The Terrifying Reason Our First Contact With Aliens Will Also Be Our Last

A single kilogram moving at nine tenths the speed of light would hit Earth with about 28 megatons, and give us roughly 55 seconds of warning. A few thousand bits of radio could turn our own computers into the weapon, and a friendly test signal from Mars took a year to decode. So what is the one ending that needs nothing at all from the other side? Ten endings, ranked by how little has to go wrong. A full three-hour walk through the list, made for any pace, including drifting off. Settle in and let this slow walk through first contact keep you company tonight. Subscribe to The Cosmographer if you like the long way through the universe's greatest lists. CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:32 Number Ten The Strike 21:06 Number Nine The Machines That Wait 41:26 Number Eight The Message That Builds Its Own Weapon 1:04:16 Number Seven The Dark Forest 1:24:31 Number Six The Touch 1:46:02 Number Five The Builders Who Never Look Down 2:05:31 Number Four The Gap 2:28:28 Number Three The Kindest Visitor 2:48:26 Number Two A Phone Call in a Quiet Valley 3:09:21 Number One The Near Side of the Question SOURCES The Advice Brookings Gave NASA about the Space Program in 1960 (Brookings) — https://www.brookings.edu/articles/co... Statement Regarding METI/Active SETI (Berkeley SETI) — https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/meti_... Interstellar Communication IX: Message Decontamination Is Impossible (Hippke & Learned) — https://ar5iv.arxiv.org/html/1802.02180 Alien astronomers could have spotted life on Earth (Physics World) — https://physicsworld.com/a/alien-astr... Age Distribution of Terrestrial Planets in the Universe (Lineweaver, arXiv) — https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0012399 The Great Dying of 1492 led to lower CO2 and a cooler planet (UCL) — https://www.ucl.ac.uk/geography/news/... Tick Tock, Pulsating Star (NRAO) — https://public.nrao.edu/tick-tock-pul... Alien signal decoded (ESA) — https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Im... Ancient star with five Earth-sized planets (Astronomy) — https://www.astronomy.com/science/kep... Tianwen-2 arrives at target asteroid Kamoʻoalewa (Astronomy) — https://www.astronomy.com/space-explo... Can ET Detect Us? (SETI Institute) — https://www.seti.org/news/can-et-dete... G-HAT: Searching for Kardashev Type III (Centauri Dreams) — https://centauri-dreams.org/2015/04/1... — Disclaimer: The Cosmographer produces educational entertainment. Factual claims come from published research and official scientific institutions, and any speculation or open question is labeled as such when it appears. This channel is not a news outlet. Watch at your own discretion. #FirstContact #DarkForestTheory