Joe Rogan Experience #2023 - Brian Keating

Brian Keating walks Joe Rogan through the history of the telescope, from Galileo perfecting a Dutch spyglass to today's giant reflecting and microwave observatories he helps build. He explains the cosmic microwave background, how astronomers measure the age of the universe, and why a recent claim that the universe is 26 billion years old confuses galaxy-formation models with cosmic age. A self-described 'alien minimalist,' Keating argues intelligent technological life is near-impossible, using Mars as evidence and pushing back on UAP/UFO disclosure as likely misidentification, spoofing or secret human drones. Along the way he gives Joe meteorites, a piece of Mars and other props, and the two discuss Nobel Prize psychology, impostor syndrome, weight cutting in the UFC, science communication and the younger Dryas impact theory.

• The telescope was not invented by Galileo; he perfected an existing Dutch spyglass and used it to birth the scientific method and displace Earth from the center of the universe.
  00:00:34
• The Simons Observatory in Chile at 17,200 ft will be the world's most sensitive and highest-operating observatory, starting to take data next year.
  00:13:00
• Nobel laureate Barry Barish told Keating he still suffers impostor syndrome, and Keating showed him that even Einstein felt it about Newton.
  01:08:23
• Keating admits his obsessive quest for a Nobel Prize was driven by competing with the scientist father who abandoned him and never won one.
  01:18:46
• The viral claim the universe is 26 billion years old conflates models of how galaxies form with the separately, precisely measured age of the universe.
  01:35:55
• Keating calls himself an 'alien minimalist' who thinks the probability of intelligent technological aliens is extremely low.
  01:59:52
• He uses Mars, Earth's near-twin neighbor with no detected life, as evidence that life may be extraordinarily rare.
  02:04:09
• On UAPs Keating favors mundane explanations like sensor misidentification, radar spoofing or secret US drones in restricted military airspace over alien craft.
  02:24:08

• The largest refracting (lens) telescope, Yerkes at ~39 inches, sags under its own weight, which is why bigger telescopes must use mirrors.
  00:09:23
• The Inca built constellations from the dark dust lanes of the Milky Way, including one called the 'umbilical cord of the llama.'
  00:23:24
• Galileo tried to win the longitude prize by using Jupiter's four moons as a clock, even building a helmet with two telescopes attached.
  00:33:38
• Galileo discovered the law of pendulums by timing a swinging church lantern against his own pulse.
  00:55:58
• Nobel winners must sign a ledger; Barish saw the signatures of Einstein, Feynman and Marie Curie above his own.
  01:09:26
• Isaac Newton reportedly considered dying a virgin his greatest accomplishment, as a way of emulating Christ.
  01:15:41
• Scientists measure cortisol in whale earwax to reconstruct stress levels and even detect underwater bomb tests.
  02:07:34
• Shooting down a high-altitude balloon requires a roughly $1M missile because at altitude internal and external pressure are nearly equal, so bullets do little.
  03:02:42
• The base of each Egyptian pyramid is an integer multiple of pi because surveyors measured distances with a rolling wheel.
  03:25:35
• The Younger Dryas impact theory holds that comet impacts ~11,800 years ago, near the end of the Ice Age, may have destroyed an advanced civilization.
  03:25:50