#292 – Robin Hanson: Alien Civilizations, UFOs, and the Future of Humanity

Lex Fridman Podcast

Robin Hanson is a professor at George Mason University and researcher at Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Robin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinhanson
Robin’s Website: https://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson
Grabby Aliens (paper): https://grabbyaliens.com/paper
The Elephant in the Brain (book): https://amazon.com/dp/0197551955/ref=nosim?tag=turingmachi08-20
The Age of Em (book): https://amazon.com/dp/0198817827/ref=nosim?tag=turingmachi08-20

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:49) – Grabby aliens
(44:33) – War and competition
(50:07) – Global government
(1:02:58) – Humanity’s future
(1:13:00) – Hello aliens
(1:40:03) – UFO sightings
(2:04:40) – Conspiracy theories
(2:12:58) – Elephant in the brain
(2:26:29) – Medicine
(2:38:58) – Institutions
(3:05:52) – Physics
(3:10:43) – Artificial intelligence
(3:28:32) – Economics
(3:31:53) – Political science
(3:37:42) – Advice for young people
(3:46:33) – Darkest moments
(3:49:34) – Love and loss
(3:58:57) – Immortality
(4:02:53) – Simulation hypothesis
(4:13:10) – Meaning of life