Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

Is time travel possible, and if it is, what sort of civilizations would result? We'll explore the science that might permit it as well as the classic science fiction examples to see if they make sense.

Alien Conspiracy theories are too numerous to count, but are they simply being paranoid about UFOs or might aliens be conspiring against us? Alternatively, could an extraterrestrial civilization be conspiratorial by nature, and what motives might a galactic civilization have for involving themselves with us in secret?

Fire is often considered the foundation of human technology, but there may be many worlds on which it would not be likely to practical, such an ocean planets, and on which intelligent life like Dolphins might emerge. Could such worlds host technological civilizations anyway? Or would they be forever stuck at little to no technology?

The Moon is gateway to space, and in the future it might serve as an industrial and mining complex fueling vast production of spaceships, rocket fuel, satellites, space stations, and colonial habitats.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, January 26, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

O'Neill Cylinders space stations are examples of large rotating habitats able to be constructed in space in which people and even a complex ecology might be transplanted. But what would it be like living in one and how would civilizations based inside them in the future tend to operate?

The Moon is covered in vast numbers of craters, some larger than entire Earth-based Nations, which may serve as dome habitats for humanity's future space colonies. But what would a crater city colony be like?

Artificial Intelligence, while still limited to only the most simplistic computers and robots, is beginning to emerge and will only grow smarter. Can humanity survive it's own creations and learn to coexist with them?

According to modern cosmology, one day all the stars will burn out and the Universe will be full of dead planets, black holes, and other stellar remnants, slowing decaying till entropy brings the Heat Death of the Universe. But could this fate be postponed or even reversed?

Climate Change can occur from many sources, natural or manmade. In order to handle these problems we may wish to utilize many of the technologies we've developed for future space exploration, colonization, and terraforming.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, February 23, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Genetic Engineering and DNA alteration is an emerging technology with huge ramifications in the future, including potentially altering the DNA of adult humans, not just embryos or plants & animals.

A brief look at the life and work of Physicist and Mathematician Freeman Dyson.

The Zoo Hypothesis is a Fermi Paradox solution that assumes extraterrestrial civilizations can't be detected by our SETI efforts because they keep our whole world in an Alien Zoo.

Our future in space will require immense industry and infrastructure as we colonize out solar system and beyond. But how will those industries affect that colonization, and what form might an interplanetary civilization take from that influence?

Could Earth be home to a trillion people, or even more? We'll explore if we can do this with current technology, what future technologies would help, and what such a planet-wide city, an Ecumenopolis, might be like.

We often speculate that the reason we can't hear aliens civilizations is because our SETI efforts (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) relies on radio and telescopes to weak to hear them. But how plausible is that? and what would it tell us about our own future?

Science fiction loves to take us to desolate alien worlds with low-gravity, and envision creatures evolved to those or humans adapted to those conditions or zero-gravity in space, and many planets we might one day colonize like Mars do have low gravity... but our assumptions about life on such places correct or what if we're making incorrect assumptions?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, March 29, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Every day brings us new technological advances, today we'll explore many of those of such as robotics, automation, rapid delivery, education, medical science, nanotechnology, and more.

We often see science as an eternal march forward, but could a society stop advancing, either by choice or by running out own new things to discover.

Science Fiction has long contemplated the idea that alien life not based on carbon chemistry such as silicon might exist on distant and strange worlds, or might be made to exist advanced biological engineering. What would such life be like?

The other side of the coin to all the new & future wonders we produce is what to do with them when they're old or broken. Today we examine the future of garbage, waste, and recycling.

The future of humanity might be one of unrivaled prosperity - a post-scarcity civilization - of abundant power, advanced automation and robotics, and sophisticated artificial intelligence helping boost efficiency to all economic sectors. But what would such an economy look like, and what challenges might we face getting there?

As humanity reaches out to the stars and make new homes on strange new worlds, how will our genetics & DNA change under those alien planets?

In the future we might see the rise of minds entirely on computers, be it uploaded humans, transhumans, or artificial intelligence. But what would such an existence be like? Would they interact with our world or live in entirely virtual realities or simulated universes?

Parallel Universes, Multiverses, Alternate Timeline & Realities are the focus of many theories of physics and popular science & science fiction.

Ancient cultures long thought the Sun had a mind of it's own, but could life form in stars by nature or exist by artificial origins, and what would star with a mind of its own be like?

Antimatter represents both the most powerful weapon and most powerful fuel for a future humanity, if we can ever learn to make it efficiently and store it safely.

Science fiction often shows us seemingly benevolent aliens whose UFOs come in peace then turn out to have sinister motives and hidden conspiracies, but what would a genuinely friendly group of extraterrestrials be like?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, May 31, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Jupiter is an enormous gas giant, more massive than all the other planets in the solar system combined... and yet small compared to our Sun and other Stellar Objects. Could Jupiter be turned into a second sun via advanced technology?

As ancient and vast as the Universe is, it seems like some alien race arose in the galaxy long before us, but who rose before them? What would the cosmos be like for the first civilization to arise, and what if it is us?

Artificial Intelligence seems nearer everyday, and many people worry about a conflict between us and robots & computer minds, but what would life be like After AI?

As we head out into space we can expect to see crimes and a need for laws and someone to enforce them. Today we'll examine the notion of Space Police and future crime and law enforcement.

Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes, and other hyper-strong materials have generated great interest in recent years, but how do they actually work and what will their impact on our future be?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, June 28, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Mankind's future is among the stars, but not necessarily on other planets. Instead we might forge giant space stations that are entire artificial worlds, and today we'll explore some of those megastructure designs, like the McKendree Cylinder, Bishop Rings, Banks Orbital, Topopolis, and more.

Science fiction loves to show us disembodied heads or brains floating in jars, but could this be one route to extending our lives? Or could you already be one living in false reality?

Our future lies out among the planets and stars, but to climb out in to space we must take many steps to get off, and today we'll look at those first steps to becoming spacefaring species. From cheaper rockets & space stations to asteroid mining & defense to space tourism & commercialization, we've a long road ahead, but we have a roadmap.

Our solar system contains many planets, moons, and asteroid that we may one day call home, but the future might instead be artificial space habitats, stations, and megastructures of vast size and numbers, using all those celestial bodies as raw materials to be dismantled for construction.

If the Universe is inhabited by older alien civilizations, those who have ventured out to the stars and colonized galaxies, we would expect to see a footprint of extraterrestrial activity. Could the many stars whose brightness has dimmed be indicative of Dyson Spheres or other Megastructures? Could the Cosmic Voids vastly bigger than any galaxy be the work of even greater and older starfaring species?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, July 26, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Science fiction often shows us post-apocalyptic future civilizations with techno-barbarians running around in fur & hides but carrying laser weapons or other advanced technology. But how plausible is such a civilizations and what would it actually be like?

Superconductors offer us a path to high-efficiency, low-loss power and energy, but the impact they'll have on our civilization through other technologies may be far greater, and we'll explore the science or superconductivity works and what future technology it will of us.

Our future in space may be one of millions or even trillions of vast space station, space habitats, and megastructures. How would a space-faring civilization going about traveling around such an immense solar empire?

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, SETI, relies on looking for signals from distant alien worlds where even very powerful signals can weaken to near nothing. We'll explore today how we, or extraterrestrials, might get around this problem, be it by immense star-powered transmitters or by using laser communication beams. Part 2 on The Exoplanets Channel: https://youtu.be/04AIXj78nJ0 Part 3 with Parallax Nick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iim--...

One possible solution to the Fermi Paradox, the big question of where all the aliens are, is that some ancient galactic disaster wiped out extraterrestrial civilizations, and we're among the first to arrive back on the spacefaring scene.

Over the centuries humanity has tried many versions of government and many variations on each type, today we will examine how technology and space colonization might impact what types of governments we use in the future.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, August 30, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Spaceships and fleets of the future may host their own unique civilizations of nomads, traveling the space lanes or venturing deep into interstellar space to colonize the galaxy or flee peril. What would such cultures be like?

To travel to other planets, we will first have to build up are infrastructure closer to home, in orbit of Earth. The best place to get all the mass for those space stations and rocket fuel depots is from the Moon, and we'll examine the milestones we'll need to reach to start lunar resource harvesting and building up space settlements.

Asteroids represent a serious hazard to Earth, past, present, and future, but will be even more of a concern to humanity as we venture out to space beyond beyond our atmosphere's protection. We will explore what technologies and methods may be available to help protect us from asteroids.

Nuclear Fission was once hailed as the solution to our power & energy needs, but has grown unpopular of fears of radiation, meltdowns, and radioactive waste. However, advances in science and reactor design may make atomic energy safer and more attractive in the future.

The genesis and origin of life may require a very rare and delicate mixture of certain chemicals. One of those is phosphorus, and trying to figure out how we ever got enough of it in Earth's primordial soup for life to form in the first place has long puzzled scientists. We will also discuss the recent discovery of Phosphine Gas in Venus's Atmosphere

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, September 27, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

It's been over half a century since we first went to the Moon, and nearly as long since we last went. To Return to the Moon we need a base with a purpose, and we'll look at what purposes we have in mind and what the bases might be like as we head back to establish a Lunar Colony.

Science Fiction delights in showing us grim, dark, giant, and dystopian future cities of covered in garbage and where life is cheap, but how realistic are such metropolises and how can we avoid living in them?

Recently the Military released Navy footage of 3 separate UFO or UAP - unidentified aerial phenomena - we will review that footage and consider both mundane explanations and the not-so-mundane, like secret projects, extraterrestrial origins, and what it might indicate about the technology and motivations of such alien civilizations if they are visitors from out in the galaxy.

We typically imagine interstellar civilizations as vastly superior in technology to modern times, but could the future see planets colonized by spaceships little better than our modern ones? Could some alien worlds allow space travel to develop far sooner and easier than it did on Earth? Or could civilizations abandon more advanced technology?

To become an Interplanetary Species we need to colonize another planet, and Mars will be our first target. To establish a base there, and a future settlement, we need to get their first, so we will also examine the Aldrin Cycler, a type of spacecraft that may make traveling to other worlds far easier.

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, October 25, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Aliens are portrayed in Science Fiction both as our potential saviors and best friends, as well as the stuff of nightmares. Would an extraterrestrial civilization be benevolent or terrifying, and how would we seem to them?

Establishing Interstellar Trade and Commerce in the future will require an entirely new approach to moving cargo, as years if not centuries might pass for shipments to arrive by even the fastest spaceships, but may be aided by the use of vast interstellar Cycler Castles traveling on century long trade routes.

One solution to the Fermi Paradox, the big question of where all the aliens are, is that extraterrestrials might hide from us to avoid altering our society, a concept we see in Star Trek called the Prime Directive. Is such a policy ethical, and if so, should we follow it?

Asteroids represent a threat to Earth, but in the future they may be a boon, serving as sources of vast wealth and resources, and as orbital settlements and keystones of interplanetary trade.

In order to colonize space, we will need colonists willing to travel to desolate planets, moons, and asteroids to settle those worlds. What would life be like as a pioneer to the alien frontier?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, November 29, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

The last century has been one of awesome and often terrifying technological progress, and the next century offers as many wonders and terrors for us to navigate into our future.

The Kardashev Scale measures how powerful a high-tech civilization is, with K-1 indicating a advanced society able to call on all the power of their planet, which we often envision as a Post-Scarcity Utopia. Is this the future of Humanity? And if so, how can we achieve it?

As we venture out into space to colonize new planets, moons, and asteroids, how will these new settlements grow from simple outposts in to developed worlds with cities and civilizations all their own?

Our galaxy likely contains trillions of worlds, and perhaps none we could live on without great effort to make them like Earth. To colonize these worlds, to make them settlements for our descendants in the future, we must first terraform them.

Navigating the vast ocean of the galaxy to reach distant stars will be no easy matter, but future spaceships may find many new difficulties finding their way throughout space, and also throughout time.

The big question of why life exists has challenged minds for countless centuries, but what does science have to say on this matter? Could life arise on other worlds and in other Universes, and what is the reason for it?

Kardashev-2 Civilizations are hypothetical empires which encompass entire stars, with access to billions of times the energy Earth has, often seen as builders of megastructures like Dyson Spheres. But could civilizations with only the technology we have become Kardashev-2?

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us 4pm EST, Sunday, December 27, 2020, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

As we move into space we prepare not just to settle the Moon and Mars, but stretch our reach out to other stars and settle the galaxy, becoming an interstellar species.