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 ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

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

Charles Dickens once said, home is a name, a word, it is a strong one, stronger than

magician ever spoke or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

And in the future, we may truly conjure up spirits for our homes.

One of the best methods to get good technology is to emulate nature. Four billion years of

evolution has given a lot of time-tested architecture. Another the best methods is to look for

what wouldn't be able to evolve in nature, but would be a game changer or game breaker in an existing environment.

And yet another is to draw from human psychology, civilization, or even mythology.

Today we'll be examining all of the above as we look at how structures, ecosystems, or even

entire planets might be tended by a caretaker

artificial intelligence. We'll also examine the idea of not simply having a big computer

somewhere, but building minds into the environment. For instance, a genetically tweaked

tree might have just a little brain capability and connectivity through roots or organic

Wi-Fi, and be able to serve as a node or neuron for a wider forest hive mind. That would not be

a hive mind, those trees aren't thinking critters now, but a tree has no need for its own brain,

and it's just an energy draw for it to run one. So if you wanted to have a

self-reparing computer that was able to keep a caretaker mind for a forest going for

geological timeframes, that's a potential option, especially since trees can benefit

...