Once we beat the environmental and resource challenges listed on this blog, the future could be awesome. Isaac Arthur provides a youtube guided tour of some possible futures. I’ve listed some of my favourites in an order that makes sense to me, but feel free to browse his channel your own way. On this page:-
- Near future-tech that could change the world
- How to fund getting into space (‘Money Bound’)
- Getting into Space (‘Upward Bound’)
- Living in space and on other worlds (‘Outward Bound’)
- Post Scarcity Civilisations
- Interstellar — spreading to other stars!
- Intergalactic — spreading to other galaxies!
- Weird mega-worlds
- Future warfare
- Aliens
- AI, Mind-Augmentation, Cyborgs, and all that
Near future-tech that could change the world
Power Satellites — reliable solar power from space.
Fusion — would change everything, including letting us farm indoors.
Self-replicating machines — would be close to a Post Scarcity world.
Portable power — what would super batteries allow?
How to fund getting into space (‘Money Bound’)
Reusable rockets give SpaceX and Blue Origin cheaper access to space. They should get into Asteroid Mining and $10 trillion a year energy sector with Power Satellites for game-changing income. Mining asteroids could see small space stations gradually become larger O’Neil Cylinders, which would increase the population in space. They could then Colonising the moon and Industrialising the Moon which would bring huge financial gains to our local neighbourhood while opening up the rest of the solar system for faster colonisation. By this stage, we might justify the enormous financial investment in building some of the ‘Upward bound’ megastructures below.
Getting into Space (‘Upward Bound’)
Getting into space — overview of options.
Reusable rockets — SpaceX and BlueOrigin are both using them now, but what are their strengths and weaknesses and what impact could super-fuels have?
Skyhooks — giant floating fishing hooks that pluck your space-plane up into space.
Mass drivers — let’s shoot stuff into space with space-guns!
Nuclear rockets — yup! Project Orion, straight out of Larry Niven’s “Footfall”!
Launch loops — railroad up a mountain or around a planet, fast!
Space towers — activated structures could take us up higher.
Space Elevators — not without carbon nano-tech.
Orbital rings — the ultimate launch system that could fire us off to Mars on solar power!
Power Satellites — cutting into energy’s $10 trillion annual budget.
Space-port — can grow outward in layers as the orbital economy grows.
Orbital infrastructure — some other kit will need up there.
Living in space and on other worlds (‘Outward Bound’)
Rotating Habitats — from small to guartantuan, an overview of rotating habitats.
O’Neil Cylinders — the space island we can customise to be just like home.
Surviving in Space — life as a space miner, belter, and shipper.
Life in a Space Colony 1 — We lay the groundwork by looking at colonies just in our solar system before moving off in episodes two and three to look at life on colony ships and then on interstellar colonies.
Life in a Colony 2 — Having laid the groundwork last time, we now ask ourselves what the ships carrying people to new worlds would be like, and what life aboard them would be like.
Life in a Colony 3 — Today we journey to the Tau Ceti System after a 120 year voyage to join our colonists in the early days of the colony.
Colonising the moon — how to live on the moon
Industrialise the moon — how to profit from the moon
Terraforming Techniques — how to turn planets more earth-like
Colonising Mars — early settlement days to the far future and a Green Mars.
Colonising Venus — We continue our look at colonising the solar system by visiting Venus, and exploring both the options for vast floating habitats in the upper atmosphere as well as full terraforming of the planet.
Colonising Mercury — Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun, a seeming airless wasteland little discussed in conversations about colonising our solar system. Today we will challenge that, and show that Mercury may be one of the most promising places for humanity to make new homes on.
Colonising Titan — We will examine the options for less classic colonization by exploring alternatives to manned colonization and classic terraforming.
Colonising Ceres — Ceres, a dwarf planet amid the Asteroid Belt, hold the potential to be the hub of a vast mining and manufacturing network in the Belt, as well as potentially growing the food to support future colonists. Today we’ll look at colonizing Ceres and asteroid mining, faming in space, and a potential distant future of a developed asteroid belt.
Colonising Jupiter — it’s a whole solar system for us, and the punchline is amazing!
Interplanetary Trade — who would move what, where, and why?
Colonising the Oort Cloud — there’s an important job to do out there, but what?
Kardashev Scale — how to measure all this growth
Dyson Swarms — the sheer scale of what we could build in our own solar system
Starlifting — how to mine stars, shrink them, and make them last longer!
Mega-telescopes — Us to any aliens: “Peek-a-boo, I see you!”
Shkadov thrusters — bouncing a star’s light to move the star!
Evacuating earth — a scenario
Colonising Neptune —
Post Scarcity Civilisations
Post-Scarcity Civilisations 101 — introduction. Uses Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to illustrate how different they are to life today.
Post Scarcity and privacy — in a world where every computer and Artificial Intelligence can anticipate and provide for your every need, do you have any privacy?
Post Scarcity & VR — If sufficiently high-tech civilisations can simulate almost anything they desire, what would be the impact on how they viewed reality? Can society even continue to exist if its members cease interacting with each other in favour of simulated realities?
Post Scarcity & PURPOSE? — Technology may one day grant us a Utopia in which virtually all tasks are performed by robots and artificial intelligence. In such a post-scarcity civilization, people may have difficulty finding a purpose to existence. Today we will explore how this may come about, what the consequences of this existential threat might be, and what purposes people may find for themselves in such a future?
Arcologies — In our first look at possible futures for Earth we examine the concept of Arcologies, self-sufficient habitats that adapt the concepts we’ve previously considered for space stations and off-world colonies to Earth itself. We’ll examine the original concept, the more modern one of giant structures that dwarf skyscrapers, and under what circumstances such ideas can be practical.
Ecumenopolises — A city that spans the entire planet. In our second look at possible futures for Earth we examine the concept of Ecumenopolises, planet spanning cities homes to trillions. We’ll examine concept in detail, starting with the first portrayals of it in fiction and extending on how Arcologies and other technologies we’ve discussed on the channel might be employed to create a Ecumenopolis and what they might be like to live in.
Weather Control and geoengineering — what we can do for our weather and climate if we want to. How to cool the planet, protect from rising seas, or even warm things up or grow crops in the Arctic circle by cancelling an ice age — if we want to.
Interstellar — spreading to other stars!
Interstellar Highways — lasers shoot us to the stars
Colonising the sun — solar lasers shoot us fast!
Interstellar Travel Challenges — This episode focuses on many of the problems with travel between stars at relativistic velocities, like collision avoidance, radiation, ship geometry, armour, and point-defence. We will also look at some of the possible engine types and discuss realistic maximum speeds they offer.
Generation Ships — Today we will begin our look at the spaceships we might use for colonizing interstellar space in the future. In order to cover the vast distances between even the nearest stars in our galaxy within the boundaries of known physics, we need vessels able to voyage at high speeds for very long periods of time while carrying everything they need to colonize another solar system, a concept typically known as a space ark or generation ship. We will explore the challenges and options for such a vessel, as well as some alternative approaches to the problem.
Interstellar Colonisation — Today we look at the subject of Interstellar Colonisation, from the ship concepts and propulsion methods all the way to intergalactic colonisation.
Exodus fleet — how an interstellar fleet might be launched by solar-lasers and reach 4% C ( light-speed), and how it might slow down the other end.
Micro-Black Holes to store power — A look into how very small black holes function, are created and destroyed, and how they might be used for power. This is the first episode of a three part, and lays the groundwork for the concepts to be examined in Black Hole Space Ships and Concepts for Faster Than Light Travel.
Black Hole Starships! — A continuing look at possible technologies using artificial Black Holes as power sources, focusing on spaceship concepts, as well as the impact on SETI. In this video we will examine the basic concept, as well as refuelling black holes, using black holes as weapons, and several related concepts.
Colonising Alpha Centauri — In this episode we conclude the Outward Bound Series by heading to our nearest neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, and look at the trials and tribulations of colonising binary star systems and red dwarves.
Galactic Humanity — For today’s 2-part episode we team again with John Michael Godier to discuss the future of humanity should we head out to colonise the galaxy and find it empty, and how we might end up encountering aliens even then.
Galactic Humanity Part 2
Interstellar Empires — The concept of Interstellar Empires has fascinated us for as long as we’ve know those stars in the night sky were other solar systems, and it’s become a staple of science fiction. But rarely do we consider how realistic such galaxy-spanning confederations are, and what special challenges they’d face.
Intergalactic — spreading to other galaxies!
Colonising Jupiter — the punchline at the end blows my mind! Maybe this is the safest and sanest way to spread to other galaxies?
Intergalactic Colonisation — We often discuss the notion of settling the galaxy but do we need to stop there? This episode will examine the additional difficulties with traveling between galaxies and ask just how far we might be able to journey even without faster than light travel.
Weird mega-worlds
Ringworlds, Shellworlds, Discworlds, Hoopworlds, Matrioshka Brains,
Future warfare
Nicoll Dyson Beams, Space warfare,
AI, Mind-Augmentation, Cyborgs, and all that
Life Extension — In this episode we explore technological challenges and solutions for extending the human life span and contemplate some of the challenges an extended lifespan might pose for our civilization.
Androids — Androids, machines that look and act human, are rapidly leaving the realms of science fiction and entering science fact. In this episode we explore their uses, dangers, ethical dilemmas, and more.
Cyborgs — We examine the concepts of cyborgs, clarify what they are and how they differ from bionics, androids, and similar concepts. We also discuss some of the lesser known options for augmentation and explore the notion of man-machine integration.
Aliens
Eclipse Now 