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.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

Not every breakthrough changes the world.

Some just change the headlines, until the truth catches up, and the road to the future

is littered with the wreckage of miracle cures and perpetual motion machines.

Futurism is the art of anticipating tomorrow, but to do it well, we have to be honest

about yesterday, and that means facing a difficult truth.

Not every breakthrough was real, and not every genius was honest.

Throughout history, science has been our greatest tool for understanding the universe and

improving our lives.

But very real discovery, there's a shadow.

Some bit of nonsense wrapped in a lab coat and prated as progress.

It is the nature of science that we spend a lot of time being wrong.

Futurism, too.

But there's a line between legitimate science that's made a mistake and a scam, albeit the line can be

blurry in some cases. These scientific scams range from the tragically misguided,

so they're willfully fraudulent, from miracle cures that never cured to machines that claim

to break the laws of physics. Sometimes the people behind these claims believe them,

other times they knew better,

but in all cases they left behind a trailer broken trust, misdirected resources, and delayed

...