Quote · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Neil deGrasse Tyson On Aliens, Simulation Theory, and What Happens Inside A Black Hole
Where this was said
Why Aliens Might Communicate With Other Earth Creatures First
At 49:35 · chapter starts 48:19
Tyson unpacks what 'intelligent life' actually means in a cosmic context, and the answer is uncomfortably complicated. [1] — Neil deGrasse Tyson "Humans are 4th in brain size among animals: By absolute brain mass, humans rank fourth among Earth's animals — behind whales, dolphins, and…" 49:54 By absolute brain mass, humans are fourth. By brain-to-body ratio, we top the mammal list — but not the bird list, with magpies and parrots exceeding us. Whales aren't building telescopes, but they might be considered intelligent by alien standards. Technology adds yet another layer: the Roman Empire had no electricity, computers, or radio receivers, so any alien signal sent to Earth 2,000 years ago would have gone entirely undetected — and they certainly weren't building spaceships. So 'intelligent life that can communicate across space' and 'intelligent life that has civilisation' are much narrower categories than 'intelligent life' alone. The operational definition matters enormously when asking whether we've been contacted or contacted others.
By raw brain mass, humans rank fourth on Earth behind whales, dolphins, and elephants. We invented the brain-to-body-mass ratio specifically to put ourselves at the top — but that only works among mammals. Mid-sized birds like magpies and parrots beat us on that metric too.
By absolute brain mass, humans rank fourth among Earth's animals — behind whales, dolphins, and elephants — meaning aliens prioritizing brain size might talk to whales first.
Magpies and parrots have a higher brain-to-body-mass ratio than humans — a fact that was quietly omitted when schools taught that humans top that list among mammals only.
