Arcologies

[@jasontoddman7265]

It's really nice to see a vision of the future that is hopeful and convincing at the same time, rather than one that makes one contemplate the desirability of suicide as so many others do these days.

[@moriadine2517]

No love for 40K?=p

[@jasontoddman7265]

+Mori Adine - I'm afraid I don't understand your comment. What are you talking about?

[@moriadine2517]

Jason Toddman There's a tabletop universe called Warhammer 40K. It's supposed to be as intentionally grim and dark as possible, and was originally meant as a parody until it became so serious.

[@jasontoddman7265]

+Mori Adine - Oh. Okay. I'd never heard of it. All I could think of was 40k meaning 40,000, and that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. lol But yeah I'm not fond of the grim 'n' gritty trend in comics, movies, TV, and video games. I like fantasy and fiction for its escapism value, and that kind of stuff is what I want to escape *from*. I don't need grim 'n' gritty in my entertainment; I get too much of it as it is just in the news! Something like Skyrim or Fallout 4 though I can enjoy because it's not about the real world and actually make the real world look safe and happy in comparison.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

In some ways I prefer the old silly 80s feel of the Rogue Trader Era 40k material. I'm a huge fan of the setting even though I haven't played the tabletop since 2000. I'm normally not a 'grimdark' fan myself but I make an exception for a few fictional settings like 40k

[@webbugt]

Your argument about sci-fi rarely taking into account food production is totally spot on. So far I've only seen one work of science fiction where food has been covered, although not in detail, to an extent to explain where they get their food from. It's an anime/manga series called Psycho Pass, it's quite dystopian with it's treatment of mental health and latent criminals in a society where a brain scanner on every street corner can mark you as a probable criminal, which in that society is equal to being one. In that world, Japan is again segregated from the rest of the "less developed" world, since they're the only ones to adopt such a system. They're basically functioning as a single large arcology, but on an island-state level. But that's not the point why I'm mentioning it. You struck the nail on the head when you mentioned 3d printing of food from a multi purpose crop. In the series that crop is Hyper-oats, and is used for basically everything, from food, to clothing. It's still grown in the open, but the planting, tending, farming and processing is completely automated. Great video in general, as always. Does anyone know of any other great sci-fi works (medium doesn't matter) that cover their bases, such as food production, well enough?

[@celinak5062]

Hyper - hemp might be more realistic and there was a forum were sweet potatoes was agreed on as the most efficient food source. Dara O'briain was in a show that showed purple tomatoes and tomato - potato hybrids. In HHGG the solution to meat is an animal, that wants to die. Star Trek is just vegan if I remember correctly. In Snowpiercer they have a reveal of eating insects, like it was soylent green.

[@_Muzolf]

The foundation series from Asimov did take food production into account. A lot of it was chemical recycling of everything and using bacteria cutures to produce the needed nutrients. Trantor (The city planet capital of the galactic empire.) had fleets dedicated to bring in food from multiple worlds, but even that was just the luxury stuff, the majority of day to day food was made in industrial vats using the mentioned recycling and bacteria.

[@michealnelson5179]

I accounted for it in my Ceres 2525. Arcology cities with grow floors throughout. 1st location in the book. The pirates also grew drug producing plants in their asteroid’s grow domes, though... so that was a setting for my hero’s to take out.

[@TechnoMinarchist]

The Expanse takes into account food production.

[@kjj26k]

In Halo, Humanity has some 800 permanently settled celestial bodies and several dozen billion mouths to feed. The vast majority of food comes from a handful of planets that just happen to be perfect for growing crops. 25% of all food comes from Harvest, a Mars sized planet that is like 86% the terrain of the East European Steppe, where Ukraine and Russia (used to) grow most of this world's grains. The whole of this vast grassland is divided into plots of several hundred thousand acres on which live typically one family that manage that land, with the use of vast fleets of land and air drones. To each of these farms is a light rail connecting them to the Town that serves that whole region of farms, where the uses such as hospitals, police, fire, hotels, theaters, restaurants, shops and the housing for those who work these places are. The Town is also where the Big Train has a station. The Big Train takes people and agricultural product from all across the planet to the Capital City. It also moves things from the city and off-world to all those towns and farms. It also moves all of the waste the entire planet generates to a rail gun the size of a skyscraper that launches it all into the sun. At the Capital City is where the space elevator is, sending all that food back to the rest of the empire by FTL spaceships. About 200,000 people live on Harvest. Halo does also have buildings that house 200,000 people. Spoilers for: the novel Contact Harvest, the video-game Halo Wars, and the Halo franchise overall. Having 25% of all food come from on place may sound like a vulnerability, 'cus it is. Due to Harvest being the farthest settled world from Earth and having so much activity on and around it, it is the first planet found and destroyed by aliens. However, this won't be a huge problem for most places for many years as the aliens declare jihad to exterminate humanity and proceed to kill so many so fast the mouths to feed decrease about as much as the resources to feed them.

[@kevincrady2831]

The concept of the arcology was invented by architect Paolo Solieri, and explained in his book Arcology: City in the Image of Man back in the 1970's. His arcology designs were a bit more spread out than the "giant skyscraper" idea, but they still involved the idea of a whole city plus greenhouses, etc. being constructed as a single building with multiple levels to counteract urban and agricultural sprawl. So, Sim City doesn't get the credit. :)

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Thanks! I was thinking this would come up early in the video... looks like someone didn't do their homework at ALL. This original vision I think didn't have so much to do with gardening but with densifying cities, making a short commute, a counter to the suburban development. Soleri and Arcosanti and all were big when I was in school. I remember that book, it was huge! Full of very exciting drawings of giant structures, I think it was too big to shelve.

[@garret1930]

As a future civil engineer, a building with a footprint of that size would be a massive pain in the ass for the geotechnical engineers.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

More than that, he formed an organization, did propaganda, and started building a city, and experimental details and models and so on. I met him once, got to ask a few questions. Arcosanti! I think it's still there in the desert, maybe still being built? This definitely should have been mentioned and pictured here, since it's one of the VERY FEW examples of any of this gee-whiz futurist stuff that actually seems to be in action!

[@lukeray8328]

Arcosanti is still there, a decade or so ago I took the tour and was lucky enough to bring home one of his books!

[@MarlinMay]

I’m surprised and disappointed that Isaac did not acknowledge this serious oversight.

[@ChrisBrengel]

"We don't do dystopia much on this channel." LOL! One of the things I like about these videos!

[@the11382]

11:42 There is a concept of Maglev elevators in the works that allows horizontal and vertical travel as well as allowing multiple elevators on the same, magnetic track. This will reduce the elevator area you need, thus reducing or completely removing the elevator conundrum.

[@robneff7084]

They were working on this for the ultra-tall towers when I was working at Otis Elevator. I don't know if it was rolled out or not, but if there was a real demand for it, it could surely be brought to market.

[@BillTrowbridge]

There's at least one test installation of horizontal/vertical elevators. ThyssenKrupp kzbin.info/www/bejne/boCleYiQmtmMf7c

[@themorebeer3072]

@Kyle F No biggie. Current elevators are designed with brakes that engage when their cable's cut - the tension of the cable keeps the brakes disengaged. Maglev elevators would have a similar function. Cut the power, the elevator brakes clamp down on the track and it locks in place until power's restored.

[@strictnonconformist7369]

@Kyle F what so many people forget is that the power going out isn’t just matter of people potentially getting stuck in elevators (a short-term battery backup should almost always prevent that) but if elevators are down and out for whatever reason, on a tall enough building, it’s unlivable to get between more than a few floors up or down for even those in good health. There are people that can go up/down 20 floors once without too much trouble, but most people aren’t that fit/healthy/mobile, so the thought of super tall buildings for an arcology I’d say is impractical with man’s technology for such reasons. Besides, whatever you do for elevators, does not help with water/plumbing, and then there’s the allusions to waste heat that likely don’t work so well with high rises.

[@Kallistos1]

IOW, turbolifts

[@cOmAtOrAn]

Thoughts on the elevator problem: 1: You could do a lot to mitigate it if you made sure that your arcologies have mixed zoning. No need to go downstairs to pick up a gallon of milk if there's a shop on your floor. 2: If you have a lot of arcologies in a city, put sky bridges between them every twenty floors or so, in order to avoid funneling everybody down to the ground level whenever they want to go anywhere.

[@chrisschembari2486]

It might also be normal for the inhabitants to order the bulk of their food and supplies online for front door delivery (like a 31st-century Peapod or Amazon), and such delivery services would schedule most elevator transits for low-traffic hours, offer the customer some mild discount for ordering their stuff with some advance notice, have distributed storage for items in common demand, etc.

[@michealnelson5179]

It’s like you read my book! Cool.

[@Imagine_Beyond]

3: You can have multiple elevators on one track. Like on a single track there is one that goes to floor 0-10 then on the same track another goes to floor 10-20 and so on. While the elevator next to it stops at every 100th floor. It is like express trains and local trains, just that it is elevators instead of trains

[@juanborjas6416]

Great content as always. I'm amazed at how few people talk about this very interesting concepts in KZbin and the rest of the Internet.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks!

[@grindcoreninja6527]

Sadly tits,drama, and click bait permeate youtube.

[@bozo5632]

+GrindcoreNinja (†††) - flash us, Isaac.

[@musafawundu6718]

Indeed, I have not seen any video on KZbin that goes even a quarter of the way in describing arcologies as yours does... For over three years I have followed your content and it has been inspiring, uplifting, as well as greatly hope rendering... With all the dire predictions of pending ecological disaster brought about by human economic activity and industrialization, which have led to such issues as global warming and negatively impacting climate change, and also the ills of human nature and political power being utilized towards self enrichment, demagoguery, and seeding of divisions, instead of bringing about very long term betterment to human society, the Earth, and beyond, your videos have shown that we actually in this present day and age possess, at the very least, the technological and financial wherewithal to not only avoid the worse, but to bring about improvements in our ecology to near prestine levels, without sacrificing our standards of living and indeed, even becoming much closer to being a post scarcity society than we are today. We can have many tens of billions of inhabitants on Earth, while emitting much less in GHGs than we do today, and feed them within spaces of arcologies that have much greater surface area than the present surface area on Earth that is utilized for arable land. That is with thorium based nuclear power, especially molten salt reactors, and with nuclear fusion, which can beget MUCH MUCH reduced cost in producing antimatter, both nuclear fusion and antimatter power could do the same with hundreds of billions of persons on Earth. Mr Arthur, will you be able to make a video with regards to thorium based nuclear power, especially molten salt reactors, its feasibility and the impact that it could bring. Thorium nuclear reactors would likely be small enough, but still enable extremely high exhaust velocity and specific impulses to power plasma propulsion systems for beyond low Earth orbit space planes...

[@michaelbacks2973]

This is why I started my Patreon contribution, outstanding, thanks Issac.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Your welcome and thanks!

[@CozyHi]

I love this channel! Isaac talks about information that is usually not found in Wikipedia and he talks about technologies of varying levels, from near future ones and to type 2 ones. :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Glad you're enjoying it!

[@jason8ification]

+Isaac Arthur How would use of in vitro grown animal tissue and possibly plant tissue affect the design of an arcology since such technology could grow more food in less space and energy?

[@PazLeBon]

i think what makes the planet is the animals and nowadays 'pets' too. In my experience these themselves require more than 200 sqm, you should see what ground my goats cover ;)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I don't know Jason, it would just depend on how the economics of it worked out. If we could just vat-grow meat that folks found fine to eat and cheaper than raising livestock, I assume it would replace it. Probably would mostly replace it even if ti were the same price or a bit higher. I like my steak, but I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for one of equal quality I knew didn't require killing something with a genuine brain and feelings. Though on the other hand I suppose a cow would rather live a few years of comfortable grazing followed by a merciful quick kill, one usually quicker and less painful than the natural predator-prey cycle, then never exist at all. But ti would just depend on how that tech developed.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yes but a goat is happy with less space, or sharing a bigger space with some other critters, so long is the food is plentiful and we can pump a lot more calories out of 200m² then a goat need especially with optimum climate and lighting control.

[@Healitnow]

I watch all your videos. You are an interesting and intelligent man.

[@patrickryckman3867]

thanks

[@cj1871]

@@patrickryckman3867 😂

[@JustOneAsbesto]

Some thoughts on the elevator issue: These buildings would presumably have peoples' workplaces in them. People now are willing to commute 2 hours or more to get to work. I imagine people would be far more willing to wait 10 or 20 minutes for an elevator if that was their entire commute. Also you could reduce the total number of elevators needed by having a shorter, but longer and wider building for the same total square footage, and spacing the elevators apart instead of all in one bank. This would require a little more space per elevator due to the increased number of mechanical rooms, but if you could get away with having fewer elevators, it should more than make up for it.

[@yogsothoth7594]

There is a sociological aspect. People are willing to wait a lot longer when they feel they are making progress. If they are just waiting in line they get bored more easily. You also need to use a lot of space if you want to have all your facilities within a few floors everyone to save them having to wait for a lift.

[@bozo5632]

Sure, you can mitigate it, with longer waits and other ways (faster elevators, horizontal access to other buildings, or to air travel, or multiple elevator cars per shaft), but the conundrum doesn't go away. The point is, you start to lose efficiency as soon as you have to add a second elevator, and it just gets worse from there, so: it's a consideration for very tall buildings. (So is plumbing, or so I've been told.)

[@odinlindeberg4624]

You could have different floors have different functions based on how many people would use the type of room at a time and have the amount of elevators decrease as they go upward, finally having the topmost floors dedicated to hydroponics, computing and the like, generally things that should require minimal attention.

[@g0lanu]

You can stack multiple transportation solutions in order to fix the problem. Vertical and horizontal automated tracks, like escalators, travelators, elevators or stuff like gondolas etc. It would be quite the algorithm to optimise, depending on how tall a building is and how many people and goods the transport system potentially has to support and you can basically optimise both waiting times and duration of each "ride" by designing where living areas and commercial/industrial/services areas should be in order to be in reach of each person in an optimised way. But still, it's a real life problem requiring high-school level programming skills to solve. Definitely doable. People don't really see this because it's harder to think in 3D and imagine a flat city is easier to navigate now that they're not doing it, but they'd adjust pretty fast, especially the younger generations. It's basically the same problem, no matter in which direction you're moving, if we can design flat cities and transportation systems, we can design tall ones too or even hybrid solutions.

[@johnrobinson4445]

Yes, Paolo Soleri's Arcology book in the 1970's focused on wider buildings. This video massively misrepresents the classic notion of arcologies. Don't know why. Maybe producer is too young to know the original book.

[@TheJamesRedwood]

The statement that most herbivores are inefficient grazers is an example of the problem with micro perspectives. The trampling and manuring is a vital process for the health of the microbiome of the grazing area. Taking a micro approach and genetically engineering grazers to change their behaviour, which could be impossible anyway, would have unpredictable consequences on the microbiome, and so is an example of how genetic engineering can be harmful at a macro level even if transgenics itself proves to be essentially risk-free in its direct effect on non-transgenic organisms.

[@JanGotner]

I just discovered your channel and from the first video I can clearly see that you really treat Science in Science Fiction seriously. And it is SO refreshing to find someone thinking about positive, if not optimistic solutions for the humanity, rather than musing on dystopian despair that is all around us these days! Gosh, I wish I could recommend you a Polish SF writer Jacek Dukaj who usually sets his novels in post-scarcity environments (and provides amazing philosophical thought experiments to that), but I don't expect, alas, anyone not from Poland to be able to read in Polish...

[@brianzander7042]

About half-way through the video, you brought up the "elevator conundrum." If you double the percentage of floor space devoted to elevators while doubling the area of said floors, you are quadrupling the number of elevators (unless the size of the elevators are doubled I suppose). The elevators required to service the top half would still need to travel through the lower half and therefore decrease the available floor space for other uses. However, the elevators don't need to run the full height of the building, though you would have floors connecting networks of elevators. I see the need for extra capacity during emergencies but then stairwells would likely be used and they can be used by all floors simultaneously. Just a thought, which is why I love your videos, they always get me thinking.

[@ridleykiller1994]

You can largely address the elevator conundrum by treating each floor as it's own arcology, reducing required transit between floors

[@zbiggie229]

On the elevator issue. Look into magnetic elevators. This they no longer require cables they can move any which way (up down, left right, in and out). This would clear up the issue of square footage required for elevator shaft. Requiring only 4 shafts. One up, one down (so they can pass) one for stationary (to load and unload people), one emergency (for repairs or use by the others if there is a stalled elevator)

[@caleblee5821]

If magnetic elevators can go all directions, in effect we could build a vertical highway.

[@trespire]

Willy Wonka had one of those in his chocolate factory.

[@dunn0r]

More or less the Star Trek turbolift concept.

[@bozo5632]

It might help but it doesn't solve the problem. Imagine a (ridiculous but instructive) million story building, with a 100 meter square footprint, and 100 million residents who love to come and go. It would clearly be impossible to have enough elevators, even if 100% of the floor area was elevators and zero was apartments. So, somewhere between one floor and one million floors, it's impossible. You can mitigate it (faster elevators, other ways), but never "solve" it (without FTL, wormholes, teleportation...) Or, you could give every apartment a balcony and every resident a jetpack. Or, they could just stay home more. Lotsa possibilities. But you do run into a conundrum with elevators that adding more elevators cannot solve.

[@zbiggie229]

What I'm imagining is a elevator structure that is able to switch in between magnetic rails. So you might have 3-5 elevator shafts. But those shafts would carry 100 elevators which are able to move through any of these shafts. Through the efficiency of computer programming would be allowed to move around elevators that are taking people on/off. So somebody that leaves floor one for floor 1000, wouldn't be stuck behind people getting off at floors 100 and 200. Because those would move to the side to allow traffic by on the middle rails. You have a stall on one floor (which with no mechanical parts would be very rare, unless all electricity stopped but then they are just stuck to the wall), well all the elevators would know that one isn't moving, and move to a shaft beside it to get around.

[@lorenrealname1326]

This was excellent. I want to live with my food as much as any other part of my environment, and as a permaculture fanatic, I commend you for the direction this video took. I don't think many of today's great problems [hunger and many environmental issues for example] will survive the next agricultural revolution- there's far too much potential and room for improvement. The future is bright green!

[@danieldang2a31]

You're mistaken. There will always be humans that live lives of relative and even extreme scarcity because of psychological phenomena like Slave Morality,, r/K Selection Theory, and the Pareto Distribution.

[@Слышьты-ф4ю]

@@danieldang2a31 (*liberal mode on*) c'mon, if they want to be slaves, who are we to prevent them from it? Also, it's practical for ones who don't want! (*liberal mode off*)

[@jcarm185]

I'm very glad your channel was recommended to me today - I find your content extremely pertinent to my sci fi world building for my upcoming novel series. This is a gold mine! 😄

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks! I'm loving this series. It sounds to me (based on what you've described about crop yields & calories, etc.) that we might want to grow wheat & corn (& a few other crops that can be automated) in parts of the area around such an arcology, while also having part of it given over to forest of some kind. We could then dedicate the indoor growing areas mainly to other fruits & veggies, herbs, etc. (possibly even tropical things like bananas & coconuts, etc.- things that are more labor intensive) Thanks again. Rikki Tikki.

[@johngaltjr7309]

I just discovered you but you are my new favorite person. You talk about things that normal documentaries leave out. I think about a great deal of what you talk about but I never get around to doing the research and here is you; you leave it wrapped up nice and pretty at our doorsteps. Thank you. You seem like a guy that I would enjoy talking to over a beer or three. You should be on national television along with Tyson. Thanks!

[@gamerN77]

Great video, as always! Every time I watch one of your videos, I just have the urge to watch 2001: A Space Odysee or play a bit Mass Effect. These somewhat futuristic concepts grounded in the reality of maths you present on the channel are simply fascinating!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I immediately thought of the video I open with a mockup of the 2001 space station with Blue Danube playing or all the time I referenced Mass Effect :) Great film, great game series... admittedly weird endings for both.

[@shizz3907]

This is some of the most genuinely profound content on KZbin. Content actually worth watching. Thank you Isaac

[@Mammutinc]

Dude, these videos are amazing! Really informative, incredibly interesting and even though some of the ideas can sound crazy to untrained ears, they are all grounded in reality under the specified assumptions. You earned yourself another subscriber, great work, keep it up!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

"... grounded in reality under the specified assumptions", I like that and will have to steal it. Thanks, glad you enjoyed them and welcome to the channel Matias!

[@josephedmond3723]

Aside from living space and food production, I see one of the most useful applications for arcologies being a way to simulate colonization in order to determine the challenges and possible solutions. In that context, the goal becomes doing as much as possible with as little as possible, this is a good way to pioneer that.

[@Zane-It]

This is my favorite topic in Sci Fi. arcologies are just so beautiful.

[@KlaasDeforche]

Great video, as always. Very interesting topic too. It makes me feel optimistic about the future :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Glad you enjoyed it Klaas!

[@PoeRacing]

Thanks for your amazing effort in these videos. I love the pragmatic optimism! Subbed and shared.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

Whenever I try to introduce someone to your channel, I always start with this, then the Ecumenopolis video, then the Matryoshka Brain video. It's a... /gentle/ introduction to the scale of things you talk about, and there is a little bit of math that gradually gets more complicated, but not overly intimidating. The exponential progression of how many humans each system could sustainably support is also a great way to get people interested, especially as people are becoming more concerned with overpopulation and environmental issues.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

But then... *SURPRISE!* they're learning about how to move a galaxy.

[@Ryukachoo]

25:05 this is more likely than you might think, actually. Beyond beef and the impossible burger are showing that artificially replicating the texture of a burger using basic plant protein like snow peas is getting close to reality. Taste is easy to replicate but texture is VERY very hard. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next decade we replaced all fast food hambugers with artificial ones that taste and better and have better texture than the current burgers, on top of being way cheaper because "growing" a burger is WAY more efficient than "growing" a cow for its meat

[@infernaldragon5210]

Honestly even just getting rid of beef does wonders for the environment and our water problems. The problem is, cattle are something like 10x more resource intensive than chicken for the amount of meat you get. Just switching to chicken only is significantly better than eating beef. Also, protein powders are a pretty viable alternative to eating meat. Problem is, the cheapest ones are made from whey, which is a byproduct of dairy. There is also plant based protein powder, but that shit runs something like 3-5x the cost of whey, so maybe if we get that price down we can get rid of meat. You can get a pretty balanced diet with just oan bran+wheat (carbs+fiber), protein powder, and peanut butter/almond butter (fat) and some fruit/veggies, and that diet is extremely cheap too and good for the environment.

[@bozo5632]

It'll also be possible to grow meat in vats, without bothering with whole animals. That'll be cheaper and more environmentally sustainable than livestock, and the taste and texture will be exactly like meat. (Apart from a few specimens in zoos and on a few small hobby farms, cattle, pigs, chickens, sheep, goats, turkeys and many others will go virtually extinct. Will they thank us then for not eating them? Why do vegetarians hate animals?? Lol.)

[@donaldclifford5763]

Certainly any space colonization will depend heavily on "replicators" for desirable meals.

[@comradesillyotter1537]

In the end though, hard to dissuade any hobby farmers in any future 'utopia'.

[@onkelfabs6408]

Ryukachoo The other idea would just be using alternative Plants to replace the meat. E.g. roasted and made up Mushrooms are a good concept of replacing meat and having the same taste and nutrional structure. This would solve the livestock problem.

[@wmc5431]

Awesome Video. I'd been researching many of these topics for a class and this series was great for opening up new questions.

[@uhohhotdog]

sorry misheard what you said. I do think indoor farming can be done economically though. By building in city centers you're reducing shipping costs. Indoors means no pesticides needed. Most importantly going into the future it requires a LOT less water than normal farming. You can grow year round rather than seasonally. Adding a fish farm reduces waste from the plants. What waste you do have can either be composted and sold off as fertilizer or burned for power. You could also potentially add a restaurant to each that uses ingredients from the farm to reduce costs. Other potential business mixing opportunities could be had with some creativity.

[@Drumsgoon]

Water and transport are cheap, especially if energy is cheap.

[@ranmanb.7479]

I absolutely love ALL of your videos bro........you know how to Grab a person's interest and keep him begging for more.....very addictive. ......keep em coming :)

[@-i7687]

I recently discovered your channel and i love your videos. keep it upp :)

[@catallaxy]

Arcology was invented by Paolo Soleri in 1970, in Arizona. His idea was to replace our currently sprawling 2-d Pizza-like cities with more intelligent 3-d structures that would provide the framework for city-machines housing industrial facilities underground and at grade, commercial facilities at grade and slightly above, institutional facilities higher still and residential spaces at the upper levels and on top. There was never any intention to have farm work done in these arcologies. I attended one of his lectures in Toronto, in the 1980s. He was very thorough, cogent, well educated and gave the impression of being a genius architect, decades ahead of his time. His ideas are extremely deeply thought through and very complex. Although i am a fan of yours, Isaac, you could have done more justice to this topic, particularly by, at the very least, having pointed out the misunderstandings and foolishness of the more recent superficial "arcologies". I believe that Soleri's ideas will have more impact and meaning, for future human civilization, that those of the Gateway Foundation, for example, although i am a fan of theirs.You should give serious thought to re-doing this episode, and getting someone to build some accurate computer models of some of Paolo Soleri's arcologies, where a decent explanation of the more salient concepts would be possible. Here are some images: static1.squarespace.com/static/56ead5a1e321401c43e95206/t/57051b4212b65eb2de5b117c/1456610258903/1000w/ARCOSANTI_PAOLO_SOLERI_12.jpg ; c1.staticflickr.com/9/8527/8671642955_e6b366d922_b.jpg ; www.organism.earth/library/docs/paolo-soleri/arcology-babelnoah-3.jpg

[@leonardpearlman4017]

That is well put. Arcosanti was an issue when I was in school, I read the giant book, and went to a talk and briefly met Soleri also. I agree with what you're saying here, and think the subject got changed somehow! I think Soleri was interested in Civilization, making denser cities. Thinking about culture, not so much about farming! I could say that I'm really enjoying these videos btw. They're pretty solid and full of big ideas, especially as far as KZbin goes... but they also contain many digressions and are really piling up imaginary technologies to infinity and beyond! I'm just assuming for now that there is a mountain of serious thought here, and the format and all the compression it needs creates a little garble. I like the general point of view, and it's so novel to hear anyone discuss having trillions (!) of people and not just collapse with ecological despair. It's astounding to me that anyone is spending a lot of time and mental effort considering how civilization could maintain long after all the stars have gone out! That's just to name one supremely distant thing. It's so novel and exciting to run into someone who is comfortable with big numbers! So: We need vast unlimited energy sources, immortality and a vastly improved educational system, and the political ability to make not five-year plans but five thousand and five million year plans. Also, robots and A.I.s that are just millions of times better than anything we have now even at the most cutting edge.... just to GET STARTED! This is a LOT to HOPE! "Not entirely impossible" might be the best we could say.

[@RustyDust101]

Discovered this channel appr. three weeks ago. Totally hooked. Currnt MO for me: Enter new video. Hit Like Button. Watch video. Never go close to the like button again, so I can't accidentally 'unlike' it.

[@dylanimalCS]

Awesome! Late night video. Thanks for your great content, can't find anything like this anywhere else.

[@adachikara]

I just discovered your channel and I'm loving all the content here. Someone may have mentioned it before, but the area of Spain is around 200K mi^2 (or 500K Km^2) rather than the half a million mi^2. Just wanted to point that out.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

You'll have to excuse me Kelan, the episode is a year old so I don't remember where in the episode I discussed Spain, I wouldn't be surprised if I said mi² and meant km² though, I remember trying to go back and forth between English and Metric in the episode a lot. Irritatingly KZbin no longer allows annotations on episodes anymore so I can't correct that either. Ah well, I appreciate the heads up anyway.

[@seankelly1291]

I’m so on board with all of this. You keep me inspired on so many levels! And also, I need to reiterate the importance of Dan Kitredge, high bionutrient farming, and the Holistic Management International (HMI) research and ecological application fields. Reversing desertification through reintroduction of free roaming huge populations of grazing hoofed animals, and the importance of diverse foods for high nutrition and low calorie foods with terpenes and essential oils and antioxidants, etc. I’m down with the huge scale long term planning, and also, I believe we need to consider the essential importance of the biodiversity required for a functioning ecology. I would so appreciate your insights into those matters. Thank you so much Isaac!

[@dzigerica666]

Keep up the good work, greetings from Croatia!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Birthplace of some of my favorite foods. I used to play chess at the local Croatian club as a kid and ate far too many an excellent pastry there :)

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

Ever since I first read Speaker For The Dead as a child I was fascinated by the concept of what a being like Jane could accomplish. Every time I watch one of your videos I'm captivated by the same sense of wonder Jane instilled in me as a child. Thank you, sincerely and deeply for what you do.

[@TheGodet]

I find the elevator problem really silly... Basically, elevators as we make them today do not work for arcologies. Big deal! It's like looking at a modern subway system and complaining that 10 or 20 lines cannot decently work because with only one train per line, it can't service that many people. The answer being "Duh, we have more trains than that..." The fact the elevator is vertical does not change anything to the problem: it's a vertical subway, that's all...

[@robneff7084]

The elevator problem is real - the issue is there is only one 'train' per track, because it doesn't follow a fixed schedule and can go in either direction. Since elevators are tethered to a lifting mechanism at the top, you can't just switch shafts, and have one shaft for people going down and another for people going up. Somehow you need to get the cars back to the starting point without collisions. As mentioned elsewhere, maglev tracks that power the cars without a tether could be a solution, allowing them to switch shafts as needed. In any case, it's not rocket science to come up with a solution to this one. It's just that, up to now, building managers haven't wanted to spend big dollars for the first space-age elevator system.

[@robneff7084]

Another option they've done is 'double-decker' elevator cars. They can load up two floors worth of people who are going the same way. Kind of like a mini-train. Of course, then the people starting on even floors can only go to even floors, and odd floors to odd floors.

[@willw1375]

Excellent writing; lucid and in-depth treatments of fascinating concepts. 5 Stars *****

[@pervaction4658]

cool, so time traveling IS a thing.

[@blasterp112]

Hey Isaac, love your content - thanks for the effort you put into this! Are there any books you recommend on this type of ideas (urban planning, megastructures, arcologies...) ? I would really like to look into it! thanks

[@Benblender]

The day we figure out fusion is going to be absolutely massive for mankind, it opens up so many options it's insane. This really makes me want to want to become a scientist to help out discovering things like this. These videos are entertaining from start to finish and you really think of a lot of out-of-the-box theories. Great job man!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you, I'm always glad to hear these videos make folks consider pursuing a deeper knowledge of the sciences.

[@Pharozos]

Time to get a coffee and some snacks. Love your vids.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

lol, someone was suggesting I should try for a sponsorship form Audible, I was thinking a coffee or snack company might be better :)

[@VoytEngineering]

Isaac Arthur : seriously not a bad idea, brb time for tuscon milk and nabisco scnacks

[@smelchionda]

Excellent series. I'm totally hooked and cant get enough of these talks. Regarding the origin of the term "Arcology"...I'm pretty sure that the metabolist architect Paolo Soleri coined the term "Arcology" in the late sixties. He published a book called "Arcology: The City in the Image of Man" in 1969. Soleri, now deceased, led a foundation which has been attempting to build an Archolgy in the Arizona desert since 1970.

[@Proman642]

How about designing a double wide elevator shaft that could allow many more than 2 elevator cars in simultaneous operation? Elevator cars could switch tracks to pass each other allowing perhaps 8 to 16 elevator cars to operate along a pair of shafts that could otherwise only accommodate 2 cars.

[@KuraIthys]

Yes, I imagine the problem with existing elevators is that there is no way to move in multiple directions or change shafts. That means sttictly one elevator per shaft. Ever. Which is clearly extremely inneficient when you compare it to the horizontal transport equivalents - road and rail. Though I suspect while you would improve the situation a lot with multiple carscper shaft, eventually you still hit a bottleneck, just like with roads.

[@96ace96]

The bottleneck on roads is hugely offset by self-driving cars. Watch CGP Grey's video on 'the solution to traffic'

[@SailorBarsoom]

Thank you for recommending this. I just watched it, and yeah, it's good. People think it's all about self-drivers being "better drivers than people, but of course I'm a *great* driver so I should still drive myself." No, even the best human drivers have limitations. When self-drivers are better than average in every situation that is likely to occur, and much better in some, we will be better off (even the best drivers in the world) if self-drivers take over our freeways.

[@thelastneanderthal3257]

Wonderful and enjoyable video, as always. I feel so lucky to have found out about your channel, Isaac. I like how you explain everything in detail, without it being too complicated to understand for the average viewer. P.S. I was pleasantly surprised to see the footage of the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv included in your work, I'm from Israel myself.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks, keeping it detailed and but straight forward is my usual goal so it's always nice hearing I pulled that off.

[@Condor47488]

Yes please do a video on 3- printing of plastics, food, even clothing, metals- also look into laser CNC an laser welding replace current technology, thanks great videos.,

[@richsabatina5045]

Keep up the great things you've been doing. I find your topics and ideas enlightening and refreshing. And I enjoy your voice. thanks

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you very much Rich!

[@fabmediastudios3512]

Doubling the area would double the construction costs... it would quadruple. @00:12 min you state this, and mathematically it’s a quadrupling of the size and costs. It’s not a 1:1 ratio.

[@xassix]

I've never seen the economical considerations behind arcologies, and in what context they even make sense anywhere else like this. Great video!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks!

[@timneeno4784]

Would we really have to make arcologies completely self sufficient? Even if we only have 25% of our food grown in an arcology, it would greatly cut down on transport costs.

[@dreamoftranscendence4415]

25% is better than the close to 0% we have now.

[@Wolfphototech]

*Keep up the awesome work .* *I'm loving your channel and content.* *Edit : I love the fact you talked about farming ( Agriculture ) a field that gets ignored way to often .* *Also note i grew up and live on a farm .*

[@DaveDangerous74]

Do you think that the concept of a high tech dystopia is a contradiction in terms? For example in movies like blade runner and Elysium.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Well Blade Runner is one of my favorite films whereas Elysium is one I regarded as complete crap, so I'm not really able to give a neutral perspective :) But I wouldn't really call Blade Runner Dystopian anymore than any film noir flick. It is, but it served a good narrative purpose in my eye, so gets a pass. I wouldn't say a high tech dystopia could never occur, dystopia is pretty subjective after all, but yeah, I can't see them occurring much or lasting long either, and I'd say usually the tech wasn't making the dystopia, and more likely was mitigating the worst of it.

[@yogsothoth7594]

I suppose that depends on the governance. If the rulers are incompetent or immoral such issues could still occur.

[@michajastrzebski4383]

re: elevators, what if you factor in externam access points on different floor levels? I.e. helipad / flying car access each 50 floors? Elevated roads/rail between nearby arcologies? Large airfield / landing zone on top?

[@mittuscaria5837]

15:31 ............. Am I the Only one who saw a human in the background?

[@arthurtuxedo]

Nope, freaked me out. I thought someone had broken into my apartment and I was seeing their reflection.

[@calebnasiatka5711]

Thought it was a saucer over London ;p

[@pleasedisregardthefollowin5568]

*D I S G U S T I N G*

[@johnaddisoncull]

Isaac, I appreciate the level of detailed analysis you explore.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks John, it's nice to know there's a lot of folks who enjoy the deeper looks at these concepts.

[@johnaddisoncull]

Have you met Michio Kaku in person?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Not that I recall, and I probably would, he was already a pretty big name when I was in school and I'd certainly remember if he'd visited to present at our department, and it would have been weird for me to have been at a conference on string theory, we had our share of theorists but none in that zone and it certainly wasn't mine.

[@johnaddisoncull]

You are as inspirational as he is. Thank you again for your work. If you ever decide to present in Sydney Australia I would be first to attend.

[@HrHaakon]

Wait... Are you saying that Warhammer 40 000 is almost as unrealistic as Star Wars? :O

[@johnn1199]

I watched this a few times since it first came out and i think it might he my favourite video on youtube.

[@timothyberg23]

I loved SimCity.

[@bumbleWeaver]

}SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ , }SHIFT{ F-U-N-D }ENTER{ ....EARTHQUUUUUAAAAAAAAKEEEE!!!!!!!!......

[@roberttuckerjr.9687]

Hello Isaac, love your channel. I think its one of the cooler KZbin channel. I just wanted to make a counter-point about your opinion about the whole vertical farming issue. On earth vertical farming won't and shouldn't cover all the food needs but reduce the burden of importing food into the city off the more traditional farms and the environment. Plus vertical farming doesn't just have to produce food stuff. It can help make the water drinkable or help clean the air pollution that seem to plague major city around the world. But for me its not just about plants. I think that more biological systems must be integrated into our urban centers to reduce pollution (air and water), create a more sustainable energy systems and a over all better environment for us. And the don't have to be skyscraper either, just a well insulted build to grow some foodstuff of one kind of another. Also to power it don't have to depend on fossil fuels. Solar and wind technologies could offset the vertical farms needs with L.E.D. lighting . In fact some of the bio-waste that the vertical farm produce can be used to methane to run a power cell. The waste a city generates can be converted into energy, food and clean water. I agree with you what a true arcologies will be, but our current situation with our urban centers needs more biological controls intergrated into our systems. There is also the option of building down or in the ocean, sea or large body of water with the upper parts for solar/wind energy, ventilation and public spaces. As the populations increase we and going to need to think more out of the box to feed ourselves and keep our environment clean. This is just my view on it. Thanks again for the channel.

[@TornSoul062473]

If you're going for self-sustaining megastructures, I wouldn't want to put them in a giant concrete city, and I don't think you would want to sink large portions of them in the ground. The safest and most efficient place to put a mega-structure is on the ocean directly offshore where you can utilize solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal energy. Megarstructures on water could be fitted underneath with large structures for reefs that retain a more natural biodiversity where in-land megastructures can't due to the constraints of steel and concrete foundations. The best part, everyday when you get off work, you're already at the beach.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

These sort of bigger structures really work best with fusion as a power source, the renewables tend to be better harnessed by being more spread out.

[@dreamoftranscendence4415]

/r/seasteading Brilliant but how will the reduction in light entering the water affect ocean ecosystems?

[@gabrielxerxes5627]

Great video again! Thanks for keeping these going I always look forward to seeing your new videos!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks Gabriel, good to hear from you again!

[@skepticmoderate5790]

"...occasional maintenance or replacement of the robot, when your dog or cat mauls it..." Why not just train the dog or cat to do the gardening??????? Huh? HUH?!!

[@ilikecats1562]

No do not let a cat near plants. My cat eats them!!

[@WikiSnapper]

This is my favorite episode.

[@VoytEngineering]

One could foresee robotic elevators that "crawl" along exterior walls, and internal lateral shafts. AI would keep them from coliding. there are other solutions,,,,

[@bozo5632]

It might work for a given building, but it doesn't solve or even address the conundrum. Adding elevators outside the perimeter extends the perimeter. So you could have a million of them, but the building gets wider and the efficiency per floor goes down.

[@billc.4584]

Very nice, Isaac. Looking forward to the second episode.

[@ChromeGhost]

3D printed meat can be used in Arcologies

[@onkelfabs6408]

Too Future you don‘t need to 3dprint it, you can just use alternative ressources.

[@Jupiter__001_]

Lucas CW Might need some vitamin and mineral supplements, though.

[@celinak5062]

@@Jupiter__001_ mostly b12

[@pointcontact449]

Great video series. Love your work.

[@IamGrimalkin]

10:43 You could simply solve this by not having elevators. At 50 floors, it is entirely feasible for people to just use the stairs, and they don't need to keep increasing in area for every floor you add on. You'd keep your inhabitants nice and fit too while you're at it. Of course with buildings kilometres high you would start to need elevators, but lower than that and the only people for whom elevators are really necessary are those with physical disabilities.

[@tristanwegner]

I would not solve it, as staircases can get traffic jammed, too. So the higher you go, the more area you need for staircases.

[@IamGrimalkin]

But a staircase does not require a clear path right to the top like an elevator does. You can have people directly above other people in a staircase, no problem.

[@tristanwegner]

Fair enough.

[@ChipKempston]

Not a bad concept. Maybe you could have some combination of stairs & elevators where elevators get you so far and then you have to walk, or vice versa - you first have to walk to get to your elevator. Maybe it takes a couple rides / walks (think bus or train terminals) to get to your destination, but as you say with the benefit of space preservation and fitness, it might be worth it.

[@tech99070]

You definitely haven't ever tackled major stair climbing. I once did a temporary gig in an industrial building where I had to climb by stairs to the 26th floor. It was insane and horrible. And I was young (20 iirc) and in good shape and non smoker. I couldn't imagine doing 50+ just because I lived there or something.

[@zone8848]

this is my source to learn advanced vocabulary, a main source, I'm a foreigner and I hope one day i could speak like you without script, doesn't matter how many years it's gonna take, It's just a hobby.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) I might not be the best person to imitate, I tend to use a lot of atypical and archaic phrases and euphemisms even ignoring the speech impediment

[@zone8848]

Thank you, now I get 2 more words to learn from the reply :D. my guideline is, if other viewers can easily understand every word you say, so should I , doesn't matter if some of these vocabulary you used is too deep.

[@hatac]

Is it weird that I've watched 8 video's and now can't hear you speech impediment. I live with someone with a worse one so that's probably a variable. Nice work.

[@ReubenAStern]

Thanks a lot. I'm currently coming up with ideas for a city building in my next computer game. This has pointed me in the right direction.

[@AethyrPrime]

I love this channel, having just recently found it, however I want to add something to this discussion. Grazing animal herds which trample the ground are a necessary step for preventing desertification of an area. A group of scientists figured this out recently when trying to tackle the cause of desertification by accident. The popular theory was that grazing herds damaged the area causing desertification but they found the opposite to be true. By removing the grazing herds from an area they had in fact increased desertification not slowed it. By adding massive herds to an area they began to see a restoration of the area from desert to lush usable land. I believe the experiment was done in Africa and replicated in South America.

[@Jynx215]

Hello, I am new to the channel but very much enjoy these videos. I particularly loved the "Water Worlds" episode. I was wondering about an episode topic I'd love to see (if you haven't already done something like it). It may SEEM too fantastical for this channel, but in reality there would be a lot of interesting material: how music, being governed by the universal properties of mathematics and wave harmonies, would not only be understandable by an advanced extraterrestrial race (as long as they had some sensitivity to vibration), but the possibility such a race could have a musical system of their own. The properties of human music-- a 12-note scale (usually), equalized tuning (piano/guitar tuning) vs. just intonation (violin tuning), etc-- could be extrapolated upon to explore some of the possibilities of extraterrestrial music; this could in theory be highly microtonal, with huge numbers of notes per octave, but making it necessary to keep pieces within a single octave to avoid incredibly harsh dissonance. You could explore the complex geometrical nature of music such as Bach's fugues, and how alien music could potentially have equally or even more stringent mathematical rules that underpin it. Just a thought!! I would love to see that episode.

[@naes6843]

Isaac, my friend, after getting rid of any bias towards your speech, your videos which are wonderfully & scientifically produced. You have a gift and I’m proud to “know “ you and your work. Congratulations! Dave in Phoenix Arizona & Earth (I don’t consider myself “An environmentalist nut-job. At 76 I don’t have great amounts of time left, but having just arranged to be Baptised into the veryChristian Church of Jesus Christ, (Yes the Mormons, but they are through and through wonderfully pleasant,patriotic AMERICANS). I have so much more to say, but you are one of GOD’sChosen .ONE’s.”

[@Trepur349]

I almost skipped this video because it's not a topic that greatly interests me, but you covered it so well so I'm glad I didn't. Thank you.

[@jonathanman5560]

Two years and this is still the only good arcology video on KZbin... That's how far ahead your stuff is Isaac

[@andrewbirden5728]

Someone else probably mentioned it, but Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle ran with the idea of arcologies in self-contained giant buildings in their 1981 novel Oath of Fealty. That was the book that brought the concept to life for many people, and I would bet the designers of Simcity 2000 were among those people.

[@groovncat5817]

WOW Sir! Awesome outlook on the amazing possibilities of humankind's future food and resources. I was worried we'd all be eating roach protein bars :( in the future, according to some of the future fiction I've read and watched lol. Loving the Eco friendliness and elegant designs of these habitats. So I thank u Sir for your continued work. Also whomevers doin the graphics lately has upped they're game, very nice. Always eagerly anticipating you're next vid on Fridays. Thx again Sir.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Jakub Grygier did the specific Arcology image used in the cover/thumbnail. The rest is 'various', I still do a lot of the image and graphics and have gotten a bit better at those and employing them, but mostly I've gotten better at finding videos clips donated to the public domain by various skilled artist. Never gotten the roach/insect protein thing, gene-tweaked protein growing algae is already available and much lower cost then bugs, which most folks would prefer I think :) Of course a lot of writers are intentionally trying to evoke a feeling of revulsion or squeamishness and that's why they're using it, which is fair enough.

[@Fade2Black907]

Good evening from Alaska, thanks for another upload. Many thanks :)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Good Afternoon from Ohio! Glad you're enjoying them!

[@stingr23]

Thanks for the videos, Isaac. I'm now a patreon!

[@spaceman081447]

@ Isaac Arthur At 1:16, ". . . the enormous skyscraper approach was popularized by the classic game Sim City 2000." Sim City 2000 first came out in 1993. However, the concept of a huge single building arcology was earlier explored by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven in their novel Oath of Fealty, which was published in 1981. References: (1) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle (2) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_2000

[@xemy1010]

Awesome video. One of the more interesting topics you've explored.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I'm glad to hear that, I was terribly worried the subject was going to bore people to tears. It's been sitting on me backburner for nearly a year and probably would have stayed that way if it hadn't won the last poll.

[@1503nemanja]

Not at all, I think things like these are on everybody's mind these days. If we get better robotics and especially fusion power this way of life would likely become the norm very quickly. Mostly for environmental reason at first and to support vast populations later.

[@PazLeBon]

hmmm, yes the more you look into you start to hear the conspiracy theorists who suggest just a few billion humans on the planet is the way forward :/

[@1503nemanja]

Well considering the vast inequality in the world it likely depends on what the elites want. If they want for a more egalitarian world that shares the bounty of automation and science then we will have it. Or they can take and concentrate all the wealth and resources in their own hands, leaving the rest to starve or actively killing them. Needless to say I am quite concerned about the future.

[@1503nemanja]

***** Certainly, but that only means the masses will never be allowed to be self sufficient.

[@Waterflux]

Thank you, Isaac. I have particularly liked this Arcologies video, because how we could or might arrange our living space and habitat is just as important as designing and building stuffs from the high-end of physical sciences. (My train of thought: I might have a wonderful colonial base or a spaceship, but it would do me little good if it lacks decent amenities and especially if the toilet is not working!)

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I think that's a rather spot-on conservation about desirability, nobody wants to live in a cesspool, and a lot of folks have painted the future that way, so many people don't want to live in it.

[@matthewstevens560]

Listening at the moment, with your elevator problem: the more footage you dedicate to elevators the less space you can dedicate to living which reduces the amount of elevator space required. I've not done any maths on it since I should be working rn but I thought it was worth mentioning

[@markwalker9107]

As a gardener myself I really enjoyed this one .

[@billyte1265]

Elevators that can go horizontally solves the "elevator conundrum" because you can have numerous elevators in the space that 2 shafts takes up (because elevators can be routed around one another).

[@cementeater906]

I love that snacks are a thing. i usually have a cup of coffee to watch your videos.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

wow... less than 3 min in and I love this video already. Issac if you want to see an interesting tons of food in small spaces example look at the very first episode of doomsday preppers from nat geo. One of the featured preppers figured out how to turn his in ground pool into an aquaponic farm. He produced all the vegetables and eggs his family needed, with an excessive amount of Tilapia he could sell or trade for animal protein. I loved it because it was small, produced a trade surplus, and produced a wide variety of food in a manageably small amount of space. I took one look and said "OMG I WANT THAT I WANT IT SO BAD." There's actually a lot of attempts at low electricity small scale urban polyculture going on. I suggest looking into it if you want to go into on the shelf food production methods. My favorite is the "little fruit tree" which uses pruning methods and planters instead of genetic engineering or selective breeding to get results and eliminates the need for a dwarfing rootstock when grafting fruit trees.

[@Peachcreekmedia]

I watch this video and the follow up video every day. I wish there was a follow up video to these two.

[@westrim]

City Beautiful sent me here.

[@magicthegatherer6903]

Listening to classic SFIA is so fun

[@ILikeFlippyCarsAndSlugsInJars]

such high quality videos Isaac, please keep pumping them out. also, when roughly would the civilizations at the end of time video be coming out

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Roughly July 15, it's in the queue right after the next video, and would have followed this one except for two things: 1) I felt Ecumenpolis should follow right after arcology, too connected as a topic, and 2) I need to either really prune down Black Hole Famring/Civs at the End of Time's script, break it into two vids, or find time to cut a 45+ minute video. So July 15th, but possibly also July 22nd :)

[@anthonypearce9652]

Looking back on this 6 years after the video was made: I imagine in the future, assuming robots are doing a lot of the typical white-collar and heavy labor jobs. A lot of people may actually WANT to work with their food, to some extent. More as a hobby though, than an actual job. Even if robots do most of the heavy lifting there, it could be a great way for many people to occupy some of their spare time. I would also picture in the near future, if we build these towers, there would still be fairly large areas of rural/farmland/greenhouses in between these arcologies. Perhaps some recreational areas as well.

[@TheTalkWatcher]

What happens when you run the numbers on this assuming Gen 4 Fission Reactors in parks of 40 or more reactors?

[@rhuiah]

Great video (Sorry for low content comments; just 'liking the videos a 2nd time' by feeding the algorithms)

[@jacobpugh8203]

Do you think thorium molten salt reactors could be a decent stop gap for the fusion issue?

[@musafawundu6718]

I do.

[@YuckaMountain]

@ Isaac Arthur Awesome that someone else remembers Sim City 2000! :D In my opinion that game had something that other Sim Cities have not managed to capture.