Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

Many believe humanity's future lies among the stars, colonizing distant planets around alien suns, or perhaps building artificial worlds, space habitats, and megastructures. But what if instead of traveling to worlds far away in outer space we create virtual worlds to live in instead, colonizing inner space? We will explore this possibility of simulated universes and what it might mean for humanity, and also ask if this might be a solution to the Fermi Paradox, the strange absence of other life in our own universe.

Without the Sun our world would be a frozen wasteland, and for this reason any efforts to colonize the galaxy must focus on huddling in the tiny oases of warmth around stars, separated from each other by enormous gulfs of interstellar space. But what if we could make our own stars at the places of our choosing? And can we merely mimic nature or create stars unlike anything which nature has formed?

Historically humanity has often taken shelter in caves or underground, and it is often thought we might do so again, on other worlds, in event of disasters, or simply because we run out of room on the ground above. In this episode we'll explore the concept of building underground, from simply subways and basements to advanced bunkers or entire cities beneath the Earth.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, January 20, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered

Many a land was settled by exiles and prisoners, and many a science fiction story contemplates that we may use such methods when colonize new worlds. But are such methods viable? and what methods might we use in the future for dealing with criminals?

The Dark Forest Theory is a proposed solution to the Fermi Paradox from Cixin Liu which suggests all alien civilizations remain intentionally quiet, hiding from SETI efforts and possible hostile civilizations. It also argues they may attack any civilization which does not remain silent, like us.

Our current theory of evolution holds that all life on Earth originated from a single, simple life form billions of years ago. But what if that life did not originate on Earth? In this episode we'll explore the theory of Panspermia, that origin of life might be extraterrestrial in origin, and that the abiogenesis of that origin life form we descend from might have descended from the sky in a comet or some other alien source. We will explore the impact this concept would have on the Fermi Paradox if true.

The galaxy is an immense place, with billions of solar systems to colonize, and interstellar voyages to even nearby stars can take centuries. In order to explore and settle those new worlds, we may wish to take advantage of a type of generation ship that stops at planet after planet, colonizing each in turn, and entire colonial fleets that grow as they venture outward from Earth, creating new spaceships as often as terraforming new worlds.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, we'll take a look at relationships in the future, both the romantic and platonic friendships. We'll see what options and challenges might lay in store as we have to tackle the rising effect of social media and online dating, as well as more advanced technologies like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cloning, and life extension.

Today we're joined by Fraser Cain of Universe Today to discuss the future of astronomy, how you can get started in it as a hobby, and a wide-range of other topics.

Humanity has long wished to dwell among the clouds, today we'll look at what options we may have in the future for floating a city or home high in the sky.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 5pm EST, Sunday, February 22, 2019, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

The possibility that aliens might be regularly visiting Earth is one of the most popular Fermi Paradox solutions. In this episode we will look at UFOs and flying saucers theories and arguments, as well as examining the logic and possible motives of such extraterrestrial visitors.

The Galaxy is an enormous place, and moving from your planet to worlds in a different solar system over vast interstellar distances will be no easy voyage. Today we'll consider how someone would go about hitchhiking around on spaceships, as a tribute to Sci-fi's master of humor, Douglas Adams.

A new paper has come out discussing how the Fermi Paradox might be explained by the rigors of traveling space for interstellar colonization, causing settlements to be rare and and possibly not long-lived. We'll look at this model for spreading humanity out across the galaxy and see what insights or flaws it might have.

Science Fiction often presents us technologies that go far beyond the realms of known science, but many of these, such as force fields, inertial dampeners, anti-gravity, or faster than light travel might be possible if our future knowledge of physics holds some surprises. Today we will look at many technologies that are currently fanciful but may not be ruled out, what we call Clarketech, and consider what their implications would be if we could get them working.

One of the biggest reasons for colonizing other worlds is to ensure we don't die with our own sun, but even those alien suns we might travel to will die one day. And yet, our image of stars living than erupting spectacular as a red giant or supernova, present a somewhat false impression, as those stellar remnants often last far longer than the stars which bore them. Could civilizations survive around these dead stars? Could they even outlast the End of the Universe, as the last stars fade away?

Earth has often been compared to a spaceship, one that's successfully orbited our star and the galaxy many times over billions of years. So what about moving our planet or even converting it or another world into a spaceship? Can we use entire planets to cross the intergalactic void to settle planets in distant galaxies or superclusters? And what sort of engine and drive could move a whole planet?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, March 31, 2019, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Fears about technology and it's impact on our civilization, or on individuals even when new tech is net benefit, are often shown to us in fiction as giving rise to technophobic cultures that abandon science. Today we'll take a look at such concerns and if they might be common or rare, rogue examples. Or if, counter-intuitively, they benefit us in settling the galaxy in the future.

Perhaps one of the most common technologies seen in science fiction is anti-gravity and gravity manipulation. Today we'll examine if there's an scientific pathways in physics to permit such technology, and what sort of amazing options it might offer if developed in the future.

To celebrate International Pet Day, we'll take a look at what the future might have in store for our furry friends, and what sorts of new pet might emerge as technology improves.

Giant Robots, or Mecha, in films and comic books fascinate audiences, but are usually considered impractical even with improved technology in the future. Today we'll look at them and concepts like power armor and exoskeletons and see if such suits might have a practical role in warfare or uses other than comba

The galaxy contains countless billions of planets we might colonize, and we may build far more living area as space station habitats and megastructures, but Earth will always be unique and living here prized. Today we will see what we can do make Earth larger, by adding many layers of terrain in concentric spheres around us.

The End of the World is a popular topic in science fiction and a source of serious worry for modern civilizations. If Doomsday comes, what can a Prepper do to survive and what would those civilizations look like? How long would recovery take and what technologies would remain? Just how grim is such a possible future?

Black Holes are often considered the greatest dangers to spaceships in science fiction, but they may turn out to be the perfect power source for future spaceships.

The option of using floating platforms, balloons, or cargo air planes to launch rockets into space and save fuel is often discussed but rarely employed. Today we'll look at stratostations, rockoons, and other suggested methods for getting into space using these methods.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, April 28, 2019, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Natural disasters can topple civilizations, even in modern times, but with more and more technology civilizations become more robust and capable of predicting future calamities and preventing such ruin. So what other threats face spacefaring civilizations, both at the interplanetary and interstellar scale?

A Paperclip Maximizer is an example of artificial intelligence run amok performing a job, potentially seeking to turn all the Universe into paperclips. But it's also an example of a concept called Instrumental Convergence, where two entities with wildly different ultimate goals might end up acting very much alike. This concept is very important to preparing ourselves for future automation and machine minds, and we'll explore that today.

Nuclear Fusion holds the potential to free us of so many of the constraints offered by everything from fossil fuels to renewable energy option like wind and solar, if we can just get it working. Today we'll look at the challenges facing us in terms of the physics and engineering, the various possible reactors like the Tokamak, Poylwell, NFI, and more, and see what a bright future fusion might offers us. Check out the Butterfly Effect: https://watchnebula.com/isaacarthur

In the future humanity might build structures of incomprehensible size and splendor, megastructures and artificial worlds, but somebody is going to have to build and maintain these feats of science and engineering and clean up all the orbital debris.

It's popular to say nothing is impossible, especially in regard to the future and our Universe, but are there somethings which might turn out to be impossible or at least so impractical they never occur?

Science fiction delights in showing us brave adventurers boarding abandoned spaceships, exploring ancient alien worlds and space hulks, or surviving on planets turned into giant garbage dumps, but how realistic is this idea? And what sort of civilizations and cultures might spring up around such efforts?

Humanity has a long and inventive history of sports and games, and the future will offer us many new options for athletics as we move out in space, be it racing around the Moon, climbing the mountains of Mars, hang gliding on Venus, or zero-g gymnastics. We'll also explore potential challenges and opportunities offered by genetic enhancement, cybernetics, and virtual reality.

Colonizing Mars and terraforming it to be a comfortable future home for humanity is quite the challenge. How would we go about it and how close is close enough for our purposes? How would we let life grow on the open surface of Mars and how would we give air and water and potentially even alter its day, year, and gravity?

The Fermi Paradox ask us how in a Universe so vast and ancient we seem to be the only intelligent civilization around, with no older interstellar alien empires visible in the galaxy. But could extinction play a role in that, or might extinction events instead drive evolution forward?

Discussion of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations often hinges on the idea that they may have ascended to a higher state or higher level of reality, and lost interest in us and the rest of the galaxy. While we can't know what technologies or enlightened paths they might have available, we can ask how realistic the portrayals of those aliens might be, and if this notion make sense as a Fermi Paradox solution.

There's many dangerous places on Earth, and everywhere off Earth is downright lethal, from the emptiness of space to the airless and radiation soaked Moon to the smoldering inferno of Venus, humanity can't visit them without protection. We'll see what options for spacesuits are under works and what options might emerge for even better ones in the distant future.

Venus is a desolate scorching world on which no life can exist. Yet if it can be cooled down, there is no other planet we know of more suitable for terraforming and colonization. We will examine methods of cooling Venus down and preparing it to be settled in the future.

When people get lost, stranded, or stuck in dangerous situations, we go and rescue them. Today we'll look at what new dangers may face us in the future and what new tools technology might offer us to improve survival chances.

The Butterfly Effect is the principle that notes that even the smallest actions can have sweeping effects on everything in the long term. Today we'll look at that effect and ask what it means toward chaos, inevitable events, fate, and free will itself.

The ability to link mind and machine has long been the realm of science fiction, but now improvements in our understanding may allow us to network brain to computer in the near future. Companies like Neurolink have begun to explore how to link our neurons to machine, and we'll explore now such neural interfaces might function and how they might change our lives.

The Fermi Paradox, the big question of where all the aliens are, has many proposed solutions focusing on what might lower the odds of intelligent species arising on another world, or what might end technological civilizations or cause them to go unseen by us and our SETI efforts. But what if intelligence rarely leads to technological civilizations in the first place? Could there be countless planets in our galaxy occupied by species who never came to value technology?

Cloning people is a staple of science fiction, and now something science can do, but what are the future social and legal consequences of cloning, and can we learn to make fully grown clones or even duplicate our memories?

Every age produces new wonders and new challenges, and for the information age one of those is cybersecurity. We'll attempt to demystify the topic and explain some of the core concepts of keeping your computer secure and your personal data private.

From the most basic rockets to future ships designed for interstellar or even intergalactic flight, spaceship design is all about mission purpose, available technology, and keeping your crew safe and comfortable.

We often consider interacting with Aliens and Robots in the future, but what about Alien Robots? Today we'll ask what artificial intelligence created by aliens might look like and what sort of circumstances we'd encounter them, and if they may be the only aliens we ever encounter.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, November 24, 2019, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

H.P. Lovecraft is known as the father of the Cosmic Horror genre of fiction. The creator of Cthulhu and many other terrifying dark gods in his novels paints a bleak and decaying view of our world and the Universe. Today we'll examine what it might imply if that nihilistic and grim view of reality was correct.

We often wonder how we might first meet extraterrestrials, picturing flying saucers and UFOs landing and aliens emerging asking to be taken to our leader - but joining the galactic community might be a very strange experience.

All of our civilization exists only a thin layer of Earth's surface, and our deepest mines barely scratch our planet. We often talk about finding new mineral resources on other worlds or asteroids in the future, but are we ignore a treasure beneath our feet, and what other technologies and engineering might we utilize in Earth's depths?

We often accuse people of being paranoid about extraterrestrials, flying saucers, and UFOs - but what if it's the aliens who are paranoid?

Right now, for a limited time, you can get 3 months of Audible for just $6.95 a month. That’s more than half off the regular price Visit https://www.audible.com/isaac or text isaac to 500-500. Space Piracy is a classic theme of science fiction, but is there chance we'll see it in the future? We'll examine how it might develop in the next century around asteroid mining and how it might occur in the interstellar void as spaceships travel out to the wider galaxy.

As we pioneer our way out from Earth to other planets and eventual the stars, our concept of time will change in more ways than just different calendars. We'll explore how interstellar civilizations might cope with everything from relativity to life extension and how century long voyages and time lags of communication over millions of worlds might be managed.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, December 29, 2019, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!