In the last video, we talked about the return
of "The X-Files" and what it might
be about our current moment, or just in general,
that causes us to believe or want
to believe in things like extraterrestrial life.
Let's see what you had to say.
Felicity Finnegan shares some of their experiences suffering
from sleep paralysis and talks about the convincing nature
of the stuff that you see and experience
when this thing is happening to you.
And I just want to say thank you for sharing your experiences.
This is really interesting to hear
from the perspective of someone who actually experiences it.
The reading that I did, it's all very dry,
removed, not involving the descriptions
of the people who are having these experiences at all,
but also to underscore this point that the media that we
consume has a huge impact on this kind of thing.
Felicity talks about how this happened after having
played "Mass Effect."
And, yeah, I mean you're going to see aliens
after playing "Mass Effect."
I think I probably did.
Silent Lesk talks about how science communicators probably
play a really important and influential role
in the idea of Mars, for example, as a destination
and contribute to this feeling of matter
of fact inevitability about the fact
that we're going to go there.
We will end up there because we are always
gathering information about its viability or non-viability.
And that conversation results in this sense of possibility.
And Dennis D talks about this a little bit, I think,
in a really interesting way.
Talking about the planet as-- talking about gaining hope
from our understanding of other planets
out there in the solar system and beyond
is maybe a little scary because it can give us permission
to continue ruining Earth.
It's like, oh well, we're going to leave,
so we'll trash this one.
And then we'll move onto the next one.
And I-- as much as I want to be hopeful about the human right
and our survival, I-- Dennis' comment
is, I think, a very prescient one.
DIgG43 don't we all.
Vea1/11 talks about something that is really interesting
and that I read a lot about, while researching this episode,
that we didn't get into.
I really wanted to, but it takes a little bit
of explaining and a little bit more time than we had.
And that is the seeming prevalence
of the belief of alien abductions
and related things in the United States.
And the way that it goes is that, in English speaking
countries, there is a higher incidence
of the belief of close encounters of the third kind,
where there is direct interaction between humans
and aliens.
But there is still significant belief in aliens in general
and in other kinds of, sometimes, more spiritual
or metaphysical interactions between people and humans
throughout the world.
Two of the biggest countries, if I remember correctly,
are actually Poland and Germany.
And if you go and you look at footnotes.pbsideachannel.com
where we collect all the sources for the episodes,
there is some reading there.
There are some sources that talk about this,
that talk about the idea that we associate
this kind of interaction and thought
about aliens with the English speaking world and the United
States, which there's a reason for that.
But that it is also prevalent in other parts of the world.
And one of the most interesting papers that's there
is this gentleman who did this amazing study
of aboriginal communities talking
about their interactions with aliens.
And it is just mind blowing.
It is one of the most interesting thing--
interesting things I've read in maybe the last year.
Highly recommended it.
Links to it over at Footnotes.
Also, put a link directly to it in the [INAUDIBLE].
It's great.
This comment also great, and the conversation that follows.
Awesome.
Jacob Rogers talks about something
that came up both in the comments
and in a lot of the research that I
did for this episode, which is the idea of space as the final.
And not a frontier in the sense of there's
this border where we don't know what's beyond it,
we're going to go exploring for the sake of understanding
and knowing more, but in this more imperialistic sense
that there is some gain to be made culturally,
socially, economically, by pushing into this place
and taking it over and having it be ours.
And I think that a lot of the history of space travel
reflects that.
And a lot of our attitudes about space in popular culture
reflect that.
I think it's also underscored by the comments
that people like Neil Degrasse Tyson
makes that we talked about really briefly.
It's this idea that if China said
they were going to go to Mars, the United States
would be like all up ons, rallying the-- everything
to make sure that they got there first.
And it's not-- it really is about this imperialist spirit
that you want to get there for the bounty, for the land,
even though there is no land.
It's the absence of land.
And, technically legally, a nation can't claim it.
But I mean you do anyways, right?
Right, governments?
Nothrie talks about how the reason people want to believe,
and are able to believe, in things like aliens
and all of the related ephemera--
as I guess you might want to call it--
has to do with the internet, that the internet
has brought people to this place where
they can create a coherent thought, a coherent set
of theories related to aliens, and call it a day.
And I think, yeah, this is very much related to the episode
that we did with Kevin from Vsauce, like Pixar
didn't happen.
And, also, this-- I gave a talk at Camp Imager
a little while ago about the internet
being a conspiracy theory, which there's no video for,
but I can put a link to that in the description.
You can read my slides if you're interested.
Viramindulbya talks about their irritation, concern,
at the phrase, "I want to believe."
And in response to this concern, I
will direct you towards "The X-Files" consultant
for the episode.
Ella Morton wrote a piece for "Atlas Obscura" about Mulder
and Scully and their relationship to the phrase,
"I want to believe."
And it's-- I love it.
It's very good.
I think-- I recommend it.
But I mean, full disclosure, Ella's a friend, so.
Joseph Cassano, no, that was not Craig.
That was Agent Clone who, yes, we did actually
meet out by Area 51 to do-- to have
a conversation about secrecy and aliens
and popular culture surrounding those things.
So keep an eye out for that over at the good stuff.
It's coming out in a couple weeks.
It's me and Agent Clone.
Actually, it is Craig.
I mean, but you knew that.