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 add-free, plus hours of bonus content,

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

We often discuss if space travel is feasible, and if we can settle strange new worlds,

but if we can, there is still the question of if we will.

Welcome to Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur for a holiday bonus episode. We talk a lot about how we could colonize space on this show, and odds are good that if

you watch this channel much, you probably believe we can and should colonize space.

If you're new to the channel, then welcome, grab a drink and a snack, because even our

short bonus episodes tend to be on the longer side, and don't forget to hit the like

and subscribe buttons.

As we wrap up the year and get ready to enter the 10th year of the show, I am also near

the end of my first year as the President of the National Space Society, and something

that's been a major internal discussion in 2023 is the abnormally large number of generally

negative articles on the possibility of space development.

Most of these are honestly poorly researched, even when

appearing in bigger publications, and without naming names, a few smelled like they'd

been written by either an AI or someone who thought glancing at the first paragraph of a Wikipedia

article made them an expert on the topic, and still others felt like they just cloned

the talking points of such a paper.

There's always room for criticism, of course, and I've had my own over the years about overly

optimistic and daydream-like visions of our future in space, and we're not here today to

...