Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

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

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The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of factories so big, they often grew entire towns or cities

around them to operate, but in the future, entire planets might be used to fuel the Titanic

projects for conquering the stars themselves.

Welcome back to Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur for another sci-fi Sunday here on

SFIA, where we examine popular concepts in science fiction and ask how realistic they are

and what a future with them might truly look like.

One of the common themes of science fiction is the idea of a giant city full of factories,

and often these are dark and grungy places, where even the homes workers come back to

after 12-hour shifts are dirty and grimy.

There are no gardens or parks, except maybe the occasional crime-ridden one, with a few

petrified and ash-covered trees left over.

These sorts of factory cities are portrayed as bleak places and draw heavily on the gloomier

moments of the Industrial Revolution for inspiration, like the London smog.

It isn't much of a stretch to imagine that repeating itself in the

future, or even worse, especially if translated up to the planetary scale.

We will discuss some of the reasons why a planet, devoted to industry, might not be a trash heap,

but this is a case where fiction might be close to right.

This episode is also an informal

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