The beauty of our improbable existence with a NASA expert, physicist & futurist 

"I want to be a good ancestor." I need that quote on a t-shirt. It explains so much about how I view everything.

Nice advice 👍 1. Embark on a journey 2. Read a books 3. Talk to people from all walks of life 4. Ask big audacious question, dont settle for lazy answer. 5. Above all make the most of the time you have while your here

This is definitely the best and most meaningful series on YT right now, and this was the best episode yet! Please keep going with this. Thank you

One reason to be optimistic about the future is because the virtue of human curiosity is becoming more appreciated as a fundamental human value.

I see a video with Sean Carrol in my feed; I watch that video. Love this man!

I like expressions. One of which goes: "The optimist creates the airplane. The pessimist creates the parachute." In a manner of speaking, you need both. A sort of balance if you will?!

Any video that Sean Carroll appears in is guaranteed to be excellent. I have seen every one of the videos in which he appears and I just can't get enough. One of the best physicist/philosopher of our times

One of THE BEST videos I have been presented with on RU-vid. Well done all involved. Good timing in the edits, relatable presenter, enthusiastic guests, good graphics etc.

What a great show! The guests are some of my favorite people. The host asks the right questions. Keep this going!!! And going

I love Kevin showing his oddities shelf ❤

I remember when I was a very little girl, maybe about 6 or 7. I read a book volcanoes, lava and how rocks are formed on earth. I was so facinated by this book, I started to search books about how other planets were likely formed. I still remember like it was yesterday how incredibly amazed I felt by this universe. It's too bad I did not furthur explore with my curious mind and study all that's involved. Now that I'm almost 50, I start to reminisce back and think about what could've been. This world still fascinates me.

Nina has a pleasant delivery of information, I came to know her on the Science Channel program “How the Universe Works”. Sean now works in my area at Johns Hopkins, which happens to be my healthcare provider. I enjoy listening to his podcast on a variety of subjects and he makes the subject easy to digest.

One of the uplifting and calming videos, I have ever watched

Big kudos to everyone involved in this series. Simply awesome work.

Very thoughtful and admirable. A fine piece of journalism.

I just wish I could live more 100 years so I could see where technology will take us in the future. If we don't make the planet inhabitable for life.

It's funny that Sean said early on that we learned we are not the centre of the universe and the rest of the video explains how meaning is derived in many ways by focusing your own meaning, which in many ways puts you at the centre of the universe.

As science student this types of video help me to be motivated.thank you so much and loads of love from india ❤

Another home run, BT and Kmele!!

This is one of my favorite Big Thinks so far. Very intellectually invigorating.

My first viewing of this series, and I've subscribed. Kmele Foster really leaves us with a solid foundation and a clear way forward.

Life Transmutes Entropy into Extropy. Beautiful.

Good journalist, asked relevant and meaningful questions.

Just being born as a human is itself so wonderful but when u think that we are currently in the most comfortable environment with all technological wonders and conveniences which our ancestors never got to enjoy..is just chilling to think about.

Each and everyone of your guests is truly inspirational. Thank you for bringing this to us. To choose optimism is indeed a moral imperative.

Kmele Foster is a great host. Want to see more of his stuff.

Loving this whole series!! Great stuff thank you

I'm a simple guy. I see Sean Carrol in a video, I watch the video.

True gems! Thank you all, I am inspired!

Thank you so much for Big Think and Well. The most valuable content ever on YT❤

I love how this is both interesting and easy to follow.

This episode, and these people, are **sssooo** cool!!!! 😁❤️

i really like this futurist guy, feels like way too many ppl are worried about problems that dont even really exist or are so abstract that its nearly impossible to find a solution when you could just do what your capable of, and be a bit more optimistic

We appreciate the insights shared in this video. They’re meaningful and profound.

Thank you for this. I’ve struggled with purpose and meaning over the last couple of years and had to process and work through suicidal thoughts. (To be clear this is not a cry for help or attention) but I do want to thank the team at Big Think for helping to regain my focus, optimism and dedication to life and the self proclaimed purpose. This video like my many of your others, is a life savor when you are in a dark chasm and you have lost your sense of self and purpose. To anyone else out there that can relate, there is meaning and purpose to this life. Just look deep within. And finally, can I recommend reading or listening to the “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann. And in the words of the famous Monty Python song “Always Look on the bright side of life”

This is such an inspiring video which puts things in perspective and broaden our thoughts.Thank you Big Think for bringing this together.

Very interesting and well done. Thanks, Kmele. Thanks interviewees.

Omg, you are a great communicator, you most certainly have done your job, and above all, thank you for, not only for communicating what you have discovered, but for communicating it so understandably well, that even common people like me can actually understand…I mean, really thank you! 😊

I’m glad I spent a few of my heartbeats watching this. Great video!

The future is a beautiful thought in the mind of a responsible cosmic citizen ♥️

Very thought-provoking discussions about some pretty mind-blowing concepts.

I often contemplate how our world could be if we as a species were taught to use critical thinking and logical reasoning as our primary tools to comprehend our existence in this enigmatic universe. Watching videos like this gives me a glimmer of hope, and it makes me wonder if we will ever be able to live in a world where such traits are commonplace.

expressed beautifully about the sidelined imagination in fast forward life. Rational discussions may increase our curiosity to better understand different prospectives of life.

Life is a gift I hold with immeasurable gratitude. I am ready for what comes next, for from the wonder of stardust we all came, and to the wonder of stardust we will all return. Thank you for this journey.

This is actually amazing and relaxing..

Stupendously inspiring! ❤🎉

This was fantastic! Keep up the great work and keep asking the BIG questions. Thanks

one of the best videos on youtube . this is golden

The fact that life not only exists but has evolved to build a civilization is the closest thing to a miracle I know. I can't think of a less improbable event than that.

When it comes to optimism, I believe that science isn't infinite, science is finite, there will be a time when we cannot make any more progress, because what we have and can manipulate isn't increasing. I'm not saying that we're there yet, I'm just saying that we'll get there and we might not be able to reach our goal sadly.

Future is Bright!☀- Thank You World!

3 billion heart beats - when I heard this it suddenly hit me. Time is relative so our perception of it varies. What if our hearts are internal clocks that measure time for us. I mean if you think about it time flies when we do something exciting (our hearts are racing) and whoever experienced any sort of life threatening situation like a serious car accident or something know that time literally slows down in that moment. Could it be that pace of our hearts dictates our own perception of time?

amazing episode absolutely amazing people

Love this so much! Humans need meaning for life and thats ok. it doesn't mean the universe gave it to you. you decided on it and that's perfectly fine.

❤❤❤ I like Nina Lanza Especially from How the universe works

Greetings from Mars! Great video. Thank you!

Sean Carroll is one of my favorite persons I haven't met 😊

Good to hear some reasons for optimism! Thanks! 🙏

Very excellent show especially comments from Sean Carroll

Just 3 Billion Heartbeats

That guy seems frigging awesome and she is a gem and inspiration!

I absolutely love this video.💪💪

Mannn this is top tier content!! 🙌🏽

Science programs always inspire the best electronic music!

I love this.😍😍😍😍 Thank you.🤝🤝

Really really good questions and guests holy

4:56 Thank you, thank you! The highest wisdom is useless to anyone but one unless it is SHARED, and sharing the information to benefit the world requires people with good communication skills. Teaching isn't just about being smart, best in the field, highest IQ, etc. It's mainly about how to effectively communicate knowledge to others in interesting and profound ways that change their lives. Even though I had zero interest in science when I went to high school, I am now very very very interested thanks to communicators like Carl Sagan, NDT, and Brian Cox who make science fascinating and FUN to learn. And this is why I like to watch YT videos. Colleges and universities are expensive as heck - at least in NA - whereas the internet and video stream sites like YT make education and knowledge a much more egalitarian process.

"There's no reason, with all the wealth in the world, to have people suffering." Ending the New Guilded Age is probably the best and most immediate thing we can do that is of any good.

Thanks for the wonderful conversations, It's always interesting to me when people can worry about the heat death of the universe billions of years in the future, is it just an aspect of the the fear of death, perhaps the ego death of the universe is intertwined with our own.

Enjoy the program immensely

Love the grand perspectives

We define Humanity everyday. Powerful.

If we assume the universe has already existed and will always (For example: if the universe recycles itself forever) over an incomprehensible amount of time, maybe the improbable things happen many times. Maybe time is what distances us from the alternative universes.

The Dewey, Whaty System? lol (j/k - I grew up in the 1980's so I can still remember having to locate books using that indexing/numbering system - pulling actual index cards out of the drawer lol)

I like this one, easy documentary. NICE

Holy Smokes!! The video opens with a person in SAFETY GEAR!!! What a delightful example! Please notice youngsters>>>>

Okay, so how does that red toy that he rotated in his hand work? Does anyone know what it is called?

Why did this make me cry...

It is sheer magic that life exists on Earth and intellogent life like apes, dolphines, whales, elephants.... social animals. The evolution of our solar system and sun is unique just like each persons fingerprint.

Earth is a precious place in the Universe... we need to learn to care its better

-- The conversation is inspirational. I would like to share my observation: I think/my theory is that everything is movement/vibration etc.. the dark matter is just not omit light and we could not detect it because everything what currently is -come from the much smaller vibrating /dark stuff -dark matter the our body/building any other material atoms and particle = The world is measurable because we are that stuff. We made before the big bang- or I would call the smaller stuff 'clumped' together to bigger stuff like : electron, quarks etc., Everywhere in the same time: that created a current size(!) / vibration level and that/ we are that stuff atoms/ electrons/ molecules . then biological= more complex RNA DNA..then biological elements /cells...life.. this is just natural progress of nature.

The infinite consists of an endless array of finite possibilities, vastly increasing the likelihood of similar existences to our own.

Given enough time, any event will eventually become highly probable. What is comforting about it all: the vastness of everything is inaccessible to direct human experience. Only the small window during which the human brain exists, can be perceived, after which we become again unconscious, only to experience consciousness anew in an alternate universe. Consciousness may be viewed as small intervals of time accessible to our perception (x-axis), separated by vast stretches of imaginary time (y-axis), which are irrelevant to our subjective experience.

1:25 “harnessing our curiosity” seems counterproductive to me… I’ll postulate that curiosity, imagination, speculation, and discovery are best left unbridled…

I struggle with 'optimism' for the future. I accept that a study of history shows a recent trend towards greater living standards, freedoms and so forth; I'm wary of pointing at societies like that of 70s Afghanistan etc. I think I'm wary because it's tempting to associate our undeniable progress with science and technology with 'progress' within a given society. We all know how rapidly human societies can evolve - or devolve - when forces conspire to bring about political, religious or other factors. Before we can blink, small numbers of us can have outsized effects; ripping freedoms from millions in the stroke of a pen.

Makes me wish I was still at my university.

why is the map on the wall blurred out in Kevin Kelly's "man cave" ?

Maybe because I was born a pessimist but when I started doing algebra and learned about the idea of graph, the exponential has always worried me because it seemed like something that it bound to get out of control. So, when I look at the speed of change I always wonder when the situations like this in were the past and what happened that restored some form of balance. So, all these terminologies that are banded about like soft landing as opposed to crashing have made me wonder is there a place to even aim for a soft landing even if it is just temporary. Does anyone know of something like that to aim for? People started talking about the big rip which is what I see everywhere. Recently, a new study came out that confirms the existence of dark energy by a large group of scientists studying the issue for over the last decade or more contradicting a lot other recent conclusions but it seems to have also come up with an additional co-efficient that was found to be less than one predicting that the expansion of universe is not going to be "permanent" and at some stage the acceleration will start to at least decrease but a well still not knowing what dark energy no one know how it would slow down. Then there is this idea of consensus when something gets communicated over and over again until becomes a fact that so many whose start base is that consensus forget about the assumptions that were made to arrive at that consensus and that is what is dangerous in science communication. Non-scientist as well as some scientists are totally unaware of it. This is why people lose confidence in science as they have in other modern institutions. The use of imprecise language and the organic way that natural languages develop, all contribute to this dangerous phenomenon. I think we need to set-up some sort of new institution to redefine some of the scientific terminology periodically like every five years. That in itself will keep this definitions up to date with the organic development of natural languages itself and forces people to go back and check on the assumptions made a long time ago which were they to be re-examined today would not have anywhere near 5 sigma reliability about them. Some may complain that this might slow things up and get too many people preoccupied with what they think is not productive but may that be not such a bad thing and it might slow things down until someone comes up with soft landing. Language is far more important than most people realise . You only have to compare the French approach to the English to recognise that. English has developed huge vocabulary where French slang is full of terminology that come and go but don't get included officially in the language. This like so much else is double edged sword. The English language is powerful, but it also has unforeseen consequences such a significant role it plays in culture wars and political correctness.

can you theoretically extract energy from the expansion of the universe and use it as a source of useful energy, or treat it as an energy sink to maximize the extraction of energy ?

Life is the meaning. It was never a question, just a mistranslation in the fundamental statement.

13:13 I see being humane as a potential cause of our modern human evolution. Some need arose for our offspring to no longer be independent and to have total need of a caregiver. Each of us today is alive because someone chose to be humane & obligated to our growing until we can care for ourselves. The increases in the species towards being more responsible for our humanity is why we are as extraordinary as we are imo. The future will only bring more to the table.

Thanks for that.^

Life is universally present, either becoming or evolving. Live is not an accident of nature but rather, an inevitable consequence of nature's path. When we really understand it, we will discover this simple truth.

Inspired.

22:35 the universe was in a hot dense state..WHERE DID THE HOT DENSE STATE COME FROM???????🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

i wouldn't be opposed to include another host instead!

Our existence is only improbable if you don't take the scale of the universe into consideration. When you do, you not only realize it was inevitable but it isn't unique either. No naturally occurring phenomena in a universe the size of ours' can be unique. If it can happen here it can and WILL happen elsewhere.

Keeep going please❤

We are never more than a generation from losing all or most of the cultural, medical, and scientific advances and intellect we have gained up to this point. Mankind is always teetering on backsliding into the dark ages.

Everything comes to an end, it's natural, making peace with that