The Argument: Aliens

<p>We're taking this week off from publishing new episodes, so today we're bringing you an episode from "The Argument" about one of my favorite topics: aliens. We'll be back with new episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" on Tuesday.</p><p>With the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/03/us/politics/ufos-sighting-alien-spacecraft-pentagon.html" target="_blank">government puzzling over U.F.O.s</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/science/astronomy-exoplanets-kepler.html" target="_blank">potentially habitable exoplanets</a> in our telescopes, earthlings are closer than ever to finding other intelligent life in the universe. So the existential question is: Should we try to communicate with whatever we think might be out there?</p><p>That’s the argument this week between Douglas Vakoch and Michio Kaku. Vakoch, the president of the research and educational nonprofit <a href="http://meti.org/en/mission" target="_blank">METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International</a>, has dedicated his life’s work to intentionally broadcasting messages beyond our solar system.</p><p>Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and a co-founder of string field theory, thinks reaching out to unknown aliens is a catastrophically bad idea and “would be the biggest mistake in human history.”</p><p>Together, they join Jane  to debate the question of making first contact and our place in the cosmos.</p><p><strong>Mentioned in this episode:</strong></p><p>Adam Mann, The New Yorker: “<a href="http://newyorker.com/science/elements/intelligent-ways-to-search-for-extraterrestrials" target="_blank">Intelligent Ways to Search for Extraterrestrials</a>”</p><p>Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker: “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously" target="_blank">How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously</a>”</p><p>Arik Kershenbaum, The Wall Street Journal, “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/alien-languages-may-not-be-entirely