{"id":19683,"date":"2014-09-09T17:10:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T09:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/qa-neil-degrasse-tyson-on-commercial-space-technology-and-the-best-star-trek-captain\/"},"modified":"2014-09-09T17:10:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T09:10:44","slug":"qa-neil-degrasse-tyson-on-commercial-space-technology-and-the-best-star-trek-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/qa-neil-degrasse-tyson-on-commercial-space-technology-and-the-best-star-trek-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Neil deGrasse Tyson on commercial space, technology and the best Star Trek captain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/477358915?et=AHPcFtvyTLt4cSzJqg1jVQ&amp;sig=C41HpjcqHkd-XsdGBReetxUPz6goQ29WOSZyLIGkcUw=\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n#477358915 \/ gettyimages.com<\/p>\n<p>Astrophysicist and author&nbsp;Neil deGrasse Tyson is the&nbsp;director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, and the host of StarTalk Radio and the television series \u201cCosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.\u201d He\u2019s also a frequent&nbsp;guest on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and he\u2019s appearing this week at Tableau Software\u2019s annual conference in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>GeekWire interviewed Dr. Tyson in advance of his Seattle talk, mixing our own questions with those submitted by Tableau followers and GeekWire readers. We covered topics including the evolution of technology and its impact on astronomy; the rise of commercial space ventures; science education; and yes, the age-old question of&nbsp;which Star Trek captain is&nbsp;best.<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading for edited excerpts. You can&nbsp;also hear the interview&nbsp;this weekend on&nbsp;the GeekWire radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Saturday on 97.3 KIRO-FM in the Seattle region,&nbsp;available via podcast&nbsp;and on GeekWire on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GeekWire: We\u2019ve been seeing huge advances in technology and computers, particularly with cloud computing \u2014 the ability to process and visualize massive amounts of data. How are those technical advances improving our understanding of&nbsp;the universe?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131990\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131990\" style=\"width: 418px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-131990\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b-620x414.jpg\" alt=\"Neil deGrasse Tyson: Photo: (NASA\/Bill Ingalls)\" width=\"418\" height=\"279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b-620x414.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/3806476522_ca86202095_b.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-131990\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil deGrasse Tyson: Photo: (NASA\/Bill Ingalls)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Neil deGrasse Tyson:<\/strong> So let me clarify a couple of things. I\u2019m going to say something that might at first sound like it\u2019s not true, but in fact it is. If you live in a time where you get to say, \u201cThe amazing advances in my field are incredible,\u201d it means they\u2019re not actually incredible, because in five years, you\u2019d look back on those comments you had made and say, \u201cDid I really say that?\u201d Just look back at what people said about getting 1 meg of memory in their computer.&nbsp;That was a slammin\u2019 desktop computer if you had it.<\/p>\n<p>So I have stopped commenting on the advances of things, because I know in a&nbsp;short number of years that follow, it would be laughable given what we would have then achieved. When you live on an exponential growth of anything, it looks like all the greatest advances just happened, just for you, just in that moment. That is the nature of exponential growth.<\/p>\n<p>What we really should be celebrating is this run of exponential growth that has been going on now for 20 to 30 years in the computing realm. It is that entire period that we should be celebrating. There\u2019s nothing special about this moment vs. another.<\/p>\n<p>I can tell you in my field, as advances continue, there are problems that were previously intractable that we\u2019d have to make approximations or we would remove one of the dimensions, do a two-dimensional study instead of a three-dimensional study of a cloud phenomenon and an atmosphere of a planet, or interstellar gas clouds or star clusters. There were ways in the old days that we would make approximations. Now we don\u2019t need to make approximations. We can do a full simulation \u2014 a hundred thousand, million particle cluster. We can simulate the evolution of galaxies. So we can do that now, but we\u2019re not done. Now there are other complex systems that no one dreamt of representing because the computing wasn\u2019t available, and now it is. So we\u2019re good to go on this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GW: So how has that changed things for you specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;There\u2019s a constant parade of changes in how we conduct cosmic business that has been unfolding over these years, over these decades, that tech has been exponentially advancing. Larger and larger swaths of the universe fall to our analysis.<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><strong>Tyson<\/strong>: We transitioned in my lifetime from photographic plates to CCD detectors. Astronomers were one of the first people in town to have familiarity with digital detectors, we were doing it in the late 70s before it made its way to cameras or any other use that we now think of as common in society. We collect data digitally and we can move data digitally. You don\u2019t have to ship tapes around. There\u2019s a constant parade of changes in how we conduct cosmic business that has been unfolding over these years, over these decades, that tech has been exponentially advancing. Larger and larger swaths of the universe fall to our analysis. No longer is it beyond our reach. And that\u2019s a good thing. But what I\u2019m saying is, now other problems, previously undreamt of, become the leading edge of this.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/143054289?et=J8I5fgIbTuNELIBhwHK75w&amp;sig=Ps9wyRaMnD5gquRFsH2cyyNRTGZSz6NywVyNZI_6t-Q=\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n#143054289 \/ gettyimages.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>GW: Here in the Seattle region we\u2019re seeing many commercial space ventures. I know this is something you\u2019ve commented on in particular in the context of the retirement of the Space Shuttle program. Is the rise of commercial space ventures a net positive or a net negative for our long-term prospects for&nbsp;exploring and understanding the universe?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson:&nbsp;<\/strong>It should have happened decades ago. I\u2019m disappointed it took this long. Commercial space is not what most people think it is. Many people are wondering, are they going to lead us into discovery? No. They\u2019re corporate entities that have a quarterly report, and where profit matters. If profit matters, you are not leading anything that\u2019s expensive and dangerous. It\u2019s not how it works. Space is expensive, it\u2019s dangerous, and it has unquantifiable risks if you\u2019re doing something that\u2019s never been done before. And that is not the kind of environment that will stimulate a capital market\u2019s valuation.<\/p>\n<p>So government does that first.&nbsp;Government can establish a very long-term interest, if they have the vision, without having to satisfy the shareholders with&nbsp;a quarterly or annual report. So the government does it. They decide where the trade winds are, and where the hostiles are and where the friendlies are \u2014 I\u2019m being metaphorical, of course \u2014 and once that\u2019s established, and once they do it, and patents are granted, then private enterprise can come in and take the routine actions and do that efficiently and make money on it. That\u2019s what the Dutch East India trading&nbsp;company did. They were not the first Europeans in the New World. It was after Spain invested heavily in exploring the New World&nbsp;that&nbsp;the Dutch came around with the marketplace. That\u2019s how it\u2019s always worked.<\/p>\n<p>So I would like to see, going forward, a nice combination of governments leading the way, for exploration and discovery, and private enterprise coming in and making a buck out of it. I don\u2019t have any problems with that at all, and it should have been happening decades ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: <\/strong>Getting to some of the submitted&nbsp;questions, this one comes from Chuck Hooper. Probably the biggest question we received:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cAssuming the Big Bang theory is fact, and, the \u201cknown\u201d universe (I refer to it as a glob of galaxies) was built from nothing (Lawrence Krauss book), is it not possible there are trillions (+\/-) of other \u201cglobs of galaxies\u201d, each expanding, and, someday the edge of our known universe, starts colliding with the oncoming edge of another?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;it\u2019s possible that in a higher dimension, everybody is expanding, and there\u2019s plenty of room for everybody to expand forever, and nobody will ever intersect. But if we do intersect \u2026&nbsp;I don\u2019t know, do I want to be around for that or not? Who knows what that would look like?<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><strong>Tyson<\/strong>: It\u2019s entirely possible that we are just one of some uncountable number of expanding bubbles, in what we have come to call the multiverse. That is the multiverse \u2014 that we are just one of many Big Bangs that have occurred. Whether we will collide with one another is a different issue. I guess in principle, that\u2019s possible. However, if all this is happening in a higher dimension, as it must to have a multiverse, then you can expand in dimensions that have no intersection with yours. It\u2019s like having two sheets of paper that are parallel to one another. They can expand to infinity and never intersect, for example. \u2026 So it\u2019s possible that in a higher dimension, everybody is expanding, and there\u2019s plenty of room for everybody to expand forever, and nobody will ever intersect. But if we do intersect&nbsp;\u2026&nbsp;I don\u2019t know, do I want to be around for that or not? Who knows what that would look like?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: <\/strong>A lot of the questions from the audience focused&nbsp;on education, and I would boil them down to one simple question: If you could change one thing about science education in the United States or globally, what would that be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson: <\/strong>Why can\u2019t I change two things?&nbsp;Why does everyone always say one thing?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: &nbsp;<\/strong>Sure, you can change multiple things. Why the false limitation? Go for it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson<\/strong>: Plus, the very question implies that it\u2019s a simple thing. The answers to some questions have complexity. It\u2019s like, how do you get the secrets of a great chef? Do they just make a cookbook and you follow the cookbook or is it something more subtle than that? It\u2019s the exact temperature that they saut\u00e9 this ingredient and mix it with&nbsp;that ingredient at the right time. There\u2019s more than just a list of ingredients. There\u2019s more than just a recipe \u2014 do this and all is fine \u2014 for most important problems that face us in the world.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;(You need) something that is large enough to transform what is otherwise a sleepy country into an innovation nation. \u2026&nbsp;I think space forms an awesome force of nature in stimulating ambition, especially in the educational pipeline.<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span>For me, what you want to do is put a goal state out there, that is visible and everyone feels, such as in the 1960s, when we were going to the Moon. Any kid in school who wanted to do anything about the future had the urge to major in STEM fields. They weren\u2019t called STEM fields back then, but of course that\u2019s what they were. Science, technology, engineering and math. People were climbing over one another to be engineers and scientists, in a period where people knew and they saw and they felt the value of that pursuit in shaping the tomorrow that you\u2019d have the power to invent.<\/p>\n<p>When you create that culture, then everything responds to that culture. More people want to become science teachers. More students want to stay in science. Because it\u2019s not about, \u201cOh, I want to do science because my textbook is good.\u201d Or even because they have a good teacher. Something bigger than your textbook, something bigger than your teacher needs to be operating in society. Something that is large enough to transform what is otherwise a sleepy country into an innovation nation. \u2026&nbsp;I think space forms an awesome force of nature in stimulating ambition, especially in the educational pipeline.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: &nbsp;<\/strong>OK, in the short amount of time we have left, let\u2019s go to the lightning round.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson: &nbsp;<\/strong>Love lightning round.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: &nbsp;<\/strong>This one is from Matt Francis:<\/strong> \u201cWhat 3 pieces of music\/sounds would you put on the golden record on a hypothetical \u2018Voyager 3\u2019 probe?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson:&nbsp;<\/strong>Oh. I liked the set of music that was on the original probe. Three pieces of music. Hmm.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: <\/strong>If you want to table that one, we can come back to it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson:&nbsp;<\/strong>Let me think about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: <\/strong>OK, next lightning round question: Mac, Windows or Linux?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson<\/strong>: Linux at the heart of everything, and then a Mac on top of that, for sure.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-131991\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner.jpg\" alt=\"Star_Trek_William_Shatner\" width=\"159\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner.jpg 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-234x300.jpg 234w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-200x256.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-78x100.jpg 78w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 159px) 100vw, 159px\"><strong>GW: <\/strong>Kirk, Picard or Janeway?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson<\/strong>: Kirk. I love Janeway, but Kirk. I was disappointed that Picard never actually got into a fight. Kirk could use blunt human reasoning that transcended logic, because sometimes emotion matters more than logic. If he had to fight an alien, he\u2019d go into fisticuffs with him. Occasionally you need that. So I\u2019m with Kirk all the way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GW: Time Machine, Cloak of Invisibility or Transporter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, Time Machine. Who wouldn\u2019t want a Time Machine? Cloak of Invisibility? Excuse me? We\u2019re going to have that in a few years. A transporter? I can wait a few minutes to get to where I\u2019m going. Give me the Time Machine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who\u2019s more intimidating, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stephen Colbert, by far. He\u2019s the smartest one out there. His character, I don\u2019t know where he\u2019s coming, where he\u2019s going or where he is at any given moment. \u2026 So I have to be hyper-prepared for whatever curve ball he will throw at me. I wouldn\u2019t call it intimidating, but the highest challenge I have in an interview is with Stephen Colbert. A distant second is Jon Stewart. Everybody else is a distant third.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/embed\/mgid:arc:video:colbertnation.com:676d3a42-4c19-47e0-9509-f333fa76b4eb\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 4px; margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;\"><b>The Colbert Report<\/b><br \/>\nGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>GW: &nbsp;<\/strong>Well, Dr. Tyson, it\u2019s been a pleasure. Thank you for joining us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tyson:<\/strong> Wait, now&nbsp;about the three bits of music? I would not put music, because it presumes that the aliens can hear. That\u2019s a sense that we have, but it makes big assumptions. But if I have to put sounds, I would put sounds from Earth. I would put a gurgling volcano. I would put the sound of lightning striking, and the thunder that ensues. I would put perhaps the sound of a crashing wave.<\/p>\n<p>These would be sounds of our planet, which are bigger than the sounds that we make as one species on this planet. Because I\u2019d guess I\u2019d want people to know about our home planet. Otherwise we\u2019re being very species-centric. Maybe the bees have something to say. And the birds certainly do, they sing songs. I would be planet-based.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#477358915 \/ gettyimages.com Astrophysicist and author&nbsp;Neil deGrasse Tyson is the&nbsp;director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, and the host of StarTalk Radio and the television series \u201cCosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.\u201d He\u2019s also a frequent&nbsp;guest on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and he\u2019s appearing this week at Tableau Software\u2019s annual conference in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4437,21],"class_list":["post-19683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-neil-degrasse-tyson","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}