Dyson Spheres

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

****Author's Note: About the episode numbering ******** In regard to the Megastructures episode 11 or 1.1 We left off at episode 10, so this is kinda of 11 except Starlifting is also kind of 11, the channel pilot is kind of episode 0, and episodes 1-3 have since gotten redone as episode 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, an 9 of the Upward Bound series and we haven't done a megastructures episode in over a year, so this is kind of a soft reboot. Hence 11 becomes 1.1, the next episode will probably be 1.2 Ringworlds especially if we stick with the new Audible sponsorship for a Book of the Month. Edit: And yeah I accepted a sponsorhsip from Audible a couple weeks back

[@AdarBlu]

might be a good idea to pin this comment

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I thought I had :) Pinned now

[@DigGil3]

You better get a better iteration convention or this will be confusing for new people in the future.

[@TheFirstLanx]

I started binge-watching these videos a couple of months ago and I can confirm I'm confused

[@AlucardNoir]

I swear you've done a Dyson "sphere" episode...or two...or three...how many times have you done this episode again? or am I lumping this with the mega structure episode you redid...sigh.

[@AJRockets]

I just want to say it warms my heart that a person with the same speech impediment as me is creating youtube videos is making educational and entertaining videos. Thank you Mr. Arthur.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you!

[@-whackd]

AJRocket1166 Yo AJ Dont worry much about a speech impediment. I listen to KZbinrs and podcasters who speak English as a second language, and on pronounciation alone they make more mistakes than someone with a minor speech impediment, not too mention their confusing grammar errors. We all understand them and they are popular if they have good content. Also, with KZbin you can write a script and your eloquence is mainly defined by your ability to describe thoroughly and with a wide vocabulary.

[@sk4lman]

I love Isaac Arthur's voice. It gives the video character, it begs for attention. After viewing a few videos, the mere sound of his voice starts getting you in the mood and mindset for some mind blowing concepts!

[@hongry-life]

Maybe Chinese native?

[@sucrose]

Genuinely curious - what prevents someone from being able to pronounce "R" correctly? Can they just not move their tongue into the right position?

[@Khannea]

Isaac Arthur, no longer describing the future but actually helping along creating it.

[@yuven437]

Explain! has someone taken up his ideas, and are actually trying to create them? O.o

[@mathieumansire372]

most likely well go extinct tho , id give it 200 years tops

[@bozo5632]

+Mathieu Mansire - Extinct? There are only a few ways that could happen, and they're all unlikely on very long time scales. Even in my most pessimistic moments, I only assume our civilizations could be erased, along with 99+% of the population; but some humans would survive somewhere, almost no matter what calamity befell them. We're maybe dumb enough to ruin the world, maybe, but we're also smart enough for some of us to survive in a ruined world. So we might go forward into a new Stone Age and perhaps never recover. And "not quite extinct" is about equivalent to extinct, when it comes to retaining the technologies to build a Dyson sphere. If we manage to not destroy civilization for another 50-100 yrs or so, it will be too late; we'll be sorta indestructible, technologies, cultures and all.

[@bozo5632]

+TrailRunnerLife - the mediocrity principle is not a law of nature, it's just a sort of rule of thumb. And by what perspective do you judge mediocrity? If, on a The Last Day, a Mars-sized asteroid was about to impact Earth, that might be a big, non-mediocre deal to you, but it's just another mediocre day in the galaxy.

[@Fennecbutt]

Uh, no. This statement is not true in the slightest. He's as practical as a sci-fi author, ie not practical at all. All theoretical. Hell, barely, remotely theoretical.

[@OwenGTA]

The amount of knowledge and effort you put into such a wide array of videos on these topics is truly outstanding. Thank you for your work, Issac.

[@EpicJonT]

Astounding as well.

[@PaulMnMSmith]

IGN?

[@OwenGTA]

me?

[@NotLegato]

isaac. not issac. issac is not a name.

[@ebigunso]

I'm amazed how you can keep producing these over 30min long videos, packed with content every week. I really enjoy all of your videos so keep it up!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Me too :) Next week's is 45 minutes long so I've promised myself to keep the next couple episodes 25 minutes or less so I can catch my breath.

[@milkhbox]

Works for me! My lunch is 45 minutes long! i was very sad yesterday when oi realized it wasnt arthursday.

[@nathaniel7238]

Hey now, no need to limit the duration of your videos. As long as the content is there, they should only be limited by the scope of the subject (in my humble opinion, of course)

[@SoCalFreelance]

Imagine if he had a team of people -- researchers, graphic artists, 3D modelers, illustrators, script writers, editors, social media manager, ...

[@rhondasampsel3238]

Mr Issac,I Admire you Sir I believe you are the most intelligent man I've ever listened to.I love to lay down and listen to you.Thank you for all of your hard work.Beautiful Mind you have.They should have students study the subjects you talk about in school.

[@peterciurea7771]

Suggested topic: Dyson Motor, also known as planetary induction motor. Dyson proposed this as a means to disassemble a planet for the purpose o getting materials to build a Dyson sphere. It's basically a means to spin up a planet fast enough to negate it's cohesion, and get it to break up in pieces that can be harvested and then used for other means

[@jrgenlervik9374]

"speech impediment" Shit, I just thought he had an amazing accent

[@electroflame6188]

@@tayro7265 Oh? So you've found a way to treat rhotacism that doesn't require a speech pathologist? In an adult, no less? Please, share with us.

[@MichaelHarto]

Apparently he also hunts a particular grey rabbit and black duck.

[@Ignorethisuk]

@hucker75 no, no it doesn't "have to be on purpose" at all, you obviously know nothing about speech impediments. If he was faking it, it wouldnt be so severe.

[@hindugoat2302]

@@electroflame6188 treatment involves insults and humiliation, harden up

[@electroflame6188]

@hucker75 Yes, rhotacism most commonly presents itself in the form of r's being replaced with w's, but it is not the only way. >He makes a different sound every time No he doesn't. Skipping through the video, he produces the same vowel every time.

[@sd_pjwal]

"Personally, I have no problem disassembling planets..." I am proud that I have the capability to think on an Isaac Arthur scale to understand that planets are nothing more than a crop to be harvested.

[@coffeebeann1]

“Planets are nothing more than a crop to be harvested” ...Mother Earth cringing.... Hhahahaha i am proud to be over the top respectful to our wonderful planet. Thankful for this time here. I witnessed the beauty and cannot imagine calling anything else home. Yes, we can most definitely use other planets. I see us having stations on each planet eventually. And then each galaxy...etc...

[@tinamoul]

I would say planets are a bit more than that, I mean we assign sentimental value to oil paint in canvas, I doubt disassembling the cradle of our civilization will be a trivial thing to do emotionally. I can see us disassembling other planets, or asteroids. But earth is a different thing altogether.

[@rashidshadow9325]

thereign u can take the other planets but don’t fuck with our momma earth

[@sjain8111]

Paul Walker sadly as a society we place monetary value on all things living, on land, sea and the elements

[@johnwang9914]

Crops grow, the Earth is a mine.

[@TheGunmanChannel]

I'm so glad I found this channel.

[@cozz124]

same bruv

[@mr.poku9903]

Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell you should visit their channel

[@jtohgaming]

@@mr.poku9903 Yeah i guess but this guy does thinking 1000x deeper

[@DrShaym]

How would a Dyson sphere work in a binary or trinary star system?

[@Ad_Astraz]

i like to imagine just one gigantic sphere/swarm surrounding the stars.

[@Oldtricksmadenew]

I think of a series of connecting eclipses of statites

[@paullilly7921]

Seeing as how the energy they emit is non relevant the space associated between them you could always simplybuild a large swarm around all 2-3 or just the largest of the 2-3. 1 dyson swarm even around a red dwarf would produce enough to power a ton of industry on all 3 suns systems. Besides if the stars were so close that theyd create massive interference with 1 or more swarms youre best of just moving on, plenty of real estate in a galaxy. Or if its exo you may look at colidindg them to form a larger star or triggering bursts to form many respective red dwarfs and spreading them out using solar propulsion.

[@paullilly7921]

An interesting question but id like to here others oppinions.

[@emmanuelmonforte9928]

@Cole Penalosa depends on the orbit, axial tilt and spin, mass, and other external gravitational forces, plus dark matter and negative energy and mass, but if it has one major focal point, a stationary solar collector would be a best option

[@chrisgarcia6098]

living in space has always been a dream for me, these concepts amaze me.

[@searchingformyself5319]

You do live in space, technically. Earth is a planet in the Universe.

[@milobem4458]

the concept is amazing but the reality will be not much different from now. we will sit in our rooms after school/work and watch videos about science and technology, except the room will be in a habitat. once every few years we will be able to afford holidays farther away than the next town.

[@nuclearthreat545]

Chris Garcia you already live in space dude

[@axelgestinkt6381]

Milo Bem What kind of work would we have to do though? Everything can be automated

[@kxraxe3689]

Till you get lost in space forever. 😶

[@kirisaki5584]

Oh, yes! Your channel is a death sentence for my productivity!

[@PewReview]

But if you're not productive, the thought police will notice. And, spoiler alert, the hope doesn't lie in the proles.

[@IamGrimalkin]

Pew Review But The Party doesn't want people to be productive in 1984. The whole point of the war is to waste excess production...

[@Moishe555]

@@IamGrimalkin nice. Well said.

[@AlanHouse]

Mine too...

[@GurniHallek]

It's so warm and cozy here, In our little Dyson sphere.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

"Finally, after tens of thousands of years of continuous technological development, culminating in a dyson swarm which fully eclipses the sun, we now have access to enough energy to run Crysis on max settings 60fps"

[@Evan-rj9xy]

Happy Arthursday everyone! :D

[@firdacz]

You too. I hope I could say that to my colleagues, instead of "small friday" (the day before last working day in a week), but most of them are not interested in such futuristic thoughts to understand what Arthursday means :( ...but we have free day today because of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hus

[@jaskarvinmakal9174]

Happy Arthursday my dude

[@TheDom800]

Happy Arthursday Evan! :)

[@andrel8243]

Nice meme! Happy Arthursday to all sentient lifeforms!

[@filthyfilter2798]

:D

[@charlestaylor9758]

give yourself credit my friend; forty minutes of original content on a subject this obscure? difficult to do. very good work.

[@user-uy1rg8td1v]

The last time I was this early the galaxy was still forming.

[@lemerkin3633]

Itsi badumdisch you should've said the last time I came this early was when I last had sex 😂

[@dinlobiscuit4611]

+Y L ...that`s what your GF told me ....

[@rashidshadow9325]

ChristianBoy89 not so christian huh

[@Vouax]

What do you do with all that power? Use it to run a planet wide PC Rig to play Doom on.

[@miguelpereira9859]

Use it to play Crysis with HD textures and foliage at 16K

[@midas2092]

@@miguelpereira9859 Nice Matrioshka Brain. But can it run Crysis on medium?

[@ThunderClawShocktrix]

@@midas2092 can it run minecraft with no lag spikes

[@thanatos5729]

@@ThunderClawShocktrix it can handle an entire chunk of TNT exploding. At once.

[@toyguismailov4199]

@@thanatos5729 but can it handle an entire chunk of modded x69^14 TNT exploding at once on a modpack with 420 mods?

[@YoLo-ky8ig]

hey Isaac, I'm a little early so I thought I would suggest a topic: some of the speciation that would occur after millennia or even millions of years of human isolation due to space travel, ways that this can be combatted, whether it should be combatted etc.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I think we will probably look at that though not too soon, probably in the Alien Civilizations series, we'll be doing some more in that series soon.

[@aziouss2863]

i think it is both cool and sad that humanity will revert back to the old days of ships with sails with no cummunication cool topic to touch on

[@yogsothoth7594]

I suppose that depends on exactly how far we spread out. I don't think there'll be any huge changes of a millennia from natural evolution alone, maybe we get a little taller something like that. But you also have to consider that changes in the human body by process other than natural selection and random mutation are likely to be very prominent. Genetic engineering and augmentation could make some smarter, more durable, longer living or even biologically immortal, hell many people might not even be recognisable as a human.

[@samerm8657]

ssuo ben, sad? Old ways? You either missed storing energy and matter in the form of black holes, supplying energy to laser highways, powering supercomputers or maybe it's just me :-)

[@zero132132]

We'll probably start genetically engineering infants within our lifetimes. When that happens, evolution stops applying to us, and speciation will be a decision rather than an accident of biology. Isolation likely won't be a factor.

[@michelvan97]

Finally Arthur cleanup with the myth/trope that's Dyson sphere are insane solid hollow sphere with a sun in center...

[@Atrahasis7]

You know Isaac..., I like to think I already had a pretty good picture framed in my mind, but seeing your videos throws me into an almost trance like state like Paul from Dune, where things become really clear. I can perfectly see our descendants, just... better versions of ourselves, not just simply robots or cyborgs in any wacky transhumanistic fever dream, just an improved human "will", which we cant yet see clearly and would probably chock us sure... as much as our dental implants would chock a pre historic man. A sprawling and exotic solar system full of not only dyson spheres and habitats but tons of other stuff, as orderly but also chaotic as a medieval fort town with spaceships zipping around and reaching for other stars. Yeah we are the first around here, the first to collapse the wave function and start the real work, the real JOB of figuring out this mess we call universe. Lets do it.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yeah I think that's probably the trickiest part on covering these topics, trying to paint a semi-realistic portrait of what it might be like.

[@Atrahasis7]

You should one day collect all the vids and make a book or audiobook.

[@alexmcaruthur6966]

@@isaacarthurSFIA your speech impediment is actually a blessing i love your narration.

[@uboa8548]

This is the first video I ever watched on this channel and already it's one of my favorite videos of all time.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Welcome then, I hope you enjoy the others as much!

[@OpreanMircea]

whoa, 10 trillion people full time studying dolphins? cool

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yeah its a bit ridiculous seeming that you'd need to designate an area the size of planet just to host a minor convention of people there discuss porcupine mating habits but that's one of the reasons hiding from a K2 civ is always discussed here as patently absurd, they've just got way too much manpower to through at looking at the Universe and obsessing over any tiny anomaly they find.

[@jameshumphrey9939]

....and i want fewer people Wow screw with my mind

[@Alexis-hx3yd]

I am always curious about the tiny amount of people who thumbs down on your casts, I would like to know what they are taking and how I can avoid it.

[@bozo5632]

A fraction of our fellows are mentally ill. You don't need a special theory to explain 1-5-10% of human behavior; "they're nuts" will do. (Mostly joking.)

[@gorilladisco9108]

To be fair, this video is informative, but as a non native english speaker, I have difficulty to follow the narration. Every time he pronounced star as stoll and computer as computoll, it throws me into confusion, like "Uhuh .. uhuh .. uh .. huh?? *rewind oh .. uhuh .. uhuh ..". From which country that dialect came from?

[@ifacro]

Gorilla Disco He has rhotacism (a speech impediment), it was difficult for me to understand him at first too but there are closed captions for those who can't.

[@musaran2]

While the topics and coverage are stellar, it really lacks good illustrations to grok the workings and scales. Also, he tends to repeat himself. And sometimes let BIG mistakes slip.

[@hardergamer]

@Brett Hazelton What I was going to say word for word!

[@0xhba]

Dyson Sphere !!! Happy Arthursday everyone.

[@floheissler2336]

Jeff Bezos: "We will live in space habitats in the future" Isaac Arthur: "Hold my Kugelblitz Dyson"

[@failsc2player]

Quick question, but how have I not known of your channels existence before today? Looks like I have some binge watching to do.

[@neilwilliams2907]

Feeling the same. I found this today. Just up my alley!

[@patatustefan]

This channel motivates me way more than I expected it initially. Seeing what is possible and how big, great, awesome, and amazing things can be done leaves me in total awe. I just can't reddit anymore after watching such episodes. It makes me just want to work and start contributing towards a greater goal.

[@cizcalodiablopanzon]

Stefan Patatumm.. . mñn . .. mm .mm. mm. M.M. .mm

[@theworldsays4264]

Imagine a civilization that did build a Dyson fear and hide it from...something. Doesn't make sense, and Arthur puts up some good crunch against it, but on horror level, what great fluff.

[@Terenin]

If you start building one, and then get a reason to try and hide it, you are already fucked.

[@Xperim]

I find it difficult to believe a civilization capable of building a dyson sphere would need to hide from anything. Maybe a type 3 civilization?

[@______6590]

You cant have life when a star has a dyson sphere it would block all the stars light

[@HistoryShell1786]

@@______6590 well, assuming if done correctly, a Dyson sphere in binary star system might work. The Dyson sphere harvests one star completely, and the other makes light for orbiting worlds.

[@mitchellbrown5846]

I'm continually amazed at the mind boggling scale of this kind of civilization. Especially since, in the long term perspective, we are almost at that point ourselves.

[@Jameson1776]

Sick laying in bed. But not to worry Isaac Arthur has a new video.

[@BustasGirl1]

Don't get well soon so you can binge watch Issac's videos

[@apila4859]

i like the idea of a k2+ civilization using a star that hosts intelligent life for a uninhabited dyson and if/when the lifeforms get to a certain level of thecnology just gifting them the sphere

[@matmat6031]

it is out of my expectation to see HONG KONG at 29:36! so glad to see it. As a HongKonger and an astronomy lover!

[@LD-Orbs]

It's a beautiful shot of a high-tech city: not a bad choice, for a symbol of the future!

[@joesTired]

I was a severe stutterer for nearly the first 14 years of my life and thanks to daily speech therapy through my schools I was eventually able to conquer it. During those years I saw many other people afflicted by his particular speech impediment, overcome it after just two-three years of basic therapy. It's never too late to overcome a speech impediment.

[@atmankost3261]

These keep getting better and better with every episode! Keep up the amazing work!

[@JustOneAsbesto]

That shot at 3:28, along with the topic at hand gave me the thought that trees are the apex predators of sunlight.

[@Techischannel]

Admit it, dysonspheres are fucking awsome!

[@theodor1298]

Love all of the content you produce. It is educational, not to complex so I can watch this with my brother who is not as intrested in physics or math as I am. Thanks Issac!

[@rebelbeammasterx8472]

You should become a science fiction writer. (If that's your thing.)

[@MrButtstroker]

Outstanding work Issac, you have restored my faith in the potential of this medium. Working my way through your topics, and I'm now a huge fan!

[@XIIchiron78]

Interesting note about positioning systems; There's actually people working on a concept space positioning system that uses known pulsar frequencies to calculate rough galactic position (pulsars tend to be pretty consistent and regular, so you can use them as lighthouses with known relative positions). I'm not sure if something like that lets you get an accurate enough position for navigating within a single system, and you need a decent size radio telescope to pick up the signals, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Also the dots and dashes on the Voyager record are actually Earth's coordinates relative to our nearest bright pulsars!

[@Luke-qp3hh]

I have a question in regards the problem of hiding a Dyson sphere. You say it's impossible to hide all the waste heat radiating out from the Dyson sphere. However, this is assuming that all heat dissipation is distributed evenly around the it. Isn't it possible to funnel all the heat and infrared light out of specific locations of the sphere? This would certainly be an inefficient to get rid of waste heat, but could it (theoretically according to our current understanding of the universe of course) be done? While this wouldn't completely hide the star from detection, it could reduce its signature. Emitting the waste heat perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy would prevent anyone from detecting the sphere that isn't close enough to see inside the oculus emitting the heat. I'm probably making some grossly incorrect assumptions, so I'd love to be corrected on my misunderstanding of solar scale heat dispersion!

[@KuraIthys]

mmh. I guess in hindsight while a solid shell dyson sphere is an odd idea, in context of the kind of technology seen in star trek as a matter of routine it may not be so strange. After all, FTL travel, artificial gravity, fusion, antimatter and micro black hole power, as well as active support (structural integrity field), and energy shielding are apparently so trivial even rather tiny, unimpressive civilisations can use it. (let's face it, the 'major powers' in star trek are all kind of tiny and wimpy when you think of what should be possible with that kind of tech). In the face of all that tech, perhaps a solid shell dyson sphere would not be a big deal. Certainly it having a habitable inner surface is trivial when everyone and their dog has artificial gravity tech... Still... Kinda funny that this would be one of the few appearances in film or TV of such a sphere, even if it's the less probable solid shell type...

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

in Trek with casual artificial gravity and shields etc the shell makes a certain sense, it's actually stranger that they saw one and were surprised it existed.

[@KuraIthys]

Yes. When you consider the 'routine' technology, the amount of things they seem surprised by is quite... Amusing... For instance, the iconian gateway... Sure, the distances and the like are outside the norm, but when transporters are commonplace, why would something like that be a surprise to anyone? There are SO many things that are trivial with even very basic technology present in that setting that either isn't explored at all, or treated like it's some strange, highly improbable concept. Like... Why are there no orbital habitats at all, anywhere? I mean, I guess you could argue a starbase is one, but... Not really. It shouldn't be hard at all for a species in star trek to build such stuctures. And not only does the federation not build them, but neither it seems does anyone else. Not even some minor species in a far off corner of the galaxy. It just goes to show very few of the writers or producers really thought through the implications of any of the technology properly. It's one thing to make up a technology that has no obvious physical basis, but when you also completely fail to really think through even some tiny fraction of the likely implications of such a technology existing... Well, Can't have everything I guess... XD

[@Bitplex]

Absolutely fantastic - your videos are unmatched, period. I can't wait for your next video. Thank you for all of your dedication and tireless research so far Isaac!

[@Marmocet]

We can do fusion reactions right now that require less energy to initiate than the resulting energy output. The problem is that we need hydrogen bombs to do it and they tend to achieve power levels in excess of optimal for most applications.

[@palfers1]

This is epic and made my head spin with the possibilities

[@poeslaw1648]

Massive particle accelerator, nuclear alchemy not high tech... I think Isaac is a super advanced alien from another world now.

[@LeonMustapha]

Love this channel so much. Congrats on hitting 100k subs Arthur. Very well deserved.

[@seamuscallaghan8851]

Now this is a series reboot I can enjoy!

[@timo4258]

The bit about plucking matter from a star even if you don't have much materials to mine around the sun just blew my mind, that's awesome! Especially if you use sunlight's energy to fuse any heavy element you want (if I understood this part correctly)!

[@starbomber]

on Dyson spheres in fiction: the manga known as BLAME is set in a far future, inside a giant technological landscape. I'd even describe it as a bit of a 'post human' future. It's assumed to take place on some kind of 'dyson sphere' type object...but it seems to be an earth centered sphere so idk.

[@augustuseel5631]

I'm trying to get a D&D campaign going in the BLAME world, and I have a LOT of planning and mapping to do.

[@markwarburton8563]

Isaac, intriguing issue around trying to hide a Dyson. If I had the technology to build a Dyson sphere and I wanted to hide it for some reason, I would get the individual elements composing the sphere to direct waste heat/radiation towards intergalactic space or in a fairly tight beam at a large stellar neighbour to obscure the existence of the Dyson. If I knew another civilisation was watching, I could use your trick of angling the elements so that the light of the star is not dimmed for light that would ordinarily reach that neighbour/neighbours. I agree that it is hard to imagine that someone would try to hide a Dyson sphere given the Kardashev scale involved, but I think it certainly is possible, even using conventional physics. Thank you for this very thought-provoking dive into Dyson spheres. Fascinating.

[@cawalkabout]

Arthur your videos are badass. I know you put a lot of work and research into these, your videos are awesome because they are so in depth yet easily understandable! Love the way you break it down. Keep em comin!

[@DamianLoved]

This material is fascinating. So many disciplines intersect with this content, science and technology, as theoretical as it may be, should always, always, always be presented with such care and excitement. What a time to be alive! edit: clarity

[@AtheistBelgium]

Damn, no time for 40 minutes of wisdom today. Need to wait for tomorrow ...

[@thetraitor3852]

I feel your pain. I was lucky, that I wasn't too tired today.

[@snowwann273]

I really enjoy listening to you're videos @Issac Arthur, it gives me hope for humanity.

[@davidpatrick7029]

Had to watch it a couple times. Great video, thank you!

[@cevinzeke5110]

Amazing. This is easily one of the most amazing concepts in all of science and science fiction. Hopefully one day it won’t be fiction someday.

[@ToveriJuri]

Another random recommendation. I guess they are doing it right since this is actually interesting. Plus this guy has a fun accent.

[@DasHobble]

Isaac, I love you, buddy. I listen to every video the day you release it. The way you curate your talking points, I think, is what I like the most about them. I've long since gotten used to your speech impediment. I noticed long ago that you stopped leading with the Elmer Fudd picture, and I smiled when you displayed that seemingly new found confidence. I may have gotten too used to your voice over the years because when this video popped up on my recommended feed, my inner voice pronounced it as "Dyson Spheeows". There is so much Information in my head put there by your calming voice . Thanks for all you do. I have noticed that you occasionally pronounce Rs correctly, and noticing that made me pay closer attention to catch it happening more often, perhaps adding to my rate of information retention. I had a molar break and it took half a year to get it looked at, I had a sharp bit of tooth next to the side of my tongue, during which time I developed a lisp trying to not slice my tongue open and it took a lot of effort to correct. Live long, and prosper.

[@BryanSeigneur0]

Bootstrapping our Dyson Swarm will be done with asteroid material, because the energy requirements are no larger than to get to and launch material from the moon, and no one cares if a nation or company digests one skyscraper sized asteroid out of millions to build a village cylinder (or several of them). You can pretty much do it and ask permission later. Unlike defacing the moon (even if you need a telescope to see your activities or you dig on the far side). One gruesome alternative an entity has if not given permission is to adjust an asteroid's orbit so it threatens earth in X years. In that case, they could assume carte blanche to transform the asteroid into a steerable habitat in X years just as well as moving the asteroid. I imagine we will create agreements where rights are based on first arrival plus promises to fully utilize the material of an asteroid or responsibility to track and avoid collisions from the remains. And it will generally be limited to bodies of a certain size. Until larger entities and states become involved making more specialized specific agreements about larger bodies.

[@bozo5632]

I agree. Except there are more asteroids than there are entities to utilize them, at least for thousands of years. So all things being equal I don't think it would be too hard to get permission to mine a rock. But I don't expect all things to be equal, and I don't expect too many entities will be allowed to try to mine asteroids. I don't necessarily share Isaac's happy vision of trillions of independent societies all cooperating in meticulous harmony. Imho there's just nothing in human history to support it, and practically everything in history to refute it. I expect power will still corrupt, and that incomprehensibly enormous power will probably corrupt incomprehensibly enormously. Other powerful people, let alone powerful foreign societies with contrasting interests, will soon be the only dangerous thing in the universe. I don't expect fabulously powerful people to let them even happen - and at every step along the way they will never have to.

[@KCM25NJL]

While you foresee little impediment to a civilisation of modest means making use of their star, I also see/hear no impediment you have to making the most intriguing, well thought out and pleasantly orated videos for your audience. 40 minutes well spent!

[@earllarrabee7026]

Isaac Newton, Isaac Asimov, Issac Arthur, there is something about the Name Issac. There Might be a reason why we don't see Dyson Spheres. Perhaps Civilizations end up turning inwards as individuals of advanced societies will develop the means to live for 1000,s or 100,000s of years...via nanobot, and cyber integration. Perhaps Virtual reality becomes so realistic, and so desirable, that normal everyday life will become more and more mundane. As technology advances the ability of biological beings being able to fuse with Nanobots that essentially replicate and replace normal cells (bots that can be replenished seemingly without end) it seems like these beings would be able to essentially achieve immortality. Once we can create nanobots that could slowly replace brain cells as we age, at one point a person's brain would become entirely artificial...yet the person wouldn't be able to ever notice any difference. You would essentially be the same person, yet you could theoretically live for as long as you could Keep the nanobots functioning. "or you could use these bots to essentially preserve your brains cells indefinitely. these bots (your brain) would act as a hard drive essentially. This "'''cyber brain" could then be linked into a virtual Utopia. The energy and resources needed to sustain this Cyber brain would be far less that what a normal human needs in order to live survive and maintain a happy lifestyle. Upgrades could always be added similar to how programs are uploaded to one's mind in the Matrix. Unlike the Matrix though this would be something I could absolutely imagine people wanting to be a part of. The amount of energy, materials and space required to store, billions, trillions or quadrillions of people would be much much less than what would be needed to live naturally. Perhaps super advanced civilizations have taken this approach and have been able to maintain this way of life on just a few planets around 3 or 4 stars. While this may sound crazy...look at how much time people spend on their phones, computers, playing video games etc. If you were given the option to live for 1000's of years, see dozens upon dozens of generations of your childrens childrens childrens childrens grow up, and have access to all the knowledge in the world, with the ability to escape into whichever utopian fantasy you could ever desire....would you take this option?

[@emilybrown1179]

So, immortal, EVENTUALLY you run out of things, stories, etc. The sources for things on Earth being finite. You can look out, see more things, use that to fuel a little more, but still finite. I'd say eventually we'd still venture out, if, for nothing else, than sheer boredom.

[@m.anthonyc.8761]

Ive been watching These videos for a year or so and the fact you openly acknowledged about having a slight speech impediment and to use captions, is simply amazing in my opinion. The fact you continue to create/narrate these videos educating the masses using You're own voice and not use that stupid robot Narrator is great. Subbed.

[@jezzbanger]

In terms of specialised dyson swarms you mentioned lasers, transmitters, mining, storing energy and computing. I'm curious about the possibilities of a specialised dyson 'eye' or specialised dyson particle collider etc. Given how much we can learn from our universe with telescope collection areas in order of 10^1 metres, it's fascinating to think of what you'd learn from 10^big worth of collection area, together with the processing power to make sense of the data!

[@MagnusVictor2015]

Holy Hannah, how have I not found this channel before? All of these lectures are pretty much exactly the sort of video I've been looking for on the Internet for years! I'm showing these to my family!

[@5h0rgunn45]

Oh yeah. That reminds me: I need to plug in my laptop.

[@josephmcneil7427]

Heard of you a while ago in the collab with Frasier Cane, and then forgot about your channel until this morning when your iron stars vid showed up in my feed. I'm subscribed and hooked. Great, and profoundly detailed, analyses. Thank you!

[@soulsastray]

this is more logical than having colonies light years away with no control.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

You'd probably have those too though

[@bozo5632]

I think so too. I would expect a few interstellar efforts, but I bet by far the majority of stuff will be tightly packed, whether around a planet or a star, to avoid internet lag. Maybe I'm missing something - maybe IT will be less important, instead of more important? Maybe at some point we will have discovered and invented and designed and said everything that was possible, so there's be no need to network - just store a copy of everything locally. But until then, I bet we will stay very close to where our medical firmware is written, and where we can watch the Zebulax Kardashian show in real time. (Some people will want to go live on Mars or Tau Ceti anyway, lag be damned. Maybe that will be permitted, idk, but there might be reasons why not.)

[@LASTSTARFARER]

Like fucking rimworld

[@infinitesentient3545]

I was hoping that part of this evolution was not needing to be "controlled" or to "control" others anymore. Maybe try and lose the need for a nanny...

[@mixedbagclips2511]

First time here I thought this was a documentary you had only uploaded but you MADE IT!! Wow, this it’s great and the quality excellent!!!

[@redmohawkguy1]

I wonder, could a type 3 civilization with a galaxy's worth of stars at their disposal, build a solid structure, using active support, that encompasses the entire galaxy?

[@garret1930]

redmohawkguy1 it should be theoretically possible

[@bozo5632]

I bet it would be much smaller diameter than the galaxy? Galaxies are very low density iirc, much lower than stellar systems, I think. But yeah, put a Dyson sphere around the galactic nucleus, dump all the excess mass in the BH if you want, and you can make x-ray-roasted marshmallows damn near forever. But I don't see much advantage in a rigid shell over a swarm, tbh. Sooo much more complicated, and for what? So you can have Roman-era-style roads in space? A DSL connection? Once you're up there, space travel in space is quicker, safer, cheaper and simpler than a railroad running around a track. (And lasers are better than DSL.)

[@ennui9745]

The Triangulum Object from Orion's Arm.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

no. the idea of an object being "solid" itself breaks down at that point. all concept of rigidity goes out the window when you are considering a shell that stretches even a few miles wide. you could make something that encloses an entire galaxy, but it wouldn't really be a solid shell as such. i mean, heck, the forces acting on the shell only travel through its material at the speed of sound. it would probably take tens of billions of years for a motion at one end to even be registered on the other, so there is no way for the entire thing to be solid and "rigid" in the conventional sense without some kind of FTL travel making the internal forces travel faster within the object somehow.

[@Djorgal]

I'm interested in what warfare within a dyson sphere would look like. You said they'd agree with their neighbours not to block their light or ram into them, but maybe they wouldn't. A light embargo does seem like a potent means of pressure against a competing habitat. What are the different means of pressure or attack against other habitats of the same Dyson sphere, and what countermeasures against it are possible?

[@musaran2]

With the kind of tech & population involved, escalation would end in utter destruction. So either we will end ourselves, or establish a very strong police government.

[@lafaglobe6025]

man , I was waiting the whole day.

[@jkj420]

I am only 10 minutes in, but I already want to be in the future, where a Dyson swarm is reality!!!

[@stormrose7929]

There might be a major problem with using statites: Wouldn't transmitting produced power cause acceleration, gradually destabilizing them? And while were at that, wouldn't the systems needed to transmit power around the structure be far too heavy or require a rigid structure to begin with? Just some food for thought. :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) Which direction(s) are you transmitting that power and momentum?

[@garret1930]

Storm Rose if you make your statites have densities, or solar sail area, which can be controllably changed, and I don't know why you wouldn't, then there's no issues ;)

[@bozo5632]

It's a balancing act. You design the statite for the environment, taking mass, gravity, orbital momentum, magnetism, photon pressure and solar wind (and whatever else) into account. And they'd be steerable, so you wouldn't have to get the balance exactly perfect forever. You could ask similar questions about a canoe, if floatation was a speculative technology. The answers are similar too!

[@stormrose7929]

@Isaac Arthur,It would be predominantly outward, But it would probbably have to be at a significant angle. I also assumed that, due to the structure's lack of rigidity, we would need to use directed lasers to transmit the power at some point, which would unavoidably act as a photon rocket. While we could then solve the problem by use of nondirectiontional transmitters, that is basically undoing the entire point of a dyson sphere.Thanks for Your time. :)

[@bozo5632]

+Storm Rose - You are right in thinking the thrust would be a problem, but it wouldn't be a difficult problem. The problems and solutions are inherent in the whole idea. If a statite is stable except for a bit of lateral thrust from its laser/transmitter, you could tilt the statite a tiny bit to tack (sailboat style) on the solar photons, and balance it out. If you point the transmitter in a different direction, you can adjust your tack. A small computer and a few gyros could maybe do it. That fixes motion in the left-right-forward-back directions. You can also go up and down by increasing or decreasing the area of the statite. (Make it slightly smaller, or tilt it, and it starts falling; make it bigger, or tilt it less, and it goes up.) The same can be done with ion engines, or any kind of engine, or with external lasers or particle beams, or by riding a magnetic field (if you're very close to a star), or in other ways.

[@The_Sly_Potato]

Love your episodes Isaac. It really jogs the mind on how we as a race can improve and utilize the universe around us, and learn about IRS possibilities as well. I'll be looking at other episodes soon!

[@blah007001]

The only reason I can think of there not being any dyson swarms that we can see is that no one has advanced enough to build one yet. Meaning we might be one of the first, if not the first, civilization to do so, if we manage to do it.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

That tends to be my own reasoning too, the concept is just too attractive and too advantageous for me to think folks wouldn't build them if they could, and since it seems like you can, Occam's Razor says they can't because they don't exist, yet anyway. Though of course that razor is sharp enough we often cut ourselves on it too, when we use it too much. :)

[@chaddaifouche536]

I don't see that... Dyson Swarms (not Sphere) seems like they could very well arise without any cooperation. As Isaac said in the beginning, it's not like the habitats that constitute it have to be close, they can be *very* far from each other (especially in the beginning) and acts like independent nations. Most of these constructs (O'Neill Cylinder, orbital rings/ladder states) are also much more robust that they're usually portrayed in fiction too (the "catastrophic breach" that empty out the air in the space station in a matter of seconds or even minutes is just impossible for instance).

[@emmamay3820]

Alternatively, interstellar travel may be much easier than we think. Which would also be kind of cool.

[@bozo5632]

The thing is, you don't have to build one - they just end up happening if you keep putting stuff in orbit. And it doesn't require much fancy technology to do the basic parts - solar arrays and habitats and stuff. (Stellar transmutation is optional.) If we never invented fusion or any of the other likely advancements we take for granted, we could still build a mighty fine Dyson swarm, and given time it seems inevitable that we will. My take on the Dyson Spherelessness Paradox is that not many civilizations ever try to capture a very large fraction of a star's power output because they don't need all that. If trillions of people can live on one rotating habitat, why build trillions of habitats? Afaik there will be no motive for any living person to want to double the population, and plenty of motive not to. (To avoid halving the average wealth, for instance, which seems to me to end the debate by itself, but I think there are other reasons just as good.) So I don't see a paradox.

[@Nehmo]

Interstellar travel for biological creatures hits 2 walls, the speed of light, and the distances. It's not going to happen.

[@JakubW.]

Upvote from me, and as always well deserved. If only more of yt channels were like yours Isaac. Keep it up! Greeting from your fan from Poland.

[@CJ-pj5gu]

Things get mind bogglingly fantastic if we imagine that this is a post singularity civilization developing a matrioshka brain and all that surface area dedicated to powering endless banks of servers running a civilization completely digitized, potentially at a higher clock rate than normal speed so subjectively a thousand earth years could feel like a billion years in simulation. This could mean a multiverse worth of simulated worlds inside one of these megastructures and a grahms number worth of simulated lives.

[@5000mahmud]

This is why i'm leaning to the simulated universe hypothesis. Though we could be wrong about that.

[@IamGrimalkin]

Christopher Jannette I think you need to look more closely into how big Graham's number is. There is absolutely no way you could get a Graham's number of operations out of anything, even if it was a computer the size of the observable universe.

[@MsGorteck]

I like to think I am smart, but listening to this makes me realize that like John Snow, I "know nothing". Way cool. Now that I have found this channel I will be listening to you more. Thanks

[@ThanksIfYourReadIt]

I wonder when we get to Mega Life forms. There was this one game where an entire solar system was encompased by a single cell like creature that harnested the the sun and had vein like tubes that was large as earth in diameter and you were basicly a microbe in it slowly drifting in its waterylike substance. In same game you had a crystal like life form that was basicly similar but it encompassed a black hole but in a much smaller scale.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

We probably will do an episode on artificially created life like living space habitats or ships.

[@Alavaria]

A space habitat critter

[@ThanksIfYourReadIt]

You are good with numbers maybe you can tell us if growing or constructing is better in terms of different needs or goals with the project.

[@planetfall5056]

What game was this?

[@tinydog1234]

Space whales!

[@economicist2011]

OK I found the next series to binge watch. This is some of the greatest material on KZbin.

[@TheMankind02]

I have always loved the concept of Dyson Spheres.

[@DocWolph]

I love your channel. It has helped me fill in gaps in my own fictions time and again. It is not perfect but it makes so much easier to understand, explain, and keep consistent without that irksome feeling that you know you pulled "it" out of your [bunghole]. It is still mostly sci-fantasy but I do get irked by "just because" or "Cuz I say so" explanations when explaining the magic is just as much fun to me as anything in fiction. And you help me greatly with that.

[@francoislacombe9071]

6:07 Cylinders 4 kilometers in radius and 20 kilometers long would have an internal surface of 500 square kilometers, 600 if you include the circular end faces, not 800 as stated. That being said, why would an O'Neill habitat be limited to 20 kilometers in length? The 4 kilometer radius limit is easy to understand, but the length could be anything short of what would generate enough lengthwise gravity to collapse the structure.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Oh that's an narrating error on my part, they're 32 kilometers long or 20 miles, I tend to do land in miles and acres so I probably typo'd or mentally tripped. And no there's no max length, the topopolis is literally just an O'neil extended billions of miles.

[@bozo5632]

If you want it to spin nicely without active stabilization, and maximize area and materials, there's a range of ratios that works best, not too fat, not too skinny. From something I read, O'Neill's are already way too skinny. A Stanford torus is unnecessarily fat. Supposedly Kalpana One is designed around an ideal(?) ratio. (Was years ago, idk.) I'm a caveman - I want my orbital megastructures built of napped flint, and stuck to the firmament with pine resin and strips of chewed rawhide. I mean to say, I like simple, self-correcting, low-or no-maintenance, foolproof stuff. Sod houses on Mars lol.

[@TheTonyMcD]

Amazing episode! I really love these long episodes you have. It just gives so much more in depth information on a given topic. I would vote for every episode to be 40 minutes to an hour. Even if that meant you could only do an episode every other week, I'd still vote for the longer episodes.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Well next week's is 45 minutes long, though I've promised myself to keep the next two after that under 25 so I don't fall over dead :)

[@SpanerMagnet]

To hide a dyson sphere, reflect all waste energy in a tight beam towards the emptiest piece of space you can find.

[@bozo5632]

It's a matter of thermodynamics and surface area. It only partly works, and couldn't hide a Dyson sphere from the whole galaxy - probably just from one direction, and at great cost/inefficiency. And probably it would be futile since there are other ways to detect them besides IR. I just tried to write a simple explanation but failed. Too hungry, gtg. But look up why "stealth in space" is impossible, even for tiny ultra-high-tech ninja spacecraft, then multiply by a trillion if you want to conceal a whole star.

[@dustinking2965]

Came here to say this.

[@doppelrutsch9540]

That necessarily comes at a cost of efficiency. And if you want to hide you don't build a Dyson sphere in the first place as is pointed out in the video.

[@KarlJeager]

If all waste energy could be perfectly captured and directed, wouldn't that then produce thrust and so move the star noticeably from it's galactic orbit?

[@sebastianmesserschmidt9540]

If one could compress the waste energy into a tight beam it wouldn't be waste energy anymore ;-)

[@danielvest9602]

I love the way that this channel gives so many of the science fiction books I enjoyed into a science based reality.

[@jsbrads1]

You don't want to experimentally disassemble planet earth? You are such an Earthist! 😜😂

[@loganquinn9452]

At some point to "disprove" the growing planet theory, a tectonically active planet needs to be split in half to see the inner workings. :D

[@larrybeckham6652]

Thank you! I am convinced now - a Dyson swarm can never hidden.

[@JoelDowdell]

Sees the Hyperion. Remembers to like the video.

[@numgun]

One thing has me puzzled about dyson swarms and artificial habitats: protection against solar radiation. The earth has a huge magnetic field that keeps us safe, but it does that via its huge molten core that generates this field. How would a space colony habitat generate this field to protect the people inside it like earth does? Is it doable?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) As it turns out a giant spinning metal ring with solar panels on it is pretty well setup to produce a magnetic field. You're also inside it, so the air is under you and the dirt 'above', gives a lot of shielding.

[@numgun]

Hmm, yeah good point. I forgot solar panels and the terrain being inverted to face the outside would be an excellent protection against that. The reason I was originally confused: Looking at earth, given how densely packed it is with rock and metal, along with seeing videos of solar waves hitting earth's magnetic field and peeling away some of the layers, I had gotten the idea that small hollow space colony wouldn't be able to generate a large enough field to protect it as well as earth does. I thought that the earth had something special to it that was overlooked. Having ground, metal and solar panels on the outside, making the space colony be essentially a well fortified, "inverted earth" bunker erases my concern. Thank you.

[@musaran2]

Also, if we genetically engineer ourselves to be radiation resilient, it becomes a much lesser issue.

[@seanb3516]

Nursing a hangover....might still throw up......BUT......Isaac Arthur Video! Yahoo! (burp)

[@chrisgarcia6098]

Sean Nanoman google* fuck Yahoo

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Ouch, coffee, water, aspirin, and Vitamin B

[@leoisthebest99]

Pickle juice or an isotonic sports frink too, you'll have lost a lot of electrolytes yesterday and they'll need replacing

[@hologrampizza5432]

Isaac, as much as I know you love coffee, it actually makes a hangover worse. The symptoms of a hangover mostly come from dehydration, and coffee induces urination. Drinking water, tea, or fruit juice is a better option.

[@bozo5632]

+Hologrampizza - the caffeine is good though, and coffee's dehydration superpower is often exaggerated. Just drink water too. Coffee is my first hangover priority. I also recommend some grease, some protein, some salt (one piece of bacon total, or one greasy fried egg, or maybe nuts if you're a health-conscious drunk), maybe a little fiber (a handful or less) or bread or something to "soak up" the crud in your guts, and (optional) as much hot sauce as your ethnicity permits. Then back to sleep if possible. A little rice with - plain - yogurt is pretty good too, and helps settle the stomach imho. And, if local laws and your religion allow it, a light dose of medicinal cannabis is probably a more effective hangover remedy than all that put together. If you don't mind the side effects, half a hit might even really make your hangover feel better - but the main thing is, you'll definitely feel better ABOUT it.

[@USSGobLin]

I had a discussion with Dr Freeman Dyson many years ago about the theoretical Dysonsphere. My conclusion is no civilization would ever build one because the technology and resources to build and move planets around is significantly less than what is needed to begin building building a fully enclosed Dysonsphere as depicted in ST: TNG and he agreed with me. I do enjoy watching your videos Isacc.

[@davidmurphy563]

I've never seem a popular KZbin video with zero dislikes before. But then, what's not to like?

[@hologrampizza5432]

It would be so cool if you made a video talking about living technology, uplifting, and other alternative applications of genetic engineering! I know that you said in your video on terraforming and bioforming that biology isn't your strong suit, but broadening your horizons might be fun.

[@Urammar]

...aaaaand subbed.

[@ythompy]

At first I heard your impediment, but after like 20 mins my brain just adjusted and now I can't even notice. Great video. Time to binge watch.

[@SmartK8]

I love your videos. Even though I subscribe to another "school" of future. I think that instead of just catering to tens of billions, trillions and quadrillions and more people the future IMO will be more about becoming a machine-brain-entity that can propel through space and build/deconstruct whatever it wants. Population reduced to hundreds of these ever growing brains-machines that just collect materials to make their thinking capacity greater. They need to figure out what to do with the fate of the Universe (if they can do anything). Primary goal is gravitationally binding as much energy as possible before it expands away. Because after it does that's all you're left with to build your "brain" and figure out how to get yourself out of this situation (Universe going cold and dispersed). These machines might let live lower civilizations (including Earth) unless it interferes with its plans (crushing other technological civilizations trying to build similar machines), but eventually they will use all of it. Those last machines will have to either join or more likely the most successful one will deconstruct the others. If it can't think of a way to start a new Universe, go to a parallel Universe, or escape this simulated Universe.. or in whatever way stop its eventual demise, then at least it gave it the best shot it could. If it can, well the path might continue on a different scale.

[@SarabandeGreens]

We aren't even managing the village thing presently, in the woods is no exaggeration as we're 12 miles from the nearest "town" in an already sparse and rural state, namely Vermont. Quite the adjustment after Austin, Albuquerque and Los Angeles, but popping my sd card into my player and listening to your vids laying on the bank of the river where it's the kind of dark at night that you wonder if there aren't more starts than empty spaces after all is kind of magical.