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 add free, plus hours of bonus content,

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

This episode is brought to you by Brilliant.

We have all dreamed of only our own personal spaceship to fly around this world or to others,

but what would it take to make that dream a reality?

Whether it was the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars or the Soretti from Firefly,

or the heart of gold and Zafar Beeplebox from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we have all dreamed

of having a ship to call our own to travel from world to world, or even from time to time,

like with the Tartis from Doctor Who.

Sometimes there's a small crew on a small ship, like the Falcon or Sreddy, or Rick

and Morty's Garbage Ship. Sometimes a small crew on a huge ship, like the Liberator from

Blake 7, or the nostalgia for Infinity from Revelation Space, and sometimes it's a huge

crew on a huge ship, like a Star Destroyer or the enormous rogue trader vessels from

Warhammer 40K, kilometers long and crewed by tens of thousands, but owned by one person or family.

Today we're going to ask what sort of technologies we need to make it possible for a person to be

able to have their own ship, whether it's a fairly wealthy individual

owning their own yacht, or even just everyday Joe with his own space car, and as we will

see today, there are actually some pathways for a regular individual to own a personal

spaceship that might unfold, even in the next century and without a particularly revolutionary

science.

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