How Would We Communicate with Alien Life? - with Carl Sagan 

This is why Carl Sagan was so unique, he could explain complicated matters in a way that kids were able to understand, but at the same time it makes me amazed as an adult

A student tracked this down for me - I was one of the graduate students. What this video doesn't show is that we had 48 hours to decode the message (or fail), and be recorded after the fact by the BBC, whatever the outcome. Failure was not an option, but success wasn't guaranteed - what was fun was that each grad student made a separate contribution (although I confess that I'm not sure that my insights were that profound, or that if we reassembled now we'd be able to do it again!

Alien 1: huh its a formaldehyde molecule Alien 2: I think they want us to preserve their species once they are all dead.

Carl Sagan was the biggest influence in my life. I had hope back then. Wow... How I miss this great man...

"Beep BEEP beep beep BEEP!" -- Carl Sagan, 1977

At risk of sounding like the previous comments, Mr. Sagan became one of the most influential in my life and one I hold in highest regard. I seriously miss his influence on our world.

Carl Sagan really is the best

Living in Ithaca from 1972 until 1984 I had the distinctly awesome pleasure to listen to this gentleman lecture us a Cornell in person, numerous times.

He was my advisor. I owe him a lot.

Wish he was still around

Carl Sagan is responsible of me becoming a scientist. Profoundly in dept.

Those bored grade schoolers didn't know what they had in front of them.

I could listen to Sagan speak for hours. Great speaker, story teller and lecturer!

Look at all these young children getting educated on such an adult matter. It' s really nice to see.

Carl Sagan = one of the greatest brains of the 20th century.

Cheer up, folks! Carl Sagan still IS a great influence on many, and he STILL inspires a lot of people to continue his work. That's why he smiles in most pictures... ;o)

I love how years later we see this exact example of first contact used in his book/movie Contact ,.,.

2:07 He was forced to come to this lecture and would rather be watching the football.

Carl Sagan is still a great influencer, recently i read his book "A pale blue dot" and he inspired me to study astronomy and Physics, what a Great man!

Carl Sagan is the legend which lives on for ever in our minds... Love from India

We will always miss this amazing Soul. He not only had tremendous knowledge & an analytical mind but also the power to deliver in his mesmerising talks on the universe. It was as if he took you on a journey. God Bless his departed soul. There will never be another like him. ✊✊✊✊✊

“Either way we win”... wise words Carl.

We need Carl Sagan today more than ever to counter the war on science

Carl Sagan was one of the most eloquent persons ever, gifted with an uncanny ability to articulate most complex ideas and deliver with such ease that a 9 year old me could understand. Love you, dear Carl.

Carl Sagan is responsible for making me fall in love with astronomy

I love the archive's video serie!

Aliens: Why are they sending us message of Mickey Mouse? Also Aliens: Tune into Looney Tunes and spend decades trying to decipher it

Carl Sagan. The best of the best. Not nearly enough people like him today. A great communicater.

I could listen to Carl Sagan speak all day long, everyday.

I love this series. Keep em coming

Carl Sagan, for sure, one of my heroes of the 20th (and 21st) century

I love his voice

If I were first high schooler at that time, maybe I'll be loved to join on these class, It's totally interesting lecture 😀

I wish I had Mr. Sagan as a professor.

Wouldn't it be funny when we've tried our best to figure out such a complex way to communicate with them, and then when they arrived, they just telepathically learn our language and speak with it fluently?

This is awesome. I love seeing your videos on my bell notifications lol

This is an OUTSTANDING video!!!!!

Really nice video!!!

It is a pity he is gone, My dad enjoyed astronomy astronomy programs watching Carl Sagan's programs when i was growing in teen years and I enjoyed watching with him. Good quality of programs of they day you don't get this today quality.

As a person who recognizes, and decodes impossible messages for a living, this talk is wonderful.

The quality of this is amazing for a Sagan video.

Had it been up to me to decode the message, I’d still be working on it today, some 44 years later.

Carl Sagan is not a national treasure, he was a treasure of humanity.

Carl was an inspiration

This is incredible.

Still amazed by his approach to teaching n explaining!!

I absolutely adore his voice!

Nice of Bill Nighy to step in and assist.

Really enlightening video. Thanks.

The smartest person/communicator ever in my opinion.

Absolutely amazing

Wow. I learned something today about decoding those crazy 1's and 0's. I'm an artistic type that has a tempestuous relationship with math and physics. My brain does not compute. But if anyone could teach me...it would be Sagan. What a trip back in time to hear his voice again. The country was different then. Miss it. Thanks for uploading this little gem.

While this is interesting to think about, it relies on many assumptions. The most prominent being that if we are putting a beacon out there for a more advanced intelligence to intercept, wouldnt that intelligence have already put out a beacon of its own that we are ignorant of? It seems to me that a higher intelligence would have a more efficacious strategy to start communication with us than we would have to initiate communication with it. We are the ones that need to pay attention and identify information with intent... aka meaning thats everywhere around us.

Math is a universal language everyone knows math to some extent EVERYONE

I am not a scientist by any means. I found that absolutely fascinating.

Carl Sagan is and will always be my hero.

Takes me back to glorious Saturday afternoons whiled away with Hoffman's elixir and Sagan's Cosmos.

This assignment in 1977... In 1985 Carl Sagan releases his novel, “Contact”, where an alien species sends a message which, when decoded, reveals a video image and hidden in the message is a three dimensional drawing of a device that allows one person to travel to the origin of the message as a first step in interstellar contact... In 1996, the World loses Carl Sagan. In 1997, Jodie Foster stars in the motion picture adaptation.

The original and still the best

you can see how he used this approach in the film Contact. one of my favourites.

He's my all time fav.

Fascinating!

I can listen him all day.

This really made me realize how much technology helps in teaching. Its hard to see without a comparison to the past. I bet visualization in 3D was extremely hard in the past and is now something we take for granted. What other things might become easy to visualize in the future? (thus leading to more people being able to understand it and become interested in it)

"either way, we win" Indeed!

When reason takes a cue from art: confronted with the sheer impossibility of language, turn to use images.

This is good social skills advice!

Sagan explaining pixels and basics of graphical computing hh,awesome...

I watch this episode time and time again, and it still makes my blood race

This guy is awesome.

That Kathy is smart! She realized it's a 31x31x31 cube and correctly guessed it's formaldehyde. I wonder what she accomplished in her career.

2:07 .... I can't believe I'm missing Scooby Doo for this... xD

i really have to give credit to sagan, the day i saw his video on light speed posted on youtube 14 years ago was when i started asking why

Contact was a really good movie.. I perfectly plausible possibility to the existence of alien intelligent life..

Genius iin explaining in easy methods

The third, and in fact generic, alternative is that that particular scientific endeavor neither "succeeds" nor "fails" conclusively (i.e., never halts). In this case, the body of scientific knowledge got through ancillary hypotheses and experiments, as well as the body of methods and techniques (and even physical technologies) developed in conjunction with (or co/incidentally, alongside) the former developments/advances -- all, at least originally, in the aim of deciding the hypothesis -- _all accrue without limit._ The ROI for R&D is strictly positive. Always. In other words: Science is a win-win-win enterprise.

Good thing celestial & terrestrial beings are patient with us. They understand that our emotions can often frustrate us and get in the way of communication. Most things are a lifelong marathon, consistent learning, not exactly an event. Though there can be major events that help us.

This... Dawkins...and Simon Conway Morris where the best Xmas lectures ever.

Thank God for people like that carry us all into the future.

Able to figure out the message is very cool

Brilliant

Such optimism... Carl Sagan clearly has not read "His Master's Voice" and "Solaris" by Lem.

2:08 - the body language of the kid in the sweater is great. I bet he bragged about it later, telling his friends that he enjoyed Professor Sagan's lecture.

share the whole lecture please

This is gold dust.

One of the greatest humans to ever live in my mind

The kid at 2:06 is a grumpy boy lol

…. It’s all fascinating 🧐 aren’t we all ‘alien’ to one another and having to ‘learn’ how to communicate properly with one another ? Bugs 🕷 🐛 🐜 animal 🦓 🦔 🦒 or human… we are all learning to live and communicate with each other 💖✨

Human beings have a hard time communicating with each other, let alone aliens from another planet.

Cool to see a vintage Stony Brook University sweatshirt on kid in center @ 4:02. It looks like his little-brother to his right had one on too.

The question is, who is that Cathy lady. She basically figured most of this out

Where is the rest of Sagans full lectures in HD pls?

Listening from the ukwales❤️

i love the internet, we can now, like never before watch and educate ourselves profoudnly in most sunjects for almost a penny, and listen back to the words of great people long gone

The next space telescope is named after Carl Sagan. It's mission is to search for life.

Not one single child today has the patience, curiosity, or attention span to sit through this presentation the way these kids in the video did. Quietly. Respectfully. Intrigued. I really hate the way things have gone in this country... Pop culture has replaced all culture.

Great scientist.

We are simply not evolved enough to deal with the complexities of communicating with an advanced civilisation. Our brains use filtering techniques and guesswork to solve problems, this means that we rarely take in all the facts and make poor judgement (evident throughout human history). To control our limitations we have to have a culture and laws that influences thought and how we rationalise and make judgements. These 2 facts make for an extremely primitive civilisation. An advanced civilisation would not need to be governed by laws or influenced by culture. It's going to take us centuries to develop the technology that will enable us to upgrade our brains and open up pure rational thought with advanced levels of perception. Only then once we've reached this level of enlightenment should we head for the stars. By that point we will have overcome all of the technical issues of space flight and communication. It's unlikely that hostile lifeforms would reach a level of advancement that facilitates interstellar travel. It's possible that there is a galactic community of civilisations who use suitably advanced technology to shield their existence from worlds that are not ready. The universe has "evolved" too perfectly for this not to be the case.

I think Dr. Sagan would be impressed at how many “channels”, or rather frequencies we are able to “listen” to at once. I don’t think it improbable at all that 50 years from now, listening to or rather being able to monitor frequencies from DC to Daylight all at one time will be possible while the antenna is pointed at one spot in the sky. And either the antenna rapidly moves to different spots, or perhaps dozens or even hundreds of antennas could provide instantaneous surveillance of most, if not the entire sky. Or rather, building on what Dr Sagan alluded....our ability to read all the local highway billboards and hear all the local radio stations, all at once, isn’t too far fetched? Perhaps this is nothing more than a pipe dream.

Why not upload the whole thing? would love to rewatch them, I know it's out there but not in this quality.