SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Will We Find Evidence of Aliens by Their Engineering Projects?

Josh Clark (0:02)

Okay, I'm back with a neat and rollicking look at some sci-fi theories, in the truest sense of the word sci-fi, about what lines of progress any intelligent civilization should follow. And this concept leads pretty much inevitably to things like building space probes and harnessing the energy of stars, all of which should leave some telltale trace of a civilization already far more advanced than ours.

What happens after that is another story.

Charles W. Bryant (0:32)

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, from howstuffworks.com.

Josh Clark (0:42)

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there, with their foot on the button.

And that means this is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast.

Charles W. Bryant (0:54)

The foot on the button.

Josh Clark (0:57)

Just waiting to cut us off.

Charles W. Bryant (0:59)

Yeah, that's what no one knows, but Jerry has a kill switch at her foot for all of our profane tirades.

Josh Clark (1:07)

Yeah, it would kill us if she ever pressed it.

Charles W. Bryant (1:09)

That's right.

Josh Clark (1:10)

That's why they call it that.

Charles W. Bryant (1:11)

But she's not very good at it, I've noticed.

Josh Clark (1:13)

I've noticed too. Some stuff slips by.

Charles W. Bryant (1:16)

Yeah, I told her she's like Keith Richards of podcast producers because he can't use guitar pedals.

Josh Clark (1:23)

So he's known for that? Is that a thing?

Charles W. Bryant (1:25)

Well, I mean, I don't know how known he is, maybe among guitar players, but he just plugs right into the amp. That's pretty great.

Josh Clark (1:33)

Oh, I see.

Charles W. Bryant (1:34)

And he was on Mark Maron's podcast. It was a great interview. And Maron is pure Keith Richards, and he was just basically like, I have a hard time standing upright, like I can't mess with trying to press foot pedals.

Josh Clark (1:49)

That's Keith, man.

Charles W. Bryant (1:50)

Yep, very pure.

Josh Clark (1:52)

Yeah.

Charles W. Bryant (1:53)

And by pure, I mean...

Josh Clark (1:55)

Pure heroine.

Charles W. Bryant (1:56)

Yeah.

Josh Clark (1:58)

Pure China.

Charles W. Bryant (1:59)

No, he's clean now, but...

Josh Clark (2:00)

Is he really? That's astounding.

Charles W. Bryant (2:02)

Well, I mean, no, I mean, he doesn't do like hard drugs anymore.

Josh Clark (2:07)

Yeah, I gotcha.

Charles W. Bryant (2:08)

I think he drinks and smokes weed.

Josh Clark (2:10)

I gotcha. But it's Keith Richards. Come on. Yeah, he still smokes too. That's like pristine.

Charles W. Bryant (2:15)

Actually, Maron smoked his first cigarette in a decade in that show with him.

Josh Clark (2:20)

Oh, that was smart. It was a good decision.

Charles W. Bryant (2:22)

He was like, I have to. How can I not?

Josh Clark (2:25)

Yeah, he easily could not have done that. I'm disappointed. Did he really?

Yeah.

Charles W. Bryant (2:31)

Keith Richards offered him a smoke and he's like, sure.

Josh Clark (2:33)

Yeah. I mean, I see that. But at the same time, I also see not smoking.

Charles W. Bryant (2:38)

Listen to you.

Josh Clark (2:39)

I know. I'm being judgy.

Charles W. Bryant (2:41)

Wagon your finger.

Josh Clark (2:43)

So Chuck.

Charles W. Bryant (2:44)

Yes.

Josh Clark (2:45)

Have you ever used energy?

Charles W. Bryant (2:49)

Yes.

Josh Clark (2:51)

Well, you know, when you're using energy, most likely you're using something like a fossil fuel, right?

Charles W. Bryant (2:57)

Yeah, right.

Josh Clark (2:58)

Like gasoline or natural gas or something like that. Stuff that comes from decomposing dinosaurs.

Charles W. Bryant (3:04)

Yes.

Josh Clark (3:04)

Okay. The problem with using decomposing dinosaurs as most people know, is that it's essentially a non-renewable resource. There's no more dinosaurs to decompose any longer. And even if there were, it would take tens of millions of years for them to decompose into fossil fuels for us, right?

Charles W. Bryant (3:22)

Right. Even if we had dino DNA, and we could make new dinosaurs just to kill them and watch them decompose.

Josh Clark (3:31)

Which is something we would do if we had the capability, I guarantee it.

Charles W. Bryant (3:34)

Oh, sure.

Josh Clark (3:35)

Right?

But we don't have that capability. As far as I know, no one's working on that track right now. I don't think.

Charles W. Bryant (3:42)

Just Steven Spielberg.

Josh Clark (3:45)

Right. Maybe someone at Rutgers.

So we have to come up with energy sources that we won't eventually run out of. And obviously, there's like wind and solar. And as far as solar power goes, from what I understand, we're actually doing pretty well right now. Like right now, we use something like 0.01 percent of the sunlight that reaches earth to power. And that's going to make up our world. So there's a lot of room for growth potential.