*** Youtube/Video thread ***

(removed to keep the forum youtube critic happy)

0_o Seems to be a new retarded fad some morons are partaking in.
 
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It's a bit saddening that this isn't getting more views, I liken it to Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. But where Sagan focuses on humanity, Hawking focuses on the physics. Both should be mandatory watches for anyone who owns an ounce of sanity.

 
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Brilliant video, but I think he's wrong about the results of discovering other people elsewhere in the universe. It would mean that humanity isn't unique, but why would that "force us to change" and "start acting with more compassion and humility"? I don't see a connection at all, let alone one so strong that it compels humanity to act with more compassion and humility. How could that be enforced, anyway?
 
Angilion said:
Brilliant video, but I think he's wrong about the results of discovering other people elsewhere in the universe. It would mean that humanity isn't unique, but why would that "force us to change" and "start acting with more compassion and humility"? I don't see a connection at all, let alone one so strong that it compels humanity to act with more compassion and humility. How could that be enforced, anyway?
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with enforcement. It would most likely make us realise that we are a single race that evolved on this planet. Colour, religion, and nationality would seem like small differences compared to a race that evolved on an entirely different planet.

At a base level it would bring us together for possible mutual defense against an unknown, a tribal instinct made global.
 
Pixel said:
It has nothing to do with enforcement.
Click to expand...

Since he used the word "force", it has everything to do with enforcement.

It would most likely make us realise that we are a single race that evolved on this planet. Colour, religion, and nationality would seem like small differences compared to a race that evolved on an entirely different planet.

At a base level it would bring us together for possible mutual defense against an unknown, a tribal instinct made global.
Click to expand...

I think you're severely underestimating the power and prevalance of group identity. People already know that we're a single species that evolved on this planet. Knowing that there's another species of people on another planet can't add that knowledge because that knowledge already exists.

Even collaboration for mutual defence against a clear and immediately present enemy hell bent on killing everyone else doesn't unify different groups. It might force them to co-operate, but it doesn't force them to become one group. Consider, for example, Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmarga.
 
I've been putting a little post together for r/space about this, as I agree to the most extent, but I think many folks are missing the context Hawking is most likely on about.

Think of it this way, if you dropped yourself in the middle of Syria, do you think you'd encounter friendly individuals more than unfriendly ones? Or a rough area of a western city?

On the bit I agree with though, it's to do with back in the Columbus era, people generally didn't have any cultural awareness or tolerance, the level of information and acceptance available in the modern age is greater in orders of magnitude, so it would be very unlikely any civilised people encountering a similar group would respond with violence.
 
Great little mini doc on the rise of Japanese video game music from the 8 bit era up. Make sure you turn captions on.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6
 
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