Cyclic Apocalypses

[@bjrnbjrnsson4012]

“The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.” -Robert Jordan

[@alrune7508]

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

[@MyPhobo]

"Basketball" -Michael Jordan

[@Iefita]

Ka is a wheel.

[@ppcgnamda]

Thought it was a Tolkien quote at first.

[@titusspellings5877]

Nice Bjørn. TV show is closer than ever.

[@fredricknietzsche7316]

Isaac, I wanted to say thank you for sticking with narrating your IP. I find that I actually look forward to and really enjoy listening to your voice. It's like Satchmo as a singer, he grows on you and he's so original that he can never be replaced!

[@mishXY]

my dog died today - she cannot be replaced

[@TheDreamVibes]

MrTJMishRat my condolences, stay strong

[@00BillyTorontoBill]

Yeah I like his voice and delivery. Nothing better than the writer actually saying it.. The sincerity is clearly heard.

[@scottinWV]

He reminds me of some character in a Civil WAr era movie I watched once. A mid-1800's southern gentleman!

[@christinearmington]

MrTJMishRat So sorry. 😞. My dog is almost ten. I think about and dread it.

[@SWDennis]

"Ah, yes. Reapers."

[@n.l.g.6401]

SWDennis We have dismissed that claim.

[@eh1600]

I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions.

[@graywolf182]

This reminds me more of Mote in God's Eye than Mass Effect. ME wasn't really about cyclic apocalypse on any given planet. As far as I remember, reapers eliminated space-faring civilizations completely, leaving (almost) no survivors and not allowing them to ever rebuild. So the civilizations in the next cycle had to rise from scratch.

[@jamesleduke873]

Sobaken I'd argue that's a galaxy wide cyclical apocalypse.

[@ryonalawson3852]

IVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR SNIDE INSINUATIONS

[@Richard_is_cool]

Thank you, Isaac, for all your brilliant work.

[@tharsgaard663]

The thing I like the best about your videos is the way you come at every little decision from as many different logical perspectives as possible to weed out every possible scenario ! It really makes what you talk about make much more sense , and even helps me in trying to think more critically about things !

[@brettrobinson9713]

how do you come up with an interesting topic EVERY...SINGLE....WEEK without fail.....you are what every KZbinr wants to be great work Isaac!

[@SnakesRaven]

"All of this has happened before. And will happen again"

[@antred11]

Damn you! You beat me to it by 10 minutes! :p

[@SnakesRaven]

:p

[@javierzurera986]

'Sick guitar solo'

[@diggydude5229]

@John McCornick Baltar turning traitor made a lot more sense in the reboot knowing what tempted him.

[@savagetruthercritic8646]

Battlestar....

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Incidentally, sorry for the early release. I prefer to be here when an episode comes out rather than using the 'scheduled release' option in case a problem arises and have a last minute meeting at the normal release time. Same reason I probably will be delayed replying to comments today.

[@levigriffin5553]

Early morning Arthursday video? I'm not complaining :)

[@Nobody-11B]

Isaac Arthur what's your take on the new "Space Corps?"

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Honestly mostly indifference, that chunk of the air force has been pushing to be its own branch for a while and I nominally agree that they should be, and we'll need one eventually, but it seems a little premature still, and based on what they're likely to do, should probably be 'orbital command' instead, since we'll just have to do another separation down the road when folks start thinking about interplanetary stuff.

[@taotechnique]

Ill never complain about this! Its more of a pleasent surprise!

[@willemvandebeek]

I actually prefer it this early :)

[@philrod1]

I for one welcome our Raccoon overlords.

[@Skelstoolbox]

This reporter may have been too hasty when describing our current political leaders.. It might not be perfect, but it's all we have... Mhm?? (rips down "Hail Ant overlords" poster)... Classic Kent Brockman..

[@alexritchie4586]

Don't blame me! I voted for Kodos!

[@ChrisBrengel]

LOL!

[@lordlycius]

And 'Rocket' Shall Lead Them

[@ssgssbeet4133]

@@lordlycius Rocket has a good moral compass.. id welcome him as leader

[@kleinjahr]

Cyclic civilization, instantly flashed on the Moties in "The Mote in God's Eye" .There is also a short story about rebuilding after an apocalyptic war. The survivors raided libraries and such for tech manuals. Last scene, two people are talking about how they wished their latest project had more detail in the manuals. Then it goes flying over their heads heading out on a five year mission to explore new worlds. To seek out alien civilizations.

[@ChrisBrengel]

_The Mote in God's Eye_ great one! I'd forgotten about it

[@annoyed707]

Is that you, Horst Staley?

[@cixcell7735]

we've littered the world with printed scientific journals

[@davidpeters6536]

Ha ha! You mean Galaxy Quest...

[@StarboyXL9]

Isaac Arthur: "There is nothing new under the sun." Me, a Stellaris player: WHAT WAS SHALL BE, WHAT SHALL BE WAS

[@isuckatusernames4297]

is this some kind of non gestalt joke I'm too unified to understand ?

[@hvanmegen]

Haha, just watched a video from 2015 and this one.. the production quality has improved sooooo much, and the whole wascally wabbit is a thing of the past .. I could swear that you're rolling R's these days.. man, so much growth.. I didn't do a thing of it, but still I feel proud of being witness to it all :) And of course, as ALWAYS your content is friggin' awesome! A very big shoutout to the entire team of people that help you out too! You guys are making something that's pretty much prime time science content :) I don't entirely suck with 3D.. would love to checkout your list of requested 3D models or shots to help with the effort!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Henry, I try to make a point of watching one of the early episodes about once a month just to remind myself of the overall progress though I tend to wince at the quality the whole time. We don't really have a shotlist for episodes, I occasionally request something but our normal approach is for me to post the script about 7 weeks out, and the recorded narration about 6 weeks out, and the crew just go through those and see if anything fires their imagination or interest. Obviously we can always use more graphics and I'd be grateful for any help. If you'd like to join, just message and friend request me on facebook, we do our coordination in a private group there.

[@stefanr8232]

I can think of some 3D models that someone should make.

[@hvanmegen]

Isaac Arthur I left facebook a couple of months ago, but for this I will set up a new minimal account.. I would love to be able to help! cya there!

[@HuntingTarg]

I do miss the 'Wascally Wabbit' warnings a tad, but it keeps you out of trouble with Warner Bros.

[@annoyed707]

Each time he dies and is resurrected, he retains the memories of the previous Arthur.

[@cherubin7th]

Although old empires came and gone, technologically humanity always made non cyclic progress. Just look at our alphabet. It didn't die with the Egyptian or Roman empire. It started from the Phoenician and slowly developed to the Latin alphabet that is still used today even if the Roman empire is long gone. There was even remarkable progress in the "dark ages".

[@Baalur]

Very true. Mathematics as well survived and improved over millenia. Sometimes things have to bei revived (Renaissance) but overall human progress has not been cyclic. Maybe it will be on a larger scale but I hope not. This video gives many reasons why it won't be.

[@aldoushuxley5953]

@@Baalur not yet, but so far we did not have the ability to wipe ourselves out. Now with nuclear weapons, and privately available gene editing tech (the-odin.com, you only need one lunatic to create the next antibiotic resistant superspreader plague), we have that ability. With tech, our ability to harm ourselves grows faster than the ability to defend from that harm. So extinction after a certain point is just a matter of rolling the dice often enough

[@Baalur]

@@aldoushuxley5953 IF we all stay on one planet in a single biosphere, yes. Then that risk will become inevitable it seems. Although even nuclear wars and devastating bio-weapons would most likely be survivable for humanity as a species. The question in such a doom's day scenario would be: Is it the beginning of a slow death or of a recovery. Isaac Arthur made an interesting video on post-apocalypse-scenarios. You should give it a watch.

[@aldoushuxley5953]

@@Baalur I have watched that. the problem with that video is, that he starts with the assumption, that we can organize with large groups quickly after the fall, and that surviving will be easy enough to spend your free time looking for books etc. Books are not particularily sturdy, and will be gone after a couple decades, if the remains of buildings are not kept dry. If a Kaczynski type character released a disease, that targeted rice and wheat (and corn, if he is even more evil), and proofed it against the most common used pesticides and antibiotics/antivirals, then you could wipe out a majority of the worlds food supply within a year. The earth is only able to support this many humans, because of modern agriculture, so good luck hunting and gathering. Gaining back agriculture will also be fairly hard after such an event (because we will have even less ways of combating future strains, and most of these plants will be gone/ it takes very long to domesticate alternatives). So you have much much less people, and they will fight for resources - a lot. If preserving knowledge is not your top priority within the first 50 years, most will probably be lost. And honestly, I think it will be hard enough to survive. I highly recommend the TV program Aftermath: Zero to see how fast everything we build will be gone.

[@aldoushuxley5953]

@@Baalur Even if we go to mars soon, we would need a self sufficient colony, and we are fairly far away from that. Once we have that, we will be much more safe unil we have even better weapons again.

[@dapootisbird3608]

Issac Arthur releases a video, than 1000s of people watch, this cycle mysteriously occurs every Thursday

[@jhwheuer]

Da Pootisbird you of course refer to ArThursday

[@djbeachbob491]

THANK YOU ISAAC I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[@NickPoeschek]

The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and at the apex of their glory they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They mere found them - the legacy of my kind.

[@angelkitty11]

Nick Poeschek Mass Effect 😂

[@TheNowerianRaven]

Or wraith for Stargate Atlantis are good example too

[@jonathanryan9946]

Back when Mass Effect told a great story and had tons of potential. I miss those days...

[@mikeharrington5593]

Yeah, yeah, yeah .. .. ..

[@jerkfudgewater147]

This is a repost but it fits here soooooooo 2 parts to this comment. A) cancer was once described to me as “a race to survive, first the cancer cells race to see who will avoid getting killed long enough to become cancer (getting rid of telomeres/invent fire) then they race to survive the immune system (a tumor/invent books) then they race to see who can survive outside the tumor (metastasis/invent the internet)” normally the host dies at this point (civilization kills it’s host planet) but 1 cancer has even survived this “Devil Facial Tumor” the first cancer to spread beyond its host (the cellular equivalent of an interplanetary civilization), maybe civilization works like this, we race to get past hurtles but constantly fall back then we come back stronger (cancer survivors have a lower survival rate for each successive bout of cancer) but for all the things that die of cancer only DFT has managed to get beyond it’s host without killing it’s self first. B) maybe each time we have had an apocalypse we have come back stronger but a little different, there is a sentiment that there is a dogma in science to make everything about our past that we discover fit what we already believe ie history is only 12,000 years old, but we don’t actually know how old all that giant stone stuff is (the sphinx and the giant statues the Coast To Coast AM crowd loves so much don’t quite fit with out belief that the babylonians where the first to invent the wheel, or the giant 7,000,000 ton stone rectangle found in Yangshan China that someone cut out of a mountain but god only knows how... if it was more than 12,000 years ago there was an ice age to grind their structures away, yet we still find weird stuff like the Antikythera mechanism (a weird old computer thing with a hollow multi axel thats shouldn’t exist until the 1700’s) and we still have stories of weird stuff with almost ubiquitous plot points (a great flood found from the Epic of Gilgamesh in Syria to the Iroquois of Ohio to the Japanese creation myth all the way to the Australian Aboriginal great flood (possibly related to when the Philippines stopped being a land bridge), ancient road like things (Rama’s Bridge and the Bimini road) if these folks were using something like wood gas burning motors there would be little evidence that they existed thousands of years later other than the engines them selves which would have probably been scrapped for the metal they were made of by the same sort of folks who made meteorites into swords and repurposed the roman ruins into other stone buildings... so i guess my point is your assertion that “if advanced folks (just steampunk not spaceship advanced) had existed there would be all kinds of signs... that there aren’t” (i know you didn’t say that exactly but i feel like thats the gist). my response is there are lots of signs we’ve been pretty advanced before then some catastrophe seems to have set us back be it a giant flood at the end of the ice age or something like what was happening to the Aztecs or Eastern islanders where their success was causing their environment to collapse when we found them (if I’m remembering correctly the aztecs had cut down all their trees to make cement...) ie their technology was causing their collapse. And this has all happened before 😅

[@denuncimesmo2568]

I remembered the series battlestar galactica, which was marked in a cyclical, apocalyptic event, where the footprints were rediscovered in a future moment and in the end they found a new planet where men could reestablish themselves and at the end of the series everything starts again retranslated in our present days . it seems to fit your perfectly clear video with some variants but reinforces your arguments

[@colzaidikari]

the problem with that is that we are so much related to every species on earth including bacteria that the only way this was true we would have had Terra-formed the earth then added our native plant and animal life millions of years ago to allow evolutionary deviation down to the bacteria and fungi.

[@michaelkeefer5674]

Not if the bacteria and fungi proved more adaptable and hardy then the versions present when they started terra-forming.

[@zigzagzarf]

I hated that ending to battlestar...let’s abandon all our life saving tech to be cavemen...

[@_Muzolf]

Not only did have to replicate an entire biosphere, but litter the place with fake fossils to make it look like we developed here. This not only ignores Occams Razor to assume anything like it, but assumes a level of dedication to a silly deception that indicates those ancestors who came from the starts were both brilliant and totally insane workaholics.

[@daveschere918]

but the message was that even that didn't stop the cycle even when we started from scratch since it was implied that the purpose of our species was to create artificial life then destroy ourselves and repeat the process. Like a bee spreading pollen we spread AI life throughout the universe.

[@briancooke1134]

Isaac, your content continues to improve! I’m so happy that I found your channel about a year ago, and I look forward to more every Thursday. You’re a brilliant machine, keep it up, Maestro!

[@niallmackenzie99]

I love your work Isaac, you explaine things with ease and I find your voice easy to focus on. Thank you!!!

[@12201185234]

Your videos are awesome, Isaac! And your production quality just keeps getting better every week. Thank you for supplying us with this quality content!

[@isabella2006]

Isaac I love your work so much. It is so enlightening. Thank you! A warm, big hug from Rio

[@Puleczech]

Brasilian girl who's into hypothetical sci-fi? God exists after all.

[@GreenichViper]

Awesome intro music this time! So interested that for the first time I saw that you have soundcloud links of the music in the description. Extra thumbs-up!

[@playwars3037]

Uh, interesting, awesome video, as always !

[@41-Haiku]

That ad transition was flawless.

[@jamesskiles9694]

Who could down vote such a podcast!!!!??? Thank you for the work you do for us!

[@gav44]

James Skiles Idiots!

[@Ultriix]

Even if you get a video that changed humanity for the better, there would always be that guy that votes it down because he can, the same guy that runs over birds and stamps on bugs because he can.

[@malkavil]

there are people that would burn u if they could, only couse u give evidence of earth having more than 10k years,,,,i imagine for em this video deserves to be baned x for ex

[@MrCmagik]

I agree but at the same time, 3100 vs 34, that's barely more than 0.1% people disliking the video. pretty good ratio if you ask me xD

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

might have been the odd radical creationist or ancient alien fanatic who don't like their mis-beliefs called out...

[@rockscousteau]

I have watched EVERYONE of your videos over the past 30 days. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST CHANNEL LIKE THIS ANYWHERE., THANK YOU ISAAC..........YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL.......CANNOT WAIT TILL YOUR NEXT UPLOAD

[@wolvenar]

You have been working on that lead into skillshare for quite some time haven't you

[@zak7181]

It was a good lead in because it was very relevant to the topic. Because of its relevance and the seamless transition from episode to commercial, I find myself watching all the way through even after I know I'm watching a commercial. And I have a deep aversion to commercials so that's saying something.

[@wolvenar]

Zak Well yeah, exactly why I pointed that out.

[@ezequieltriple7]

Hey issac my first comment on one of your videos but I gotta say that beginning music is epic and and thanks for another great episode👍

[@seethegalaxy]

If KZbin did not exist, it would be worth inventing just for this channel alone.

[@timesathousand]

Isaac, I love your stuff. I've been watching for a year now and it's the richest brain-food I've ever found on youtube. I like the thoroughness and thought that goes into your debunking of perceived phenomenon, but I find the "Within known science..." theories just as intriguing. For instance, if you WERE to design the conditions in which a civilization would rise and fall periodically, what would they be? Periodic GRB's from a nearby quasar? Ocean, gas-giant, or otherwise suspended (e.g. Niven's 'Smoke Cloud') civilizations that sink to an unrecoverable depth when they collapse? Extremophile gestation cycles? Solar phenomenon that could even wipe out a K2 civilization? Even if the common perception of a phenomenon merits debunking, I think describing in-depth a plausible, positive example of the phenomenon would be thought-provoking. By the way, did I mention I love your stuff?

[@Kr-nv5fo]

For ten thousand years, we Thraddash have fought and died, learned and improved. Then, along came Culture Fourteen which claimed that all this -- this perfect method... ...was wrong! -- that each time we violently transformed to a new Culture we inevitably blasted ourselves back at least five hundred years in development. Hmph! Some people just cannot accept the cost of progress. Indeed, the FOOLISHNESS of Culture Fourteen's peaceful whining was revealed when they were conquered by Culture Fifteen after only a ten year reign. And did the change to Culture Fifteen set us back five hundred years? NO! SNORT! Two, maybe three hundred years, tops. Star Control 2 storytelling is so very good, even if the time scale is a bit off.

[@12201185234]

When you mentioned the obviously artificial geometric patterns that our farms and cities and buildings make, I thought of the novel, "The Engines of God." The books solution to the Fermi Paradox is quite interesting. There is some sort of force or entity that patrols the galaxy every 50 thousand years or so, which seeks out and destroys any planet with obvious signs of technology. It sought out inhabited planets by the geometric patterns on the surface.

[@HuntingTarg]

Other commenters simply reference The Reapers of Mass Effect. Thanks for the literary reference, I'll put it on my list. (And who knows, it could have been the original inspiration for The Reapers? - Why I still want to write books over make video games).

[@sadetherat4147]

Thanks for mentioning this. I read through the preview on Amazon and I'm already hooked. It'll be nice to have something fresh to read.

[@theJellyjoker]

I'm wondering, if an ancient advanced civ leaves lots of geometric things and a new species arises, would not a new civ from the new species think that regular geometric shapes are natural because they are ubiquitous in their experience?

[@davidjackowski4336]

Until there was reason to believe otherwise, yes.

[@HuntingTarg]

No, because they're not ubiquitous in nature, and there would, to a rational or scientific mind, be a disjoint between patterns that came about from obvious natural processes and those that did not. We marvel and wonder about Stonehenge and the Ziggurats, but we do not have any doubt whether or not they were made by intelligent effort.

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

If you go through billion years of stone formations that never show such disruptions or geometric structures or unusual materials inserted everywhere, but find them in an only

[@z-beeblebrox]

Given our proclivity toward telling stories, no. Before having any evidence at all, the *very first thing* a civilization would do upon seeing geometric patterns is explain it as the product of gods or ancient heroes who came before them. That fact that people do this even with very obviously and provably-natural phenomena should be the tip-off

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

*If* they have a tendency towards that. If we go with the only civilization we know though - us - those people would have developed a scientific method along the technology needed to locate and dig up the remnants, most of which are buried under tons of rock.

[@felixshaw7859]

sick looking satellite thing at 25:10!!!

[@BrunoWiebelt]

you communicate ideas very well...

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Bruno!

[@marks-bp2hf]

The comprehensive content of your videos, Sir Isaac, is invaluable. Each segment contains as much as any 12 videos on the same subject, and more, and you don't make the viewer wait for each salient point. That includes Ted videos, etc. Absolutely astounding collection of material. Can't thank you enough.

[@nathanturner1177]

Wow Mr. Arthur. Another great video. Also I was trying to pick out because of a previous videos comment you made, you speech impediment. What ever you have been doing to work on it is working because I could not really find any instances of it. Our simple I am rewatching to many of your videos lol! 👍😄

[@MinecraftxFan1995]

You know, I have to agree. It's actually hard to distinguish his speech impediment from an accent--for example, I know many British people skim over the letter 'r' in words where that sound is in the last syllable, such as "there" or "car" or "Rubber".

[@Skelstoolbox]

Grammar and semantics/syntax son... Take a deep breath and let the literary skills flow through you...

[@marekklucka4407]

I am very happy with your poetic in the beginning. It gave the video very interesting and more philosophical intro. Well made

[@Dc-zu1ii]

Isaac I don't do much of my own reading or research but this has so far been one of my personal favorites. are we decendants left behind from a race of star people? Does nature organize itself intelligently wherever life arises? I feel like we as humans are close to learning about life in the solar system and beyond. Many say it isn't true or can't be true, many more want to believe, and most people probably are just waiting for the evidence. I only watched the first 4 seconds so far but I know I'm going to enjoy the next 30 something minutes. Thanks.

[@jeschinstad]

Definitely not wherever. Intelligence is only useful when things are predictable. If we didn't have the Moon to stabilize our seasons, I think chances for intelligence on Earth would've been very slim. A couple of inventions in human history illustrates this concept; the igloo and lighting fire. You would never invent either in the rainforest, so if that climate were moving fast around the Earth in unpredictable ways, we would not ever learn how to light fires. The same with the igloo; if the cold were moving fast around the world, then we would just never have the time to learn how to build one. Actually, the importance of the Moon, is the main reason I suspect that human-level intelligence is very rare, if not unique. The Theia episode seems so extremely unlikely to me, I'm open to the possibility that it will only happen once.

[@NoXion100]

You really have a knack for conveying the immensities of your subject matter. My mind is fizzing with the absolute hugeness of it all. Truly inspirational stuff. I also like the way you shifted tone when doing the advert :)

[@lvl10cooking]

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I love that series

[@coryjohnson7025]

Haven't thought about The Wheel of Time in ages. I have to go dig out those books and re-read the series. Thanks!

[@lvl10cooking]

It is my favorite fantasy series. Mr. Jordan may have been a bit long winded in his descriptions, but to this day I can still remember my envisionings of his characters. Mr. Sanderson also did a good job following his notes. While you could tell it was a different writer he still kept true to the characters.

[@milkster213]

If you guys have read the gardens of the moon series how does it compare to the wheel of time books? I always wanted to jump into them

[@BenMonroe964]

I fell behind by almost a year due to an increased work load. Nothing like binging your favorite youtube channel. So many good episodes these past 10 months or so. Glad to see you're still at it!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Welcome back Ben!

[@RandallStephens397]

I love this episode. It gives me a sense of hope for the long-term future of humanity that I haven't had much of these days. We're at the point, technologically, that no matter how hard we fuck things up, we won't go extinct and we'll have millions of years to adapt and rebuild and learn from our mistakes until we finally take our place on the galactic stage.

[@jeschinstad]

It's what I always say; if you want to feel optimistic about the future, then read history. Humanity survived the last glacial period. That was a hundred thousand years of hardship. It is unimaginable, but they did it and they are our ancestors, from which we inherit our abilities. If we eradiate our planet in a full-scale nuclear war, it will only stay eradiated for some thirty thousand years at the very most. CO2 only stays in the atmosphere for a few thousand years, so global warming is definitely survivable. We might fuck things up fairly severely, but we are Humanity; you can't kill us all! :)

[@rauladdams5709]

There are years and years and years worth of content... This channel has become my go-to source when I want to listen to something thought-provoking. Please stay safe and keep up the Amazing content! ❤

[@schlirf]

Wow, cool name for a Heavy Metal Band !!!! ; )

[@DRMadeIt]

ThatDamnedYankee HHT 2/11 ACR Mortars 6 years. 98-04

[@schlirf]

C troop, Scout, 83-86 (Stayback 86-89) ALLONS!

[@DRMadeIt]

OMG you’re a Scout? I almost liked you... :) Thank you for your service, brother

[@schlirf]

Well we do on (seldom) occasion lower ourselves to speak with C-Dats and Mortar-Maniacs as almost equals. Party on! (and USE your Effing Benefits to the Max...you've earned them the hard way!)

[@DRMadeIt]

I use and have used the eff outta my benefits.

[@teej008]

I love this channel. Great work Isaac

[@PATRICKJLM]

Am I the only one who is thinking about the Fermi paradox every F* day?

[@ottogren1]

Patrick Thomsen Mantzouridis I do landscaping. Nothing to do but think, after I get into autopilot. I think about it every day.

[@Inimbrium]

Dammit Isaac. I've been subscribed for a while and have been slowly making my way though all your episodes in chronological order, watching several a week. Well now I've caught up and now I have to wait a FULL week for an episode! The outrage! :)

[@BeerByTheNumbers]

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return

[@TheShootist]

actually you will recycle into other living beings rather than remain dust, though in the long term your dust will be turned to dust.

[@angelic8632002]

You do in every moment of your life, but still continue. Same for the information that comprised your body after your person hood ends.

[@edthoreum7625]

as we analyse , there is nothing angelic/god-like about this reality we live in?

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

The Shootist Sadly, between embalming and cremation, we don't get recycled well. My preference would be to have everyone's unadultered remains dumped in the woods or weighed down and sunk at sea.

[@davidjackowski4336]

Beer By The Numbers "We are stardust, we are golden We are billion year old carbon And we got to get ourselves back to the garden…"~CSNY

[@nrksbullet]

Thank you for another great video. This is an outstanding channel

[@madant7777]

This episode reminds me of Stargate and civilizations rebuilding after a Wraith cleansing.

[@mossy2100]

Another great episode, good job Isaac.

[@MilanSvitek]

Best flu medicine available: SFIA Marathon. Thank you for adding to the list XD

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I hope you feel better soon :)

[@antred11]

The best flu medicine is sleep, and lots of it. Watching videos is only going to prolong your illness.

[@Bra-a-ains]

Smoothest transition from content to advertisement in this video of any KZbin video. Brilliant!

[@Saktoth]

No civilisations were destroyed by their technology? Many follow the pattern of Rapa Nui (Easter island), growing in complexity and capacity until they are able to transform their environment into something that can no longer sustain them. Almost every hydraulic empire from the Mayans to the Khmer collapsed when their agriculture grew beyond the point it could sustain itself as a complex system. Bronze age civilizations had the same kind of rapid and dramatic systems collapse as they were utterly dependent on trade networks for bronze smithing and centralized agriculture. We can only hope our current system is more robust.

[@Aaron565]

Its definitely not, systemic food insecurity is one of the top threats to modern society but new societies will emerge from our fallen ones. Of course they will not develop in the same way or perish the same way we will. Research South African ancient cultures that supposedly were so large and so old that it breaks the history books.

[@artsybugitch9261]

this is the reasoning behind genetically modifying foods

[@GreenMorningDragonProductions]

This is a benchmark KZbin Channel, in my humble opinion. Entertaining, and educational, in an area I perhaps wouldn't otherwise have been much interested in. Despite the countless channels on KZbin, finding ones like this, which pique my interest in new areas of knowledge are not as easy to find as I'd like.

[@ladyattis]

I still prefer the idea that we're just the one of the first since the supernovas that could bathe dwarf stars in ionizing radiation are becoming fewer which means more opportunities for life to occur. Basically, I think we're just the early nerds to the party. It's really a question of whether we'll be at the after party to this one as it were. :)

[@leveldk]

I had a few things I’d planned to do this evening. You just changed them. Can’t wait to get home and listen to this.

[@S0mnambulist-667]

"What Has been, Will be." -Stellaris, Horizon signal

[@jonathanhensley6141]

Love how your videos are full of rationalism and optimism. You need to have your own type of civilization busters show proving and debunking all these ideas.

[@EverlastingSky]

The REAPERS ARE COMING. Shepard told you... You didnt listen. Now its GG.

[@eds1942]

Ah yes, the “Reapers”. We have already dismissed his claim.

[@Anthony-yn9dg]

Awesome video mate!

[@RunningInCircles1000]

This feels like the story of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Has anyone here played it and feel the same?

[@SERVOPUNK]

I randomly got this video recommended and must say, it is absolutely awesome. Instantly subscribed, absolutely love the topics discussed on your channel.

[@hydrogenone6866]

It kind of reminds me of WH40K where entire world's and civilizations just fall, then rise again.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yeah, House of Suns uses a similiar them, of course 40k is pretty much all about the collapse.

[@hydrogenone6866]

True, like the Alien race the Eldar.

[@myslmysl]

Thank you. These episodes are a highlight in my week,

[@1503nemanja]

Anyone else feel like Skillshare is just Khan Academy you have to pay for? Khan himself had the jump on the "internet university" idea and could have monetized it but decided to keep it non-profit out of idealistic reasons. It will imply some very disappointing things about humanity if Skillshare ends up more impactful than KA.

[@Apastorfield]

Yeah it's almost like people paying for something helps sustain it and its influence over people 🤔

[@shadowmann9]

This was an awesome video! I will also admit, I find your voice unusually pleasant to listen to while narrating this interesting scientific extrapolation.

[@robo336]

What if a potential precursor civilization was ridiculously good at recycling?

[@jonathanryan9946]

robo336 ...So are you're implying they choose to recycle themselves as they died out? Did they live in the Castle Aaaarrrggghhh too?

[@robo336]

Maybe they decided to leave at some point with anything useful to them, and since they were so ridiculously good at recycling, they left no trace. Not very probable, I know, but I think it's fun to wonder about these things.

[@calvingreene90]

When the civilization declines and new products are not being made the piles of material waiting to be recycled will become very large.

[@jeschinstad]

That's a very interesting idea, but I would think that they had to progress to that stage of development and we should still see signs of the early days of that progress. Even if we become fanatical about recycling, we'll probably still have the pyramids.

[@calvingreene90]

@ Pan Darius Kairos Nanotech would not remove the holes dug for foundations, evidence of plants where they could not naturally grow, and their own remains.

[@jaydom57]

very well spoken presentation on a mind expanding subject, awesome thank you 👍

[@Nyruami]

You are missing one solution that we actually are able to observe today in human civilization. As we got rid of evolution not even a century ago, and every single individual in our civilization is able to live to procreation age, there is no progress anymore. If you look at the Flynn effect, the discovery that the average IQ rose by 3 points per decade for the greater part of the last century, or better its reversal for the last 3 decades we do not only have no progress but we actually are regressing in this very moment. Every individual is able to procreate, the problem is, its not our geniuses that choose to do. It´s pretty much the lower half of the bell curve that does have a surplus of children and at least as far as evolution is concerned the gene that spreads to the highest number of grandchildren is the winner of the game. If the regression of IQ continues at the actual rate we are heading directly into idiocracy within a couple of centuries. Problems will start on the way there already, first our most complicated sciences will have no one left able to understand them and get lost, then our most complicated technology will disappear, for the same reason. Within 300 years the average IQ of humanity will be lower than the number we put as the border to intellectual disability today. There will be a whole species of individuals hardly able to exceed the level of today's ground school graduates. This will send us directly back to pre-industrial times, only that we will not have the abilities necessary to build pre-industrial technologies, which eventually will return us to pre-stone age and maybe extinction. The process may be painstakingly slowly reversed as soon as natural selection is able to select again, but it will take a vast amount of time. So if we do not go extinct, this will be the perfect example of a cyclic apocalypse, and it´s first iteration is already starting. This might very well also be the solution to the Fermi paradox, as every civilization that reached our intellectual and scientific maturity will also have left natural selection behind them. They will very likely also have developed ethical and moral standards that would disallow them to take the selecting part into their own hands and thereby have laid the foundation of their own demise.

[@attalan8732]

3 decades is too small of a sample size. The last 3 decades have been marked by consumer convenience and the proliferation of fictitious science (watch John Oliver's take on scientific studies) that discourage independent thought and trust in the scientifically 'enlightened'. However, as time marches on, we see that this is just a momentary dip in the over all increase in human intelligence. As education becomes easier, cheaper, and more widely-available, the average human IQ and the average human's access to information will only increase. And sure, maybe the average human may not hold as much information as his immediate predecessors (last couple decades) but his ability to access information has more than tripled with the coming of the Internet. Human Civilisation as a whole is only growing more intelligent.

[@Nyruami]

I like your optimistic standpoint, but studies do say otherwise. Also, you confuse knowledge and intelligence. It doesn´t matter how easy knowledge can be attained if the intelligence isn´t high enough to comprehend that knowledge. You may give access to the internet to a troop of chimpanzees as long as you or they want, it won´t change a thing. Knowledge can only be obtained by the limit of your ability to comprehend it, what is referred to as intelligence, and this number is regressing. If it continues regressing at its present rate, it will be below 70 on average in little more than a century. I do work in a company that hires disabled persons as a social feature and I can tell you, a person with an IQ of less than 70 isn´t able to comprehend even basic physics, the ease of access to all knowledge of humanity isn´t of more use to these individuals than to the troop of chimpanzees.

[@attalan8732]

Education will come with ease of information access. Also, I don't feel communism will come any time soon. If ever.

[@Nyruami]

Education = Knowledge != Intelligence. There is no way to educate someone beyond the limits of his ability to comprehend. when intelligence declines, and that´s what studies show, all the ease of access to knowledge doesn´t help. I also don´t know why you are talking about communism, don´t know what the average decline of IQ has to do with politcal systems.

[@Nyruami]

@@erolmerten1736 Well, I also like your optimistic standpoint, but evolution is only able to kick in, when persons with high IQ procreate more often and, regarding the survival of their offspring to the point when they procreate themselves, more successful. The whole game of evolution can be put in a single sentence: It´s just about having more grandchildren than your competitors. As lack of intelligence hasn´t stopped any living being from procreating, the only factor that could is the success in doing so. There´s another problem with that though. Our civilization is highly diversified. For example you may know, theoretically, how power is produced, but as long as you aren´t one of the highly specialized individuals who work in this special industry, I bet a year´s wage, even if you were presented with access to a power plant and all handbooks you are able to find in there, you wouldn´t be able to produce a single Watt. The same goes for pretty much every industry in the world. We can only function the way we all know it when every single position is held by someone able to do his specialized task. Of course, extensive studies would have to be done, I´m only aware of studies done for special industries or sometimes even only for a single plant, but they have one thing in common, they always say the critical mass is reached way earlier than one would believe. In the case of an atomic power plant such a study was conducted for, the number of workers missing until breakdown would be inevitable was as low as 22%. As the numbers for most other industries will be similar, if we miss only less than a third, civilization isn´t able to function anymore. Welcome back to the stone-age, or better put, welcome back to the pre-stone-age, as the stone-age was defined by our ability to fabricate stones the way we needed them for the task they were used for. I don´t know about you, but I am not able to do that having nothing but other stones to do so. Finally, the chance that smart successful people procreate more often and more successful than those who are not is minuscule to not existent. Just look around and count the number of kids. While smart and successful pairs tend to have no, one or at max two children, pairs on the other end of the spectrum tend to have half baseball teams and up.

[@iron_vicuna6784]

This reminds me of a book series by Orson Scott Card called "The Homecoming Saga." In the books, humanity has killed themselves many times so the few remaining survivors build a satellite that sends waves to prevent brains from thinking of new technologies. All survivor's are left with the best technologies, but anything that could lead to war is blocked out, and even things like wheels aren't allowed. It's just an example of humans focusing inward and preventing that cycle by forcing themselves to stay put. It's really cool. Also great video! I have no idea how I missed this one for 2 years

[@pansepot1490]

Ancient civilizations were local and low technology, so it was relatively easy for them to be wiped out by catastrophic natural or sociopolitical events. Our current civilization is by contrast extremely high tech and global. I think it has reached a critical mass where it is too big to fail. Local catastrophes can and do happen but I don't see any possible scenario where all human civilization is wiped out and there's enough of the planet left to start another cycle.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Well there's always disasters that would only effect humans, like pandemics, which could turn our interconnectedness against us by wiping us out and some other disaster killing off the survivors. It's unlikely but possible

[@muninrob]

Another Carrington Event might do it, a gamma ray burst close enough would do it. An asteroid could re-melt the entire crust. No such thing as "too big to fail" for any civilization that lives in a single star system, much less a single rock in a single system. The more high tech your civilization is, the more interconnected it is, the more reliant it becomes on ALL it's parts working together - how much modern medical technology exists that doesn't need electricity (don't forget the labs & factories that develop & make your pills)?

[@Wayoutthere]

Well there's also this critical mass of collapse.. Once gone far enough, e.g us being unable to walk on the surface anymore due to climate troubles, or some even like a gamma-ray burst etc, or a large enough nuclear war, we would fall in tech to a point that our greatest perk, innovation is replaced by survival and decay.

[@barahng]

Wouter d.B. The point is that its very difficult to kill enough of humanity that no breeding size populations (150 or more) exist, even as a monoplanet species. Even if a few thousand people survived and most tech was lost, we would rebuild civilization to the same point in another 10,000 years or so. A blink of an eye in astronomical timescales. Depending on the event too. A coronal mass ejection would indeed send us back to the stone age. However, it wouldn't destroy evidence of technology like combustion engines, architecture, etc. And that wouldn't immediately wipe out most of the population so its a good bet a lot of people with technical expertise survive the riots. Any subsequent civilizations would have a tech manual and probably get back to the same tech state much quicker.

[@michaelkeefer5674]

Take a look at the population curve of a yeast culture. Humans can do the same thing as long as we are in a closed system (Do not leave Earth).

[@ferrisgilliam8212]

I was SO excited when I saw this new upload! After a long day at work, it brought a smile to my face. Thank you, Isaac.

[@stormbringermornblade8811]

All thought out this episode i was reminded of the book( mote in god's eye )BY LARRY NIVEN thank's i had all most forgotten how nice it was . :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

It is a great book, in hindsight there were a bunch I should have given a shout out too, but I often forget to mention books these days when its not a book of the month episode.

[@musicman8270]

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell, everything they work on is a great read, this video is reminding a lot of people(including myself) of the Moties.Maybe WE are moties.

[@javierzurera986]

You can always pin a comment with those books! I thought of the moties too, I sometimes use the expression 'the griping hand' but mostly when talking to myself.

[@stormbringermornblade8811]

you'r episode's have some how just keep getting better and better giving more's law a run for it money lol

[@DriesduPreez]

Thanks Isaac Arthur, this was great. I'm looking forward to next week's episode. It's a topic that's been with me for a long time.

[@matthewnickolas4706]

"when empires collapsed it wasn't a sudden earth shaking event" Every empire that was conquered by a single united opposing nation disagrees (Khorezmid, Inca, Aztec, etc)

[@CJLloyd]

Excellent episode. I've been thinking about this for a very long time, mostly asking questions that you have answered today. Thank you so much!

[@planets9102]

The rise and fall of humanity, currently we're on the rise

[@perpetualsystems]

Nope! A lot of studies shown that population growth is coming to a halt and we'd never go over 12 billion people in the world. The only nations that have such high population increase are third world countries, such as Central America and Africa, thanks to the increasing living standards. Better living standards > Population boom > Less kids thanks to living standards > Population stability.

[@planets9102]

That does not mean that our power is not on the rise, i would say that would be in decline when we start understanding less and less of our own technologie or start losing control over it.

[@perpetualsystems]

With recent advancements in artificial technology, the fall could be right in the horizon...

[@perpetualsystems]

What I mean is: Better living standards bring population booms. As third worlds countries catch up on modern technology less children die, but birth rates remain the same - Thus the increase in population. But birth rates eventually catch on and they both become stable again.

[@planets9102]

true humans can be verry stupid but the fall of human civilization will either happen verry quick and with a bang or be the end result of compounding lazieness and decadence or a slow replace by another species, be it AI or something else

[@ACraven]

David Weber's "Safehold" series is such an entertaining example of the attempt to prevent progress in a culture.

[@rollieroulston]

nihil novi sub sole.

[@juliusventer8842]

14:00 you forgot to mention the typ of bunkers that are build to protect against nuclear war or a extinction of humanity to preserve technology

[@Aman2theV]

It’s weally vewy hawd to undowstand. I can’t concentrate cause I feel like I’m getting OwO’d at

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

The idea of an end-stage universe tearing itself apart to the point that the last matter starts spawning new matter through an energy-intensive process that eventually stalls out expansion (and does other weird, quarky stuff), paints an intensely mesmerizing mental image. It also helps me wave away all that existential dread from thinking about heat death. Small and insignificant? In a few years^n, I'll be *huge!* (If all that occurs, but it's comforting for now.)

[@thenewtalkerguy496]

Burying something does not, by any means, guarantee a fossil. I don't know where you are getting that idea. See fossil creation for more info because you seem misinformed on the issue.

[@malcolmt7883]

Indeed. Perhaps they should have underwater cemeteries on the ocean floor?

[@brocktechnology]

I don't believe there was any implication that cemetery style burying guarantees Fossilization only that the fossil creation rate would be much higher than for dinosaurs (as a reference) that remain where they drop exposed to scavengers and higher rates of decay.

[@thenewtalkerguy496]

Isaac was implying that there were no human civilizations that we dont know about because people would have had to bury some of the bodies. And goes on to elaborate that there was no way that they could've cremated them all. I'm just saying that very specific circumstances need to happen to create a fossil. Simply burying a body in the ground is extremely unlikely to create a fossil.

[@WTFoolproof]

oh great!!! super topic. I've been waiting for this one. Thank you for the excellent work and teamwork.

[@matchrocket1702]

Damn I love this channel. I can't understand why there aren't over a million subscribers. I'm usually good at delayed gratification but I find it difficult waiting for Thursdays to come around. Thank you so much Isaac and your team for putting together these wonderful videos.

[@allhumansarejusthuman.5776]

24:00 Damn that made me pull my hand back in instinct that memory is so vivid. Good job.

[@lorgagssertao4036]

AWESOME video mate!! :D

[@Iyiouseismouse]

After watching many of your videos, I do not know if you are one of the greatest philosophical minds of our time, or if you just happen to be one of the few people who has bothered to actually put the thought into these questions. Either way, you are amazing, and I feel privileged to be able to hear your thoughts. Than you.

[@reichfuhrer1942]

Man you are so underrated. You should have more subs and views!

[@aserta]

Wanted to say that this episode was especially stellar, dunno what exactly you did, or maybe it was the topic, but i was glued 100% to it. Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes i put episodes on BG and listen to them as i work. Has helped me in many a hours of drawing repetitive lines and calculations. :)

[@fraserhenderson7839]

Above and beyond! Near the end, the topic switched to possible endings to the current existence. I grokked. Wow. "A Canticle for Leibowitz" comes to mind and "Against a Dark Background". The theme of recovery and new direction after the fall has long been a favorite theme of mine. The past as a valuable resource, to be interpreted and controlled. The towering skill of the Predecessors, their unimaginable power to leave such marks on the Earth. The drive to scale those heights again, knowing it had been done. Yikes! Thank you for providing this unique, stimulating episode.

[@raulferri3842]

Thank you Dr. I. Arthur. fot your thought.

[@Lukegear]

It's amazing how much interesting and quality content this channel consistenly dishes out on a weekly bases, even if I'm not hyped up for a specific subject the videos never disappoint :)

[@jonnyroxx7172]

Isaac, I’m always captivated by your insights and observations. Discovering your channel took me back to when I first discovered Cosmos with the great Carl Sagan. Keep up the good work! Peace. JR

[@iainballas]

I love your Ads. I hope people use you for advertisements, as you are the ONLY channel I have ever used on KZbin to use a sub-channel, or ad.. I hope everyone begs you to advertise for them, you deserve it. As an individual says.

[@Rougepelt]

Another great video. Have been waiting for this one for a while, and so glad to see these topics given the SFIA treatment. I would love to see a more in-depth look at how a species could overcome a resource crunch (either through natural scarcity on its homeworld, or self inflicted as seen) and still plausibly undergo an industrial revolution, ultimately going on to become spacefaring without ever having access to, or even knowledge of fossil fuels.

[@RandyKalff]

What people often miss on this topic is a crucial factor. The cycle civilizations, at least of the human variety, experience is an upwards moving one. Every new empire is stronger and more advanced than the previous one. This is commonly because the new civilizations build upon the ruins of the old ones, giving them a head start.

[@IDBTitanosaurus]

Isaac, new to your channel and going through the library that is your video collection. I just want to say, I love your voice! I understand you do have a speech impedement, but ... I dont mean to point it out, but I like it! It makes a journey through your videos relaxing. If you ever have an end date in mind for your videos, please put it out as long as possible. Your insights into the future give hope that mankind can be more than it has been, and maybe live forever.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Titan, I've no end date in mind for the channel, I plan to do it for as long as I'm still having fun with it, my feeling being that if I stop having fun, then the episodes will degrade in quality and I'd be doing everyone, including myself, a favor to stop then, but I do not foresee that happening anytime sooner. While it's obviously a lot of work, I'm having the time of my life with it.

[@IDBTitanosaurus]

Good on you sir. I'm having fun watching. I can definitely say your work is inspiring a new generation of science fiction writers. I'm sure a new generation of scientists and dreamers too! Thank you.