Michio Kaku - Will mankind destroy itself?/zal de mensheid zichzelf vernietigen? - Subtitled

What is the likelihood that mankind will destroy itself? I say looking at the next 100 years that there are two trends in the world today. The first trend is toward what we call a 'Type I civilization': a planetary civilization. A civilization that resembles something out of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. A 'Type II civilization' is stellar. They consume so much energy, they can play with stars. That is for example the Federation of Planets in Star Trek. Star Trek would represent a typical Type II civilization. Then we have 'Type III', which is galactic. Like The Borg, or Independence Day, or The Empire of The Empire Strikes Back. That is a Type III civilization which is truly galactic. Now, by the time you reach Type II, you are immortal. Nothing known to science can destroy a Type II civilization. Comets, meteors, earthquakes, even a supernova! A Type II civilization would be able to survive even a supernova. The danger is: the transition between 'Type 0' and 'Type I'. And that's where we are today: we are a 'Type 0 civilization'. We get our energy from dead plants: oil and cole. But if you get a calculator, you can calculate when we will obtain Type I status. The answer is: in about a 100 years; we will become planetary. We will be able to harness all the energy output of the planet Earth. We'll play with the weather! Earthquakes, volcanos; anything planetary we will play with. The danger period is now. Cause we still have the savagery, we still have all the passions. We have all the sectarian, fundamentalist ideas circulating around, but we also have nuclear weapons. We have chemical, biological weapons, capable of wiping out life on Earth. So I see two trends in the world today. The first trend is toward a multicultural, scientific, tolerant society. And everyone I go, I see aspects of that birth. For example: what is the Internet? Many people have written about the Internet. Billions and billions of words written about the Internet. But to me, as a physicist, the Internet is the beginning of a Type I telephone system. A *planetary* telephone system. So we are privileged to be alive to witness the birth of Type I technology: a planetary telephone system. What is English? English is the beginning of a Type I language. Everywhere I go around the Earth, people speak English, because that's the lingua franca of science, technology, business... They all speak English! It is the no. 1 second language on the planet Earth. And what is the European Union? The European Union is the beginning of a Type I economy. And how come the European countries -which have slaughtered eachother ever since the ice melted 100,000 years ago- how come they have banded together, put aside their differences to create the European Union? Well, to compete with us! And who are 'we'? We are: NAFTA. So we are beginning to see the beginning of a Type I economy as well. Then we are beginning to see the beginning of a Type I culture. Everywhere I go, you turn on the radio, what do you hear? Rock 'n roll. You hear rap music, you hear youth music. Youth music is now planetary, knows no boundaries around the planet Earth. Everywhere I go I see high fashion. Chanel, Gucci bags... We're witnessing the birth of a planetary fashion. Also sports! Take a look at the Olympics. Take a look at soccer. We're seeing the beginning of a tribal initiation rite, called "sports", being turned into a planetary initiation rite, that unifies the entire planet. So, whenever I open the newspaper, every headline I see in the newspaper, points to the birth pangs of a Type I civilization in formation. However, every time I open the newspaper, I also see the opposite trend as well. What is terrorism? Terrorism, in some sense, is a reaction against the creation of a Type I civilization. Now most terrorists can not articulate this, they don't even know what the hell I'm talking about, but what they're reacting to is not 'modernism'; what they are reacting to is the fact that we're headed toward a multicultural, tolerant, scientific society. And that's what they don't want. They don't want science, they want a theocracy. They don't want multiculturalism, they want monoculturalism. So instinctively, they don't like the march toward a Type I civilization. Now which tendancy will win? I don't know. But I hope that we emerge as a Type I civilization. Now in outer space, we look for signs of intelligent life in outer space. So far we find none. Civilizations like Type I should be commonplace in the galaxy. Some people assume therefore that Type 0 civilizations are rather common. But only a few of them make it to Type I. Because that society, for the first time in its history, has the ability to commit planetary suicide. So maybe that's the reason why we don't see aliens in outer space. Maybe they never made it. Maybe one day we may have starships and visit them, we'll see atmospheres that are irratiated, because they had a nuclear war. Atmospheres too hot to sustain life, because they had a runaway greenhouse effect. Maybe when we go in outer space, we'll see the corpses of Type I civilizations that never quite made it. Who knows.