Hello, SFIA audio listeners, in this month's Nebula exclusive, Big Alien Theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebola.t.v.tv slash Isaac Arthur, and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

For as long as we've had history and likely before, people have contemplated a life

after this one, but might we one day create artificial afterlives, and if so, will we create

heavens or hells?

So in our recent episodes of Mega Point Cosmmology, hacking the simulation, and higher-dimensional aliens, we dally with some concepts like reanimating the ancient dead, us being in a simulation,

and possibly as preparation or reward, and how simulation rules might be different

in a higher dimension, plane of existence, or reality layer.

So I wondered if we might try an episode on Artificial Afterlines, and it did well on an episode

pull of our audience, so I figured we would give it a try.

Before we begin, let me say not what this episode

is, but rather what it is not. First, it is not about trying to prove, disprove,

or replace any actual afterlife, or praise or ridicule any specific version of those. We are

discussing ones we might make in the future,

though we will also contemplate scenarios like someone having already made one in the past

that applies to us. Second, a lot of our focus today is not as much on how to make these things,

but more it is about how we would employ them and what the effect on civilization

would be.

Third, the episode is not strictly talking about digital worlds and virtual realities, and

while that will be a major focus and tool for explaining concepts, we are interested in a lot

...