Neil deGrasse Tyson Transcript PDF

Preview

Summary

Neil deGrasse Tyson Transcript American Astrophysicist ...

Description

Uhm, for those of you who may not know the Academy forum is a program that is organized and funded by PAMKA. Uh, it is to bring to campus outstanding speakers who will engage our students and our faculty and our families and it is also our pleasure to be able to open it up to the larger community. So we welcome you all. We're really delighted that you've braved the elements to join us tonight Before we get going, uh, with our program tonight there are just a couple people that i want to thank for making it possible for us. Uh, first Amy South. Amy, where are you? Amy's around somewhere. Amy is our community vice president There she is, in the back she is uh, ultimately, responsible for, uh, the entire event tonight Next is Lucy [Botsick??]. Lucy is in the doorway up there. Lucy has executed every single detail for tonight. We have Trish Perlmutter Trish has sheparded this program from the very beginning And last but not least, Judy Polonofsky and Debbie Kozak who make absolutely everything happen for us here at MKA So thank you very much So now, without further ado it's my pleasure to introduce the headmaster of the Montclair Kimberly Academy, Tom Nammack Good evening, and welcome. I'm delighted to welcome you to the Monclair Kimberly Academy And I want to also thank again our parents' association. They have made this evening possible for us while the program is free of charge it's not clear expectations for how we will conduct ourselves as an audience I have a couple things I'd like to ask of you Please, there's to be no electronic recording audio or video please don't hold your phones up to take pictures mostly because it distracts the people behind you and we'd really like to focus on our very special guests this evening it's my privilege to introduce our guests i think they're well known to all of you but I do want to say a couple things about them Doctor Tyson has been a frequent guest on the Colbert report but, uh, or "Report" I guess is the proper pronunciation We're delighted that he's here and we are also delighted and, uh um... very grateful

that mr stephen colbert has agreed to interview him for our benefit Stephen Colbert comedian, author and host of the Colbert Report is both one of the funniest and possibly the bravest comedians of our time I want you to consider his performance at the national press club dinner in 2007 as he, uh, as he stood just a few feet from the President of the United States known the rest of us as the most powerful man in the world Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium author of nine books, teacher, lecturer host of Nova's four-part series "Origins" and member of two presidential commissions on United States aerospace industry and the future of our country's space exploration Dr. Tyson has a gift for working successfully within the realms of research, education, and policy formation i owe you all an explanation about our theater tonight what you see on stage is the beginning of a set for a seventh-grade production of "Romeo and Juliet" this year's selection for what is as i said an annual performance and I think it's fitting that Dr tyson is going to warmup the stage for the two most famous star-crossed lovers in all of American literature it occurred to me that there are few things that stephen colbert and Neil Tyson have in common and I wanted to comment on them both of them share an over-arching purpose to make sense of the world They also share a common strategy They often look to the stars human or heavenly for evidence of how things work though Stephen Colbert is far tougher on the objects caught in his gaze Whereas Dr. Tyson is only known

to have obliterated Pluto. they share methods in their respective fields, whether it is the search for evidence that makes sense of the world and the universe or the creative construction of questions and tests by which the truth and significance of who or what is before them are evaluated Perhaps then, they both have something in common with william shakespeare the desire to provide their audience with a lens to see the world from the previously unconsidered point of view and not just as others would have us see it So while the stars may be dazzling training and instinct appear to have taught each of them to look away from celestial bodies i'm really sorry i had to get that bad cliche in there somewhere and to consider the effects that those celestial bodies have on everything and everyone around them In addition to the challenge of questions that each of them make us confront, their work has given the world a little more of that very rare and gem-like substance known as the truth Or in Stephen Colbert's case: "truthiness" and we are very grateful. ladies and gentlemen Mr. Stephen Colbert and Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo" Uh, I don't know Neil, thanks so much for coming Yeah ... thank you. Mr/Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson is he's been on my show six times and often when I come out to brief the audience before I do my show they ask me "who's your favorite guest of all time?" and I say, not just for volume, but it's Neil DeGrasse Tyson but because not only uh... do I love what neil knows but uh, I love that he loves what he doesn't know always interested in the next thing to learn (Oh yeah) and always rolled to whatever idiocy my character wants to throw on him

I think the only time i ever surprised you as you told me a a little while ago uh was i asked you should uh... should scientists go to Argentina or hike the Appalachian trail If they want people to talk about them it's the universe talking there the universe [??] Yeah that ... I missed that one Yeah you missed that news story To go on his show it's like the hardest interview ever I have to, like, I'm laden with current events just to mix with my science cause I don't know where he's gonna come at me and I gotta be, like, ready with seven tennis rackets to hit it back And on set with that one news story remember with that guy, was it south carolina guy who remembers He goes to Argentina and becomes well-known for having done so and you ask me straight-out should scientists visit Argentina more often to become better known and it just went.. I just you aced me on that one (You're welcome) Now, Neil, we've got a lot of talk about tonight (yeah) a lot of subjects science is a big thing but i want to start off with this is not a bribe (that's alright) I want to start off with .. with these chairs I feel myself sliding No, no This stage is not level oh welcome to the barn raising Didn't realize we were speaking before the Omish tonight That's gonna make it tought to talk about science and technology All right, Neil i want to start uh... i want to start, in a broad way are you Tweeting now, or are you actually trying to interview me? no, i'm just looking at ... i'm just looking at photos of myself get a little work done I need a little freshen up let me ask you a very basic question: science from "scientia", Latin, meaning knowledge I didn't take Latin but I'll take your word for it is it better to know or not to know

i think well my blunt answer is it's better to know (alright) but i think that is debatable though well I said "my" answer. Someone else might have a different answer for instance, Oedipus might have a different answer Yeah, I mean I think is .. is knowledge always a good thing? I have to say yes why? because it empowers you to react and possibly even to do something about it if something about it needs to be done ok, but who we are is what we know, right? Part of who we are is what we know and our identity is often based on how we see the world yes, and uh... personality for sure and if we learn something that does not jive with how we think about the world won't we have to reexamine who we are? Yeah, it could mess you up Once again I'll go back to Oedipus He plucked his eyes out rather than know any more Yeah, well, you know people back then you know, they did stuff like that Yeah, people back then not people today so i think there are people who would not know who would rather ... remember the old days I don't know if it still happens where a doctor would find out you had cancer, they wouldn't tell you They wouldn't tell you (give it to me straight doc) Yeah and why would even have to say give it to me straight unless there was a day when they didn't give it to you straight? If I have five years left I wanna know I have five years left Cause I wanna, like do something different in those five years if (Neil?) yeah? I have some terrible news so there are some people who don't there are some people who don't value science and if they don't value science are they valuing ignorance? Yes, and.. but I will not pass judgment on them what I will say is if they have are at maximal comfort in their ignorance.. fine

except that they will not be the participants on the frontier of of cosmic discovery they will be disenfranchised Hello .. hello I'm sorry I've got a phone call... hello? I'm sorry I have to take .. I have to take this.. Hello? My mic.. my mic isn't working? Hello? that's better Now who's in control? So they won't be in control of the next.. they won't be participants in the next cosmic discovery No they won't they won't not only will they not be on that frontier making any discoveries they're not in a position to enhance their life for having access to those discoveries themselves Can knowledge ever be a bad thing? i don't think so what about actions that knowledge takes us to? You think that Oppenheimer when the bomb went off and he said "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" do you think he perhaps questioned for a moment whether the knowledge they achieved that led to the creation of the bomb perhaps should have been left undiscovered? Do you know what he said in response to those kinds of questions? Yes? he said because people said "Have you ursurped the power of God?" and he said If God didn't want this power to be there he shouldn't have put it in the atom in the first place kind of an interesting point, I think What he was saying that the world is accessible to us so would you say "Don't smelt the ore and make iron and make a sword out of it because you could cut yourself"? back then that's what you would .. that's the counterpart statement from the Iron Age. And if you were around back then you'd be sitting in this chair saying "Don't make the sword, because you will unleash evil on the world" OK, I'll step back from don't make the sword how about "don't lick flag pole in February"

Yeah, that You will learn something you will learn something but at a price, Neil that'd be data.. it's a data cost That is a data cost for that, isn't it? Yeah Also: Adam and Eve... They ate of the tree of knowledge (of knowledge) of good and evil (Yeah) and they paid a price (yeah) so god does put things into atoms he doesn't want us to know about Yeah, I .. However, I think Yes? I don't want to blame the knowledge I want to blame the behavior of people in the presence of the knowledge so maybe we need better knowledge management do you think that scientists .. you can applaud him.. he's the hero Well how about this: do you think that scientists should be allowed to do with anything they can I heard a big "No" over here someone just said "no" you know, uh, people made fun of him for doing this but uh... during one of President Bush's State of the Union speeches .. Bush 1 or 2? Bush 2 Uhm, he said uh... we have to .. he spoke about ... he warned against man-animal hybrids And a lot of people like me made fun of that by showing pictures of like senator alligator man going "Boooo boooo" "Yay man-animal hybrids" but if scientists could make man-animal hybrids, wouldn't they? there are scientists who want to make man-animal hybrids should we make man-animal hybrids I ask you senator tyson Or should there be any limits like that? i think there's some creepy things about that and i've met some scientists who who would think that would be an intriguing to do yes okay So i think we as a society as a .. as a democracy what we should do is

come to some understanding of what the prevailing social mores are and know science should not cross those barriers and not and by the way scientists are often ones to try to prevent that Einstein among them for example he didn't want to make the bomb after he first told Roosevelt he should make the bomb, he changed his mind because his conscience, his moral conscious descended upon him scientists are not without moral code here so as a culture and as a society we decide what should be the prevailing cultural mores and i think we should all be beholden to those. What do you think of the portrayal of scientists uh... in movies? because often often for instance the scientists who make, uh the terminator they're the bad guys scientist leads to the terminator or they create the super bug that wipes out the world or or they enrage the monster at the bottom of the sea When you part the curtains and at the bottom of all that there's a politician funding that research Is this working again? It is? No.. He says yes, you say no we're getting we're getting bad data we're good .. That was good That's good? oooh yeah So scientists don't lead marching armies scientists don't invade other nations scientists yes we have scientists who invented the bomb yes but somebody had to pay for the bomb and that was taxpayers that was war bonds there was a political action that called for it so everyone blames the scientist. We are collectively part of the society that is passing.. that is that is that is using are not using to it's benefit or to it's detriment the discoveries made by science and at the end of the day

a discovery itself is not moral, it's our application of it the takes that .. that has to pass that test would you agree that there's a .. there's a distrust of science on a certain level in our country I mean unless it's, you know can they grow my hair back? Yeah right science.. or do other things to your anatomy yes, exactly .. exactly science.. I've gotten those emails science science is sometimes distrusted because it is it is more complex than the average person can understand. I think that is the core of it the distrust is not because of what it can do but because of what it because people don't understand how it does what it can do. And that .. that absence of understanding or misunderstanding of the power of science is what makes people afraid of it and so i remember back when they first split the atom you know "shouldn't split the atom" or or shouldn't .. you hear this at every discovery that happens in science there's a mystery to it for example irradiated foods in France they call it "frakenfood", alright which is kind of a cute word when you think about but it makes food last longer and your healthier for it, you don't get sick from it and so.. from it turning bad, in fact Nasa does it all the time. Nasa can make a slab of meat you wouldn't necessarily put this in your refrigerator but Nasa can make a slab of meat that will last thirty years I tasted it and? delicious? you know there's some rest.. it reminded some restaurants food reminds me of what that tasted like but i'm just saying that just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's bad for you go figure out how it works. That's why we need a scientifically literate electorate so that when we go to the polls you can make an informed judgement and you can draw your own conclusions, rather than turning to a particular TV station to have your conclusions handed to you. Now you know Arthur C. Clarke .. Comedy Central excepted (exactly) Arthur C. Clarke's famous dictum about sufficiently advanced technology. Yes, it is .. Arthur C. Clarke had several, uhm uh, laws of culture and the world one of which was any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

So.. if something gets too complex for the average person to understand it's magic .. and you have powers that i don't trust because I don't know what you're going to do with it next whereas if you understood how it worked you'd say "Hey, give me one of those" I mean, that's how that would work That's how.. that's how that plays out do you think that's where the debate over i think that's where the debate over uh... evolution and creation science comes is that the complexity of evolution is so grand that it is hard to conceive of how the incremental changes come and once something becomes so complex that I can't understand it there's nothing between that and God saying "Let it be" Well one of the beauties of evolution is that that complexity does not come about from complex ideas the ideas are actually quite simple and you can show on a computer how those simple forces can generate complexity given enough time and enough variation in environment which is just what the history of the Earth supplies so so science literacy is an important part of what it is to be an informed citizen of society let's get away from our understanding of science, or lack thereof and get to science itself ok ok I'm with you here's a transition from talking about us mixing science and religion and getting back to science "God is truth", people think ok, some believe God is truth Truth is beauty is there anything in science to you that is beautiful or rather what is the most beautiful thing that you know of in science E=mc squared Really? Oh it's awesome, it is so that equation doesn't just have a great publicist, it's actually.. because everybody knows it, everybody knows it but also, everybody knows Coke, you know it's like the Coca-cola of science You learn E=mc^2 before you even know what any of those symbols mean you hear it in elementary school

oh, it's a gorgeous thing it's .. what is beautiful about E=mc^2 first of all tell everybody what all the pieces mean Well "E" stands for "energy" "m" is "mass" "c"-squared is just the speed of light squared, that's just ignore that for the moment. The thrust of that equation is that energy and mass are equivalent to each other which means you can transmute one into the other and back would make's it extraordinary is that that hardly ever happens in our everyday lives yet it's going on all the time in the rest of the universe and so.. so so we're in this little pocket where "E=mc^2" never happens (is not visible) it's not visible it's not happening in our lives no, no but if it did the world would be really different light coming from that bulb would all of a sudden pop into a particle, and the particle would come by and it would pop back into light again Would it hurt? It can, yeah It can? Yeah it would sterlize you, yeah The kinds of particles that would do that they would sterilize you, yeah that'd be bad I've had my kids It goes on in the center of the sun it went on at the Big Bang it goes on throughout the universe wherever it's hot and heavy But what is beautiful about it to you? It's simple It's simple, yet it accounts for hugely complex things and for me that is where the beauty lies in the truth Now if i had to give you a complex theory to understand a complex phenomenon You know, send me home because what's the point? Now there's no tablet in the sky that said it had to be simple to end up being complex it's just a remarkable fact about the universe so why not celebrate it? The fact that pi ... pi ... that ... pi right? Let's say the numbers together

3 point 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 .. we got a few geeks over here looks like we got a geek thing going on over there not bad, not bad The fact that you take a circle of any size a circle the size of the universe itself and divide it by its own radius and you get that number that's beautiful i have to pause, and I get misty Thinking of [???] I'm sorry that's just .. another one .. another one that the atoms and molecules in your body are traceable to the crucibles in the centers of stars that manufactured these elements over its lifespan went unstable on death exploding its enriched guts across the galaxy scattering it into gas clouds that would ultimately collapse and make a star and have the right ingredients to make planets and people which means, we are part of this universe as i've said many times and this go...