Is there a limit to technological progress? - Clément Vidal

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Many generations have felt they’ve reached the pinnacle of technological advancement. Yet, if you look back 100 years, the technologies we take for granted today would seem like impossible magic. So - will there be a point where we reach an actual limit of technological progress? And if so, are we anywhere near that limit now? Clément Vidal consults Kardashev’s scale to find out.
Lesson by Clément Vidal, animation by CUB animation.

[@frosted1030]

It's not the amount of energy that a civilization uses, but the efficiency that it can utilize many energy sources that determines its value. For example: ENIAC (one of the earliest computers) used about 180,000 watts of power, cost millions, and was very unreliable. Basically a calculator. The LS-82Z is a basic solar powered calculator that does more than ENIAC, costs $5 and is solar powered. There might be a day when the efficiency of our technology allows us to do far more than we can now, using far less power.

[@bayraktarx1386]

Yes, you don't need power of whole galaxy if you have 99% efficient quantum scale technology.

[@frosted1030]

GFDSD FSDFS It depends on what you do with the energy too. If you are able to sustain an entire ecology with a safe renewable power source the size of a grain of salt, I'd say that's quite advanced compared to a civilization that harnesses the power of a galaxy to pull weeds.

[@rs-gh5jl]

That's why he said a truly advance civilization would be able to harness the energy of a galaxy, and use it so effectively that a rock sized amount of coal could power the entirety if earth for octillons of years.

[@telgou]

just like the graphics cards companies they have been decreasing newer more powerful card's needed power for like 2years now

[@bayraktarx1386]

telgou delou yeah and your phone has million times more power than first computers which used x999 more power...

[@GamerRusith]

400 years later people looking back at this video will laugh at us.

[@julianahvera2482]

GamerRusith right

[@ArifRWinandar]

Even now we laugh at 400 years ago.

[@mattbell4498]

GamerRusith If the world exists...

[@GamerRusith]

Matt Bell True

[@davidflores909]

*+Matt Bell* if _humanity*_ exists. The earth can't just disappear. Not even if all the nuclear heads in existence were strategically detonated today.

[@jflyer4522]

Look, if we humans want to even thing about advancing, we first need to get along.

[@canaelph9727]

Jflyer45 We advanced already in the past and we didn't get along. So I don't think that will be the problem in the future.

[@jflyer4522]

Cana Elph What will be a problem is if we have nuclear wars and end up killing our race by ourselves.

[@jflyer4522]

Bush Plays I'm confused?

[@MauroTamm]

conflict breeds innovation. Complete harmony and happiness is stagnation.

[@SunnyApples]

Some of the fastest scientific and technological advances happen during the cold war. Humans went to the moon then, and never since.

[@MattiaDeG]

more kardashevs less kardashians

[@NB-mx9dw]

So true .our society needs scientists

[@akashrathod595]

Bruh... true 😂

[@MrMonkeybat]

It took me a few year to figure out that people talking bout the Kardashians were not talking bout a species from Star Trek.

[@Nawwar1980]

Kardashev scale is about " Civilization" scale , while "Kardashians" scale is about " Bottom" scale.

[@whitemagicalhat2844]

Why not both? The brains of Kardashevs with the...physiques...of Kardashians. That wouldn't be so bad. 😈

[@insertnamehere1865]

Rip Nikolai Kardashev (April 25, 1932 - August 3, 2019)

[@nocturno5373]

He died on my birthday

[@cjfdnqkn4374]

Nocturno lol ur lucky

[@Dayroom]

369

[@SignsBehindScience]

@@nocturno5373 Like Nikola Tesla died on 7 January (My Birthday).. 😞😢

[@kcwidman]

Animations for this one were fantastic.

[@SonawanePravin]

as always..

[@MegaRay0]

...Thank you for watching

[@annachen5688]

Was that a Vsauce reference?

[@kcwidman]

Anna Chen yes

[@Damstraight68]

Q_Q The Anti-matter graphic shows magnetic repulsion instead of anti-matter annihilation. \ Looks like a graphic artist didn't take advanced physics class!

[@AbruptAvalanche]

It's a bit hard to accept that the number of potential technological advancements are truly infinite. I would say the short answer is "yes", but we're nowhere close to that limit, nor do we have any idea of where that limit is.

[@Grashnook]

This video literally never addresses the question it proposes in its title. Abysmal.

[@Aronnax777]

I mean knowing the future with utmost certainty is impossible, at least for now. Also this was a very philosophical video, you usually get more questions than answers. There are many things we still do not know.

[@Dominik356]

But, is there a limit to technological progress?

[@mewan1708]

We many never know....but I do...to know the

[@sophiaricasata3125]

*KINGU CRIMUSON*

[@jcdenton1868]

in Newton physics there was physical limits, but we are not quite understand modern physics that is there a limit to us control and travel to space and time, dimensions, other universes and build new ones. Btw we may never achieve limit of newton's law. For example efficiency limit is %100. And as much as I know, mechanical engineering is base on Newton physics, and it keeps developing.

[@samiha3761]

Yes.

[@whitemagicalhat2844]

Case in point: I grew up thinking the Nintendo 64, then later the Nintendo GameCube was the pinnacle of human technological ingenuity. Now, 20 years later, I find that I couldn't have POSSIBLY been more wrong. To quote/paraphrase Exubr1a; "The universe is a chessboard, and technology works because we are learning what moves we can make on that board, and we're getting better at that game all the time." The only barriers to technological progress are human determination and human imagination and the only hard limit is the fundamental laws of the universe, and we don't even yet know all there is to know about HOW the universe works. All of our modern technology relies upon interactions of the electromagnetic force. Can you imagine what technological breakthroughs await us if we could manipulate the remaining 3 fundamental forces in even remotely the same way? Gravity? How about "anti-gravity" propulsion without the use of rockets? The weak and strong nuclear forces? How about direct manipulation of sub-atomic particles to engineer materials at the picometer, or even the femtometer, scale?

[@alexrussell8021]

This is my favorite comment here. I think about the video game comparison when thinking about if the universe is a simulation created by a superintelligent being or deity. As for the gravity defying spaceshipas, we have seen this in the leaked and now released UFO/UAP footage. This really scares me. This shows us that we arent able to determine how far technology will advance. It gives me nightmares to think about what kind of technology an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization could produce. We wouldnt understand it if we saw it, or even if it was fully explained to us. How did we get from tools made of rocks to the photorealistic video game "simulations" we have today? How did we get from the tech of 100 years ago to now? This is why I believe the universe is created with certain parameters, formulas, algorithims, whatever, shaped by the period table of elements. I dont think each star or planet was crafted indiviually. Instead the creator allowed the universe to evolve and flow using these parameters.

[@yearginclarke]

I was the opposite. Born in 85, and wasn't allowed to play video games before 1997, and rarely got to even see video games much before then. I remember my peers saying how advanced and realistic the 3D graphics were for N64 and Playstation. When I first saw N64 I was like "this is it? this is what's so advanced?" I was really underwhelmed, because the way people made it sound, I was thinking it would be more like say how Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics turned out to be later.

[@VeggieBond]

The amount of material needed to create a dyson sphere is unimaginable, we need dont have enough material on Earth. And even physically constructing that around our sun is another huge obstacle. Creating this around our sun may cause heat/radiation to stay trapped, which may cause a whole load of other problems. (PS this is what I think so it may not be true either)

[@titaniumwolf1123]

The Dyson sphere isnt even a prototype theory. It's not going to look anything like what we have drawn obviously. Looking at it literally is silly, definitely would find a way to perfect it without issues by the time it's even possible

[@NoobMaster-or2jf]

Creating a Dyson sphere is pretty energy intensive.

[@strange_and_magnificent]

It's amazing how much we've achieved, and yet, there's still so much more out there.

[@Nawwar1980]

One of the best things about the progress to next level of "Kardashev" scale Civilization is the fact that every one will be equal in wealth, as energy which drive technology progress become so abundant , and this will end the current state of planet mess by very few who control and manipulate world wealth for their benefit against the rest of the planet popultion.

[@godofdeath8785]

I mean idk about that bcs you know we not equal but I really dreaming about once human (not hivemind which we meet every day) can become most value resource

[@Anekalibro]

@@godofdeath8785 If human reach the point where everyone is wealthy, i imagine the human ability to evolve will be increasingly difficult due to the lack of human motivation itself. I believe everything should be balance. *Sorry for bad english

[@iwannabekool]

@@Anekalibro since everyone will be equal there will be actually more competition for stuff because you no longer will have any way to determine who "deserves" it more.

4:17 Starkiller Base

[@Amphiprionocellaris]

Haha, that's what I thought of too

[@GuyWithAnAmazingHat]

One question I had since I first watched episode VII is, how does Starkiller Base prevent itself from collapsing under the mass of an entire star that it collects?

It's called: movie. :) Not real. But if we really want something, I guess they have the technology to prevent that.

[@powrr]

GuyWithAnAmazingHat with a fusion generator the size of a planet

[@MaxArceus]

Yeah, or a whitedwarf using its gravity to steal matter from another close orbiting star.

[@johnjhill3]

Nice how you painted the Sahara *green*. Are you presenting a challenge?

[@Kitkat-986]

it may be mathematically unlikely, but i like to imagine that tabby's star is us bearing witness to the construction of a dyson sphere on a world in our own galaxy.

[@Freigeist20789]

The video did not adress the question posed in the title. Technological progress comes to an end, when every machine has an efficiency of 100% or nearly 100%. At this point no new technology would be required as the perfect maschines have been developed.

[@qasimmir7117]

I remember watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called 'Relics' when they came across a Dyson Sphere. As an engineer myself I can tell that the end technological advancement is definitely not now.

[@MaverickMustaine]

All advancement after the SNES is useless

[@G_U_STHEBESTE]

Maverick Mustaine WHAT ABOUT SONIC.... WITH BLAST PROCESSING?

[@thearmyofiron]

or Nintedo 64

[@jackkody4088]

XD yes!

[@jackkody4088]

@@thearmyofiron yes, too

[@JFrogy]

Technically, you didn't answer the question. *~BURN*

[@DavidDahlgren]

This must be the best of all Ted-Ed vids I've ever seen.

[@Ally5141]

You have really low standards if you think that. It doesn't even answers the question asked in the title.

[@MundoFinky]

Question not answered...

[@shoosharooroo]

Can we acknowledge the fact that this video has been up for less time than the video lasts? Crazy, hey? That means that us early people don't know how this video ends, and we'll be the first to find out.

[@64standardtrickyness]

well the limit is our brainpower and lifespan and we are actually stretched pretty thin in that regard. Very few scientists are regarded as polymaths and it takes prospective scientists far longer to learn all there is to know.

[@simongross3122]

Not really. Our limits are well extended by the ability to read, write, specialise and work in teams. There have always been projects that last longer than the lifetime of a single person.

[@Ideophagous]

The most optimistic model predicts human civilization will be type I within 100 to 200 years, not 400. Don't underestimate the exponential growth of technology.

[@hearestthou5714]

don't overestimate technology

[@clysen8234]

Well we still have to educate a large mass(it would help). But not everyone wants to be scientist.

[@Ideophagous]

Technology has both been underestimated and overestimated in the past. No one predicted the Internet or the shrinking of the size of computers (well, except Moore), but many people thought that by now we'd have free energy and flying cars. It's hard to know what problems will take decades to solve, and which ones are just a breakthrough away.

[@clysen8234]

How come? Moore's law had predicted it.

[@Ideophagous]

Clysen That's why I said "except Moore". But many experts in the 50s and 60s when they were asked about the future of computers said it would take maybe 100 or 200 years before each person had their own computer.

[@Asufiku]

Insane to think how fast technology advance, went from trying to find frequencies to communicate into seamless HD video calls at your fingertips

[@Dan-gs2rv]

so much information and hope in a 5 minute video... hats off 👌👏👏👍👍

[@softb]

the more you learn the harder it becomes to know

[@jadenyuki6298]

What software do they use for such gorgeous animations?

[@jackojb1]

MSPaint and thousands of chinese.

[@marcel_chavez]

i need to know too :C

[@marcel_chavez]

Also where did they get the music

[@jerealho4877]

I wanna know this too! Had to inform you all because there is no other way to receive notifications for a specific comment's replies as far as I know.

[@pipipi948]

photoshop and after fx :)

[@michellemarie1197]

I love these videos, this is what I watch for fun

[@xisotopex]

i dont have enough confidence in the goodness of humans to wish that they ever get more control of anything, than we have now...

[@miaversluys]

This is crazy, I was literally just thinking about this yesturday

[@QuantumShock1]

Technology is born from necessity, so long as we need to advance we will continue to do so.

[@jrc1156]

These 'what ifs' gives me a 'spiritual feeling' towards science. :)

[@adamthornton7880]

The Kardashev scale doesn't really measure technological progress, so much as economic growth.

[@jonathancipriano9312]

so... there is a limit..?

[@MarcianusImperator]

:)) Exactly. The video, although very educative, fails to answer the question in the title. For example, is it possible to even build something like a dyson sphere taking into account the laws that govern our universe?

[@rhcrcgvp]

Most likely yes (e.g., consuming all of the energy in the Universe). But will humans ever become capable of reaching that limit? Probably not.

[@jamesjones3486]

check out kurzgesagt channel -- "the fermi paradox" --- answers a little more with detail

[@ilovekitkat7857]

No.

[@jamesjones3486]

there might be a limit. --- imagine a world where we encounter that limit. then we have to accept that we cannot continue with fossil fuels for they WILL deplete. We cannot continue to generate enough electricity for our current luxuries. We run out of raw materials for this production boom we've all taken for granted. So I ask you this with all seriousness, what if there is a limit and we have to regress to a lifestyle similar and technologically compatible with that of the 1700s? .....This is more of a possibility than perhaps your realize.

[@JamesBondsLibido]

Simply excellent!

[@Aanwazig]

I feel like the video didn't really answer the question. According to this explanation technolagical progress is solely dependent on the amount of energy we can harvest. But I wonder if there is a point where there is nothing more to figure out, where we know everything about how the universe and human consciousness works and where there are no questions left to be answered.

[@Aronnax777]

I mean, we can't know the future for certain only to a degree of probability. And this is a very philosophical topic which generally creates more questions than answers.

[@simongross3122]

Maybe that is the point of the video. Not to answer the question but to ask it.

[@unknow210]

I think I watched enough TV to know what happen when we reach the pivot of technological advancement

[@Gstrangeman96]

We all get plugged into a virtual reality solar-powered supercomputer fuelled by a dyson ring and maintained by robots and forget about the rest of the universe in our perfect virtual lives?

[@greenfox1991]

Wall-E

[@castlekingside3487]

Upload your consciousness and get rid of your physical body altogether instead of having robots maintaining it.

[@Gstrangeman96]

Castle Kingside Uploading a human conscience into a machine would simply be a waste of time. Just plug the neural system into a virtual reality drive that communicates with all the senses and you're all set.

[@gabemerritt3139]

Gstrangeman96 but then you have to keep th e body alive AND power the simulation, more efficient in the long run to upload. Think of streaming v. downloading a movie

[@merfiron9250]

Completely unrelated to the topic but wow that match lighting animation and sound was beautiful. Then it transitions to rockets and wow. Good job.

[@vengefulhero]

That last part. Whoa… 🤯🤯🤯

[@jordan3012000]

"Thats a pretty compelling piece of evidence for life"

[@howtoguro]

I would ask a follow-up. Classifying it off energy seems smart, but we reach the same problem just one chain up. Is there a limit to how much energy a society could use? If All Citizens suddenly got access to 10kw per hour For free, There would be a lot more AC units and more driving but is useful limit to this energy?

[@kcwidman]

What if the kyper belt is the remnants of a type II civilization's Dyson sphere?

[@bayraktarx1386]

What are you smoking? Build Dyson sphere around solar system instead of building it around sun? You would spend 9999999999999999999999999999999x more energy building it than you will ever get out of sun. Also you need to destroy 999999999999999999999999999999999999++++ planets and stars to build it...

[@thegamingcube3355]

GFDSD FSDFS he is implying that the sphere was once built around a star but destroyed and moved unintentionally

[@bayraktarx1386]

TheGamingCube obviously you don't have idea of scale and distance of objects in solar system.

[@kcwidman]

GFDSD FSDFS Just because he stated what I was implying doesn't mean that he himself was wrong at all. Maybe he completely disagrees with me. Regardless, I understand myself that it is completely far fetched and very impractical. Maybe I should have thrown one of these in there ";)". "What if"

[@Vexsus22]

the guy sounds arrogant

[@nearmegusta]

I've just asked the same question in my mind few minutes ago and then I found this video update from TED in my inbox

[@tomsandstrom338]

When I click on one of these videos I expect them to answer the question in there title >_

[@paulispaul1974]

El progreso es tecnológico es infinito, y cíclico. Es extraño que lo que ciertas personas escriben cientos de años en nuestro pasado, luego se vuelva realidad. Pero si creemos que el pasado, presente y futuro coexisten entre sí, y todos estamos conectados físicamente, por más que nuestra ciencia aún no pueda explicarlo, entonces no resulta tan raro. Quizás sólo sea una forma de completar otro ciclo, o podría ser una forma de perfeccionar con antelación ciertas tecnologías que fueron pergeñadas en un futuro pasado para concluir eventualmente en un resultado distinto..

[@ks_ig2728]

3:29 That sounds like the sound effect for when you’re gonna choose a person in Danganronpa THH / 2

[@nikkhilkalia4512]

I think the true limit to growth isn't energy, it is our brain. How far can we go applying our minds to harness the vast amount of energy in the universe? Are we smart enough? Until when can we keep building knowledge?

[@godofdeath8785]

Yeah you right about brain our brain so limited and would be nice if we can somehow develop it much better

[@ankurtyagi5099]

Technology is as infinite as our imagination..

[@flagpolesitta8566]

...and resources

[@adventureawaits3860]

....and knowledge

[@donkeykong4983]

Ankur Tyagi YES!

[@mohammadtalep9913]

Wow what a genius. Big genius. Huge genius

[@cq.cumber_offishial]

ok, Ima turn myself into the cat in the hat, e i e i o

[@6anon]

And as always thanks for watching!

[@qaedtgh2091]

the observable universe is 10^26 times larger than a human body, but the _unobservable_ universe is much much larger. If a proton were the size of the observable universe, the Earth would be the size of the unobservable universe. And, that's the small estimate, the large estimate is that the unobservable universe could be infinite.

[@mydogsfacelookslikeastockp8275]

true

[@simongross3122]

How can you possibly know how large the unobservable universe is? That's a bit of a contradiction.

[@shy_dodecahedron]

I think that we can measure level of development of civilization, by how well it understands universe. How good their best models are, precise.

[@gamuhnerdu4759]

That's nonsensical, if fossil fuels ran out tomorrow causing the collapse of our technological system, we'd be forced to de-industrialise and lose most of our tech but our scientific knowledge would remain.

[@shy_dodecahedron]

@gamuhnerdu4759 But they aren't fossils. They're minerals.

[@shy_dodecahedron]

@gamuhnerdu4759 Plus running out of uranium is just wacky nonsense.

[@cormacnimo]

Neither is there limitation for human's stupidity... just look at 2016!

[@twentytwentyoneishvkmemory7430]

2016 is now

[@TheOswald42]

there is, when human stupidity wipe out human race entirely, no more low than that low....

[@gqqq5042]

CL Melonshark 2020...

[@roshanvarmsfilms1416]

RIP John Barrow: 1952-2020.

[@Dantick09]

Let's make a giant plant that grows around the sun and uses it s energy, like an organic Dyson sphere

[@MightySuki]

Dantick09 plants need oxygen right? and how the fuck can we make plant that big, the biggest organism on earth is one tree that created little forest with its roots :D

[@Dantick09]

Mr93Suki You are right, I didn't think of the oxygen part, maybe put an asteroid in orbit to the sun and plant it there and it can synthesize oxygen and h2o from minerals. A giant fungus would be more appropriate adding more asteroids as it grows.

[@jaieet]

We'll probably end up going artificially organic as tech and biology become more seamless. Plants are pretty lame, though. We've been kicking the crap out of palm trees for centuries now

[@pupoflas9764]

fucking "let's"

[@rudyvaldez3410]

Mystery Yoghurt oh shoot good looking!

[@radektheplayer]

No technological limit exists! people are powerful!

[@FlynTie]

Since you guys included a Reaper in your animations, we better not develop any further. ;)

[@annyzou8312]

That background music got me pumped

[@keisuketakahasi4584]

i like how he didnt answer the questions he asked

[@donaldhobson8873]

Answers Qu 1 Yes their is a limit. Some laws of how the universe (or multiverse) actually works must exist. If all possibilities not explicitly forbidden by those laws are doable, then we have reached the limit of technology. Qu 2 No we are nowhere near the limits of technology. Our current understanding of physics gives no reason why it is impossible to travel at 99% light speed in an antimatter spaceship, or have nanobots assemble things atom by atom, or build a Dyson swarm... The list goes on.

[@cortster12]

But we don't know where the limits begin. That is the point.

[@gjc21ful]

great video didnt answer the question, you told me the criteria for judging

[@floyd920]

Our limiting our technological progress to only one factor of energy is incomplete. Their is a lot more that is involved in this equation. Mankind has no limit. You may say its infinite. Its like walking in space, you can always take one more step beyond the last one. Even if mankind continues beyond 1 billion years, he will still not run out of ways to advance his technologies.

[@bagandtag4391]

We should measure technological progress by how big are our lasers period.

[@Dalen22_W]

Combinemon no... just no

[@monsieurbernoulli8101]

let's just compare dicks with aliens

[@Upoopdeck]

I got so hyped up after watching this I love this animation and the narrator SO much

[@NuhanHidayat]

I'm still waiting for Domino's 3D printed pizzas that i can print it at home

[@TheRealPentigan]

Sounds like a doable prototype should be possible. Like you might have to start with premade bases but after that the tech to dispense sauce and toppings is accomplishable with today's tech. Maybe less 3D printing and more automated assembly.

[@BariumCobaltNitrog3n]

3D printed food has been around for a long time. Some assembly required.

[@mydogsfacelookslikeastockp8275]

lol

[@jer103]

What if there are technologies that exist, but we just don't know or currently use them? We see the world with our current knowledge and understanding. There is much more to what is possible.

[@Sovietinsights]

@worldmarxistreview

[@MauroTamm]

You know about the dark spot in the sky? Where we can't detect any stars at all. What if its a civilization that is just consuming energy of all those stars?

[@ksh6]

I remember reading about something like that, but forgot what it was. Can you share more details or a link please?

[@wilsonong2898]

Mauro Tamm It is just dust clouds covering the space, there's still same amount of stars and galaxies behind it.

[@_thehunter_]

supervoid s

[@gabemerritt3139]

Wilson Ong what if that dust cloud is a bunch of solar panels

[@wilsonong2898]

Gabe Merritt Covering what ? Stars? The cloud spans hundreds of light years across.

[@MrPhoenixWT]

We really need more advancement in terms of health hare transport and where we live must be rebuilt and new, end of the modern era, enter the advanced era!!

[@darkfalcon53]

The music is so fitting!

[@Ayplus]

Mind-boggling

[@lakeishas6724]

Yes, there is the limit to technological progress. It’s is our depleting resources and the fact that earth is dying because of humans yet we can’t find any solution to actually stop earth from doing so

[@prabhjotsinghkainth2282]

TED-Ed leave every video at the note of which I've to search more for clear answer

[@Yathuprem]

Nice video. But in the far future, What if we can harvest space, or as Elon Musk said what if reality doesn't exit, and we will find that true reality. But i really believe there is limit of things we can understand, like an Ant never know what 3d space is... !!

[@Yathuprem]

***** wow !! thats new.. thanks

[@cicadafun]

ultraboy222 the limitation: wormholes are impossible

[@bensheldon2190]

erm...modern humans have only been around about 12,000 years so yeah...250 million years is a long ass time.

[@DavidRodriguez-ux5ye]

Ben Sheldon his point isn't that the time is relatively short for the universe life span but that the universe has lived so many years that hundreds of civilization could have rised then fell before we even exist specially knowing that we have less than a century studying the space

[@maxthexpfarmer3957]

I know that this is missing the point somewhat, but why do you think that ants don't know what three-dimensional space is? They build bridges out of themselves across leaves and then proceed to walk across those bridges. Here is an article that has good picture of it at the beginning. www.nextnature.net/2013/07/what-ant-colony-networks-can-tell-us-about-what%E2%80%99s-next-for-digital-networks/

[@Chronomatrix]

no there isn't because technology is a product of creativity, as long as we can imagine we can create

[@Gstrangeman96]

No. Matter has limits, creativity doesn't. We can always invent new things, but that would just lead to infinite redundancy, not infinite innovation. We are approaching that point now.

[@morningmadera]

everything in this universe has a limit ...

[@Maracujakeks]

Sometimes I wonder if passing by aliens would consider us humans as "intelligent life" though... I mean humanity has achieved great things, but on the other side our stupidity is endless.

[@fabian1939]

I think they would be like: "Oh look, those pesky young civilations again, threatening each other with nuclear weapons. Our civilisation was so much better back then." "Yeah, everything was better back then, when it was still allowed to smack bad behaving young civilisations!".

[@metholuscaedes6794]

Something is intelligent based on how much it can think, act efficently on an issue or so, not a balancing equation on how extremly stupid it is on occasion. of cause, we would be extremly less intelligent than a class 3 or beyond civilization. No mather if we lived in serene peace and following reason and logic all the time.

[@emilysoda4689]

A good metric I think is the amount of information stored. Thanks to pigonhole therom and informational entropy, there are limits to compression. No matter how big or small you go, informational entropy generated is a signiture of the output created by scociety, and we know that it can't be shrunken infinitely because of math.

[@Chribit]

i've been wandering: is the kardashev scale or the drake equation part of astrobiology or exosociology? which science-field does it belong to?

[@simongross3122]

Science fiction?

[@tengen2251]

I don't disagree use energy in a big scale ir miniaturize the tecnology is a big advance. But i think tecnological progress have more to do with made things easier or possible. If we just increase ir energy consume or be capable of manipulate subatomic particles without with any pratical consequence that wouldn't be tecnological progress at all

[@manuelpeon1967]

I would like to know more about the Barrow scale, I can´t find more info about it. Please..!

[@alsamiyasfh4416]

The dysons sphere is a theoretical earth made up idea. I highly doubt aleins would waste thousands of years trying to build one.

[@Xorlas_the_fatigued]

That all depends on the life span of the individuals. It's hard for us to imagine because we each only have a few decades, at max a little over a century, to see the progress being made. If these other possible beings lived centuries at a time then they may be more inclined to spend it making their lives better. They won't even view time the same way we do so to them it could be nothing.

[@smsm-ri4hi]

Very informative video thank you

[@mattbell4498]

Didn't really answer the question!

[@RinoaL]

did you seriously think anybody knows the answer to that question?

[@potatopower5253]

The question that truly needs to be solved is: Is there a limit to human stupidity?

[@Lukas-kh5gu]

that's certainly not a problem on the larger spectrum. we will always develop no matter how unambitious or stupid individuals are. also, madmen like a Trump wouldn't be able to destroy the human kind. killing ourselves is still highly unlikely.

[@Jaccobtw]

No. Enlightenment is realizing just how much you don't know. We are just humans and our perception is limited by our evolved senses. There is so much more to know about this universe. The only thing that can stop any progress is doubt. People need to stop doubting and be willing to challenge what they have already established as fact. We live in a universe of infinite possibilities, and yes, I mean that literally, not some motivational speaking bs. Things only become impossible once you have already established them as impossible.

[@Balendula]

I'm surprised that the technological singularity was not mentioned.

[@gcvrsa]

Yes, there is a limit to technological progress. In fact, we know what those limits are, and we are very close to reaching them. The fact that we can imagine something does not in any way imply that we are capable of turning our imaginations into reality. A century and a half ago, we were only beginning to discover the microscopic, and electronics didn't yet exist. At that time, science had not yet evolved to understand how far away we were from even knowing what could be known. Today, we now know the limits of knowability. We understand the makeup of a universe to such a scale that we can understand that below or above a certain scale, there is simply no plausible way to manipulate the universe at those scales. Ten years ago, scientists created the single-electron transistor. You cannot go smaller than that. Only people who don't actually understand science believe there is no limit to what technology can do in the 21st Century. The laws of physics are called laws for a reason. The idea of building a Dyson sphere is utterly ludicrous. There is no way to harness the amount of energy material that would be required for a feat on that scale, and there isn't going to be.

[@DJ_Force]

So true! I have argued for years that technology is, in fact, slowing down. All of modern technology is basically a harnessing of the theories of the turn of the last century. Our understanding of physics hasn't changed much since then, and we have realized the technology made possible by those theories.

[@WokeandProud]

Are you actually implying we couldn't build a massive solar array in space that captures all the suns energy lol we already have the tech to do that now and it's getting better and more efficient with time the only problem is scale and need.

[@pceboo3120]

i learnt some of this in science class this kinda shows me how important school is and school what made us go that far with technologia but still naah nobody loves school

[@B3Band]

How would a Dyson sphere (or swarm, etc) get the energy back to Earth?

[@axelandersson6314]

Bloodbath and Beyond Beam dat shit

[@ryansmith3383]

This is feasible for the amounts of energy we have at our disposal now, but wouldn't the entire energy output of the sun concentrated into a beam destroy any matter in its way?

[@axelandersson6314]

Ryan Smith If it is, we could just attempt to send some of that energy to batteries that orbit Earth or some other region that would need lots of energy for our ambitions of the region to be fur filled. The biggest problem with beaming it is that it is really inefficient and you'd be able to extract a lot less energy from the beam than you sent away in the first place.

[@VeggieBond]

A iPhone USB cable

[@B3Band]

Connected to the headphone jack?

[@noctarin1516]

We will reach the limit of technological progress in Trillions of years, (if we dont die off) or may be in forever. Although its unprobable because all matter will come to an end, and there wont be anything else to power our civilisation. Except if we can find a way around this.

[@zinekaizerzen-pokemonunite1390]

Gravity is an energy source too :)

[@tiavor]

not so much, it is more like a state of energy(potential), you can harness differences between two points of different magnitude ... which we already do and is one of the oldest methods of harnessing energy (watermill) and in the end the sun is the source of energy, indirectly around 3 corners.

[@zinekaizerzen-pokemonunite1390]

Tiavor Kuroma but where does gravity gets it's energy from ?

[@tiavor]

there is no energy generated, it is just a state of energy in which the matter is. heat source heats water in a pond (low energy state) -> vapor rises (high energy state), condenses and falls back down, while it falls down you can harness the difference of the energy state. all matter just naturally flows to the lowest possible state of energy. -if you are without any gravity sources around you, you have a high energy state. in a black hole you have the lowest energy state.- (edit, example too complex)

[@zinekaizerzen-pokemonunite1390]

That's quite interesting , thanks for the explanations :)

[@KenLinx]

This didn't answer my question at all. I was hoping to find something related to when processors would reach a limit to how efficient they can be.

[@Twintense]

This reminds me of galactus.

[@namesomega3694]

Imagine a technological advancement where you're able to fly anywhere in the universe and also control the forces of nature to prevent any natural disasters

[@icgantshat]

This video didn't even answer the question it asked itself.

[@fancybird274]

Can't wait for the singularity

[@akshatsinghai7752]

Fancy Bird ??

[@akshatsinghai7752]

Fancy Bird u black holes?

[@MatthewJacobus66]

Fancy Bird i think he meant when AI becomes smarter than humans

[@fancybird274]

yeah the technological singularity not a blackhole

[@MrScoopoo10]

Favorite food

[@katzen3314]

Why would we possibly need the energy produced by an entire star/galaxy?

[@fabian1939]

Why would we possibly need the energy produced by an entire nuclear power plant? -asked by a random person 150 years ago, that somehow came to knowledge about the future.

[@monsieurbernoulli8101]

for travel, or intense calculations, or dank memes on the internet

[@dundoderdumme3044]

"colonization of other galaxys" bullshit. Even if we would travel at lightspeed We would never be able to colonize a galaxy.

[@fabian1939]

Dundo Der Dumme Never is clearly wrong here, it would just take incredibly long ;). To circumvent this problem, I would suggest to not travel at lightspeed.

[@katzen3314]

Well I don't think it's possible to reach anything outside of our local group (Basically just Milky Way & Andromeda).

[@AnantMall]

This is supreme quality production! The matter and the presentation!

[@atilioscheapsounds8515]

humans are very ignorant I'll just go back home

[@lookingjust987654321]

Anyone interested in this topic would really enjoy "The Physics Of Star Trek". He approaches questions around the topic of possibility - warp drives, transporters, laser guns, etc. The biggest difference of today versus 100 years ago is that the scientists would have agreed that your iphone is _possible_ from the elements known of that time, just no idea of the process to create such a thing. Right now, we are on the brink of 'thats not possible from what we can tell'. In other words, up until just about 'now' we have been picking the low hanging fruit from Newtons Apple Tree ;) Why dont we zoom around to space and back? Because its really hard, actually, no matter what stuff that we can synthesize is used. Tons of energy and we just dont know how to harness much more than solid rockets. This is unlike 100 years ago. I dont think we are getting off this space rock, to be honest - a huge space station or a 'decent' space ship (like a plane) for travel? Is it even possible? Doesnt seem to be sadly.