On Wednesday at McCaw Hall in Seattle, there will be two rocking chairs on stage. One will be occupied by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the other by TV icon William Shatner. The two are taking part in a conversation called "Rocking: The Universe is Absurd."
It's being described as a rare evening of cosmic banter that covers space humanity and the absurdities of the universe.
Shatner and Tyson joined KNKX’s All Things Considered via video call to preview the event.
“It'll be a fun exchange of our ideas about the world,” Tyson said. “There'll be a part of it that will track the forces that operated on us in our childhood, that helped us or directed us to become who we are today.”
Interview Highlights
On the genesis of this event
Tyson: We didn't just think this up out of the blue. We were together on a ship in Antarctica, and we were on stage together. Crowds gathered and people cheered as Bill and I just went back and forth, talking about life, the universe and everything. Then our host said, 'we should take this on the road.' It was the literal, 'y'all should take that on the road.' Bill and I have very strong support in Seattle, just as an area of the country, and we thought that would be a good place to bring this conversation.
On the recent defunding of scientific research
Tyson: It'll come back and bite us in the ass. If I may use that word in polite company. And in so doing, we’ll wake up and say, ‘oh my gosh, how come six other countries in the world have passed us by economically, technologically, scientifically? Why are they winning the Nobel Prizes and not us? Why are they stoking their economy with these brilliant inventions based on the frontier science and we're not?’ It may require that before we reassemble...before we wake up and put our ducks back in line to join this enterprise. By the way, science isn't owned by any country, so if we choose to not research something that doesn't prevent another country from doing exactly that same research.
On Shatner traveling to space in 2021
Shatner: I was up there and looked forward in the direction the spaceship was going, and I saw blackness. I saw dark, I didn't see the magic of the stars and the moon and the sun flying...I looked out at blackness and saw death when I turned around and looked back and saw the blue and the pink and the brown and the essence of life on our little planet. And saw how small it is and how vulnerable it is, and the tragedy of what we're doing to it. I didn't realize it, but I went into a deep sense of grief, and when I landed I was sobbing, and I didn't know why I was crying. It took me hours to realize I'm in grief for our planet.
Tyson: The lesson is, we’ve got to take every leader of the world, send them into space and only bring them back when they come to an agreement [on addressing climate change].
Shatner: I mean the facts that are facing us… it's like somebody who hasn't got much money, and the rent comes due and they say, ‘screw it. I'm not gonna pay the rent, I'm going to go to the movies.’ The human brain can only take so much and say, ‘I can't assume that, I've got to ignore that. I got to go to a movie. I gotta get out of reality, because reality is too harsh.’
On what’s giving them hope these days
Shatner: Neil...I'm serious about that. He's a man of learning. He's a man who's aware of the experiments that are going on that are futuristic. There are things that we can do scientifically that will assuage global warming, and we're not doing it. And he's a man of science, and he's of the ilk that can help us.
Tyson: Thank you, Bill, and I don't know if I can follow that with anything. As a scientist, but also as an educator, it's incumbent upon me to make sure as many people know and understand the causes and effects of their actions, and especially of their inactions, on the health, wealth, security and stability of the future of our civilization and the world itself. So yeah, we're going to end on some positive notes, I think.
“Rocking: The Universe is Absurd” presented by Future of Space is at McCaw Hall in Seattle on Wednesday, June 18.
