About This Episode

It’s the end of the world and we know it! But do we really know for sure how the world will end? On this episode of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson tries to find the answer to that question by answering fan-submitted Cosmic Queries alongside comic co-host Chuck Nice and Josh Clark, host of the Stuff You Should Know podcast and the new The End Of The World, with Josh Clark podcast.

You’ll learn all about measuring existential risk. Discover why Josh thinks artificial intelligence is the biggest risk to humanity. We try and define what friendliness means in the context of an artificial intelligence machine. What are the other pitfalls in predicting artificial intelligence behavior? Explore neural networks and why their creation was a watershed moment in artificial intelligence research.

We discuss skills that would be helpful in the event of an apocalypse. How would you survive during an apocalypse if you aren’t protected by the ozone layer? Would the Earth continue without humans? Neil and Josh put humanity’s ego in check, and Josh tells us about “The Great Filter” – the barrier between the origin of life and intelligent life spreading out across the universe. We dive into the Fermi paradox.

You’ll hear how Neil and Josh would want to die if they had to choose a space-related way to go. You’ll also learn if you would be able to process information while falling into a black hole before you’re stretched apart. We ponder how religious groups would react if we discovered extraterrestrial life. You’ll investigate self-awareness and the singularity and what it means to be transhumanist. We also discuss whether it’s possible for our atoms to “know” they are made from star stuff and if our universe is inside of someone else’s Large Hadron Collider. We break down which film has more scientific accuracy, Deep Impact or Armageddon, and the answer isn’t even close. All that, plus, we ask, could humanity have become so intelligent that we might wipe ourselves out with our own intelligence?

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Cosmic Queries – The End of The World, with Josh Clark.