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Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

The Fermi Paradox & the Aurora Effect

Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

Isaac Arthur

Spacecraft, Scifi, Engineering, Interstellar Travel, Civilizaiton, Space Station, Future, Future Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Technological Future, Cybernetics, Human Civilizaiton, Sci Fi, Space Megastructures, Astronomy, Megastructures, Energy Abundance, Physics, Space, Space Infrastructure, Technology, Futurism, Genetics, Starship, Post Scarcity, Transhumanism, Long Term Future, Space Colonization, Spaceship, Future Of Humanity, Space Industry, Science

4.9781 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new paper has come out discussing how the Fermi Paradox might be explained by the rigors of traveling space for interstellar colonization, causing settlements to be rare and and possibly not long-lived. We'll look at this model for spreading humanity out across the galaxy and see what insights or flaws it might have. Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/-Oo5AjkJ35Y The Fermi Paradox and the Aurora Effect: https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.04450 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR): https://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Kim-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0316098094&tag=isaacarthur-20 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur SFIA Merchandise available: https://www.signil.com/sfia/ Social Media: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE Credits - The Fermi Paradox: The Aurora Effect Episode 176a, Season 5 E10a Written by: Darius Said Isaac Arthur Mark Warburton Editors: Gloria Meadows Keith Blockus Matthew Campbell Sigmund Kopperud Graphics by: Bryan Versteeg http://spacehabs.com Fishy Tree https://www.deviantart.com/fishytree/ Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Music: Lombus, "Cosmic Soup" https://lombus.bandcamp.com A.J. Prasad, "Staring Through, pt1" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8-7qwaEPU Markus Junnikkala, "Memory of Earth" https://www.markusjunnikkala.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, SFIA audio listeners.

0:02.5

In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

0:05.2

we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare

0:08.0

is because most aliens are huge.

0:10.5

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free,

0:13.3

plus hours of bonus content,

0:15.1

check out go.nebula.tv slash Isaac Arthur,

0:17.6

and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

0:31.6

Thank you. slash Isaac Arthur and use my code Isaac Arthur. Welcome to a short in-between episodes episode. The reason I'm releasing this now is there was a draft paper

0:38.2

released recently titled The Phumy Paradox and the Aurora Effect, Exo-Civilization

0:44.0

settlement, expansion, and steady states. And it started getting discussed and I had several

0:50.1

requests to do a video explaining it, so I thought we'd go through it and then

0:54.3

get into some of the pros and cons for the theory.

0:58.0

Let's start with the title.

0:59.7

If you're watching this episode, odds are you already know what the Fermi paradox is,

1:05.0

which is the apparent contradiction between how empty of life the universe appears to be and

1:10.0

just how huge, ancient, and filled

1:12.4

with potentially habitable plants it is, or basically where are all the alien civilizations?

1:19.4

But the Aurora effect is probably unfamiliar unless you've read Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson,

1:25.6

author of the Mars trilogy. We'll use the definition from the paper that good worlds are hard to find, which is to say,

1:33.3

just because you might find a planet you could settle in terraform doesn't mean it's really

1:38.3

one you'd invest effort into, or for that matter, be able to transplant a civilization there that could successfully

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