WEBVTT - Fantastical Tech from Fantasy and Sci-Fi 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.639 and I love all things tech and today I have 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.000 something extra special for all of you listeners out there. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:31.640 My good friend Ariel Casting has joined the show. Say hi, Ariel, Hi, Ariel. Okay, 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.080 and I'll give you a better introduction a second. So, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:39.800 Ariel and I have just launched a new podcast, released 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:41.920 an old podcast. That's a new version of an old 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.840 podcast called Large Nerdron Collider, which we will talk about 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.280 more at the end of this episode. But I thought 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.200 it might be fun to bring Ariel onto my show. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.760 It is not her first appearance on Tech Stuff. No, 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.040 we've talked about steganography and about our marine weapons before, 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.040 so I feel like what we're gonna talk about today 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.560 is a little bit of a revisit. Yeah, we're gonna 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.679 talk about science fiction and speculative fiction. Some of the 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.120 stuff we'll talk about, you could argue, really falls more 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.080 into the realm of fantasy than science fiction, but that 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:20.319 all kind of gets lumped under the category speculative fiction. Uh, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.520 and we're gonna talk about some of the stuff that 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.400 appears like the popular stuff that appears in speculative fiction, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.160 and then talk about what if any corollaries there are 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.080 in the real world. Uh, and if we see any 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.280 technologies that are kind of like the baby version of 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.520 the stuff we see in sci fi, or if we 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.080 are leagues away from light years away, you might say, 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:50.880 and yeah, and also we did, like we made an 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.200 outline for this that we thought at first was you know, modest. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:02:00.400 It was. Yeah, it blew up. So we are going 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.760 to go through as much of this as we can, 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:05.080 but we're not going to turn this into a marathon 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:07.520 length episode. We don't even know how long this is 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.160 going to go. It may turn out that this will 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.480 be a two parter and I'll have Aerial back for 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.160 part two. We don't we haven't recorded it yet, so 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.720 the time travel spoiler alert doesn't really work. So I 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:23.520 can't tell you how long it's going to be until 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:29.960 we do it. Yeah, we could go back and insert something, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.399 but that's not really time travel. That's work. See, that's 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.080 not time travel, that's just work. And I hate work, 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.920 you know me. So one of the things we wanted 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:42.120 to chat about first is the role of technology in 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.240 science fiction because obviously, you know, the two tend to 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.360 go hand in hand, right. We tend to think of 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.400 of science fiction and technology being integral to one another. 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.680 That if you don't have at least some version of 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.240 of high tech in your science fiction, it's not really 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.840 science fiction. Uh yeah, but I would I would say 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.880 that to me, good science fiction starts with the story, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.320 the characters and the situations that they are in and 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.280 how they handle those situations, whether for good or for ill, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.799 and that all the tech stuff, not the podcast, but 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.799 the stuff what is tech, is sort of window dressing 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:29.200 for that story. And that when storytellers take the inverse 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.680 of that, where the technology ends up playing the central 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.120 role and the story and characters kind of take a 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.160 backseat to it, I think of that as what I 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:44.720 like to call bad science fiction. I tend to agree 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.760 with you, Jonathan. I mean, there are occasions where I 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:54.559 think that just the this scientific technology, the fantastical technology, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.000 and a story can be enough to make it fun. 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.120 It might be a potato chip movie, but it can 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.240 be fun just to watch that. Pacific Rim is a 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.240 great example of that for me, where like watching the 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.240 Yeager's Interact is more of the story. To me, The 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.880 story of the technology is more of the story than 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.240 the people, and I still enjoy it. But at that 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.799 point the technology is almost taking on a persona itself. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.080 And there is something to say about you know, spectacle, right, 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.800 Like spectacle can be entertaining. If it weren't, then we 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.760 wouldn't have movies like Independence Day, right, all the big 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.840 disaster films that are just pure spectacle for like an 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.960 hour and a half. Um. And I don't mean to 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.800 really turn my nose up at it. I just don't 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.240 think of it as being particularly artful. I think that 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.240 if you have a really good story first, and then 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.800 you you said it in a futuristic world, for one thing, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.320 that can give you enough distance as an audience that 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.120 you can look at something that actually does relate very 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.360 much to the way the real world works, but you've 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.480 distanced it enough where you can think about it objectively 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.839 without taking you know, the real world into account until 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.240 maybe much further afterwards. Like hands Handmaid's Tale I think 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.600 falls into that category. Um, although you could argue Handmade's 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.400 Tale has in more recent years become far more relevant. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.960 But you get where I'm going here. I think, yes, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.919 yes I do, but I want to talk less about 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:32.960 Handmaid's Tale and more about handheld tales. So I want 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.599 to start with I would say what is pretty integral 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:41.440 to a lot of science fiction, which is laser guns. Right, 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:46.200 And we're not talking about necessarily a specific example here, 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:51.520 just that laser guns or ray guns in general are 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.680 kind of a kind of like the the stereotypical symbol 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.520 of science fiction weaponry. Right, It's like the pep laser 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.800 that's the go to for science fiction. Yeah, if we 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.640 were to pick out specific laser guns, we'd be here 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:12.080 all day ever talking about them. So Jonathan, So instead 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.520 of saying this is how laser guns work in science fiction, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.440 because every science fiction tends to at least have their 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.839 own nuances to how their technology works, our laser guns 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:27.719 realistic in real life, not in the handheld versions that 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.240 we see in science fiction. Because in order to generate 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:39.599 a laser of sufficient energy capable of delivering a truly 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:44.279 devastating blast, you would need such a large energy source 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.440 that you could not fit it into a rifle or 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.160 a pistol format. So one of the biggest challenges we 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.560 have with technology today is that when it comes to 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:04.280 energy storage and releasing energy, we are limited by physics, 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.680 you know, and I mean we're limited by physics and everything. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.240 But physics has has slowed that down. Like you you've 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.080 probably heard of Moore's law aerial that's the idea that 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.720 computers are technically, we boil it down to computers are 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.880 getting twice as powerful every two years or so. But 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.280 the problem with that is that energy storage doesn't follow 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.400 that same trajectory, so we don't we don't get to 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.480 a point where like, oh, the batteries of today are 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.880 are twice as powerful, They can hold twice as much energy, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.760 and they can release it twice as as quickly as 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:36.960 the old batteries. That's not how batteries work. It's just 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.600 it's an electrochemical process. You can't make it do more 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.920 than what it physically is capable of doing. So that 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.680 would mean that you would if you wanted to use 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.640 like a laser rifle or a laser gun, you would 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.920 likely have to have that connected to a larger power source, 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.680 potentially one so large that you couldn't easily carry it, 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.280 Like maybe you could have a back mount did type 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.680 of power source that you could wear as like a backpack, 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.520 you wouldn't be able to carry much else. Uh. And 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.320 even then, lasers wouldn't behave the way we typically see 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.520 them in science fiction. Right. You wouldn't get a pew, 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.080 you wouldn't have a noise at all. There'd be no 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.720 reason to have a noise. You have a noise from 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.560 maybe the person who got hit by a laser. So 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:23.360 you wouldn't even have like a no no, no, It's 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.960 it's like turning on a flashlight, right like or if 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.720 you have a laser pointer, you don't get a noise 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.560 with that. I mean you do with me, because I 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.000 supply it myself. I do the jum jum noises. But 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:41.720 also you wouldn't get those distinct beams, like those those 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.080 short blasts which we'll talk about again in in a second. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.960 I'm sure you wouldn't get those. It would be an 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.800 uninterrupted beam, just as you would with you would get 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.840 with a laser pointer. And assuming you don't have a 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.560 lot of particulate matter or if it's a bright day, 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:58.680 you wouldn't even see the beam, right. You would see 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.520 the spot where it hit the target, but you wouldn't 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.400 see an unbroken beam unless there was like a lot 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.600 of dust in the air, just like you wouldn't see 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.320 lasers like in any of those those movies like a 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.160 heist movie where they have to blow dust in the 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.160 air so that they can see the laser grid and 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.160 then someone in in a cat's suit will do flippy 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.760 flips through it. Um. But yeah, that's so they don't 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.600 they don't work the way they do in science fiction. 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.560 So we couldn't, you know, take a laser engraver, laser 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.080 etcher and turn that into a weapon. I mean you 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.760 could do it gold Finger style. No, Mr Bonda, expect 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.760 you to die. You can do it. Like the lasers 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.199 are powerful enough, Like you can get a laser powerful 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.040 enough to do physical damage like to I mean, we 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.320 can use lasers to cut through stuff like steel, so 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.640 we could clearly use it to do damage to a person. 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.760 It wouldn't be like that that's super quick flash. I 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.360 mean heat still has to take time to transfer and 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.679 and and have an effect. But you could get some vaporization, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.800 some plasma ification of of of a site, which it 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.280 could also create a shock wave and that could do 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.560 damage as well. So you could weaponize lasers, and in fact, 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.760 the military has looked into it. We're mostly talking about 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:23.600 like vehicle mountain stuff, right, not like hand held things. Okay, well, okay, 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.280 so no laser guns. But what about blasters? So blasters 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.240 are guns and Star Wars they are part of They 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.520 use particle beam energy uh, and and fire plasma bolts, 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:41.280 so that's not laser light, that's plasma, which is different. Uh, 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:46.440 you know, and maybe and then go into if it 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.480 is possible can you adjust that? So could you stunn 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.320 somebody with it versus killing them? All of which is 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.520 possible with a Star Wars blaster? Uh? And then can 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.480 you add different things to it to make them do 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.439 different things? For instance, a Star Wars blaster has super 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.360 cheap red bolts or orange bolts that are a little 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.000 bit are used for like training, or blue bolts that 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:17.600 are used ionized and used for machinery disruptions. So how 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.600 possible is that? So these are great questions because there's 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.800 a lot to pack in here, right, the blasters and 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.040 Star Wars. First of all, they're called particle beam weapons, 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:33.520 which already is kind of ridiculous. So the words particle 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.400 beam tell you this is a beam of particles, and 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.360 typically we talk about sub atomic particles, like you know, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.120 protons charged particles. Typically, although you could have a particle 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.480 beam of neutrons, it's just harder to get it moving 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.680 with particle accelerators. These used particle beams, but particle accelerators 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.480 are pretty big. The large Hadron collider is more than 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.280 sixteen miles in circumference. The reason for that size is 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.800 that it's using very powerful magnets to push charged particles 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.200 in a circle to accelerate them near the speed of light. 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.760 Now they are particles, they have mass, so they'll never 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:13.880 get to the speed of light, and we'll touch on 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.360 that again later too, but they get them up really 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.960 super fast so that you collide them with another beam 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.600 of particles that you have traveling in the opposite direction. 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.200 So think of two different beams of particles going in 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.640 opposite directions around the circle. Their paths are not crossing. 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.280 As you get that speed higher and higher and higher, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.199 and you're using very powerful, super cool magnets to do this, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.439 and then ultimately you direct them at each other and 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.880 some of the particles collide, and that's where you get 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.240 these collisions that we then study. Well, if you had 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.680 any way of making that into a handgun, we wouldn't 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:52.920 need a sixteen plus mile circumference facility, right, you wouldn't 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.640 be able to speed the particles up to any appreciable 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.040 level using something again the size of a handgun that 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:03.120 doesn't connect to some other larger power source. So again, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.319 same power trouble that we had with the lasers. Now 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.560 you also mentioned they fire plasma bolts, So if you're 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.120 talking about using the particle beam to generate plasma, that's 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.720 not the most efficient way to create plasma. Plasma is 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.440 um ionized gas. It is the most plentiful form of 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.600 matter in the universe. It's what our son is made 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.280 out of. The s u n Ariel and I don't 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.880 have any kids. Uh yeah, that it would be shocking 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:33.880 to be and to Ariel to learn that we had 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.280 a son. Uh No, the sun it works, you know, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.800 it's it's made out of plasma and an ionized gases 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.560 is powerful stuff. We'll touch on that again too. But 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.439 making a b or a bolt of it and having 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:53.120 that bolt stay coherent in other words, it maintains its 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.520 bolt shape as it travels through toward its target. Uh, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.439 it's not really realistic either from multiple reasons. Plasma is 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.320 a gas. So it's like if you. If you blow 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.520 out air, the air expands outward as it leaves the 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.240 nozzle or your mouth or whatever. If you're blowing out air, 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.160 you can't like blow so that a little bolt of 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.560 air will hold its shape. You can get like interesting 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.600 airgun type things that can create a sort of vortex 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.880 effect that can travel much further. We've seen those in 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:32.040 like you know, novelty stores and stuff, but you wouldn't 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.280 be able to really keep plasma together. As for the 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:39.440 different colors, I think they're they're relating that back to lasers, 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.440 and in fact, the laser color does tell you a 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.720 lot about the energy level of the laser because you're 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.280 looking at the spectrum of light, and the the further 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.160 toward the violet side you get, the more energy those 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:58.280 photons can have. So red is actually very low energy, 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.800 Infra red is even lower. You get up to violet 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.440 and ultra volet you're getting into very high energy. You 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.040 go beyond that, you start seeing you start to get 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.320 to stuff like X rays and gamma rays, which are 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.360 such high energy that if they if we're exposed to 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.400 them for any length of time, they can ionize the 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.160 atoms in our body. Then we can have real serious problems, 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.520 like like problems with DNA damage and stuff. So there 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.680 is something to that. As for the the blue beams, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.480 the ion cannon version of Star Wars using ions to 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.880 overwhelm machinery, there's something to that. UM. When you look 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.400 at an electromagnetic pulse or e m P, that is 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:45.160 something that can disrupt electronics. It's essentially overloading the electronic 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.880 circuits and causes them to either fry so it's useless 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.880 or shut down. And we see that kind of happen naturally, 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.360 like when UM, when there's a solar storm. So it 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:01.040 does make sense that blaster could in theory cause uh 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:07.600 explosion UM from vibrations and stuff like that. It sounds like, well, 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.560 from imparting energy, I mean we really what you're getting 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.240 too is imparting energy to a target and uh or 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.440 in the case of of like the ion canon, the 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.120 idea of overloading an electrical system, you're essentially you're essentially 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.760 putting more juice into it than it can handle and 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:29.400 it shuts down. UM. The word ion tells us that 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.200 because ion is a charged particle, typically you're talking about 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:38.360 an atom that has either more electrons than it would 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.240 normally have to have a neutral charge, so it ends 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.800 up having a negative charge or fewer electrons. So that 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.240 means because there are more protons than electrons, you get 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.720 a positive charge. That's an ion. So ion Cannon tells 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.000 us that this has to do with electricity, um, and 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:58.640 that that's why it works on uh, robots and ships 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.280 and shields and stuff like at but it's supposed to 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.960 be harmless when it hits a person as for stunning 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.760 and all that kind of stuff. I mean, I guess 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.119 it just works for the the needs of the plot, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.439 but there's there's nothing I can connect to, Like a 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:20.000 lot of weapons that are marketed as quote unquote non 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:25.000 lethal are really it just means that, uh in in 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.080 the majority of cases, the effect of the weapon is 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.000 supposed to be one that incapacitates the target and doesn't 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.840 kill the target, but very frequently non lethal weapons can 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.879 lead to lethal consequences. Yeah. Yeah, Well it sounds to 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.560 me then that Star Wars got the Bocaster a bit 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.600 closer to something that could be done in reality, simply 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.080 from the fact that it is much larger. It's very 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.400 very heavy, although I don't think Chewbacca is sixteen miles 0:17:55.400 --> 0:18:00.240 tall to carry a sixteen. That would be very care 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.679 you had had drink collector. Uh. You know, it uses 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.840 metal and it uses magnets to work. So the way 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.640 that a boucaster works is it you cock, you cock 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.280 the spring, and you push the trigger and it lets 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.639 out of metal what is called a quarrels like a 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.920 bolt or arrow. It covers it in plasma and then 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.959 it gets pushed super fast through two magnets that are 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.120 at the end of the bocaster. So I'm guessing that 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.400 that is a little closer to reality, even though I'm 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:38.159 also guessing that you can't exactly coat uh metal bolts 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.040 in plasma the type of plasma that we're talking about 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.640 in real life. Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. So, yes, 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.480 you can use magnets to propel projectiles. I mean there 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:54.360 are there are rail guns, railgun designs that use exactly that, right, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:19:00.320 the idea of using using magnetism to uh to pull 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:05.240 and then perhaps push a projectile at great speed. So 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.679 there's nothing necessarily wrong about that. But as you allude to, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.199 the plasmas are a different matter. So again, unless you 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.680 have something to contain the plasma or to hold it 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:21.280 to the bolt, it would bloom and disperse immediately upon 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.960 being fired, so you would have it just become this 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.280 puff of very hot gas. And of course heat dissipates 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.880 very quickly too, so it's why like you can use 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.239 a plasma torch without melting your face off, right, like 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.520 people use plasma torches to to cut through stuff and heat. 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.320 That's because heat doesn't transfer through air that effectively. Air 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.680 is not the best conductor for heat, So you would 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.680 have this dissipate pretty fast, and it wouldn't stay around 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.679 the bolts, so you wouldn't have that nice bolt that 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.119 would go from the bocaster to the target unless you 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.600 had some way of whole holding the plasma there, which 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.360 would mean either it would have to be contained within 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:07.280 the coral, which presumably would burst upon hitting its target, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.320 so that the plasma would cause extra damage because plasmas 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.040 do tend to burn very, very hot, or you would 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.480 have to have some sort of electro magnets in the 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.760 coral themselves to hold the plasma there. Because since the 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.040 plasma is an ionized gas, and since it has free 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.760 flowing electrons, it has an electric charge. So an electric 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.680 charge means it also has a magnetic field, which means 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.040 that with magnets you can actually contain a plasma. But 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.040 I can't think of any way where you would do 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:42.119 that in a projectile. So while while there are certain 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:47.040 basics that work, the actual implementation would not well, at 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.280 least they got it closer. Even if they did then 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.760 fudget to have Han so be able to carry and 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.359 fire a boaucaster, I don't want to know what he 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:57.879 did to get the grip strength to be able to 0:20:57.960 --> 0:20:59.879 do that. I think he must have just had a 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.159 crazy mom energy, you know, like when the mom sees 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.040 like the cars on top of her kid and she 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:09.120 lifts the car up. So Han just had crazy dog 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.119 owner energy for Chewbacca, and nobody puts Chewy in a corner, 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:17.920 all right, So that means that I'm guessing that Star 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:23.760 Trek phasers also are not that realistic because they're also 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.760 particle directed energy weapons, although they do have a steady 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.760 stream as opposed to blasters which shoot the bolts. Yeah, 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:33.960 so does that make them more possible? I mean, I 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:35.760 don't think it makes it more possible. I think it 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:40.280 at least makes it less of a uh, less of 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.840 a pupiu laser type thing than we typically see because 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.119 it it does tend to be a steady beam, you 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:51.440 probably wouldn't see the beams. Uh they You know, Star 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.960 Trek is is infamous for attempting to justify its technologies 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.480 with lengthy explanations, part partably because I mean there's a 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.800 whole end street around writing technical books for the Star 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:05.920 Trek universe. Same thing is true for Star Wars too, 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.440 But um, I'm I'm a treky. I'm not that much 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.600 of a treky. Yeah. Well, and and it's it's also 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:17.879 one that talks about things like um, like like actual phase, 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.360 I mean phaser, depending on whom you ask. Phasers are 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:25.480 called that because they're either a mixture of the words 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:29.120 photon and maser, so which is the same as light 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.760 and maser, which became laser. But now instead of saying light, 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.160 it was photon, I guess because it sounded more science fiction. 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.600 E e e um. Photons are being the particles of light, 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.439 and so you've got phaser or some people talk about 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.280 the phasing the beam of the frequency of the laser. 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.080 Now that would just mean that a phaser would be 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.119 able to go from lower energy phases like on that 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:54.479 red side of the spectrum, to higher energy phases on 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.640 the violet side of the spectrum um but still not 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:03.280 really possible. Again, we get back to that energy component. 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.400 That's a big part of it. But also that Star 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:10.000 Trek just relies very heavily on techno babble they do, 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:12.760 but I will say they do have it's a phaser. 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:17.480 Their phasers do go from low to two stunned to disintegrate. 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.640 Uh and and they also do account for in star 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:27.280 in Star Trek um that energy pull. So for instance, 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.280 the cannons that they would put on their ship, because 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:36.760 they got all kinds of phaser phaser um weapons and devices. 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:39.720 They can put a wrap in a race which shoot 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.160 multiple phasers. So a phaser cannon which could be rapper 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:45.800 fire regular would be bolted to the ship and would 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:49.040 pull from the warp core to channel power. We aren't 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:50.760 going to get into warp cores yet, but at least 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.800 they accounted for that need of a large power draw, 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:57.879 right right. Yeah, It's not like you put into D 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:01.520 cell batteries and the back of the Enterprise and somebody 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.120 can start blasting the klingon burder prey. That's a good point. Yeah, 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:07.879 So that that at least is something that is that 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:10.159 is realistic in the sense that you would need to 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.919 have a sufficiently powerful power source to tap into in 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:21.000 order to generate and then um, you know, fire multiple times, 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:25.960 this this powerful beam weapon. They also do use their 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.000 phasers for things like drilling and heating, which we do 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:34.680 know that lasers can do for those purposes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:38.520