A Letter to the Aliens
2011-08-29 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:53 · watch on YouTube
Topic: Science & nature (also: History & curiosities) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: civic or action cta
Hank addresses a deadpan primer on the human species to aliens: our bodies and senses, language, food and fossil fuels, reproduction and pair bonds, countries and war, deities, money, and our unsolved problems, and asks them for guidance.
What is said
The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).
00:00:00 — This video is not for John but for the aliens: a quick primer on our species
- ★★ Hank says this video is not for John but for the aliens: a quick primer on our species to save them research time. (playful) — 00:00:00
00:00:14 — Human height in hydrogen-atom radii, limbs, senses, sound, writing and languages
- ★★ Hank tells the aliens that a standing human is roughly 3.77 x 10^10 times the average radius of a hydrogen atom, assuming hydrogen atoms are the same size where they are. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:14
- ★ Hank describes the human body plan and senses: legs, arms with five appendages each, a head holding most sensing organs; smell, taste, sight and hearing. — 00:00:24
- ★★ Hank says sound is humans' most important means of communication, also turned into written symbols; speakers of different languages find it very difficult to communicate. — 00:00:49
00:01:04 — Food from other organisms, hydrocarbons powering society, mortality, reproduction and pair bonds
- ★★ Hank says humans get energy by eating other organisms, some (plants) powered by our star; producing food takes a great deal of the planet's land and fresh water. — 00:01:04
- ★★★ Hank says human society is currently fuelled mostly by hydrocarbon compounds from inside the planet, burned to heat and cool dwellings, make light and goods, communicate and move. — 00:01:17
- ★★ Hank explains that humans are mortal and so must reproduce to pass on their genetic information, a process requiring a male and a female. — 00:01:35
- ★ Hank tells the aliens that reproduction is one of humans' very favourite things to do, enjoyed a great deal. (playful) — 00:01:48
- ★★ Hank says human pairs often bond for life, and they are not always male-female couples: many times they are female-female or male-male. — 00:01:50
- ★★ Hank says humans bond into groups that act like organisms, passing ideas and worldviews between generations; some live in countries led by one government. — 00:01:56
00:02:00 — Groups, countries and war; deities; money and people who die for lack of it
- ★★★ Hank describes war as countries systematically trying to kill humans in another country to bring down its government, most commonly to spread an ideology, protect citizens, or control resources like hydrocarbons. — 00:02:13
- ★★★ Hank says war is almost universally recognized as a brutality, yet humans continue it, and it has been a key factor in our civilization's technological development. — 00:02:25
- ★★ Hank says people also group by the deity they believe in, divine all-powerful leaders known only indirectly; not all humans believe in deities, but most do. — 00:02:36
- ★★ Hank explains that society runs on trading goods using money, represented by paper, metal discs and increasingly numbers tracked in a global network. — 00:02:48
- ★★★ Hank says that without money it is hard to get food and shelter; people still regularly die from lack of money; most find this troubling, but attempts at better solutions have not fully succeeded. — 00:02:59 · extreme poverty
00:03:08 — Running low on fresh water and hydrocarbons; alternatives dangerous or not feasible; population checks
- ★★★ Hank says humans are running low on fresh water and on hydrocarbons, and alternatives such as solar power and nuclear power are either dangerous or not feasible. — 00:03:08
- ★★ Hank says humans have experience of population problems being solved by starvation, disease or war, which they find extremely distasteful. — 00:03:18
00:03:26 — Request for the aliens' guidance; sign-off; Hank asks John and Nerdfighters what they would say to aliens
- ★★ Hank asks the aliens, if they have any guidance, to send ideas for human culture to make it through to the next stage of development. (playful) — 00:03:26
- ★★★ Hank asks John and Nerdfighters, in comments or a video response, what they would say to aliens if they could, calling it a really interesting exercise. — 00:03:42 · John Green, Nerdfighteria
Humor (significant)
-
Hank gives aliens the human height in an alien-friendly unit — 00:00:14
“roughly 3.77 times 10 to the 10th times the average radius of a hydrogen atom”
-
Hank clinically describes human reproduction to the aliens — 00:01:42
“This is one of our very favorite things to do - we enjoy this process”
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Hank signs off his letter to the aliens with a polite formula — 00:03:35
“have a nice day, however you measure days.”
Threads in this video
- restate · How should we replace fossil fuels? — Hank says humans are running low on hydrocarbons, and alternatives such as solar and nuclear power are either dangerous or not feasible. (00:03:08)
- asked · Hank asks John and Nerdfighters what they would say to aliens, in comments or video responses (2011) — Hank asks John and Nerdfighters, in comments or a video response, what they would say to the aliens if they had the chance. (00:03:42)
Mentioned
Central: war
Also: Concepts: energy transition · extraterrestrial life · extreme poverty · fossil fuel · human overpopulation · hydrogen · money · nuclear power · religion · sexual orientation · solar power · water scarcity
Later videos replying to this one
- 2011-08-31 · How to Become An Adult (John) — continues — “Apparently it's talk to people other than your brother week.” (00:00:00)
- 2011-09-02 · Tattoo Typos, Senses, Posters and Bad Movies (Hank) — corrects continues — “I messed up something in the description of my last video.” (00:00:26)