Predictions for the Future with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson - Genius Network Episode #30

Foreign. Welcome to the Genius Network show. In this episode, you'll discover predictions for The Future with Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Dr. Tyson is a TV host, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and scientist. Recorded live from the Genius Network annual event. If you would like access to the full feature video presentation, the show notes and the special resources for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com that's geniusnetwork.com3 0.

All right, so tell us about your morning and what's going about to happen in the next 55 to. So I don't know if any of you saw the Daily show when we announced Planetary Resources, but Jon Stewart was extraordinary in being comical about mining asteroids. And at the end of his segment, after really waxing lyrically about it, he goes, I'm about to introduce a new segment on our show called Bullshit or no Bullshit. And he says to make the determination, we have a special guest and a gentleman who I'm very fond of, an astrophysicist, the head of the Hayden Planetarium, the head of the new television series Cosmos, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, walks on stage with his Rubik's cube. And Jon Stewart says to him, bullshit or no bullshit? And he pauses for a microsecond and my heart is beating. And he goes, no bullshit. And for that I am extraordinarily thankful. And this morning I spent two hours doing an interview for his radio show. And we just wrapped up and Neil was kind enough to join us. And so would you please welcome the head of the planetarium, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Thank you. I did not. I'm sorry, I'm not dressed, but clearly some of you aren't either. That's quite obvious. No, I didn't know. I have nothing prepared for you other than perhaps to reflect on what the future looks like to me through the lens of an astrophysicist. I can summarize this in just a couple of moments. If you never don't know anything about me, it just means you don't watch television and you're probably better off for that. Okay? But I'm an astrophysicist. I run the Hayden Planetarium. And what Peter just alluded to. I have the privilege of resurrecting the Cosmos series for the 21st century, and it's long overdue. It's been 32 years since it appeared in 1980, so it's 13 episodes in 2014. So we're all looking forward to bringing science back in the dialogue of your. Of your dinner conversations. I just wanted to Offer just some fast reflections. People often reference the Apollo era as sort of the golden age of space exploration because we were actually going places. But I want to say something slightly different about that era. Resonant with that fact, but nonetheless different. In the 1960s, it was the most turbulent decade in American history. On our soils since the Civil War, arguably, right? So 100 years in the 1960s, we had a Cold war with Soviet Union and a hot war in Southeast Asia. There was campus unrest. The civil rights movement was in full force, and there were assassinations. And so this is a depressing decade for anyone who had wanted to have any hope for a future. Yet we had a hope for our future. And that hope, in my judgment, was fueled by a set of people who saw exploration and discovery as a fundamental part of what it is to be alive and what it is to be human. So that in the 1960s, some of you are old enough to remember this, that you didn't have to go more than a week or two before there was a headline in a magazine, in a newspaper that talked about the City of Tomorrow, transportation of Tomorrow, the Home of Tomorrow, the Kitchen of Tomorrow, food of Tomorrow. Everybody was thinking about tomorrow and the World's Fair, right in Flushing Meadow, 1964. The World's Fair did not create the decade. The decade created the World's Fair. And the World's Fair was all about what technology and science and innovations can bring to a future of life on Earth. And so the culture that prevailed in the 1960s, our attitude towards our future was something that I have not seen since. And perhaps I'm biased, but I will assert that it's because we had visionaries who saw a horizon that they wanted to go beyond. That's because they existed. And when you cross a horizon, discoveries are made, patents are awarded, and that gets you read about it in the papers the next day. When that becomes a daily activity that everyone sees and feels. When that happens, you don't need special programs to try to convince people that science and engineering is a good thing for society. You don't have to special government programs to. You don't have to have tariffs or tax incentives to keep your factories because you're innovating when you're part of an innovation nation. And when you innovate, the other countries haven't figured out how to make it yet, so you keep your factories. And the day they do figure it out, you've innovated to the next thing. And so you happily seed whatever has to go overseas, which is a natural consequence of being a part of a multinational enterprise, by the way. And so. So I see the future. I see the only future that we could hope to thrive in as one where exploration and discovery is a fundamental part of what everybody does. Without it, we might as well just shrivel back into the cave because that's where we're going to end up anyway. As the rest of the world passes America by, so we see these attitudes in the rest of the world. And it's a good thing for the planet. It's a good thing anyhow. So I see I'm a little biased because I have a space bias. It's no less of a bias than Peter surely has. But normally when we think of bias, we think of, well, that's your bias. But I have my other bias. I think my bias is different because space affects everyone. And here we are fighting wars over what natural resource sits below where you happen to live. And the universe is an unlimited repository of energy resources. Space. That's why we call it space. And so I'm hopeful, as is Peter, that if we direct our energies in the right way, our emotional and intellectual and political energies in the right way, most of the world's problems can be solved rather trivially as a trivial extension of the rest of the activities that are unfolding. And that's the confidence with which I move forward. And I don't think any of you would be here unless you had some kind of confidence yourself in where things can turn in this world in which we live. So that's just my words for you. So thanks for your attention and good to see all you guys. Thank you, Peter.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Genius network with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If you'd like access to the full feature video presentation, the special resources and show notes for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com that's geniusnetwork.com 30. If you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network annual event, go to geniusnetworkevents.com that's geniusnetworkevents dot com don't miss out on more insights, strategies and wisdom like this on Genius Network. Subscribe to Genius Network today by visiting geniusnetwork.com subscribe that's geniusnetwork.com subscribe SA.