Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

In order to get into space, we require either huge amounts of rocket fuel or dangerously powerful energy sources, making personal spacecraft a technology limited to science fiction. But by harnessing beamed power sources to run engines, we may be able to create a spaceplane cheap enough and safe enough that anyone could have one in the future. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/Wol8EU6Rtbk...

Black Holes are often considered the most dangerous objects in the Universe, especially in science fiction, and today we'll look at how these may be used as weapons in future warfare. Watch the Video Version: https://youtu.be/zTMxO1nJaA4 Start listening with a 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two Audible Originals are free. Visit http://www.audible.com/isaac or text "ISAAC" to 50...

Pluto and it's largest moon, Charon, are so far from the Sun and so tiny that they would not seem like promising options for interplanetary colonization. However, they may turn out to be excellent prospects precisely because the double dwarf planet offers some unique options, like space elevators right from surface to surface. Watch the Video Version: https://youtu.be/TNRQFKVV68I Visit our sponsor...

Spaceplanes long seemed like the logical next step for getting into orbit after the Space Shuttle, but have seemingly fallen to the wayside in recent years in favor of reusable rockets. But the future may see a return of spaceplanes, and we'll look at some of the more promising designs like Skylon. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/V4BQvD_QJwM Get a free month of Curiosity Stream: http://c...

Black Holes are amongst the most destructive things in the Universe, but it may be that properly utilized, they might be the best places in the galaxy to live around in the future, and possibly right here in our own solar system too. Check out the Paperclip Maximizer: https://watchnebula.com/isaacarthur Visit our sponsor, Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/ Visit our Website: http://www....

Interstellar travel is very time consuming, moving from star to star, but perhaps we could use stars themselves as spaceships, and move whole solar systems or even galaxies. Today we'll look at how to use Shkadov Thrusters, novas, supernovae, black holes and quasars to move through space, literal starships. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/GxwCIeWaU3M Start listening with a 30-day Audible...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/5wKOOsY9xOY Visit our sponsor, Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/ Visit our...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/oAocMzxPjjo Sign up with Skillshare for 2 months of Free classes: https://skl.sh/isaacarthur10 Check out PBS Spacetime's episode on Hawking Radiation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPKj0YnKANw...

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? Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/QWmEgu1iP_E Try Dashlane here: https://...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/Tul4njD6uP4 Visit our sponsor,...

Giant Robots & Power Suits 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 combat. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/7ZlLtfQik1c Start...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/P4T08yRKaA0 Visit our sponsor, Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/ Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArth...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/QUqCJrBqcvQ Get a free month of Curiosity Stream: http://curiositystream.com/isa...

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. Watch the video...

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?...

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 aro...

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 cons...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/-Oo5AjkJ35Y The Fermi Paradox and the...

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. Watch the Video Version: https://youtu.be/vFdx1Hs71iA Sign up with Skillshare for 2 months of Free classe...

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. Watch the Video Version: https://youtu.be/IpF25knrGtg Visit our sponsor, Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/...

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. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/EdnxZXDU2c0 Visit our sponsor, Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/ Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur SFIA Merchandise ava...

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. Watchthe video version: https://youtu.be/nIJKdSR8gbY Check out Fraser's new book: https://www.universetoday.com/139658/our-book-the-universe-today-ultimate-guide-to-viewing-the-cosmos/ ... and check out more amazing episodes on Fraser's...

Happily Ever After Feb 14 2019 by Isaac Arthur See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 spac...

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...