Interstellar Colonization

[@DJSbros]

I think the idea of going back to sails (in a way) for human exploration is an extremely romantic idea. The age of sail all over again.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yes there is a certain appeal to the concept.

[@DJSbros]

I'm quite saddened at the thought of me being born in a time directly in between these two potentially great eras of human exploration. I don't fee like im getting to experience as much as i'd like. But that just may be my modern arrogance and lack of appreciation speaking.

[@DJSbros]

We're going to miss so much that we know is possible.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Wonders of ages tend to be mundane to those living on them, as we might recall from our ability to casually chat instantly with anyone, anywhere. A thing we never had before and probably won't have for more than another century or two, when expansion result sin light lag :)

[@sbalogh53]

DJSbros, you should not be sad. Your opportunity to travel today is the greatest it has ever been in human history. Granted, there are no new places on Earth to discover for humanity, but as an individual there are many, many places to see and societies to experience. Let go of your "mundane" existence and travel the world. If physical travel is not possible for you for some reason then virtual travel is almost as good. I spent a couple of years exploring the world with Google Earth and all its embedded photos before I could actually travel more frequently. We live in wonderful times.

[@MesquiteOJones]

There will never come a time that I tire of hearing you give me hope about the future of life in the universe and the things it will accomplish. Thank you for letting this first year not be the last

[@KrimsonVagus]

Man, I've been marathon watching your videos for a week now. I may even rewatch some stuff to fully grasp the content. Keep up the cool work, mate!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+KrimsonVagus Glad you're enjoying them!

[@kieranmorris7315]

Truly beautiful how you ended this video, I found your channel about a month ago, and since then you haven't failed to spark by imagination and curiosity. I hope you can continue to do this incredible work for many years to come, as a topic as big as the universe and all time has endless possibilities.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you Kieran, the ending was rather important to me for sentimental reasons too so I'm glad to hear I pulled off a proper one :) And at least for the time being I do not expect to run out of topics.

[@tomtaietot]

He kept the good work. Rewatched this today and it s still fascinating.

[@Xperim]

It's crazy how biological immortality is far more plausible than faster than light travel.

[@NapoleonBonaparde]

And if you cant colonize other star systems i do not believe immortality would be a good idea

[@DS-tv2fi]

NapoleonBonaparte Why?

[@sully9767]

@@DS-tv2fi Boredom? Idk.

[@DS-tv2fi]

doctor who10 I personally disagree, but I do see your point. It is slightly ironic coming from someone with a Doctor Who username though.

[@kemsat-n6h]

Faster than light travel breaks the literal rules of the universe a little bit; biological immortality only breaks theological & philosophical ideals.

[@theCodyReeder]

Fantastic video! by the way radiometers work by interacting with gas molecules, not the light itself. I made a video on the subject and I swear I had 60K people telling me that, which is why that video is now unlisted. as it turns out I just made the re-do video and have is scheduled to go up in an hour. it was so hard to actually show light pressure but I think I was able to do it.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Sounds like an excellent video, unfortunately I'm about to step out for the day but if you want to toss the link here when it goes public, post it and I'll be glad to add it to the video description!

[@kickmonlee3390]

Awesome at home experiment to actually measure light pressure. also its pretty funny to see one of my subscribers commenting on another one of my subscribers videos. Small world isn't it!

[@2150dalek]

I visited your channel, very interesting topics...I just subscribed.🐸

[@kirtmanwaring3629]

Cody'sLab

[@musaran2]

His video : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJiUiWujha-tn6M

[@MauriceLeviejr]

Right now a nuclear submarine is the most sophisticated self contained life support system that exists, beyond the engineering that gave us the ISS. The amount of duplication of vital systems and protective mechanisms needed to do serious spacefaring within the solar system is as of yet still scifi. The voyages of Magellan and Cook come to mind - self-contained brain trusts with a constant eye to use anything that could be useful.

[@TheNipSnipper]

If we somehow make it through the next few hundred years we are going to be so incredible. As a species, the things that we'll be capable of doing...

[@jnjcaron]

You all forgot the God factor. It will never get that far. Read your Bibles.

[@munstrumridcully]

@@jnjcaron the Bible says that no one, not even Jesus, knows when the world will end. The Bible also has a quote from Jesus saying that some of the people in the crowd listening to him would live to see the end...and that was 2000 years ago, so there are contradictions. People have been saying that the end is near the whole time, 2000 years, and none were right. Even if there is a God(this remains undemonstrated) and even if the Christian version is the correct one(again, undemonstrated) and even if the Bible was inspired/dictated by this God(unlikely, as we know that much of the Bible started as oral traditions that had at least some change in the telling over the years before they were written down, and after that there have been copying errors, translation errors, interpolation, etc..)--even if we assume all that, there is no way to accurately predict the end, according to the Bible itself.

[@businessproyects2615]

It could be that we make it as some primitivist dark age post nuclear society which hates science, so not so sure, there's many paths which end in some either dystopian or primitivist distribution of future states.

[@FoxtrotYouniform]

My good man, you are criminally under-subbed

[@Galvaxatron]

Just discovered your wonderful channel and I'm loving it. Keep it up!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Glad to hear it, welcome!

[@maujo2009]

Me too! Excellent job! I'm a highschool teacher and I'm thinking on offering a course with the contents you expound on your channel! Truly mindblowing!

[@perrinwa]

to Mau Jo Good luck trying to get that class up and running sounds like it would be a great way to expose these ideas to the minds of tomorow.

[@maujo2009]

kinith Thank you. Isaac's videos have truly sparked some ideas in my mind.

[@theultimatejoost]

A year later I wonder how the course went..I hope it was great..

[@almcdonald8676]

I nominate Mr Isaac as mayor of our first Dyson orbital.

[@MrIzzyDizzy]

please hes a goof showing multiple formulas for Joule's of energy a word he doesnt even know. sayin jowl instead of jool and that has nothing to do with the letter r

[@WonkelDee]

@@MrIzzyDizzy Speaking of goof's, you forgot to capitalize please, put an apostrophe on he's, then a comma, then another comma after energy. "Sayin" isn't a word, and it isn't capitalized, you put an extra space between "than" and "has", and you forgot to end the sentence with a period. Have a good day.

[@MrIzzyDizzy]

@@WonkelDee also speaking of goofs - you are correcting grammar and punctuation on you tube.

[@WonkelDee]

@@MrIzzyDizzy And you are making fun of somebody for having a speech impediment. On a video that was made almost five years ago.

[@MrIzzyDizzy]

@@WonkelDee i watched it, when i watched it. I'm criticizing his pretend expertise about his subject. irrespective of his speech impediment.

[@naes6843]

Isaac, I’ve been looking back from 2020 and continue my amazement at what the human mind can come up with. You and your team have simply turned your minds loose and the result is huge. I’m 76 but see no end in where GOD will let the imagination go. Thanks for opening at least one old guy’s mind, and I’m sure thousands more. Dave in Phoenix AZ USA

[@DavidMoore-bl7gb]

What a ;fun and thought provoking channel! I can listen to these over and over, this should inspire some great Sci-Fi.

[@SeishiZero]

Congratulations on your first year! Looking forward to the upcoming years!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+SeishiZero Thanks! It's been a lot of fun so far.

[@mikedrop4421]

Here it is 2 years after this video/comment was created and the final video of 2017 is another episode in what has become a full series on Interstellar Colonization. He's doing great.

[@SteveAttwood]

Issac, I am astonished at how good this series has been! I've just discovered you and literally I am binge watching everything! I can't begin to appreciate how much work you put in.. These are better than what the mainstream is spitting out. Sir, I congratulate you.

[@marshyman1]

This has been a fantastic find in 2021! Interesting to listen to things from 5 years ago, and realize how some things we knew/didn't know are different now.

[@danielguerrero8582]

This channel quickly became my favorite.

[@mbaxter22]

You forget the most important factor: ship design is dramatically simplified if you eliminate the need to support organic life forms onboard (ie: the humans). A ship containing AI synthetic life forms (or super advanced transhumans) doesn’t need radiation shielding, war, food, or artificial gravity, nor does it need to get there very fast. It’s interesting watching how Isaac’s view on this has evolved. He used to largely ignore the trend towards humans evolving into synthetic forms, having a bit of a blind spot in this regard, and it colored his older videos. Nowadays Isaac correctly assumes that traditional humans aren’t going to explore much of anything beyond the Moon and perhaps parts of Mars. It will be synthetics/AI’s exploring the distant solar system and interstellar space.

[@Cannibal713]

Great video. The best example of a successful seed ship I've seen is beautifully depicted in the manga and anime "2001 Nights"; a brilliant Japanese hard SF series. English translations of it can be read online.

[@MrMartechi]

First of all: Thank you for the incredible work put into these videos. They provide a great insight into the science involved with science-fiction. As a fan of sci-fi and an amateur writer, I have always felt quite intimidated by the aspect of technology and science in the genre. I have always struggled with finding a balance between fact and fiction and, as it seems, almost all professional authors of science fiction struggle with it too. Your videos offer a unique opportunity to get a better understanding of many typical sci-fi concepts and, even more importantly, offer further sources to look into. That, as well as your personal enthusiasm when talking about these topics, are incredibly motivating. One day, I hope I will be able to write a story based in a universe as grounded and thought through as the concepts you present. Especially the analogy of a solar system as a city, the Heliopolis, is incredibly intriguing. But as these videos show, a methodical approach is the most important thing. So before rushing into the adventures of space travelers on star highways, I will attempt to learn as much as I can, fusing the bits and pieces together into a coherent universe based on technologies possible within our current understanding of the universe. So, what I am trying to convey in many words: the content you are producing is not only entertaining but also incredibly engaging and is starting to shape my understanding of what the future might hold.

[@NoName-fc3xe]

@IsaacArthur, I love your channel man! You have a great deal of practical optimism. You have expanded my mind and made me guffaw. That tombstone killed me. It ripped the laughter right out of me! Keep up the great work, sir! You have a new subscriber and, very soon, patron in me.

[@gregstevens7520]

I'm so excited to have found this channel! Please don't ever stop creating these epic videos!

[@ErrataStigmata47]

Your channel is one of my all-time favorites - so many new and complex ideas presented in a way that respects your audience's intelligence. This is what YT is supposed to be - content made by regular people with a deep knowledge and love for their subjects. I've gone back to the very beginning so I can watch everything in the order it was made - this only the 2nd channel I've ever done that for. Keep up the good work!

[@JohnSagin-SimViDeLucis579]

The algorithm has been suggesting these 6+year old videos and I love it.

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks! In regard to data ships: as I was listening to this, I kept thinking of the sci-fi trope wherein human colonies - such as on the Moon or Mars - eventually rebel, & possibly even go to war with, Earth. The notion that kept sticking in my brain was the idea that humans on Earth who send out ships to colonize exoplanets (& such), might be seeding the galaxy with their own competition. I know the distances are so great as to make war somewhat unnecessary and/or impractical - and I know that space is fairly roomy, but I couldn't help getting a mental picture where some future version of humanity - wherever it eventually hails from, & whatever it's become - might compete with Earth (or even other systems) for galactic resources. Our descendants might well be extremely different than we are now, especially given time & distance from 'Mother Earth'. With all the technical & genetic possibilities, I have difficulty believing that humanity would be even largely the same everywhere. It's conceivable that *_something_* might come wandering (or storming!) back into this system, with the strange notion that they're better, stronger, & faster than old, outmoded Earthies, & decide that they've not only the right but the duty to take over & wipe out the inferior has-beens of the Sol system. After all, the *_real_* cutting edge stuff would tend to get done by the pioneers: those who venture out beyond; not the fuddy-duddies who stayed home! It's probably at least a good story idea (assuming it hasn't been done already - & it probably has). Just consider a far future time, when Earthlings suddenly encounter potentially hostile 'aliens', only to discover that they're us! Er, uh, YIKES. And finally, if humans have tech that allows them to live a really long time, (as for Methuselah ships), presumably that tech involves some very robust DNA maintenance & repair abilities. Given this, sleeper ships would seem to be an easier (& cheaper) way to go, wouldn't they? Anyway, thanks again for the video! 𝕥𝕒𝕧𝕚.

[@kibbkibbie2222]

Wow over a thousand subs! Congrats. Thanks for all those times, merry Christmas.

[@Blexxor12]

Isaac is basically making mini audio books and has been for a while. I love it.

[@felixironfist2975]

Thanks for the video, Isaac, it's so enjoyable to hear some in-depth talk about space science.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Felix Ironfist Glad you enjoyed it Felix, Happy New Year

[@brendameistar]

Speech impairment? You sound perfectly fine. Thanks for the videos

[@RathVantas]

Fascinating video! Just found your channel and loving it

[@thaneoflions9576]

Your content is amazing, I find you really inspiring. Thank you for your hard work. 🦁

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

thanks!

[@aurelienclause5665]

Your intelligence and the way you share it with the rest of the world is a gift for all of us.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Aurelien, it's nice to have folks who enjoy these subjects to share it with :)

[@Underpojken]

I have now been spending an entire day looking at your videos. Amazing stuff! There is just one after another very intriguing subjects poping up in the videos. Keep them comming.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Will do Bjorn, glad you're enjoying them!

[@angusmcgherkinsquirt]

Appreciate the effort on the stop watch lengthy productions.

[@sbalogh53]

34:17 "The absence of stars in the night sky". OMG, I never thought of it that way. Mind blowing.

[@emergentcausality]

ok so I'm not sure this comment won't offend but I truly mean no offense, Issac. I've gotten to the point where I find your voice and your rhotacism comforting. I'm not really sure why either but as i watch your videos I find myself being calmed in a way that doesn't happen with speakers without the issue. This was very unexpected but I welcome it. I love your work, keep it up my man!

[@jamesstewart8663]

I am loving this channel, it is also helping me a lot with research and ideas for personal writing.

[@Achaegus]

id just like to say, you always talk about your speech impediment and that you are difficult to understand but i have never found you difficult to understand. its good you provide subtitles for those that might but dont feel you have to focus on that! you are speech is actually really nice to listen too and i hope you dont have too much of a complex about it because you shouldn't.

[@BlakeLBoggs]

A friend sent me to your channel, and I suffer from a speech impediment very similar to your own and have always been hesitate to put my voice out there like you are doing. So I want to just congratulate you for you courage and your videos are also very informative but that should go without saying.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you Blake, that genuinely means a lot, public speaking of any type is pretty intimidating, doubly so with an impediment, and the internet can be particularly cruel at times, but its still worth it. It really is and you can't let stuff like this hold you back from speaking.

[@carloorioli197]

these vids are incredibly informative and imaginative. awesome content ive seen all these vids up to date

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you Carlo, I'm glad you're enjoying them!

[@jonathonfulbright8002]

so much better than Michio Kaku's Oooos and Aaaas

[@fsmoura]

Not to mention his mentioning of the Kardashev scale so frequently that it measures in Kpm, Kardashev (mentions) per minute!

[@jonathanhensley6141]

Incredible video and how u explain everything in simple and rational terms. Keep up the good work. Live the visual effects and definitely need your own discovery Channel show.

[@chuckbanks9660]

Happy holidays and happy new year brother. Always look forward to your videos.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Chuck Banks Happy holidays, we'll see you next year!

[@tuboshinji]

I think i have listened to all you videos so far. I truly appreciate what you do mate. keep it up, i need to feed my mind some more.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Emcee!

[@kennethnuckolls9778]

This was my first video. It was amazing. You've gained a new subscriber. I don't think it was too information dense, but i also am vaguely familiar with all the concepts mentioned. I really like the way it flowed as well. Thank you.

[@scottishadonis]

Love your content lad! It’s the best content on KZbin! Keep up the great work. Be well & prosperous!

[@JohnnyDoeDoeDoe]

Congratz on your first year! I think this has been your best video yet. I look forward to seeing where this channel goes as a fan from the beginning!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+John Doe Glad to have you on board, it's been a fun year and hopefully next year will be better yet!

[@lazarusmonkeymansoutdoorad2170]

LOVE your videos Isaac! Seriously, did a 12 hour shift today (Christmas) and listened to your videos the entire time. But I can't lie to ya man, it's SO difficult to stay along with you when you keep throwing interesting concepts one after the other that each, themselves, spawn 14 ideas in my head and suddenly I realize 5 minutes have gone by, I've zoned out again into science la-la land, and I have to rewind to catch back up. By the time I get to where I had to rewind from, I've already zoned out again from something else you said... True, this is completely my own scatter-brained fault- but thanks for the food for thought! One thing I'd argue though: the importance of Luna. True, He3 may not be the best fuel for fusion, but I would still argue that it's critical for large-scale construction due to the convenience of its shallow gravity well, comm-time to Terra, lack of atmosphere, and ability to power refineries/heavy industry associated with said construction with free power from the sun. (I'm talking here/now- not when we have the capability to build Dyson swarms...) Not only that, but it's military-strategic importance as well, due to that same shallow gravity well. Heinlein covered this in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." Finally, if we want to go to Mars SAFELY, why not take the time to practice here in our own backyard, build up the infrastructure, practice with orbiting Lagrange points, etc., before we spend three times the amount, and forfeit countless other scientific missions, to send meatbags to Mars in the next 15 years?

[@lazarusmonkeymansoutdoorad2170]

Kindly disregard my question, I have just discovered your video on the subject... ;)

[@gmangannon3105]

Again this channel is very cool, keep it going, good luck

[@XBnPC]

Isaac Arthur, I Love your videos. Thank you!

[@ThrashingMadPL]

Great content. I can understand you clearly despite not being native English speaker.

[@brianmonks8657]

Your videos are really interesting, and I'm slowly working my way through them. One small point, I think You should look into Crookes radiometers. As far as I know, the movement is dues to heat transfer to the partial vacuum, from the vanes being heated by the light. They don't work by light pressure, and don't work in a complete vacuum.

[@fos_focus4637]

I love the way you explain this stuff, this is better then TV thanks for the value.

[@glynjones9027]

Very informative and extremely exiting prospects for the future please keep it up

[@Auxf5]

Another great video! I appreciated the Wheel of Time reference - I think anyone who wants "Big World Building Stuff" would appreciate it at least for that. After our last conversation about the Kavli Foundation's estimates of the number of rogue/nomad planets, I have been thinking about how important it might become for Earth's society to become open minded to the idea of giving up control of how our 'child cultures' (for lack of a better phrase) will develop if we hijack the Nomads. Being halfway through the second book of The Expanse series, (I won't spoil anything if no one else does), one of the minor themes early on is a kind of prejudice from the Earth and Mars cultures toward the colonies and space stations of the asteroid belt, due to their smaller stature and weaker frame, thanks to reduced gravity and caloric intake (Those are the visual justifications, I won't mention other details). Imagine trying to seriously suggest some giant space structure projects to the U.N. right now! While I wouldn't recommend it, have you thought about doing a video on long-term culture planning? This is an area where even the most ambitious of Science Fiction writers seem to give up, and offer very general, vague explanations on how to maintain specific planning over centuries, or thousands of generations. The cleverest obfuscation of ambiguity is probably The Foundation, which simply copied a historic overlay of several cultures, and did some hand-waving "He did the psycho-history math of this stuff" (Not a negative criticism of the series as a whole, of course). The best I think is Iain M. Banks and his Culture series, who thought well enough to only use The Minds to solve a great many specific problems as he came up with them, by making modern day common sense look like genius through terrific narrative - rather than try to outline all of his millennium at once. I tend to think Frank Herbert did the opposite of what those two tried, by asserting that "History Repeats itself" (while true) more often than it really does, and so the Bene Gesserit and their breeding program / government puppetry was destined to function at least minimally, assuming that it could stay on track for at least the first dozen generations or so. Honestly, I think in this regard, our favorite genre falls flat as a whole - bringing me back to my first comment. "Cultural stuff" is one place where Fantasy really shines.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Auxf5 Asimov, Banks, and Herbert all in one paragraph, a plethora of good SF there but you are right, SF *sucks* at predicting social changes, except when people are only cherry-picking the rare bits they got right. I think fantasy does better because the authors tend to read a lot more history. Of course Wheel of Time actually does its science better than a lot of SF but then Jordan was a physicist and Sanderson is very obsessive about keeping his magic systems very detailed and non-vague and following the rules he lays out. You flip over to a series like the Sword of Truth and the magic follows whatever rules the author finds plot-convenient, when the author isn't busy soap-boxing on politics to remember the plot at least. I probably won't do much discussing social things of the future, one of my pet peeves is authors who try to guess at what the future holds in that respect and speak with certainty. My loose stance is that post-scarcity societies living mostly in artificial habitats spread over distances where light lag is a big factor will tend to mostly self-govern, and that they will then probably run the full political and cultural gamut including some of the options that seem kinda barking mad.

[@DocErk]

Thank you so much for those great Videos Merry Christmas!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Doc Erk Glad you're enjoying them, Merry Christmas to you as well.

[@SunuAkkad]

Your videos are Fascinating!!!! Please, keep up the excellent work!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+SunnuAkkad Thanks!

[@ZPositive]

Awesome Isaac Arthur sighting @19:34! I'd begun to suspect your leanings toward the dark side!

[@Cmdtheartist]

This might be my favorite SFIA video. It kind of has everything.

[@palfers1]

Stardate Wednesday, August 24th, 2016. Today we learned that in the habitable zone of our nearest stellar neighbour exists a planet slightly more massive than Earth. A more felicitous announcement can hardly be imagined. Just Wow.

[@HrHaakon]

UN Comissioner Pravin Lal has been chosen as the leader of the first extrasolar settlement.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I would love to see a modern remake of that game, or maybe not, I could lose hundreds of hours to playing it :D

[@Polynumeral]

Andrew may i proffer that a viable means to travel to said planet would be an announcement more felicitious.

[@palfers1]

@Mr. Poly - damn straight!

[@SailorBarsoom]

Somehow I'd missed this one. Well, I've seen it now. Back to the latest.

[@qosa09]

Wow, I just discovered this... your channel is amazing! I'm off to binge watch all your videos :D.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks, and welcome to the channel!

[@amelievenable4887]

pov: your binge watching every single isaac arthur video from start to now in 2022

[@RaffiTheQuokka]

First time viewer and totally hooked on your channel, keep up the great work! Also I understand you just fine.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Welcome to the channel!

[@PhilipSmolen]

I love the old stuff!

[@BronsonM6049]

Idk why I've chosen this particular video to say so, been watching for about a week now. Hooked on your material mate. I'm even going to sleep to it :') I'm studying physics and can't wait for this semester to start so I can show all my mates. The theme tune at the end of the videos is gold. Your voice is awesome and distinct, no subtitles necessary. I love it that there's no fancy shit, just straight talk. Any ways keep it up and big love from London.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Mehmet, good luck with your studies, and yeah the theme music is by probably my favorite artist I use in these, amusingly a composer from London, Dexter Britain.

[@BronsonM6049]

I will be checking him out. What did you study?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Physics

[@BronsonM6049]

woop!!! to what level? masters? doctorate?? also, what area of physics most interests you and what areas do you find hardest to grip?

[@JamesR1986]

15:43 I think a nuclear device just went off in my head.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

For Data Ships? Yes they're a handy option if available,saves a ton of energy.

[@thegrimwar2127]

I know of another way to traverse that great distance, you could greatly decrease the time to travel the distance by slipping into a part of the universe that is not exactly part of this universe, a nether dimension that you can use to conduct interstellar or even intergalactic travel, and any radio waves you put in it are transmitted easily, of course I only heard of this dimension called Zero-Space from a book series that was published twenty years ago, but that would probably be a viable way to travel, would it not?

[@thefinestsake1660]

I have to bring up Kenshi for the seeds ship idea. The lore has a lot of fun with the concept of a world raised by machines made by a people they'll likely never see again

[@spooky9536]

Excellent presentation really enjoyed it:D.

[@jamesedwards3923]

Your stuff has gotten better. Keep it up :) ! It has always been great ;) .

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+James Edwards Thanks James!

[@omnimetabell]

Hi, Isaac Arthur! I'm just now starting this video. As I'm watching the animation of the Milky Way galaxy and hearing you talk about expansion, I conjured this question: if as a species we can meet every challenge, and hurdle every obstacle, and expand to a point where we are in multi galactic civilization, is there a possibility that we could succeed in an endeavor to mitigate or reverse the heat death of the universe. Maybe maintain a few galactic clusters with Stellar nurseries. If our mega descendants end up being pre-ascended super beings, I imagine they'll still want something to do. If you touch on this or a similar topic, I apologize for jumping the gun, and I look forward to getting to that video. Your content is amazing!

[@smorrow]

Did you see the one on "black hole farming"?

[@Samman221]

Great channel, great video, and the most interesting thing on the internet for me so far.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks!

[@Samman221]

Isaac Arthur No problem, keep up the great videos

[@janhanchenmichelsen2627]

Mr Arthur is pure gold!

[@RHICfct]

Great Channel, Merry Cristmas!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+RHICfct Thanks, you too!

[@SaWuDOHC]

Loving this channel.

[@fsmoura]

Outstanding! Congrats, Isaac.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks!

[@paulscooluncle1886]

Probably won't see this but you have giving me a reason to live my dude. Thank you man really For all you do.

[@paulscooluncle1886]

I now have the motivation to expand my mind and better myself through education. Sorry for the grammar. Just one of things I'm improving on.

[@potato-ld1uj]

Go for it buddy, don't matter what it is that inspires you you better your life as long as you have the will do try that's all anybody can ask of you. I hope you are successful on your path to bettering your life.

[@seandees3028]

Just a thought, if a solar sail were to disengage from the ship when approaching it's destination and the laser system that was pushing it where to be reflected off of that separated panel to focus the light back to the nose of the ship (a small sail itself) the disengaged panel would continue to accelerate but the parent ship could then use the reflected light to slow down allowing the ships origin laser system to decelerate. Not sure if it would be efficient, but it is possible.

[@vinniepeterss]

damn, this is one of mr arthur's earliest videos just pop up in my page😂

[@meanmanturbo]

One issue with generation ships I remember from a Heinlein novel I read a long time ago, Orphans of the Sky I think, was rather interesting. That when there are no longer any people who where born on earth people begun to believe that the ship was the entire universe and that the stories of earth was just superstitious creation myth. Oh, and that their ancestors where really damn serious about learning pretty handwriting.

[@SHansen82]

Thanks for the videos! Videos like this have been a nice break from all the political videos this last year.

[@rixvillarreal]

Isaac you have built leverage and credibility to avoid commenting on your diction ... it’s perfectly understandable 💪

[@Mrcheesythumbs]

Another solution for the sleeper ships, you could have the crew working consciously in shifts just to monitor progress of the expedition. Great content on this channel, it covers literally all subject matters that interest me a lot. EDIT: I'd also like to add that it's possible that ETs have created new alternative power sources that don't require dyson spheres/swarms being constructed and could likely not leave a galactic footprint. It's nearly impossible to imagine what an alien race with a few million years to evolve could have accomplished.(Likely more than we can even imagine, which could explain we why cannot detect them)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Oh sure, they might have any number of techs for power generation that sneer at Thermodynamics, if you mean in regard to the Dyson Dilemma, its just that they would have to break thermodynamics to do that and that does look pretty solidly impossible right now. We have to work inside the context of known science to do our speculating even though we all take as a given much will get upturned down the road. Personally though, I would bet on faster than light travel and breaking entropy as things that will turn out to be as solidly impossible a million years from now as today.

[@Mrcheesythumbs]

Isaac Arthur I believed so too, until I looked back at our history and realized that nearly everything we claimed as impossible or true was then found to be possible and untrue mere centuries later. This leaves me at an impasse between believing our core laws of physics and scientific findings and contesting them, believing that they will be proven otherwise in time. But I guess that would move this sort of thinking out of science and into the realm of faith. Anyways good shit, I've been looking for a channel like this for weeks now haha

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Unfortunately what history actually shows is that pop sci magazines will cheerfully dig through lots of quotes by scientists saying 'Yes it may be possible' or 'I don't think so' till they find one guy who said 'Impossible' and slap that into the article on a bit of new tech. And also never mentioning how things like 2+2=5 remain solidly impossible :) But who knows? What I meant though was that we've got to stick to what we know if we're going to discuss this sort of stuff sanely, if it turns out tomorrow that we actually live in a big crystal sphere or the moon's made out of blue cheese after all I won't feel too bad about being wrong about the chains of logic we used getting to these conclusions. Anyway, welcome to the channel, hope you enjoy the rest of it!

[@osearthesp]

2:07 : End of intro. Start of content.

[@seanb3516]

Wait a minute... I thought a Cooke's Radiometer worked by air pressure in a reduced pressure bulb. In fact I believe if you put a Cooke's Radiometer in a complete vacuum it will no longer work. The pressure of the photons is not enough to move the vein. It is the expansion of air on the warm (black) side along with contraction of air cooling on the cool (white) side.

[@covenantsoul8027]

Speech impediment my @$$ - You have a cool sounding voice!

[@Shibanobi]

It’s a somewhat niche game, but Xenoblade Chronicles X features a sleeper ship combined with mind uploading (mechanical bodies with an uploaded human mind) and the ship becomes their new colony. It’s as much of a fantasy game as a sci fi one, but it’s still really fun to see these concepts explored!

[@lucad.marchesi8950]

The tube tunnel that you show in the video is the one from my town Torino

[@kateapples1411]

It'd be neat if we could keep our bodies in suspended animation of some variety, while living during the trip in artificial bodies that when the trip is over move the memories and experiences back to the living body once it is out of stasis. Unless the stasis was fluid enough that you could constantly keep the body updated with the new memories in close to real time to maintain continuity better. Those artificial bodies could also explore hazardous environments. Though if you could do that, you could also presumably keep even living bodies "backed up", and stick the memories and experiences into clones or new bodies entirely. The keeping of original bodies in stasis just helps dampen the blow of "What happens to the soul?" or "What happens to the concept of humanity itself?"

[@PaulaJBean]

The 'Light Mill' 19:19 doesn't work by bouncing off photons, like a Space Sail would. Instead it works on heating the very thin gas in the bulb, which pushes the vanes. The effect stops when the vacuum reaches 10E-6 torr, where the pressure of the photons is unable to overcome the friction of the spindle. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_radiometer This is a common misunderstanding.

[@ShinForgotPassxXx]

Amazing like always and just for christmas. Been checking the channel daily for any new updates. I wish you happy christmas, Isaac! And, oh, if you maybe have time one day could you recommend some books about the topic of colonization/space habitats or something that you yourself liked very much about this topic. I like to read and would like to get into this topic more but am not an expert but just someone who would like to know more.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+ShinForgotPassxXx Merry Christmas to you too, glad to hear from you again. Recommendation-wise it kinda depends on if you're looking for fiction or non-fiction. I can't really recommend any I liked personally but the big non-fiction classic is O'neill's 1976 "The High Frontier" and it nominal sequel "2081", and there were a fair few others in the late 70's like Heppenheimer's 'Colonies in Space' before some of the post-Apollo exuberance got throttled back. That's 40 years back but the core concepts haven't changed much and there's been a bit of a stall in conceptualizing in more detail since it's all pretty far horizon so I can't suggest much else. Sci-fi tends to ignore non-FTL travel outside our solar system and science tends to avoid getting into heavy detail on something that far down the road still. Savage's "Millennial Project" from the mid 90's gets good reviews, never read it but I know the material and its solid. There's metric tons of papers on the various subjects out there, ranging from interesting to dry, but not terribly many non-fiction full length books.

[@ShinForgotPassxXx]

+Isaac Arthur Happy new year, Isaac. I forgot to mention that your animations got a hell lot of better but I kind of miss the charme of the old one. hahhaha. Btw, have you ever played Universe Sandbox 2? Not sure if you might find this interesting. Cheers!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+ShinForgotPassxXx I sort of miss the old animations too, they had the charm that they didn't take hours to render a few seconds of video ;) No I've not played US2, I remember the original from a few years back but not well, I think I played with it a bit, one of those softwares like Google Sky and Celestia I've always meant to spend more time with. I'll have to try the new one out. Happy New Year!

[@maximefeyeux5808]

Considering laser beams, and recent devs in nanotextured bidimensionnal lenses (TiO2 pillars), wouldn't it make more sense to make lenses to power light sails than lasers, focusing further and further away as time goes on (keeping up with the free/otherwise wasted light from the sun reasoning, same goes for focusing light on far objects such as Pluto). By the way I'm very happy to have found your channel, keep up the good work, and if you ever consider making french subtitles, count on me !

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

My, I hadn't even considered alternate language subtitles, but then my foreign tongues is limited to a smattering of german and arabic plus those bits of greek, latin, and old french you just pick up from science and such. And I wouldn't trust an sort of automated translator. Also wlecome to the channel, glad you found it. Anyway, yes that's a good point, lense smight end up being better. Lenses or lasers really just comes down to focal distance, the mirror sails don't care about whether or not the photons are coming in coherently just that they arriving on target and bouncing off. So it just comes down to what the must economical method technology permits when you go to build it. That might involve a series of mirror and lenses, it probably would, but how often you needed to place them would depend on a lot of as-of-now unpredictable elements. Whatever lets you put the most photons on target at a distance cheapest overall is best. We talk about this a bit more in Megastructures 08 and 09, Shkadov Thrusters and Nicoll-Dyson Beams, but as you say, lenses might work as well as lasers and we just can't say yet what the best approach would be.

[@jemandanders6160]

It seems I consumed your channel within a few hours. Interesting stuff and very well done. Any schedule for more content?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Jemand Anders nothing rigorous, another one probably by the end of the month

[@jemandanders6160]

+Isaac Arthur In that case I'll need something else to feed on... suggestions?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Jemand Anders Sort of depends on which subject interested you and what style or depth you prefer, I generally try to focus on subjects that I felt have been neglected elsewhere, or not covered in depth. These days I mostly look at other science videos for ideas on how to better present material.

[@jemandanders6160]

Well, I happily fry my brain reading Heidegger. His presentation is as awfull as it gets (and his ideas are as awesome). So good presentation is a bonus, and the deeper it goes, the better it is. I'm also interested in a wide number of topics. However, asking for advice from you I'm primarily focused on other sources concerning space colonisation, its concepts and technologies. Be they speculative or within reach.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

+Jemand Anders Never read Heiegger, he was on my list for ontology but a friend warned me off as been a hard read more focused on existential matters. In terms of colonization, there's a lot of white papers from NASA in the 70s that are good reads but generally, besides Mars, there's not much science-focused colonization material, though plenty of scifi where the science is pretty solid. Alistair Reynolds is a personal favorite, whereas KSR's Mars trilogy I consider very overrated on the 'hard scifi' listings. Ben Bova's Grand Tour series, while the plots and characters are not very great usually contains a lot of hard science focused on making a given planet, moon, or asteroid livable.

[@silverbane8065]

for anyone interested in seed ships (from a scifi fiction point of view rather than factual) there is a book where this is the main plot, called Earthseed by Pamela Sargent. i read it at school and found it quite interesting. im not sure exactly how science correct it is, but its the only book i have read where a spaceship travels between starsystems and grows humans once it gets close enough to earthtype planets to drop the colonists off at.

[@glukon69]

Wow, your videos are amazing and are really inspiring me. keep it up :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks!

[@lightningsparx5786]

I love your videos. Your brilliant.

[@chronosschiron]

i've seen Orion experiments on video from way back , however you dont get to see it all , and they say its still classified cause they got it to work

[@CplPeckerfinger]

You never updated the link on your "Impact of Nuclear Fusion" video at the end. By the way, very great videos. Your videos are timeless.

[@dalemartin815]

Dyson Sphear/Swarm is a bit overkill. A Dyson ring the width of the distance of Topic of Cancer and Capricorn will be more than you need. A maglev rail around the outside can provide personal and freight transport as well as runway for space transport for personal, commercial, and military needs.

[@dantess2693]

Haha 1:38 the Wheel of Time novels.... never have I had such a love/hate relationship with a series.