Neil deGrasse Tyson

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“Nanobots Will Be Available To Everyone”

March 9, 2016 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

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Critical though I sometimes am of the aggressive timelines of Ray Kurzweil’s predictions, I acknowledge finding him endlessly interesting. The Singularitarian-in-Chief sat down with Neil deGrasse Tyson in Manhattan for a public conversation about all things future. Kurzweil thinks tomorrow’s nanotechnologies will be broadly accessible to all classes as smartphones are today, which is probably true, but his argument that this availability will limit wealth inequality doesn’t seem to follow. Smartphones, after all, have not been equalizers.

From Jose Pagliery and Hope King at CNN Money:

CNNMoney asked Kurzweil: What happens to inequality in this future? Will brain superpowers and health be limited to the rich?

“Yeah, like cell phones,” Kurzweil responded. “Only the rich have access to these technologies — at a point in time when they don’t work.”

Industry perfects products for mass consumption, Kurzweil noted. And the tech will inevitably get cheaper. As computer makers keep doubling the number of chips on a circuit board, the “price performance of information technology” doubles every year, he said.

“Nanobots will be available to everyone,” Kurzweil said. “These technologies are ultimately democratized because they keep getting less and less expensive.”

And even if Kurzweil thinks AI will probably replace many of today’s workers, he’s optimistic about future jobs for humans. But when Tyson pressed him to name specific jobs, Kurzweil was stumped. After all, no one in 1910 could predict today’s computer chip designers and website developers.•

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“They’re Big Dreams, And I Don’t Have Any Problems With People Dreaming”

November 27, 2015 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

Neil deGrasse Tyson readily admits he’s bad at predicting the future, but as one of the leading public faces of science, he gets those kinds of questions. He certainly doesn’t restrain himself, however, when making prognostications about private space companies and the future of exploration, believing venture capital will never be the leader of such ventures. 

From a Verge interview conducted by Sean O’Kane:

Question:

The flip side of that is you have a live show coming up in Brooklyn that’s themed “Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.” I can think of at least a couple things that you might talk about during that. Can you give an idea of what that might cover?

Neil deGrasse Tyson:

Well I think the biggest delusion was watching us go to the Moon in the 1960s and saying to yourself, “Wow this is a great frontier we’re breaching, we’ve dreamed about the Moon for centuries, and in just a few more years we’ll be on Mars and then we’ll be all over space.” That was missing some important parts of that equation. You’re missing the fact that we only declared we’re going to the Moon because we were at war with the Soviet Union, we were in a cold war, so this is a war of technologies. The fact that Sputnik was launched in a hollowed out intercontinental ballistic missile shell — no one thought about the space over the atmosphere. We knew that you could control your own airspace, but how about your “space” space?

So there was our sworn enemy’s spacecraft flying over our head, and we knew it because they would send out radio signals and you could detect it. And so that’s why we went to the Moon. We didn’t go to the Moon because we’re explorers or discoverers, or we’re Americans. There’s a whole delusional front story that we tell ourselves about that era. And then, when we don’t go end up going to Mars, people cry foul. It was war that got us there, so let’s just be honest about that.

Once you know what the actual drivers are, if you want to continue to achieve that goal, then you can at least base it on the reality of people’s decisions rather than what you wish they were.

Question:

It seems really easy to delude ourselves about the state of space now, right? We look at a company like Mars One and say, “Oh yeah, totally, that seems possible. A reality show would definitely fund a mission to Mars.” Or even SpaceX, we’ve looked at that company with wide eyes and only now question them after a very public failure.

Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The delusion that relates to private spaceflight isn’t really what you’re describing. They’re big dreams, and I don’t have any problems with people dreaming. Mars One, let them dream. That’s not the delusion. The delusion is thinking that SpaceX is going to lead the space frontier. That’s just not going to happen, and it’s not going to happen for three really good reasons: One, it is very expensive. Two, it is very dangerous to do it first. Three, there is essentially no return on that investment that you’ve put in for having done it first.•

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“This Would Tell The Aliens That We, As A Species, Do Much More Than Think”

June 11, 2015 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Somebody finally found that hermit Neil deGrasse Tyson in the cave where he hides from public attention and convinced him to conduct an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. 

Tyson, who’s written the forward to several books that study the intersection of art and science, answered questions on both topics. An exchange on each follows.

_______________________________

Question:

Which three works of art would you choose to give to an alien species that you feel best expresses the human experience?

Neil deGrasse Tyson:

Mmmmm.

I think I would have them visit the Rothko Chapel, in Houston. Obviously, there’s more than one work of art there, but it emanates from the same soul of creativity. That would be one of them, if I would be allowed to group that as one work of art.

Another group of art, I would say the Sistine Chapel, the ceiling. That captures the height of our artistic expression, triggered by religious emotion. And religion is a big part of what civilization has been. The Rothko Chapel is a path to your inner solitude.

And the fact that art can get you there – in a space, I think – matters.

And I would say third, again it’s a space – the Waterlily Room, in Paris, where you have the Waterlilies, where as Impressionist Art, you don’t think Waterlilies by seeing the artwork, you feel them. And it’s a way to have art convey a feeling more than a visual.

And this would tell the aliens that we, as a species, do much more than think.

We feel.

And then they’d have to contend with that.

Maybe they’d vaporize us, haha! I don’t know any force operating in our culture but art to capture that fact.

_______________________________

Question:

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have expressed their worries about the creation of an artificial intelligence. What do you think about it?

Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The people who worry about artificial intelligence – I’m not. I’m cool with it.

We already have artificial intelligence. It’s just where you draw the line. Where you say “This is something beyond the limit.” We have computers that beat us in chess, they even beat us in Jeopardy! We have a car that can drive itself. A car that can brake faster than you can. Airplanes that REQUIRE computers to fly because the pilot cannot control all the surfaces that are necessary for it to fly stably.

We have artificial intelligence around us at all times.

If they’re worried that there will be a robot invented that will come out of the box that will start stabbing us? If that happened, I’ll just unplug the robot. Or if it’s Texas, I’ll start shooting it.

I’m not worried, okay?

Nobody will put you on trial for shooting your own robot.

So I’m not worried. Really.

Plus if I programmed the damn thing – I can re-program you! So I’m good with putting as much intelligence as possible. Robots build our cars – not people! We can argue it, but it’s a fact.

And I’m old enough to remember – in the morning, there was a good reason that your car might not start for a dozen reason. And now cars start. Robots built that car. Gimme more robots.

Next!•

 

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“How About A Militarized Space Race To Mars?”

May 26, 2015 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

“Militarized Space Race” doesn’t have a comforting ring to it, but Neil deGrasse Tyson (mischievously) asserts that’s what the U.S. and China need to engage in to kickstart in earnest a voyage to Mars. Perhaps.

I don’t know that the fear of China is the same as it was with Russia during the Cold War. I mean, we’re practically partners with China, and they’re good communists capitalists just like we are. Ultimately, I don’t know if it matters which nation gets there first. The whole world benefited from Apollo even if the bragging rights and flag-planting were awfully sweet. Would a competition between the two leading economies work better than the nations agreeing to work together to get to Mars ASAP? Perhaps the competition should be between government and private industry instead? Us vs. Musk?

From Chris Zappone of the Sydney Morning Herald:

In the search to find the high-paying jobs and industries of the future, Neil deGrasse Tyson has an idea for a novel solution. How about a militarised space race to Mars?

More specifically, the famed American astrophysicist says that if he could just get China’s leaders to leak a memo to the West about plans to build military bases on Mars, “the US would freak out and we’d all just build spacecraft and be there in 10 months.”

The fallout of such competition would, like the Space Race of yore, alter the technological focus of advanced economies, likely helping shake off the current period of low growth and innovation stagnation in favour of new industries for the future.

“This would reignite the flames of innovation that I think we, at least in the US, at one time took for granted,” Tyson told Fairfax Media from New York. And while Tyson offers his plan for Mars with tongue firmly planted in cheek, the issue of growing an economy through more science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is no joke. …

In fact, the dazzling feats of humans in space would change the broader culture of a country.

“You would transform a sleepy country into an innovation nation and you’d do it practically overnight. And that transformation has huge economic implications,” he says.•

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“I Lay Awake At Nights Wondering Whether We As A Species Are Simply Too Stupid To Figure Out The Universe That We’re Investigating”

March 12, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Human DNA is only about about 1% different than that of a chimpanzee. If we encounter intelligent life from elsewhere in the universe and they’re 1% smarter than we are, they will probably view us as chimps. In this 12-minute, “fascinatingly disturbing” thought experiment, Neil deGrasse Tyson wonders if we’re just too dumb to figure out the biggest puzzles of the universe, whether those questions can only be answered by species brighter than we’ll ever be.

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“They Knew That Seemingly Impossible Things Were Possible”

March 9, 2012 in Politics, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Neil deGrasse Tyson testifying in D.C. about the foolishness of an absence of a comprehensive U.S. space program.

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“A Penny On A Dollar Would Be Enough To Have A Real Mars Mission In The Near Future”

March 6, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In the Atlantic, celebrity scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses his new book about America’s foundering space program. An excerpt:

“You write that space exploration is a ‘necessity.’ Why do you think others don’t agree?

I don’t think they’ve thought it through. Most people who don’t agree say, ‘We have problems here on Earth. Let’s focus on them.’ Well, we are focusing on them. The budget of social programs in the federal tax base is 50 times greater for social programs than it is for NASA. We’re already focused in ways that many people who are NASA naysayers would rather it become. NASA is getting half a penny on a dollar — I’m saying let’s double it. A penny on a dollar would be enough to have a real Mars mission in the near future.

Can the United States catch up in the 21st-century space race?

When everyone agrees to a single solution and a single plan, there’s nothing more efficient in the world than an efficient democracy. But unfortunately the opposite is also true, there’s nothing less efficient in the world than an inefficient democracy. That’s when dictatorships and other sort of autocratic societies can pass you by while you’re bickering over one thing or another.

But, I can tell you that when everything aligns, this is a nation where people are inventing the future every day. And that future is brought to you by scientists, engineers, and technologists. That’s how I’ve always viewed it. Once people understand that, I don’t see why they wouldn’t say, ‘Sure, let’s double NASA’s budget to an entire penny on a dollar! And by the way, here’s my other 25 pennies for social programs.’ I think it’s possible and I think it can happen, but people need to stop thinking that NASA is some kind of luxury project that can be done on disposable income that we happen to have left over. That’s like letting your seed corn rot in the storage basin.”

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“Where He Grew Up, He Could Only See A Few Bright Stars”

January 3, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A portrait of the scientist as a young child, from Carl Zimmer’s new profile of star astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in Playboy:

“Tyson first saw the Milky Way when he was nine, projected across the ceiling of New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He thought it was a hoax. From the roof of the Skyview Apartments in the Bronx, where he grew up, he could only see a few bright stars. When Tyson turned eleven, a friend loaned him a pair of 7×35 binoculars. They weren’t powerful enough to reveal the Milky Way in the Bronx sky. But they did let him make out the craters on the moon. That was enough to convince him that the sky was worth looking at. 

He began to work his way up through a series of telescopes. For his twelfth birthday, he got a 2.4-inch refractor with three eyepieces and a solar projection screen. Dog walking earned him a five-foot-long Newtonian with an electric clock for tracking stars. Tyson would run an extension cord across the Skyview’s two-acre roof into a friend’s apartment window. Fairly often, someone would call the police. He charmed the cops with the rings of Saturn.

Tyson took classes at the Hayden Planetarium and then began to travel to darker places to look more closely at the heavens. In 1973, at age fourteen, he went to the Mojave Desert for an astronomy summer camp. Comet Kahoutek had appeared earlier in the year, and Tyson spent much of his time in the Mojave taking pictures of its long-tailed entry into the solar system. After a month he emerged from the desert, an astronomer to the bone.” (Thanks Longform.)

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“Comet Kahoutek is on its way” (at 6:30):

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