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Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from dot Com. Hey there, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland,

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Speaker 1: and today we're going to look into something that is

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Speaker 1: near and dear to my heart. You see, way back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, NBC began airing a television series

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Speaker 1: called Star Trek. This was the dream child of Gene Roddenberry,

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Speaker 1: and it's a show that featured the crew of the

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Speaker 1: starship Enterprise as they explored the galaxy. So their mission

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Speaker 1: was to be one of science and discovery, although they

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Speaker 1: frequently found themselves drawn into various conflicts throughout the series.

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Speaker 1: Star Trek has been called a space opera, and while

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Speaker 1: it's in the realm of science fiction, the science bit

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Speaker 1: of that wasn't always absolutely least solid. However, over time,

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Speaker 1: various writers, editors, and others have fleshed out the world

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Speaker 1: of Star Trek and attempted to ground as much of

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Speaker 1: that technology to the real world as possible, and at

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Speaker 1: least a few cases inventors have actually turned out to

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Speaker 1: uh create stuff based on things they were inspired by

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Speaker 1: from the show itself, so it became sort of a

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Speaker 1: self fulfilling prophecy. It wasn't that the technology was necessarily

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Speaker 1: based in reality, but rather that inventors in reality began

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Speaker 1: to base their ideas off the Star Trek. So today

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Speaker 1: I want to take take a look at some of

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Speaker 1: that technology, not all of it. We're just gonna look

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Speaker 1: at a few different technologies that were very prominent in

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Speaker 1: Star Trek and see how they relate to the real world,

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Speaker 1: how realistic or unrealistic they may be, given what we

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Speaker 1: can do today. And I should say I was inspired

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Speaker 1: to do this episode from a few different sources. First

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Speaker 1: of all, interest a full disclosure, my parents wrote for

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Speaker 1: the Star Trek book series for young adults. They wrote

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Speaker 1: several books in that series, and so I grew up

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Speaker 1: watching a lot of Star Trek, both the original series,

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Speaker 1: the next generation series D Space nine, never got into Voyager,

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Speaker 1: never really watched Enterprise, so okay, so I kind of

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Speaker 1: left off after D Space nine. But that was one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons. And the other was that I received

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Speaker 1: a an advanced copy of a book called Star Trek

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Speaker 1: Treknology by Dr Ethan's Seagull, and it's a pretty cool book.

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Speaker 1: It goes into a lot of this stuff, like the

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Speaker 1: various technologies that were shown in the series, and how

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Speaker 1: do they relate back to stuff that you can find

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Speaker 1: in the real world. So a lot of the information

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Speaker 1: I'm covering today is information that's also in that book,

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Speaker 1: although I should also point out some of it is

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Speaker 1: from a series of podcast that I used to do

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Speaker 1: called Forward Thinking. You may remember if you had ever

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Speaker 1: subscribed Forward Thinking, that I would appear on there with

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Speaker 1: Joe McCormick and Lauren Voge Obama and together the three

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Speaker 1: of us, we'll try and suss out the future. And

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Speaker 1: we talked about Star Trek technologies on more than one

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Speaker 1: occasion because the the series introduced a lot of interesting

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Speaker 1: ideas over the course of its run and the course

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Speaker 1: of its various spinoffs, so it's tough to figure out

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Speaker 1: where you should actually start. There's so many different technologies

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Speaker 1: that were featured in Star Trek. It's filled with amazing

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Speaker 1: technology and gadgets, from the mass of starships in the

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Speaker 1: series to the personal tech that was carried around by

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Speaker 1: away teams. But I figure one neat place is with

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Speaker 1: warp drives. So the Star Trek series had a big problem.

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Speaker 1: They needed warp drives to get around because space, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out, is big, you know, like like I said,

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Speaker 1: and Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guy into the galaxy. You might

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Speaker 1: think it's a long trip to the chemist down the corner,

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Speaker 1: but that's just peanuts compared to space. The enormity of

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Speaker 1: space means that would take us generations to travel between

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Speaker 1: some stars. So if you hear that a star is

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Speaker 1: four light years away, what that actually means is that

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Speaker 1: it takes light four years to travel from that star

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Speaker 1: to us on Earth. So the light we are looking

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Speaker 1: at is technically four years old from that star. So

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Speaker 1: in a way, you could say that whenever we look

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Speaker 1: up into the night sky, we're actually staring into the past,

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Speaker 1: and everything we're looking at has already happened, and in

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Speaker 1: some cases it happened thousands or millions of years ago,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty crazy when you think about it. We're

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Speaker 1: looking at light that might come from stars that no

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Speaker 1: longer technically exist, but it's because it takes so many

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Speaker 1: years for the light to travel across the universe to

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Speaker 1: get to us that we don't know that that star

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Speaker 1: died out maybe half a million years ago. Well that's

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Speaker 1: really cool to think about here on Earth. But if

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Speaker 1: you're talking about a science fiction series, where people are

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Speaker 1: traveling through interstellar space, it creates a huge problem. How

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Speaker 1: do you get from point A to point B? I

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Speaker 1: mean light? It turns out it's the fastest stuff in

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Speaker 1: the universe. According to Einstein, nothing can go faster than

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Speaker 1: the speed of light. Light is the upper speed limit. Now,

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Speaker 1: to be more specific, I should say that light traveling

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Speaker 1: through the vacuum of space hits that speed limit. As

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Speaker 1: lights speed is somewhat dependent upon the medium through which

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Speaker 1: it travels. So if light is passing through water, it's

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Speaker 1: traveling at a slightly different speed than if it were

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Speaker 1: through the vacuum of space. But unrestricted in empty space,

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Speaker 1: light runs wild and sets that upper level of how

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Speaker 1: fast we can go. So, for the record, that speed

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Speaker 1: is two million, seven thousand, four hundred fifty eight meters

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Speaker 1: per second, or if you prefer about six hundred seventy

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Speaker 1: one million miles per hour, which is pretty darn fast.

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Speaker 1: But as fast as that is, it's still way too

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Speaker 1: slow to make the journey between distant stars in a

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Speaker 1: reasonable amount of time. So Alpha Centauri is a great example.

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Speaker 1: It's the closest star to Earth outside of our own son, obviously,

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Speaker 1: and it is four point three six seven light years away. Now,

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Speaker 1: that means if your ship could travel at light speed,

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Speaker 1: and it couldn't, but we'll talk about that in a second,

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Speaker 1: it would still take you nearly four and a half

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Speaker 1: years to get to Alpha Centauri. That would be a

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Speaker 1: very long episode of Star Trek, the original series. You

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Speaker 1: don't want to spend four years just to get from

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Speaker 1: Earth to Alpha Centauri only to find out there's nothing

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Speaker 1: there and that you've got to turn around, come back

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Speaker 1: and there'll be four more years. Now, you may have

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Speaker 1: heard that there have been some people who have been

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Speaker 1: thinking about sending satellites to do a fly by of

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Speaker 1: a planet that's that's that's actually an orbit around Proxima

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Speaker 1: Centauri Proxima B specifically, it is an Earth size planet

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Speaker 1: in the Goldilocks zone around Proximus Centauri, and that it

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Speaker 1: would take us about twenty years to get those satellites

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Speaker 1: there if we use the methodology that has been uh suggested.

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Speaker 1: And how's that work if it's four light years away

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Speaker 1: and we can't travel the speed of light. Well, the

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Speaker 1: idea is that we would launch these very tiny satellites

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Speaker 1: up into orbit and we would use lasers to act

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Speaker 1: as the propulsion for those satellites. So we would speed

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Speaker 1: them up by shooting lasers from Earth toward these satellites

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Speaker 1: that would provide the propulsion. They would accelerate gradually, but

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Speaker 1: they would accelerate continuously, so you would just keep giving

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Speaker 1: them little boosts and they would keep getting faster and faster.

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Speaker 1: And while the rate of acceleration would initially be fairly slow,

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Speaker 1: it would also be steady, and after a while you'd

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Speaker 1: be traveling at a pretty good clip, and ultimately you'll

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Speaker 1: be traveling at about the speed of light, which doesn't

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Speaker 1: sound like it's very fast, you're thinking, but it's that's

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Speaker 1: wicked fast. And it means that we would get those

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Speaker 1: satellites to proxima B at around the twenty year mark,

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Speaker 1: a little bit more than that actually, So that is

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Speaker 1: the way that would work. But like I said, you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to get your spaceship up the light speed.

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Speaker 1: That's because your spaceship typically has mass. Mass is going

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Speaker 1: to be the thing that keeps you from achieving that

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Speaker 1: same speed. As light. Light does not have mass has

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Speaker 1: relativistic mass, which which means that the at a relativistic equation,

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Speaker 1: you would factor in mass with light. It can actually

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Speaker 1: impart momentum, and momentum is something that only mass can

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Speaker 1: really do really uh transfer. But it's because we're talking

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Speaker 1: about relativistic speeds. We're not talking about actual mass. Like,

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Speaker 1: you can't take a particle of light and measure it

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Speaker 1: to say how much mass it has. So you can

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Speaker 1: get pretty close to the speed of light even if

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Speaker 1: you have mass, at least close to the speed of

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Speaker 1: light according to our view of things. But you're not

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Speaker 1: actually gonna match lights speed as long as you're using

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Speaker 1: something that has mass. So how the heck do you

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Speaker 1: get around that? If you can't travel at light speed

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Speaker 1: much less faster than light speed, how do you make

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Speaker 1: a series where you can explore the galaxy? It would

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Speaker 1: be a ship where you would have to have generations

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Speaker 1: of people carrying on the same mission so that you

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Speaker 1: could finally get to wherever you're going and do whatever

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Speaker 1: it was you were hoping to do. How does Star

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Speaker 1: Trek get around it? Well, that's where the warp drive

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Speaker 1: comes in. The warp drive is supposed to warp the

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Speaker 1: fabric of spacetime itself. Now, this helps you travel through

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Speaker 1: between distant points at a speed that seems to be

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Speaker 1: faster than the speed of light, but it's not really

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Speaker 1: if you're really technical about it, you aren't actually moving

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Speaker 1: faster than light. You're just decreasing the distance between two points.

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Speaker 1: That's easier to explain this if I take a kind

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Speaker 1: of fanciful example. So let's say you're looking at a

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Speaker 1: paper map and you're planning a trip between Atlanta, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know Edinburgh, Scotland. So you've decided you

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Speaker 1: want to go in a straight line. You use a

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Speaker 1: ruler and you line up Atlanta and Edinburgh and you

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Speaker 1: draw a line from Atlanta to Edinburgh with a very

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Speaker 1: steady uh rate. So you're you're just drawing this line.

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Speaker 1: You're moving at a at a decent clip, but you

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Speaker 1: know you're just you're just drawing the line there. Now,

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Speaker 1: Normally such a trip would also involve a track out

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Speaker 1: over the ocean, longboat ride, followed by a lot more

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Speaker 1: overland travel once you hit the UK. But what if

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Speaker 1: you just folded the map. So you fold it so

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Speaker 1: that Edinburgh and Atlanta are right next to each other,

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Speaker 1: and then you draw a line that connects the two

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Speaker 1: of them in this folded over shape. So you're not

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Speaker 1: drawing the line faster than you were before. You're still

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Speaker 1: using that same rate of speed, but you actually connect

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Speaker 1: the two cities much faster because you have less distance

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Speaker 1: to travel. Well, that's how warp drive is supposed to work.

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Speaker 1: So simply put, a warp drive shrinks the physical distance

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Speaker 1: in front of it and extends the distance or stretches

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Speaker 1: spacetime behind it, so you'd still travel at near light speed,

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Speaker 1: but you use the warp coils to manipulate the fabric

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Speaker 1: of space itself wrinkly get up, so you effectively travel

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Speaker 1: less distance to get to where you're going. The warp

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Speaker 1: numbers in the show indicated how severe that warping would be.

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Speaker 1: In Star Trek the next generation, the Federation would actually

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Speaker 1: learn that all of that warping of space time continuum

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Speaker 1: had some unintended and dangerous side effects, pretty typical for

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Speaker 1: stuff that we humans tend to do, and at that

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Speaker 1: point the Federation would put a limit on warp speeds

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Speaker 1: except in case of real emergency. I specifically remember watching

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Speaker 1: that episode when it came out, because everyone in my

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Speaker 1: group thought it was ridiculous. We all said, oh, come on.

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Speaker 1: As the Federation instituted a galaxy wide speed limit. But

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Speaker 1: how realistic is this idea of a warp drive. Well,

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Speaker 1: from a theoretical standpoint, there's actually a lot of support

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Speaker 1: for it. There's the this idea of the Einstein Rosen bridge,

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Speaker 1: which is a hypothetical structure that could link two separate

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Speaker 1: points in spacetime together, and that describes a very similar phenomenon.

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Speaker 1: It's also known as wormholes. Right, You've got a wormhole

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Speaker 1: in one part of spacetime that connects to a totally

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Speaker 1: different part of space time, And normally you would have

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Speaker 1: to travel perhaps millions of light years to get between

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Speaker 1: those two points. But the wormhole, it's kind of a shortcut.

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Speaker 1: It allows you to pop over from one side to

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Speaker 1: the other. Now, this structure is completely hypothetical. We've never

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Speaker 1: observed such a thing, but it is consistent with the

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Speaker 1: rules of general relativity. So, in other words, there's nothing

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Speaker 1: that we know about the universe that flat out says

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Speaker 1: this thing is not possible. Right, we don't have any

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Speaker 1: proof here that says, oh, this could never happen because

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Speaker 1: of X, Y and z. But traveling through such a wormhole,

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Speaker 1: even if it is in fact something that exists and

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Speaker 1: not just a hypothesis, it would require some stuff that

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Speaker 1: we're not entirely sure is actually possible or real, like

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Speaker 1: some form of exotic matter or additional physics as yet

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Speaker 1: unsupported by our model of the universe. So it's not

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Speaker 1: like the hypothothetical nature of this warp or these wormholes

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Speaker 1: is enough. You have to even go a step further

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Speaker 1: and say, well, even if they do exist, there's no

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Speaker 1: way we could travel through one unless we were to

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Speaker 1: completely reform physics as we understand it today. As for

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Speaker 1: actively warping spacetime, so not using a wormhole, but just

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Speaker 1: creating that warp yourself, it's a well, it's in theory,

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Speaker 1: it could work within our understanding of the universe. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing that we know about the universe that says

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Speaker 1: this would be impossible, so it's hypothetical. But in other words,

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Speaker 1: there there could be practical limitations keeping us from ever

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Speaker 1: building such a divi ice. From a purely scientific standpoint,

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Speaker 1: nothing we know of says it's completely impossible, but from

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Speaker 1: a practical standpoint it may very well be. In a

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Speaker 1: theoretical physicist named Miguel al Qubair was able to work

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Speaker 1: out the math showing that it could be possible to

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Speaker 1: warp space time in such a way that would be

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Speaker 1: equivalent to warp speed. You could shrink the space in

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Speaker 1: front of you while along the space behind you, giving

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Speaker 1: the effect of traveling much faster than light from the

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Speaker 1: point of view of an outside observer, although from your

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Speaker 1: perspective you'd be traveling at normal speeds. And within the

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Speaker 1: realms of science, there are those who hypothesize about a

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Speaker 1: type of interstellar drive called an al Qubier drive. But

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Speaker 1: such a drive would require a pretty hefty dose of energy.

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Speaker 1: And by hefty, well, I mean that the amount of

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Speaker 1: energy needed to deform space to create such a warp

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Speaker 1: bubble would require the equivalent of twenty thousand mega tons

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Speaker 1: of TNT, or if you pre for a an entire

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Speaker 1: ton of mass converted into energy. According to Einstein's famous

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Speaker 1: E equals MC squared. Remember that C squared is the

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Speaker 1: speed of light squared, and speed of light is super fast,

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Speaker 1: So it only takes a little bit of mass to

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Speaker 1: create an entirely huge amount of energy. Right. Because you

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Speaker 1: take the mass and whatever whatever metric you're using, and

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Speaker 1: you multiply at times the speed of light squared, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get a really big number. So a very small

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Speaker 1: amount of mass equals a huge amount of energy. This is,

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Speaker 1: of course the basis not just of nuclear power, but

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Speaker 1: of the atomic bomb. It only takes a little bit

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Speaker 1: of matter for this to become an enormous release. So

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Speaker 1: an al QB air drive would also require negative mass

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Speaker 1: to work, So you would need negative mass plus you

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Speaker 1: would need an enormous amount of energy in order to

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Speaker 1: get the drive working. These are some really big limitations.

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Speaker 1: It's it's entirely possible that those alone will mean that

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Speaker 1: will never actually develop one. Now, one thing that might

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Speaker 1: provide that energetic boost we would need would be an

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Speaker 1: antimatter drive. Star Trek actually uses antimatter. In fact, they

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Speaker 1: have an antimatter containment system, and in one notable instance,

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Speaker 1: the antimatter containment system lead to the destruction of one

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Speaker 1: of the enterprises. There was a failure in the antimatter

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Speaker 1: containment system and then the enterprise was no more. This

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Speaker 1: would be the next generation version of the enterprise. Next generation.

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Speaker 1: They treated the enterprise like it was Klean X. You know,

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Speaker 1: you just pull one out, destroy it, throw it away,

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Speaker 1: you get another one. I'm a little bitter about this.

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Speaker 1: In the original series, they lost the Enterprise one time,

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Speaker 1: and that would be in Star Trek three, the Search

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Speaker 1: for Spock, when they destroyed the Enterprise in an effort

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Speaker 1: to defeat the Klingons. And it was a huge, emotionally

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Speaker 1: powerful moment because the ship itself was seen as sort

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Speaker 1: of a character. And then in the next generation it

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Speaker 1: became so casual that Picard and I am not making

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Speaker 1: this up once said, we still have a lot more

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Speaker 1: letters in the alphabet, because they would always add another

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Speaker 1: letter at the end of Enterprise. They have Enterprise B,

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Speaker 1: Enterprise C, Enterprise D, Enterprise E. And when he made

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Speaker 1: that comment, I turned off and wanted to throw something

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Speaker 1: at something else. That's a tangent. That's just Jonathan going

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Speaker 1: crazy about people casually treating this destruction of this enormous

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Speaker 1: spaceship as being not a big deal. Back to antimatter.

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Speaker 1: So one thing that could provide that energy boost would

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Speaker 1: be this antimatter drive. So when matter and antimatter encounter

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Speaker 1: one another, they annihilate each other. And I don't mean

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Speaker 1: like in the W W E Way where you got

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Speaker 1: these two guys talking about how they're gonna ruin each other. No,

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Speaker 1: they literally annihilate one another, and in the process produced

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Speaker 1: an enormous amount of energy at a efficient conversion rate

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Speaker 1: according to that calculation of equals mc squared or that

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Speaker 1: equation I should say, So, if you collide to particles

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Speaker 1: together at high enough energy levels, there's a chance that

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Speaker 1: you will spontaneously create new particle antiparticle pairs. So antiparticles

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Speaker 1: are the counterparts to actual particles. So, for an example,

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Speaker 1: you've got electrons. That's a negatively charged sub atomic particle.

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Speaker 1: The antiparticle to an electron is a positron. It has

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Speaker 1: the exact same mass, but it has a positive charge

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Speaker 1: rather than a negative charge. If an electron an oppositron

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Speaker 1: meet up, they annihilate one another. So that means if

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Speaker 1: you actually create these antiparticles, you then have the huge

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Speaker 1: challenge of keeping them from coming into contact with any

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Speaker 1: kind of regular matter. If they do, then the antimatter

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Speaker 1: and the matter will annihilate each other and you'll end

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Speaker 1: up with some energy. But that's it. You You can't

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Speaker 1: keep that antimatter a round. To store antimatter, you would

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Speaker 1: have to come up with a really clever way to

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Speaker 1: isolate the antimatter from any physical matter. That happens to

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Speaker 1: be in the area. Uh, here's a fun fact too.

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Speaker 1: When the universe first formed is fun fact. Hey, next

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Speaker 1: time you're at a party. When the universe first formed

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Speaker 1: shortly after the Big Bang, we had just a touch

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Speaker 1: more matter than we had antimatter. There was both during

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Speaker 1: the Big Bang, but we had more matter than antimatter.

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Speaker 1: And the reason that's important is because if they had

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Speaker 1: been exactly equal, we wouldn't have a universe. All the

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Speaker 1: matter in any matter would have just annihilated each other.

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Speaker 1: But for some reason, we had more matter than we

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Speaker 1: had antimatter. Why no, we don't really know. We've actually

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Speaker 1: produced antimatter in high speed particle accelerator experiments like over

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Speaker 1: at the Large Hadron Collider. That is something that has happened.

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Speaker 1: It's we've observed it, so it's not like it's just

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Speaker 1: it's not just hypothetical. We've act actually seen this. We've

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Speaker 1: created antiparticles, and in fact, over its cern there were

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Speaker 1: teams that even figured out how to keep those antiparticles

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Speaker 1: uh completely safe for about twenty minutes, which sounds like

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Speaker 1: a pretty short time, but typically in these collisions where

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Speaker 1: you generate antiparticles, they exist for less than a fraction

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Speaker 1: of a fraction of a second. Within within an instant

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Speaker 1: they have annihilated with a particle. So while you can

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Speaker 1: measure their appearance and disappearance, it tends to happen instantaneously.

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Speaker 1: From our perspective, there's no way you would ever be

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Speaker 1: able to observe it directly, So being able to actually

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Speaker 1: preserve anti matter for up to twenty minutes is a

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Speaker 1: an enormous deal. In the anti hydrogen laser physics Apparatus

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Speaker 1: or alpha over at CERN created anti hydrogen, which is

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Speaker 1: pretty cool. I think now they're still mass of engineering

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Speaker 1: challenges in the way of harnessing antimatter as an energy source,

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Speaker 1: and it may never be practical, but if it is,

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Speaker 1: that would be amazing. We would have the capability of

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Speaker 1: harnessing more energy than ever before, and it would be

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Speaker 1: relatively easy to generate enough power for all the needs

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Speaker 1: of everybody on the planet with these antimatter engines, which

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Speaker 1: is kind of cool. But you'd have to reconcile yourself

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Speaker 1: with the possibility that in the event of a cast

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Speaker 1: trophic failure, everything goes poof, So like the warp drive,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing in the laws of physics standing in our

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Speaker 1: way when it comes to antimatter engines. But at this

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Speaker 1: point it's literally a case of engineering. We may discover

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Speaker 1: that trapping and harnessing antimatter is beyond our capabilities. It's

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Speaker 1: not against the laws of physics, it just might be

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Speaker 1: beyond what we can physically be capable of doing. So

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Speaker 1: perhaps our warp drives of the future will be fueled

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Speaker 1: by people shoveling more antimatter into a giant anti coal

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Speaker 1: furnace or something. And there's probably the lithium crystal involved

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Speaker 1: in there somewhere too, all right. So that's the warp drive,

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Speaker 1: and that's the antimatter engine dealt with. But there's still

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Speaker 1: a lot to talk about when it comes to Star Trek.

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Speaker 1: So when we come back, we'll take a look at

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Speaker 1: tractor beams and transporters. But first a word from our sponsor.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about trek your beams for a second.

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Speaker 1: So in Star Trek, also in other science fiction shows,

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Speaker 1: there are these beams of energy that various vehicles spaceships

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Speaker 1: typically can use that will help lock other objects into

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Speaker 1: a position and either tow them toward you or push

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Speaker 1: them away, or otherwise keep them in the same spot

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Speaker 1: that you want them to be in. So you can

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Speaker 1: actually use beams of this energy to isolate and then

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Speaker 1: manipulate other objects. Depending upon the nature of the tractor beam,

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Speaker 1: it could be for boarding purposes, it could be it

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Speaker 1: could be to help a vessel that is in danger.

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Speaker 1: In the case of the Borg, it's so that you

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Speaker 1: can hold it steady, but so as you can send

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Speaker 1: all your little Borg soldiers over and start borgafying. Everybody

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Speaker 1: left and right becomes a Smorges Borg. Ramsey's judging me

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Speaker 1: and anyway, it's this idea that you could use this

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Speaker 1: energy to hold things in place and pull them closer.

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Speaker 1: But here's a tricky part. If you're using a beam

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Speaker 1: of something, if you're beaming energy out at a target,

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Speaker 1: you're you're sending something outward. How do you pull that

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Speaker 1: thing in towards you? I mean, you're sending energy out

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Speaker 1: that's a push. So how do you pull something with

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Speaker 1: a pushing force? Clearly, there are some forces that are attractive,

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Speaker 1: such as the electromagnetic force or dracar noir Colonne just kidding,

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Speaker 1: this stuff's awful, But how do you how do you

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Speaker 1: end up pulling that thing towards you? By the way,

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Speaker 1: Ramsey thought that joke was funny. Ramsey used to wear it.

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Speaker 1: So how do you use how do you pull something

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Speaker 1: towards you using energy? Assuming you're not just using electromagnetic force,

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Speaker 1: where the object that you're looking at has an electromagnetic

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Speaker 1: charge and you're using the opposite one, and obviously opposite

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Speaker 1: charges attract you would pull the thing towards you. That's

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Speaker 1: one way, But the way we see tractor beams used

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Speaker 1: in science fiction, that's not That's not what we're seeing, right.

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Speaker 1: We're not seeing something just being pulled until it makes

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Speaker 1: contact with the enterprise. The enterprise doesn't use a tractor beam,

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Speaker 1: and then suddenly, next thing you know, all the shuttles

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Speaker 1: in the area are slammed up against the side of

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Speaker 1: the enterprise. That wouldn't be terribly useful, to actually be

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Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous. Instead, they're able to very precisely manipulate and

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Speaker 1: move these things. And it doesn't appear to be electromagnetic

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Speaker 1: in nature. So could you use some other energy to

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Speaker 1: beam something out at an object and yet pull it

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Speaker 1: toward you. The answer, by the way, happens to be yes.

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Speaker 1: It's a counterintuitive effect, so it's kind of like imagining

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Speaker 1: a sailboat and you're blowing wind at directly at the sailboat,

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Speaker 1: and yet it's moving toward the source of wind. That

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Speaker 1: seems very counterintuitive, but it turns out scientists and engineers

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Speaker 1: discovered a couple of ways to make it happen on

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Speaker 1: a very small scale. And one of those ways, I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to go into all of them, but I'll

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Speaker 1: do this. One one of those ways is using something

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Speaker 1: called a Bessel beam vessel being b E S S

431
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 1: E L. Now, this is a particular type of laser

432
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 1: or laser, as my old listeners like to hear me say,

433
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: imagine a beam of light that is in the form

434
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: of a series of concentric circles. All right, So you've

435
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: got circles within circles within circles, and in the very

436
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 1: center there's a dot. That dot represents an empty spot

437
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,919
Speaker 1: of this beam. The beam maintains that shape over vast

438
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 1: distances and can even hit an object and reform on

439
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: the other side of the object as long as some

440
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:17,160
Speaker 1: of the outer concentric circles are larger than the object itself.

441
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: So as long as those concentric circles are of a

442
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: greater diameter than whatever the object is, you can actually

443
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: shoot a beam at that object and instead of it

444
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,959
Speaker 1: just breaking the path of that beam. You know, when

445
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: we think of light, if you put an object in

446
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: front of light, it just blocks the light, right unless

447
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,680
Speaker 1: it's translucent or transparent, in which case some light goes through.

448
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: I'm talking about solid object and opaque object. Well, in

449
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,119
Speaker 1: this case, if it's small enough and that beam hits it,

450
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 1: the beam will actually reform on the other side, as

451
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: if there's nothing in the way. So it's almost like

452
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: it's ignoring the presence of that object as long as

453
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 1: that object is small enough. So some physicists discovered that

454
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: by using two Bessel beams, they could draw tiny particles

455
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: toward the source of light. And here's what's happening. The

456
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: lasers hit this tiny little particle from different angles. The

457
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,880
Speaker 1: beams then reform on the other side of the object.

458
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:15,960
Speaker 1: So this object, let's say it's a let's say it's

459
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: just an atom, a hydrogen atom. So it's a proton

460
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: and an electron, and you've got these two beams hitting

461
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: this proton and electron, this this hydrogen atom, and they're

462
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 1: hitting it at an angle where on the opposite side

463
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: of this the energy is formed, and it's greater than

464
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: the energy of each individual beam hitting from the front

465
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: of the particle. It's because of that converging angle where

466
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,119
Speaker 1: you've got a greater concentration on the opposite side, that

467
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: you then have the ability to push this atom closer

468
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: to the source of the light. So you can think

469
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 1: of two lights, two flashlights, if you will, converging as

470
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 1: they are about to hit an object. Let's say it's

471
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 1: a bowling ball, so we can easily imagine it on

472
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: a macro scale, and you've got these two flashlights where

473
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: they're they're converging so that the the two beams would

474
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: cross just on the other side of the bowling ball.

475
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 1: So the beams hit one surface of the bowling ball

476
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: at an angle where if the beams were to be

477
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: able to continue to the other side, they would converge

478
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: right on the other end of the bowling ball together.

479
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: That's what's happening with Bessel beams. Using uh these laser

480
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 1: techniques to move very very small objects we're talking like

481
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: on the molecular scale. You can then use that to

482
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 1: combine and when when the beams reform on the other side,

483
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: it creates more energy on the far side that it

484
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: does on the near side, and it starts to push

485
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: the object closer to the source of light. People call

486
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: these laser tweezers or light tweezers because you're using two

487
00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: different sources of lasers on the same little object, almost

488
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,480
Speaker 1: as if you were using a pair of tweezers to

489
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: manipulate some small piece of whatever. And it's fascinating. Over

490
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: at the University of St. Andrew's, researchers have discovered how

491
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: to create negative force using light to manipulate microscopic objects.

492
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 1: So it's a special optical field that does the pulling

493
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 1: and it's all due to that geometry of light, and

494
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: the technology is astounding. However, it is still a very

495
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 1: far cry from the world of science fiction because those

496
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: are tractor beams that are really only useful for extremely

497
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: tiny objects, stuff that's in that microscopic range. It's not

498
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: really possible to scale that up so you could tow

499
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,880
Speaker 1: a vehicle or even move a small object around. To

500
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: do that, you have to pour a lot more energy

501
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: into your lasers, which would turn them into thermal weapons,

502
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: so you would end up either melting or setting fire

503
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: to whatever it was you wanted to pull toward you.

504
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, I try to spend as much time away

505
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: from things that are on fire as I possibly can,

506
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 1: with the possible exception of marshmallows, but tractor beams are

507
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: at least in theory possible on the microscopic scale. On

508
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: the macro scale, maybe not, at least not in the

509
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 1: way we understand energy to work right now. It could

510
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: be that we discover something in the future that allows

511
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: us to have this kind of incredible ability to manipulate

512
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 1: distant objects using energy, but for the time being, that's

513
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: not really the case. Now, I want to talk about

514
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: another piece of technology that is ubiquitous in all the

515
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: different versions of Star Trek, something that, in fact, for

516
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: some people it's synonymous with Star Trek because of a

517
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: a apocryphal quote, the beat me Up Scotty quote, and

518
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 1: that's the transporter. So if you're not familiar with Star Trek,

519
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: you're probably pretty lost in this episode by now. But

520
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 1: one of the things they have are transporters. They're essentially teleporters.

521
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: This was a way to get around some of the

522
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: more mundane problem that you would encounter with a science

523
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 1: fiction based series, largely, how do you get people from

524
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: a spaceship that's meant to be in space onto other

525
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: places like the surface of a planet or a moon,

526
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: or maybe into another ship. And how do you do

527
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: it in such a way where you're saving your budget

528
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: so you don't have to have a giant shuttle built

529
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 1: and then have animation of that shuttle leaving the Enterprise

530
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: and then flying down to a planet and then landing

531
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. Well, one way you

532
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: could do it is you create a magic teleporter, which

533
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: is exactly what they did in Star Trek. And um

534
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: this creates all sorts of problems, both technological and philosophical.

535
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: So you might say, well, what's actually going on with

536
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: these transporters? Keeping in mind that you know, in the

537
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: early days of Star Trek, no one was bothering to

538
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: explain how the technology was supposed to work. It just did,

539
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: So it depends upon the explanation. Now, one thing you

540
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: could say is it could be like the way it's

541
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: depicted in say, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You

542
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: watch that movie and you have Mike TV who gets

543
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: blasted into a million tiny pieces and his broadcast from

544
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 1: one point to another and then reassembled on the other side,

545
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: that would be difficult. I mean, obviously that requires transporting

546
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: the atoms across a distance anyway, So why would you

547
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: do that? Why would you break someone up into all

548
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 1: their constituent atoms, then transport those atoms to where they

549
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: needed to go, and then put them back together. It

550
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: doesn't sound particularly efficient or pleasant to be divided up

551
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: into your tiny atoms and then sent to your destination

552
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 1: for reassembly. Even assuming you could get this technology to work,

553
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like a practical approach. So maybe that's

554
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: not it. Maybe it's not that the transporter is breaking

555
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: you down to the atomic level and then somehow magically

556
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 1: sending those atoms to a different place. Maybe something else

557
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: is happening. Maybe it breaks down the body, scans all

558
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: of your body's constituent atoms for information, so it learns

559
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: how all the different atoms and molecules in your body

560
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 1: are connected to one another, and how what their relationship

561
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: is and and how they fit, and then sends that

562
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: information to your destination, which then builds essentially a copy

563
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 1: of you out of raw material following that blueprint that

564
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 1: was created through the scanning process. So you're really just

565
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: taking a full inventory of a living organism and all

566
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: the stuff that makes it what it is, sending that

567
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: information to a destination and building it again. Even if

568
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: you were able to transfer the memories of the old person,

569
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: that instance of the old person is gone, though, right

570
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 1: I mean, So let's say it's me. I'll consider myself

571
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: Jonathan A Jonathan Alpha. So Jonathan Alpha, I step into

572
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: a transporter and I'm gonna beam myself to Walt Disney World, Florida.

573
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 1: So Jonathan Alpha gets into the transporter and says engage,

574
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: and then I get blasted by energy which splits up

575
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: all of my atoms and scans everything and sends that

576
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: information over to Walt Disney World, Florida. And then Jonathan Beta,

577
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: who possesses all the memories and all the traits of

578
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 1: Jonathan Alpha, is brought into existence and begins life anew,

579
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:34,520
Speaker 1: but still Jonathan Alpha is dead. Transporters essentially would become

580
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: suicide machines because the person who stepped onto the transporter

581
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:44,239
Speaker 1: base would no longer have any continuity of consciousness. That

582
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 1: person is gone. The thing that's created on the other

583
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 1: side would be an exact duplicate of that person and

584
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 1: have all the memories of that person, including the memory

585
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: of stepping on the transporter, but it would be essentially

586
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: a new person, so you have an interruption in consciousness.

587
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: That's what a lot of people have objected to, this

588
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 1: idea of the transporter. In fact, Bones, you know, the uh,

589
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 1: the character of Bones, the doctor in the original series

590
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: of Star Trek had an objection to using transporters, and

591
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 1: at least some versions that objection was voiced as I

592
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: don't want to have all my Adams blasted apart and

593
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 1: be dead and have some copy of me walking around.

594
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: I'm not really crazy about that. Didn't mean that, you know,

595
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,360
Speaker 1: sometimes it happened anyway, So we had some grouchy copies

596
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: of Bones walking around in the original series. But you

597
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:41,359
Speaker 1: might say, let's say this, this is how this works,

598
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:45,359
Speaker 1: that the transporter does in fact essentially kill a person

599
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 1: and then reconstruct them on the other side. Why would

600
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:49,879
Speaker 1: you kill Jonathan Alpha at all? I mean, first of all,

601
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: he's a nice guy, he likes you. What what's your

602
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: beef with Jonathan Alpha? Why not just let Jonathan Alpha

603
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: survive back at the launch site and Jonathan Beta, a

604
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: perfect clone, can putter about at the destination. So Jonathan

605
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: Beta is over at Walt Disney World, Florida having a

606
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: great old time, and Jonathan Alpha is still alive over

607
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,439
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, without having to be blasted into tiny

608
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 1: little bits. In fact, assuming we have this technology in

609
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: the first place, there's no real reason this couldn't happen

610
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: unless the transport technology absolutely required breaking down the transported

611
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,800
Speaker 1: person into their component bits to get a full scan.

612
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 1: If the scan was non invasive, you could end up

613
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:36,839
Speaker 1: with a whole bunch of copies of yourself all over

614
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: the galaxy. Just think of all the podcasts I can

615
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 1: make now. According to Arizona State physicist Lawrence Krauss, who

616
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: wrote a book called The Physics of Star Trek, he

617
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,399
Speaker 1: says that in order to de materialize a human body

618
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,320
Speaker 1: and turn it into energy, which we assume means breaking

619
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,840
Speaker 1: down all that binding energy between all the different atoms

620
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: in your body, essentially you're using your body as fuel

621
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 1: for a nuclear uh series of reactions, essentially a nuclear bomb.

622
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,880
Speaker 1: This would release the energy of about a thousand, one

623
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,720
Speaker 1: hundred megaton nuclear weapon detonations for a single person, depending

624
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:16,920
Speaker 1: upon your weight, really depending upon your mass. The largest

625
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 1: nuclear weapon ever tested, by the way, was the tsar

626
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:22,240
Speaker 1: bomba which had a fifty or fifty seven megaton yield,

627
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,560
Speaker 1: So having a thousand hundred megaton nuclear weapon detonations, that's

628
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:29,880
Speaker 1: pretty big deal just to get yourself down to Walt

629
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: Disney World, Floria Jonathan Alpha. You should think more now.

630
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: You might also ask how much information would a human

631
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: body represent if you were to scan a human body

632
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 1: and try to recreate it on the other side, how

633
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 1: much data is that? And we don't really know, but

634
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,600
Speaker 1: that hasn't stopped some people from having some thought experiments.

635
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 1: Students at the University of Lester made some pretty big

636
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: assumptions when they were working out how much time and

637
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: energy would be needed to teleport a human being, and

638
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,440
Speaker 1: they settled on using the amount of information contained within

639
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 1: d NA and the amount of information encapsulated by human brain.

640
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 1: Their calculations came to two point six times ten to

641
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: the forty second power bits, which is two point six

642
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: tredicillian bits or five duo decillian bytes. There's no prefix

643
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: for that number of bites because our prefixes for naming

644
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:26,759
Speaker 1: large numbers of bites stops at when the ten to

645
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:29,800
Speaker 1: the eighteenth power or a yata byte. So for reference,

646
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,439
Speaker 1: the last time that you know, you i've ever talked

647
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: about big data. We were talking about creating two point

648
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: five exabytes of data every day. What we're saying is

649
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: that a human being represents way more than that just

650
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:47,120
Speaker 1: one human being, which would then mean that teleporting that

651
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: person by sending the data to its destination would take

652
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,759
Speaker 1: a really long time because data can only travel at

653
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: the speed of light, and you're depending on what method

654
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:00,960
Speaker 1: you're using to send the data. You know, in order

655
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 1: for you to to actually have that received properly, you're

656
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 1: not receiving it all at once. You have to receive

657
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:11,360
Speaker 1: it in chunks, right. It's kind of similar to WiFi

658
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 1: or why gig or any of those technologies. You have

659
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,439
Speaker 1: to figure out what's the data throughput? How much data

660
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: can we send out any one time. When you're talking

661
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: about that much data, obviously that increases the amount of

662
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:23,919
Speaker 1: time it takes you to send it. Plus you still

663
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,200
Speaker 1: limited by the distance between point and point B, so

664
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 1: you can't just instantaneously transport from one spot to another.

665
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,480
Speaker 1: There would actually be quite a delay depending on how

666
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 1: far away you were. So a little complicated, and unfortunately

667
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:41,279
Speaker 1: there's no real answer to that. So you might ask well,

668
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:45,799
Speaker 1: is telebrotation even possible at all? Well, there's there's quantum telebrotation.

669
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: It's not exactly the same thing. In fact, it's not

670
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: the same thing at all, but at least has the

671
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: name telebrotation in it, right. Quantum telebrotation refers to the

672
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: transmission of information, not even really full information, but it's

673
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 1: not the transmission of matter. You can transmit the state

674
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: of a quantum particle, such as an electron spin, without

675
00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 1: transporting the particle itself, and it can travel over a distance.

676
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,320
Speaker 1: Because in two thousand and fourteen, a team of researchers

677
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 1: broke records when telebrating the quantum state of a photon

678
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 1: fifteen and a half miles or twenty five kilometers from

679
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: the destination to the or from the origin to the destination.

680
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,280
Speaker 1: I should say they used an optical cable to transmit

681
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 1: the state, which might sound like cheating because we're talking

682
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 1: about teleprotation. I'd argue the term teleprotation as part of

683
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,320
Speaker 1: the real reason people misinterpret what this is all about.

684
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 1: But that's because it does not mean instantaneous travel. Here's

685
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: what's actually going on. You measure a quantum particle to

686
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 1: a certain extent UH and you have well, first you

687
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: have to entangle two particles. Entangling means that they have

688
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 1: this relationship with one another. Typically it means that the

689
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: spin of some element is UH is reverse. So if

690
00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:00,080
Speaker 1: you have an electron and you're entangling the second elector on,

691
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 1: the spin of one electron might be up, the spin

692
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 1: of the other electron is down. As long as you

693
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:10,400
Speaker 1: don't measure either of the two electrons, they will remain entangled,

694
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:12,800
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter how far apart they are. You

695
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: could move one electron all the way across the universe,

696
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 1: and as long as you haven't disrupted the system or

697
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 1: observed it in any way, then the two electrons will

698
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,080
Speaker 1: be entangled, and as one is spinning up, the other

699
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,680
Speaker 1: will spin down. Whenever one changes, the other one will

700
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: change likewise, and this will continue until you observe the system.

701
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 1: When you do it decoheres, you break coherence, but you

702
00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: will know that at the instant when you measured the

703
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,800
Speaker 1: electron that was on your side, you'll know what the

704
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: state of the other electron was at that same moment.

705
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:50,880
Speaker 1: So if we've moved to electrons all the way across

706
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: the universe, and then I observe the electron that's in

707
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:55,839
Speaker 1: front of me, and I see how it's spinning down.

708
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: I know that the electron across the universe at that

709
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: moment it was spinning up. I don't know what it's

710
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 1: doing now, because the decoherence means that you have broken entanglement.

711
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: They are no longer entangled together. However, you can go

712
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 1: a different, slightly different way and transport a quantum state

713
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:18,759
Speaker 1: sort of, and it's a little confusing. Let me see

714
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: if I can give you kind of a high level

715
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: approach as to how it would work. We're getting into

716
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,279
Speaker 1: quantum physics, which gets pretty hairy, and my expertise in

717
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:34,080
Speaker 1: quantum physics is at at an enthusiast level, so take

718
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 1: it for what you will. So here's how it would work.

719
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 1: You would measure a quantum particle to a certain extent,

720
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 1: but not so much that your measurements are actually gonna

721
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 1: mess things up and make the system go deco here.

722
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 1: So then you would have that quantum particle interact with

723
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:52,399
Speaker 1: a second quantum particle um. Let's let's give these guys names.

724
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,920
Speaker 1: So we're gonna call your first quantum particle particle Man,

725
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 1: and the second quantum particle is triangle Man. So you've

726
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 1: got particle Man and triangle Man, and earlier before you

727
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: did this, triangle Man actually hung out with a third

728
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 1: particle we'll call it universe Man. So triangle Man and

729
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: universe Man go along really well, and they became entangled

730
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: at a quantum level, so that means they're quantum states

731
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: are complementing one another. As one changes, the other one changes.

732
00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 1: So let's we're gonna talk about particle spin here. Triangle

733
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: Man's spin is up, universe Man's spin is down. Both

734
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: will change simultaneously to continue complementing one another as long

735
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:32,799
Speaker 1: as they are entangled. But then you have particle Man

736
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:36,320
Speaker 1: and triangle Man interact as anyone who has heard the

737
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,400
Speaker 1: song Nose. They have a fight, triangle wins. This actually

738
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: changes things for both particles. Moreover, since universe Man and

739
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 1: triangle Man were entangled, universe Man is also affected. You

740
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:53,040
Speaker 1: send this scan data from particle Man over the universe

741
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: Man's position, and through some process I don't actually understand,

742
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: universe Man essentially becomes particle Man. The effect is that

743
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 1: particle Man has teleported to universe Man's position, all because

744
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 1: of quantum entanglement. But this transformation. While it seems instantaneous,

745
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,320
Speaker 1: still requires you to actually send that scan data to

746
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:15,839
Speaker 1: the destination, so you're still limited by whatever medium you're

747
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:20,759
Speaker 1: communicating through. It's not truly instantaneous. If your brain is

748
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: not broken yet, stay tuned because in a little bit

749
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 1: we're gonna start talking about replicators. But first, let's take

750
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 1: another quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, let's talk

751
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:45,960
Speaker 1: about Star Trek replicators. Uh. There. These would replications would

752
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 1: be the next generation version of the food synthesizers that

753
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,839
Speaker 1: were in the original series. Eventually in Star Trek there

754
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,000
Speaker 1: was the implication at least that they could replicate pretty

755
00:44:56,080 --> 00:45:00,320
Speaker 1: much anything unless it was necessary for them not to

756
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:03,880
Speaker 1: be able to replicate it for purposes of the plot. So,

757
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 1: for example, as far as you could tell, they could

758
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:12,040
Speaker 1: replicate most any normal matter, but not stuff like latinum,

759
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: which was a a precious metal that was used in

760
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 1: galactic trading, particularly among the Ferenghi. So you couldn't just

761
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:27,120
Speaker 1: replicate latinum because if you could, you could just flood

762
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:31,400
Speaker 1: the market and mess with inflation and totally make it

763
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: an entire economy collapse. This was necessary for multiple reasons,

764
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: one of the big ones being that. You know, when

765
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,719
Speaker 1: Rottenberry was envisioning Star Trek, part of at least some

766
00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 1: of the visions had it where it was a post

767
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: scarcity society with no need for money. If you can

768
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:52,359
Speaker 1: make everything you need with a replicator, you don't really

769
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 1: need cash anymore. Right, there's no scarcity everyone. There's plenty

770
00:45:56,960 --> 00:45:59,799
Speaker 1: to go around for everybody. The only thing that would

771
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:03,160
Speaker 1: be a requirement is energy. You would need energy to

772
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,760
Speaker 1: run whatever the technology was that was providing that post

773
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: scarcity uh source of resources. So as long as you

774
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,839
Speaker 1: had plentiful energy, there's no need for money. Now, if

775
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 1: energy is not plentiful, then you would need money because

776
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:19,280
Speaker 1: you would have to pay for whatever the equivalent amount

777
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:22,239
Speaker 1: of energy was, so that there'd be some way of

778
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 1: divvying that up. But at least in parts of Star

779
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: Trek lore, there was no money in the Federation space area,

780
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:33,360
Speaker 1: but there were still other places like the Fringy Empire

781
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 1: where money was very important. And so you had replicators

782
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 1: that could theory theoretically replicate just about anything, but not

783
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 1: certain things or else it would have broken broken the story,

784
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 1: that's what would have happened. So plot is always more

785
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 1: important than science. I guess is the lesson there. So replicators,

786
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 1: how would they work in star trek? Well, presumably they

787
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: were working on a very similar principle as the transporter.

788
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: So the transport, of course converts bodies into energy and

789
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 1: sends it somewhere and then converts that energy back into matter.

790
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: But with a replicator, you would have to do something else. Right,

791
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,520
Speaker 1: you might convert pure energy produced by the ship's power

792
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:18,520
Speaker 1: plant into matter, so equals mc squared. That you know

793
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 1: that can work both ways, right? Uh? So could you

794
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:26,080
Speaker 1: take energy and make matter from it? Well, theoretically, yeah,

795
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,000
Speaker 1: you know, you can convert matter into energy via nuclear reactions.

796
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: It's also physically possible to conduct a phase transition from

797
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:40,280
Speaker 1: energy to matter, but it's really hard. I mean, practically

798
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:45,000
Speaker 1: it's probably not possible even in space. You would probably

799
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:49,040
Speaker 1: just have more luck going about getting your resources the

800
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,879
Speaker 1: old fashioned way as opposed to trying to make pure

801
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: energy turn into matter. Another thing you could do is

802
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 1: maybe recycle waste material down to the molecular or atomic

803
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:03,320
Speaker 1: level and then reassemble that, but you would be limited

804
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,640
Speaker 1: by whatever materials you had to work with. Similar to that,

805
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:08,600
Speaker 1: instead of recycling waste material, maybe you just have a

806
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 1: whole bunch of vats of raw materials, so raw atoms. Uh.

807
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 1: Or you might recycle waste material down to the sub

808
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 1: atomic level, not the atomic level, and then reassemble that.

809
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 1: That would give you a lot more chemical versatility than

810
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 1: just the individual atoms. Uh. That might be what the

811
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:31,640
Speaker 1: Star Trek replicators are actually doing. But that requires splitting atoms,

812
00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 1: so you'd have to figure out how to do that,

813
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:38,360
Speaker 1: Like how much energy are you using to split the atoms,

814
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: how are you containing the energy that is generated by

815
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 1: splitting the atoms, And is that in fact a more

816
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:51,160
Speaker 1: efficient way of producing things like food than just storing

817
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,799
Speaker 1: food on a spaceship. Now, a lot of these approaches

818
00:48:54,880 --> 00:49:00,879
Speaker 1: seem to be predicated upon the concept of molecular assemblers.

819
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:06,640
Speaker 1: So a molecular assembler is a specific kind of of nanotechnology. Really,

820
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: just think of it as some sort of device or

821
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: nanobot or object or process that can take individual atoms

822
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:22,120
Speaker 1: and form them together to make specific molecules, and then

823
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 1: take those molecules and put them together and then put

824
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:28,320
Speaker 1: them in a structure that is that you know, resembles

825
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 1: something else already. So you can build say a steak

826
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:36,440
Speaker 1: atom by atom and molecule by molecule, a cooked steak

827
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:41,040
Speaker 1: at that you could do that. Uh, it would be

828
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:44,960
Speaker 1: completely synthetic. And we have talked a little bit about

829
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: synthetic foods in the past on tech stuff, But synthetic foods, UH,

830
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 1: don't take this very granular approach. We're not putting them

831
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,160
Speaker 1: together atom by atom and molecule by molecule. That's not

832
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:00,360
Speaker 1: really an efficient way for us to do things. We

833
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 1: don't have that assimilar built. And if we wanted to

834
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:05,680
Speaker 1: do it, you could do it in the lab. You

835
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:10,240
Speaker 1: could manipulate individual atoms and slowly move them into position

836
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 1: and make them form bonds with one another, but it

837
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: would take a really long time and a huge amount

838
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:19,799
Speaker 1: of energy comparatively speaking, and so it would be an

839
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:25,400
Speaker 1: incredibly inefficient way of making anything, let alone food. So

840
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,720
Speaker 1: you would need to have some sort of automated approach

841
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:32,360
Speaker 1: that would work at an incredible speed, and these molecular

842
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: assemblers would potentially be that. And you may have heard

843
00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:41,600
Speaker 1: some interesting doomsday theories about such stuff like nanobots that

844
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:46,399
Speaker 1: could take matter, break it down, and build it into

845
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:51,320
Speaker 1: something else. There is a a hypothetical situation called the

846
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 1: gray goose scenario. And gray goo is where you get

847
00:50:56,880 --> 00:51:01,360
Speaker 1: molecular assemblers that build more molecular are assemblers by breaking

848
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:06,200
Speaker 1: down matter, so they The idea is that these could

849
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 1: malfunction and instead of ever making anything else, they just

850
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:13,600
Speaker 1: continuously start breaking down all the matter around them and

851
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,880
Speaker 1: turning them into more molecular assemblers, and that as a result,

852
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 1: they would just completely take over the entire surface of

853
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 1: the planet and eventually more of it and turn it

854
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:28,359
Speaker 1: into just more molecular assemblers. So we would all get

855
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 1: devoured by these little nanotechnology things. Here's the good news.

856
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 1: We don't have those, so there's no worry about it happening.

857
00:51:36,239 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 1: But it is one of those kind of doomsday scenarios

858
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 1: that science fiction authors have proposed after hearing about the

859
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,440
Speaker 1: concept of a molecular assembler. We do have three D

860
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 1: printed foods, there are some examples out there. Typically, the

861
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: three D printed foods are fairly primitive compared to this.

862
00:51:57,080 --> 00:52:01,160
Speaker 1: I mean, we're not building them molecule by molly fuel. Instead,

863
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 1: you're printing out layers of ingredients until you have a

864
00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 1: finished product. In some cases, it's it's not that different

865
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: from like putting icing on top of a cake. You're

866
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:15,920
Speaker 1: just laying down a layer and another layer on top

867
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:19,120
Speaker 1: of that, another layer on top of that. UM. In fact,

868
00:52:19,160 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 1: a lot of people have said that three D printers

869
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:24,080
Speaker 1: are about as close to replicators as we can get

870
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 1: right now, of course, the three D printers not replicating anything,

871
00:52:27,719 --> 00:52:30,839
Speaker 1: not not in the sense of star Trek. You could

872
00:52:31,040 --> 00:52:34,160
Speaker 1: have a single digital model, send it to a three

873
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 1: D printer and have the three D printer printed out,

874
00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:40,720
Speaker 1: and it might be using plastic, it might be using metal,

875
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 1: it might be using glass, it could be using organic material.

876
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 1: We've seen some interesting experiments using three D printers to

877
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:52,360
Speaker 1: create artificial organs, for example, or at least artificial tissue.

878
00:52:53,120 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 1: UM that's sort of potential, is phenomenal, but again it's

879
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: not quite the same thing as a replicator. It doesn't

880
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: get down on that level. Eric Drexler is probably one

881
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:12,280
Speaker 1: of the more famous figures out there who has suggested

882
00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:15,440
Speaker 1: this idea of the nano factories of molecular assimilars approach.

883
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 1: But it's it's really difficult to say whether or not

884
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:24,759
Speaker 1: this will ever come about as an actual thing. Uh.

885
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:28,440
Speaker 1: There are a lot of different mechanical and chemical manipulation

886
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 1: approaches we would have to master in order for this

887
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,399
Speaker 1: to work, and there's no guarantee yet that we will

888
00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 1: ever actually reach that point, or if we do that

889
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,479
Speaker 1: it will be any more efficient than other methodologies. So again,

890
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: kind of like some of the other Star Trek technologies,

891
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily that they're impossible. It may be that

892
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:50,800
Speaker 1: they become impractical, that there are other ways of addressing

893
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:56,319
Speaker 1: the problem that maybe aren't as science fiction. Ee, maybe

894
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:58,839
Speaker 1: they're not as magical in the long run, but they

895
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,759
Speaker 1: are less inefficient and therefore more practical on a day

896
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:05,719
Speaker 1: to day basis. So we're probably not even close to

897
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 1: creating any kind of nanotechnology or molecular assembler um. It's

898
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:15,600
Speaker 1: it's a tall order. We have gotten to the point

899
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 1: where we can manipulate individual atoms. You may remember that

900
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:25,360
Speaker 1: IBM researchers were able to take atoms and and position

901
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 1: them with a I believe it was a scanning electron

902
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:30,400
Speaker 1: microscope where they were able to position them one at

903
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 1: a time to spell out IBM, which is kind of clever,

904
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:40,080
Speaker 1: but that's a far far cry of using atoms to

905
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:43,040
Speaker 1: spell out a word and using atoms to make a

906
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:49,600
Speaker 1: nice pastrami sandwich and some hot Earl gray tea but

907
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 1: this is the sort of technology that we find inspirational. Uh.

908
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 1: There have been plenty of examples of tech in Star

909
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:03,399
Speaker 1: Trek that either directly or indirectly influenced people to try

910
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 1: and create tech in the real world that approaches that

911
00:55:08,719 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 1: same use. Try quarters are a great example, And in

912
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:15,480
Speaker 1: a future episode I will definitely cover those. Other things

913
00:55:15,560 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: I'll have to cover will include things like phasers and

914
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:24,200
Speaker 1: shields and cloaking devices. The list is enormous, but I

915
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:26,920
Speaker 1: can't possibly tackle all of that in one episode. It

916
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:30,960
Speaker 1: would take ages and ages, and honestly, I I want

917
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,520
Speaker 1: to make sure I get to other stuff. So at

918
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 1: some point in the future I will revisit this topic

919
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:39,040
Speaker 1: and I will cover some of the other technologies found

920
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: in Star Trek, and we will explore those possibilities, like

921
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: impulse drive. What exactly is impulse drive and how does

922
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 1: it work? You know, what are the uh? What does

923
00:55:50,239 --> 00:55:53,680
Speaker 1: it mean if you reverse the polarity? Apparently it's important

924
00:55:53,719 --> 00:55:55,879
Speaker 1: because it happens in like half the episodes of Star

925
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 1: Trek the Next Generation? But and why does Riker sitting

926
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:01,839
Speaker 1: at chair or by swinging his leg over the back

927
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 1: of the chair before sitting down? Some of these questions

928
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 1: may in fact be impossible for us to answer, but

929
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:11,640
Speaker 1: we will take a close look at them in the future.

930
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,640
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if any of you have suggestions for

931
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,200
Speaker 1: topics I should cover in tech stuff, whether it's the

932
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:23,200
Speaker 1: tech of fictional universe is, maybe it's a specific type

933
00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:25,800
Speaker 1: of technology and you've always wanted to know how it works.

934
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:28,600
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a company you want to hear more about

935
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 1: its history and how it how it came to be,

936
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 1: or a specific person in the world of technology you

937
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 1: would like me to cover. Or maybe there's someone I

938
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 1: should interview and talk to about their expertise in whichever

939
00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 1: field of tech they happen to be focused in. You

940
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:48,400
Speaker 1: should let me know because otherwise I'm just I'm just

941
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,239
Speaker 1: casting out into the void, or depending heavily upon my

942
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:55,359
Speaker 1: producer Ramsey, who is amazing at coming up with really

943
00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:59,279
Speaker 1: cool ideas and it's a it's a huge load off

944
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:01,320
Speaker 1: my mind. If you want to be like Ramsey, and

945
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:05,240
Speaker 1: trust me you do. He looks good in a denim jacket.

946
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:08,440
Speaker 1: You gotta make sure you get in touch with me.

947
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,200
Speaker 1: You send me an email the addresses tech stuff at

948
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, or drop me a line

949
00:57:14,239 --> 00:57:16,560
Speaker 1: on Twitter or Facebook. The handle for the show at

950
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:19,640
Speaker 1: both of those is tech Stuff hs W. Remember I

951
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:23,760
Speaker 1: often will live stream my recording sessions. It happens on

952
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 1: Wednesdays and Friday's. Just go to twitch dot tv slash

953
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. You'll see the schedule there. You can join in.

954
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:34,200
Speaker 1: You can log into the chat room. I'm happy to

955
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 1: chat with you guys and have a great discussion. Sometimes

956
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:42,320
Speaker 1: I get phenomenal suggestions in there, sometimes I get silly

957
00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:45,400
Speaker 1: ones and guess what, I like both of those things,

958
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:49,520
Speaker 1: so join in on the fun. Also, if you love

959
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:53,520
Speaker 1: technology and you want even more, you should subscribe to

960
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:56,800
Speaker 1: the new show text Stuff Daily. That's a show that

961
00:57:56,880 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 1: comes out every day Monday through Friday. It's about a

962
00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:03,080
Speaker 1: five or six minute long show, and we just cover

963
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,240
Speaker 1: little topics that have been in recent discussion in tech

964
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:09,560
Speaker 1: news and give you context behind it so you understand

965
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 1: the stories that are behind the headlines. So make sure

966
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:15,920
Speaker 1: you search for that on whatever podcatching service you use.

967
00:58:16,080 --> 00:58:19,919
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff Daily and I'll talk to you again really

968
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

969
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:30,400
Speaker 1: Because it has to works dot Com