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.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

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

The first true colony among the stars may not rise on alien soil, but in a ship that never stops

being home.

Humanity has dreamed of going to the stars for centuries.

It's in our myths, our stories, our science fiction.

The stars are always there, calling to us,

reminders that Earth is not the whole story.

For generations, we've imagined grand armadas of colony ships, sitting out to populate

strange new worlds, or settlers stepping onto alien soil under the light of a foreign sun.

But our first real interstellar colony may not look

anything like that. In fact, the earliest attempts may not involve a planet at all. Instead of

terraforming alien landscapes or raising domes on hostile ground, our first true settlement could

be an artificial habitat, a self-contained island in space, designed to work anywhere

where there's sunlight or uranium to keep the lights on. And while that might not sound as

romantic as setting foot on Earth, too, it's far more practical, and practicality tends to win

out when survival is on the line. Indeed, the first habitat and new solar system is likely to

be the actual

ship for the colonists travel thereon. As for any voyages of decades, you basically

need a habitat at least as stable and complete as any domed base you would set upon arrival.

...