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.

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?

I'm going to make that dream a reality. Whether it was the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars or the Serenity from Firefly, or

the Heart of Gold and Zafide Bebelrocks 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 it'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 traitor 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 the

next century and without a particularly revolutionary science.

...