The Santa Claus Machine

Revolutionary improvements to automation and production may one day create machines able to produce almost anything, quickly and cheaply, and far faster and more varied than modern 3D Printers. Such devices are sometimes known as Santa Claus Machines, Cornucopia Devices, or Clanking Del-Replicators, and today we will examine how likely such technology is, how far off in the future they might be, and what impact they would have on society.
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Credits:
The Santa Claus Machine
Episode 165, Season 4 E51
Writers
Isaac Arthur
Editors
A.T. Long
Darius Said
Edward Nardella
Keith Blockus
Mark Warburton
Matthew Campbell
Producer
Isaac Arthur
Cover Artist:
Jakub Grygier www.artstation.com/jakub_grygier
Graphics Team:
Bryan Versteeg spacehabs.com
Darth Biomech www.artstation.com/darth_biomech
Fishy Tree www.deviantart.com/fishytree/
Jeremy Jozwik www.artstation.com/zeuxis_of_...
LegionTech Studios
SpaceResourcesCGI
Narrator:
Isaac Arthur
Music
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" www.free-stock-music.com/tcha...
Miguel Johnson, "So Many Stars" / migueljohnsonmjmusic
Aerium, "Fifth Star of Aldebaran" / @officialaerium
"Lombus, "Hydrogen Sonata" lombus.bandcamp.com
Miguel Johnson, "Pleiades Sonata" / migueljohnsonmjmusic
Markus Junnikkala, "A Memory of Earth" www.markusjunnikkala.com/

[@rojaws1183]

Bad children will get paperclips this Christmas. A lot of paperclips.

[@raezad]

and then be turned into paperclips

[@embasorangiratina36]

@@raezad along with all the nice kids

[@marioscuderi7359]

@@embasorangiratina36 and everyone else in general

[@ganaraminukshuk0]

@@marioscuderi7359 Doesn't matter if you were a good kid and you got what you wanted for Christmas, you're getting paper clips no matter what.

[@andrekorenak2417]

I have no mouth and I must clip paper

[@weirwindle111]

"I have long suspected that Rudolph's glowing red nose actually indicated a radioactive atomic power source was mounted there, or perhaps a kugelblitz blackhole." Priceless 20:10

[@SanSamurae]

Priceless indeed! An atomic power source that size with a radiation level tolerable for life would solve so many problems that energy corporations would pay anything for it.

[@sha2143]

@@SanSamurae Pay anything to bury it, because it would crash the price of energy to the point where they wouldn't make any money.

[@nullpoint3346]

@@SanSamurae @Sha is right, corporate greed dictates that anything that can reduce profit, _will_ reduce profit, and must be eliminated as such.

[@therockinboxer]

Must be similar to the atomic devices worn in the Foundation series

[@warp8368]

Funny, I thought of his nose as containing radioisotopes just this morning.

[@drile00l80]

I love that this isnt your most ridiculous video.

[@Sylfa]

I read your comment while he was musing about chocolate chip cookies being a power source...

[@DutchAver]

Do tell, what IS his most ridiculous video? Because I want to watch.

[@imperishableneet]

@@DutchAver Colonizing the Sun

[@silent_stalker3687]

Imperishable Neet That’s actually really possible :/ you just need to bioengineer energy based lifeforms to terraform the sun to make it habitable for humans and then move the habitats in. Besides; it’s a giant energy source so solar energy for days~

[@Darker7]

@@silent_stalker3687 And 3D printers are not possible? :Ü™

[@junglink2437]

As a marketer, I'm always very impressed by how seamlessly Isaac Arthur integrates sponsored content.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

It's probably strange but I always enjoy hearing that. The trick, for me at least, is that I'm kinda choosy and actually like all our sponsors. I've been pretty lucky in the marketing teams I've worked with too, most have been easy going and good with feedback, and especially the first time integrating someone that's nice as it can feel awkward even when they're a good match for SFIA.

[@iainballas]

@@isaacarthurSFIA As a consumer, I appreciate it too. As a salesman, I know that the worst sales pitch is the one people try to walk away from asap.

[@dronillon2578]

@@isaacarthurSFIA you are the only YT creator where I feel no need to skip sponsored content. Brilliant is simply brilliant.

[@valrond]

@@isaacarthurSFIA Agreed. I subscribed to Audible and Brilliant with Mr. Arthur links.

[@Falcodrin]

@@iainballas he is the exact opposite of Linus tech tips in terms of sponser clip quality

[@supershenron9162]

The cookies feed the black hole..jeez isaac I thought you did your research :)

[@supershenron9162]

@Ben Lutz lol. Did we grow up together? Cause i'm getting some serious nostalgia xD

[@ronschlorff7089]

@Ben Lutz was it reindeer "crap" :D

[@marcpeterson1092]

Santa needs the cookies for the same reason Doc Brown needs trash.

[@bobross2362]

WRONG! The cookies are the encryption keys to open portals in our simulated universe. Rudolf is the multi-dimensional 5 terahertz 100,000 core 200,000 thread processor that Santa feeds the cookies into, because Rudolf is OP AF!

[@robinchesterfield42]

Well, of COURSE we know cookies have insane universe-altering powers. We've known that since, what, 2013? Just ask the Grandmas...but watch out they don't start becoming eldritch beings.

[@nerowulfee9210]

Red robes. Giant factories full of indentured menial labor. Sophisticated but effective logistical system. Santa Claus is techpriest.

[@sidgar1]

And the elves are Servitors.

[@heinoobermeyer7566]

Plus the printers sound alloy like STCs

[@Deridus]

And the delivery operations are the Munitorium... Emprah help us.

[@aleksythehorse5984]

@@sidgar1 It's weird to think that Servitors would be compared to Eldar.

[@sidgar1]

Aleksy The Pony Santa's elves, not the Space Elves ;)

[@numberjackfiutro7412]

If Santa Claus was real, he'd probably be some ultra advanced extraterrestrial. For starters, to visit every house and apartment on a single night, Santa would have to travel at a good chunk of the speed of light, or somehow slow down time for him to have enough time for him to land, deliver the presents, eat whatever treats children have left out and move on to the next one for hundreds of millions of times for one day a year. Plus, Santa would have access to the type of abundance less advanced beings can only dream about, this seemingly infinite abundance would be necessary to give to several billion children around the entire planet. The Santa Claus legend has been around for several centuries in its current form, thus Santa would be part of a race of beings with typical lifespans of centuries rather than decades.

[@josephhoward4697]

Numberjack Fiutro Am object with the mass of Santa moving at relativistic velocities in an atmosphere as thick as ours would cause a high-yield explosion due to nuclear fusion. It’s like The Relativistic Baseball.

[@Roxor128]

I like the idea of sending an automated foundry out to the asteroid belt and getting millions of square metres of metal plates shipped back to Earth orbit for building habitats. Has a bit of a Factorio feel to it.

[@HalNordmann]

With just one miner and foundry, you could jumpstart an entire space industry.

[@feryth]

Isaac and Kurzgesagt uploading within 10 minutes of each other! Early Christmas presents!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

:) Now I have something to watch while waiting to make sure this episode uploaded properly. Always have to wait till at leas ta few hundred folks have watched it through to make sure no critical errors snuck in

[@adomv05]

And I actually mistook Kurzgesagt video for this week Isaac's one.

[@Drew_McTygue]

Isaac' s content is superior. It's not a contest, but I really appreciate Isaac's long content format; it allows topics to be explored in greater depth and it gives me ample time to finish my drink and snack!

[@hyperionic1044]

@@isaacarthurSFIA your channel and Kurzgesagt are both my most favored educational based channels on this entire platform. I would say that Kurzgesagt's channel makes the abridged versions of some of the topics covered by you n your channel.

[@hyperionic1044]

This turn of event is a gud present.

[@NickPoeschek]

Most shows put together a fluff piece for their holiday special. Luckily SFIA isn’t like most TV shows or KZbin channels, this is instantly one of my favourite episodes you’ve ever done.

[@Lordslade1]

Santa is a denizen of a K4 civilization watching over us

[@joshuarichardson6529]

That would be funny. His gift-giving habits are the equivalent of a person going to the park to feed the ducks. "Oh, aren't they cute!"

[@ronschlorff7089]

Yes! And he has a nicer shape than a 1x4x9 proportioned black monolith, eh?

[@hutek4202]

@@ronschlorff7089 ayy fellow 2001 fan

[@hyperdude144]

@@joshuarichardson6529 "Aww look at these guys scrambling over obsolete fusion reactors, pass me as couple hundred more, dear."

[@jakistam1000]

"...the rather glum mood that comes with the cold and snowy time of the year". What are you talking about? I *FINALLY* have some snow in December, after having basically none for last 4 years, and I couldn't be happier!

[@kayrosis5523]

An Arthursday from Kurzgesagt for Christmas? And Isaac does a video on how to make a Santa Machine... Best. Early. Christmas. Ever.

[@bobmiller3627]

A sufficiently advanced civilization should, in theory, be able to construct a mega-structure commonly referred to as a "Santa-Dyson Beam." A planet-sized station capable of teleporting millions of presents at the speed of light across the galaxy using a form of energy-to-matter technology that we can only theorize about as of right now.

[@caedisnightingale5575]

That would be a WMD

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

I remember sitting in front of the Christmas tree all evening to scientifically disprove or prove the existence of Santa Claus. My grandfather always managed to lure me away with the promise of hot cocoa though, so my grandma slipped in and planted the presents.

[@electroflame6188]

TheBurgerkrieg Oh you're here lol

[@zitools]

betchya it woulda been easier if you gramps put benadryl in the hot cocoa. sleep.

[@Buffaloguy1991]

I once set up a singing Christmas tree activated by motion aimed at the fireplace.

[@madscientistshusta]

I wish my parents had gave that much of a fuck lol

[@jbtechcon7434]

Smarter kids like me didn't let our parents know that we knew Santa wasn't real, so that we would continue to receive Santa presents.

[@firstcynic92]

Sorry but you got the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy part wrong at 14:07. Arthur tied up the computer on the Heart Of Gold up trying to figure out why he wanted tea, not in making it. This is from the original radio show: ARTHUR: Good. And do you know why I want a cup of tea? NUTRIMATIC DRINK DISPENSER: Please wait. ARTHUR: What? NUTRIMATIC DRINK DISPENSER: Computing… ARTHUR: What are you doing? NUTRIMATIC DRINK DISPENSER: Attempting to calculate answer to your question: why you want dried leaves in boiling water. (and later...) EDDIE: Hi There! This is Eddie your shipboard computer just alerting you to the fact that the NutriMatic Machine has now tapped into my logic circuits to ask me why the human prefers boiled leaves to anything we have to offer him. And wow, it’s a biggy! Gonna take a little time to work out! Share and enjoy! (and finally...) FORD: We’re under attack! The Vogons. ARTHUR: Well, let’s get out of here! ZAPHOD: We can’t, the computer’s jammed. ARTHUR: It’s what?! FORD: It says all it’s circuits are occupied. ARTHUR: Occupied?! What, with my problem? ZAPHOD: Well what problem would that be Monkey-Man? ARTHUR: Well, apparently, it’s just trying to work out why I like tea. ZAPHOD: Oh, Dingo’s kidneys!!

[@PalimpsestProd]

Verbose primary citation, thumbs up. Up what, you might ask, but don't.

[@dannygjk]

Is the radio show version of the story exactly the same as the book?

[@robinchesterfield42]

@@dannygjk Nope there are definitely quite a few differences. Some entire plot points/scenes/characters are radio-only (Lintilla, the planet that died because their economy turned into nothing but shoemaking, the awful robot disco...) and some other book/TV miniseries scenes were there but different (like the Disaster Area spaceship). The LATER radio plays are much closer based off the books and even have a nod to the 1980 TV series or two, and give a much, much happier (though also weirder, of course, since it's Douglas Adams) ending to the whole thing than the books did. (He was depressed while writing "Mostly Harmless"...) So I'd say at least the early radio plays are worth your time, as there's definitely some "new" material there. :)

[@epicsmashman6806]

In the book it’s different, it was trying to calculate how to make tea.

[@cannonfodder4376]

A most informative look into a Replicator, something most fail to look at intelligently. A wonderful early Christmas gift. Knowledge is the best gift. Thank you Isaac and team for the great work and a Merry Christmas to all of you.

[@StarboyXL9]

Personally my explanation of Santa Claus to kids is that he doesn't deliver presents to every boy and girl, only the really, really good ones. The really, really bad ones get coal in their stocking, but all of the average kids get presents from family and friends. This would make a gift from Santa much more special I think, a great way to tag big presents that you bought them because they were exceptionally good this year, shit like that.

[@palfers1]

Rudolph with the kugelblitz nose - ROFL!! Merry Christmas, Isaac.

[@Ryukachoo]

One thing I'm not sure it's covered is that you don't necessarily need atomic resolution of things, most of the time especially when you're eating something, you're not actually tasting at that fine a resolution, so you can kind of fudge it with larger bricks of atoms a couple billion strong, which reduces your creation resolution by a lot.

[@CrossoverManiac]

About the misuse of replicators: even if everyone has replicators 1). open source material would be available as it is now so people would have the necessary blueprints to make all sorts of items without going to anything with a patent 2). Patents are only good for a certain amount of time. Barring a change in the law, patents eventually expire and then it becomes fair game. 3). The same replicators that can mass produce chemicals and biological weapons can also mass produce their counter measures (cures, antibiotics, gas masks, etc) and the sort of demented psychopaths that would use such things would be outnumbered by everyone else who wouldn't. The army of killer drones would be overwhelmed by an even larger army of counter drones.

[@eac-ox2ly]

I think your third point is kinda not very well thought out. This security would, at best, be based on mutually assured destruction, as we stand today with nuclear weapons, but even worse, because we wouldn't have tens of possible attackers, but millions. At worst, this percieved security would be completly nullified by someone creating stealthy methods of terrorism. Imagine an attacker designing a virus that stays dormant for years, only activating and killing their host when basically all humans were infected. It'd be completly unfeasible to monitor every virus or bacteria entering your body, so we wouldn't know until it were too late to do anything about it.

[@stevearmstrong7023]

Great video as usual. As I've said before, one of the best channels on KZbin.

[@Codysdab]

We need fully automated coal mining for all the naughty children.

[@PinataOblongata]

Dunno if you've heard the news about climate change, we need the coal to stay in the ground :P

[@skylark306]

I was wondering how good is santa at gene editing and making hydroponics, considering he must make charcoal out of wood and that wood would have to be planted somewhere.

[@oswaldjh]

Screw that, just send the naughty kids to work the coal mine with a pick and shovel.

[@skylark306]

Jerry Oswald children form an inefficient workforce. Sending them to school and crank up the stress to 11/10. Can’t tell which is worse.

[@AAhmou]

Found a more ecological solution. Using last year's christmas trees to produce enough coal for naughty children.

[@tshhmon8164]

Happy Arthursday. What if the Santa Claus Machine only released presents on Christmas because it needed the other 11 months to produce everything? Also it's located on the North pole because cooler temperatures, mitigating heat problems a bit.

[@piguyalamode164]

Yep. Though I don't know how much 60 degrees would rely matter considering we are heating stuff to thousands of degrees, but I am sure that is just pumped somewhere?

[@matthewgrotke1442]

Time index 11:13 You said the wave moves through the stick at a few times the speed of sound. It moves through the stick at exactly the speed of sound -- each material has a different speed of sound.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

True, though I consider the usage of it to mean the standard speed in air at STP equally valid, same as I don't say 'the speed of light in a vacuum' much.

[@matthewgrotke1442]

I see what you were saying now @@isaacarthurSFIA ... the speed of sound in the stick would be a few times the "standard" speed of sound through air in Earth's atmosphere.

[@lilsammich8252]

Are you sure it doesn't move at the speed of smell?

[@Drew_McTygue]

Synthehol just isn't a satisfying as the real thing. Besides replicators and the holodeck periodically malfunction and endanger the crew

[@ronschlorff7089]

@victor bruun yum yum, let me go get a snack :P

[@altha-rf1et]

would like to try some of that Klingon Blood Wine without the blood

[@krispalermo8133]

But replicators can not make REAL Chocolate Ice Cream with Real Whip Cream !!

[@krispalermo8133]

Klingon Blood Wine is first just a fruit wine color of Klingon blood that is all, it was stated in DS9. Second it was mention in the show that KBW tasted a bit like strong vinegar. to some people. I call it pickle blood mixed and age in wine. Problem is alcohol damage protein while vinegar keeps its food value. There is no full write up on the Klingon home world, but due to how they show Klingons dress, their planet is not warm. Wast not want not.

[@Rakka5]

"...that Santa's sleigh is a matter replicator ramjet that sucks in air and subjects it to a lot of chemistry and transmutation to create gifts" Yep, this is why I'm subscribed to this channel.

[@Tarso333]

I love how your granda gave you an extremely plausible explanation for a completely fantastical thing like Santa Claus, and still it raises more questions than it answers.

[@SolarShado]

"Santa’s sleigh is a matter replicator ramjet" -- Isaac Arthur, 2018 Possibly also a candidate for /r/BrandNewSentence

[@johnwang9914]

The problems with a fabricator in each home can be solved by client server technology. The instructions to operate the fabricator can be from a secure central server, encrypted with encryption keys randomly generated at both ends and rotating so no replay of intercepted transactions could be used to repeat the fabrication. This places the storage and access of the templates firmly at the server both allowing a mechanism to charge for the replication and to prohibit or at least log the fabrication of dangerous items. As to how the fabricators manipulate the atoms. I would start with high definition CCD's. In the book "Hacking Matter", it was stated that groups of excess electrons held in say a dielectric material could interact with atoms as if it was an electron shell in itself. The book said these electrons were caught in a quantum well. A CCD array is in fact an array of such quantum wells that could actually be moved across the array hence the vapour deposition of material could interact with the charges on a CCD and the CCD could then move these atoms together. Granted, a pixel of a CCD would be orders of magnitude greater than atoms themselves but so are the examples of such effects cited in the book. I would suspect that the first molecules to try to fabricate with a CCD would be graphene mostly because of the way commercial CCD's are designed to move the charges in the array.

[@EeroafHeurlin]

And no-one will ever reverse-engineer the process and build their own fabricator, or the master keys are never leaked or stolen (or [when not using QKD] there are no subtle bugs in the key negotiation or actual encryption algorithm that allow it to be attacked), also the local fabricator could be hacked to accept instructions from a server you control (instead of "them"). All of this of course can be made illegal but that has never stopped principled people and it takes just one to make more "unlocked" fabricators (very singularity-sky type scenario, the people there live in very oppressed basically medieval kingdom until they get a visit from this "carnival" that will trade anything they want for a story it has not heard, of course the smart people ask for a cornucopia machine, and then make more of those, suddenly the authorities have a very large problem in cracking down on any tech...) . Also see "Right to read" (whatever you may think of RMS, that is a pretty good and chilling story)

[@IRMentat]

I quite like the "creation engine" name/term (hostile waters, PC game) or "nano-foundry" (misc) for these devices. The best bit is that the more "raw" goods you hold/process the larger the de-facto factory is until those goods become a ~final~ product. Hell, build products out of the lego style factory robots themselves for a portable, renovatable, yet abnormally flexible/stable/resiliant product that can self-repair, is near immune to the ravages of sustained wear-and-tear and can be recycled with ease should cuircumstances change. Physically speaking at the top end of this path (pre-nanotech/unlimited reation), your bed/abode becomes your ride-to-work/desk becomes your rain-shelter/table, becomes your holiday luggage, becomes your clothes, becomes your bathroom, becomes your clothing, becomes your currency. Becomes your replacable, renewable, mobile and exchangable/inheritable super-cyborg support system that can augment/integrate with you at-will without delay.

[@jamesdriscoll9405]

This had me thinking of Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age

[@alexv3357]

Definitely the best portrayal of this concept, I think

[@martinjoseph5410]

Kurzsegagt and Isaac Arthur videos uploaded together?! That's a Black Swan event.

[@ironmanh8sall]

I love the idea of the paperclip optimizer. It is my dream to build something like that... But mine will turn the whole universe into little yellow bouncy balls with smiley faces on em instead of paperclips because paperclips are boring.

[@revenevan11]

You're the reason people are scared of technological advancements that would let random KZbin commenters build self replicators or AI! 😉

[@ZarHakkar]

I'm a simple humanoid entity. I hear clanking replicators, I click like.

[@christopherfleetwood5252]

Clanking Replicators

[@maclennanld]

When you mentioned the light year long stick problem, I believe it's more accurate to say that the deformation wave travels through the material at the speed of sound within that material rather then a couple times the speed of sound in air. I think this holds for any solid

[@burbanpoison2494]

My understanding of the replicators is that it's not based on an atom-by-atom 3D-printing kind of approach, but transmutation of some kind of raw matter into a particular pattern by way of manipulating fields, like the intricate interference patterns that can seemingly spontaneously arrange themselves among magnetized iron filings- that would be a million times more difficult if you had to place each individual filing precisely, but you don't. You just put the magnet to the pile, and the whole pile reacts. Add a few extra electromagnets, and you can do just about anything in those patterns.

[@TheExoplanetsChannel]

Merry Christmas *everybody* !

[@hdufort]

Hi Isaac! Great video!! Most Grey Goo scenarios overlook five major issues. 1) The Grey Goo can reproduce at ridiculously high speeds without being harmed by heat dissipation issues. This issue was noticed by many authors. Heat dissipation as well as waste matter elimination might slow down Grey Goo reproduction considerably. 2) The Grey Goo can use absolutely any available matter to magically create new nanobots. This doesn't make sense since you'd need to have widely different machinery depending on available materials. Unless you can magically transform matter at the atomic level, then Grey Goo would be slowed considerably by the availability of required atomic or molecular materials. On Earth, a Grey Goo that is able to extract Aluminium and Silicium atoms from surface rocks would probably thrive. However, these 2 abundent materials are trapped into complex minerals and require high amounts of energy to extract or refine. Thus, the Grey Goo would creep and very slowly extract these elements using available energy (most probably solar and thermal). 3) This brings us to the third issue, energy availability. Unless miniaturized robots have a way of extracting energy from ordinary matter, it would be limited to limited energy sources. Nanobots are limited in complexity by their size -- if we want them to be as small as a grain of sand, then you can't build super complex machinery into them. Grey goo absorbing solar energy would creep on the ground on an extremely thin film. A Grey Goo that contains a tiny Stirling Engine would have a very slow metabolism. In any case, energy availability is a limitative factor. 4) Let's assume we have nanobots trying to thrive in the wild. They have much trouble and you see massive blooms and die-offs, as they try to use different types of energy and materials, and ultimately fail or deplete their very limited resources. One way Grey Goo could become more efficient would be to specialize. You would see nanobot units forming multi-layers mats with the top layer collecting sunrays, middle layers performing growth and reproduction, and lower layers extracting minerals from the soil. Congratulations, you have just created robotized lichen. 5) One last issue: Grey Goo would need to evolve to be able to adapt to different situations and use different materials and energy source. However, any drive for evolution implies competition. Thus, you either have non-evolutive Grey Goo that would be vulnerable to any pressure from its environment (radiation, cold, heat, mineral resource limitations, etc), or you have evolutive Grey Goo that quickly evolves into subspecies that then diverge. After a short while, you have predator Grey Goo, specialization, poison-spewing Grey-Goo, Goo with shells, and so on. A whole ecosystem. So really, Grey Goo would most probably evolve the same way the original bacterial life evolved on Earth, but much faster, Still, unless you have the nanobots under control to accomplish a task, Grey Goo left alone in the wild quickly evolve to complex life. The Grey Goo state is just an initial state with simple unicellular organisms and rudimental inter-cellular communication.

[@uumatter_0106]

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer has a black hole in his nose. And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, But they were all destroyed, by his insane gamma rays Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, "Rudolph with your microblackhole, can you help me im out of patrol" Then how the reindeer mocked him and its like they knew they won, "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, youll go down in flight cause you weigh a million ton(s). - "Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't power my ram-jet tonight Then the surviving reindeer loved him and they shouted out with glee, "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history."

[@josephhoward4697]

UUMatter_010 Trying to sing this with a consistent tune is like trying to run the 100-meter dash on marbles. It can’t be done without some major stumbling and tripping.

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

Another example was the Standard Template Constructs ( STC) machines from 40ks dark age of technology. These where massive machines , part database, part factory that could be given the raw resources and manufacture even high level machines . From a extra durable knife to the massive weapons on Titan class war machines . These where sent out with ships to colonize distant , isolated planets .

[@pro126]

I love the twist of the start I'm looking forward to the videos in the new year Happy Christmas Isaac and team.

[@mididoctors]

We already have a santa Claus 3d printer. It's called China

[@ronschlorff7089]

and Amazon are the reindeer!

[@skylark306]

Elves might start realizing they are underpaid.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

@Harris Witherden Haha... You seem to think we are any different. Hahaha...

[@Shademp]

Let's not forget that Santa also chose the north pole because all the ice acts as great cooling for the countless super computers needed to process all that 24/7 footage from households all around the world AND to run all the algorithms that determine whether a given frame shows a person sleeping, being naughty etc. With the north pole melting however, Santa will soon be forced to move all his equipment to the south pole. The logistics of moving all that hardware and software will put Santa at greater risk than ever of his centuries-long breach of privacy being exposed to world authorities. My own jokes aside, thank you for another great episode! I absolutely love the straight-face delivery of all the humoristic takes in it.

[@alfiescar]

love the way Santa has been explained using futuristic physics. Its like a Dr Who crossover episode

[@R_C420]

Elecrto-Linear Fundamentalizer Elecrto-Linear Variable Entanglement System .... Also you get me with ironic philosophical humor in every episode. Lol'd at the idea of Santa giving coal because it's an unwanted result of failed assembler experiments. Have a good Christmas, Isaac!

[@Pyriphlegeton]

Thank you, Arthur. I love your Content! Have a Merry Christmas! :)

[@MAD-SKILLZ]

It's dark out but the sun just came up!

[@DanteS-119]

SEE?! fLaT eArTh PrOvEn

[@ronschlorff7089]

MAD SKILLZ your line reminded me of a quote by some philosopher or author: "When it's the darkest, you can see the stars."

[@zvpunry1971]

Ron Schlorff: It just seems to be darkest because of the contrast provided by the stars. ;) See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau

[@ronschlorff7089]

@@zvpunry1971 yup but I think, at least I took it, the quote, as a "cloud with a silver lining" sort of thing. Anyway I'm off on a tangent, once again :)

[@Jameson1776]

Great video you had me laughing through the video with some of your quips. Especially the Rudolph and cookie fuel part.

[@eva_4g636]

So your saying Santa is real ?!?! Take that first grade teacher Miss Jones ! Lol

[@somesortofdeliciousbiscuit3704]

Two Arthursdays in one week? With all these videos you are REALLY spoiling us.

[@DriesduPreez]

Your writing on this one was great. I love seeing how far you've come. Thanks for adding to the Christmas magic

[@wbiro]

Timely topic. Congratulations, and nicely done, and philosophically stimulating (as follows): Philosophically speaking, it is not the machines that are performing the tasks, as long as the machines are not fully-independent entities - there are always fully-independent entities behind such dependent machines (whether bio or artificial) - either designing them (which could be automated), or building them (ditto), or programming them (ditto), or deploying them (ditto), or running them (ditto) (which includes tending to its inputs and outputs and monitoring its micro and macro-operations); or maintaining them (ditto), or troubleshooting problems (ditto) and repairing them (ditto) (which requires procuring or producing any replacement parts, and where 'producing' includes obtaining the necessary materials, whether raw or prefabricated). Note that 'fully-independent' does not mean 'fully self-contained' - a fully-independent entity can still ask for help - from other fully-independent machines, perhaps voluntarily specialized, which would produce a fully-independent machine 'society', or it could ask for help from bio-beings, which would result in a society of diverse fully-independent entities - a mix of fully-independent machines and bio-beings in this case. The best-case society scenario is where all fully-independent entities, whether bio or machine, are classified by enlightenment - meaning the entities are either philosophically enlightened (the ideal scenario with regards to securing enlightened higher consciousness in a harsh and deadly universe), or they are not enlightened (philosophically clueless, meaning they are not consciously contributory (in effect they at the conscious level of unenlightened humans, lower animals, microbes, and vegetation), blindly destructive (due to philosophical cluelessless), and ultimately suicidal (ditto). Thus, when you say 'the machines do it', it is incorrect. YOU are doing it, with the machines as mere added appendages to your mind, and which you ultimately still control. Even with replicators, YOU have created the system, runaway as it is. They are your runaway appendages, and YOU will forever be responsible for their existence, and accountable for their actions. If you lost control, then we have a control problem, and we revert back to the enlightened classification system by asking if your uncontrollable runaway (replicating) system is enlightened or not. If your runaway system is enlightened, then we do not have a problem, we can let it run - it does not need our control - it is on the same philosophical page as us (assuming we are enlightened, i.e. prioritizing the pursuing of the Ultimate Goal of Life - which is securing enlightened consciousness in a harsh and deadly universe, which requires Broader Survival and employs the Strategies of Broader Survival). If your runaway system is not enlightened, then we have a problem, and maybe a HUGE problem (on the order of the Paperclip Scenario). Congratulations then, for you have created an unenlightened runaway system, which, by virtue of being clueless, WILL BE blindly destructive (guaranteed). In that event, do not stand in its way, unless your purpose is to totally destroy it (by frontal attack in this case by virtue of standing in front of it, and good luck with that) in order to prevent its further blind destruction of everything and anything, including any progress that the blind runaway system itself has made - by blind chance.

[@roidroid]

It can be done, but there's just a tradeoff between fast speed OR small size. You can speed it up by having multiple discrete printing heads, each one printing it's own nanoscopic block in parallel. Then other robots come along to collect these nanoscopic blocks, then glue them into a microscopic block. Then even more robots come along to collect those microscopic blocks, to add to the macroscopic whole. So you've got a macroscopic object being built by millions of microscopic assemblers, which are inturn fed by trillions of nanoscopic assemblers. Everything operating in parallel. You've got a lot of assemblers of various sizes in there, so it can only be so small. It can be made smaller by reducing the total amount of assemblers, it just means it'll take longer to build things. It gets even more interesting when you think of these factories as waiting in a hybernation sleep-state, a minimal "seed" taking up almost no space. Then when activated they first go into bootstrap mode: rebuilding themselves to be much much bigger, before finally starting on the task they were set to. Then when they are finished they can disassemble most of themselves & shrink down into a tiny seed again. This way you have both speed and size advantages; You do still need a big space but not all the time - only while working. I just don't understand how anyone can say it's impossible because of the limits of how fast you need to move atoms. Do they assume there's a single tiny bottleneck that all atoms must squeeze through?

[@hydrogenone6866]

*_Merry Christmas To All!_*

[@tanostrelok2323]

wow this has been one of your best videos since I've subscribed, Happy holidays Isaac, you deserve them!

[@squarerootof2]

WTF "Happy holidays"? It is Christmas. Merry Christmas.

[@tanostrelok2323]

@@squarerootof2 On my limited understanding of English it is "Holidays" referring to the period between December 24 and January 1st. I might be wrong of course, in which case I'll apreciate some enlightenment.

[@thumb-ugly7518]

Today’s script is Gold! Thank you and your team for this wonderful episode.

[@squrtinata]

with the section on sticky fingers. In the range of 07:30 to 08:47. There is a paper covering part of that exact issue (citation below). Although it does concede in the abstract that it is unlikely to ever be universally possible to manipulate highly reactive atoms in this way. ‘Stereodivergent synthesis with a programmable molecular machine’ Salma Kassem, Alan T. L. Lee, David A. Leigh, Vanesa Marcos, Leoni I. Palmer and Simone Pisano, Nature, 549, 374-378 (2017)

[@SempSSY]

Drinks and munchies for me and the kiddos CHECK! Happy Arthursday & Holidays everyone!

[@alexv3357]

Neil Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_ is I think the best portrayal of a post-scarcity civilisation driven by Santa Claus machines

[@cybershark9271]

I want an 1:1 size working of the Ebon Hawk....I don't think anything can go bad with that request...lol... awesome content can't wait for the next.

[@nathaniel7238]

Listening to this wrapping presents for out new year's eve celebration! Keep up the great work in the new year :)

[@sacv6788]

in the star trek replicator clip the cup is mistakenly produced first, but it just proves that there is a piece wise order of operations. first, the cup is produced, and then the fluid. just from the finish on the cup we can determine that is wasn't a perfectly flat print, proving some kind of acceptable inaccuracy. in a world where energy and mass are somewhat interchangeable and their manipulation can be done at some distance size of the machine doesn't necessarily matter. where as in the fluid components can be made else where and then transported in mass to its necessarily location, acceptably placed in some general region within tolerances. the same is scaled elsewhere, build the components, move , and then assemble.

[@sunnysidefriendakdk2829]

Red and Green goo to keep in the holiday spirit, I had never thought about how similar gray goo and life are.

[@andrzejlyga7798]

it's propably the best chrismas special i have ever seen, thanks issac and merry christmas

[@KuraIthys]

hmmm. Would a hybrid approach have any benefits? I thought about it briefly and I don't think it would, but it's still an interesting thought. Basically you combine a molecular replicator with one operating at a much larger scale. The molecular replicator makes batches of whatever larger repeating structures the item demands, then the micro-scale replicator uses those as feed stock to print the end result. This would make sense for most objects, because although they have elements that depend on specific molecular structures, those elements form larger structures that are then repeated (often without much precision, relatively speaking) hundreds of billions of times throughout an object. I don't know if this helps any though, because you'd still have a speed bottleneck related to the molecular scale replication portion. This only helps if printing 6 billion very small structures individually is faster or easier than simply printing one larger structure that contains those 6 billion smaller structures in a very specific arrangement. Still, if this DID have any upsides, then Picard's tea would be a few thousand molecules repeated a few billion times. The molecular fabrication stage has to be precise but produces very small patterns, while the micro-scale replication doesn't need much precision at all, and simply needs to ensure that it's using the correct feed stock in the proper place. I suppose the one upside of this speed-wise is you can buffer the output - that is, if you have a list of macroscopic objects that get requested very frequently (eg food), you can have the molecular scale replicators going 24/7 producing the suitable feedstock and storing it, then having the micro-scale replicators assembling stuff from that feedstock at a much faster rate. This is the same principle as a capacitor or water storage tower; As long as you've got your predictions of required materials right, it reduces the problem for the microscopic scale replicators from needing to operate at a speed suitable for on-demand fabrication of an object, to the speed required by AVERAGE production rate. (it has the secondary advantage that you can have say 1000 molecular scale replicators working in parallel; because the output is buffered, you don't have to care which specific machine produced which output.) You might then ask, if this is essentially the same as just having all the micro-scale feed stock to hand anyway, why you'd do this unless it's a LOT faster, but it should be kind of obvious as long as it's reasonably fast - though you need a HUGE supply of intermediate materials available to meet short term demand, you don't need your stockpiles to be AS big as they would otherwise be. More importantly, your raw material input list reduces back down to whatever you require for molecular level replication - you could use a hybrid supply approach and feed in both larger pre-fabricated ingredients AND molecular replication based structures... In fact this hybrid approach might be the most optimal for most situations... but since you DO still have molecular manufacturing capabilities, you can function in a self-sufficient manner somewhat more easily, and also have a contingency for producing items that involve unusual ingredients that you don't typically have a supply of to hand. - this is especially true if your micro-scale replicators aren't overly specialised - that is, they may have 10,000 nozzles, but you can in principle swap out what each nozzle prints, rather than requiring it to always print with one specific material only, with no substitutions ever permitted. - if you need a dedicated unique nozzle for every material, you can never handle obscure prints with unusual materials. If nozzles can handle basically anything within reason, but only a single material per print, then your final prints are limited to HOW MANY materials they contain, not their exact material content. - you can even adjust the ratio of which materials are present in how many nozzles to optimise for the composition of that particular object. Still... That may not have enough advantages to be worth it, but it still seems like a more viable solution for self-sufficiency than just molecular scale or micro scale replication by itself. (it'd also save on data storage for any associated computer - you'd need the patterns for specific larger molecules/common repeating structures, and then a much lower resolution pattern as to how any given part of a macroscopic object is fabricated from those pre-made microscopic components.)

[@uumatter_0106]

Isaac Arthur on Christmas be like: Yeah Santas sledge is probably a air ramjet that transmutes the air into presents powered by a microblackhole in Rudolphs nose WTF but I like it

[@ronschlorff7089]

and I like that the sleigh is sort of a Tardis thingy!!

[@mikelfunderburk5912]

That opening line though.

[@ExtantFrodo2]

As to "there's only one type water": Femtosecond spectrographs of water show at least 14 different species of oxygen hydrogen bonds not just h2o. It truly is a universal solvent. It even dissolves itself!

[@minerat27]

"Entangling trillions and trillions of atoms together is fairly ludicrous for a cup of tea" Au contrair, as a Brit I say nothing is ludicrous in the pursuit of tea!

[@kokofan50]

I just finished watching Star Trek DS9 last week, and from what I can get the replicators take energy and turn it into matter in preset patterns. It solves the problems with 3-D printing, but opens up massive new problems we have no idea where to even start.

[@joshuarichardson6529]

You can start with how it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics and also the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I love Star Trek, but WOW!, the replicators are bad science.

[@commiedeer]

@@joshuarichardson6529 From what I understand based on quotes from the writers, Replicators were an idea Roddenberry stuck into TNG before anyone has a chance to fully hammer out the science behind how the damn things were supposed to work. The other writers apparently hated, HATED them and resolved to use them as little as possible because it was impossible to have a shortage of supplies or anything involving spare parts if anyone could just bop down to the nearest replicator and replicate whatever they needed. Replicators in DS9 and Voyager compared to how they were in TNG was, despite the lingering flaws, a brilliant display of stealth retcon.

[@johncnorris]

Westside is the best-side: Brookpark, Berea, Strongsville!

[@cyber5659]

Merry Christmas to you Isaac! Got my snacks and ready for a new episode!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Merry Christmas!

[@ronschlorff7089]

@@isaacarthurSFIA and prosperous new year!!!

[@justinlacek1481]

*Isaac!* Just wanted to say Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays.

[@knallpistolen]

Wish you all a Merry Christmas. Loved the Santa, Isaac. :)

[@jmuench420]

I've seen you talk about the possibility of 3d printers/replicators and always reference the speed of movement/material strength of a physical nozzle or aperture being a limiting factor. I'd really like your thoughts on the possibility of using optical tweezers or perhaps some future directed energy tech to arrange things on a molecular or near-molecular scale. I also imagine there could be some sort of workaround for the computing power problem also. Perhaps some sort of analogue to file compression or procedural generation? I have an incredibly hard time imagining computing power really being a showstopper for something like this.

[@andrewwade3161]

This... This is one of the few genuine good comment sections on KZbin. Merry Christmas all

[@Lukegear]

On vacation at the beach, but I still won't miss the chance to comment on an Isaac video

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I hope it's some place warm, have a great vacation!

[@Lukegear]

Thank you Isaac! It's not only warm but scalding ☀️☀️😁

[@laikkelynnehoard4972]

Isaac, the cookies are quite easy to explain. Santa obviously has extremely advanced fusion technology capable of using nearly anything for fuel. Where exactly do you think Doc Brown got Mr. Fusion? Santa thought Doc was a very good boy for literally changing the course of history in order to help people and gave him an awesome present as a reward.

[@commiedeer]

Ah yes, the replicator. Perhaps the most iconic piece of technology from Star Trek and yet the one that breaks so, so, so many conventions that form our modern society. Just how this will change how we look at economics is enough to make smoke come out of a man's ears. Interesting piece, particularly the limitations of this technology as we currently understand it, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to best implement this technology in a couple sci-fi projects I'm working on. I really should check out your sponsor some time.

[@AtlasReburdened]

I also have some input on this 3D printing speed limit problem. More on the practical application side rather than the approach theoretical thermodynamic limits side. I'm thinking of the printers that print the little dotted info on things like soda cans and such. They fire a series of small ink dot by breaking a high velocity ink stream into droplets and steering the individual droplets with high electric fields while the cans literally blaze by in a blur. It seems to me that that method could also be employed in 3D printing, with the part being assembled moving under a multitude of nozzles. Perfect addition to an orbital ring.

[@scifirealism5943]

Hey Isaac, thanks for your videos!

[@oldlogin3383]

You're a star. Thank you. :) Merry Christmas.

[@Overtime123]

The quality of the video clips continues to improve. Great work.

[@kairon156]

I wonder if it being so close to Christmas in 2019 is why I came across this very cool idea around Santa Claus tech.

[@nanonymous9139]

From Christmas to Apocalypse in 30 minutes, good job!

[@theuncalledfor]

I think the grey goo/macroscale von Neumann warrior drone nightmare is overstated. You wouldn't just have to build a seed population, but also have them remain undetected or unchallenged by the military or other people with access to the same technology until they significantly outgun everyone else. Remember that the military would have the same tech to overwhelm the offending von Neumann war swarm with.

[@ChrisBrengel]

...hundreds of elves tragically injured in toy-manufacturing related accidents... Truly, one of the worst parts of the Christmas season. :]

[@butterflykatana]

Merry Christmas Isaac and fellow Isaac followers.

[@dennisbeers]

Merry Christmas Isaac!

[@vincentcleaver1925]

I can see 'the only suit you'll ever need' detecting strain, wear and tear and modifying and repairing itself as necessary. One size truly would fit all... Wrap a big, thick and fluffy towel around your waist and have it morph into a tuxedo or dress onesie! 8-)

[@CrossoverManiac]

The grey goo scenario doesn't make sense unless the nanomachines, not only move around atoms, but transmute atoms into the same atoms that compose the nanomachines. But since we don't how to transmute atoms into other atoms on a large-scale, or even if it is possible (even transmuting matter with particle accelerators is very limited and couldn't be done on the level of nanomachines) then the nanomachines, or any other type of self-replicating machine, would be limited by the least plentiful material that's vital to their construction.

[@NinjaBehindTheScene]

The Santa Claus from Futurama would make Christmas much more entertaining

[@AmariFukui]

Glad i'm not the only one who thought about how heat can be beneficial in niche circumstances such as cooking food I think the best use of such rapid replicators would be in a situation where you WANT a lot of heat, ironically its easier to break things down than build them

[@eZU4nQsWN9pAGsU38aHj]

Ahahaha I loved that smooth ad transition! Fantastic episode! Thank you for that Christmas present :D

[@jkj420]

I was really looking forward to this! Thanks!

[@nmccw3245]

Happy Holidays IA and crew. :)

[@brettsgamingtavern7429]

Merry Christmas Arthur and friends :)

[@NatalieNirian]

Is anybody else getting a ton of weird recommendations off of this video? I keep Isaac going on autoplay in the background a lot, but this video always sends me to cartoons in various languages instead of related content.

[@DustedAsh3]

I have wanted to watch this one for so long. Thanks Isaac!