— That is, you do not agree with many scientists that a person will inevitably become a half-robot? We know that our organs can be replaced by artificial developments. And as it is claimed, over time we are waiting for an upgrade of the brain. Elon Musk, for example, is working on a chip implanted there. It's happening here and now — it's real.
— We don't know how fast it will happen. But I think it is important to understand that we are adapted to life on Earth and we do not need to change too much. You know, it can be interesting to see what the rich, who have a lot of opportunities, choose. And they have two preferences. First - to as a nurses and so on their served not robots, and living people. Secondly, they often want to live in the country, in the lap of nature, to get a house with a plot. I mean, what do people aspire to if they can choose? To contact with nature and other people. Most may not have a choice, but we need to try to make sure that living people are cared for by living people and that they have access to nature.
— You mentioned the madmen who go to colonize Mars.
"They're mad, but I admire them. Probably as much as we admire people who climb mountains and engage in other dangerous sports.
— But in the end, I don't think there's much choice." We see the world's population growing rapidly... And politicians dismiss attempts to control climate change.
— Yeah... Let me interrupt. It is an extremely dangerous misconception to believe that by terraforming Mars we can escape the problems of our planet. It is much easier to deal with climate change than to create terrestrial conditions on Mars and make it suitable for human life. It was a very dangerous illusion to think that we had some sort of backup planet for those who wanted to avoid the risks. We need to solve the problems of the Earth. It is possible to settle the issue with the population. By the way, in two-thirds of the world it is declining. It is possible to achieve this in Africa, if you change the way people live there, improve their well-being. That is to say, the problems we face on Earth are much easier to solve than those that will arise if we try to live outside of it.
— There is a famous Serbian Director Emir Kusturica-maybe you know him. I discussed the same issues with him, because I was interested in how people of art perceive such a scenario of the future. And he said the first generation of people to go to Mars would set a new value system for humanity. Do you agree?"
— They can form a new system of values for themselves, because they will live in a completely new environment. But it is not known what significance this will have for us who remain on Earth.
In any case, such people are admirable. After all, we admire all those who work at the limit of human capabilities: extreme athletes and so on. Same with them. Plus, you can learn something from them — as well as from literature. I tell my students it's better to read first-rate science fiction than second-rate research. It's more fun,and there are no mistakes more often. We need to encourage artists to explore these areas. Perhaps they will have ideas that are more important to future generations living outside the Earth than to us.
I explain human space exploration simply as a thirst for adventure. After all, with the development of robotics, there will be almost no practical need to send people there. They won't be needed there. Automated means can build giant structures in space or on the moon. The only reason to send people is to be adventurous.
And so, if I lived in Russia, Europe or the United States, I would not support the allocation of space any money from the state budget. This area should be left to private enterprise-people like Elon Musk with his company SpaceX or Jeffrey Bezos with his Blue Origin. Leave it to them. But I think they need to be encouraged. After all, they can take greater risks than any country in the Western world can afford in relation to public sector employees. They are able to experiment with reducing costs and increasing risk.
I predict that by the end of the century there will be small communities of people on Mars, sent there by the private sector. Elon Musk himself said that he wants to " die on Mars, but not when landing." He's, like, 48 now... So maybe he'll live to see it. In General, I believe that small groups of people can live on Mars, but there will be no mass emigration. To speak of it is a dangerous delusion. It is all the more foolish to speak of it as desirable.
— Now let's talk about climate change. What else is needed for everyone to realize this fact and the need to do something with it — not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... Measures should have been taken ten or 20 years ago. And to be honest, nothing much is being done right now. What does it take for people to Wake up-especially heads of state?
"Yeah, that's a problem. Decisions cost money, and it is very difficult to make politicians give priority not to pressing issues, but to what will benefit the inhabitants of remote corners of the planet in half a century.
In the end, this will happen, and there are two scenarios. The first is if public concern grows and voters support politicians advocating a solution to the problem. In the past, a politician who promises to sacrifice something now for the sake of issues that will arise in 50 years, would not strengthen his position in the elections, but on the contrary, would lose votes. If the thinking of the electorate changes, it will benefit. And it seems to me that it is already changing — an important role is played by the campaigns carried out by young people.
Now about the second strategy. With her, I suppose, everybody wins. It is supported by 20 countries, including mine. The point is to significantly strengthen research and development work in the field of clean energy. Now, of course, it comes out more expensive than coal-fired power plants. But if you promote research, it will spur the development of events: clean energy will become more efficient and economical.
— The opposite side (that is, politics and so on) says: "in eight thousand years, humanity has experienced so much climate change! Why be so afraid of it? They talk about it so much only because access to information has become easier." What do you say to this argument?
— That's simply not true. There are measurements of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the past 60 years, and these are definite figures. The index increased by almost 50%. It is recorded that this is a record high content for the last 800 thousand years. The speed of change is unprecedented. That is, it is not true that this is only a hesitation. They do, of course, and this makes it difficult to identify trends. After all, over the course of a decade, there are other factors that sometimes cause the curve to level out and then go up. But I think there's no doubt something going on now that hasn't happened in a million years.
— In conclusion, many scientists in your field are encouraged by the idea that there is a planet in the Universe similar to our Earth. Do you think that's possible? A planet with water and carbon and all that? Could it be that somewhere now another "humanity"is being born or has already been born?
— In the last 10-20 years, we have managed to learn a really interesting thing-thanks to the discovery that was made in Switzerland by one of my current colleagues at Cambridge, a pioneer in this business. We know that around most of the stars revolve groups of planets, just as around the Sun-the Earth and all the rest. And now we know that many of these planets are very similar to ours — in terms of temperature and size. And this can potentially have the existence of life.
What we don't know yet is how life actually began. We understand Darwin's concept of evolution and the fact that over 4 billion years, simple life evolved into the biosphere that we see around us and of which we are a part. But we still don't understand how the first life came about. How there was a transition from complex chemistry to the first formations that are capable of metabolism and reproduction — to what we call life. We don't know how it happened. Was it just some rare accident, or was it possible at all these other points in the galaxy? Unknown. But I think that in 10-12 years we will find the answer to this question. There are two points... First, we may understand how life began on Earth — by accident or not. And secondly, we will have the data of observations of the next generation telescopes. In particular, European astronomers are building a giant telescope in Chile. It's called an Extremely large telescope. The name, of course, is quite prosaic, but it will have a mirror with a diameter of 39 m and it will be able to analyze the light reflected from some Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. This will determine whether there is any life-vegetation, oxygen and so on...
— What does your gut tell you?" Is there another humanity out there?
"I don't think intuition matters. You should just say, " We don't know that. But this is a very interesting question, we will try to find an answer to it." It's a biological question now. Astronomers have found that there are many planets similar to the Earth. Great progress has been made over the past 10 to 20 years. We'll be making new observations, and maybe we'll have a better understanding of the biological component. This if to speak about life in principle. But the next question is, if there's life out there, what are the chances it's intelligent, technologically advanced? This is a separate project: to look for evidence of something artificial-radio signals, artifacts... I think it's definitely worth a try, because if we find something, it will be extremely interesting. But to make predictions in this matter is very difficult