Is there intelligent life beyond Earth?
Hank left the question open in 2010, but from 2020 grew firm that life elsewhere is to be expected, even inevitable. In 2024 he said there definitely are aliens in so large a universe, though he has seen no compelling evidence that they are here.
Axis: almost certainly yes ... we may be alone
Positions by date: 9 records in 9 videos. The position did not change in these records.
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-09-08 | first on record | Hank leaves open whether alien civilizations exist: ours might be unique or one of millions, and many explanations could hide them from us. | Where are the Space Aliens?! 00:03:25 |
| 2010-10-07 | restate | Hank sings that he can't believe humans are unique in a galaxy of 400 billion stars and that whether there is more life out there is moot to him; aliens may simply go unheard. | The Fermi Paradox: A Song 00:00:31 |
| 2018-11-30 | restate | Hank says maybe the best argument against the alien hypothesis is that the universe is weird: unexplained sights were often taken for 'the others' until science caught up. | We just had our first interstellar visitor...and it's weird. 00:08:58 |
| 2020-09-18 | restate | Hank says he doesn't think it is an extraordinary claim that there is life elsewhere in the universe. | They Say it Gets Colder 00:03:05 |
| 2021-05-28 | restate | Hank thinks life elsewhere in the universe is a physical inevitability: even apart from the galaxy's huge size, life is a chemical system obeying kinetics and thermodynamics; amazing, but not magical. | Aliens 00:00:13 |
| 2022-07-15 | restate | Hank says we are not the only chemical system to have built a space telescope: the way he understands the universe, that is impossible. | Thoughts From the Universe - Woah 00:03:37 |
| 2023-03-10 | restate | Hank says it would be really weird if ours were the only solar system in the galaxy with civilization-building life. | Is it Good or Bad that we Haven't Met Aliens? 00:00:02 |
| 2024-12-20 | restate | Hank says he is not skeptical that aliens exist: there definitely are aliens in so large a universe; he has just seen no compelling evidence that they are here. | Fine, I'll Talk About the Drones… 00:13:09 |
| 2025-09-12 | restate | Hank says the scale is starting to tip toward there having once been life on Mars; it could tip back, but to him, after long interest, it feels like it's going one way. | This Might Actually be Happening 00:18:43 |