The speaker, Michael, discusses the concept of Earth's value, from a human perspective, to an alien perspective. He begins by noting that Earth has only one officially named Moon, but there are at least two places named Moon. He then introduces the concept of 2006 RH120, an asteroid that was named a Moon of Earth from September 2006 to June 2007. He explains that a Moon is a natural satellite orbiting a planet, and there is no official minimum size requirement for Moon status.
Michael then discusses the value of Earth. Greg Loughman, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has devised an equation for assessing the value of exoplanets, which considers their habitability, ease of study, and the amount of money spent looking for them. Using this equation, Earth is estimated to be worth about five quadrillion dollars. The History Channel, on the other hand, estimated Earth's worth at seven quadrillion dollars by valuing all of its natural resources at current market prices.
Michael then discusses the concept of Earth's value in the galactic marketplace. He notes that Earth is the only planet like itself within at least 12 light years, and it's likely the only planet with life as we know it formed exactly like it did here. He suggests that these factors make Earth unique and could potentially make it valuable to interstellar planet shoppers.
However, he also raises the Fermi Paradox, the question of why we have not been visited or heard from by intelligent life yet, despite the many friendly planets out there. He then raises the question of whether Earth, and its intelligent life, are rare and special, or just typical and unremarkable. He suggests that Earth could be owned by some larger interstellar landlord, and that our concept of ownership and the belief that physical things can be bought and sold may not be shared by other intelligent life forms.
In conclusion, Michael suggests that putting a price tag on Earth is all speculation, and that we are Earth's first effluvia, a sometimes messy presence that has built up within and will one day inevitably discharge out into space.
Here are the key facts from the text:
1. There is a place in Texas officially named Earth.
2. There are at least two places named Moon.
3. The Earth had an additional Moon, 2006 RH120, a near-Earth asteroid, from September 2006 to June 2007.
4. A Moon is technically a natural satellite, and there is no official minimum size requirement for Moon status.
5. The Earth's solar system orbits around the center of the Milky Way at about 782,000 kilometers per hour.
6. The Earth travels an entire light year about every 1300 years.
7. An astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, devised an equation to assess the value of exoplanets.
8. Using this equation, the value of Earth is estimated to be around five quadrillion dollars.
9. The History Channel estimated the value of Earth's resources to be around seven quadrillion dollars.
10. If we could mine the entire planet and separate out all its pure elements, the value would be around 15.8 sextillion dollars.
11. The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to contain around 100 to 400 billion planets.
12. There are likely around 40 billion Earth-size planets orbiting within habitable zones of stars in our galaxy.
13. The Kepler space mission suggests that there are quadrillions of Earth-size planets in the observable universe.
14. The Fermi Paradox questions why we have not been visited or heard from intelligent life yet, despite the existence of many planets friendly to life as we know it.
15. The concept of ownership is unique to humans and is not seen in animals, who do not have the cognitive ability to keep track of long-term transactional histories or communicate and enforce ownership.
16. Animals do not have the same concept of fair exchange or bartering as humans do.
17. US federal regulators ruled that images taken by a monkey are in the public domain, as a non-human animal created them.
18. Similar rulings apply to paintings made by chimpanzees or other animals.