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

we're asking 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.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

Archaeology has long utilized and advanced new technologies to help us recover our ancient

history. There is a certain poetry in using the tools of the future to uncover our past,

much as we use those experiences of the past to help us better navigate a safe path into the future.

Last fall I attended an event that was a mix of both a Technology and Futurism Conference

and a camping retreat, as it seemed like a great place to fish around for some episode topics,

meet some fun thinkers, and take a brief vacation. My fellow YouTuber and longtime friend, Cody Don Reader from

Cody's lab, was there too, and on the last day of the event we decided to attend to talk

by Professor Brent Sears on archaeology and a technique he's been developing for scanning

old, damaged scrolls that we can't unwind anymore, and which might be scrunched up and soaked

in sediment.

It was an inspiring talk.

Using modern scanning and AI, they can virtually unwind the scroll and read it.

It is a fascinating approach, which we'll be talking about at more length and a bit,

but it made me want to see what other advances were being made in archaeology.

I was impressed to see how much technology was being adapted to archaeology to help us explore and recover our shared past, in areas like geology,

medicine, and many more, which we'll look at today. There's a lot of amazing ideas to cover,

so settle in, grab a drink and a snack, and hit those like and subscribe buttons.

One of the key things to understand when going to today's topic, though, is that archaeology

...