I like the thought of some Neil deGrass Islander giving speeches to his fellow Sentinelese, making fun of the notion of incompetent aliens. "So you're telling me these aliens can navigate the entire ocean to then only crash on our shores? If they are this incompetent, I want nothing to do with them."
The size difference between the ocean/island and the galaxy/earth is approximately the size of the galaxy. That is to say, that's a poor comparison given how incomprehensibly large the galaxy is
One of my favorite stories about the Sentinelese is when a cargo ship ran around on their island in the 1970's, immediately catapulting the Sentinelese into the iron-age. The ship has been steadily stripped of metal ever since.
Oh come on what can they really do with it? Scrap the hull? Impossible Melt the iron pieces they find? They haven't even discovered fire (as in starting)
The North Sentinelese are an example of why I think we probably view our history, archaeology, and anthropology a little too simplistically. The idea that there is a tribal society armed with body paint, bows, and arrows on this planet simultaneously with crypto mining, satellite launching, internet meme sharing cultures is simply wild to think about.
@@imarchello Possibility of interbreeding is not consistently applied as a species defining barrier. In many cases organisms that look very similar may be considered different species if they don't mate with each other, even if they would be interfertile if they did. And some things that look very different and are inarguably different species can interbreed no problem and have fertile offspring.
We have friends in Indonesia. On the day of the Boxing day tsunami the grandfather of the family (a man in his 80's) insisted the entire family should run into the mountains. He did not know why, but it was something his grand father had told him. Should he ever see the sea run away, he should run into the mountains. That advice saved their lives.
Any culture that has lived on an island in the ocean for generations should have some sort of wisdom, folkloric or otherwise, about tsunamis. Otherwise, there’s no way they would have been there for generations.
There is a great story of a little british girl who knew exactly this, when the tsunami hit in asia in 2004. She just learned this in school, and could warn her parents and others around, to seek to higher ground - saving hundreds of lives that day.
While they might not have a zoo hypothesis, they do seem to have some understanding of correlation, - whenever Sentinelese encounter strangers on their shores, any close interactions result in their people rapidly becoming sick and dying. Due to their immune system simply not having encountered any of the innumerable pathogens you would come across on the mainland. - This has seemingly resulted in some rather aggressive paranoia, as they will bury anything that could be considered to be a danger to them. - Live things in particular, it would seem. Thus why they accept gifts of tools and coconuts, but killed and buried the pigs. Just as they bury and kill anyone that intrude on their lands. - It is the only surefire way they have of disposing of something potentially dangerous. Even though they may not understand the microbiological science behind why it is dangerous.
This made me wonder if maybe they have some kind of religious explanation for all of this. It could explain the incident with the man who claimed to be Sentenalese. Maybe he really was from the island, but they believed something like he was possessed with an evil spirit.
When you think about it, this might be the only reason these people are even still alive. They probably had similar ancestors without this attitude who didn’t have these inhibitions. And now those people are gone without their names recorded at all.
@@galiantus1354 We also don't know what happened after those 4 kids were returned, but we know they were sick. If in the past they accepted back people that had been abducted and then we're struck by a plague, it would make sense that they'd see him as somehow tainted and dangerous.
I do wonder if any of the North Sentinelese have ever really wondered what lies beyond their island. I’m sure they’ve thought about it especially when they’ve received visitors or flyovers but to what extent? Humanity seems to be a curious and explorative species so might they one day decide to finally leave their island? Or perhaps they learned long ago it’s safer to just stay right where they are.
it's a virtual certainty they have an idea what lies beyond and want no part of it. even marco polo visited the andamans and wrote about the north sentinalese. the islands are close to india, burma and thailand. they've been known about for millenia. clearly there is a cultural reason they want all foreigners out
@@willywonka4340 it’s entirely possible given the circumstances they have decided against the risks of fully exploring. It could also be genetic as well as cultural, they’ve had much longer to become wary of travelers as well as territorial meaning it may just not be inherent to them to want to leave.
I have always thought that North Sentinel Island is an perfect example of the Zoo Hypothesis. If we already do it, not only to them but also to many amazonian tribes (i'm from Brazil and I know how very common is to find uncontacted tribes in the Amazon Region even in the 21st century), why not consider that an alien civilization could do the same to us?
Wouldn't it be funny if we sent drones to observe them. Much like the metallic orb drones that apparently NASA says: "We see these all over the world all the time now".
@@TheBlackClockOfTimewe already do kinda. They use drones to check on them now, to try and do population counts etc. so essentially our drones to them are the little flying spheres to us 🤷🏻♂️
@Drak976 a plant can't have any idea of anything because it doesn't have a central nervous system. Ants pass the mirror test, so maybe? Some species of ant also have a brain to body ratio of 80%. Maybe they do, in fact, understand some things that would surprise us. It might be that most animals with brains have more complex internal lives than we commonly believe they do.
What makes North Sentinel Island's isolation even more bizarre is that its just 52 km as the crow flies from the busy international airport at Port Blair. In fact if you happen to fly to Port Blair from the west (from, say Kolkata or Chennai), just 30 to 40 minutes before landing look to your left and the island is easily visible. I make it a point to see it every time i fly into and out of Port Blair (I last went there in 2019). Also, they have not discovered agriculture but thanks to the shipwrecks have discovered metal working. I definitely like John here and believe that the best way to settle the Cola debate once and for all is to have the Sentinelese taste test them (only for them to decide that both are trash and bam, arrows rain down on you). Given what the Indian experience has been with assimilating the Jarawa (not a good one) I am happy that the North Sentinelese have been left alone. But yes, when I first heard of the Zoo hypothesis, my mind immediately went to the North Sentinel island.
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-ΔThe Jarawas are an ethnic tribe north of the Sentinel Island .They kinda somewhat resemble the Sentinelese in appearance, but differs in every other aspect.They were nearing extinction three decades ago and would have become extinct had not the Indian government issued programmes for their conservation .Today they live and interact with the people from mainland Andaman .
One of the things I find most fascinating about North Sentinel Island is that an entire uncontacted culture lives isolated on an island only 20 square miles
A culture that maintains balance with its environment. Imagine if they know what cancer is and how to cure it? Do they get cancer at all? Diabetes? What happens to any genetically malformed babies? Are they treated as genetically inferior Spartan babies? I'd love to find out, but not at a cost of their sovereignty. Kinda like the speculated oceans of Europa. You want to know what's there, but it can only happen at a cost of contaminating the environment.
I feel like the sentinelese, if they tried Pepsi, would be utterly terrified of it. Imagine never drinking or conceiving of carbonated drinks, and you try one, not knowing what it is, and suddenly have this crazy sensation of the liquid bubbling in your mouth? Not to mention that the bottle can explode when opened after shaking it a bunch. I feel like they’d try drinking it once and then never again.
I actually imagined it my head when he talked about it. I imagine whoever tried it immediately threw it on the ground and told the guys standing around him that it was dangerous.
I can imagine a team of Sentinelese Argonauts exploring this planet for another time and finding the ruins of our advanced civilizations mixed in with the ruins of those we consider ancient now and imagine a world of pharaohs having heated social media debates with greek philosophers.
Since 1957 they've been seeing more and more satellites flashing across their sky. Seen by all, predictable, to a degree, yet ephemeral. I wonder what they make of that.
There’s a few new things that baffle me such as starlink satellite chains. I could imagine stories made about the stars that march alongside each other in the sky, just from that alone.
In most cases very little. Most satellites are small enough to not be noticed. Latest SpaceX ones are dark coloured and designed to not reflect light onto earth.
This is one of the most fascinating topics to me. The fact that they've been in complete isolation for pretty much all of recorded history, and are still there right now existing is so incredible to me. Makes me wonder what the Sentinelese must think of when they see planes/ships from a distance. Or if they wonder about what lies beyond their remote island. The questions are endless. Great video, too!
Be sweet to hear their unadulterated beginning story. How did they come to be on such a little island in the middle of nowhere. N how have they survived for presumably thousands of years
Think about all the things you view as necessary for a comfortable, productive life. Now think about the fact that generation upon generation of North Sentinelese have their entire lives without ANY of these things (besides food, water, and companionship) for all of history. And they're still doing that, having no knowledge of what you think is essential or commonplace. Now that's wild.
I’ve been checking out your videos for a couple years now and I want to thank you for the content you make. Everything has the perfect balance of logic and reason but you aren’t afraid to explore and ask questions about more speculative topics. Noting makes my day more than seeing you upload!
Oh boy do I rarely comment but you've put into words exactly how I feel about his videos, and the fact that he publishes so frequently too is a blessing. I hope he won't stop anytime soon
@LutherLaPlace Yes I enjoy is videos as well. I like the fact that he doesn't just have a black & white view on everything. He keeps an open mind & keeps it interesting.
"The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle - deep, and the water seems inviting." - Carl Sagan
If the rest of the human race were to disappear, do you think they would eventually develop the technology to leave the island, or would they stagnate there? What do you suppose would be the impetus for their society to change if it did? Personally, I find them fascinating. I would love to have a Star Trek duck blind to be able to study them.
They will stagnate most likely. If they're fine with staying there for thousands of years without exploring, they'll be fine with it forever, unless something happens to their island.
This is a great way of putting the idea into perspective. Cultural differences are a strange thing I'm sure if there was a giant flying saucer over LA like in movies it would end up being shot at.
@@wolfetteplays8894ah because shooting something so advanced and going to war against incomprehensibly powerful aliens is clearly the best idea ever.
What makes this idea even more compelling is that our star system in located in a sparsely populated area, in terms of star clusters, within the outer portion of the Orion arm of our Galaxy. I can only guess in interstellar terms, we're truly out in the sticks. The question of what in God's green Terra is going on out in the black excites me greatly.
These people are pretty incredible. They're a (presumably) neolithic culture locked into an island setting and yet they recognized the value of metal and learned to work with it - again, in an island setting. It's no wonder aliens don't contact us. Give us an inch and we'll make a mile out of it.
Given we advanced their tribe by having shipwrecks near it, aliens could do the same to us if they simply crashed and were found and im sure they know this possibly from their own past examples.
But I think the aliens know we might not fully utilize the tech - even if one crashes - if the supposed crashed ufos managed to accelerate our defense industry - it would be akin to these islanders crafting arrows - still lethal - but vastly inferior to what we currently have - aliens probably see our "alien inspired tech" the same way , they can wipe the floor with what we have if they want as they are probably millenia ahead and they know we won't be able to make full use of anything they lose
I love this theory and the parallels that are drawn between the north sentinelese, modern people, and the potential “zookeepers”. It would be interesting if the prime directive (or limited contact with primitive civilizations) was a real thing.
@@RogerTheilits okay to come into close contact with them on the sea close to the island, but dont go on the island itself and their expeditions outside of their own island has to indicate them returning to the island or else they are killed or returned. Very similar to us going to the moon and sattelites surrounding us. I like this little thought experiment
Great video as always. When I first heard about this island and its people several years ago, this was one of my immediate thoughts about them, us, and anyone in the cosmos. Maybe, when their culture changes and they let outsiders in, it will say a lot about the rest of humanity and could give us a glimpse into how we'd react to definite proof that is commonly accepted among all peoples that something is out there. Very interesting to see how the islanders stories probably seem very similar to UFO pop culture stuff. The British kidnapping the elderly and the children: Betty and Barny Hill getting taken by the Grays. Leaving gifts that are normal to them but useless to us: name any conspiracy like Area 51. Let's just not moon the aliens, I don't want to see what a UFO shelling looks like.
I got so excited when I saw this title. I make this comparison a lot. Especially when it comes to people arguing that shooting down a ufo would start a war with aliens. That would be like us bombing the island because they hit a research drone with an arrow.
This has promptly brought a smile to my face (: when you put it in perspective, then yes, it's the zoo hypothesis turtling all the way down. But it's not for fun, it's live and let live situation. Are they in charge of their own affairs on the island? Yes. If they decide to contact, shall we speak back to them? Very likely. Under the given circumstances, this is the best and most peaceful scenario there can be.
Another excellent and thought provoking video. I've always been fascinated by North Sentinel Island and it's inhabitants. I agree that they are living in 'zoo hypothesis' situation and I believe we should be doing everything possible to protect them by leaving them alone and letting them do their thing. They've gotten along fine on their island for 50-60 thousand years now and clearly don't want widespread contact with the outside world. On the flip side, it's interesting to speculate on how they would react to the 21st century 'modern world' if they ever did decide to break their no-contact policy. It would also be interesting to study their DNA which may shed more light on our species as a whole if their population has been mostly isolated for that amount of time.
I disagree. I think we should continue to try to make peaceful contact with them and continue to attempt to persuade them to join the rest of civilization with all the improved standard of living for them and their children that it provides. Change is inevitable for everyone and I don't think their children deserve to be held back from improving their lot in life simply out of fear of change.
@@RedSiegfried”improved standard of living” oh, you mean spending 9 hours in a cubicle and slaving away for a mega corporation which deprives you of your freedom??? 😂😂 tell me more about how modern life is so “great” when we are living within a literal dystopia in every sense of the word.
They should stay where they are, but they definitely aren't living as well as us, and that's fine. We definitely aren't living in a 'dystopia' either, the fact I'm watching this video that currates to my interests and that I love life disproves that very notion. Also not every has office jobs, and not all office jobs 'deprave you of freedom'
@@wolfetteplays8894i dunno man, i personally think it's pretty good that we know how to cure diseases and don't have to worry about getting mauled by animals in our daily lives
@@wolfetteplays8894 improved life spans and less disease/parasites for one. Sound like a cubicle 9-5 is your own issue, some people have more fun jobs like scientist etc. and actively improve the world by making people’s lives more comfortable. Not saying I agree we should integrate them, but your stance is as stupid as the guy your responding to.
Very thought provoking video. Very interesting to think about how many places like this there still may be. For a world the size of ours, though small in comparison to others, there is surely many places that have never been discovered.
@@SugarcaneFuturistthere are areas of the Amazon the size of midsize US states that only have a couple people from the outside world visit them every decade or so. The Amazon is bigger than it looks on most maps because of projection distortion, equatorial areas look smaller than the far north or south (Greenland is not quite as big as it looks on a flat map)
As someone fascinated by genetics, I would love to see a geneticist look over their dna, see what group they are most related to, discover any unique genetic quirks. A shame it won't happen in my lifetime
My suspicion is that they were part of the first homo sapien radiation out of Africa and towards Australia. They may have split from the groups that eventually headed further south and managed to cross the narrow gap between the mainland and Andaman islands at the time, possibly the first boatbuilders in history.
One difference with the standard Fermi Zoo Hypothesis is that the Sentinelese absolutely know that the rest of humanity exists and are certainly not spending any time wondering if they are the only civilization in their ocean of why no one's tried to contact them.
I thought of this once, and I absolutely agree that they are living in a zoo hypothesis scenario, just limited to their one little island on Earth. It makes you wonder if we would be treated the same by an advanced alien species. Man, I love your channel
Depends, although if we are a zoo the aliens are doing a much better job isolating us than we are with the Sentinelese. Just a few years ago some American Christian missionary got himself smuggled there under the noses of the Indian authorities to perform some kind of miracle conversion. It ended grimly for him.
I have often thought this. There is some tribes in the Amazon that are thought to be equally as isolated/innocent. Awesome content, great to hear your vantage point on these sort of topics. I ❤ it when John gets into world history.
I have a good friend out in Colorado whose mother was a young woman living in an Amazon tribe when they were first contacted. She immediately fell in love with one of the Americans during first contact, married him, decided the wealthy, affluent lifestyle of the American educated elite he belonged to was her thing and all she was ever looking for, and left with him and never looked back. The daughter they had is my good friend, but by contrast, she's very spiritual and grounded, and doesn't have a care in the world for money or a glamorous lifestyle. She's a really good person, too, and one of the highest quality friends I've ever had. Her mother doesn't understand any of that and wonders why her daughter isn't pursuing wealth and a luxurious lifestyle. I always thought the story of that family, with all of its surprising twists and contrasts, makes for a great case study on the human condition, and the differences between people, even when related.
its a tiny group of moronswho cant even make a fire. they cant grow their own population enough to ever use the resources the island of that size provides. they're super inbred and likely extremely stupid, a present day Nedanderthal basically.
they live in a way that's much more harmonious with nature, agricultural and industrial civilization completely overrides nature's self-regulating of populations. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't really suffer with mental illness either, at least not the kind that we see in developed societies.
I’ve seen plenty of videos about the Sentinelese before, but this one far surpassed them all in terms of in-depth anthropology. Thanks for the informative video, it was fascinating.
This video gave me the chills multiple times. HBO should make a series about a tribe of these people throughout their history and interactions with ehe outside world. The stories are all there
I find this to be an interesting analogy for earth, I never thought about the parallels between us flying helicopters over their island to survey them and aliens flying UFO's over our cities to survey us.
When you start checking off the boxes of evidence thus far it seems to be coming together that this could very well be the case, I’m not at all shocked by it either given our behavior here on earth with other species on this planet. Also, we seem to have identified many exoplanets at this point and almost all of them don’t seem to be hospitable towards our type of life and what we need to survive, so it makes sense to me that we are in some way somebodies “Noah’s ark.”
@@Grinningfartking6969well there are 3 possibilities as to the situation we find ourselves in at least three very likely ones. 1: We are the first born advanced intelligent race in the galaxy. 2: We are on a zue hypothesis and based on recent events the happner probe assigned to us has gone deep into rampancy, which is either pretty good or incredibly fucking terribly bad depending on the mindset of the aliens that placed it there. Or 3: We came around in the middle of a fucking war in heavens And we just so happen to be far enough away from it that the alien races fighting each other have deemed it too much of a waste to Even care about us for now, basically what happened to the sentinelies in World War II.
This is a fascinating idea. I’d love to see someone put together a really in-depth look at how a tribe like this could be thinking about what they see of us.
Hey John Michael, I think you mentioned this in a question in one of your podcast before and it really made it so much easier to understand how the zoo hypothesiz would be like. Really made me think. Thanks and a great subject. 10 out of 10 Michael. 👍🇮🇪👍
The Sentinelese, while an interesting situation, are nothing like the zoo hypothesis. They have been visited several times, sometimes even peacefully. We leave them alone because they want to be left alone. Uncontacted tribes in the Amazon are closer to the zoo hypothesis, but even "uncontacted" tribes usually have had some form of contact.
The zoo hypothesis is misnamed anyway. Real zoo animals are imprisoned in an artificial environment and see humans and their technology constantly. What we’re really talking about is intentionally maintaining isolation, more like what we would call a preserve, an area where an endangered species already lives which is protected from change. But even that isn’t a perfect analogy since even in a preserve you don’t hide from the animals, you just try not to interfere with them.
7:15 Could you imagine the effect drinking a whole can of Pepsi would have on a Sentinelese person who has probably never consumed any caffeinated or sugary products before.
They’d take a sip, then pour it out. I refuse to believe that someone who has never drank a carbonated drink in their life would enjoy such a stinging sensation.
If you're talking about the largely peaceful interactions out in the water, that does make sense. They probably view the ocean as distinct from the island in this context, and they may even view it as a neutral zone. So there isn't an immediate threat of invasion by meeting out in open sea, and there is little need to be hostile. But if we get near or step onto the island, that is crossing onto their territory.
the title really made me stop and think lol, i was like how had i not thought of this before. good job edit: it was interesting to hear they could make arrows and such from shipwrecks. it reminded me of how when i visited the l'anse aux meadows norse archeological site, in the museum the canadian natives were described using meteorite and hammering it to create blades etc l'anse aux meadows is definitely an amazing place, and its beyond interesting seeing the artifacts, the 1000 year old iron-tool-cut wood preserved in the bog, hearing the sagas detail how the norse interacted with the natives, giving them milk, only for it to make them sick because they were intolerant. the natives assumed they were poisoned and it spawned a feud, and thats only a snippet
Totally enjoyed this John, what a great way to think this through. I'm sure that there's some application for this for us as well. Loved the part about their government telling the guy he saw nothing and go back to cooking your shellfish. 😄
Great video John, very thought provoking as always. I've often thought about how the people's native to the Americas viewed European technology, given the differences between 16th century Europe and the Americas, but thinking about the worldview of the Sentinelese is kind of unfathomable. It's crazy that the closest thing to this that I can truly relate to as an American born late in the 20th century are extra terrestrials coming to earth 🤯
Very enjoyable episode. I'm glad you mentioned the trash washing up on their beaches, and considered how they might interpret its purpose. I would never underestimate their ability to understand our technology, at least pragmatically, with only an isolated few example. After all, it takes little intelligence to use a smartphone, though it takes extraordinary education and collaboration to create one. I doubt they are less gifted than the civilization that created Stonehenge. That in mind, over decades or centuries, a patient observer can easily plot the regular cadence and chartered path of air vehicles travelling over Sentinel, and know when an aerial visit goes against the expected schedule. What I find fascinating is that they keep the island to themselves, yet they do not clear cut it, they do not overpopulate it, and they do not venture out to destroy the rest of us. There is much to learn from the Sentilese, and they may harbor secrets to harmonious living that we forgot long ago. Like you, I wish I could wear a cloak and wander the island to find out how they have remained so successful for so very long, with us on the other side of the veil, offering what likely would amount to cultural extinction. Imagine if their language is a true isolate! And what if bits of our lost history (like evidence of the first written or spoken language) are remembered on Sentinel, and what if they have preserved the evidence?
"Noble savage" trope much? Muh "natives in harmony with nature" please. There is nothing to learn from the Sentinelese, they are what we were 10 thousand years ago. We know everything they know and magnitudes more, if only the average Sentinelese knows a bit more about crafting a bow than the average New Yorker. But after a few days of looking it up on the net, the New Yorker will craft a better bow or just buy a modern carbon fiber one that shoots twice as far and strong as the Sentinelese bow. You are taking technology, civilization and the pleasures of modern life for granted. The truth is, we live like medieval kings could never dream of! And if the average sentinelese knew the comforts and perks of modern civilization, he would swim for the mainland immediately.
@@apokalypthoapokalypsys9573i mean, the average New Yorker may be able to craft a bow but not make arrows, thus making the knowledge useless. They are, apparently, as advanced as humans can be with no agriculture, as, although the seem to harvest coconut, the don’t seem to replant it.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they're more advanced in certain ways than we expected, but saying they're of the same capabilities or complex enough culture as those that created Stonehenge is a HUGE leap. The civilization that created Stonehenge was almost certainly VERY socially complex and sophisticated, and their technology may have been more advanced than we assume, as well. Maybe even substantially, even with stone age materials. But the Sentinelese do not seem like this. And we've watched them for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they've got plenty of surprises for us, but not every primitive tribe is secretly a hyper intelligent society with deceptively complex culture. Many are much more complex than we initially give them credit for, but MANY are just as primitive and simplistic as we assume. The Comanche, for a very interesting example, ruled the Texas/Oklahoma/Colorado region with a brutal, unquestioned, torturously sadistic, and nearly omnipotent fist for centuries. They are the reason the Spanish didn't have a shot in Hell permanently colonizing North America, and were humiliated trying, time and time again. Once they developed horsemanship and horse breeding, they became the undisputed masters of it in the entire Western Hemisphere and make modern day trick riders look like novice children. I'm not exaggerating a bit. I'm actually barely doing them justice, here. But even though they essentially had a Mongol-style Empire, with all of the clout and power that came with that, they had probably the most simplistic, bare bones, and primitive culture in all of North America. Despite having the world's best horse warriors and undisputed political power, they had no warrior societies, no relatively sophisticated rituals, no class of dedicated musicians, or artists, or philosophers, or priests, or inventors, no permanent housing, no farming whatsoever, no binding clan structure, almost never any external diplomacy at all, no complex political structures, not even really any sense of hierarchy among them besides the ability of individuals to organize raids and hunts, and nothing else of the sort that made a society complex or sophisticated, even by their neighboring tribes' standards. Before the horse, they were as primitive and backwards as a tribe could be, and with the horse, they were just the same, but brilliantly skilled on horseback. Just goes to show, whether you're an isolated, uncontacted tribe, or the de facto ruling horse warrior empire of the entire American Southwest, if you're primitive, you're primitive. P.S., if you're interested in the story of the Comanche, I recommend the book "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne also has some great podcast segments on Joe Rogan where he discusses the history. Absolutely fascinating stuff that hardly anybody studies these days.
I actually learned about that island only a few months ago and immediately thought of this and how even a small piece of our junk could profoundly affect their society. The Pepsi bottle analogy must've been a reference to the old film "Gods must be crazy".
This was so interesting. Makes you wonder if extraterrestrials are watching our species the same way the rest of the advanced globe watches the Sentinelese. Kinda eerie to think about. Our civilization is just an ant colony in someone else’s backyard - potentially. I guess the only thing we are missing is contact. But makes you wonder, India restricts people from going to the island because it’s dangerous, I wonder if extraterrestrials do the same with humans on Earth because they think we are too dangerous.
Well in the case of this island there are multiple documented cases of the locals being belligerent and violent. But so far (unless it’s been covered up) there aren’t any known instances of humans attacking aliens, or even any irrefutable cases of aliens showing up on earth at all. So if the aliens are keeping away because we’re dangerous, it’s not based on past experience but rather expectations.
I like to imagine that if technologically advanced aliens do exist and watch us, they are scared of us, because while they have managed to fly through the stars, we have made weapons that work on an atomic scale, we are deemed as violent and unpredictable, because we are.
Finally someone else mentioned them! I’ve been thinking this for so long, and there would be a lot of parallels if we do in fact live in the zoo hypothesis, especially with if crashed UFOs are real and extraterrestrial, it would mirror humans from our civilization ship wrecking on their island
As always, incredible food for thought. How far does the metaphor chain extend? Like the Sentinelese themselves would seem like powerful gods to the local island insects, and our own recent UAPs may be evidence of a civilization above and containing us, are there in turn greater civilizations who pull strings on a say, galactic level?
@@davidwilliams7552we are constantly surprised about how much we have underestimated animal minds. It’s literally impossible to understand their perception of the world. We don’t ever truly understand our own brains.
This was an excellent video. Loved listening to you go through the history of the Sentanalese. Was just gutted at how short the comparison to this and the Zoo Hypothesis was. More vids like this please!
Except the sentinelese people have met aliens (outside humans) multiple times, have interacted with them, frequently see their aircraft and boats and know aliens are riding on them, they get cast off alien junk, and even occasionally gifts from the aliens. But for us outside the island, other than visual sightings without physical evidence, we have no verifiable instances of humans meeting real aliens or finding alien tech etc.
The idea of the ship viewed at a distance by the Sentinelese reminds me of the Lost Ship of the Mojave. The native Americans of the region tell of a mystical magic bird that became stranded in the Mojave when one of its occasional floods dried up. The wings of the bird fell, then rotted away to leave a bare tree. Wings -> sails, Tree -> masts Who knows?
It’s pretty sad that even if they advanced enough to make it off the island they would have no idea how to avoid getting sick when meeting the rest of the world.
Always great and knowledgeable content on this channel. I can't be the only one who's hoping/waiting for a few 3-5 hour documentaries showcasing that knowledge...
As always, watching this before bed :) now to go pick a Playlist and listen while I sleep for the next 8 or so hours lol. Love the videos JMG keep it up 👍
It never occurred to me to connect these two concepts before but their existence is proof that the Zoo Hypothesis is entirely plausible. This is the best video I've seen all year and I will not be sleeping tonight!
Honestly, they would very probably think the Pepsi tasted gross. Cola's are a bit of an acquired taste. They'd certainly notice the sweetness, but I imagine after that inital sip they would hate the aftertaste and the feeling of the carbonation.
The Zoo Hypothesis doesn't get nearly as much attention as some other solutions for the fermi paradox, though it is to my mind more likely than most. Anyone else noticed this?
The part about them finding stuff from our shipwrecks reminds me a little of the movie The Gods Must be Crazy. In that story, a glass bottle drops into a mostly uncontacted African tribe's territory and causes some issues. The movie is a comedy, so the parallels don't go beyond finding a foreign object. I've heard of the Sentinelese before, but this was an interesting way to look at them.
Very interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking idea concerning the Zoo Hypothesis I do strongly believe that the Zoo Hypothesis is indeed what our relationship with aliens is. The UFOs that we occasionally see are aliens surveying us, monitoring us, etc. Crop circles with messages in them are the aliens trying to give us gifts in their own way
I often wonder how the Sentinelese have adapted their mythology to account for space travel. In the last sixty years, there's suddenly been the appearance of "stars" that transit the entire sky in minutes, and in the last five, there have appeared trains of these moving stars. What must they think is going on?
Imagine if we took a fully stocked modern cruise ship and beached it on the shores of North Sentinel Island. Would they try to explore the ship? Would they decide to live on the ship? Or maybe consider it taboo to enter? How long would it take them to get on board given how high up the entry doors are?
Sometimes I wish we could send a passive monitoring robot or some sort of protected rover down to see how the Sentinelese live. Either just to see the layout of their villages or to try and discern their language or see how they interact with an "animal" made of metal rather than a human.
Yeah with large language models and AI getting better and better I would love to have a small drone record their conversations and then basically decrypt it using the AI
It's a fun idea for a short story but I think the point of the "Zoo Hypothesis" is that they aren't aware generally of the outside universe/world. They voluntarily choose isolation, they are basically Japan before the US forced trade upon them. A true zoo Hypothesis scenerio, imo, is involuntary
Such a wonderful video! Thank you. I'm sure they are aware of their own predicament being surrounded by us and our "evil magics". They don't need us and thankfully they don't have resources we want or else they'll be destroyed. We're good for that. 😢
I like the thought of some Neil deGrass Islander giving speeches to his fellow Sentinelese, making fun of the notion of incompetent aliens. "So you're telling me these aliens can navigate the entire ocean to then only crash on our shores? If they are this incompetent, I want nothing to do with them."
Too true! No matter how advanced a species is, entropy will always win.
“We are going to now learn about the effects of radiation from using telescopes and the solar winds” -Neil TheGrass Tyson or someone
Or trying to convince them science is all about the consensus 😆😆 which he recently tried to do with advanced Homo sapiens 🙈
"Why don't they just land on the front lawn of the brown hut right over there... HeheHEEHEEhehe...(incessant snickering and giggles)"
The size difference between the ocean/island and the galaxy/earth is approximately the size of the galaxy. That is to say, that's a poor comparison given how incomprehensibly large the galaxy is
One of my favorite stories about the Sentinelese is when a cargo ship ran around on their island in the 1970's, immediately catapulting the Sentinelese into the iron-age. The ship has been steadily stripped of metal ever since.
what omg
I’d buy that for a dollar
my favorite story is when alien "ships" crashed in new mexico, immediately catapulting the US into the space age.....
Oh come on what can they really do with it?
Scrap the hull? Impossible
Melt the iron pieces they find? They haven't even discovered fire (as in starting)
fun fact: on google earth, you can still see the remains of the ship in the northwestern corner of the island
The North Sentinelese are an example of why I think we probably view our history, archaeology, and anthropology a little too simplistically. The idea that there is a tribal society armed with body paint, bows, and arrows on this planet simultaneously with crypto mining, satellite launching, internet meme sharing cultures is simply wild to think about.
At what point will they eventually be considered a different species?
@@aliensoup2420 when interbreeding is impossible. So in a few million years.
@@aliensoup2420never, because of politics. If you categorized humans like animals there would already be multiple sub species.
@@imarchello Possibility of interbreeding is not consistently applied as a species defining barrier. In many cases organisms that look very similar may be considered different species if they don't mate with each other, even if they would be interfertile if they did. And some things that look very different and are inarguably different species can interbreed no problem and have fertile offspring.
@@joemerino3243 neanderthals and demisovans were capable of breeding with homo sapiens. Dna of former can be found in europeans and later in asians.
We have friends in Indonesia. On the day of the Boxing day tsunami the grandfather of the family (a man in his 80's) insisted the entire family should run into the mountains.
He did not know why, but it was something his grand father had told him. Should he ever see the sea run away, he should run into the mountains.
That advice saved their lives.
Hmmm. Superstition trumping rationality.
@@nettewilson5926o, past experience handed down over generations , but so long that they might not know even why
Any culture that has lived on an island in the ocean for generations should have some sort of wisdom, folkloric or otherwise, about tsunamis. Otherwise, there’s no way they would have been there for generations.
@@rathersane Reminds me of the northwest Native American Great Flood folklore, which we figured out actually happened
There is a great story of a little british girl who knew exactly this, when the tsunami hit in asia in 2004. She just learned this in school, and could warn her parents and others around, to seek to higher ground - saving hundreds of lives that day.
While they might not have a zoo hypothesis, they do seem to have some understanding of correlation, - whenever Sentinelese encounter strangers on their shores, any close interactions result in their people rapidly becoming sick and dying. Due to their immune system simply not having encountered any of the innumerable pathogens you would come across on the mainland. - This has seemingly resulted in some rather aggressive paranoia, as they will bury anything that could be considered to be a danger to them. - Live things in particular, it would seem. Thus why they accept gifts of tools and coconuts, but killed and buried the pigs. Just as they bury and kill anyone that intrude on their lands. - It is the only surefire way they have of disposing of something potentially dangerous. Even though they may not understand the microbiological science behind why it is dangerous.
This made me wonder if maybe they have some kind of religious explanation for all of this. It could explain the incident with the man who claimed to be Sentenalese. Maybe he really was from the island, but they believed something like he was possessed with an evil spirit.
@@w花b Human like could be a demon
When you think about it, this might be the only reason these people are even still alive. They probably had similar ancestors without this attitude who didn’t have these inhibitions. And now those people are gone without their names recorded at all.
@@galiantus1354 We also don't know what happened after those 4 kids were returned, but we know they were sick. If in the past they accepted back people that had been abducted and then we're struck by a plague, it would make sense that they'd see him as somehow tainted and dangerous.
@@Fuckthis0341I mean, there’s plenty of other tribes around them that weren’t nearly so isolated and are still around.
I do wonder if any of the North Sentinelese have ever really wondered what lies beyond their island. I’m sure they’ve thought about it especially when they’ve received visitors or flyovers but to what extent? Humanity seems to be a curious and explorative species so might they one day decide to finally leave their island? Or perhaps they learned long ago it’s safer to just stay right where they are.
it's a virtual certainty they have an idea what lies beyond and want no part of it. even marco polo visited the andamans and wrote about the north sentinalese. the islands are close to india, burma and thailand. they've been known about for millenia. clearly there is a cultural reason they want all foreigners out
@@zackp8201humans will do what humans are hardwired to do, whether it's a stone age tribe or a 21st century nation state. 😅
@@willywonka4340what
@@zackp8201but certainly just a vague idea. They wouldn’t be able to conceive what our society or technology is really like.
@@willywonka4340 it’s entirely possible given the circumstances they have decided against the risks of fully exploring. It could also be genetic as well as cultural, they’ve had much longer to become wary of travelers as well as territorial meaning it may just not be inherent to them to want to leave.
I have always thought that North Sentinel Island is an perfect example of the Zoo Hypothesis. If we already do it, not only to them but also to many amazonian tribes (i'm from Brazil and I know how very common is to find uncontacted tribes in the Amazon Region even in the 21st century), why not consider that an alien civilization could do the same to us?
Wouldn't it be funny if we sent drones to observe them. Much like the metallic orb drones that apparently NASA says: "We see these all over the world all the time now".
A twist being the aliens are actually even more advanced humans...
@@TheBlackClockOfTimewe already do kinda. They use drones to check on them now, to try and do population counts etc. so essentially our drones to them are the little flying spheres to us 🤷🏻♂️
If they were advanced enough would we even understand their presence? Does or a plant or an ant have any idea what's going on?
@Drak976 a plant can't have any idea of anything because it doesn't have a central nervous system. Ants pass the mirror test, so maybe? Some species of ant also have a brain to body ratio of 80%. Maybe they do, in fact, understand some things that would surprise us. It might be that most animals with brains have more complex internal lives than we commonly believe they do.
What makes North Sentinel Island's isolation even more bizarre is that its just 52 km as the crow flies from the busy international airport at Port Blair. In fact if you happen to fly to Port Blair from the west (from, say Kolkata or Chennai), just 30 to 40 minutes before landing look to your left and the island is easily visible. I make it a point to see it every time i fly into and out of Port Blair (I last went there in 2019). Also, they have not discovered agriculture but thanks to the shipwrecks have discovered metal working. I definitely like John here and believe that the best way to settle the Cola debate once and for all is to have the Sentinelese taste test them (only for them to decide that both are trash and bam, arrows rain down on you). Given what the Indian experience has been with assimilating the Jarawa (not a good one) I am happy that the North Sentinelese have been left alone. But yes, when I first heard of the Zoo hypothesis, my mind immediately went to the North Sentinel island.
Bhai aap kya govt official ho?
What was that you mentioned with the Jawala?
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-ΔThe Jarawas are an ethnic tribe north of the Sentinel Island .They kinda somewhat resemble the Sentinelese in appearance, but differs in every other aspect.They were nearing extinction three decades ago and would have become extinct had not the Indian government issued programmes for their conservation .Today they live and interact with the people from mainland Andaman .
It´s insane that you can see an uncontacted stone age tribe while flying to a busy airport. Wow. India is a fascinating place.
@@Thetarget1 Hey, thats not a nice way to talk about rural Indians.
One of the things I find most fascinating about North Sentinel Island is that an entire uncontacted culture lives isolated on an island only 20 square miles
They must be horribly inbred. Their average IQ is probably comparable to a QAnoner.
And it's only about 40 kilometers from mainland and its international airport, hotels and spa resorts lol.
Inbreeding?
And...... wtf is your point?
A culture that maintains balance with its environment. Imagine if they know what cancer is and how to cure it? Do they get cancer at all? Diabetes? What happens to any genetically malformed babies? Are they treated as genetically inferior Spartan babies? I'd love to find out, but not at a cost of their sovereignty. Kinda like the speculated oceans of Europa. You want to know what's there, but it can only happen at a cost of contaminating the environment.
I feel like the sentinelese, if they tried Pepsi, would be utterly terrified of it. Imagine never drinking or conceiving of carbonated drinks, and you try one, not knowing what it is, and suddenly have this crazy sensation of the liquid bubbling in your mouth? Not to mention that the bottle can explode when opened after shaking it a bunch. I feel like they’d try drinking it once and then never again.
I remember trying it when I was a kid and it scared me so probably
I actually imagined it my head when he talked about it. I imagine whoever tried it immediately threw it on the ground and told the guys standing around him that it was dangerous.
You should be terrified of Pepsi. Better give them Coca Cola instead.
Lmao, to me carbonated drinks just taste bad, like why would you want you mouth to feel like stinging? Throw it away immediately.
Most of our food will taste super sweet or salty for them
I can imagine a team of Sentinelese Argonauts exploring this planet for another time and finding the ruins of our advanced civilizations mixed in with the ruins of those we consider ancient now and imagine a world of pharaohs having heated social media debates with greek philosophers.
Let's hope they discover carbon dating so they can tell the difference then lmao
@@w花b yeah, dating app for carbon based life forms. Nearly got cancelled for discriminating against Silicone's
@@w花bno, it's a way of discovering how old an object is based on its specific type of carbon content
@@EthanPerales.🤦🏽♂️
@@EthanPerales.leave
Since 1957 they've been seeing more and more satellites flashing across their sky. Seen by all, predictable, to a degree, yet ephemeral. I wonder what they make of that.
The gods are having an insane sky party
There’s a few new things that baffle me such as starlink satellite chains. I could imagine stories made about the stars that march alongside each other in the sky, just from that alone.
In most cases very little. Most satellites are small enough to not be noticed. Latest SpaceX ones are dark coloured and designed to not reflect light onto earth.
They are probably more confused about the many helicopters that have flown around their island.
I bet they know it's made by the outsiders and that the outsiders are like a species of their own to them. They just don't care all that much.
This is one of the most fascinating topics to me. The fact that they've been in complete isolation for pretty much all of recorded history, and are still there right now existing is so incredible to me. Makes me wonder what the Sentinelese must think of when they see planes/ships from a distance. Or if they wonder about what lies beyond their remote island. The questions are endless. Great video, too!
Be sweet to hear their unadulterated beginning story. How did they come to be on such a little island in the middle of nowhere. N how have they survived for presumably thousands of years
Think about all the things you view as necessary for a comfortable, productive life. Now think about the fact that generation upon generation of North Sentinelese have their entire lives without ANY of these things (besides food, water, and companionship) for all of history. And they're still doing that, having no knowledge of what you think is essential or commonplace. Now that's wild.
They may have been there for only a few hundred years, since their numbers are small, and they dont look like inbreeding has affected them.
I’ve been checking out your videos for a couple years now and I want to thank you for the content you make. Everything has the perfect balance of logic and reason but you aren’t afraid to explore and ask questions about more speculative topics. Noting makes my day more than seeing you upload!
Oh boy do I rarely comment but you've put into words exactly how I feel about his videos, and the fact that he publishes so frequently too is a blessing. I hope he won't stop anytime soon
@LutherLaPlace Yes I enjoy is videos as well. I like the fact that he doesn't just have a black & white view on everything. He keeps an open mind & keeps it interesting.
Awww..
Cringe
My mind travelled and I 've forgotten everything else for 13 minutes and 45 seconds. Thank you, John, for another thought-provoking video!
Same here. Time flew past by watching this. Awesome
"The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle - deep, and the water seems inviting." - Carl Sagan
If the rest of the human race were to disappear, do you think they would eventually develop the technology to leave the island, or would they stagnate there? What do you suppose would be the impetus for their society to change if it did? Personally, I find them fascinating. I would love to have a Star Trek duck blind to be able to study them.
They do have boats
@@hyksos74no they don’t
@@JaKingScomez they have canoes as stated in the video and interactions on the water seem to go ok.
I'd say they would only try out of necessity like in the instance that the island was no longer habitable.
They will stagnate most likely. If they're fine with staying there for thousands of years without exploring, they'll be fine with it forever, unless something happens to their island.
This is a great way of putting the idea into perspective.
Cultural differences are a strange thing I'm sure if there was a giant flying saucer over LA like in movies it would end up being shot at.
Nah, the liberals would be like “NUUUU DON’T KILL THEM 😢😢😢 WACIST 😢” and then they’d give us Hiroshima V2 and we’d be living in fallout
@@wolfetteplays8894ah because shooting something so advanced and going to war against incomprehensibly powerful aliens is clearly the best idea ever.
@@revanruler6404abhor the xeno glory to the imperium of man
@@revanruler6404 im sure it wasnt a joke and a 100% serious statement on the world
That did actually happen tho. Look up battle of Los Angeles
What makes this idea even more compelling is that our star system in located in a sparsely populated area, in terms of star clusters, within the outer portion of the Orion arm of our Galaxy. I can only guess in interstellar terms, we're truly out in the sticks. The question of what in God's green Terra is going on out in the black excites me greatly.
These people are pretty incredible. They're a (presumably) neolithic culture locked into an island setting and yet they recognized the value of metal and learned to work with it - again, in an island setting.
It's no wonder aliens don't contact us. Give us an inch and we'll make a mile out of it.
Aliens are a government ploy to hide the truth about Wizards.
Humans are space orcs.
Given we advanced their tribe by having shipwrecks near it, aliens could do the same to us if they simply crashed and were found and im sure they know this possibly from their own past examples.
Exactly, thats why were staying up here
But I think the aliens know we might not fully utilize the tech - even if one crashes - if the supposed crashed ufos managed to accelerate our defense industry - it would be akin to these islanders crafting arrows - still lethal - but vastly inferior to what we currently have - aliens probably see our "alien inspired tech" the same way , they can wipe the floor with what we have if they want as they are probably millenia ahead and they know we won't be able to make full use of anything they lose
I love this theory and the parallels that are drawn between the north sentinelese, modern people, and the potential “zookeepers”. It would be interesting if the prime directive (or limited contact with primitive civilizations) was a real thing.
I wouldn't know, but most UFO stories sound just like encounters we have with Sentinelese, just the other way around.
@@RogerTheilits okay to come into close contact with them on the sea close to the island, but dont go on the island itself and their expeditions outside of their own island has to indicate them returning to the island or else they are killed or returned.
Very similar to us going to the moon and sattelites surrounding us.
I like this little thought experiment
Great video as always. When I first heard about this island and its people several years ago, this was one of my immediate thoughts about them, us, and anyone in the cosmos. Maybe, when their culture changes and they let outsiders in, it will say a lot about the rest of humanity and could give us a glimpse into how we'd react to definite proof that is commonly accepted among all peoples that something is out there.
Very interesting to see how the islanders stories probably seem very similar to UFO pop culture stuff. The British kidnapping the elderly and the children: Betty and Barny Hill getting taken by the Grays. Leaving gifts that are normal to them but useless to us: name any conspiracy like Area 51.
Let's just not moon the aliens, I don't want to see what a UFO shelling looks like.
If they're smart they'll never let outsiders in.
I got so excited when I saw this title. I make this comparison a lot. Especially when it comes to people arguing that shooting down a ufo would start a war with aliens. That would be like us bombing the island because they hit a research drone with an arrow.
1000th like felt satisfying 😂🔥
This has promptly brought a smile to my face (: when you put it in perspective, then yes, it's the zoo hypothesis turtling all the way down. But it's not for fun, it's live and let live situation. Are they in charge of their own affairs on the island? Yes. If they decide to contact, shall we speak back to them? Very likely. Under the given circumstances, this is the best and most peaceful scenario there can be.
Wow, John. You really hit it out of the park with this one. Totally refreshing topic yet perfectly fitting with the overall theme of your channel.
Another excellent and thought provoking video. I've always been fascinated by North Sentinel Island and it's inhabitants. I agree that they are living in 'zoo hypothesis' situation and I believe we should be doing everything possible to protect them by leaving them alone and letting them do their thing. They've gotten along fine on their island for 50-60 thousand years now and clearly don't want widespread contact with the outside world. On the flip side, it's interesting to speculate on how they would react to the 21st century 'modern world' if they ever did decide to break their no-contact policy. It would also be interesting to study their DNA which may shed more light on our species as a whole if their population has been mostly isolated for that amount of time.
I disagree. I think we should continue to try to make peaceful contact with them and continue to attempt to persuade them to join the rest of civilization with all the improved standard of living for them and their children that it provides. Change is inevitable for everyone and I don't think their children deserve to be held back from improving their lot in life simply out of fear of change.
@@RedSiegfried”improved standard of living” oh, you mean spending 9 hours in a cubicle and slaving away for a mega corporation which deprives you of your freedom??? 😂😂 tell me more about how modern life is so “great” when we are living within a literal dystopia in every sense of the word.
They should stay where they are, but they definitely aren't living as well as us, and that's fine. We definitely aren't living in a 'dystopia' either, the fact I'm watching this video that currates to my interests and that I love life disproves that very notion. Also not every has office jobs, and not all office jobs 'deprave you of freedom'
@@wolfetteplays8894i dunno man, i personally think it's pretty good that we know how to cure diseases and don't have to worry about getting mauled by animals in our daily lives
@@wolfetteplays8894 improved life spans and less disease/parasites for one. Sound like a cubicle 9-5 is your own issue, some people have more fun jobs like scientist etc. and actively improve the world by making people’s lives more comfortable. Not saying I agree we should integrate them, but your stance is as stupid as the guy your responding to.
Very thought provoking video. Very interesting to think about how many places like this there still may be. For a world the size of ours, though small in comparison to others, there is surely many places that have never been discovered.
Doubtful
There are HUGE portions of the Amazon jungle that have never been explored to this very day. And when i say HUGE, i mean HUGE areas.
@@Valorius How big are we talking? Like isolated pockets, or multiple geographic regions? I know next to nothing about the Amazon, unfortunately.
@@SugarcaneFuturistthere are areas of the Amazon the size of midsize US states that only have a couple people from the outside world visit them every decade or so. The Amazon is bigger than it looks on most maps because of projection distortion, equatorial areas look smaller than the far north or south (Greenland is not quite as big as it looks on a flat map)
As someone fascinated by genetics, I would love to see a geneticist look over their dna, see what group they are most related to, discover any unique genetic quirks. A shame it won't happen in my lifetime
It basically already has happened, the other Andamanese peoples would likely be near identical to them
My suspicion is that they were part of the first homo sapien radiation out of Africa and towards Australia. They may have split from the groups that eventually headed further south and managed to cross the narrow gap between the mainland and Andaman islands at the time, possibly the first boatbuilders in history.
they are related to east asian peoples actually
@@bruceketta9144 How would you know that?
@@kylerBDyes they are related to East Asian people like Japanese, I just watched in a RUclips video
One difference with the standard Fermi Zoo Hypothesis is that the Sentinelese absolutely know that the rest of humanity exists and are certainly not spending any time wondering if they are the only civilization in their ocean of why no one's tried to contact them.
I thought of this once, and I absolutely agree that they are living in a zoo hypothesis scenario, just limited to their one little island on Earth. It makes you wonder if we would be treated the same by an advanced alien species. Man, I love your channel
The only difference is that the Sentinelese _know_ that there are other humans outside. We have no idea if there are aliens outside.
@@johannageisel5390❕❕❕
Depends, although if we are a zoo the aliens are doing a much better job isolating us than we are with the Sentinelese. Just a few years ago some American Christian missionary got himself smuggled there under the noses of the Indian authorities to perform some kind of miracle conversion. It ended grimly for him.
I hope not. I don't want an alien christian missionary to come to earth and spread their nonsense.
I have often thought this. There is some tribes in the Amazon that are thought to be equally as isolated/innocent. Awesome content, great to hear your vantage point on these sort of topics. I ❤ it when John gets into world history.
Amazon tribes are not innocent, lol. Most tribal people are territorial as fuck and brutally kill strangers on sight
I would not call the isolated cannibalistic tribe member innocent nor would i call the random city dweller non innocent
At the end of the day they ARE humans, not some cute innocent puppy. They are also a particularly militaristic society based on almost every contact.
I have a good friend out in Colorado whose mother was a young woman living in an Amazon tribe when they were first contacted. She immediately fell in love with one of the Americans during first contact, married him, decided the wealthy, affluent lifestyle of the American educated elite he belonged to was her thing and all she was ever looking for, and left with him and never looked back. The daughter they had is my good friend, but by contrast, she's very spiritual and grounded, and doesn't have a care in the world for money or a glamorous lifestyle. She's a really good person, too, and one of the highest quality friends I've ever had. Her mother doesn't understand any of that and wonders why her daughter isn't pursuing wealth and a luxurious lifestyle.
I always thought the story of that family, with all of its surprising twists and contrasts, makes for a great case study on the human condition, and the differences between people, even when related.
@@reanbowlerd5988the fuck youre talking bout, turn off your Hollywood movies and go outside
Didn’t even think about earth being a sentinelese island to aliens until the very end. Very thought provoking
You bake my brain with every video! Love your content, thank you🙏
I've always thought that would be a great comparison, it's cool to see a whole video on the subject.
The most shocking thing I find about them is that they haven't overconsumed the island yet. They must practice some kind of sustainability.
its a tiny group of moronswho cant even make a fire. they cant grow their own population enough to ever use the resources the island of that size provides. they're super inbred and likely extremely stupid, a present day Nedanderthal basically.
How is that shocking? It's not like people living elsewhere in the world did that when they were living like these guys
They dont have the capitalist greed, the tradition of survival would know sustainability especially if you are isolated on a small island
I mean, there’s about 100 of them it’s not very hard
they live in a way that's much more harmonious with nature, agricultural and industrial civilization completely overrides nature's self-regulating of populations. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't really suffer with mental illness either, at least not the kind that we see in developed societies.
I’ve seen plenty of videos about the Sentinelese before, but this one far surpassed them all in terms of in-depth anthropology. Thanks for the informative video, it was fascinating.
This video gave me the chills multiple times. HBO should make a series about a tribe of these people throughout their history and interactions with ehe outside world. The stories are all there
I find this to be an interesting analogy for earth, I never thought about the parallels between us flying helicopters over their island to survey them and aliens flying UFO's over our cities to survey us.
This is a topic I never wouldve thought of. Been here since 20k subs and you still find topics to Suprise! Great work as always John!
That was simply excellent. Very thought-provoking with beautiful imagery. Thank you. 🙏🏼
Dude, this is really scary! It puts it into perspective what the aliens could be capable off, if we are in a zoo hypothesis,
We are
@@Grinningfartking6969 It does not feel like I am a pet.
When you start checking off the boxes of evidence thus far it seems to be coming together that this could very well be the case, I’m not at all shocked by it either given our behavior here on earth with other species on this planet. Also, we seem to have identified many exoplanets at this point and almost all of them don’t seem to be hospitable towards our type of life and what we need to survive, so it makes sense to me that we are in some way somebodies “Noah’s ark.”
What is scary about it? They go on, regardless.
@@Grinningfartking6969well there are 3 possibilities as to the situation we find ourselves in at least three very likely ones.
1: We are the first born advanced intelligent race in the galaxy.
2: We are on a zue hypothesis and based on recent events the happner probe assigned to us has gone deep into rampancy, which is either pretty good or incredibly fucking terribly bad depending on the mindset of the aliens that placed it there.
Or 3: We came around in the middle of a fucking war in heavens And we just so happen to be far enough away from it that the alien races fighting each other have deemed it too much of a waste to Even care about us for now, basically what happened to the sentinelies in World War II.
This is a fascinating idea. I’d love to see someone put together a really in-depth look at how a tribe like this could be thinking about what they see of us.
Absolutely fascinating! I didn’t think I’d be interested in this one- but it was absolutely gripping!! Thanks for covering JMG.
Imagine living your whole life unaware that pizza exists and the entire world has decided to keep pizza a secret from you.
and Coca Cola as well
What would happen if we drop hundreds of porn magazines on the island from airplane?
Hey John Michael, I think you mentioned this in a question in one of your podcast before and it really made it so much easier to understand how the zoo hypothesiz would be like.
Really made me think.
Thanks and a great subject.
10 out of 10 Michael.
👍🇮🇪👍
The Sentinelese, while an interesting situation, are nothing like the zoo hypothesis. They have been visited several times, sometimes even peacefully. We leave them alone because they want to be left alone.
Uncontacted tribes in the Amazon are closer to the zoo hypothesis, but even "uncontacted" tribes usually have had some form of contact.
The zoo hypothesis is misnamed anyway. Real zoo animals are imprisoned in an artificial environment and see humans and their technology constantly. What we’re really talking about is intentionally maintaining isolation, more like what we would call a preserve, an area where an endangered species already lives which is protected from change. But even that isn’t a perfect analogy since even in a preserve you don’t hide from the animals, you just try not to interfere with them.
The most uncontacted tribe is the one nobody knows about.
7:15 Could you imagine the effect drinking a whole can of Pepsi would have on a Sentinelese person who has probably never consumed any caffeinated or sugary products before.
Burp.
They’d take a sip, then pour it out. I refuse to believe that someone who has never drank a carbonated drink in their life would enjoy such a stinging sensation.
You have a twin in my home town. My history teacher looked just like you. Love your channel. Love your videos. You always do such a good job.
F ya, Godier. This guy has the juice, no doubt. Huge fan, love the content - keep it up big dawg.
It's really cool that the Sentinelese appear to respect world shipping norms, even if we do find their political style a bit strange otherwise.
If you're talking about the largely peaceful interactions out in the water, that does make sense. They probably view the ocean as distinct from the island in this context, and they may even view it as a neutral zone. So there isn't an immediate threat of invasion by meeting out in open sea, and there is little need to be hostile. But if we get near or step onto the island, that is crossing onto their territory.
the title really made me stop and think lol, i was like how had i not thought of this before. good job
edit: it was interesting to hear they could make arrows and such from shipwrecks. it reminded me of how when i visited the l'anse aux meadows norse archeological site, in the museum the canadian natives were described using meteorite and hammering it to create blades etc
l'anse aux meadows is definitely an amazing place, and its beyond interesting seeing the artifacts, the 1000 year old iron-tool-cut wood preserved in the bog, hearing the sagas detail how the norse interacted with the natives, giving them milk, only for it to make them sick because they were intolerant. the natives assumed they were poisoned and it spawned a feud, and thats only a snippet
Totally enjoyed this John, what a great way to think this through. I'm sure that there's some application for this for us as well. Loved the part about their government telling the guy he saw nothing and go back to cooking your shellfish. 😄
Wow! super insightful video, thank you for sharing this idea. This is one of my favorite videos you have ever made John, well done.
An interesting take on the topic, John. Kudos!
Great video John, very thought provoking as always. I've often thought about how the people's native to the Americas viewed European technology, given the differences between 16th century Europe and the Americas, but thinking about the worldview of the Sentinelese is kind of unfathomable. It's crazy that the closest thing to this that I can truly relate to as an American born late in the 20th century are extra terrestrials coming to earth 🤯
Very enjoyable episode. I'm glad you mentioned the trash washing up on their beaches, and considered how they might interpret its purpose. I would never underestimate their ability to understand our technology, at least pragmatically, with only an isolated few example. After all, it takes little intelligence to use a smartphone, though it takes extraordinary education and collaboration to create one. I doubt they are less gifted than the civilization that created Stonehenge. That in mind, over decades or centuries, a patient observer can easily plot the regular cadence and chartered path of air vehicles travelling over Sentinel, and know when an aerial visit goes against the expected schedule. What I find fascinating is that they keep the island to themselves, yet they do not clear cut it, they do not overpopulate it, and they do not venture out to destroy the rest of us. There is much to learn from the Sentilese, and they may harbor secrets to harmonious living that we forgot long ago. Like you, I wish I could wear a cloak and wander the island to find out how they have remained so successful for so very long, with us on the other side of the veil, offering what likely would amount to cultural extinction. Imagine if their language is a true isolate! And what if bits of our lost history (like evidence of the first written or spoken language) are remembered on Sentinel, and what if they have preserved the evidence?
"Noble savage" trope much? Muh "natives in harmony with nature" please. There is nothing to learn from the Sentinelese, they are what we were 10 thousand years ago. We know everything they know and magnitudes more, if only the average Sentinelese knows a bit more about crafting a bow than the average New Yorker. But after a few days of looking it up on the net, the New Yorker will craft a better bow or just buy a modern carbon fiber one that shoots twice as far and strong as the Sentinelese bow. You are taking technology, civilization and the pleasures of modern life for granted. The truth is, we live like medieval kings could never dream of! And if the average sentinelese knew the comforts and perks of modern civilization, he would swim for the mainland immediately.
@@apokalypthoapokalypsys9573i mean, the average New Yorker may be able to craft a bow but not make arrows, thus making the knowledge useless. They are, apparently, as advanced as humans can be with no agriculture, as, although the seem to harvest coconut, the don’t seem to replant it.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they're more advanced in certain ways than we expected, but saying they're of the same capabilities or complex enough culture as those that created Stonehenge is a HUGE leap. The civilization that created Stonehenge was almost certainly VERY socially complex and sophisticated, and their technology may have been more advanced than we assume, as well. Maybe even substantially, even with stone age materials. But the Sentinelese do not seem like this. And we've watched them for a long time.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they've got plenty of surprises for us, but not every primitive tribe is secretly a hyper intelligent society with deceptively complex culture. Many are much more complex than we initially give them credit for, but MANY are just as primitive and simplistic as we assume.
The Comanche, for a very interesting example, ruled the Texas/Oklahoma/Colorado region with a brutal, unquestioned, torturously sadistic, and nearly omnipotent fist for centuries. They are the reason the Spanish didn't have a shot in Hell permanently colonizing North America, and were humiliated trying, time and time again. Once they developed horsemanship and horse breeding, they became the undisputed masters of it in the entire Western Hemisphere and make modern day trick riders look like novice children. I'm not exaggerating a bit. I'm actually barely doing them justice, here. But even though they essentially had a Mongol-style Empire, with all of the clout and power that came with that, they had probably the most simplistic, bare bones, and primitive culture in all of North America. Despite having the world's best horse warriors and undisputed political power, they had no warrior societies, no relatively sophisticated rituals, no class of dedicated musicians, or artists, or philosophers, or priests, or inventors, no permanent housing, no farming whatsoever, no binding clan structure, almost never any external diplomacy at all, no complex political structures, not even really any sense of hierarchy among them besides the ability of individuals to organize raids and hunts, and nothing else of the sort that made a society complex or sophisticated, even by their neighboring tribes' standards. Before the horse, they were as primitive and backwards as a tribe could be, and with the horse, they were just the same, but brilliantly skilled on horseback.
Just goes to show, whether you're an isolated, uncontacted tribe, or the de facto ruling horse warrior empire of the entire American Southwest, if you're primitive, you're primitive.
P.S., if you're interested in the story of the Comanche, I recommend the book "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne also has some great podcast segments on Joe Rogan where he discusses the history. Absolutely fascinating stuff that hardly anybody studies these days.
I actually learned about that island only a few months ago and immediately thought of this and how even a small piece of our junk could profoundly affect their society. The Pepsi bottle analogy must've been a reference to the old film "Gods must be crazy".
That WAS fun! Merci, Jean-Michel 🤭
Merci beaucoup!
Great content just keeps coming. Thnx JMG!! have a good week!
This was so interesting. Makes you wonder if extraterrestrials are watching our species the same way the rest of the advanced globe watches the Sentinelese. Kinda eerie to think about. Our civilization is just an ant colony in someone else’s backyard - potentially.
I guess the only thing we are missing is contact.
But makes you wonder, India restricts people from going to the island because it’s dangerous, I wonder if extraterrestrials do the same with humans on Earth because they think we are too dangerous.
Well in the case of this island there are multiple documented cases of the locals being belligerent and violent. But so far (unless it’s been covered up) there aren’t any known instances of humans attacking aliens, or even any irrefutable cases of aliens showing up on earth at all. So if the aliens are keeping away because we’re dangerous, it’s not based on past experience but rather expectations.
@@Sashazurtrue, or…it could be them seeing what we do to each other. Extraterrestrials maybe unable to grasp the concept of nations
I like to imagine that if technologically advanced aliens do exist and watch us, they are scared of us, because while they have managed to fly through the stars, we have made weapons that work on an atomic scale, we are deemed as violent and unpredictable, because we are.
Finally someone else mentioned them! I’ve been thinking this for so long, and there would be a lot of parallels if we do in fact live in the zoo hypothesis, especially with if crashed UFOs are real and extraterrestrial, it would mirror humans from our civilization ship wrecking on their island
As always, incredible food for thought. How far does the metaphor chain extend? Like the Sentinelese themselves would seem like powerful gods to the local island insects, and our own recent UAPs may be evidence of a civilization above and containing us, are there in turn greater civilizations who pull strings on a say, galactic level?
You are attributing consciousness to insects?
@@davidwilliams7552we are constantly surprised about how much we have underestimated animal minds. It’s literally impossible to understand their perception of the world. We don’t ever truly understand our own brains.
This was super interesting. Please do a longer episode!
This was an excellent video. Loved listening to you go through the history of the Sentanalese. Was just gutted at how short the comparison to this and the Zoo Hypothesis was.
More vids like this please!
The situation of Sentinel Island is what makes me think the Zoo Hypothesis is the most probable solution for Fermi.
Except the sentinelese people have met aliens (outside humans) multiple times, have interacted with them, frequently see their aircraft and boats and know aliens are riding on them, they get cast off alien junk, and even occasionally gifts from the aliens. But for us outside the island, other than visual sightings without physical evidence, we have no verifiable instances of humans meeting real aliens or finding alien tech etc.
Theyre not an uncontacted tribe, they contacted us with arrows. Those people should just be left alone
The idea of the ship viewed at a distance by the Sentinelese reminds me of the Lost Ship of the Mojave. The native Americans of the region tell of a mystical magic bird that became stranded in the Mojave when one of its occasional floods dried up. The wings of the bird fell, then rotted away to leave a bare tree.
Wings -> sails, Tree -> masts Who knows?
I’m obsessed with ur content it’s almost all I watch now
Wow..I heard of this group a few years ago but this is the most in depth and interesting analysis I've heard so far. Good job!
It would be cool to put stealthily put trail cams or something in trees around the island
Sending sick children back to the island could have been devastating to the tribe... What were they thinking?
It’s pretty sad that even if they advanced enough to make it off the island they would have no idea how to avoid getting sick when meeting the rest of the world.
Always great and knowledgeable content on this channel. I can't be the only one who's hoping/waiting for a few 3-5 hour documentaries showcasing that knowledge...
As always, watching this before bed :) now to go pick a Playlist and listen while I sleep for the next 8 or so hours lol. Love the videos JMG keep it up 👍
It never occurred to me to connect these two concepts before but their existence is proof that the Zoo Hypothesis is entirely plausible. This is the best video I've seen all year and I will not be sleeping tonight!
It's amazing that as a species, we've both gone to the moon and still possess groups that have yet to discover how to make fire.
I'm certain they know how to make fire, come on
Maybe you meant wheel instead of fire?
... fire? The use of fire predates our species of hominid. There's evidence Homo erectus used fire 2 million years ago.
how many people can survive on an isolated island? theyre smarter than us in their own way.
Fire is one of the oldest human tools. They certainly possess the knowledge of how to make it. They are Homo sapiens, not Australopithecus.
we have to air drop a whole bunch of phones around the island and have tiktok a the first thing that they open up to
I’ve been thinking about this for a few months! Thank you so much!!!!!!
Loved this one John. Great concept.
People think we will comunicate with aliens while we cant talk with our own species
Exactly
Honestly, they would very probably think the Pepsi tasted gross. Cola's are a bit of an acquired taste. They'd certainly notice the sweetness, but I imagine after that inital sip they would hate the aftertaste and the feeling of the carbonation.
The Zoo Hypothesis doesn't get nearly as much attention as some other solutions for the fermi paradox, though it is to my mind more likely than most. Anyone else noticed this?
That may very well be my favorite piece you've ever done. Thank you so much.
Another banger. Thanks jmg
They should fly a POV drone around
The part about them finding stuff from our shipwrecks reminds me a little of the movie The Gods Must be Crazy. In that story, a glass bottle drops into a mostly uncontacted African tribe's territory and causes some issues. The movie is a comedy, so the parallels don't go beyond finding a foreign object.
I've heard of the Sentinelese before, but this was an interesting way to look at them.
Very interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking idea concerning the Zoo Hypothesis
I do strongly believe that the Zoo Hypothesis is indeed what our relationship with aliens is. The UFOs that we occasionally see are aliens surveying us, monitoring us, etc. Crop circles with messages in them are the aliens trying to give us gifts in their own way
Thank you for all the amazing content. I'm looking forward to reading your book Supermind in the next month or so.
Very thought provoking, glad I came across this channel.
I often wonder how the Sentinelese have adapted their mythology to account for space travel. In the last sixty years, there's suddenly been the appearance of "stars" that transit the entire sky in minutes, and in the last five, there have appeared trains of these moving stars. What must they think is going on?
Imagine if we took a fully stocked modern cruise ship and beached it on the shores of North Sentinel Island. Would they try to explore the ship? Would they decide to live on the ship? Or maybe consider it taboo to enter? How long would it take them to get on board given how high up the entry doors are?
Based on previous shipwreacks they probably would scrap it all.
I wanna send a secret drone there and spy on them, see what they do.
Jesus christ, these are actual humans, not wild animals for your amusement
Sometimes I wish we could send a passive monitoring robot or some sort of protected rover down to see how the Sentinelese live. Either just to see the layout of their villages or to try and discern their language or see how they interact with an "animal" made of metal rather than a human.
Little bee drones.
Yeah with large language models and AI getting better and better I would love to have a small drone record their conversations and then basically decrypt it using the AI
they killed the pig and buried it, what do you expect would happen
This is exactly how the aliens treat us lmao
They sent us Mark Zuckerberg 😂👽
This imagery is very beautiful and makes the video so fascinating!
Wow, haven't watched the vid yet, but the title blew me away already, very thought-provoking!
It's a fun idea for a short story but I think the point of the "Zoo Hypothesis" is that they aren't aware generally of the outside universe/world. They voluntarily choose isolation, they are basically Japan before the US forced trade upon them.
A true zoo Hypothesis scenerio, imo, is involuntary
I often like to thing that these uncontacted tribes contain some of the happiest people on earth
Such a wonderful video! Thank you. I'm sure they are aware of their own predicament being surrounded by us and our "evil magics". They don't need us and thankfully they don't have resources we want or else they'll be destroyed. We're good for that. 😢
I love the thought of this and thank you for your videos.
i love every video you put out, always makes me stop and think and gets me in a good mindset. Thank you