4.8 • 739 Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2019
⏱️ 32 minutes
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0:00.0 | Hello, SFIA audio listeners, in this month's Nebula exclusive, Big Alien Theory, |
0:05.0 | we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge. |
0:10.0 | To hear it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content, check |
0:15.0 | out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. |
0:20.0 | This episode is sponsored by Audible. |
0:23.7 | Ever since humans figured out that the sun is powered by hydrogen fusion, we've imagined |
0:28.9 | controlling the process and powering our civilization with miniature suns. |
0:34.2 | But as it turns out, the sun is highly impractical and we're going to need to design |
0:39.6 | something a lot better. |
0:41.8 | So today we are looking at fusion power, how it might work, what's holding up this technology, |
0:56.2 | and what cool new options it opens up for our civilization. |
1:00.8 | Many of these possibilities are less obvious than simply cheap electricity or fast spaceships, |
1:06.5 | but just as important. |
1:08.5 | This is a topic we mentioned in passing a lot on this channel as a keystone |
1:12.8 | for many of our future technologies and pathways, so as we progress I'll pop up the cover art |
1:18.6 | for the relevant episodes. I thought we should start by addressing the challenges with achieving |
1:24.0 | a working fusion reactor. There is an overused saying that makes me scow whenever I hear it, that fusion is the technology |
1:32.5 | of 20 years from now, and always will be. |
1:36.6 | Fusion, as a serious concept, is a lot newer than many of our other power sources, and |
1:41.8 | has progressed neither particularly faster nor slower than most |
1:45.7 | of them. |
1:46.7 | Just as an example, solar power, itself an example of harnessing fusion from the sun, has |
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