Mindblowers with Hank and John

2021-06-22 · list · John, Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: History & curiosities, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: guest or collab, self promotion

In their last reunion video for now, John and Hank trade mind-blowing facts (pi's needed precision, banana units of radiation, no time before the Big Bang, the white night sky of an infinite universe, the newness of recorded music, the unexplained existence of matter); John says a fact blows his mind when it makes him feel big or small.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting, a joke plug for Hank's book and the Mindblowers premise

★ John jokingly points to Hank's book An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, which Hank wants viewers to know is available at bookstores, as it has been since 2018. (playful) — 00:00:00 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green

00:00:16 — Pi to the 38th digit, dinosaur bone on the Moon, bananas as a radiation scale

★★ John says pi calculated to the 38th digit is precise enough to calculate the size of the Milky Way to within a few centimeters, yet we know pi to the 31 trillionth digit. — 00:00:16 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated
★ John says the pi fact is really a fact about humans: we're amazing. (playful) — 00:00:39
★★ Hank read a few years ago that there are probably fragments of dinosaur bone on the Moon, since the dinosaur-killing asteroid probably shed debris as far as Jupiter. (hedged) — 00:00:45 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated
★★ Hank says science communicators made bananas a scale for radiation: eating one exposes you to a little radiation, so a jet flight to Europe can be measured in bananas. — 00:00:53 · Europe

00:01:20 — No 'before' the Big Bang, seeing the Big Bang, the white night sky of an infinite universe

★★ John shares a fact Hank taught him: 'before the Big Bang' is an incorrect idea, because the Big Bang created time as well as space as we understand them. — 00:01:20 · Hank Green · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated
★★ Hank finds it mind-blowing that you can look up into the sky with a telescope and see the Big Bang. — 00:01:36
★★ Hank passes on a fact from Henry Reich: if the universe were infinitely big and infinitely old, the night sky would be white, with starlight from every direction. — 00:01:42 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated

00:02:03 — Music heard only live for most of history; the album is younger than Dr Pepper

★★ John says that for 99.99% of human history music could only be heard within earshot of someone making it, and the idea of an album of recorded music is younger than Dr Pepper. — 00:02:03 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated

00:02:20 — Nobody knows why matter exists

★★★ Hank says we do not know why there was not an equal amount of matter and antimatter, which would have annihilated everything; by our understanding a universe without matter is as likely or likelier. — 00:02:20 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated
★★ Hank adds that, separately, we do not know why matter exists at all. — 00:02:49
★★ John concludes that we don't really know why he is here, in the sense that we don't know why the atoms inside him exist. — 00:03:00

00:03:07 — What makes a fact mind-blowing: feeling big or small, wonderful smallness; sign-off

★★★ John thinks a fact is mind-blowing when it makes him feel either big or small, recontextualizing his understanding of himself and his place in the universe. — 00:03:07 · also in: John and Hank Hanging Out but they Keep Getting Younger and More Pixelated
★★★ John says being on an infinitely tiny speck gives a feeling of wonderful smallness that is not sad, while the chance there might have been no matter makes him feel quite something. — 00:03:40

In the description and comments

★★ The description calls this Hank and John's final reunion video for now, in which they discuss the facts that blow their minds. — video description · Hank Green
★★ In a comment John thanks viewers: The Anthropocene Reviewed just had its fourth week on the New York Times bestseller list. — creator comment · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book), The New York Times

Humor (significant)

After John's pi fact, the point flips to praise of humanity — 00:00:39

“That's not a fact about pi, it's a fact about humans.”
Banana units of radiation prompt a question about the trip to see his brother — 00:01:13

“to find out if it was worth it to come here to visit you.”
Without the matter-antimatter imbalance the Big Bang should have come out even — 00:02:32

“It big bangs, and then it big smoops.”
Asked what makes facts mind-blowing, Hank wants to understand his own emotions — 00:03:17

“I am the most interesting part of the universe.”

Threads in this video

update · John and Hank reunite in person for the first time in a long while and make collab videos together (2021) — The description calls this Hank and John's final reunion video for now, in which they discuss the facts that blow their minds. (video description)
restate · Does science diminish wonder? — John thinks a fact is mind-blowing when it makes him feel either big or small, recontextualizing his understanding of himself and his place in the universe. (00:03:07)
restate · Does human life have real meaning, given oblivion, cosmic scale and an indifferent universe? — John says being on an infinitely tiny speck gives a feeling of wonderful smallness that is not sad, while the chance there might have been no matter makes him feel quite something. (00:03:40)

Mentioned

Central: baryon asymmetry · Big Bang

Also: Works: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Concepts: Asteroid · banana equivalent dose · dinosaur · ionizing radiation · Olbers' paradox · pi · sound recording · wonder (emotion)

Places: Europe · Jupiter · Milky Way · Moon

Products: Dr Pepper

Only in the description or credits: Henry Reich · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The New York Times

Also centred on Big Bang: Katie Mack Explains The Big Bang To John Green

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