1 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:09,719 Speaker 1: Hey, or hey, what do you think is the most 2 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:14,319 Speaker 1: impressive thing humanity has ever built? It's a pretty good question. 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:17,480 Speaker 1: Let me think about it for a second. I think 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 1: I think I would have to say probably the most 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: impressive human achievement is the refrigerator. Obviously, I mean the 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: refuge every day. I couldn't live with that without it. 7 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome. That's a cool answer. I was sort 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,440 Speaker 1: of thinking things like, you know, the Great Wall, or 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,559 Speaker 1: the Golden gate Bridge or the Birge Khalifa, you know, 10 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: stuff that would inspire all you know, things that like 11 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: last for generations. Well, you know, there is still in 12 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: my fridge that's been there four generations. I don't know. 13 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: I look at these projects sometimes and I think, you know, 14 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,360 Speaker 1: humanity can really accomplish great things when we work together. 15 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: It's really sort of impressive what we can pull off, 16 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: and we we all work together. Yeah, well, I don't know. 17 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: I mean I once ate everything in my fridge all 18 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 1: by myself. I mean I didn't meet the rest of 19 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: humanity for that. Yeah, well, you can accomplish great things 20 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: by yourself. But it makes me wonder sometimes like what 21 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 1: future humans will build, Like what are the great what's 22 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: the Great Wall of the twenty one century. You know 23 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: what kind of achievements will we what kind of monuments 24 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: will we leave behind for future humans? The Great Refrigerator 25 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 1: of China. That's right, a huge refrigerator in space that 26 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: you can see from space, that you can see from 27 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: space that it needs to be cleaned. Hi, I'm poor. 28 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: I'm the cartoonists behind the comics are piled Higher and 29 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: Deeper or PhD comics. And I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist. 30 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: And I smash protons together at the Large Hagon Collider 31 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: to try to figure out what the universe is made 32 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: out of. And together we wrote a book called We 33 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: Have No Idea, which explores all the things we don't 34 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: know about the universe. And right now you're listening to 35 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,959 Speaker 1: our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production 36 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio, in which we try to mix 37 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: accessible science with a huge quantity of low quality jokes. 38 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: What do you mean? Are you saying my jokes are 39 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: low quality or no? I'm saying we spray a huge 40 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: number of jokes and our editor just picks out the 41 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: ones that are best to our listeners. Think we're funny, Yeah, 42 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: are awesome editor exactly our producer who we should give 43 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: a shout out to for sure, Taylor, thank you so 44 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 1: much for making us funny. Thank you for making us 45 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: sound funny. And speaking of human achievements, today's podcast is 46 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: all about monumental constructions and accomplishments. What can civilizations do 47 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: when they get together and build something enormous? Yeah? What 48 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: can humans? What are humans capable of making? Like, what 49 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: are the limits of our ingenuity and resources and our 50 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,400 Speaker 1: ability to work together? That's right, because you know, there 51 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: are a lot of problems right in the world, like 52 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: a global energy consumption and global warming, and that's right, 53 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:06,919 Speaker 1: and some of those are being tackled, right, like we're 54 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: developing solar power so that we can get energy just 55 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: from the sun and not burn fossil fuels and to 56 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: meet the global energy demands. Right, But if you extrapolate 57 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: forward and you think, like, what is humanity gonna need? 58 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:21,799 Speaker 1: Our global energy consumption is just increasing and it seems 59 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: unlikely unless we have some cataclysmic event in our civilization 60 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: that that's ever going to turn around. So if you 61 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 1: project forward, you might wonder, like, how is humanity going 62 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 1: to meet its energy needs in the future. If we 63 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: don't invent some fantastic new form of fusion, right, what 64 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: can we do to to rapidly increase the amount of 65 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: energy we have accessible? And that's the question two of 66 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: our listeners had, and so they sent us questions via 67 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: Twitter and via email. That's right. So we owe a 68 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: shout out to Evertenson and to Steve Davis for requesting 69 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: this topic. So today on the podcast we'll be covering 70 00:03:54,400 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: the topic what is a dycen sphere? That's right? Yeah, 71 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: so the dycen sphere? Daniel, Um, So this is the 72 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: idea that you know, we could maybe build something that 73 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: can really take advantage of all that amazing power that's 74 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: coming out of the sun. Right. That's right. If you 75 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,720 Speaker 1: think about like grabbing solar power and you think, well, 76 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: we might need a huge amount of it for your 77 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: first instinct is like, let's just put a bunch of 78 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,159 Speaker 1: solar panels in the desert, right, Let's just like build 79 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: solar panel after solar panel. After all, nobody's really using 80 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:30,159 Speaker 1: that land. Is a lot of sun out there, right. 81 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: But as humanity gets more and more greedy about energy, 82 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: you might think, like is there enough room on Earth 83 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:39,920 Speaker 1: to put enough solar panels, right, So is that true? Like? 84 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: What if we covered all of the Sharad Desert in 85 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: solar panels, would that not be enough? I think that 86 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: would be enough today. Like actually, I think today all 87 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: you need to do is cover like Delaware with solar 88 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 1: panels and you'd have enough energy to power the entire 89 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: United States or maybe even the Earth. What really, yeah, exactly, 90 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: solar pan So you're just ready to Delaware, Delaware. That's 91 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: where all those fake companies are set up, aren't they. Um, 92 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: we probably have listeners in Delaware, so you might want 93 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: to check with them before you. They might appreciate the shade, 94 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:21,159 Speaker 1: you know, being relocated. Sorry, um all we have authority 95 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: here from J. H. Cham a podcast host, or we're 96 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,679 Speaker 1: gonna raise your house and put solar pants emin eminent 97 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: podcast main being moved out of Delaware. Well, I just 98 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: check the numbers, and it turns out Delaware is actually 99 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: a bit too small. I think you need to add 100 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: Maryland to hope. That's okay with Maryland. No, But the 101 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: point is that I think today human civilization can survive 102 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: using energy captured by a pretty small fraction to the 103 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: Earth's surface. But imagine in the future. Right, what if 104 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: we want to build a huge civilization, what we want 105 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: to construct enormous things? We want to send ships across 106 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: the stars. We're gonna need incredible amounts of energy and 107 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: you know, not gonna be able to burn cold to 108 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: do that, and we're not going to be able to 109 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,799 Speaker 1: necessarily cover the Earth and solar panels, and so people 110 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: started thinking big. People started thinking what's the limit, Like, 111 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:12,719 Speaker 1: what's the maximum number of solar panel solar panels you 112 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: can make? What's the biggest solar panel you can build? Yes? Exactly? 113 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: And where would you put it? Okay, so this is 114 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: where the question of what is the Dyson's fear comes from? Exactly? 115 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: This is a thought a thought experiment by Freeman Dyson, 116 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: a famous physicist, to think about what is the biggest 117 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: solar panel? Is it possible? Could we build one? How 118 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: would you do it? And could we see if other 119 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: civilizations are doing it? Wow? That's amazing? All right? So we, 120 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: as usual, we're wondering how many of you out there 121 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 1: actually knew what a Dyson's fear was Like If someone 122 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 1: approachedate on the street and ask you, hey, have you 123 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: seen any dicens fears? Or hey, do you know what 124 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: it is? Or would you contribute ten dollars towards building 125 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: a Dicen sphere um. So, as usual, Daniel went out 126 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 1: into the streets and ask people randomly out there if 127 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: they knew what a Dyson's fear was. Yeah, here's what 128 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: people had to say. Have you ever heard of a 129 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:06,919 Speaker 1: thing called a Dyson sphere? I know it in the 130 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: context of looking for other life on other planets, because 131 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: it's basically like a ring that you can build around 132 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: a star to harness its light for energy. You look 133 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 1: at the light patterns. If something interferes with the patterns 134 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: and like in a certain way, it can lead to 135 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: the assumption that maybe there's a Dicen sphere around it. 136 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: There's something awesome. Okay, yeah, it's this gigantic thing that 137 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,640 Speaker 1: you've put around like a solar system and then you 138 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: can harness all the energy. I heard of it. I 139 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:44,160 Speaker 1: don't know what it is, all right, So pretty much 140 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,200 Speaker 1: no across the board. Well, I would say we got 141 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: our our typical set of binary responses, a bunch of news. 142 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: I got a bunch of weird looks too, people like 143 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: is you're making this up? Like is that a thing? 144 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: Really is this like a test? You know, I wonder 145 00:07:57,760 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: how many people have thought you were talking about the 146 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:05,840 Speaker 1: dice and vacuum cleaner. That thing really sucks. Um No, 147 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: I think I think it was like people thought maybe 148 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: it was a control question, like I was making things up, 149 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: like have you ever heard of the you know, um 150 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: smith gabakabui or whatever, And because it was like a 151 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: trick question, like to see if you if you try 152 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: to make up some funny things. Yeah, which actually gives 153 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: me the idea I should do that, right, We should 154 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: have a trick question and see if people spout off. Um, 155 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:30,119 Speaker 1: you know, Oh yes, I told I saw a Nova 156 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,760 Speaker 1: episode about that, and it's in balls, you know, electrophons 157 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:36,079 Speaker 1: and whatever. What would it be about? Let's be dark? 158 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,679 Speaker 1: Should be like dark, a dark black hole about that? 159 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: Oh you know what, that's actually really cool. And people 160 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: are written and asking whether you can have a black 161 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,520 Speaker 1: hole made of dark matter, which is a really awesome question, 162 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:50,960 Speaker 1: which we should talk about in a different episode. Um, 163 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 1: but an anti dark matter black hole? Dark matter black hole? Yeah, 164 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:57,160 Speaker 1: isn't that a cool idea? An anti dark matter black hole? 165 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,319 Speaker 1: Oh well, we don't know if dark matter has anti particles. 166 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,200 Speaker 1: We don't even know dark matter is made of particles, 167 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: so we don't know if there is such a thing 168 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:06,160 Speaker 1: as anti dark matter. But we know there is dark matter, 169 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: and we know there are black holes. So people have 170 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:13,360 Speaker 1: this tendency to like ram them together anyway, So nobody 171 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: thought you'd meant the vacuum cleaner because you know the 172 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: Dyson vacuum cleaners. They are known for having this like 173 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: sphere out front that that you used to pivot and 174 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: to roll around and like it twist the head of 175 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: the vacuum cleaner as you tilt and turn. Did you 176 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: get some like check from Dicing company? Because I didn't 177 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:31,560 Speaker 1: get one. I don't understand why you're promoting the Dicing 178 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: vacum Maybe if you used to link if you used 179 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 1: to link Dyson slash or he got a check slash 180 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:51,440 Speaker 1: and didn't share it with Daniel. Well, um, let's break 181 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 1: it down for people. Then what what is the Dyson's fear? 182 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,600 Speaker 1: So the dycens vary is basically the idea of maximal 183 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: solar panels. Right, you want to build solar panels, you 184 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: cover the earth. The Earth captures a tiny fraction of 185 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,880 Speaker 1: the energy from the sun. Right, It's it's like a tiny, 186 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,440 Speaker 1: tiny fraction right like to the Sun, the Earth just 187 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:11,120 Speaker 1: looks like a little marble way out there in space exactly, 188 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: and so it's it's barely catching any of its rays exactly. 189 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: So imagine a spear, and the radius of the sphere 190 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Right. So, 191 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: now imagine a sphere that's basically the size of the 192 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,240 Speaker 1: Earth's orbit. It's like a ball centered on the Sun 193 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: that reaches all the way to Earth exactly, and it's 194 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: made out of what well, I mean, just imagine the 195 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: spear for now geometrically, and think about what fraction of 196 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: that sphere is covered by the Earth. Right, this is 197 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 1: the point you're making before. It's like a tiny dot. 198 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: Most of the Sun's energy just gets rated out into space, 199 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: right it. Maybe it hits a Jupiter or Saturn, but 200 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: the vast majority of it just gets shot out into space. Right. 201 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: So the idea is, if you really want to go big, 202 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: if you want to build a huge project, you know, 203 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: then could you build solar panels that capture a significant 204 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:05,679 Speaker 1: fraction or even dare I say, all of the Sun's energy? Right? All? Wow, 205 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,240 Speaker 1: So it's like a giant solar panel that surrounds the 206 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 1: sun completely. Yeah, I mean, like, let's do with the 207 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: thought experiment. Let's think as big as possible. How much 208 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,280 Speaker 1: energy would that be? Um, you know, how would you 209 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 1: do it? And could you tell if other people had 210 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:22,959 Speaker 1: done it? And so this is the origin of it. 211 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: Freeman Dyson thought about this and he wrote a paper 212 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: about it, and he thought, could you build one of 213 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:31,440 Speaker 1: these things? And if another civilization around another star had 214 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 1: done this, could we tell and could we use that 215 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: to find alien civilizations? This is like a legit physics paper. 216 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:40,520 Speaker 1: This is a a legit physics paper is published in Science, 217 00:11:40,559 --> 00:11:43,560 Speaker 1: one of the top journals, and really yeah, And the 218 00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:45,320 Speaker 1: thing I love about that is about it is that 219 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: it's visionary. It's like, what would we do in a 220 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,520 Speaker 1: thousand years, what would we do in a million years? 221 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: And could we use those ideas if we could predict them, 222 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:58,079 Speaker 1: could we use those ideas to discover super advanced alien civilizations? 223 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 1: Like let's not look for other civilizations at the same 224 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 1: level as us. Let's look for civilizations that are like 225 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: a million years or a billion years ahead of us 226 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:07,560 Speaker 1: and trying to anticipate what they would do and how 227 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,360 Speaker 1: we would spot them. So I love that kind of 228 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:14,440 Speaker 1: visionary thinking, like if if you use your imagination wildly, 229 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,600 Speaker 1: where could humans go? And then that we could maybe 230 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:22,199 Speaker 1: see or get evidence of from other civilizations out in 231 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:26,200 Speaker 1: the universe. Yes, exactly right, exactly like trying to think 232 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: of what the grown ups they're doing, because we're basically kids. 233 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,000 Speaker 1: You know, we are pretty new to this whole universe. 234 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 1: We've been intelligent for you know, maybe tens of thousands 235 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,200 Speaker 1: of years. We've been technological for decades, right, we've been 236 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: communicating for you know, less than that, And so we 237 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,480 Speaker 1: are brand new on the universe stage. And there may 238 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 1: be a pimples voices cracking if we're not even there. Man, 239 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: we're not a puberty. We're growing hair and from places. No, 240 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: we are still pooping our pants. Um, from the civilization 241 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,920 Speaker 1: point of view, like literally mean literally and here we're 242 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: filling it with pop. We are pooping the bed, that's true. Um. 243 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: And so you know, you might ask like what are 244 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: the growing ups doing? And the same way it's hard 245 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:15,000 Speaker 1: for kids to anticipate, like what is an adult life like? 246 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,719 Speaker 1: And how would you tell what's going on? It might 247 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: be hard for us to predict what super advanced civilizations 248 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:23,320 Speaker 1: would do and how they would live and how they 249 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: would get energy. So that was the idea of Freeman Dyson. 250 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,720 Speaker 1: He thought, can we spot other stars being wrapped by 251 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: their feet by these spheres? Um to what kind of 252 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:35,040 Speaker 1: physics is was he? Oh, he's famous for being really broad. 253 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: He's like, he's done all sorts of physics. I think 254 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,160 Speaker 1: he even did some chemistry. Um, he did quantum mechanics. 255 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,320 Speaker 1: He's thought about consciousness. He's one of these modern day 256 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: you know, renaissance men who have like thought endabbled in 257 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:48,200 Speaker 1: all sorts of different kinds of physics. I wonder if 258 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,120 Speaker 1: your name affixed that, you know, like, if you go 259 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: around with the name Freeman Dyson, is it just the 260 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: expectation that you really amazing personality? What that you only 261 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:00,160 Speaker 1: have that expectation because there's a guy in the him 262 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,160 Speaker 1: that who has an amazing hum But that's what I mean. 263 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:05,200 Speaker 1: It's like he's got the perfect name to be a 264 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,599 Speaker 1: renaissance man. It's the other direction. Man, he was a 265 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:11,440 Speaker 1: renaissance man, and now therefore his name is connected with 266 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,160 Speaker 1: being a renaissance man. It doesn't work the other way. 267 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:17,720 Speaker 1: It's not like you're born He's like the original cool guy. 268 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: It's not like they're like Galileo that sounds like could 269 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: be a great scientist. Yeah, No, I think it's the 270 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 1: other direction. Um, But he does have sort of a 271 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,480 Speaker 1: mystical name. I always thought his name, you know, I 272 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:31,000 Speaker 1: always connected his name with like the Freemasons, you know, 273 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: Freeman Dison. He sounds like he's probably the member of 274 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,760 Speaker 1: a secret society somewhere. Yeah, like cool people who are 275 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: trying to build names, trying to build mega structures. Even 276 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: that word is fun to say, right, mega structures. So 277 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: he had this idea, he thought, hey, what could we 278 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:51,160 Speaker 1: possibly what could have aliens civilization much more advanced than us. 279 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: What could they possibly be doing that we could maybe detect? 280 00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:57,840 Speaker 1: And he had the idea that maybe they figured out 281 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,120 Speaker 1: a way to capture all of a sun energy, like 282 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:05,800 Speaker 1: building something basically like wrapping up a sun. Yeah, exactly. 283 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,680 Speaker 1: And that's pretty hard to do. I mean imagine, as 284 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: you were saying before, that you had to build something 285 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:15,240 Speaker 1: that size, right, Like the radius of it is millions 286 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: of miles, right, So you're gonna construct something that wraps 287 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,800 Speaker 1: the whole Sun at like the distance from the Earth 288 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:24,600 Speaker 1: to the Sun and grabs all that energy. I mean, 289 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: the size of it is is boggling like um, the 290 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: inside of that sphere did a few calculations, inside of 291 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: that sphere would have the surface area of five hundred 292 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: and fifty million earths. Wow, which sounds doable. Maybe, I 293 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 1: don't know. It's it's hard to build something that big. 294 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 1: I mean, in order to build something that big, you 295 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:47,240 Speaker 1: need stuff, right, you need materials, You need like, you know, matter, 296 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:51,440 Speaker 1: And if you're gonna build it, you need to basically 297 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: use all of the matter in Jupiter and Saturn and 298 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 1: the asteroid belt. You use up like all the stuff 299 00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: in the Solar system just to build that shell. Like 300 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: it's just barely enough stuff to build a shell all 301 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: the way around the Sun. But why does it need 302 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,080 Speaker 1: to be the radius of where the Earth is? Couldn't 303 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:11,560 Speaker 1: you just make it smaller and be more convenient to 304 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: make make it the radius of what's the mercury the 305 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 1: closest one, you know, as small as sphere around the 306 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: Sun and then just have like a cable running to 307 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: us to Earth. Yeah, you have to balance, right, the 308 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: closing extension cord extend. The closer you get to the Sun, um, 309 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: the hotter things get and things melt and it's harder 310 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: to work, you know, So you want to balance there. 311 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:36,200 Speaker 1: You don't want you don't want to be like immediately 312 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: surrounding the Sun. You don't want to be really far 313 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,800 Speaker 1: away because that's to be bigger um between tents to 314 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,120 Speaker 1: build something that close to the Sun. Yeah. The other 315 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: advantage if you built it at the radius of the 316 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,960 Speaker 1: Earth is then you'd have an awesome livable surface, right, 317 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: you people could live on the inside of that sphere, 318 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 1: Like you could put dirt down and plant crops and 319 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 1: you'd be at the be in the habitable zone. Right, 320 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:01,120 Speaker 1: you'd be the right distance for the Sun to have 321 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:03,680 Speaker 1: the right temperature. Oh, you build it at the rates 322 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: of this Earth and where the Earth is, then really 323 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 1: it could be like um, sunny Florida all year round exactly. 324 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:15,920 Speaker 1: I mean, let's all around the solar system. Yes, let's 325 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,400 Speaker 1: think big. Let's think like, you know, we're gonna do this, 326 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:20,400 Speaker 1: what would be the best thing to do, Like humanity 327 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:23,360 Speaker 1: is gonna be huge and having a huge amount of energy. Um, 328 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,280 Speaker 1: then let's like, let's prepare for the future of humanity 329 00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:29,880 Speaker 1: and build five hundred and fifty million times the land 330 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,680 Speaker 1: of the Earth. The amount of energy to this thing 331 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,359 Speaker 1: with capture is just ridiculous. Like if you captured all 332 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,119 Speaker 1: of the energy of the Sun every year. There's this 333 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: number which is pretty hard to understand. It's three hundred 334 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:46,920 Speaker 1: and eighty four yatta watts, right, what's being stive energy 335 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: and yatta being at a lot of what a whole 336 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:56,439 Speaker 1: lot of exactly? No, it's um three point eight times 337 00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,439 Speaker 1: ten to the twenty six watts, right, Like, it's just 338 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,159 Speaker 1: a ridicul list number. So I thought, well, let's explain 339 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,560 Speaker 1: in terms of how much energy humanity currently uses. Right, 340 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: So currently the power use of humanity is one thirty 341 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: three trillion the energy put out by the sun WoT 342 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: three thousand billion times how much we use right now? Yeah, 343 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:23,160 Speaker 1: so we don't really need this thing today or tomorrow 344 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:25,720 Speaker 1: or next year. Right. This is the kind of thing 345 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,600 Speaker 1: that would that would support a civilization with enormous energy consumption. 346 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:31,439 Speaker 1: You know, the kind of thing where you're like building 347 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,400 Speaker 1: huge spaceships and you're pushing them to other star systems 348 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:38,399 Speaker 1: with like lasers, you know, like light sales that capture 349 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,199 Speaker 1: laser beams, Like, you would have an incredible amount of 350 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,760 Speaker 1: energy if you could really capture all of the energy 351 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: output of the Sun. Okay, I have a lot of questions, 352 00:18:46,600 --> 00:19:01,359 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break, all right, So 353 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:03,440 Speaker 1: that's a dicense fear. It's this idea that you can 354 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: maybe build a shell around the Sun and capture all 355 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: of the energy that's coming out of it. And you 356 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,920 Speaker 1: would want to build it kind of far away from 357 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 1: the Sun because otherwise it would just melt. Uh. And 358 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,920 Speaker 1: but it would be humongous. It would be bazillion times 359 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: the surface of the Earth. Would take a lot of 360 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,480 Speaker 1: stuff to to build that shell. You take a lot 361 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:26,800 Speaker 1: of stuff. It would be enormous. And there's a lot 362 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: of other problems, Like problem number one is you'd have 363 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:30,840 Speaker 1: to be really strong. I mean, this thing is going 364 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: to have a huge amount of weight on it, right, yeah, 365 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,879 Speaker 1: like a and and just like it would get toussled around, 366 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,360 Speaker 1: right because it would have to hold together. Yeah, and 367 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:42,399 Speaker 1: it doesn't. You wouldn't also have any gravity, right, like 368 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,200 Speaker 1: the gravity we experienced from walking around on Earth comes 369 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 1: from Earth. But if you're if you build a huge 370 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,280 Speaker 1: shell the size of the Earth radius and and build 371 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 1: it around the Sun, then it's balanced gravitationally, right, you 372 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 1: don't feel it doesn't feel the Sun's gravity. There's no 373 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: net gravitational force on it for the Sun, so it'd 374 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: be sort of like floating around the Sun, nothing to 375 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: keep it in place, which means it could like drift, 376 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:08,320 Speaker 1: you know, and like one side of it could get 377 00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: too close and maybe bump into the Sun or something. 378 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: It would be pretty hard to maintain. You need like 379 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:15,879 Speaker 1: jets on it to keep it in the right place. 380 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: I think an interesting idea is that just the idea 381 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:23,679 Speaker 1: that you can envelop a sun, right like it, you know, 382 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:25,920 Speaker 1: your intuition. My intuition tells me that if you cover 383 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,800 Speaker 1: it up the Sun it would snuff out, but not 384 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,600 Speaker 1: so right like you could. The Sun doesn't need any feedback, right, 385 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: it's just pumping that energy out. It doesn't need It 386 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,120 Speaker 1: doesn't need or care, doesn't need to know or care 387 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,640 Speaker 1: about what happens to the photons and protons that it's 388 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: flying out. Yeah right, that's what I mean. Like you 389 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,000 Speaker 1: could you could capture a sun literally, yeah exactly, and 390 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,760 Speaker 1: it would burn happily inside your you're pumping out energy, 391 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:52,920 Speaker 1: yeah exactly. And you know, that's basically what we want 392 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: to do here on Earth. On a much smaller scale, 393 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:58,280 Speaker 1: I mean that's fusion, right. Fusion says, build a little plasma, 394 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 1: make it really hot, have it burned, and have a 395 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,080 Speaker 1: pump out radiation which we then capture. That's energy. Um, 396 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: So we want to do that, and you know, we 397 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:07,920 Speaker 1: want to do that in a miniature way on Earth 398 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: and a controlled way. But we basically have a huge 399 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,200 Speaker 1: fusion furnace already and it's going pretty well and it's 400 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:16,719 Speaker 1: not too far away. So some people say, let's just 401 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 1: capture that energy, right, Why have fusion here on Earth 402 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,880 Speaker 1: when it's already going in the center of a whole 403 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:29,679 Speaker 1: lot of you exactly, um, giant trillion size shell. That 404 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: sounds much easier. Yeah, and uh, and so you might 405 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:34,680 Speaker 1: be thinking also, like, all right, well a huge shell 406 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,960 Speaker 1: sounds like too much, Like you don't need to complete 407 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,440 Speaker 1: the shell, right if if you don't need thirty three 408 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:42,399 Speaker 1: trillion times our energy, what if you just build a 409 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,879 Speaker 1: partial shell, right, Like, I mean, that's basically every solar panel, right, 410 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: the one you have in your roof right now is 411 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:49,840 Speaker 1: a tiny little bit of a Dicen sphere, right, It's 412 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,920 Speaker 1: a tiny little license sphere element. So you might think 413 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: we don't have to go all the way. It's not 414 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:56,920 Speaker 1: like a you have just a few little solar panels, 415 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,119 Speaker 1: or you have the whole thing. You might just build 416 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:02,880 Speaker 1: you know, part of a shell, like half a shell, 417 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,679 Speaker 1: or just a ring of the shell or a patch 418 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,560 Speaker 1: of the shell. Yeah. Yeah, like a good middle ground 419 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,360 Speaker 1: is like a ring. And you can imagine putting them 420 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,720 Speaker 1: like in Earth orbit, right, so they're all in the 421 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,960 Speaker 1: same orbit, so they don't bump around each other. You 422 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,679 Speaker 1: got a bunch of like really big solar panels in 423 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: Earth orbit gathering all this energy um and and sending 424 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:23,879 Speaker 1: it back to Earth. But you know you were you 425 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,919 Speaker 1: were saying earlier, like and then you just put out 426 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,360 Speaker 1: a big cable. That's actually kind of a tricky problem, 427 00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: Like how do you get this energy and bring it 428 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,879 Speaker 1: back to Earth? I don't know, you can't. You can 429 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 1: just run an extension cord. Yeah, you need a whole 430 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:44,640 Speaker 1: lot of yadda extension chords. Um yea yeat a mile. 431 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,800 Speaker 1: Now you need some sort of wireless energy transfer, which 432 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,439 Speaker 1: is pretty tricky. I mean, we know how to do this, 433 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: but it's not it's not that easy. Basically, it's lasers, 434 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: right for long distance energy transfer. The only way we 435 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,360 Speaker 1: know how to do it is lasers. So so you're saying, 436 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,159 Speaker 1: let's build a giant laser out into base and pointed 437 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,199 Speaker 1: at the Earth and shoot and point out at the Earth. Exactly. 438 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,119 Speaker 1: It's like um or you can think about more like 439 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: a magnifying glass. Like basically it's like take the Sun's 440 00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:12,919 Speaker 1: rays and focus them on the Earth, right, you know, 441 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:15,159 Speaker 1: so we're basically like you know how you take a 442 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 1: magnifying glass when you're a kid and like fried little bugs. 443 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:22,080 Speaker 1: We're basically doing that to ourselves. So it's that's pretty dangerous, right. 444 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 1: You need some sort of way to absorb that energy 445 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,439 Speaker 1: here on Earth in a safe way, and you know, 446 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: there's a lot of things to figure out, but as usual, 447 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: we can just leave that to the engineers. Okay, So 448 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:39,560 Speaker 1: let's see you're saying, it's kind of an alternative to 449 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: what if you just cover like the Sahara Desert. Wouldn't 450 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: that set us up for the next billion years or 451 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: something that would set us up for a while. Yeah. 452 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:49,760 Speaker 1: I think there are people who own the Sahara Desert though, 453 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: so they might have something to say about that. Um 454 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,520 Speaker 1: they can move to Delaware. You were just solve some 455 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:00,119 Speaker 1: problems all over the place Man Global Solutions by or 456 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:03,640 Speaker 1: hit chand Um. So we we definitely do not need 457 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:05,840 Speaker 1: this any time in the near future, Like like we 458 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:08,680 Speaker 1: if we invested in solar power, we would be set 459 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:10,679 Speaker 1: up for a while. Oh, I see you're saying we 460 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: don't need it, but maybe aliens needed. Well I'm saying 461 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: we don't need it now, but like, let's think big, right, 462 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: Let's think about like what is humanity needed a thousand years, 463 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,479 Speaker 1: in a million years. Let's if you're gonna build this thing, 464 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,159 Speaker 1: you got to start thinking about it now so you 465 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,399 Speaker 1: can figure this stuff out. And it's always fun to 466 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: think aspirationally, like could we build this? You know, is 467 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,320 Speaker 1: it possible? What technology would you need? Because often that 468 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,199 Speaker 1: spurs ideas, right, people like m I wonder if you 469 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 1: could transfer laser from an orbiting ring of solar panels 470 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,520 Speaker 1: to the Earth. How would you do that? And then 471 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,560 Speaker 1: they get interested. Then they come up with some invention 472 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,119 Speaker 1: which makes, you know, for better Hamburgers or something. But 473 00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: a lot of cool stuff comes out of just like 474 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,960 Speaker 1: thinking aspirationally. I say, you're saying, like, what if in 475 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: a thousand years there are thirty three trillion yodda people 476 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: in on Earth? And we need all that energy. Maybe 477 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,320 Speaker 1: we should think about these kind of crazy he is 478 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 1: in advance, Yeah, exactly, before we have covered Delaware. We 479 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: covered the Sahara. It's not enough. Yeah, so you could 480 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:09,640 Speaker 1: do the whole sphere, which seems a little crazy because 481 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,880 Speaker 1: you need all this material. You could do a ring 482 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: right of orbiting orbiting solar panels. That's sort of um, 483 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: you know, intermediate, but there's also a lot of other purchase, 484 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,639 Speaker 1: Like you could have a few rings, right, you have 485 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 1: like different rings at different radius or you know, orbiting 486 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 1: different directions or something they have to think about, you know, 487 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 1: collisions and shadows and stuff like that. But that kind 488 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,679 Speaker 1: of stuff is pretty practical, isn't that a famous science 489 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,720 Speaker 1: ficture novel like the ring idea where a ring around 490 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,680 Speaker 1: the Earth? No ring world. The Hillary niven Um had 491 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,159 Speaker 1: this idea of a ring world. I don't know if 492 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:43,920 Speaker 1: he had a son in the middle of it or not, 493 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:46,560 Speaker 1: but yeah, definitely you could build a ring and you 494 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: could be spinning, you know, so you could live on 495 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: it that kind of thing. Um. Okay, so that's one idea. Ring. 496 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,639 Speaker 1: You can also do like a patch, right, or like 497 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,719 Speaker 1: small patches. Yeah, exactly, you have these small patches, and 498 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: some people are thinking about the idea of uh, they're 499 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,119 Speaker 1: not satellites. They're called stat heights because they don't move, 500 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: But they're basically just big floating patches of solar panel 501 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:12,040 Speaker 1: and they they avoid um flow falling into the sun 502 00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,199 Speaker 1: because they partially absorbed the Sun's energy. That's where you 503 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: get the energy for the solar panel, but they also 504 00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: partially reflect it. Right, think about what happens when you 505 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,440 Speaker 1: reflect energy. Basically you're getting a push, right If A 506 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,640 Speaker 1: if a photon comes and bounces off of you, then 507 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,240 Speaker 1: you're getting a little push from that photon. So if 508 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,840 Speaker 1: a if a big solar panel is half reflective and 509 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 1: half absorbent, then half the energy goes into you know, 510 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,399 Speaker 1: electricity or whatever, and half of it keeps the solar 511 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 1: panel from falling into the sun. So these things could 512 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,280 Speaker 1: basically like float on the solar wind um, which I 513 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:48,720 Speaker 1: think is pretty cool. There's something beautiful about about all 514 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: these like huge super thin solar panels out there floating 515 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: on the solar wind um. Half half the energy keeping 516 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: them a light, and half of them the energy keeping 517 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:01,080 Speaker 1: our televisions on. They're not fling around the Earth they're 518 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,160 Speaker 1: just floating out in space and we would kind of 519 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,280 Speaker 1: swing by them every year. Yeah, exactly exactly, and they 520 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 1: would be stationary with respect to the Sun. Right, they 521 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,080 Speaker 1: wouldn't be orbiting the way we are. Um. And that 522 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,080 Speaker 1: would be pretty cool something something really cool about that, um. Right. 523 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,879 Speaker 1: And I think the thing that God Freeman Dyson thinking 524 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 1: about this is if aliens were doing this, how could 525 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: we spott it? How could we tell if somebody was 526 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,800 Speaker 1: doing this? And initially you think, well, if they build 527 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,240 Speaker 1: a whole sphere, then they're blocking out their sun. We 528 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:31,640 Speaker 1: wouldn't even know their son exists, right, So how would 529 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:35,120 Speaker 1: we even know anybody is there? There could be out 530 00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:39,479 Speaker 1: there tons of stars covered up in these days, in spheres. 531 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:41,960 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure they call it something different unless 532 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,360 Speaker 1: Freeman Dyson is an alien, which would explain as cool 533 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: is but um, you're right, like, there could be stars 534 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:51,879 Speaker 1: out that there are covered up by alien civilizations. We 535 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,880 Speaker 1: just don't know it because we can't see them. Yeah. 536 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,160 Speaker 1: So he actually had a cool idea. He said, all right, 537 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 1: if you build these things, it will block out the 538 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: light of the Sun. But if it's made of matter 539 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,240 Speaker 1: and it's absorbing the energy, of their sons. Then it's 540 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,600 Speaker 1: gonna glow, it's gonna get hot, and it's going to 541 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:09,959 Speaker 1: give off infrared radiation. So you won't see the stars 542 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: the way you normally would, you know, in the visible 543 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: spectrum and all that stuff, but you would see sort 544 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,439 Speaker 1: of a black patch of sky plus a bunch of 545 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: infrared radiation, which shows you that there's something hot there. No, really, 546 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: you would attribute that to an alien civilization building a 547 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,400 Speaker 1: shell the size side a giant shell around this area, 548 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:33,879 Speaker 1: and not just some like hot rock or well, how 549 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: do you get a hot rock? How do you get 550 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: something out in the middle of space, not next to 551 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 1: a star that's warm? Right? Are there stars that are 552 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: like basically like cinders kind of? Yeah? There are some. Yeah, 553 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:46,840 Speaker 1: Well this is the point of his paper. He's like, 554 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: how could you see this? And he had the idea like, 555 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 1: let's look for infrared radiation. And I'm sure you know 556 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: reviewer number two had your reaction no, come on, um, 557 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,440 Speaker 1: But he talked in the paper about like other things 558 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,760 Speaker 1: that might mimic the signal and how you could tell, etcetera. Um, 559 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: but it's a good idea, right, Like, how else could 560 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 1: you spot these things unless you saw them building it. Right, 561 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: Unless you watch them building, you could see the star 562 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,640 Speaker 1: like winking out year by year as they're constructing this thing. 563 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,600 Speaker 1: That would be super awesome. But wouldn't it take them 564 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 1: like hundreds of years to build it? Right? I mean 565 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,040 Speaker 1: even an advantage. We're talking about hypothetical super advanced aliens. 566 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,480 Speaker 1: I could say anything. Right, maybe they spend like a 567 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,480 Speaker 1: million years building it and then it's just like unfolds 568 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,880 Speaker 1: in one year or something. Right, who knows just as 569 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 1: we're looking at their star. Yes, you'd have to be 570 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: super lucky. Right, So I think either you're super lucky 571 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,760 Speaker 1: because you're seeing them build it, or you see these 572 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: things radiated. And people have done this. People have like 573 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,320 Speaker 1: looked out in the night sky and said, are there 574 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:55,240 Speaker 1: places where all we see is infrared emission? Right? And 575 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,360 Speaker 1: and um, so people did this third way and they 576 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:02,840 Speaker 1: found seventeen candidates, seven team candidates, and um most of 577 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,440 Speaker 1: them they were able to explain due to other astronomical things. 578 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:07,280 Speaker 1: You know, it's a dead star, wars, it's this, or 579 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: is that? But there were four candidates. I looked at 580 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: the paper and they described in this way. And I 581 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 1: have to quote it directly because I've never seen this 582 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:15,840 Speaker 1: in a scientific paper where they say that four of 583 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: these candidates have been named quote amusing but still questionable, 584 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: which means like what people call me, I mean they 585 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,400 Speaker 1: feel so connected to the to the universe. Now, yeah, 586 00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:31,719 Speaker 1: I mean tells you what scientists find funny. But there 587 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 1: is something hilarious about like finding things out there and 588 00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: not really understanding them, and like what is going on 589 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: out there in space? And the thing I love about 590 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,959 Speaker 1: looking at in space is that every time you do 591 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: it you find something weird. Is you're always surprised. There's 592 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,000 Speaker 1: always something weird out there. What do you think they 593 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,440 Speaker 1: meant by amusing but still questionable. I think they meant 594 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:54,240 Speaker 1: we can't rule out alien megastructure. And that's what's amusing 595 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: about it, right, Like it makes you seriously consider that, 596 00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: you know, And if you're an astronomer, we don't know 597 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,160 Speaker 1: what's amusing in the sense of like it makes you think, 598 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,160 Speaker 1: it makes you muse about it, or it makes you hope. 599 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 1: You know, astronomers always have to keep in mind that 600 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: they might that today might be the day they discover 601 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:16,360 Speaker 1: alien civilizations. Right, it's a it's a low, it's low 602 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,200 Speaker 1: on the list, right, they gotta rule out a thousand 603 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: other things first. But one day I think we will 604 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,680 Speaker 1: discover alien civilizations, right, and somebody will be it will 605 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,960 Speaker 1: be today for somebody, It'll be right now for somebody, 606 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: and so you always got to keep that in mind. Right, Wow, 607 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 1: all right, let's get into it. But let's take a 608 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: quick break first. Okay. So Dyson's fears are this idea 609 00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: that you can surround the whole Sun with some kind 610 00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: of structure to capture all of its energy. And Dyson 611 00:31:56,640 --> 00:32:01,320 Speaker 1: proposed this as a way to maybe detect alien civilizations. 612 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: That's right, And he said, let's look for let's look 613 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,880 Speaker 1: for stars that might be blocked by alien megastructures. And 614 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,480 Speaker 1: so you're saying that we actually maybe found one of 615 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,480 Speaker 1: these stars. Yes, a couple of years ago, there are 616 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,080 Speaker 1: astronomers that were looking at stars and they saw this 617 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: one and they were watching it, and the light from 618 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 1: it did this weird thing. It wasn't constant, right, most stars, 619 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:25,240 Speaker 1: the life from this constant. I mean you see a 620 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,320 Speaker 1: little bit of twinkling from the dust between us and them, 621 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: but mostly the lights pretty constant. And astronomers look at 622 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,640 Speaker 1: these stars sometimes to see if they can spot planets 623 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:36,719 Speaker 1: in those solar systems, and the way they do it 624 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:38,600 Speaker 1: is they look to see if the planet goes in 625 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:40,920 Speaker 1: front of the star, and if that happens, if you 626 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,200 Speaker 1: see a little dip and how bright the star is, 627 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,560 Speaker 1: because it's basically a little mini eclipse, but that dip 628 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: is like, you know, one percent maximum, Like if you 629 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,920 Speaker 1: were watching our Sun from really far away and Jupiter 630 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 1: went in front of the Sun, the Sun's brightness would 631 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,719 Speaker 1: dip like one percent. So that's the kind of thing 632 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,959 Speaker 1: people are doing. They're watching stars looking to see if 633 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,600 Speaker 1: they dip. And then they found this star and they 634 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 1: saw a dip not one percent, not two, but like 635 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:10,760 Speaker 1: twenty percent, like a huge fraction of the star's brightness 636 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 1: just went away. But then it came back, and then 637 00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:15,680 Speaker 1: it went a way again, and then it came back 638 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:20,200 Speaker 1: and then like it's not regular, right, it's not like 639 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: you know, if if a planet is orbiting a star 640 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:25,120 Speaker 1: and blocking it, then it's regular. And you can use 641 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,280 Speaker 1: that to figure out like how quickly does the planet 642 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: orbit the star? Right, what is the period of it? 643 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 1: And they watch it um for many periods and they 644 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,240 Speaker 1: figure these things out. You can measure the mass the planets. 645 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: It's really awesome. But there was no pattern here, right, 646 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,200 Speaker 1: There was like dips and then days would go by 647 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,160 Speaker 1: when it would be bright again, and then more dips 648 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 1: would come, and then it was like two years when 649 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,520 Speaker 1: there were no dips, and then another huge dip came, 650 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: and so people were like, what is going on with 651 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: the brightness of this star? What is this? And so 652 00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:55,720 Speaker 1: immediately that little voice in everybody's head was like, could 653 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,160 Speaker 1: this be Aliens? Aliens? Could this be it? Could we 654 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 1: be watching an alien megastructure be constructed? Really? That was 655 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 1: the first thing that came to people's mind. Of course, 656 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:09,920 Speaker 1: was of course it was anybody anything strange, You're like, Aliens, 657 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:15,719 Speaker 1: that's right, Aliens. I've never seen a car like that before. Aliens? 658 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,160 Speaker 1: What is this fruit called? Aliens? How did you do 659 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: that magic trick? Card trick? Aliens? Exactly? How can one 660 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: man eat so many bananas? Aliens? Aliens? Yes, it's always 661 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,279 Speaker 1: on our minds, right, And of course the first thing 662 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:32,680 Speaker 1: they did it's like, all right, let's kind of try 663 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:35,440 Speaker 1: to come up with other explanations. What else could explain this? 664 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,960 Speaker 1: And so they went through a long list of reasons 665 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,000 Speaker 1: to explain it. But it's really unusual. We have not 666 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,479 Speaker 1: seen another star like this. It's not like you see 667 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:44,880 Speaker 1: this all the time. And so you have a bunch 668 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,839 Speaker 1: of ready explanations, right, people have to really stretch their 669 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,600 Speaker 1: minds to imagine how you could block like twenty percent 670 00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 1: of the light of a star and not be an 671 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,959 Speaker 1: alien megastructure. How do you know it was one star 672 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,080 Speaker 1: and not like two stars. I think they know the 673 00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:58,640 Speaker 1: star pretty well. I mean you can you can tell 674 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:00,960 Speaker 1: the difference between one star and two stars. I mean 675 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: two stars would orbit each other. Um, I think you 676 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,000 Speaker 1: could resolve them. But I don't know. It doesn't matter. 677 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,399 Speaker 1: I don't know me. Um. But what they think, hey, 678 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:20,480 Speaker 1: maybe let's consider other all turn out as besides then, 679 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:22,239 Speaker 1: what they did is they looked. They did something really 680 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,479 Speaker 1: interesting is they went back through historical measurements and they said, 681 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,560 Speaker 1: you know, people have been taking pictures the night sky 682 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,480 Speaker 1: for decades and decades, and not all of his digital 683 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:32,319 Speaker 1: and not all of his as good as recent data, 684 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:34,839 Speaker 1: but we have pictures of lots of the night sky 685 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,520 Speaker 1: going back like a century. So what they did is 686 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:39,239 Speaker 1: they went back and they looked for pictures to this 687 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,240 Speaker 1: star over the last hundred years, and what they found 688 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,960 Speaker 1: is that over the last hundred years, this star has 689 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,480 Speaker 1: been gradually fading, like getting less bright, yeah less right, 690 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: Like it's twenty percent less bright than it was a 691 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,120 Speaker 1: hundred years ago, but it's steadily Yeah. Well, we don't 692 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,319 Speaker 1: have really constant data over the last hundred years, right, 693 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,400 Speaker 1: we have like snapshot and then the snapshot in the 694 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 1: snapshot in the snapshot. Recently, because we've noticed the stars weird, 695 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:06,960 Speaker 1: people have been watching the star a lot more and 696 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:08,800 Speaker 1: so they've been seeing a lot more of these dips 697 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:12,040 Speaker 1: and trying to understand them. Um. But the dips can 698 00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:15,040 Speaker 1: be very dramatic and they're not regular, um, and it's 699 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:17,719 Speaker 1: kind of hard to explain, all right, So um, so 700 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:20,120 Speaker 1: you're thinking it could be aliens, it could be alien. 701 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:22,680 Speaker 1: How how would alien? What would aliens be doing? You're 702 00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,040 Speaker 1: like just flipping the switch on and off kind of 703 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,319 Speaker 1: like my kids do know they would be building a 704 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:31,680 Speaker 1: dicen sphere, right, Maybe why would go on and off? 705 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,520 Speaker 1: Maybe they're partially maybe they're part way done with constructing 706 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:39,080 Speaker 1: their dicensphere, right, And what we're seeing is like orbiting 707 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,000 Speaker 1: the Sun and blocking it. Rights, it's irregular. Over the 708 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:45,160 Speaker 1: last hundred years they've been building it up, and now 709 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: you're saying it's might be operational and it's rotating and 710 00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,600 Speaker 1: that causes these dips. Yeah, exactly. And when the dicensphere 711 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:55,080 Speaker 1: is between us and their star is when the is 712 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: when the when the light from that sun gets dimmer. 713 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,839 Speaker 1: It's it's hard to have. It's hard to come up 714 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,920 Speaker 1: with other explanations for irregular dips in the light. And 715 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,560 Speaker 1: so let's go through them. Though, because it's um in 716 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,759 Speaker 1: the end, people think it's probably not aliens, which is 717 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,000 Speaker 1: you know, the story of every scientific discovery ever um. 718 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,120 Speaker 1: But there's not really one convincing explanation. Okay, so what 719 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,600 Speaker 1: are the possibilities here? The leading possibilities are that it's 720 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,920 Speaker 1: a it's like a lot of dust, like a huge 721 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,759 Speaker 1: cloud of dust. And but it's not regular. It's not 722 00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,440 Speaker 1: like our asteroid belt where like the asteroids are sprinkled 723 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,320 Speaker 1: all the way around the Sun. It's some like asymmetrical 724 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,680 Speaker 1: cloud of dust. I mean like a patchy like a 725 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:40,160 Speaker 1: patchy clumpy. Yeah, it's like spread up. You know what 726 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:42,480 Speaker 1: you need in that case, then you need a dice 727 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:47,520 Speaker 1: and vacuum cleaner. Fear somebody clean up with it's a mess. 728 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:55,439 Speaker 1: Got the best section the code dice and dot com 729 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,360 Speaker 1: slash to anyone. Exactly. It's like mega made from spaceballs. 730 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 1: Somebody's cleaning up that system. Um. Yeah, so like maybe 731 00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: like a huge patch of dust. And what they did 732 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:06,880 Speaker 1: is they looked at the light from the star and 733 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:09,759 Speaker 1: they noticed that the light from the star is not 734 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: dimmed equally across all wavelengths. Right. Remember light has different 735 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,240 Speaker 1: wavelengths from the reddish to the bluish and the invisible 736 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:20,399 Speaker 1: wavelengths as well. It doesn't dip the same at all 737 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,960 Speaker 1: frequencies of light. Yeah, and you know, one the basic 738 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,759 Speaker 1: idea that Dyson had was let's look for light. Let's 739 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,320 Speaker 1: look for stars that are basically only emitting in the infrared, 740 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,520 Speaker 1: because that's what a huge mega structure would emit. But 741 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,319 Speaker 1: the direction of the spectrum which light is absorbed in 742 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:38,960 Speaker 1: which light is coming out, suggests that it's dust. It 743 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,719 Speaker 1: looks like the kind of thing you would get if 744 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 1: there was a big dust cloud, would maybe like pockets 745 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:49,160 Speaker 1: where the sun shines through. Yeah, exactly, And that's what 746 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:51,440 Speaker 1: the are. And so maybe what we're seeing is basically 747 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 1: the profile of this dust cloud. But that's not really 748 00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:57,040 Speaker 1: a satisfying explanation, because like where does this dust cloud 749 00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,360 Speaker 1: come from? You know, most stars don't have dust clouds 750 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:03,520 Speaker 1: around them for several reasons, like especially old stars like 751 00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:06,359 Speaker 1: young stars who's like just been formed, that it's being 752 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,920 Speaker 1: formed inside a huge cloud of gas and dust. Then, yeah, 753 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,560 Speaker 1: you expect a lot of um of gas and dust. 754 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,880 Speaker 1: So like stellar nurs certainly, let me guess, Let me guess, Daniel, 755 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,799 Speaker 1: you think it could be Aliens? I always random guess 756 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:23,080 Speaker 1: to what physicist might think it is Aliens. Well, you're 757 00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,319 Speaker 1: both right and wrong, like one possibility is. So the 758 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:30,080 Speaker 1: point is you don't get dust around old stars usually, right, 759 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:33,680 Speaker 1: because that dust gathers together and forms planets or or 760 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,239 Speaker 1: even just gets blown away by the solar radiation. Right, 761 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,600 Speaker 1: Like solar radiation pushes dust out of these systems. So 762 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:43,080 Speaker 1: maybe a planet blew up, right, maybe it's Aliens and 763 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:44,839 Speaker 1: they had a huge war and like one of them 764 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:46,839 Speaker 1: blew up the other one's planet, And what we're looking 765 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:51,480 Speaker 1: at is like planetary debris or something. What that would 766 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,000 Speaker 1: be super awesome. Right from this fully operational battle station, 767 00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,320 Speaker 1: you're seeing the remnants of the Death Star. Yeah, but 768 00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:02,480 Speaker 1: but before people get too excited about that one. That 769 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,279 Speaker 1: one doesn't really hold together because in that case, you 770 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 1: would see it would be like warm, right, because like 771 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:10,279 Speaker 1: the planet blows up, you got these big blobs of 772 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:13,240 Speaker 1: glowing matter um, and it would glow in the infrared. 773 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,840 Speaker 1: But we don't see that. So it's consistent with cold 774 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:19,400 Speaker 1: dust um, which is kind of hard to explain, Like 775 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 1: we don't understand how you can get this rear, irregular 776 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,680 Speaker 1: blob cold dust around the star. What if it was 777 00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:29,200 Speaker 1: a planet destroyed by like a cold freeze ray aliens? 778 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,799 Speaker 1: What is that superhero that that shoots freeze rays? Yeah, yeah, 779 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:37,680 Speaker 1: ice Man, the Ice Man. Yeah exactly. Ice Man came 780 00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:39,960 Speaker 1: and froze their planet and it's shattered into a bunch 781 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: of fruit. Might as well offer that as an explanation. 782 00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:46,840 Speaker 1: I see. So you're scoffing on my explanation of aliens, 783 00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:50,960 Speaker 1: and but instead as a more likely explanation, you're suggesting 784 00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:55,600 Speaker 1: the Iceman came and froze. Yeah, that's what I always 785 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,359 Speaker 1: go to first, superheroes. You know that's true. I guess 786 00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:03,200 Speaker 1: the cartoon is would go to superheroes first as an explanation. Um, 787 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: I'm just saying I think I think I should get 788 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: a physics degree. You know, I have a stow upon 789 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,120 Speaker 1: you from Daniel and Jorge University, an honorary PhD in 790 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:15,440 Speaker 1: superhero physics. Oh man, that should be a great product 791 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,440 Speaker 1: for a store. And you know how how much value 792 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,640 Speaker 1: I put in honorary PhDs. That's why you have three 793 00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 1: of them. That's why I have exactly zero of them. Um. 794 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:29,640 Speaker 1: And so another explanation, another idea is that maybe it's 795 00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:32,000 Speaker 1: just a really weird star. Maybe there's no dust there. 796 00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:34,400 Speaker 1: Maybe the star is just like doing something weird inside 797 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: of it, Like it's not glowing constantly as something weird 798 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,759 Speaker 1: going on inside. It's like flickering, you know, it's not 799 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,239 Speaker 1: burning consistently, but there's something inside it's like absorbing at 800 00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:48,279 Speaker 1: the energy, or it's sputtering a little bit. Um an 801 00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:52,000 Speaker 1: unstable star. Yeah, yeah, some some kind of weird process 802 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,279 Speaker 1: that gives variable light. But the problem with all these 803 00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:57,680 Speaker 1: explanations is that it's a big universe and we've looked 804 00:41:57,680 --> 00:41:59,520 Speaker 1: at a lot of stars and we've never seen anything 805 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:03,000 Speaker 1: like this. But for and so, any process you propose 806 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,760 Speaker 1: to explain this have to also explain why it's only 807 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:08,080 Speaker 1: happening to this star. And not to any of the 808 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:11,680 Speaker 1: other zillions and gazillions of yadas and yadas of stars 809 00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:14,640 Speaker 1: that we've seen, right, Right, Like, if it's a cluster 810 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:16,920 Speaker 1: of comets or of planet that blew up like you 811 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,840 Speaker 1: would expect, if it's not totally impossible, that would be 812 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,240 Speaker 1: happening dozens or hundreds or thousands or millions of times 813 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,279 Speaker 1: we've seen other ones. So that's the real puzzle. That's 814 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:29,279 Speaker 1: what makes this star interesting is that it really does 815 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:33,839 Speaker 1: seem unique, right, So maybe we're seeing something really really unusual, right, 816 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,719 Speaker 1: that could happen um or maybe it's aliens because you're 817 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:40,320 Speaker 1: seeing we're seeing we can see like billions and trillions 818 00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:42,600 Speaker 1: of stars, right, that's just one of them that's doing 819 00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:46,480 Speaker 1: something weird. Yeah, well, our soulars, our galaxy has you know, 820 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,399 Speaker 1: hundreds of billions of stars. That's a lot, and so 821 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:51,560 Speaker 1: we can't see all of them, of course, but yeah, 822 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,000 Speaker 1: we've observed a lot of them and we've never seen 823 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,839 Speaker 1: anything like this, So it's pretty weird for one star 824 00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,439 Speaker 1: to stand out in the galaxy. Wow, So it could 825 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:04,040 Speaker 1: be an alien license fear, yeah, or could be the 826 00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:08,759 Speaker 1: you know, the villain's layer for Iceman. Well, you know 827 00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:14,279 Speaker 1: Ice alien exactly. Yeah, all right, so that answers the 828 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,160 Speaker 1: question what is the dicens fear? And hopefully people out 829 00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:22,400 Speaker 1: there founded amusing but not questionable. That's right. And maybe 830 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: someday we will build a dicense fhere and aliens far 831 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,120 Speaker 1: far away, we'll be having a podcast talking about could 832 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,480 Speaker 1: we see if they had built a dicense fhere around 833 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,400 Speaker 1: their son um? You know, maybe humanity will be able 834 00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:39,000 Speaker 1: to accomplish these great enormous infrastructure projects and work together 835 00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,520 Speaker 1: and not just to ourselves. It makes me hopeful to 836 00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:43,560 Speaker 1: think that one day we could we could build such 837 00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:48,040 Speaker 1: a vast projects and have that much energy at our fingertips. Yeah, 838 00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:50,759 Speaker 1: that would be cool, and it would spare dela like 839 00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:55,560 Speaker 1: a refrigerator. So everybody in Delaware, no need to pack 840 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:59,160 Speaker 1: up your bags anytime soon. We're not taking over. That's right. 841 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:04,680 Speaker 1: Rest easy, Delaware, Sleep well tonight another day when we 842 00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:07,160 Speaker 1: didn't find aliens. All right, Thanks for joining us. I 843 00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:09,680 Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed that. We'll see you next time. 844 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:20,480 Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in. If you still have a question 845 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,959 Speaker 1: after listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line. 846 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,120 Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. You can find us 847 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:29,960 Speaker 1: at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's 848 00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,360 Speaker 1: one Word, or email us at Feedback at Daniel and 849 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,880 Speaker 1: Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel 850 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,400 Speaker 1: and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of I 851 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,080 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from My Heart Radio, visit 852 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:46,640 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 853 00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:48,240 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.