Moon Books - Objectivity 214

We journey down to the vaults at The Royal Society to investigate how 17th Century scientists proposed we should travel to the Moon... More links below ↓↓↓
Featuring Keith Moore from The Royal Society speaking with Brady.
Check out some of our other space-related episodes:
Moon Beavers & Other Hoaxes: • Moon Beavers & Other H...
Soviet Moon Dust: • Soviet Moon Dust - Obj...
The Phone Book of Space: • The Phone Book of Spac...
Support Objectivity on Patreon: / objectivity
Subscribe to Objectivity: bit.ly/Objectivity_Sub
Films by James Hennessy and Brady Haran
Royal Society website: bit.ly/Royal_Society
The Royal Society's own KZbin channel: / royalsociety
Facebook: / objectivityvideos
Twitter: / objectivity_vid
Patron thank you page: www.bradyharanblog.com/objecti...
Objectivity T-Shirts: teespring.com/stores/objectivity

[@jebus6kryst]

3:33 "I don't mark things in books. I just remember." -Keith Moore

[@TulioSounds]

What a legend

[@johnjesberger5676]

Savage

[@rif6876]

Keith should read these books for audible.

[@andie_pants]

6:58 My God... I've got tears. I want to go back in time and tell him just how _right_ he was.

[@andie_pants]

If Elon Musk doesn't rename Starship to The Consolidator, I'm going to be hella upset.

[@pats7699]

He also got the distance between Earth and the moon right, with just about 10% error. (assuming 1 English Mile = 1.9 km)

[@PassionPopsicle]

grovermatic exactly! So, so moving. What a prediction to have made!

[@Zack-xz1ph]

the little hand drawn in the margins is called a manicule and was quite common in those days, it even got included in unicode: ☞, ☜ . though it's a little small

[@be1tube]

In ASCII, no. But in Unicode, yes.

[@pendlera2959]

Why didn't they just use an arrow?

[@Zack-xz1ph]

@@be1tube oh ok. I'll edit my comment

[@Zack-xz1ph]

@@pendlera2959 I guess to make it stand out more, probably saved it for the really important parts. I'd like to get a stamp of one of the hand-drawn ones for my own books

[@-.._.-_...-_.._-..__..._.-.-.-]

I like finding books with little marks, highlights, stains or bends, as long as they're not obnoxious. It's another story to read.

[@tncorgi92]

Exactly. The book tells a story of its previous owner.

[@user-ol2mr4bx7c]

Please can we have a podcast of keith telling us things, reading and turning pages?

[@Ethelgiggle]

That would be the ultimate relaxing experience. Also I really like what he has to say, never thought I'd get exited about old books this much!

[@CoolAsFreya]

Just do a bunch of white gloves of destiny, and have Keith read the entirety of every paper and letter he pulls

[@SchutzmarkeGMBH]

1:09 "Hey how you doin Galileo? lemme whisper in your ear"

[@Rabbit-the-One]

"It's free real estate"

[@smaakjeks]

There is an inescapable melancholy to be felt listening to the eager dreams of the thinkers of the past. How much they wanted to behold the moon up close, and how utterly out of reach it was for them. All the things we know now that would have blown their minds, yet they will never know it. And then I think of the things I will never see.

[@SoleaGalilei]

Beautifully said.

[@jjbudinski8486]

I hope that if time travel is possible people from the future will visit the great thinkers in their last days and show them the amazing things they have dreamt about.

[@xGaLoSx]

I often day dream about going back in time with my phone loaded with amazing KZbin videos and exploding famous figures minds!

[@smaakjeks]

@@xGaLoSx *Famous dude:* "Why, look! This strange gentleman has a peculiar contraption in his hand that _lights up_ upon touch, yet without a living flame! Marvelous!" *You:* "Bro, we haven't even started."

[@daveh3997]

3:39 On page 151 a hand and three exclamation points. That's got to be something seriously important.

[@quintrankid8045]

@MichaelKingsfordGray Wow!!!!!!!!!

[@lazyjackass77]

Justice for Wilkins!

[@whatthefunction9140]

As usual Keith is the real gem.

[@RufftaMan]

I put my vote in for a Wilkins probe! Or maybe call the first Starship from SpaceX to land on the Moon the "Wilkins". Should be able to carry enough luggage.

[@ruben307]

how can they mention all those hands to point to important passages but then ignore them.

[@philipclapper268]

Wow! This is really cool! Also, I had no idea that Gulliver's Travels was about the Royal Society

[@blindleader42]

And everything else English.

[@DavidB5501]

It's a slight exaggeration. Only one of the four sections, the Voyage to Laputa, is really (in part) a satire on the RS. I vaguely recall that some of the Laputan scientists are engaged in trying to distil sunlight from cucumbers. Biofuel in the 18th century!

[@OldBenOne]

@@DavidB5501 Did they succeed?

[@OldBenOne]

@MichaelKingsfordGray Not without Watson's assistance. But back to the cucumbers, I could raise some funds with a kickstarter.....

[@saltylad2107]

Parliament putting you to sleep... Some things never change.

[@krisweinschenker598]

The drawing of Kepler looking over Galileo shoulder is pretty cool.

[@SonOfSofaman]

Every episode I watch on this channel is better than the last one.

[@joyflight8599]

I agree - even in random order

[@xliquidflames]

Sounds to me like Bishop John Wilkins was thinking about 300 years ahead of his time. Smart guy. He was writing about us. He says, "That it is possible for some of our _posterity_ to find a conveyance to this other world..." He's predicting the Apollo program way back in the 17th century. He nailed it. He talked about the acceleration, the lack of breathable atmosphere, the temperature, flight will need to be developed, it will make the people who do it famous, and so on. Just fascinating. He absolutely nailed it.

[@vincentvanwyk5522]

He didn't realise that posterity would also lie and fake things like the moon landing. Very sad

[@MrPictor]

I remember reading that Huygens speculated that there were many sailors on Jupiter because it had 4 moons.

[@elonmush4793]

The first people living on Mars will look back at us like we are looking back at Wilkins thinking about traveling to the moon. And as he was looking back at people before they could reach the new world.

[@lzeph]

6:41 I am always impressed by James' skills with the camera. Loved reading over Keith's shoulder here. Does James have his own channel? Or where can we see more of his work?

[@lehpares]

My new favorite channel! Beautiful videos.

[@turpialito]

Brill, Brady! Yet another awesome little gem. Thank you!

[@steve1978ger]

"To do commerce with the moon" people might have invoked several possibilities in a 17th century person , of which "selling them stuff" is only one.

[@Dziaji]

Underrated comment of the year. To be honest, I would personally be much more interested in the alternative interpretation of the phrase. Making a dime is enjoyable and all, but it isn't everyday that one gets to... [REDACTED]

[@Rabbit-the-One]

Again, WHY doesn't this channel have the same acclaim as Numberphile?!? This is just as amazing!! Yeah, apples to oranges, so I beg some liberty in the comparison, yet still.

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

Wilkins Base, that would be epic. The first Moon Base should be named in his honor.

[@cyrilio]

These books are wonderfully fascinating

[@ZeedijkMike]

You guys are simply brilliant.

[@graemelaubach3106]

Absolutely brilliant 😂 man was such a legend. Thank you Brady & Keith

[@DerptyDerptyDUM]

The tiny hands with tiny fancy cuffs just made my whole week. 🤩

[@martinperry1843]

People should still use language like this to describe SpaceX. "An experimental exploration of construction methods for exploring celestial worlds and the premises behind transit thither."

[@Stetofire]

Brady: Here's some moon history! Books: We live in a royal society

[@HebaruSan]

Brady's shirt is all possible ways of arranging three circles? Why?

[@siarles]

It's a Numberphile shirt. They have a video on how many ways you can overlap a given number of circles.

[@lorddenti958]

Cause he's a nerd

[@steve1978ger]

because topology, baby

[@Jerome...]

Nice! I was sad last night (this morning after sunrise) because the last Objectivity video was so long ago.

[@DackxJaniels]

Why is "s" sometimes typed as "s", and sometimes "f" in these old books?

[@comsubpac]

it's a 'long s' and not a 'round s'

[@Cadwaladr]

That's called the "long s", you can read about it on Wikipedia. You might also be interested in the alternative form of r known as the "r rotunda".

[@DackxJaniels]

Thanks for the replies. I would've googled it, but I didn't know how to phrase it for Google to understand.

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@DackxJaniels Yup. The long s (ſ) was uſed in the beginnings and middles of words, but not at the ends. In Engliſh, it fell out of uſe around 1790-1810, though it held on for decades more in handwriting. As for ſ's confuſion with f, I ſuppoſe it doeſn't help that ſome typefaces put a half-croſſbar nub on its left ſide. 😃

[@TheRenegade...]

It's not an f, the stroke doesn't go through the vertical line.

[@nab-rk4ob]

What wonderful books.

[@menachemsalomon]

Seems to me that the first book, like several of the great writers of hard science fiction, shows the "so near, yet just a bit off as to be so far" effect. Travel to the moon? Sure. Take along air and food. How far? Close enough. How fast? He could just barely fathom 1000 miles a day, which you can do in a car. He cannot conceive of an airplane doing that distance in two hours, or of spacecraft traveling that distance in less time than it took him to write that paragraph.

[@robnorris4770]

Emojis from the 17th century 👉

[@TheChannelXY]

I love your content:)

[@Dave_Sisson]

There is already a Wilkins Aerodrome in Antarctica, although that is named after an Australian aviator rather than an English fantasist.

[@awesomeawe]

Please, write the books/objects titles in the description..

[@EebstertheGreat]

The "Ceres et Proserpina" circle is very interesting.

[@Astronomater]

angry that I didn't get a notification for this video. I am a major loonie! It appears there might not be a copy there for Patrick Moore's Guide to the Moon or Craters of the Moon? I highly recommend both books.

[@billyhendrix5544]

I always imagine Keith and Brady hanging out 24/7 getting up to all sorts of mischief

[@patricksanders858]

The hands are called Manicles and are seen today as overhead signs for directions to somewhere, pointing the way.

[@fugithegreat]

I wish I could read that whole Wilkins book. Fascinating!

[@SlyPearTree]

Me too, I hope it gets digitized. I'm also 100% behind naming a space ship, probe, rover, or mission after the man, a Lunar one would be best.

[@SothoTK]

Well you can, it is already available online in digital form. Google Books has it (different format) and the ECHO - Cultural Heritage Online website provides a scan which seems to be from the same print run like the book shown here. Just use your favorite search engine and look for "a discovery of a new world".

[@brendancarlton7326]

I like this.

[@hominid92]

Maybe Wilkins could be a name for some part of the upcoming Artemis moon missions. Maybe they could name the habitat they are planing Wilkins.

[@percsone]

so cool to see the flag floating in the wind on the moon

[@apcolleen]

Lovely ensemble Keith. Striking tie. Though Id feel more at ease wearing what Brady wears.

[@williamcollins4049]

We think, don't we, that we are the first to think? Wilkins was spot on wasn't he really? Thanks Keith and Brady William

[@Yupppi]

The thing I'm always wondering is if these were printed or handmade books. Like just the title pages look like they should be printed with the layout. But then there's all the pictures and whatnot.

[@Bibibosh]

It’s been 3 weeks, why wasn’t I notified of these new videos!!!

[@ObjectivityVideos]

You got notifications on? 🔔

[@una_10bananas]

I love Keith

[@ComiXDude]

i would definitely would want to read those books. does the royal society scans any of them ?

[@Zack-xz1ph]

archive.0rg has lots of books from the 18th century and earlier

[@juliusreiner5733]

Please do Gulliver’s Travels!

[@zeikjt]

2:04 Pareidolia at work or was that intentional??

[@neruneri]

That's wondrous. Goes to show that the advantage the modern person has over people of the past is foundational knowledge as an acccessible part of the public domain, but we are not superior in intellect. I'd like to think that three hundred years from now, our descendants will comb through old records and archives from the comfort of their spaceship or colony on another planet and be equally amazed at how rich our thoughts were with how to achieve further great things. I sincerely wish I could live to see the day when future generations lament the fact that Einstein was born in the wrong millenia, to see them discuss what Hawkings could have achieved if he had been born a millenia later.

[@gazzaboo8461]

The Men were indeed become famous, and the age also wherein he lives.. The Space Age, as it is now known. Prophetic indeed!

[@KarlFarbman]

Great video!! Can't believe we haven't seen those books already. You MUST do a video on Gulliver's Travels now that we know it's a satire of the Royal Society!

[@mulreay]

Anyone know what T-Shirt Brady is wearing at 3:08 ? Thanks in advance

[@Terri_MacKay]

I believe it's available through the Numberphile channel. I know that it's a tie-in to one of their videos.

[@brokentombot]

3:30 Keith is a Boss Bot confirmed.

[@princeedmunddukeofedinburg]

Happy Halloween everyone🎃🎃🎃

[@DeanGadberryYT]

Where did you get that shirt?!?! Too perfect!

[@sujimtangerines]

I think it's a Numberphile shirt. That's another one of Brady's channels. Check the description on that channel.

[@dennis7511]

1.11 the figure looking over the shoulder seems to have fangs.

[@brucemckay6615]

I was alive in 1969... still quite young... but I was ‘there’... sort of... it’s like... I f you can imagine it... it could happen....

[@helenaren]

*Keith Moore*

[@willd4686]

Nice shirt

[@praveenb9048]

JFK, 1962 : "We choofe to make a paffage thither.."

[@gokart6796354]

Michael Stevens from Vsause please

[@LePezzy66]

I know what tattoo I want next

[@flamencoprof]

I used to be greatly irritated by annotations in library books, but I feel no inhibition against making them in books that I own. Collectors will just have to deal with it.

[@bockminster7474]

youtube needs to make it so you can double like a video

[@Fawnarix]

This is great science fiction fodder.

[@Wordsnwood]

Here are some books that I suspect Brady would like to borrow from the Royal Society and read through from start to finish...

[@DevilishScience]

John Wilkins invented the Metric System

[@kevinhanley3023]

Go Wilkins!

[@ObjectivityVideos]

On the future of Objectivity: www.bradyharanblog.com/blog/the-future-of-objectivity

[@garrysekelli6776]

And here hundreds of years later its still impossible for humans to travel beyond low earth orbit.

[@jeffk8019]

I vote for a Wilkins Probe!

[@AceHardy]

📙💯

[@tobiasthepious182]

Wilkins probe!

[@LA-MJ]

Is that really how you are supposed to pronounce Huygens?

[@mojosbigsticks]

'...that they should look like men in gum elastic suits, that we may grapple with them..'

[@minimalrho]

I thought this was going to be about the Icelandic books that are published on a full moon and then all the unsold ones are burned... :(

[@patricksanders858]

What will we be three hundred years from today?

[@Dziaji]

People still believe the Apollo moon missions were real? Do they also believe that Santa followed them in his sleigh?

[@RT710.]

Humbling stuff

[@sbryans123]

Third Forth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth ... Can we stop now???

[@comsubpac]

just one more time! Please! Some people are not annoyed yet!

[@sbryans123]

@@comsubpac lol

[@omikronweapon]

my annoyance has mostly been substituted for pity. At least for channels like Objectivity, I'd expect the viewers to have more sense than to think such pointless things matter.

[@tncorgi92]

They don't watch the videos, they're just pleading for someone to stroke their egos.

[@hyekang3850]

Georges Méliès 400 years ago !

[@culwin]

Earth has detected you are using an ad blocker.

[@karlkastor]

👈

[@Cadwaladr]

Interesting that Defoe wrote of the flying machine being invented in China, because that's actually where rockets were first invented.

[@Poisonjam7]

What’s with those weird “s” letters that look like lowercase f’s without the strikethrough? I’ve never seen those before… They’re pronouncing them like a regular s, but I saw words in there that actually have the regular s in them…so what gives??

[@RuthvenMurgatroyd]

It's called a long s. It has an analogue in Greek actually, which has two letter 's's (or sigmas, rather). It was just thought to look better in different positions. You look up the rules for when the long s is written a short s or not. Fun fact: the integral is based off of the long s and it stands for sum because the integral is a sort of continuous sum.

[@VampireSquirrel]

thats a bit hot

[@social3ngin33rin]

No gloves to handle these?

[@webchimp]

They've mentioned in the past that you are more likely to damage fragile papers and books wearing gloves that without.

[@gaylordpantamime]

Keith is an alpha male in his natural habitat

[@laserkei]

I think that's a middle finger.

[@wich1]

Second!

[@golumq2461]

First