WEBVTT - Five Reasons to Never Take Your Space Helmet Off 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to blow your Mind from how stop 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.680 works dot com. Hey you wasn't discussable your mind. My 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.560 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and boy 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.439 do we have a treat for you today because Robert 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.400 and I saw Alien Covenant this past weekend, right, yeah, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.040 on a Saturday, wasn't Yeah, it was. So we're going 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.160 to try to avoid major plot spoilers, but this episode 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.280 today is going to uh spring off of an idea 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.640 that came up when we were watching the movie. So 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.360 we are going to talk about the movie a little 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.520 in more general terms. But if you absolutely cannot bear 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.120 to hear anything at all until you see it, you 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.279 might want to pause here and come back once you've 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.080 seen it. Like I said, no specific plot spoilers, but 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.640 I mean, we've got to talk about the movie, right yeah, 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.080 I mean, and I don't agree with me talking about 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.680 any more depth than you would get out of the 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.720 trailers for it. And there were so many trailers for 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.960 this film. I feel yeah, I feel like this was 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.279 the most part of it. May just be those sort 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.080 of the algorithms of YouTube advertisements, but I felt like 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.200 I was absolutely bombarded to the point where I just 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.839 really wanted to respond and say like, look, I I'm 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.520 on board, I'm gonna see it. Just stop making me 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.959 watch trailers for it, because I'm gonna it's gonna reach 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.320 the point where I'm gonna start losing interest. So Ridley 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.240 Scott did the same thing with Prometheus where he didn't 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.800 just do trailers, but he did scenes that take place 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.680 before the movie starts. Sit with him and that thing. 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.560 I don't know. I think maybe part of it just 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.840 like shooting a lot of footage, and then with this 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.200 film in particular, I felt like there was this is 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.360 so one of the things with the film, like Alien Covenant, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.080 is that by no means was just a small movie. 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.880 This is a large studio production. And and over the 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.400 years Ridley Scott has has proven himself one of these 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.680 directors who knows how he has the clout to work 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.480 within that system, but he seems to know how to 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.360 to cater to expectations like you don't not that I 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.800 follow this kind of thing just religiously, but you know, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.520 I don't remember every hearing stories about Ridley Scott's battle 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.720 with the studio over something like he seems to Yeah, 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.280 it may have happened that. I don't recall hearing about that. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.440 It's not like hearing about David Fincher's struggles on Alien 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.440 three with Fox. Yeah, and part of that is him 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.280 having cloud. You know, he's Ridley Scott. He's essentially, you know, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:29.000 a living legend of of the cinema. But but I 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:33.160 also get the sense that he is willing to he's 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.200 willing to work. He's willing to adjust that or to 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.079 um to to to adjust the settings, the trajectory on that, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.680 on that that vision he has in order to see 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.519 it to the theater. What you're saying is he'll play ball. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.120 I get the impression that he's a he's a guy 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.920 who will play ball. Okay, So here's so it is 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.200 an alien movie. I will say it's an alien movie 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.480 in the Alien franchise. That actually felt kind of like 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:01.359 an alien movie. And here's my short review. Almost all 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.320 the things I can think of to say about it 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.400 are criticisms. I felt that it had really similar problems 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.200 with Prometheus. With the script, the human characters are underdeveloped. 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.200 Their personalities and motivations didn't seem to be consistent from 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.680 one scene to another. Parts of the plot definitely went on. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:20.960 And this is a cliche I hate to use it, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.200 but it is the best descriptive term for it. It 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:28.360 was on autopilot in certain parts, but I just really 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.760 liked it. I enjoyed it nonetheless, despite all that it 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.120 was beautiful to look at. Of course, Ridley Scott's always 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.360 a great set designer, great at the visual aspect of 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.280 his movies, creative and interesting things to explore. In the 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.520 first half at least, I love the gleeful sense of 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:51.440 body horror repaired with this classically ponderous mad scientist vibe, 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.400 especially in the mid section of the movie. And Michael 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:59.160 Fastbender is just heroically fun so to the extent this 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.560 makes any sense, I felt like the movie was somehow 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:07.720 both stupid and an intensely pleasing work of art. Okay, 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.400 well this actually this in ways lines up with some 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.800 of my feelings about it. It was definitely for me 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.120 a film that I saw it, I wasn't sure how 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.120 I felt about it, but I keep thinking about it 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.000 every day since I saw it, and and I feel like, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.400 for me at this point in my life and only 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.000 the way I interact with films like that's how I 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.480 tend to judge it is it something more than like 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.520 the structural completeness of a film, or the or the 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.320 character motivations and the character development, Like is there something 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.520 in the movie that I came back to because there's 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.520 for instance, there's so many just sort of paint by 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:44.800 number of superhero films, and there are a lot of 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.599 fun I enjoy seeing them, but it's well, I mean, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.279 I'm into them. I get excited about him. I'm excited 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.919 to say, see the next Guardians of the Galaxy film 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.560 whenever it's you know, I can watch it on an 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.720 airplane or however it comes together. I enjoy seeing them, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.560 and then I don't. I don't chew on them afterwards. 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.080 They kind of go in in in, one year out 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.960 the other kind of right. So with Alien Covenant, I 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.200 kept thinking about in terms of of of Scott's vision 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.840 for this film and the fact that he you know, 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:24.000 like we said, well play ball um. Because it's because 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.920 just as the the Malevolent Organism and the Alien series 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.360 draws its form via the life forms that it annihilates, 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.920 so too does Alien Covets Covenant Seema a chimerical beast. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.920 So it's a it's a Prometheus sequel and Body, but 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.080 with appindages that call back to Aliens Alien three, even 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.920 a dash of a VP and there for good measure, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.360 and you know, the monster's form varies, enabling the creature 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.720 to better consume it's victims, but the genetic mission remains 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.240 the same. This you know, unstoppable will of weaponized evolution, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:59.960 created and recreated by those who would take on the 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.320 mantle of gods. And it's such really Scott, I feel 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.960 like he allowed Covenants form to encompass fan and studio 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.960 demands for more, for more monsters, for dashes of past 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.039 installments in the franchise, but still at its heart, it's 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.599 a Prometheus sequel. It's the the second installment in a 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.320 new film Mark that one commentator on called called quote 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.800 a weirdly religious science fiction universe. And uh, you know, 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.800 I'm me personally, I love both space horror and virtually 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.600 anything that's weirdly religious, So you know, I'm on this 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.400 bull's eye for me to h Yeah. I love it 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.960 though with I mean the those aspects you mentioned, I 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.440 love that they're all there, but they also, um would 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:47.680 you say, so many of them are not followed through 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.240 on It's almost like they set something up to happen 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.720 in the movie and then it just never happened. Yeah, 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.560 I mean I would be interested to learn more about 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.359 sort of the behind the scenes and what was added, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.800 what was changed, because for instance, there's a there's a 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.280 shower scene not to not just spill anything later in 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.919 the film, and it's very a VP, and it feels 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.320 feels a bit tacked on. It's like the moment it goes. 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.040 Multiple reviewers have commented on this that at some point 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.680 the movie suddenly becomes a slasher movie. It's like a 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.200 Friday movie for a few minutes, and that's sort of 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.560 how it felt to me. Yeah, and uh, and I 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.320 also have to say that when it comes to the 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.840 characters of this film, like really, this is a film 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.520 about two androids and uh and and to a and 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.160 to a lesser extent, a third character who is Um, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.240 who is sort of like the associate captain who ends 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:41.840 up taking over the Billy credit character. Uh. Everyone else 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.680 is is far less developed. But at the core, I 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.960 mean a film about to androids sort of struggling to 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.240 figure out like where they stand in relationship to the 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.640 to these these these lesser creators are they are there 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.840 there there their guardians or are they there destroyers and 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:00.600 know I'm I'm I'm all on board of that kind 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.480 of thing. Yeah, okay, so we got to get into 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.960 the meat of the episode. But one final comment about 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.880 the movie. Do you think they're ever going to stop 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:13.080 with the the title format of franchise named colon abstract now? 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:17.280 And I'm so sick of it. Alien Resurrection, Alien Coming, 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.600 and all the franchises do it now. It's you know, 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:25.679 it's like, uh, Terminator, Genesis whatever. It makes me feel 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.200 like the next one is going to be called like 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.000 Alien Gamification. It just feels like such a product I hated. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.640 I wish they could give each movie its own title. Well, 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.160 the last one was Prometheus, so thumbs up for that. 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.880 I get the feeling that it is about tying everything 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.960 into this overarching brand. Yeah, I think it's just to 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.840 get people in the theaters. And I mean sometimes we 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:51.280 use the NOWNI nown colon additional keywords, uh template when 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.360 say titling episodes of this podcast, because a part of 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.160 it is like I've only got so much space and 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.439 I really need to convey what this is about. So 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.720 Alien's Colon Covenant that lets you know that it's going 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:07.200 to involve aliens, it's gonna involve Colon's, involve something quasi religious, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:08.640 and that's all you need to know. But if we 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.200 were to really follow this format, every episode of ours, 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.880 somebody called something like stuff to blow your mind colon respiration, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.920 which is sort of what we're gonna get into today. So, 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.160 without spoiling anything significant about the plot, I wanted to 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.240 point out something this movie movie has in common with Prometheus. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.320 So it's got space explorers, that's no surprise. Astronauts go 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.840 into other planets and they just plunge their faces straight 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:38.400 into the atmosphere and biosphere of an alien planet without protection. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.200 And Prometheus they are these scenes where they take their 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.240 helmets off for no reason I can really remember. I 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.760 think they're just for the heck of it. In Covenant, 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.600 they just walk out of their landing vehicle without suits 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.920 of any kind. There. They just weren some hats and 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:58.599 some overcoats. Now, I'm fine with characters behaving irrationally or 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.600 unrealistically in horror or in sci fi movies. I think 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.320 that's a pretty common element and I'm okay with it. Yeah, 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.520 I mean basically the whole movie Covenant, it begins with 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.080 a hey, should we go check this out? Scenario? Like 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.160 so many horror films, And if your characters were smart 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.760 enough to stay on the path, right, then they would 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.000 never we would have no movie because what was that 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.120 noise in the bushes? And most horror stories are about 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.720 going off the path? Should we go off the path? 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.600 Should we go explore that? And yeah, you don't do that, 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.160 you never get out of the boat. But if you 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.280 never got out of the boat, we would have no film, right, 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.480 So I'm fine with that happening, providing that I get 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:40.080 provided that there's some consistent level of realism. Most modern 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.240 sci fi movies I would say, have a very healthy 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.960 dose of fantasy in them. And that's just one expression 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.560 of that here. But today we wanted to explore the 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:53.119 topic of why, if you're an actual exoplanet colonist or explorer, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.400 you really shouldn't want to take your helmet off or 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.040 otherwise open yourself up to the alien environment and in 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.400 the sea of unknown possibilities that could come flooding in 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.200 upon you. Right. Uh. One thing to keep in mind 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.080 here is that that we we're definitely looking at why 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.880 you should keep that that helmet on and the dangers 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.439 that are inherent to any any kind of alien environment 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:21.640 we might experience. However, I feel like an important caveat 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.200 to all this is that anytime we're looking at a 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.600 fictional people landing on a fictional world taking their helmet off, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.840 I always have to wonder, Okay, would any sufficiently advanced 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.680 civilization capable of not only interplanetary but interstellar travel, would 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.560 they have all that worked out? Like, would they have 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.719 sufficient scanning technology to know just like down to the 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:47.560 finest detail that the air was breathable? Uh? Well, without 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.040 spoiling too much about Alien Covenant, obviously they don't know that. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.280 But they're also religious fanatics. Not to have played David's 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.800 advocate too much, but but they are. They are driven 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.920 by religious optimism in that film. So what you're saying, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.480 Robert is you're a little more gung ho. I think 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.240 maybe you're saying, breathe in, breathe in, Brothers. I'm thinking 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.800 that if the if your technology is not picking it up, 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.920 if there's a danger out there that you're interstellar technology 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.960 is incapable of picking up on, let it act fast. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.000 Because movies movie movies like Alien Covenant show it's like 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.800 there's no there's no real victory, and being a survivor, 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:30.760 it's better to be that that individual that gets that 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.240 has something jump out of him rather quickly. Right, at 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.480 least you go out with a with a burst. Yeah, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.160 a big, chesty burst. Okay, Well, so maybe we should 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:44.080 start by just acknowledging the concept of a space suit. Yeah, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.680 it's kind of it's kind of easy to forget why 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.440 we have them because we end up just focusing on 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.480 how cool they look most of the time. Right, So, 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.360 a space suit is I think I remember reading a 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.760 NASA resource at some point a long time ago that 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.720 put it like this, and it was it's a spacecraft 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.680 for one person. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Uh. So, 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.040 for example, the extra vehicular mobility units that are worn 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.640 by astronauts. When you've got to go outside and perform 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.479 external work on the International Space Station and do a spacewalk, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.360 you put this suit on and it cools your body. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.640 It Uh. It supplies you with oxygen and breathable atmosphere. 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.040 It purges the CEO two that you exhale when you're 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.520 out there. Uh. It shields you from radiation, It shields 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.520 you from impacts from space debris. So, and these are 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.439 all very important things. But another important aspect of any 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.760 type of suit for extra vehicular activity when you're out 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.600 exploring the cosmos is that it's a contained environment. It's 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.800 supposed to create a sealed barrier between external conditions and 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.559 internal conditions. So this sort of means making the inside 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.679 of the suit as earth like as possible, no matter 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.160 what the outside of the suit is. And of course 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.920 this would also mean keeping out things that really just 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.240 don't go well with your Earth adapted biology, for example, 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:10.680 for and dust, gas, particles, radiation, and potentially life. Yeah, 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.280 it comes back to the idea of like the spacecraft itself, 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.720 it's it's the idea that we as humans evolved not 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:18.560 only to live on Earth, but to live within a 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.600 very um thin portion of the atmosphere and under very 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:27.000 specific environmental settings. And uh and and so there are 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.720 places on our own Earth whereof we we go, we perish, 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.800 and therefore we have to we have to bring part 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.000 of our world with us, even if it's just a 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.800 skin layer in a suit. Yeah. Now I can totally 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.400 understand the impulse to want to take the space suit off. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.080 I can imagine if I was somebody colonizing an exoplanet 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.920 that was, you know, that we thought would be habitable, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.200 that we could start living there. Obviously, protocols would be 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.560 to maintain that seal, to to keep the quarantine as 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.320 long as there was any doubt whatsoever that what was 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:02.640 outside could hurt us. But you just can't live that way, right, 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.200 I mean, anytime you go outside, you've got to wear 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.280 the suit. You you can't touch the rocks and the trees, 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:13.600 You can't interact by contact, by respiration, by anything except 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.480 through this barrier with the planet you live on. And 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.960 that sounds like a horrible existence. Well, I don't know, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.760 you know, environmental standards are changing a little every day, Joe, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.040 So we'll check to get back in on this in 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.920 a few years. Yeah. So, I guess now we should 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.600 get into the five reasons that we've come up with, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.920 at least why you should really not want to take 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.560 your helmet off on an alien planet. This would be 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.760 a good list to have, you know, in in in 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.800 reduced form as a sticker on the inside of your helmet. 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.040 And then if when you're tempted to, when you're overcome 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.400 by the beauty of uh, you know, exo planet. I 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.880 love it when an exo planet has a nice diabolical 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:57.800 name like uh in Furness b yeah or Manta Bolga six, 0:15:58.240 --> 0:15:59.760 you know whatever it happens to be. When you when 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.840 you in there and you think, ah, this place with 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.960 this uh this creepy name is actually rather beautiful. I'm 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.440 gonna get a breath of fresh air. Look to the 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.560 lower left hand portion of your visor and go through 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:17.320 this list, Pope satan Alpi six e. Alright, so reason 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.960 number one is going to be the obvious one, the 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.280 one that you probably don't even need to think about. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.720 It's gonna be atmospheric gas. Can I breathe this atmosphere 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.440 that I am seemingly moving through? And we should be generous? 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.720 This is one that sci fi almost always takes care of. 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.960 There's a line in the script where somebody says, atmospheric 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.600 conditions nominal the air, we can breathe it. But it's 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.120 worth looking at what the atmospheres of other planets generally 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.960 look like. Jean Paul Starchers said, you know, Hell is 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:51.280 other people once you start looking beyond Earth. I propose 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.480 an update, which is Hell is other people's planets, because 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:58.640 we are just so tightly adapted to the earth biosphere 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.680 and and and it's very particular balance of gases, and 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.199 to upset that balance significantly would be to change the 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.160 properties of Earth and thus to change the biosphere. So 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.480 we need our atmosphere to be the way it is 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:16.000 seventy eight percent nitrogen, one percent oxygen, about point nine 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.440 percent are gone, and point one percent trace gases primarily 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.600 carbon dioxide, plus a lot of variation in water vapor 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.879 in the air. Now, we don't know exactly what the 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.199 atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets are going to be. We know 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.760 we can see some gas giants orbiting other stars in 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.000 the galaxy, and those of course are going to be 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.520 composed generally like gas giants are like, they'll have hydrogen 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.680 and helium atmospheres. But as far as the terrestrial exoplanets 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.520 are go out there, we we don't know exactly what 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.400 their atmospheres are going to be like. If you look 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.240 at other terrestrial planets in our Solar system, you do 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.520 start to get a picture that might be local to us, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:01.840 But we don't know Venus atmospheres about carbon dioxide, yeah, 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.920 not good, not so nice. Mars has an incredibly thin atmosphere, 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.720 it's you know, a one percent or kind of atmosphere, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:13.560 and what's there is about nine carbon dioxide. Yeah, and 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.439 of course with venus to the reality is that if 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.919 you're breathing that on the surface, you're essentially standing in 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.760 a pressure cooker too, so so yeah, But but you're 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.480 just talking about just the breatheability of the the air, right. Uh. 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.639 And even if you arrived on Earth at a different 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:31.880 point in Earth's history, you would have encountered a very 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.160 different atmosphere. But the primeval surface of Earth, say about 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.159 four billion years ago, we also had an atmosphere of 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:42.480 much higher CEO two concentration. Before the biogenic oxygenation of 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:47.320 Earth about two billion years ago you had the original terraforming. Now, 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.119 carbon dioxide is obviously not good to breathe. That is 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.280 what you exhale. It's a waste product of of human respiration, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.120 and breathing it in can lead to bad effects at 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.800 low concentrates, and death or asphyxiation or poisoning at high concentrations. 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.000 I found an interesting chart put together based on research 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.359 on carbon dioxide toxicity, and the chart was made by 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.159 the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network and it's got a 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:20.240 sort of ascending scale of c O two concentration in 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.439 the air you're breathing, and what the effects would be. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.200 So they say, you know, two to three percent of air, 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.119 you're not really going to notice what's going on, but 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.560 there will be a shortness of breath if you exert yourself. 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.840 If at three percent exposure, you're breathing gets deeper, uh, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.960 three to five percent exposure, you're breathing, rhythm speeds up 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.120 and you might get headaches. At five percent exposure, your 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:49.280 breathing gets really labored. You're gonna have headaches, sweating, heavy pulse. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.040 At seven point five percent exposure, you're gonna have really 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:59.040 rapid breathing, increased heart rate, headaches, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:04.080 loss of strengthen the muscles, probably some mental fuzziness, like 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.480 inability to work things out in your head. You're gonna 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.680 get sleepy and hear ringing in your ears. At eight 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:16.240 you get the really bad stuff vertigo, vomiting, loss of consciousness, uh, 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.800 possibly death in this range, and then at you're gonna 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:25.040 have convulsions, rapid loss of consciousness and death. Of course, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.960 this is a situation too in control environments where the 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.320 CEO two level can can creep up if if things 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.200 are are are out of wax stays in a submarine environment, yeah, 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.040 or in the space Shuttle or this or like the 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.159 Apollo spacecraft. If you don't have your CEO too scrubbers 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.320 working you, you are in for a world of pain. 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.199 And so, as we said earlier, this is something the 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.240 sci fi movies usually do address. They're not just gonna 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.600 land on a planet with the carbon dioxide atmosphere, opened 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.920 the doors and say breathe in. Well, unless it's I 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.120 feel like it. It It happened all the time. And track though, 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.119 right what they beamed down somewhere and they couldn't breathe. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:03.639 I don't know. I mean, it's been a long time 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.520 since I've really mainline some trek, but it seems like 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.119 they're always just breathing the heck out of any atmosphere 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.840 they came across, like every world was breathable. Uh. And 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.480 maybe there's a maybe there was always an explanation or 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.320 maybe there's you know, some sort of transhumanist read where 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.600 they've all had like an operation that makes them able 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.120 to breathe carbon dioxide. Yeah, like if if this were 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.320 Banks's Culture series. I'm sure that would be the explanation. Well, Okay, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:29.320 they're members of the culture and their their body is 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.760 automatically adjusting to some different atmospheric condition. Yeah, but I 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.960 wanna posit that you should still be careful here. So 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.359 imagine you are in this sci fi spaceship and you've 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.399 arrived at a planet and they analyzed the atmosphere. Hopefully 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.960 they've analyzed it before you went to the planet, because 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:48.879 they can do that via the spectral analysis of the 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:51.960 colors of light that reflect off of it. But you 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.520 should arrive there and well you arrive there and they say, okay, 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.840 oxygen atmosphere, you can breathe it, it still might not 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.919 be safe to take that suit off, even just in 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:06.280 terms of atmospheric gas, because even though ambient carbon dioxide 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:08.920 levels might not be at a concentration to cause poisoning 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.880 or asphyxiation, there could be other possibilities of localized events. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:18.000 So one thing I want to point out is on 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.040 August twenty one nine, there was one of the weirdest 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.479 and most tragic natural disasters in modern history, and this 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.960 was near Lake Nyos in Cameroon, and Robert I think 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.000