4.8 • 739 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
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0:00.0 | Hello, SFIA audio listeners. |
0:02.5 | In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory, |
0:05.2 | we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge. |
0:10.5 | To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content, |
0:15.1 | check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. |
0:20.0 | This episode is sponsored by Dashlane. |
0:23.0 | Civilization has collapsed. |
0:25.1 | The only rational way forward is to cover your dune buggy with spikes, |
0:29.3 | craft some leather, S&M armor, and resort to cannibalism. |
0:33.4 | Mohawks are optional. |
0:36.7 | A pretty common theme in science fiction, and just in general discussion of the future, is that |
0:42.1 | some sort of doomsday will occur that will leave only shattered remnants of civilization |
0:47.0 | behind, often shattered not just physically, but spiritually too. |
0:53.0 | Typically that remnant left behind is portrayed as crazy |
0:55.9 | cannibal barbarians. Even the nominal heroes of such stories tend to be nihilistic and more |
1:02.2 | than a trifle villainous in portrayal. There's some logic in that notion too. We get the word |
1:08.2 | apocalypse from the Greek word for Revelation, the last book of the |
1:11.9 | New Testament, that has the various survivors on Earth being those left behind after all the |
1:17.2 | good folks got a ticket to paradise. |
1:19.6 | And a lot of stories set in such scenarios will have similar notions in play. |
1:24.4 | Something has made a lot of folks crazy or evil, and that's part of why civilization |
1:29.0 | isn't rebuilding itself to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. This has some plausibility, |
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