252 - David Kipping: Alien Civilizations, Megastructures, Spacecraft, and Artificial Intelligence

David Kipping is a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, where he runs Cool Worlds Lab and researches planets and moons that revolve around stars other than our own, in addition to his own work on the search for—and theorization about—alien life. In this episode, David and Robinson have a wide-ranging conversation about extraterrestrials. They discuss  alien civilizations, propulsion, megastructures, Oumuamua, quantum immortality, Dyson spheres, simulation theory, ancient aliens, and much more. David also runs the YouTube channel Cool Worlds Lab, where he has produced many videos on these topics. Cool Worlds Lab (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsLab David’s Website: http://davidkipping.co.uk OUTLINE 00:01:05 Astronomy or Aliens? 00:06:12 How Scientists Get Burned by Alien Research 00:16:52 Three Big Obstacles to UFO Science 00:23:59 What is the Kardashev Scale of Alien Civilizations? 00:30:28 Cloaking Devices 00:33:46 How To Detect Alien Civilizations with Heat Signatures 00:37:21 Other Schemes for Detecting Civilizations 00:47:22 Does Alien Life Need Water to Exist? 00:51:46 Why Would Aliens Have Very Different Technology From Us? 00:55:54 When Did the First Life Form in the Universe? 01:07:23 Is the Universe Filled with Ancient Alien Civilizations? 01:16:45 What Is the Great Filter Hypothesis For Alien Life? 01:19:31 Artificial Intelligence, Aliens, and the End of Humanity 01:25:05 How Rare Is the Creation of Life From Nothing? 01:31:53 Communicating with Extraterrestrials 01:37:28 What Are Alien Megastructures? 01:47:07 Can We Engineer the Sun to Live Longer? 01:51:08 Clark Belt Detection 01:54:35 Should We Look for Alien Life on Exomoons? 02:01:33 Could We Find Alien Life on Planets in the Interstellar Medium? 02:04:34 Future Telescopes 02:13:35 What Is a Warp Drive and Why Can’t We Build One? 02:21:47 On Time Travel and the Best Time Machines 02:26:40 What Are the Best Interstellar Propulsion Technologies? 02:34:07 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft? 02:43:09 Are the TicTac UFOs Alien Spacecraft? 02:56:58 Do We Live in a Simulation? 03:00:17 What Is Quantum Immortality? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.