By Isaac Arthur
Podcast by Isaac Arthur
4.9
405405 ratings
Many fear future technologies may doom our civilization, but could the pursuit of technology, and civilization itself, be what dooms humanity?
We all dream of a future in space, but it will take a lot of work to get there and more to make it a place we can visit and live. Of course, where there’s work to be done, there’s...
Ganymede is an enormous moon, larger than any other we’ve found, including our own, and may one day be the centerpiece of wider human settlements around Jupiter.
One day we may settle thousands of planets and trade between them, but what would a space freighter be like, who would crew them, and what would they carry?
We think very highly of the human brain, after all, it's what lets us think about anything in the first place, but Nature is vast, and our primate brains are not the end-all and be-all of neural engineering.
One day our civilization may settle our whole galaxy, with mighty star empires consisting of millions if not billions of worlds, but what would the centers of such empires be like?
We often imagine encountering many alien civilizations, and establishing trade and relationships with them, but what would being an alien ambassador be like?
We often look out into the galaxy and wonder where all the civilizations are, but could it be that we don't see them because they have all chosen to exist in fortress star systems, surrounded by despoiled deserts of their...
The Banks Orbital is a ring-shaped Space Habitat over a million miles across with hundreds of times more living area than the entire Earth.
There are billion of binary star systems in our galaxy, including many of those stars closest to us. Can such systems host life, and what would it be like to live under two suns?
Stars give warmth and light to planets and make life possible, until they run out of fuel and die themselves, but could these dead stars still enable life to dwell around them?
Beneath the surface of the Moon lie vast underground caverns, some of which are miles long and wider than football fields, and they may make for excellent settlement sites.
We are fascinated by portals between worlds, gateways between stars, wormholes through the fabric of reality, but could these be real, and if so, what would the civilizations using them be like?
The galaxy is an immense and mysterious place we may one day explore and settle, but for now, we have only one planet, and the galaxy holds many dangers, so what can we do to defend Earth?
We often worry that the reason we hear nothing in our search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that travel to other stars is just too hard, but what if a civilization decides it’s just too dangerous to allow?
Space offers a variety of clean and abundant sources of power, but how can we get them down to Earth? And which are safe and economical?
One day humanity may settle countless worlds, but could any nation hope to govern multiple planets or even star systems?
Black Holes can swallow anything, even light, and small black holes made from light itself may offer us abundant clean energy and a pathway to the stars.
Life is incredibly complicated, but for most of Earth’s history it was much simpler. Is it possible the Universe is full of planets with very simple life, and complex organisms are rare?
As ever more automation works its way into our legal system and courts, we must ask what challenges and advantages AI has in justice, and if AI will come to be our judge and jury.
The Red Planet beckons us toward it, and the day draws closer when humans will walk on its dusty surface, and the moons of Mars, Phobos & Deimos, may be our gateway to that future.
A look at the possible effects of alien food, drink, and microbes on us or our ecosystem.
In the future we may be able to claim new worlds and forge them into paradises, but should we?
Our world is ancient, but the Universe is far older. What were those first planets like, and how soon can life emerge on new ones?
The vast gulfs between stars may take decades or even centuries to travel, requiring enormous generation ships carrying families and whole ecosystems with them. What will life be like on board such arks?