Brian Cox

And again, emphasize we don't know. Right. But we've got one example. The other observation, though, it goes back to your first question. It is true that we do look sort of systematically for signals or evidence of civilizations out there. There's the Breakthrough Listen Project and there's SETI, as it's called. So we do. And we haven't seen anything, I would say.

And I know that if you go onto the web and things on the internet, people say, we have, we've seen stuff, and I've seen stuff. But just the basic point, as far as I know, scientifically speaking, we haven't seen anything at all compelling. No. Basically nothing. Basically nothing. And so astronomers have a name for it. They call it the Great Silence. The great silence.

And I know that if you go onto the web and things on the internet, people say, we have, we've seen stuff, and I've seen stuff. But just the basic point, as far as I know, scientifically speaking, we haven't seen anything at all compelling. No. Basically nothing. Basically nothing. And so astronomers have a name for it. They call it the Great Silence. The great silence.

And I know that if you go onto the web and things on the internet, people say, we have, we've seen stuff, and I've seen stuff. But just the basic point, as far as I know, scientifically speaking, we haven't seen anything at all compelling. No. Basically nothing. Basically nothing. And so astronomers have a name for it. They call it the Great Silence. The great silence.

And it's a tremendous mystery, as I said earlier. But it does seem that the universe is quiet, as far as we can tell.

And it's a tremendous mystery, as I said earlier. But it does seem that the universe is quiet, as far as we can tell.

And it's a tremendous mystery, as I said earlier. But it does seem that the universe is quiet, as far as we can tell.

Yeah, there are different. So the counter arguments when we say we've seen nothing, therefore, as far as we can tell, there's nothing out there. You could say, well, what if the civilization that evolved is far ahead of us? What if the space probes are the size of an iPhone?

Yeah, there are different. So the counter arguments when we say we've seen nothing, therefore, as far as we can tell, there's nothing out there. You could say, well, what if the civilization that evolved is far ahead of us? What if the space probes are the size of an iPhone?

Yeah, there are different. So the counter arguments when we say we've seen nothing, therefore, as far as we can tell, there's nothing out there. You could say, well, what if the civilization that evolved is far ahead of us? What if the space probes are the size of an iPhone?

Well, it's kind of a reasonable thing to say, actually.

Well, it's kind of a reasonable thing to say, actually.

Well, it's kind of a reasonable thing to say, actually.

Because why would you not, if you can build a little thing, it's easier to send around the galaxy than a big thing.

Because why would you not, if you can build a little thing, it's easier to send around the galaxy than a big thing.

Because why would you not, if you can build a little thing, it's easier to send around the galaxy than a big thing.

So why would you not, as you said, these hyper, ultra intelligent quantum computers, why would they not be tiny? Right. So you could say that. You could say, well, maybe they are. Maybe they're all over the solar system, but they're the size of phones and we wouldn't have seen them.

So why would you not, as you said, these hyper, ultra intelligent quantum computers, why would they not be tiny? Right. So you could say that. You could say, well, maybe they are. Maybe they're all over the solar system, but they're the size of phones and we wouldn't have seen them.

So why would you not, as you said, these hyper, ultra intelligent quantum computers, why would they not be tiny? Right. So you could say that. You could say, well, maybe they are. Maybe they're all over the solar system, but they're the size of phones and we wouldn't have seen them.

Yeah. Okay. You would have to concede that. So we're just saying that the way that we've looked for energy signatures, for example, of civilizations, you tend to look for big things because that's all we can see. And we don't see any big things. We don't see any big structures. We don't see any evidence of spacecraft and all that kind of stuff.