Space Habitats

For humanity to explore space and distant worlds, we will need to construct enormous artificial habitats in space with diverse ecologies.
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Credits:
Space Habitats
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 384, March 2, 2023
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur
Editors:
Briana Brownell
David McFarlane
Graphics by:
Apogii.uk
Cameron Scott
Jarred Eagley
Jeremy Jozwik
Neil Blevins
Katie Byrne
Ken York
Rapid Thrash
Steve Bowers
Udo Schroeter
Music Courtesy of
Markus Junnikkala, "Plotting a Course", "We Roam the Stars"
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Between the Rings"
Miguel Johsnon, "Far From Home", "So Many Stars"
Aerium, "Fifth Star of Aldebaran"

[@mr.smoothiehuman]

this man can make infinte content for space, and im all for it

[@johnrickard8512]

Same. I never miss any of his episodes.

[@user-dc6pm3mc4b]

Im still here watching after all the years but big parts these days seem like a rehash of old topics just with more speculations added... like i cant make it through every episode anymore some feel im rewatching old episodes

[@thomaslisankie342]

Continent has infinite space itself

[@spiritual9574]

Same I’m not complaining at all

[@libertyjones1451]

God willing.

[@michaelclack5485]

Plot twist: Isaac is from the future and is only spreading what is considered common knowledge in his time.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) I think I prefer that one of the rumor that I'm a ChatGPT protype

[@mizzshortie907]

Tells us just enough to keep us hopeful and keep us pushing for this type of future without saying too much to disrupt the timeline 🤫🫣🤔

[@singletona082]

@@isaacarthurSFIA Well, if you are then I'm honestly hopeful for our digital children.

[@sandorrabe5745]

If that's true the dear fellow must have flunked his human history exam (taken orally, of course)

[@jimmywrangles]

@@isaacarthurSFIA That's OK because you know the Asimov rules of robotics but it's also bad because you know the first rule of warfare...It's a conundrum and we know what happens when AI's get conundrums...stuff goes from Hal 0 to Hal 9000 real quick and the next thing you know you're stuck outside the podbay.

[@BlackEpyon]

There's an argument to be made for sky panels on cylindrical habitats. A large enough habitat (Island 2 or larger) will have it's own weather system, and that will mean rainfall. Naturally, the rain will fall on the sky panels as well as the land panels, so somebody (I don't remember who) suggested having the sky panels double as lakes. Light will pass just fine through a few meters of water, and that also provides extra radiation shielding. Imagine taking a sail across the water, and the sun is beneath you!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

probably would have to be rather shallow lakes, and you'd also need to supplement light by frequency at that point - which is doable - as an example red light attenuates so quickly that red fish typically look entirely black at less than 20 meters, which is the average depth of my own Great LAke, Erie, which is known as the shallow one. Orange does a little better and yellow and purple a bit better than that, but that's why scuba camera imagery always seems so blue and green. On the flip side, plants mostly use red light and some blue. Panels maybe 10 meters deep in solar systems around redder stars - which is most of them - might work well then for screening that light to the spectrum we like. So it's certainly a doable option but has some extra challenges that I think would exceed the benefit.

[@BlackEpyon]

@@isaacarthurSFIA I don't think the water would be any deeper than the soil layer, which I think was about 5-6m in O'Neil's Island 3 design. You don't want to block too much of the light, but at the same time, since the water is going to fall there anyways you may as well make use of it. Also, having a 5-6m water layer over the sky panels would balance out the mass over the cross-section with the ground panels, so it more easily maintains a circular cross-section instead of wanting to go triangular due to centrifugal force.

[@hallooos7585]

Idk that would feel unnatural and might even look weird or hideous

[@BlackEpyon]

@@hallooos7585 Never underestimate humans ability to adapt to their environment. From the opposite land panel, that sky-lake panel is 6 km away, and you wouldn't really notice much of a difference.

[@usel1500]

"forced migration should never be high on your list of problem solving tools" - this is just one example of why I love your channel. You never give in to eco fascism. You always consider the cultural human cost of a decision. Too often when discussing futurism people ignore or worse belittle cultural/ societal priorities. I love your work 💜

[@MyKharli]

They also ignore people hate each other, good luck in space with that ! You do know this is a fantasy channel and things are actually getting worse fast ?

[@luigimrlgaming9484]

Well it’s just simpler to turn Forced Resettlement on.

[@usel1500]

@@MyKharli mate, whatever. Go whinge at somebody elses door.

[@MyKharli]

@@usel1500 opening airlock now

[@accelerationquanta5816]

Forced migration is actually a very good way to solve problems permanently. Even better? Extermination. The biosphere of Earth should be destroyed, and Earth itself should be destroyed.

[@edwardgeiser1571]

11:00 "...so that visitors can enjoy seeing mammoths while skiing down the many slopes." That would be a sight to behold. More like Pleistocene Park instead of Jurassic Park.

[@guillermoelnino]

I could easily see any of these space habitats lasting longer and being a more permanent home for a family than any civilization on earth.

[@jackesioto]

And you could have modular sections to allow people to vote with their houses if they don't like the system on a particular spacestead.

[@Cretaal]

​@@jackesioto Making me think of giant space trailer parks made of a bunch of space ships docked together in a ring and connected to a main hallway. I'm sure ships would be big enough to live in if you can find a decent way to get some gravity in.

[@singletona082]

@@jackesioto 'Nuts. NovaGarland's government got taken over by a bunch of HOA jerks. We're packing our cylinder up and moving to NuColumbus since they're fairly relaxed and have been bugging us anyway for gene samples for our squirrle population, and we'd benefit from new drone design they've been working on.'

[@Hobbityfus]

@@Cretaal the communal hallway could include shops to rent, parks and general public services while your docking bay is throught a small garden rented with it. Your ship is your house and the "communal hallway" is actually a disc station you just dock to and use its rotation for gravity.

[@MyKharli]

Yes because in Space people magically get on with each other ...

[@lukasmakarios4998]

My all time favorite topic. YAY! Even if we don't get useful carbon nanotubes any time soon, we can still construct truly enormous O'Neill cylinders. By using super-tensile materials like Kevlar or Zylon, stretched out for the skin/floor of the station, and supporting that with a steel or titanium lattice, we could build a cylindrical habitat with a circumference in the 120 kilometer range, and six to ten times that long. Nor would it be too early to begin standardized construction of a connected ladder using these as rungs to encircle the Earth.

[@HeIsAnAli]

Obligatory: "I've watched enough _Gundam_ to know where this is going."

[@juimymary9951]

Well, good news, graphene might be much easier to produce massively

[@andrewgraziani4331]

Yes I love space habitats also. But I wouldn't go Mcendrick sized even if I could. Once you get so big you start to get a self generating climate you're to big. Better to make a bunch of smaller, easier to control sized habitats then one giant sized one. If only to minimize negetive consequences if something goes wrong.

[@yjlom]

@@andrewgraziani4331 well on the negative consequences point there is an advantage to building bigger simply a 80 Gm³ cyllinder isn't emptying in a few seconds, even through a 500 meter wide hole but yeah building too large is mostly just a waste of atmo and construction labour

[@wizardtim8573]

@@andrewgraziani4331 I'm fairly certain that if you're building at those sizes, you can control the weather with the push of a button. The effects may not be instantaneous, but you'll need internal infrastructure to pipe light through to begin with, so no matter how big you go, you could have a relatively short ceiling above you. It's not as simple as "make a hollow tube, and done".

[@sweenie58]

The use of Rotating Habs for workers while they work on space based structures makes so much sence since we do this in the oil industry up north with camps providing for the needs of workers.

[@nick-hu1nx]

i love the idea of tiny rotating habitats just for like growing crops that you could have float above you. all you would have to do is get some rail system, and some rcs thrusters and you could have things appear to fly around as art structures from the outside. But inside they could have useful things that dont need human comfort gravity.

[@smileyp4535]

Not to mention the nature presurves

[@ilkoderez601]

I love the description of O'Neill cylinders that post-humans live on, in the book Accelerando: "Somewhere in the gas-sprinkled darkness beyond the local void, carbon-based life stirs. A cylinder of diamond fifty kilometers long spins in the darkness, its surface etched with strange quantum wells that emulate exotic atoms not found in any periodic table that Mendeleyev would have recognized. Within it, walls hold kilotonnes of oxygen and nitrogen gas, megatonnes of life-infested soil. A hundred trillion kilometers from the wreckage of Earth, the cylinder glitters like a gem in the darkness."

[@johnfelix503]

Awesome book! Totally recommend to anyone who hasn't read it yet

[@rumorcontrol7873]

I'm currently both playing in and designing the setting for a pen and paper RPG generally set in space so binging all these videos is truly something else

[@69Kazeshini]

That sounds pretty cool, you can use traveller rpg if you need any help

[@supplychainoperationsresearch]

oh algorithm gods! look upon ye humble servants' plea and spread this video

[@mathieutyler8745]

is it difficult for you being so đumb?

[@ColdHawk]

@@mathieutyler8745 ​- Oh ye of little faith and total lack of dad-humor! I will pray to the algorithm gods that they forgive you and continue to bring you good content in your feed. May Saint Wojcicki intervene on your behalf!

[@ebonaparte3853]

@@mathieutyler8745 Is it difficult for you being so rude?

[@ragingagent5040]

I’m doing my part!

[@abnormica]

"Safety Sphincter" - that would be a great band name.

[@bloodyblue354]

Great video! This a really thought-provoking topic to me, because it seems to be so close and within reach, no lightspeed-breaking fantasy tech needed!

[@DanielGenis5000]

At the end of the podcast, I’m just so impressed. So interesting. But also your positive attitude and optimism. If everyone was like you, these futures would really happen.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you Daniel!

[@UpliftedCapybara]

Considering most people don’t think we will do anything but just terraform new planets to live on with maybe the occasional space station, how/when would public opinion change so drastically to have it be the case that the majority of people live in space habitats? Even most popular sci-fi usually just shows people living on planets and maybe some smallish space stations. I’m sure most people will come around to the concept, but it will definitely be a dramatic shift.

[@zs9652]

It will basically be a quick transition of the public perception. Once we have a few planetary habitats with the infrastructure to traverse it is when the sudden change will occur imo.

[@garethbaus5471]

When people start trying both and it becomes blatantly obvious that space habitats are cheaper than terraforming public opinion is likely to change.

[@DarthBiomech]

People are reactionary. When they hear "space habitatat" they picture a cramped tin can weightlessly floating in orbit and go "why would anybody want to _live_ in there?" Most popular scifi is most popular exactly because it avoids challenging the viewer.

[@bclapp2483]

people will adapt quickly enough when an idea matures like how new york streets went from all horses to all cars in only 20 years or so. :)

[@mill2712]

​@@garethbaus5471 I believe if terraforming is possible it won't be done because humanity requires a world to make earth like to survive, rather it was done simply for a vanity project. Like a park, dream garden, luxury resort or elite residence. The majority of people in a colonized system will not live on that world.

[@BrokenCurtain]

The main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has enough material to construct a number of space habitats that would equal the surface area of 3,000 Earths. The Kuiper belt is about 20-200 times as massive as the asteroid belt. The Oort cloud is possibly 30-100 times as massive as the Kuiper belt. Time to start building.

[@linz8291]

Asteroid belt could be the temporary space settlements but never better than the habitable extroplanets and city-size motherships, thus expanding earthlings to millions of earth-like extroplanets to neighboring constellations are significant than we focus on those asteroid belt.

[@trE3E3]

Isaac has built such trust in me that I've bought Neil Blevin's book already.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I hope you enjoy it, I found it rather stunning.

[@andrewmorales5485]

@@isaacarthurSFIA I have a question why don't we start build those space habitat right now

[@Randomguy-wd5lw]

@@andrewmorales5485 Launch cost, lack of In Situ Ressource Utilisation (ISRU) technologies and you need a certain level of automation to build one. They make sense in a near/post scarcity society where the land on Earth is precious because of ecological concern and/or population/economic activities. Its the sort of thing that will be build in the far future, not in our lifetime.

[@andrewmorales5485]

@@Randomguy-wd5lw but what if all the entrepreneur selfmade millionaire's and billionaires get together and start investing in building something like this in are life time what then

[@Randomguy-wd5lw]

​@@andrewmorales5485 I think we could do it, I'd say roughly 40 years, and the first twenty years is mainly gonna be use to build mine and factories, an army of construction robot and other infrastructure on the moon. Most of the cost of a space habitat come from launching the mass into orbit. Therefore, using materials from a low gravity object like the moon or asteroids reduce the price a lot.

[@spencerpraxis7987]

Your writing just gets better and better! The last few minutes were genuinely moving. Thanks for keeping inspiration alive for a world beyond the here and now, Isaac!

[@LordZordid]

On spacehabitat XY221 due to software glitch the squirrels circumvented the "food for trash" system by trading in food for larger amounts of food. This was eventually fixed but several critters had to be hospitalized due to severe obesity.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) That's a good one

[@yeetyateyote5570]

This principle is why I do actually love Mobile Suit Gundam. This EXACT topic and theory- the hopeful migration of all mankind to near-earth Lagrange point O’Niell cylinders to save the planet - was brought up in the 80s. Definitely ahead of its time as a mass media franchise for sure

[@jamesmaruk5289]

The type of content you make here is bar none on KZbin. Thank you for contributing such a wealth of ideas, I look forward to any and all future content you make.

[@orionspur]

A 1-mile-radius torus with 250ft skies has 22mi² of usable space. That's the size of Manhattan, and certainly plenty of room for a walkable town, an industrial complex, a massive farm, or a sizable nature preserve. Using passive rim-to-rim transit as O'Neill suggested, sending commuters and cargo between these would be easy and cheap, with no rockets required. Dismantling Ceres would give you enough material to build billions of such habitats, with plenty of room for 10+ trillion people. Building larger than this seems cool but perhaps unnecessary.

[@Trollificusv2]

It would be interesting to see the effect of "limitless space, free transport" on the paradigm that created urban environments in the first place. I remain unconvinced that such population density has proven to be optimal for human happiness or even sanity.

[@orionspur]

​@@Trollificusv2 Agreed. At Manhattan density (~75,000 people/mi²) Ceres has enough material to house 1.5 quadrillion people. For my estimate above I went with a much more pleasant 500 people/mi².

[@reinderknoops1682]

And now for something completely different; Your voice and speech have really grown on me. You are now my favorite bedtime storyteller.

[@CockatooDude]

Isaac's passion for this really comes through at the end. Brought a tear to my eye.

[@JamesDecker7]

Make space great again. Build an O’Neill swarm!

[@HeIsAnAli]

_[Mass Colony Drop intensifies]_

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

@@HeIsAnAli :) A Colony Drop as an attack is a little trickier than some scifi has suggested.

[@dansmith1661]

@@HeIsAnAli Use mass drivers instead.

[@HeIsAnAli]

@@isaacarthurSFIA Which is true; to my knowledge, only _After War Gundam X_ has Mass Colony Drops as part of its plot. Same franchise, different universe.

[@Joshua_N-A]

If the colonists are happy, Sydney is spared.

[@electricfan1085]

I like to imagine the kind of sports you could play along the axis of rotation in an O'Neal cylinder. Like a type of water polo where you just "swim" In the zero G air.

[@Driftking305forlife]

As long as Side 3 does not declare independence and then decides to start dropping said habitats on earth.

[@Deridus]

Unless they're aiming solely at New Jersey... or Portland.

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

Side 3? Each habitat is likely to be another side, so there will be far more than 3 sides.

[@HeIsAnAli]

@@malcolm_in_the_middle It’s a Gundam reference. With respect to O'Neill cylinders, said reference is near-obligatory.

[@Driftking305forlife]

@@HeIsAnAli ah a fellow Gundam fan got it LOL😎

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks for the shout out Isaac! And as always, thanks for pushing forward the discussion on space habitats and megastructures in general, you're the king!

[@magnuszerum9177]

I'm partial to the baker's dozen donuts format. You take thirteen 2 rpm donut shaped habitats that are somewhat standardized and self contained and slide them over a central utility core for mutual support. Each donut can serve as a family estate, industrial space, a space mall/resort, science lab, ect. This module approach allows you to swap out donuts as desired.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I suspect a lot would depend on what the optimum price point is on area per household and radius vs length is, or whatever passes for that with future economies, but I would tend to imagine large groups of many habitats would be more common than a single large habitat once you get to that minimum size for environmental comfort, it's possible 12 or 13 interchangeable units would be in the right zone to make that work but it could be a bit lower or even way higher.

[@magnuszerum9177]

@@isaacarthurSFIA As I recall, if a spinning cylinder is too long compared to it's diameter, it will periodically flip end for end, and my baker's dozen donuts was just under that length/diameter ratio when the donut hole is diameter = 1, the outside diameter = 3, and the length of each donut = 1.

[@BitcoinMeister]

Isaac's ending thoughts about the future of human built space habitats sum up so much about the core beliefs of this channel. Artificial habitats are much easier to customize than a planet and humanity needs to see space colonization in a non-planet based paradigm. Throughout the history of this channel this different lens of viewing the future has been promoted, but I think the last part of today's show demonstrated the importance of this new paradigm like never before. It should inspire many ideas!

[@UpliftedCapybara]

Definitely looking forward to the next series of episodes! All of them sound so intriguing!

[@corydrichmond]

Rotating habitat that has a cold climate could have an endless ski slope.

[@tturi2]

I like the Cowboy bebop thing where people might not want to live on earth because it's just a giant dump either literally or figuratively

[@patrickmchargue7122]

HOAs in Spaaace! That's funny. A contract signed by the inhabitant to legally force them to abide by the local regulations on what is or isn't allowed patrolled by Karens from distant Earth. ("You have to paint that white! That color isn't white, it's shell-white!")

[@Deridus]

(Space West Virginia has entered the chat)

[@HeIsAnAli]

@@Deridus _Mountain Mama IN SPACE!_

[@learning7979]

Hey Issac I have a question Bigger habitats seem more effective on the surface (Surface area scales up with the square of radius) But we are missing a key factor here the bigger the habitat the more air you need to pressurize and to fill it which rises by the cube. (Volume of air) So are bigger habitats truly more efficient? I think they need to have an efficient rotating space habitat One would do the following :- Make them long and If the radius of the rotating drum is "R" then have a nonrotating drum of "r" inside it (This could be used for storage or plant growth e.t.c So the volume needed to pressurize is 4π[(R^2)-(r^2)]H Instead of 4πR^2H Along with 4πr^2 area for mundane storage. The outer boundary of the drum could also be used to simulate the sky, So in practice, the Rotating"Cylinder would be more akin to a longitudinally enlarged torus. Perhaps pipe habitat

[@yjlom]

well bigger habitat is not more efficient, since both your construction costs and heat dispersion potential are mostly bound by surface area, and rise at similar rates once you get to a size where the thickness of the armor is not a significant part of the thickness of the whole having a secondary drum would save atmo but cost more construction materials, and if it's non-rotating it'd either require a double layer or cause significant friction so yeah tiny habs should best be avoided, but giant ones too imo

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

If the habitat gets big enough you can skip on adding more air as it will have a layer of atmo-cylinder some kilometers high of slowly lowering pressure and density just like our own, but yes, at 1.4 kilograms per cubic meter, air can get awfully heavy if you have a big habitat

[@problemecium]

It is also possible to simply make a "hollow" cylinder with a ceiling at a fixed height such that as outer area increases, the air volume increases at the same rate.

[@smileyp4535]

As others have said, you only need a few tons of air per square meter of floorspace/internal serface assuming that's where you spend most of your time, gravity will keep it down just as it does on earth, even if it's just spinning that generates the impression of gravity, you don't necessarily need air in the middle if it's big enough and you don't need to go there often, and I'm sure you could provide extra for when you do

[@learning7979]

@@smileyp4535 That is mostly correct but I thought that many people would prefer the ceiling giving them an illusion of the sky .And yes I didn't think that the sir would just go to the ground in a rotating drum.

[@joet6723]

Isaac, I think this may be your best video yet. I absolutely loved it and it was very inspiring, thank you very much.

[@larrackell]

I love this channel so much. Always making me think of concepts differently than I'm used to considering them.

[@slabrankle9588]

I can't wait for planet Magrathea to start up again. True, I can't afford a custom made planet, but it's nice to know the option exists, or will exist once the galactic economy is strong enough.

[@linz8291]

Someday you'll proud of interstellar trades even though everything begins are not easy.

[@stcredzero]

These are the voyages of the Space Habitat Enterprise, LLC. It's ongoing mission, to construct strange new worlds. Engineer new life and civilizations. To boldly design what no one has designed before! (Cue original Star Trek theme)

[@JonahRoyes]

Great way to start my Thursday, Thanks for The Gift Isaac❤️

[@Darkwind28]

That list of hypothetical habitat ideas close to the end was fantastic. I don't visit as much as I used to in the past, but I still very much appreciate your passion, knowledge and humour. Thank you!

[@Walterw21]

I love this sort of stuff, I like content talking about humanity in the far future. I hope I can live to experience this but probably not

[@jeffreyatlee8785]

I imagine private hellworlds being mostly clone worlds where one can torture copies of one's enemies. Truly horrifying.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I think I'll include it as a sidebar in the upcoming 'artificial afterlives' episode :)

[@angelstrong792]

The Space Habitation Era has begun, nice video, thanks for sharing & more success!

[@Joshua_N-A]

Pray that no one tries to drop one on a planet.

[@brookestephen]

the wireframe graphic of the elephant walking... he lifts up both legs on the same side lol

[@donlew8222]

We've tried making habitats before and failed miserably each time. Turns out, even the most basic habitats are extremely complex. I believe we are giving human beings too much credit here.This topic is best left for the movies.

[@Roguescienceguy]

Space habitats will be the way to go once we make it past this upcoming great filter-event. Mars is great scifi and all, but realistically I see very little reason to terraform it. I hope that humanity will also have a certain sense of urgency then

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

What great filter event?

[@NullHand]

I view it as like the transition from living in caves, to building above ground fake caves (houses). Sure a cave has pretty stable temperature and all, but eventually nobody is going to want to go back down the gravity well except on vacation or research. Kind of like spelunking today.

[@DanielGenis5000]

The great filter event is the cultural suicide that is Woke, Wokism. Where liberalism went to die. It can knock off the Western World and it’s already medieval everywhere else, so diversity is rather the opposite of our strength 😊

[@sallyforth9905]

@@General12th Pretty sure the guy's talking about the possibility of Ruzzia and NATO nuking each other.

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

@@sallyforth9905 Nukes don't really qualify as a great filter event. They cannot wipe out even the majority of humanity.

[@HiopX]

I really hope by the time we are building space habitats, we recognized the absolute inefficiency that are suburbs

[@rodrigonogueiramota4433]

O`Neil cylinder: exists Gundam Series: crash it on earth we go!

[@mill2712]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3OzfnyLhd9pY80 Imagine crashing a habitat into the planet only to find out you only killed a small percentage of the planet's population/only disrupted a portion of their industrial capability because they're so deep no cylinder can touch it. That would mean you kicked a hornets nest.

[@d.thieud.1056]

I'm currently working on an artwork featuring multiple space habitats so this is good inspiration

[@High_Key]

I just came across your great filter video series a couple weeks ago and have been hooked on your channel since!

[@jwilliamsmith9316]

This is such a better option than terraforming mars or trying to live in Venus’ atmosphere

[@mikecapson1845]

Im interior designer and huge fan of space mining and overall space industry. I studied all schools i needed. Now i just need the "Boom" so i can start making money by designing space habs. Its was my heart beats for

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

I would love a special on a particular space habitat - Giant intergalactic rocket with a constant acceleration drive using something like a black hole. And when I say giant, I mean big enough for flat earth to be true, with the Antarctic "ice wall" being condensation on the side. Hands down my favourite version of flat earth lol. edit: and like, how we know its not that, cause I guess we need that.

[@NullHand]

Since we have God like constant acceleration energy tech anyway... I move that the rocket drive must be in the shape of a 🐢. With 🐘 shaped shock absorbers just above....

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

@@NullHand Now that's just rediculous

[@HD-mp6yy]

I have been waiting for a dedicated video on space habitats for months.

[@michealnelson5179]

This whole video, @IsaacArthur, is pretty much straight out of my Ceres 2525 setting's compendium of world builds. Which currently exists in my head and a very few written brainstormy places, including past chats below some of your videos. I'm just a tad behind you in writing it all out in my book series. Thanks for the boot-to-aft treatment, bro.

[@Trollificusv2]

Good luck, bro. The best sci-fi engages the reader in sorting out "how does this all work?" level in addition to the regular story/plot/conflict arcs. This is the level that modern Hollywood seems to be entirely unaware of, making their attempts at actual sci-fi so weak and unengaging.

[@michealnelson5179]

@@Trollificusv2 Thanks, yeah. I'm trying to make it based on real science as much as possible. I speculate on rare aliens, and using psionic telepathy as a mental ability is probably the mose fantasy element, so it gets downgraded into space opera probably. But I really want to be sci based, lol. doh. My main planets and space habs are IN this video, hehehe.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Living in a space habitat like building a shell to travel the dark ocean in. This might be a future for humanity in space.

[@donaldhobson8873]

What about mind uploading?

[@UrdnotChuckles]

I rather like the idea of grouped up collections of habitats perhaps part of a larger superstructure, forming a metropolitan area of sorts. Each habitat could be built to replicate a different environment, from the prairies to southern France, plus a dedicated wilderness habitat for folks to visit from time to time.

[@wascalywabbit]

I think we'll need these on earth before it's over with

[@shubhamkumar6689]

Your imagination have no boundaries, you always surprise me. I love it.

[@MrQuantumInc]

If two cavemen were discussing the possibility of exploring and inhabiting the world far beyond their home they would probably imagine their descendants finding and maybe modifying other caves and it wouldn't easily occur to them the build new habitats.

[@heretic-668]

The cultural, social, and political implications are what I find most fascinating. Really appreciate how you consider these aspects.

[@UpliftedCapybara]

Agreed. It’s easy to focus purely on the technical aspects of something like this and leave out what it would be like on the ground for the average person. It’s the same problem with history that only focuses on wars and royalty.

[@disarmyouwitha]

Thank you for making this video about space habitats! I found it super interesting and informative. I particularly liked the discussion about how space habitats could potentially provide a way for humans to live sustainably in outer space. It's amazing to think that we could one day live on other planets or even asteroids! I also appreciate the inclusion of the potential drawbacks and challenges associated with building space habitats. It's important to consider all angles when it comes to something as groundbreaking as this. Overall, I thought this was a well-rounded and thought-provoking video. Keep up the great work! AND POST!

[@spencernorman2626]

I would certainly want a tour of a space based mega structure, but living on one wouldn't be my first choice. Who knows i might change my mind after a look around. 😀

[@killgazmotron]

I like to think of habitats that are cylinders within cylinders, each one inside spinning at the rate neccisary for 1g on each level. i mean the sky doesnt have to be higher than say twice the height of the highest oldest trees. And you could have openings to each with hills that give possible passage to each level when their rotations line up. Imagine a gopro on an eagle diving through 4 layers of forest.

[@MikeJones-yo8en]

My week has actually been pretty great, thanks Isaac!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I'm glad to hear that Mike :)

[@catholiccrusader5328]

I regret that my first Syfy novel was written and published before I became a fan of Mr. Arthur's wonderful futurist programs. Thank you, sir.

[@brotatobrosaurus5411]

It will be a sad day when I finally catch up on every SFIA episode and need to wait a week to watch the next one.

[@gabrielglouw3589]

I’d be interested in learning how they would make soil for these habitats. Soil is vastly more complex than many people realize, and they obviously couldn’t just mine it from Earth.

[@garethbaus5471]

We can manufacture non soil growth media fairly cheaply, for most purposes humans need that would be perfectly adequate so long as nutrients are added roughly once a year or so, and it could break down to a soil like state after enough time.

[@UpliftedCapybara]

I’m sure we’re just scratching the surface of the bacterial and fungal element of soil. We will definitely have to account for that when designing habitats. Even more challenging will be making ancient souls like they would have been back when extinct species lived.

[@DarthBiomech]

I'm pretty sure you can "ferment" soil by getting a right mix of grounded up minerals and elements and then mix it with samples of preexisting soil so that bacteria and fungi would spread over, and letting it sit there for a while for the little guys to do their thing.

[@JFrazer4303]

Lunar soil doesn't have toxins like Mars does. Add compost and it's mineral rich. It's always recognized that making a giant terrarium with people in space, is the most picky part of these. Very unlikely to be anything like self-replicating or stable. Always needing tinkering.

[@brookestephen]

Extremely idyllic descriptions of possible space habitats. But we all know that only rich companies could afford then, and then only to manufacture products and pollute the space around them, both inside and outside their habitat.

[@ianyboo]

Isaac makes such an overwhelmingly compelling case for space habitats that I find myself having a hard time taking more mainstream sources seriously when they go on and on about how to terraform Mars... Almost like folks from the Early 1900s discussing how to make cities in the year 2000 more horse and buggy friendly...

[@211212112]

This reminded me of the older episodes. Loved it.

[@logex621]

oh Hello There!. Good to see another video.

[@PlanetOcean]

Great as always

[@deedoesa.i]

With A.I taking off in a big way right now. It would be great to hear you opinion on where you think it will head un the short to long term. Thanks for all you do to bring ideas to life in these amazing videos.

[@donaldhobson8873]

His approach to AI is to fudge the dates. He wants his classic scifi space opera setting, so he pushes AI further out, and turns it's power down, until that happens. Meanwhile in reality, we probably have vastly super-intelligent AI and atomically precise nanotech before anyone gets around to making so much as a moonbase. In this world, if ASI goes well, we never get much in the way of humans in space. Well there are the existing space stations. And maybe a few holdouts. And someone that transfers their mind into a biological body (nanosynthesized on the spot) on mars, and walks around for a few minutes before uploading themselves again just to prove a point. But apart from a few exceptions, it's all nanotech and uploaded minds.

[@UpliftedCapybara]

@@donaldhobson8873 Wouldn’t there be enough baseline human holdouts to have huge numbers of them in space even in the most extreme scenario? I have a feeling there will be many who aren’t comfortable adopting a posthuman or transhuman existence. Even today we have many fringe groups who reject modern technology to varying degrees.

[@digitalnomad9985]

@@donaldhobson8873 They say that near human level AI is less than 5 years away. They said the same thing when I was 5. They have been periodically saying the same thing all my life. I am 63. Forgive me, but as a computer programmer, I find the "imminent inevitability" of this development less plausible with every passing year. We keep getting useful stuff, but we keep not getting human equivalent AI. Don't be fooled by Chat GPT, it is just a Stochastic Parrot, a bullshit generator, it doesn't know or care about truth. Roger Penrose says Godel's Theorem proves that understanding is not algorithmic.

[@donaldhobson8873]

@@digitalnomad9985 If penrose says that, then penrose doesn't understand godel's theorem. And I don't think AGI is "just 5 years away" and am not sure who you are listening to who has been saying that for the last 30 years. I don't know how far away AGI is, it could be 5 years or 40. It's plausible we have a 1000 person mars base by the time AGI is made. It's just Issac's vision of endless megastructures in space that are run by humans without an AGI in sight (or often with AGI as some minor background character) are implausible.

[@deeplerg7913]

@@donaldhobson8873 we don't even know how our brains work and you're talking about uploading and downloading minds. We're not anywhere near. Same goes for AGI for the same reason.

[@imogen1]

Love that you're getting back to basics in some ways--like the explanation of how spin gravity works.

[@ConsciusVeritasVids]

I stumbled across your video on Matrioshka Brains as I was looking up inspiration for a graphic novel I've been brainstorming for about a year now. Now I'm working my way through all your videos because I'm absorbing all these sci-fi concept ideas like a sponge so I can wring them out onto the pages of my work. 🚀💫

[@jimmywrangles]

Issac Arthur,Anton Petrov and PBS Spacetime are all I've ever needed for space stuff in all it's various forms. There are others that are also excellent...but for my viewing I choose those three above the rest. I would have also included Sabine who's second name I can't spell.😁

[@djschultz1970]

TY SFIA I just woke up on a space habitat

[@kostas6621]

Wow! Incredible!

[@randygalten5455]

Dude you have a tin of great content. Bravo

[@stefanoberli5920]

Looking forward the next episode!

[@davidweikle9921]

Thank you for this wonderful video on my birthday this Arthursday!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Happy Birthday David!

[@davidweikle9921]

@@isaacarthurSFIA thank you, sir!

[@cannonfodder4376]

I so hope I live long enough to see such space habitats become so common and mundane. Another fantastic episode as always Isaac.

[@limbo3545]

We will see a moon base and maybe even a Mars base, and maybe our medical development will become so advanced that we could live much longer than our natural lifespan. Who knows...

[@peaceleader7315]

We ain't going to build those dreams.. We need to spend more money on our sovereign military defence industries on earth here because it is more constructive. ( sarcasm detected )

[@SpottedHares]

You won’t, we might get some moon and Mars mission but the world economy is not built for that kind of things.

[@peaceleader7315]

@@SpottedHares sovereign government based economy is a flawed system and concept.. hmmmm.. how I wish we could have a human species economy a definition of a one world government. And that would be logical to support such a grand scale of our human species ambitions.

[@linz8291]

Yes, and you will take a breakfast on the earth and traveling to Mars or the neighboring extroplanet to go to your parents home and back in one day.

[@n1mbusmusic606]

wow this is the future of humanity. god bless thanks so much for the incredible content!

[@n1mbusmusic606]

Hi Isaac, I'm super fascinated with this topic. I've heard it called Gaiome Engineering, tried looking on the ISS website and didn't find anything resembling the sorts of things you talk about here. I want to dive super deep on this topic. Any source material you'd reccommend so I could geek out on this? Just incredible stuff thanks so much.

[@ruperterskin2117]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@domsau2]

Hello. Habitats *must* be segmented, for security reasons! Lots of airtight bulkheads *must* be added!

[@libertyjones1451]

No unclaimed islands exist, no ungoverned spec of Earthly dust exist. True freedom and true ambition can be found in space and space alone.

[@RoweLit]

Thanks, Isaac!

[@Romain_69420]

I just wanted to ask a totally unrelated question for a concept I'm thinking up : Can an internal combustion engine work on Mars ? This might seem stupid to the people who know some stuff about physics but I'm wondering if the oxygen level in the martian atmosphere is enough to cause combustion.

[@sixthcairn]

The atmosphere on Mars is unfortunately too oxygen poor, as well as too thin in general. It might also be too cold (Martian summers are on par with Antarctic winters, at best), as depending on what fuel you're using, you might just end up with a frozen gas tank. That said, if your engine, tank, etc. are sufficiently insulated, you can theoretically just bring your own oxygen with you, similar to how certain diesel-operated submarines today use oxygen tanks to run their engines for extended periods without needing to ascend for air. Assuming no major breakthroughs in battery technology for the foreseeable future, I could totally see some people using ICEs for their personal Mars vehicles, since chemical fuel is simply much more energy dense compared to batteries; we could even make its range theoretically unlimited by using solar or beamed energy to reconstitute the CO2, H2O, etc. into their original composition for reuse.

[@mikedunn7795]

Humanity will have to spread through the universe to avoid a species killing event,so I am looking forward to episodes that touch on that. Just found this channel by accident,and it is amazing!

[@maxaudet5177]

I already was a Stellaris fan before finding this channel. Let's just say this fuels my interest even more.

[@johnallen8248]

The next Jurassic Park movie should take place in space.

[@brocktechnology]

I've always thought the first gen O'Neill cylinder would be 5000 mobile homes connected in a ring, Incrementally adding more rings for more space and eventually upgrading to the full air filled cylinder. And maybe that layout would stick in the long term with all the indoor space "underground".

[@jengleheimerschmitt7941]

The ones from Spaceballs?

[@brocktechnology]

@@jengleheimerschmitt7941 Not really what I was thinking but I thoroughly enjoyed the mental image.

[@DanielGenis5000]

Isaac, you are just as inventive and creative as Neal Stephenson in explaining how great and interesting the future could be

[@Trollificusv2]

Good comparison, and I think the similarity is because both of them seem to be influenced by competent, highly-educated, DIY types and futurists. As an example, in Stevenson's recent book _Seveneves_ , the Earth is faced with complete devastation, made "uninhabitable" for thousands of years. But he comes up with surviving populations, in space, underground, and subaquatic; all possible through man's intelligence, ingenuity and drive to survive. By comparison, today's climate hysterics would be challenged to survive a weeks' Internet shutdown. Isaac is a breath of fresh air.

[@DanielGenis5000]

@@Trollificusv2 exactly. I also love the Diamond Age future and the Cryptonomicon past and the Anathem alternative

[@DanielGenis5000]

@@Trollificusv2 and as for the hysterics who hate the science they pretend to rely on for their climate scares, they are cultists. It’s really the failure of mass atheism. Instead of adopting rationality and science as our guiding light, we have chosen the cult of Woke, sexual degeneracy, racism and hate for ‘sinners’, meaning anyone who doesn’t agree with the dogmatic liberal views. None of these people are surviving anything. I’m with Isaac and Stephenson and Simak and Clarke and Asimov; I think people are potentially incredible but herd thinking is our downfall every time . Look, we just found out Covid really did come from a Chinese lab, but it’s still ‘racist’ to say so…..

[@floydlooney6837]

I'll have to watch this after work.

[@gamerspantheon]

I have a highly efficient design already. Its a cylinder with a tube. Inside the tube running perfectly central is another tube for transportation between cylinders and connecting lines inside each cylinder that connect to various parts of the cylinders interior surface. Giant solar bulbs and atmospheric generators line the interior tube transit way for 360 degree weather manipulation. The entire cylinder section spins. All the space on the interior surface is livable and can be built "upwards" as well.

[@seblubla1685]

I just hope that noone on those habitats gets the idea of building suburbs

[@AA5SA]

23:44 I am now using the term “safety sphincter” at every possible opportunity.