Brian Cox
speaker
1,719 appearances
13 recordings
8 series
first heard Oct 2024
last heard 16 Jun
Brian Cox’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 9 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.
Appearances
It's the way that we value things. Gold. Yes. Gold is another example, right? It's valuable because there isn't very much of it.
Yeah. A football field of gold in the whole world. You know, by the way, that we were talking about the gravitational wave detectors earlier and the collision between black holes that we detect with them. We also detected a collision between neutron stars using the gravitational wave detector. And we pointed optical telescopes at that collision and saw the signature of gold being manufactured.
And it was always a question. We used to just think, well, it comes from supernova explosions. But it also seems now that it comes from the collision between neutron stars. So one of the reasons that it's very rare is because it takes rare processes in the universe to actually make it. Which makes it all the more wonderful when you think about it.
If you look at the gold, your wedding ring or your watch or whatever it is, some of those nuclei, some of those elements clearly came from the collision between neutron stars at some point before our solar system was formed, which makes it more wonderful.
Yeah, as Carl Sagan said, star stuff.
It's a remarkable thing. I want to go back to something you said actually about the – I've been thinking about this. You said this godlike intelligence that we might create. And kind of what's the point? What would be the point of existence if you were immortal and you knew everything? Wouldn't it be incredibly dull? Well, you said it's almost like a meditative state.
So we strive for this peace, you know, essentially.
So you've already achieved nirvana then. You don't need to go any further. It's fascinating.
I would argue, I think, imagine that you had access to, as you said, essentially infinite knowledge. Imagine you're one of these beings in the future. Maybe the things that we created that essentially know almost everything there is to know in some sense. Right. I think that they would feel there was no point in existing at all.
If you think about some of the things that make us... The most important things that make us human so one of them would be hope for example right for the future or indeed Fear or that those emotions that are connected with not knowing Not knowing what's around the next corner as you said even exploration, right? So if you remove that if you remove
any sense of not knowing what the future will be, you do remove hope as well as fear. So you could argue that some of the best, the essence of being human, some of the things that we value the most and make us most valuable in the universe in this sense, some of those things come from incomplete knowledge. I mean, surely hope does.
How could you have hope and excitement about what's going to happen tomorrow if you know
It's like you said when you're growing up, you said like, you know, when you're in high school or when you're young, Christmas, for example. Right. You know when you're at Christmas Eve?
And you go, what am I going to get tomorrow? Yeah. It's one of the most wonderful feelings, isn't it? One of the most wonderful, like, oh, God, in the presence of God. That's incredible. None of that would exist if you were one of these super beings. Right. But that's just for us.
I think what I'm getting to, is it purely biological?
But it's only us. Or is it just a property of intelligence? I mean, you're arguing, and it's a good argument, that many of these desires come from our biological fragility. Yes. And also the fragility of our planet, as you said. But it could be. that these ideas of meaning, of what it means to exist, of what is the point of existence, maybe that's a general prophecy of any intelligent system.
Well, it seems like it's imperative for survival.
Is there such a thing as... contentment, though, for anyone.
So that's what I'm kind of interested that God... A godlike being might be so bored and so devoid of all excitement because those things like hope and curiosity. Curiosity is one of the most foundational things. It's one of the most incredible. We both share that idea.
So if you know... So much. Right. Maybe what happens in a world where your curiosity is not there. You've got nothing to be curious about. Wouldn't that be horrendous?
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