The Doomsday Argument

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE↓ More info below ↓Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetimeSign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements!https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetimeCheck out the Space Time Merch Storehttps://pbsspacetime.com/Since the dawn of humanity around 100 billion people have lived. How many will live in the future of our species? We might hope for a trillion times that if we colonize the galaxy. But a simple statistical argument tells us that the doom of our species is much, much closer. Hosted by Matt O'DowdWritten by Matt O'DowdGraphics by Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano LealDirected by: Andrew KornhaberExecutive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRl6-nb4iOnsij-vnpAjp0QIn some recent episodes we’ve explored the anthropic principle and seen how it can be used to explain the fact that both our planet and our universe seem very finely tuned to allow the development of life. Our planet and/or universe can be rare and unlikely as long as there are enough other planets and/or universes to stack the odds in favour of our existence. We touched on both the potential power and potential misuse of this principle. Today we’re going to push our luck, and see how this controversial idea can be used to predict the physics of our universe, and also to predict the imminent demise of the human race.Special Thanks to Our Patreon SponsorsBIg BangAndrew & BrennaAlexander TamasCraig StonahaDavid BarnholdtDavid NicklasFabrice EapJohn SJuan BenetMorgan HoughQuasarMark HeisingVinnie FalcoHypernovachuck zegarDanton SpiveyDonal BotkinEdmund FokschanerHank SJohn HofmannJohn PollockJohn R. SlavikJordan YoungJoseph SalomoneJulian TyackeJustin AshMathewMatthew O'ConnorSyed AnsarGamma Ray BurstA GAdrian HatchAdrien MolyneuxAlecZeroAndreas NautschAngela PriggeBradley JenkinsBrandon labonteDan WarrenDaniel LyonsDavid BethalaDFaulkEric KieblerFrederic SimonGeoffrey ShortGraydon GossGreg SmithJames FlowersJamie FrederickJohn FunaiJohn GriffithJohn RobinsonJonathan NesfederJoseph DillmanJosh ThomasKevin LeeKevin WarneKyle HoferMalte UblMichael ConroyNick VirtueNick WrightPaul RoseRobert IlardiScott GossettSean WarniahaSipke SchoorstraSteve BradshawTatiana VorovchenkoTim StephaniTonyfaceYurii Konovaliuk