WOW. Neil DeGrasse Tyson speech about space as culture. Best space exploration speech ever?!

Usually when I see an hour long speech on youtube I turn it off when my attention wonders for a minute. This talk, however, literally hypnotized me from the first minute till the end, where I nearly applauded! He basically said everything I've thought about space, the economy, NASA, politics, frontiers, culture, eduction and the history of great exploration undertakings on this planet for years.



The original upload of this is already the highest rate:view count in the science section on youtube, it's going to be massive soon.

Neil to Earth - Reality Check - Best Neil DeGrasse Tyson speech - Space as Culture



He covers how to boost start our space exploration as a frontier to give our population something to dream about tomorrow, because it is the act of discovery that empowers an innovative culture, as the discoveries are write large in the press, how to solve our economy, how to bypass the whims of political discourse ... loads more.

I highly recommend watching it rather than reading the text below, the way he puts things and his enthusiasm is really quite contagious. He's a brilliant orator.

Brief excerpt:

I want to talk about space, not as spin offs, not as weather satellites, no.

I want to talk to you about space as culture.

Space, as culture.

You know the first hunk of hardware that had the power to exit earth atmosphere was the V2 rocket. Verner Von Brown and everyone knew that if we have any future in space it will have to borrow some of that technology if not all of it.

The 1950s descends upon us. You remember the v2 rocket, it was kind of bullet shaped, had these huge fins? Fins. CARS had fins in the 1950s! Where do you think those fins came from? I propose a test, you could probably dig up the designers of those cars and they would probably just say “well fins just look cool” they are probably not even thinking about the v2 rocket, even if they are it's probably not in their frontal lobe. But our cars had fins. When did the fins go away? When we learned that the v2 shape and the fins is not the shape we are going to need to get to the moon.

Saturn five emerges, the fins go away. What happened to the fins? So maybe the designer thought it's played itself out. Or maybe deep down inside space was operating on their creativity.

So what happens, the 60s are underway. We are going to the moon, everybody knows it. Everyone is innovating, we have an innovative culture, you know this because every day a space story garners the headlines. Something new to think about daily. Each mission previously more adventurous than the previous one.

So when did we go to the moon? That was 1968. Everyone was dreaming about tomorrow, thats what the world fair was all about. It wasn't about yesterday, or today, but about tomorrow. The kind of tomorrow that could only be brought into the present by scientists and engineers. And people knew this.

How else is space influencing, ok how about the uni-sphere. Gorgeous Earth just sitting there. It's got three rings around it. Ask the designers, they will probably say that the three orbits of John Glenn did not influence them, but the rings are there, and they are going polar, not equatorial.

The 1960s is the bloodiest decade in american history since the civil war since the 1860s. Servicemen are killed weekly, reported in by the papers, the civil rights movement playing out, campus unrest.

The bloodiest year in that most bloody of decades? 1968. The Tet offensive. Martin Luther King assassinated. JFK assassinated. Yet somehow we were still able to dream about tomorrow. It was still in us, it still mattered. It's what birthed the star trek television series.

The twilight zone was also heavily influenced by space. Our presence in space is effecting not only the engineers and the mathematicians and the scientists, it's effecting the creative dimension of that which we call culture. We are living it at every turn. Hardly what I would call special interest.

What happens December 1968, how do you cap off that year? Apollo 8. A lot of people have never heard of it, it's a very unappreciated mission. Excuse me, that was the first time anyone ever left Earth, with a destination in mind. Figurating around the moon. The photo of Earth rising over the lunar landscape is iconic.

That photo, we all know it, Earth Rise over the Moon. There was Earth, not as the map maker would have you identify to it as, no it was not color coded with boundaries. It was seen as nature intended it to be view2ed. Oceans, land, clouds.

We went to the moon; and we discovered Earth.

And I claim we discovered Earth for the first time.

Cheers for this, I dont have time to watch this right now, but I love this guy and havnt seen this yet, gonna put in my faves on youtube and watch it on the TV on Sunday!

I love listening to this guy speak. He is making smart cool again.

Heh showed by little bro this earlier, he wants to be a space explorer now Never seen him so happy all day like he was after seeing this

This guy is wonderfully brilliant, I love listening to anything he has to say. He makes one want to learn, to explore and to see the world the way it was meant to be seen.

Great post!

This was an AWESOME speech by Tyson, and thanks for finding and posting, OP

So many valid points made about the curiosity and interest in future space explorists, and that is what will be needed for the brave future volunteers. His list of 'space-innovated ideologies' were accurate in my opinion, as he was able to make the connection that the world stopped looking at Earth in boundaries and as the center of the universe- thanks for the view of Earth from afar.

reply to post by ZeuZZ


Thanks! I just listened to the entire DeGrasse speech (mods, please let me know if I can use the word DeGrasse) and learned things as well as being exposed to his interesting views on space and culture and the connections involved. I won't give away any spoilers, but will agree that yes, this speech is worth listening to and, if possible, to share with the politicans of your choice (the trick is to have them actually listen to it and react positively).

NDGT just oozes intelligence, wit, and passion. I saw him last year at UNC. He is someone who is truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Well, now you got me on a NDGT kick - here's another great (short) one, which I had not seen...

I heard he is winning an award for this speech soon, as it was voted the best scientific speech of the decade

We discovered Earth so what happened?

After that point there should have never been another oil spill or Fukushima if we learned so much about our precious planet

I can't believe that for money people would be willing to destroy it all..