club Favorite scene though Of Wolverine Gets shot in the head In I don't know what movie Shot in the head Falls to the floor Everyone's standing there Couple minutes later The bullet pops back out And he gets up I love it. Anyway. All right, here we go. This is Phil Vader, 23, from Instagram. All right.

12:33Let's say the world ends. Do you think that's the end of the human race? This could be at any time. It's a different way of saying, will we outlive this place? Do you think? How could you outlive the planet that you live on? I don't understand. Okay, let's say for instance. The answer is no. If Earth is destroyed... No, let's say, I mean, the Earth is going to... How long is the Earth going to be around? Five billion years. No, we're here now. Yes. So we're 4.8 billion now, right? Yeah. Well, four and a half billion. Okay, so now, how far do we have to go is my point? Until when? I'm saying, like, the sun is going to burn out.

13:09Oh, how far away? Yeah, how far do we have to go? Oh, that's what you're saying. How far forward into the future? Oh, I didn't understand that. Yeah. Okay, so if Earth is ready to get vaporized by the sun, you need some ability to planet hop. Right. Because the sun will grow in size. The temperature of Earth's surface will get hotter and hotter and hotter. Time to move, folks. You pick up your luggage. You move to Mars. Okay. The next farther planet from the sun. Okay? But the sun will also start to make Mars hot. So then you want to move farther out again. Then the sun will eventually die and no longer be a source of energy to any of us.

13:46Then you want to be able to star hop. Okay. Find another solar system to move to. Sure, why not? So how long would that— That all happened in five billion years. Okay, so we got another five billion years. You up to worry. I am worried about it. Oh, shoot. Oh, thank God. As long as I don't have to put it on my calendar. That's what I'm— I have it on mine, by the way. October 12th. Right. Five billion. What do we think the human race will basically, let's just say we solved all of our problems. Our social cultural problems. Our social cultural problems. How long do you think we could make it? If we're not going to kill ourselves?

14:22We're not going to kill ourselves. Which, by the way, I am sure that's what's going to happen. The average, last I checked this, this is not my field of expertise. I'm just relying on what I've read. But I do work in a natural history museum. So I have colleagues who do this stuff. Last I remembered, the average life expectancy of a mammal species is several million years. And we've been around for several hundred thousand. So we should have a good— We've got a long way to go. We've got a long way to go. If we don't kill ourselves. If we don't kill ourselves. And it might be that intelligence, as we've come to know it and understand it, is contraindicative of the survival of the species.

15:01So in other words, there might be an inverse relationship between intelligence and survival. Correct. You might get so smart that it's impossible for you to survive because that's what causes you to kill yourself. Correct. Because you invent something that you think is cool and it's the end of the world. Damn. I think it was— That sucks. Who's the guy who wrote Slaughterhouse-Five? Oh, Kurt Vonnegut. I think it was Kurt Vonnegut. In one of his novels, he said— I'm paraphrasing. This is the last sentence ever spoken by humans. This will be the last sentence ever spoken by humans. It'll be one scientist speaking to the other saying, let's try it the other way.

15:43Oh, God. Yeah, that's funny. Okay. That makes sense. The last sentence. Right. So once you have the power over nature and the forces of nature are greater than you, or ultimately greater than you, then you are wielding forces that can render your own extinction. Oh, you know what? But that makes sense that there's a lot of, speaking of post-apocalyptic tropes, one post-apocalyptic trope is that there's a huge self-destructive action taken by humankind. And then they decide in the aftermath to live at one with nature and to never go beyond that. Because. That's hard, though, because you're pumping water out of the water table.

16:27Right. To drink. Right. You are redirecting a river so it doesn't go through your home. That's interfering with nature. Almost everything we do interferes with nature. Farming is an interference of nature. Right. The monocrop, right? So if you want to live, eat, survive, and you want to live in harmony with nature, you just leave civilization and go in a cave. And we give you a knife, and there you go. And you'll be dead at 35.

16:55If that's how you really want to do it. If that's how you want to do it. strongly about nature, do it. I don't feel that strongly about anything to live in a cave, to be honest. So, next question. All right, here we go. The next one is... J.T. Parrott. He just says this. I'm just going to read it as is. Does it end with a bang or a whimper? Oh. The universe will end in its continued expansion to the future. It will end not in fire, but in ice. And not with a bang, but with a whipper. Damn, that's cold. See what I did there?

17:54I'm Jasmine Wilson, and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

18:11All right, what do you have? Okay, let's move on. Cosmic queries. Some more Cosmic queries. Our morbid edition. Morbid edition, yes. Go ahead. All right, so this is a morbid question. And so DJ Mads... Wait, wait, just to be clear. We left off the previous segment, somebody asking simply, will it end with a bang or a whimper? And I gave like a poeticized answer. But let me just put a little more flesh on that bone. Okay. So for a while in the 20th century, once we had Einstein's equation of gravity, the universe could be expanding or contracting within that equation. The equation didn't distinguish one or the other.

18:51Observations showed we're expanding. Right. Now we can ask, will we expand forever or will it one day slow down, stop, and contract? Okay. We make more observations and we show, no, there's not enough gravity to halt that expansion. It will expand forever. Once we learned it would expand forever, then we asked, what is the long-term profile of the universe? Well, the temperature will get further and further diluted as space expands. Oh. Space-time expands. Right. Because all that energy used to be concentrated here, and now it's half, and then a third, and a tenth. So, the temperature of the universe drops.

19:24Eventually it dissipates, right? It dissipates. It's a good way to say it. The intensity of energy dissipates. The temperature of the universe drops. Right. And it'll never come back. and all the stars will die and not get regenerated because everything will separate from each other and so gas clouds will make their final stars and that's it. So then the stars will ultimately burn out one by one as the sky goes dark. Thus, the universe ends not in fire but in ice and not with a bang but with a whimper. That's kind of sad for the universe. I mean, I don't want to anthropomorphize the universe. You just did.

20:05I feel bad for the universe now. Maybe that's a good way to go. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't mind going like that. There you go. Which brings us to our next question. What a great segue you just made. DJ Maz, 2006 on Instagram, says, Neil, how do you want to die? Oh, this is public knowledge. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I bet if you type, how does Neil Tyson want to die? Hold on. No. Nuh-uh. I'm going to do it right. You want to test it? I got to test it out. Since you said it, because I got my phone handy. Hold on. All right, here we go. I'm going to talk to my phone. How does Neil deGrasse Tyson want to die?

20:44Okay, and okay, clearly you have done this because one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight YouTube videos came up about you dying somehow. Here's you on the afterlife. Here's you on I Don't Fear Death. Here is you on Near Death and Near Death Experience. You talk about death a lot, dude. It's not that I come out of the box doing this. It's that people come to me asking about it. Okay. All right, so how do I choose to die? I would delight in, if I were near my deathbed. Okay. Temporally near my deathbed. I would say, don't lay me down to die. Launch me into that black hole so I can be spaghettified.

21:29Oh, wow. And I will report back until I no longer can. Sweet. And I'll be the first human... To be spaghettified. Spaghettified, yeah. Nice. Yes, I will totally go that way. Somebody get some sauce for Neil. We need some sauce for this man. Spaghetti sauce. Okay, so now... Spaghettified sauce. That's kind of cool, actually, if that's how you're going to go. But do you think that would hurt? Seriously. Yeah. I mean, I'm being... Yeah, but it'll be... Yeah, and your point is... What do you mean you're saying? Do you think it'll hurt being stretched and ripped apart by the title for it? What kind of question is that?

22:05My point is, would it happen so quickly that it wouldn't make a difference? Or would it happen to the point where you would be thoroughly aware of every single part? I mean, until you couldn't be. You feel like you're stretching. And say, that's good. Nobody doesn't like a good stretch. No, absolutely. And then it is unrelenting. And you say, okay, I'm done now. No, sorry. That's not how we play that. Okay. And then you stretch and then you snap into two pieces. Now, the thing is, all your vital organs are in the upper half of your body. So you'll likely stay awake even after you lose your lower half.

22:36Wow. And then, you know, if you sever it the neck, they did experiments at the French Revolution. That you can still see. Right, yeah. And so they get blinked, you know, for a few seconds. Yeah. So that's how I would do it. Okay. I want my death to have some value to science. All right. And that's how you do that. That is where we differ. I want to die in my sleep.

23:01feeling nothing you know all right well that's cool man there you go spaghettification all right by the way this concept of feeling nothing by dying in your sleep i don't know if it was just my immaturity or my my literalism of of uh because i i i was a geek kid okay and everything was literal to me i could not think figuratively about anything and i would like rethink things like six of one, half a dozen of the other. Right, yes. I thought, is it six of one half, a dozen of the other? Well, that would be three and 12. So it was just... Because why would anyone say six of one, half a dozen of the other?

23:41Why would anyone say that if those are the same things? If those are the same things, right. So what's the point? So maybe they meant something else. So I thought six of one half, well, that's three, and a dozen of the other. So maybe they say there's three of these and 12 of those. Six of them. So I had a very literal mind. And one of them was trying to understand people learning when people died by taking sleeping pills. And I'm thinking, how could you die by taking sleeping pills? Don't you just go to sleep? Like, what? Like, I can imagine dying by taking poison. Right? Yes. I get that. Okay?

24:16You can die by gunshot wound, by knife, by falling off a cliff. Just by going to sleep? And then I had to learn that you can take too many pills. Right. And then your body just stops working. But en route to you having digested these pills, you simply fall asleep. So I have to deduce this from first principles. That's all I'm saying. Well, you just described my favorite way to die. But without the pill part, I don't want that part. You just want to go to sleep and not wake up? I just want to go to sleep and not wake up. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Many people in my family have died that way. Really? Yeah.

24:52Yeah. Well, here's the thing. I was just thinking about this morning, okay? You read about someone's death and they say they died peacefully in their sleep. Right. Does that mean if they don't say that, that they were screaming in total agony? So that's why, why even mention that? So I guess it brings comfort to people. Right. Peacefully, that's the comfort part. Right, but if you died in pain and agony, you're not going to tell that to someone. So now I'm thinking if they don't say they died peacefully, that that's actually how it happened. Yeah. I would say that's almost the case. They did not go quietly.