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43:57Civilizations at the End of Time: Iron Stars
2.1M views • 9 years ago
Isaac Arthur
An Isaac Arthur episode on civilizations in the far future, past the Black Hole Era. It covers iron stars, Boltzmann brains, reversible computing and the idea of reversing entropy.
34:32Colonizing Mars
819K views • 9 years ago
Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur's in-depth look at what it would take to settle and eventually terraform Mars. He covers the challenges and the scale of the work needed to make it a home for humanity.
1:10:52The Fermi Paradox Compendium
815K views • 10 years ago
Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur surveys the popular proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox in a 71-minute compendium. He weighs the strengths and weaknesses of each argument.
6:47Starlink revisions, Nov 2018
173K views • 8 years ago
Mark Handley
Mark Handley of UCL looks at how SpaceX's November 2018 revisions to the Starlink constellation affect network behavior. The video visualizes the orbits and routing and estimates latencies, building on his earlier video and research paper.
17:55The Fermi Paradox: Dark Forest Theory
412K views • 7 years ago
Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur examines the Dark Forest theory, Cixin Liu's proposed solution to the Fermi Paradox in which civilizations stay silent and may destroy any that reveal themselves. He tests the theory's underlying assumptions and arguments.
28:44Arcologies
397K views • 10 years ago
Isaac Arthur
An Isaac Arthur episode on arcologies, self-sufficient habitats that could house whole cities, on Earth or on harsh worlds. It covers how such structures might work and what limits their size.
10:22Shakespeare: Original pronunciation (The Open University)
5.6M views • 15 years ago
OpenLearn from The Open University
David and Ben Crystal introduce the Original Pronunciation production of Shakespeare and show what it reveals about the history of English, including puns and rhymes lost in modern speech.
10:15Using ground relays with Starlink
506K views • 6 years ago
Mark Handley
Mark Handley of UCL explains, with simulation visualizations, how early Starlink satellites without inter-satellite links could still give low-latency wide-area communication by hopping via ground relays. He shows it can beat fibre on many long paths.
40:54Fermi Paradox: The Dyson Dilemma v2.0
397K views • 10 years ago
Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur examines the Dyson Dilemma, the puzzle of why we see no Dyson spheres or megastructures if growth-oriented civilizations should build them. He covers detectability and whether such structures could hide.
15:37Everything About Grain Bins (Farmers are Geniuses) - Smarter Every Day 218
7.8M views • 7 years ago
SmarterEveryDay
Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day explores how grain bins work and the engineering and know-how involved in farming. His point is that farmers are exceptionally capable.
30:14Power Satellites & Space Based Solar Power
254K views • 8 years ago
Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur explores space-based solar power, in which satellites beam energy down via microwaves to rectennas on Earth. He discusses feasibility, profitability and its role in spurring space colonization.
23:16The Machinery Of Freedom: Illustrated summary
164K views • 14 years ago
bitbutter
An illustrated 23-minute summary of David Friedman's talk based on The Machinery of Freedom. It describes how law, police and courts could work as market services in a stateless society, covering private law, polycentric law and objections.
10:03The determinant | Chapter 6, Essence of linear algebra
5M views • 10 years ago
3Blue1Brown
A 10-minute 3Blue1Brown chapter explaining the determinant as the factor by which a linear transformation scales area or volume. It builds the idea geometrically with animations before any formulas.
8:28The Fastest Way to Board a Plane Feels Like the Slowest
37.5M views • 7 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey compares airplane boarding methods, based on an arXiv paper, and shows why the intuitive back-to-front approach is slow while random or outside-in boarding does better.
10:22How Far Are The Nearest Stars?
3.7M views • 9 years ago
Cody'sLab
Cody's Lab builds a 200-billionth-scale model to show how far away the nearest stars are, using parallax and light speed. A short astronomy explainer on interstellar distances.
13:30Cities: Skylines | Power, Politics, & Planning: Episode 1: Parking
136K views • 8 years ago
donoteat01
The first episode of a Cities: Skylines series on urban politics and planning, focused on parking. It uses the game to show how parking minimums shape cities, drawing on Donald Shoup's book The High Cost of Free Parking.
8:39How to Move the Sun: Stellar Engines
19.5M views • 6 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains stellar engines such as the Shkadov thruster and Caplan thruster, which could move the Sun and solar system across the galaxy over millions of years to avoid hazards and reach new regions.
10:50The most feared song in jazz, explained
10.6M views • 7 years ago
Vox
Vox Earworm explains why John Coltrane's Giant Steps is so hard to improvise over: it is fast and moves through three keys. Musicians Braxton Cook and Adam Neely walk the host through the underlying music theory.
16:01Mars Helicopter (before it went to Mars)
6.2M views • 7 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium's Derek Muller visits NASA JPL to see the Mars helicopter Ingenuity before it was mounted on the rover. He explains how it can fly in Mars's thin atmosphere with large, fast-spinning contra-rotating rotors and low mass, and covers power and cold.
15:41Why SpaceX is Making Starlink
7.4M views • 7 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering explains why SpaceX is building Starlink, including the economics of satellite internet. It covers the latency advantage of light in vacuum over fiber for long-distance links.
7:56Building a Marsbase is a Horrible Idea: Let’s do it!
21.9M views • 7 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation walking through how a Mars base could be built and why it would be punishing, covering radiation, temperature extremes, toxic dust and the need for shielding.
17:52Training AI Without Writing A Reward Function, with Reward Modelling
259K views • 6 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains reward modelling, in which an AI learns what humans want from their preference comparisons instead of a hand-written reward function. He walks through the 2017 paper on deep reinforcement learning from human preferences.
5:077 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing | Video
1.2M views • 14 years ago
VideoFromSpace
NASA's animated explanation of the Curiosity rover's Mars landing, which relied on a complex automated sequence taking about seven minutes. It features NASA engineers discussing the risks before the 2012 landing.
10:00Is The Alcubierre Warp Drive Possible? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
2.5M views • 11 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time introduces Miguel Alcubierre's warp drive, explaining how spacetime itself could be warped rather than moving a ship through it, and whether it is physically possible.
3:12Why is the Solar System Flat?
9.5M views • 12 years ago
minutephysics
A minutephysics explainer on why the planets orbit in a flat plane. It shows how conserved angular momentum flattens a collapsing cloud of matter into a disk.
27:13The Longest Year in Human History (46 B.C.E.)
7.4M views • 7 years ago
Historia Civilis
Historia Civilis tells the story of 46 BCE, the 445-day year in which Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar. It covers the political context, including the civil war, Cato and Cicero.
6:21The Fermi Paradox — Where Are All The Aliens? (1/2)
35.5M views • 11 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt introduces the Fermi paradox: with so many stars and planets, why do we see no sign of aliens? It sets up the question and what it might imply for our own future. It is part 1 of 2.
3:13In Norway, Everyone Can Know How Much You Earn
1.3M views • 10 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains how in Norway and other Nordic countries tax returns, and so individual incomes, are public. He looks at the effects of wage transparency and whether it is a good idea, with sources listed in the description.
13:59MENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn
453K views • 8 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths demonstrates MENACE, Donald Michie's 1961 machine made of matchboxes that learns to play noughts and crosses through reinforcement. He builds and trains a physical version.
7:19Cyclists' hearts: can you be so fit that you die?
2.2M views • 8 years ago
Medlife Crisis
Medlife Crisis examines why some elite endurance athletes die in their sleep, covering extremely slow heart rates and the effects of performance-enhancing drugs that thicken blood. It uses cyclist Marco Pantani as an example.
7:53Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?
7.7M views • 13 years ago
vlogbrothers
John Green explains why the US spends far more on health care than other countries, going through insurers, drug companies, hospitals and lawyers. He argues the causes are complicated rather than a simple blame game.
28:32Teardown of an IKEA Koppla USB power supply.
730K views • 10 years ago
bigclivedotcom
Big Clive takes apart an IKEA Koppla USB power supply to assess its safety, looking at isolation and transformer construction.
13:44Are Planes With Parachutes Really Safer?
1M views • 7 years ago
AVweb
AVweb's Paul Bertorelli analyzes the safety record of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), looking at the 90-plus deployments over 20 years of Cirrus flying. He asks whether the whole-aircraft parachute has actually saved lives.
3:34Making an international standard cup of tea
2.7M views • 8 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott follows the ISO 3103 / BS 6008 standard to make an international standard cup of tea, using specialist tasting equipment. The video shows how precisely the standard is specified.
32:01EEVblog #632 - Solar Roadways Are RUBBISH!
543K views • 12 years ago
EEVblog
Dave Jones of EEVblog debunks the Solar Roadways project, which raised millions through Indiegogo and government funding. He works through the solar generation and LED power calculations to show the idea isn't viable.
5:50The city of golf carts
1.8M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits Peachtree City, Georgia, which has about a hundred miles of dedicated golf cart paths that serve as an alternative to driving. He explains how the network works as a quasi-transit system that keeps cars off the roads.
6:43The high cost of free parking
4.6M views • 9 years ago
Vox
A Vox explainer on how mandatory parking minimums and free parking impose hidden costs on cities. It draws on Donald Shoup's work and gives the history of parking requirements.
4:02Only Two Countries Can Still Claim Antarctica
7.9M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the history and legal status of territorial claims on Antarctica. It covers the overlapping national claims and the Antarctic Treaty that freezes them.
13:035 REAL Possibilities for Interstellar Travel
7.1M views • 11 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time surveys five realistic options for interstellar travel, from conventional rocket fuel to antimatter and nuclear pulse propulsion. The options rely only on known physics.
3:58The 'duck curve' is solar energy's greatest challenge
2.7M views • 8 years ago
Vox
A short Vox explainer on the duck curve, the shape electricity demand takes in California as solar output grows. It explains why grid operators struggle to balance supply and demand with lots of solar.