Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Sandra Faber: 

“The Universe and Our Place in It”

February 28, 2024

(Conversation recorded on December 11th, 2023)

Show Summary

On this episode, astrophysicist Sandra Faber joins Nate for a wideview cosmological conversation on the development of the known-universe and the moral implications for humanity’s role within it. We are the first generation with the ability to truly understand the history of the universe and the extreme bottlenecks that Earth and life as we know it had to endure over the last billions of years. This understanding of where we come from gives us insight into who we are – and could perhaps give purpose to those searching for meaning in the vast universe. From the Big Bang on, how did the necessary conditions come together to create the environment so many of us take for granted today? How do the laws of physics restrict everything that has ever happened in the universe – and everything that ever will? Could a deeper understanding of the cosmos shift our culture towards one that values human’s survival into deep time – and incentivize biophysically and ecologically aligned systems?

About Sandra Faber

Sandra Faber is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of the Faber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii. At UCSC she focuses her research on the evolution of structure in the universe and the evolution and formation of galaxies. In addition to this, she led the development of the DEIMOS instrument on the Keck telescopes to obtain spectra of cosmologically distant galaxies. On August 1, 2012 she became the Interim Director of the University of California Observatories.

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Show Notes & Links to Learn More

PDF Transcript

00:00 – Sandra Faber works + info

03:42 – Reliable history of the Universe

04:10 – The Big Bang

04:23 – Kelvins

06:54 – Power LawHierarchical Gathering

10:15 – Where elements came from

15:54 – The Laws of Physics

16:45 – Evolutionary Psychology

18:35 – Current knowledge of Earth like planets

19:06 – Current understanding of the extent of the universe

22:01 – Critical components for an Earth-like planet

24:24 – Supernovae

25:24 – Fermi ParadoxEnrico Fermi

26:55 – Cambrian Explosion of Life

28:45 – Unique oxygen atmosphere of Earth and ability to burn things

30:53 – Sombrero Galaxy

31:41 – John CusackCassiopeia

33:21 – Don’t Look Up

34:15 – Finite lifetime of the sun and ability of life to survive on Earth

36:53 – Steven Weinberg

38:18 – Highest existential risks for life on Earth

41:05 – Optimal Foraging

45:15 – Animism

45:32 – Entropy

55:35 – Increasing heat death

56:44 – 10% of all human that ever lived are alive right now

57:50 – Homo Floresiensis

58:07 – Human domestication

59:35 – Advance Policy

1:00:21 – Exponential Growth

1:02:15 – Planetary limits

1:05:05 – 240 million humans in college globally

1:06:27 – Earth Futures Institute (UC Santa Cruz)

1:11:55 – Regenerative Agriculture

1:15:02 – State of mental health in the U.S.

1:19:26 – The Wall Street Journal

1:20:04 – Cognitive Dissonance


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