Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur
April 9, 2019 3:51 PM Subscribe
"SFIA is a YouTube channel which focuses on exploring the depths of concepts in science and futurism." As Trump rampages and the world burns, sometimes something surfaces on the internet that makes you remember, "Oh yeah, we're humans and we're potentially pretty awesome." These are smart, 30-minute long deep dives on real-world future possibilities raised by science fiction that don't try to sell you things (except Audible, at the end, but y'know), preach a theory, or fearmonger, organized in satisfyingly comprehensive playlists. They are also sedate, full of pretty animations/stock footage, and an ASMR-ey narrator.
Suggested playlists (I'm liking the near-future ones, but there are plenty of far-future ones too):
Upward Bound - on getting into space
Earth 2.0 - on colonizing extreme environments on earth
Outward Bound - on colonizing planets in the solar system
Suggested playlists (I'm liking the near-future ones, but there are plenty of far-future ones too):
Upward Bound - on getting into space
Earth 2.0 - on colonizing extreme environments on earth
Outward Bound - on colonizing planets in the solar system
My favorite of these is on Orbital Rings which is a beautuful concept I somehow never encountered in all my SF reading. Trains in spaaace that can launch starships at interstellar speed. No exotic materials needed.
posted by joeyh at 10:22 PM on April 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by joeyh at 10:22 PM on April 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've been watching these for a while now. I feel like these should be required viewing for anyone who wants to write SF.
Even if your setting is "high fantasy in space" and your answer for the Fermi Paradox is "a wizard did it", knowing something about the real science will help you provide a handwavium explanation for the issues you plan to ignore. "The wizard casually mentioned that the ship's deck plates were enchanted to provide artificial gravity", or whatever.
posted by Thalience at 11:28 AM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Even if your setting is "high fantasy in space" and your answer for the Fermi Paradox is "a wizard did it", knowing something about the real science will help you provide a handwavium explanation for the issues you plan to ignore. "The wizard casually mentioned that the ship's deck plates were enchanted to provide artificial gravity", or whatever.
posted by Thalience at 11:28 AM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I feel like these should be required viewing for anyone who wants to write SF.
Exactly! Not that I write scifi, but they're very comprehensive if you do.
I appreciated that he acknowledged his speech impediment and encouraged viewers to turn on captions. I actually got used to it really quickly and didn't need them, but it was cool that he gave people a way to augment their comprehension of his narration.
Thank you for thanking me, but in the spirit of that, if you watch a few more of his videos, you'll find he's very receptive to audience suggestions and help. He's currently sourcing volunteer translators, and in some of his early videos, he thanks viewers for pointing out that they've had trouble understanding. He's certainly not just a guy on Youtube ad-libbing into a mic, he seems to collaborate with experts, put a lot of work into scripts, and he seems to genuinely want to build a community around these concepts, and explore all of them. There's a subreddit and Twitter kicking around in there somewhere.
The latest episode is Future Pets. My world is a little better knowing someone is out there thinking about that.
posted by saysthis at 4:57 AM on April 12, 2019
Exactly! Not that I write scifi, but they're very comprehensive if you do.
I appreciated that he acknowledged his speech impediment and encouraged viewers to turn on captions. I actually got used to it really quickly and didn't need them, but it was cool that he gave people a way to augment their comprehension of his narration.
Thank you for thanking me, but in the spirit of that, if you watch a few more of his videos, you'll find he's very receptive to audience suggestions and help. He's currently sourcing volunteer translators, and in some of his early videos, he thanks viewers for pointing out that they've had trouble understanding. He's certainly not just a guy on Youtube ad-libbing into a mic, he seems to collaborate with experts, put a lot of work into scripts, and he seems to genuinely want to build a community around these concepts, and explore all of them. There's a subreddit and Twitter kicking around in there somewhere.
The latest episode is Future Pets. My world is a little better knowing someone is out there thinking about that.
posted by saysthis at 4:57 AM on April 12, 2019
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I never do seem to find the time to watch all the cool video that's available, but this looks really cool, and I'm looking forward to checking them out further.
I appreciated that he acknowledged his speech impediment and encouraged viewers to turn on captions. I actually got used to it really quickly and didn't need them, but it was cool that he gave people a way to augment their comprehension of his narration.
This is really intriguing, and I'm sure I wouldn't have seen it without this post. Thank you, saysthis!
posted by kristi at 6:28 PM on April 9, 2019 [2 favorites]