Humanity’s Future: Existential Risk, AI & Life Beyond Earth | Lord Martin Rees

In this episode, Lord Martin Rees and I explore cosmology, the Big Bang, exoplanets, alien life, multiverses, and humanity’s long-term future. We discuss how our understanding of the universe expanded from Earth-centred views to galaxies, the Big Bang, and the possibility of many other worlds where life may exist. Lord Rees also explains why humans may still be near the beginning of our story, if we can avoid destroying ourselves this century. We then turn to existential risks, including nuclear war, engineered pandemics, AI, climate change, and the fragility of global infrastructure. Lord Rees argues that we need to think much further ahead, become better ancestors, and leave a stronger legacy for future generations. Finally, we discuss public trust in science, human versus robotic space exploration, Mars, Elon Musk, artificial intelligence spreading beyond Earth, and what the far future of intelligence might look like.