The Gaia Hypothesis discussion was intriguing, but short. Perhaps you guys could cover that as its own topic/podcast? 

Thanks for the suggestion, Yonas.

Wow, a whole show dedicated to some of the most boring video games ever developed. I don’t care how influential these were, most of them suck and have dated badly.

Great podcast, love it!

I agree with yonas and I think Neil didn’t think about that concept as the universe as a whole bit solely on earth. Maybe Mars and Earth and whatever else comes and goes to balance out the universe. Since it was a gaming podcast I’m sad mass effect wasn’t brought into the conversation. The story of mass effect is that the universe is the one true thing. Life begins and life create artifical life and then they mix. At this point in the cycle it becomes harmful for the universe and kills everything off. So the universe can be pure again and the cycle stars over. So just thinking that since mars nolonger can hold life or whatever and that this ideal of Vowing hypothesis isn’t true isn’t that cut and dry as Neil made it seem. I look up to him but I feel sometimes he donesnt really think outside of the box when he gets excited in these podcast and a lot of times things that could be great conversations get cut off short. Anyway just my 2 cents.

Sorry ment to say. The Universe kills everything off once it becomes harmful. And Giai hypothesis. Smart phone auto correct you know….

Just wanted to say thank you so much! Everyone involved for this gift to the scientific curiosity of humanity. Neil you in particular along with Carl Sagan, Prof. Brian Cox, Prof. Steven Hawking and many, many others have unlocked my now never ending curiosity of how this awesome Universe in which we live works. I am now in high school and look to pursue a University degree in Physics in particular astrophysics. Though out my life I endeavour to help spread you message to let’s face it – a very ignorant population. Our future is in space we need to face it now or – as you put it – we are headed right back to the cave. Thank you All!

I think it came up in the season two episode Appetite For Destruction, casting a critical eye on the theory in light of all the mass extinctions paleontologists observe in the fossil record

Nice podcast, eugene cracks my shit up

Thanks for your enthusiastic (and weirdly accurate) comment, Brandon.

Yeah, those “smart phone auto corrects” can be a pain… especially for spelling. As for Mass Effect, Anthony, thanks for sharing that. I think people who don’t play games like that don’t realize that some of them have very involved and integrated back stories. And your two cents are appreciated… it is certainly true that we don’t have enough time to included everything on our episodes. There is frequently plenty of conversation that gets left “on the cutting room floor.”

I wish that Jeff offered more concrete explanations of video games’ benefits, he seemed a bit grasping at straws with kinda out-there explanations of Mario pipes as wormholes; there are plenty of more relatable and documented benefits of games. For example, games offer advantages in cognitive functioning within areas like spatial ability and visual short-term memory, : http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/174597/game_research_and_what_it_means_.php
Other studies demonstrate that games help boost creativity and decision-making: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203458604577263273943183932.html#articleTabs%3Darticle.
Creativity, I think, is easily expressed in the example of Minecraft. Here’s a cool story where a teacher used minecraft to teach his students, allowing them to explore, with spillover benefits in areas like writing (he made his class keep journal logs of their adventures). http://liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2011/05/messy-learning-with-minecraft/

Oh, and if anything, video games have taught me a lot about history. Playing WW2 games like Call of Duty 2 and Hearts of Iron taught me tons about history .

Great points, DT, and thanks for the link to Gamasutra.com. If anybody wants to keep up with the latest developments in the gaming world, it’s the place to be.

Thanks for a great show yet again mr. tyson an Co.

But i find it rather sad that the sources for the live show is blocked in Norway.(and the rest of europe for that matter.). it’s no problem getting through, but still.

Looking forward for more of such entertainment like this.

Solve, we may have some good news for you. Starting in November (at least, that’s the scheduled launch date as of now), StarTalk will be on The Nerdist Channel on YouTube. Some of our best upcoming shows are planned for that, as well as some of our existing shows, like “StarTalk Live at Neptune.” And thank you for putting in the extra effort to find us… Keep Looking Up!

I agree with Lewis Anderson entirely. How Mass Effect was never touched on considering Neil’s background and how it is one if not the most successful sci-fi series of all-time is baffling. Let’s face it, we can’t have a serious discussion about videogames in 2012 without talking about such an epic and groundbreaking series.

Oh, I meant Anthony Pickett. My apologies. None the less, our point stands, hah.

Shep and Anthony: thank you both for adding the information about Mass Effect. Now anybody who reads the comments (and was previously unfamiliar with Mass Effect) should have their interests stoked. I wanted to address your comment about not discussing “one of the most successful sci-fi sceries of all times.” Clearly Mass Effect is a successful game, both critically and commercially. It has spawned books and (eventually) movies. But this episode was not about “sci-fi” video games, but the science of video games. I think that the video game “universe” is so broad that there are many highly disparate segments. Some people may be avid gamers and never play a game like Mass Effect, nor have any desire to do so. You could spend every waking moment playing Farmville, for instance, or the Halo Series, or Call of Duty, or even Madden Football, which has sold over 85 million copies as of a couple of years ago.

People say the avid gamer will never play the games thier talking about, I’m 13 and I played the vast majority of the games thier talking about. Even though I’m 13 and lets face it I’d rather play a shooting game rather then any older game but I’ve still played most of the old games.

Thanks for adding your perspective to the discussion, Edward. Glad to know that you “nubes” are still giving some respect to the old time games. IMHO, a good game is a good game. And some of the newer phone-based games are very reminiscent of some of the older, arcade style games.

I wonder what sort of new hardware will be needed to connect our brains fully to video games rather than just through a screen.

Neil, I really wish you guys talked more about games like Halo and Mass Effect. I’m still listening so maybe it will come up, but I wish the in-game technology had been discussed more such as the armored suits, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, ion drives, etc. and how it may inspire people to actually create these things in the real world.