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breazy_reader_724's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting. I previously enjoyed the author's The Physics of the Future and this was very similar in approach. Listened to the audiobook for FOH and the narrator (Mr. Chin) was very good. I learned more about the extraterrestrial pursuits of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and some of the ways, beyond rockets and spacesuits, that we might find humanity extending beyond our galaxy. Also learned of Olaf Stapledon's early sci fi works which I am now pursuing.
duske's review against another edition
4.0
A really enlightening AND entertaining read that breaks down the science of string theory and lays out the science in simple layman terms. Extremely fun to go along on this ride, and imagine the potential we hold within us as a species and how much MORE we can be.
readbydeb's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
The Future of Humanity is a fascinating piece of speculative astrophysics and science which seeks to explore the various ways humanity may expand our civilization across the universe. I thoroughly enjoyed how in depth Kaku got, not just laying out the potential opportunities but also fully explaining the science behind the theories. Despite this heavily scientific approach, this book never felt boring or overwhelming. Even if some of the topics were a little far-fetched, it was nevertheless an intriguing and engaging read.
—
75,000 years ago there was a major volcanic eruption (Topa); considered the biggest eruption in the past 25 million years. Some scientists speculate only 2,000 humans remained and had to repopulate, which is why DNA between people even if they’re not related is surprisingly similar
When you consider every single creature that has ever lived on the earth such as amoebas, plants, dinosaurs etc., you find that 99.9% have gone extinct, meaning the creatures and living things that are alive today are an extremely small sliver of all the living things that have ever lived on the planet
Our earth has gone through 5 major extinction cycles in our history, in which up to 90% of the living species went extinct at a time
Because our galaxy has 100 billion stars there may be as many as 20 billion Earth sized planets in the Milky Way galaxy. it’s estimated there is 2 billion trillion earth sized planets in the visible universe including galaxies outside our own
There is actually gravity in space and the feeling/illusion of weightlessness is because everything falls at the same rate so astronauts are falling at the same rate as the spaceship
In the future, we may use the moon as a gas station, because ice at the South Pole can be used to farm oxygen and hydrogen which are primary components of rocket fuel, and also rare earth metals found there as well which are also able to be made into fuel. Helium 3 is also expected to be on the moon, which can be used for Fusion reactors. There is also talk of finding platinum. All this raises the question of whether it’s legal to mine on the moon and if so who can stake a claim on it
If we built a living space on the moon, at first it would need to be sent supplies from Earth every few weeks. The astronauts could use Internet, cell phones etc. as normal once they set up the proper technology because the delay between earth and the moon is only one second. They could potentially farm oxygen from the soil and water from the ice caps. The bases may be built underground to protect from solar radiation. There will need to be large amounts of solar panels because a moon day lasts an Earth month, so there are 2 weeks of day followed by 2 weeks of night
Your blood boils in the vacuum of space because as pressure drops the boiling point of water also drops
Astroids contain iron, nickel, carbon & cobalt, as well as significant quantities of rare earth metals and valuable metals including irradium, platinum, and rodium. It is believed that we will eventually mine the astroid belt, and many entrepreneurs have already expressed interest in finding ways to do so. 12 astroids have already been identified as key targets for mining, because only a slight nudge to their orbit would bring them closer towards earth and the moon and able to enter into orbit, making mining them much more efficient
Elon musk‘s goal with space X is to reduce the cost of commercial space travel by 10x. He was the 1st to invent a reusable booster capsule module rather than discarding it after use. His ultimate goal is to make it to Mars. His goal is to send a manned mission to Mars by 2024. He envisions eventually the cost of sending someone to Mars will be $200,000/person round-trip
It only takes 3?days to get to the moon but 9 months to get to Mars. A round trip to Mars would take 2 years. Potential dangers during this deep space trip include excessive exposure to radiation, damage to the ship from solar flares or micro astroids, muscular atrophy from being in reduced gravity so long, and psychological side effects
NASA plans on having a manned mission arrive at Mars by 2033; this plan involves creating a lunar space station from which ships could go to Mars, rather than going directly to Mars like space X
Like the moon, explorers on Mars would be able to harvest water, oxygen, and hydrogen from the permafrost and ice to serve as sources for water, oxygen, and fuel. The days on Mars are similar in length to days on earth, but the temperature is extremely cold, barely above the freezing point of water during the day and dropping drastically at night. Like the moon, the gravity is less so explorers would have to exercise daily to avoid muscular atrophy and loss of bone density. Mars has both water ice caps and dry ice/CO2 ice caps. The water ice caps stay consistent year round, but the dry ice caps fluctuate with the seasons and mostly evaporate in the summer
For Mars to become truly habitable, we would need to find a way to slowly heat the atmosphere so liquid water could flow on the surface, allowing for plants to grow outside of contained greenhouses. Terraforming mars is probably centuries away, and may be prohibitively costly. To artificially raise the temperature of the planet, we may inject water vapor and methane into the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect, or send satellites into orbit over the ice caps to direct concentrated sunlight towards the caps to cause them to melt and release water vapor. Eventually, this warming process would become self-sustaining as well as increase the atmospheric pressure of mars. As plants grow and proliferate, dying plants will enrich the soil, and growing plants will add oxygen to the atmosphere
Mars cooled down slower than Earth did. Mars no longer has a molten core but rather a solid rock core, so it doesn’t have a magnetic field. This is one of the factors that accelerated Mars’s atmosphere loss. Also, the carbon dioxide is mostly trapped in the ground instead of proliferating in the atmosphere, causing a reverse greenhouse effect
Some of the moons of the gas giants are also viewed as potential candidates for human colonies
The gas giants are theorized to have a thick gaseous atmosphere, a cold liquid hydrogen ocean around the entire planet, and a small, solid hydrogen core because of the extreme pressures. Jupiter is surrounded by radiation, which causes Radio interference. The gravity of Jupiter actually helps protect the earth from being bombarded by astroids because it essentially serves as a vacuum cleaner
Titan (a moon of Saturn) is a potential candidate for human colonization, but because it’s so far away it can’t have self-sustaining greenhouse effect, and the lakes of ethane Could combust if it got too hot. But it could be a source of fuel. And it’s one of the few places in our solar system where we would be able to go outside without a spacesuit because it has enough of an atmosphere that our blood wouldn’t boil/we wouldn’t be crushed (we’d still need an oxygen mask). Europa (a moon of Jupiter) has potential for microbial life in its ocean (which sits under the layer of ice that encircles the moon, and was made possible because of friction caused from the extreme tidal forces caused by Jupiter’s gravity)
All the gas giants have rings, which are likely caused by moons that got too close to the planet being torn apart by the planet’s gravity
Titan and the Kuiper belt would most likely serve as refueling stations or points from which to jump to the next star or planet
Graphene/carbon nanotubes will likely be the material used to make infrastructure on other planets, because it’s immensely strong yet incredibly light. We’re not at a point yet where we can mass produce it, because even a small impurity can ruin it, but once we have the technology to do so, it’ll be the best material to use. It could even be used to create skin-tight, lightweight spacesuits
For Interstellar and planetary colonization to be realistic, we would need automatons—robots with more intelligence than our current ones who can perform a wide variety of tasks such as building cities on planets and moons, which would be easier for a robot (doesn’t need a spacesuit, doesn’t get affected by radiation, isn’t limited by oxygen supply, etc)
Getting robots to understand common sense has been extremely difficult and currently prevents them from fully perceiving and navigating the world. Currently robots need human intervention to do most tasks. Modern robots will likely be a combination of top down and bottom up learning; they will have some information already integrated into their systems but they will also have neural networks that will allow them to learn from repetition and gain common sense. Robots would also need to be self replicating
Ion engines may make it possible for the trip to Mars to take 40 days rather than 9 months
Potential energy sources for traveling at the speed of light include light sailing (propelling with lasers), nuclear energy (propelling with nuclear explosions), and antimatter energy. an antimatter rocket would have 100% energy efficiency, whereas nuclear explosion only has 1% because most of the Energy is wasted. However only a very small amount of anti-matter exists naturally, so we would have to manufacture it (currently extremely expensive). Storing the antimatter would be difficult because it would have to be stored in a trap that suspends it in a magnetic field so it’s not able to touch the edges of the container; if it touch the edges it would destroy the container
Something that would help make getting materials into space much easier and more economical is creating a space elevator that stretches from the surface of the earth out above our atmosphere. Scientists predict that it is theoretically possible to do so, possibly even by 2035, but we would need to find a way to make enough strong enough Materials for this to be feasible. Ideally pure carbon nanotubes would be used, but right now it would be difficult to make as much as would be needed
To travel faster than light at warp speed, we need to find a way to make vast quantities of negative matter or negative energy. We’ve been able to make small amounts of negative energy, but we are nowhere close to producing the amount needed to even consider developing warp drives
Suspended animation/cryogenic freezing to allow longer voyages without needing generations of people to live on a spaceship is currently not possible. While other animals are able to survive in suspended animation because of the levels of glucose in their blood which prevents their blood from freezing, the amount of sugar needed is too high for humans
Telomeres are part of our chromosomes that get shorter with aging; when they get too short the cells can no longer divide. If we can prevent that shortening from happening, it would increase our life span because our cells would be able to divide and replicate themselves longer. However, cancer operates in the same way and is essentially immortal, so that would be a risk
If we were able to identify exactly what parts of our genetic make up contribute to aging, we could alter our genes to expand our life expectancy
Aging is thought to be the accumulation of errors in our genetic make up over time, so if we can prevent those errors from happening because of deteriorating cell replication then we can slow down the aging process
If we were able to somehow make ourselves inmortal, or drastically increase our life expectancy, then we would likely have to deal with extreme overpopulation eventually. Before the Industrial Revolution, the human population of the earth was 300 million or less. It has now grown to 7.5 billion and is anticipated to increase by 1 billion every 12 years. It is estimated that there will be 11.2 billion people on the earth by 2100. However, others argued that our increase in population is slowly going down and will stabilize before we reach a level of overpopulation
A primate has never been cloned. If we come to the point where human cloning is possible, it is likely that only a small percentage of the population would do so. It is also speculated that eventually we will find ways to modify our genes or enhance our bodies through cybernetics, but we will likely not take it so far that we drastically modify our appearance. Modifications would likely be improvements to existing issues (ex: eyesight) or ways to improve our social standing, rather than becoming creatures with giant heads and huge eyes and skinny bodies. Our use of cybernetics would prevent us from evolving that drastically. If we were to disperse in colonies across the galaxy, our genetic makeup would remain within 0.1% difference between colonies (same as between humans currently)
We may in the next century or so develop ways to laser port our consciousness across the galaxy so our physical bodies could remain in place while our consciousness is able to move at the speed of light to visit other places by being ported it into an avatar
Earth like planets need to be accompanied by large gaseous Jupiter like planets to clear out incoming astroids. They also need to be accompanied by a larger moon to stabilize their spin and trajectory
The drake equation attempts to estimate the probability that we will make contact with intelligent life forms; however there is still a lot of unknowns that prevent us from having an accurate assessment from this equation
If there are intelligent beings on other planets, we can’t assume that they communicate vocally the same way we do. They might communicate through pheromones like bugs, or sonar like bats
Intelligent life will likely follow the laws of evolution. An intelligent species will likely be descended from predators, so it will have forward facing eyes. They will also likely have opposable thumbs or some type of grasping appendage. They will also have some form of language
Kardishev scale of civilizations: A type 1 civilization (planetary) uses all the energy of the sunlight that falls on the planet. Type 2 civilization (stellar) uses all the energy it’s sun produces. A type 3 civilization (galactic) uses the energy of an entire galaxy. We are currently a type 0.7 civilization because we’re not using the full energy of all the sunlight shining on our planet. We are about a century or two away from becoming a full type 1, and possibly A few thousand years from becoming a type 2. We might not become type 3 for 100,000 years or even up to 1 million because it requires a level of interstellar travel that we’re nowhere close to having. The energy measurements for each type just means and equivalent amount of energy, it doesn’t mean you have to be getting all your energy from the sun. Each next level of civilization is between 10 to 100 billion times more powerful than the previous type
A civilization that has reached type 2 is likely nearly immortal, and most of its energy generating machinery will likely be placed off planet because there will be so much energy being produced that it creates too much heat for the planet to be habitable. They will likely also harvest energy from their sun through a Dyson sphere and because of the vast quantities they are harvesting Will emit infrared radiation
There is another scale of civilization that is calculated based on the amount of information it consumes as proposed by Carl Sagan. Type A civilization consumes 1,000,000 bits of information. Type Z civilization consumes a 10^31 bits of information. We are a type H civilization. By this scale a type two civilization would be able to consume energy through widely distributed Dyson sphere, harvesting from astroids, developing super efficient nano technology, etc. and avoid giving up the levels of infrared radiation that would make it detectable to us
Our first encounter with alien civilization will likely be a robotic self replicating probe
String theory exists in 10 dimensions. It cancels out quantum corrections, basically meaning it cancels out the fact that quantum things like electrons and protons are able to be in multiple places at once. This quantum cancellation can only happen in 10 dimensions. The pairing for particles in string theory is sparticles, quarks are squarks, etc. String theory assumes an infinite number of universes (Multiverse). String theory says the universe was originally 10 dimensions, then for some reason the other 6 dimensions “curled up” leaving us with only 4 perceivable dimensions
Dark matter was discovered because astrophysicist realized that the Milky Way was spinning 10 times faster than Newtonian physics would allow without flying apart, so they realize there must be some invisible thing adding all that extra mass to the galaxy. Dark matter is invisible, but it bends starlight so we’re able to detect it that way. Dark matter has gravity, but can’t be held/interact with matter in any way. It’s electrically neutral and only interacts with gravity. However we’ve never been able to officially prove that dark matter exist yet or create it ourselves in any way. Once we do, it will prove string theory
String theory is the only way would be able to do calculations about the quantum corrections needed for time travel, going through a wormhole, faster than light travel, etc
The universe is expected to eventually end in 1 of 3 ways: the big crunch, the big freeze, or the big rip. The big crunch is when the expansion of the universe slow down, stops, and reverses itself, eventually coalescing in a giant wad of superheated matter and possibly eventually turning into another big bang. For the big freeze, by the laws of entropy eventually the stars will stop shining, the sky will go black and temperature will reach absolute zero wherein matter nearly ceases to move. The big rip refers to the fact that the universe is exponentially expanding far faster than anticipated, and that distant galaxies will eventually speed away from us faster than the speed of light and disappear. Eventually our galaxy and solar system would be torn apart from this rapid expansion. The universe would end in an explosion, a singularity of infinite energy
Our sun will exhaust its energy in about 5 billion years; it will expand into a red giant star which will essentially set the earth on fire, mountains will melt, oceans will boil, and the earth will be engulfed. After this, the sun will exhaust all its nuclear fuel and shrink and go cold as a white dwarf and then die as a dark dwarf star. In 4.8 billion years, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy’s will collide. There are two black holes will collide and merge and a new galaxy will eventually be formed
Dark energy is the energy of a vacuum. It acts like antigravity, and it pushes the universe apart. It is different than dark matter. The more the universe expands, the more dark energy there is, which makes the universe expand faster. About 69% of the matter/energy in the universe is contained in dark energy. Dark matter makes up 26%. Atoms of hydrogen and helium make up about 5%. And other higher elements that make up the earth, our bodies, etc. only make up 0.5%
A possible way to overcome the eventual death of our universe is by becoming a type 4 civilization that harnesses extragalactic energy like dark energy and is able to reverse the big rip by creating a sphere in which dark energy reverses polarity so that inside the sphere The galaxies continue to survive normally while outside the sphere the universe is continuing to expand rapidly and tear itself apart. Another possible solution is that we find a way to leave our universe and go to one of the other theoretical bubble universes in the Multiverse. They could use negative energy to create a wormhole. The bubble universes are floating in a 10 dimensional arena
—
Read for the Astronomy prompt for the 2019 OWLs Readathon
The Future of Humanity is a fascinating piece of speculative astrophysics and science which seeks to explore the various ways humanity may expand our civilization across the universe. I thoroughly enjoyed how in depth Kaku got, not just laying out the potential opportunities but also fully explaining the science behind the theories. Despite this heavily scientific approach, this book never felt boring or overwhelming. Even if some of the topics were a little far-fetched, it was nevertheless an intriguing and engaging read.
—
75,000 years ago there was a major volcanic eruption (Topa); considered the biggest eruption in the past 25 million years. Some scientists speculate only 2,000 humans remained and had to repopulate, which is why DNA between people even if they’re not related is surprisingly similar
When you consider every single creature that has ever lived on the earth such as amoebas, plants, dinosaurs etc., you find that 99.9% have gone extinct, meaning the creatures and living things that are alive today are an extremely small sliver of all the living things that have ever lived on the planet
Our earth has gone through 5 major extinction cycles in our history, in which up to 90% of the living species went extinct at a time
Because our galaxy has 100 billion stars there may be as many as 20 billion Earth sized planets in the Milky Way galaxy. it’s estimated there is 2 billion trillion earth sized planets in the visible universe including galaxies outside our own
There is actually gravity in space and the feeling/illusion of weightlessness is because everything falls at the same rate so astronauts are falling at the same rate as the spaceship
In the future, we may use the moon as a gas station, because ice at the South Pole can be used to farm oxygen and hydrogen which are primary components of rocket fuel, and also rare earth metals found there as well which are also able to be made into fuel. Helium 3 is also expected to be on the moon, which can be used for Fusion reactors. There is also talk of finding platinum. All this raises the question of whether it’s legal to mine on the moon and if so who can stake a claim on it
If we built a living space on the moon, at first it would need to be sent supplies from Earth every few weeks. The astronauts could use Internet, cell phones etc. as normal once they set up the proper technology because the delay between earth and the moon is only one second. They could potentially farm oxygen from the soil and water from the ice caps. The bases may be built underground to protect from solar radiation. There will need to be large amounts of solar panels because a moon day lasts an Earth month, so there are 2 weeks of day followed by 2 weeks of night
Your blood boils in the vacuum of space because as pressure drops the boiling point of water also drops
Astroids contain iron, nickel, carbon & cobalt, as well as significant quantities of rare earth metals and valuable metals including irradium, platinum, and rodium. It is believed that we will eventually mine the astroid belt, and many entrepreneurs have already expressed interest in finding ways to do so. 12 astroids have already been identified as key targets for mining, because only a slight nudge to their orbit would bring them closer towards earth and the moon and able to enter into orbit, making mining them much more efficient
Elon musk‘s goal with space X is to reduce the cost of commercial space travel by 10x. He was the 1st to invent a reusable booster capsule module rather than discarding it after use. His ultimate goal is to make it to Mars. His goal is to send a manned mission to Mars by 2024. He envisions eventually the cost of sending someone to Mars will be $200,000/person round-trip
It only takes 3?days to get to the moon but 9 months to get to Mars. A round trip to Mars would take 2 years. Potential dangers during this deep space trip include excessive exposure to radiation, damage to the ship from solar flares or micro astroids, muscular atrophy from being in reduced gravity so long, and psychological side effects
NASA plans on having a manned mission arrive at Mars by 2033; this plan involves creating a lunar space station from which ships could go to Mars, rather than going directly to Mars like space X
Like the moon, explorers on Mars would be able to harvest water, oxygen, and hydrogen from the permafrost and ice to serve as sources for water, oxygen, and fuel. The days on Mars are similar in length to days on earth, but the temperature is extremely cold, barely above the freezing point of water during the day and dropping drastically at night. Like the moon, the gravity is less so explorers would have to exercise daily to avoid muscular atrophy and loss of bone density. Mars has both water ice caps and dry ice/CO2 ice caps. The water ice caps stay consistent year round, but the dry ice caps fluctuate with the seasons and mostly evaporate in the summer
For Mars to become truly habitable, we would need to find a way to slowly heat the atmosphere so liquid water could flow on the surface, allowing for plants to grow outside of contained greenhouses. Terraforming mars is probably centuries away, and may be prohibitively costly. To artificially raise the temperature of the planet, we may inject water vapor and methane into the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect, or send satellites into orbit over the ice caps to direct concentrated sunlight towards the caps to cause them to melt and release water vapor. Eventually, this warming process would become self-sustaining as well as increase the atmospheric pressure of mars. As plants grow and proliferate, dying plants will enrich the soil, and growing plants will add oxygen to the atmosphere
Mars cooled down slower than Earth did. Mars no longer has a molten core but rather a solid rock core, so it doesn’t have a magnetic field. This is one of the factors that accelerated Mars’s atmosphere loss. Also, the carbon dioxide is mostly trapped in the ground instead of proliferating in the atmosphere, causing a reverse greenhouse effect
Some of the moons of the gas giants are also viewed as potential candidates for human colonies
The gas giants are theorized to have a thick gaseous atmosphere, a cold liquid hydrogen ocean around the entire planet, and a small, solid hydrogen core because of the extreme pressures. Jupiter is surrounded by radiation, which causes Radio interference. The gravity of Jupiter actually helps protect the earth from being bombarded by astroids because it essentially serves as a vacuum cleaner
Titan (a moon of Saturn) is a potential candidate for human colonization, but because it’s so far away it can’t have self-sustaining greenhouse effect, and the lakes of ethane Could combust if it got too hot. But it could be a source of fuel. And it’s one of the few places in our solar system where we would be able to go outside without a spacesuit because it has enough of an atmosphere that our blood wouldn’t boil/we wouldn’t be crushed (we’d still need an oxygen mask). Europa (a moon of Jupiter) has potential for microbial life in its ocean (which sits under the layer of ice that encircles the moon, and was made possible because of friction caused from the extreme tidal forces caused by Jupiter’s gravity)
All the gas giants have rings, which are likely caused by moons that got too close to the planet being torn apart by the planet’s gravity
Titan and the Kuiper belt would most likely serve as refueling stations or points from which to jump to the next star or planet
Graphene/carbon nanotubes will likely be the material used to make infrastructure on other planets, because it’s immensely strong yet incredibly light. We’re not at a point yet where we can mass produce it, because even a small impurity can ruin it, but once we have the technology to do so, it’ll be the best material to use. It could even be used to create skin-tight, lightweight spacesuits
For Interstellar and planetary colonization to be realistic, we would need automatons—robots with more intelligence than our current ones who can perform a wide variety of tasks such as building cities on planets and moons, which would be easier for a robot (doesn’t need a spacesuit, doesn’t get affected by radiation, isn’t limited by oxygen supply, etc)
Getting robots to understand common sense has been extremely difficult and currently prevents them from fully perceiving and navigating the world. Currently robots need human intervention to do most tasks. Modern robots will likely be a combination of top down and bottom up learning; they will have some information already integrated into their systems but they will also have neural networks that will allow them to learn from repetition and gain common sense. Robots would also need to be self replicating
Ion engines may make it possible for the trip to Mars to take 40 days rather than 9 months
Potential energy sources for traveling at the speed of light include light sailing (propelling with lasers), nuclear energy (propelling with nuclear explosions), and antimatter energy. an antimatter rocket would have 100% energy efficiency, whereas nuclear explosion only has 1% because most of the Energy is wasted. However only a very small amount of anti-matter exists naturally, so we would have to manufacture it (currently extremely expensive). Storing the antimatter would be difficult because it would have to be stored in a trap that suspends it in a magnetic field so it’s not able to touch the edges of the container; if it touch the edges it would destroy the container
Something that would help make getting materials into space much easier and more economical is creating a space elevator that stretches from the surface of the earth out above our atmosphere. Scientists predict that it is theoretically possible to do so, possibly even by 2035, but we would need to find a way to make enough strong enough Materials for this to be feasible. Ideally pure carbon nanotubes would be used, but right now it would be difficult to make as much as would be needed
To travel faster than light at warp speed, we need to find a way to make vast quantities of negative matter or negative energy. We’ve been able to make small amounts of negative energy, but we are nowhere close to producing the amount needed to even consider developing warp drives
Suspended animation/cryogenic freezing to allow longer voyages without needing generations of people to live on a spaceship is currently not possible. While other animals are able to survive in suspended animation because of the levels of glucose in their blood which prevents their blood from freezing, the amount of sugar needed is too high for humans
Telomeres are part of our chromosomes that get shorter with aging; when they get too short the cells can no longer divide. If we can prevent that shortening from happening, it would increase our life span because our cells would be able to divide and replicate themselves longer. However, cancer operates in the same way and is essentially immortal, so that would be a risk
If we were able to identify exactly what parts of our genetic make up contribute to aging, we could alter our genes to expand our life expectancy
Aging is thought to be the accumulation of errors in our genetic make up over time, so if we can prevent those errors from happening because of deteriorating cell replication then we can slow down the aging process
If we were able to somehow make ourselves inmortal, or drastically increase our life expectancy, then we would likely have to deal with extreme overpopulation eventually. Before the Industrial Revolution, the human population of the earth was 300 million or less. It has now grown to 7.5 billion and is anticipated to increase by 1 billion every 12 years. It is estimated that there will be 11.2 billion people on the earth by 2100. However, others argued that our increase in population is slowly going down and will stabilize before we reach a level of overpopulation
A primate has never been cloned. If we come to the point where human cloning is possible, it is likely that only a small percentage of the population would do so. It is also speculated that eventually we will find ways to modify our genes or enhance our bodies through cybernetics, but we will likely not take it so far that we drastically modify our appearance. Modifications would likely be improvements to existing issues (ex: eyesight) or ways to improve our social standing, rather than becoming creatures with giant heads and huge eyes and skinny bodies. Our use of cybernetics would prevent us from evolving that drastically. If we were to disperse in colonies across the galaxy, our genetic makeup would remain within 0.1% difference between colonies (same as between humans currently)
We may in the next century or so develop ways to laser port our consciousness across the galaxy so our physical bodies could remain in place while our consciousness is able to move at the speed of light to visit other places by being ported it into an avatar
Earth like planets need to be accompanied by large gaseous Jupiter like planets to clear out incoming astroids. They also need to be accompanied by a larger moon to stabilize their spin and trajectory
The drake equation attempts to estimate the probability that we will make contact with intelligent life forms; however there is still a lot of unknowns that prevent us from having an accurate assessment from this equation
If there are intelligent beings on other planets, we can’t assume that they communicate vocally the same way we do. They might communicate through pheromones like bugs, or sonar like bats
Intelligent life will likely follow the laws of evolution. An intelligent species will likely be descended from predators, so it will have forward facing eyes. They will also likely have opposable thumbs or some type of grasping appendage. They will also have some form of language
Kardishev scale of civilizations: A type 1 civilization (planetary) uses all the energy of the sunlight that falls on the planet. Type 2 civilization (stellar) uses all the energy it’s sun produces. A type 3 civilization (galactic) uses the energy of an entire galaxy. We are currently a type 0.7 civilization because we’re not using the full energy of all the sunlight shining on our planet. We are about a century or two away from becoming a full type 1, and possibly A few thousand years from becoming a type 2. We might not become type 3 for 100,000 years or even up to 1 million because it requires a level of interstellar travel that we’re nowhere close to having. The energy measurements for each type just means and equivalent amount of energy, it doesn’t mean you have to be getting all your energy from the sun. Each next level of civilization is between 10 to 100 billion times more powerful than the previous type
A civilization that has reached type 2 is likely nearly immortal, and most of its energy generating machinery will likely be placed off planet because there will be so much energy being produced that it creates too much heat for the planet to be habitable. They will likely also harvest energy from their sun through a Dyson sphere and because of the vast quantities they are harvesting Will emit infrared radiation
There is another scale of civilization that is calculated based on the amount of information it consumes as proposed by Carl Sagan. Type A civilization consumes 1,000,000 bits of information. Type Z civilization consumes a 10^31 bits of information. We are a type H civilization. By this scale a type two civilization would be able to consume energy through widely distributed Dyson sphere, harvesting from astroids, developing super efficient nano technology, etc. and avoid giving up the levels of infrared radiation that would make it detectable to us
Our first encounter with alien civilization will likely be a robotic self replicating probe
String theory exists in 10 dimensions. It cancels out quantum corrections, basically meaning it cancels out the fact that quantum things like electrons and protons are able to be in multiple places at once. This quantum cancellation can only happen in 10 dimensions. The pairing for particles in string theory is sparticles, quarks are squarks, etc. String theory assumes an infinite number of universes (Multiverse). String theory says the universe was originally 10 dimensions, then for some reason the other 6 dimensions “curled up” leaving us with only 4 perceivable dimensions
Dark matter was discovered because astrophysicist realized that the Milky Way was spinning 10 times faster than Newtonian physics would allow without flying apart, so they realize there must be some invisible thing adding all that extra mass to the galaxy. Dark matter is invisible, but it bends starlight so we’re able to detect it that way. Dark matter has gravity, but can’t be held/interact with matter in any way. It’s electrically neutral and only interacts with gravity. However we’ve never been able to officially prove that dark matter exist yet or create it ourselves in any way. Once we do, it will prove string theory
String theory is the only way would be able to do calculations about the quantum corrections needed for time travel, going through a wormhole, faster than light travel, etc
The universe is expected to eventually end in 1 of 3 ways: the big crunch, the big freeze, or the big rip. The big crunch is when the expansion of the universe slow down, stops, and reverses itself, eventually coalescing in a giant wad of superheated matter and possibly eventually turning into another big bang. For the big freeze, by the laws of entropy eventually the stars will stop shining, the sky will go black and temperature will reach absolute zero wherein matter nearly ceases to move. The big rip refers to the fact that the universe is exponentially expanding far faster than anticipated, and that distant galaxies will eventually speed away from us faster than the speed of light and disappear. Eventually our galaxy and solar system would be torn apart from this rapid expansion. The universe would end in an explosion, a singularity of infinite energy
Our sun will exhaust its energy in about 5 billion years; it will expand into a red giant star which will essentially set the earth on fire, mountains will melt, oceans will boil, and the earth will be engulfed. After this, the sun will exhaust all its nuclear fuel and shrink and go cold as a white dwarf and then die as a dark dwarf star. In 4.8 billion years, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy’s will collide. There are two black holes will collide and merge and a new galaxy will eventually be formed
Dark energy is the energy of a vacuum. It acts like antigravity, and it pushes the universe apart. It is different than dark matter. The more the universe expands, the more dark energy there is, which makes the universe expand faster. About 69% of the matter/energy in the universe is contained in dark energy. Dark matter makes up 26%. Atoms of hydrogen and helium make up about 5%. And other higher elements that make up the earth, our bodies, etc. only make up 0.5%
A possible way to overcome the eventual death of our universe is by becoming a type 4 civilization that harnesses extragalactic energy like dark energy and is able to reverse the big rip by creating a sphere in which dark energy reverses polarity so that inside the sphere The galaxies continue to survive normally while outside the sphere the universe is continuing to expand rapidly and tear itself apart. Another possible solution is that we find a way to leave our universe and go to one of the other theoretical bubble universes in the Multiverse. They could use negative energy to create a wormhole. The bubble universes are floating in a 10 dimensional arena
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Read for the Astronomy prompt for the 2019 OWLs Readathon
jedidiah's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Absolutely amazing book about us as humans and our future in the universe. Not only does Kaku present information in a logical order and entertaining fashion, he also, perhaps accidentally, provides enough information that it causes the reader to think about many of the moral and philosophical developments when it comes to our future as a species.
josethi's review against another edition
5.0
This is not the easiest book. But it is how I want all the non fiction books to be: organised, clear and full of information.
thefriendlymushroom's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
tardycreative's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely brilliant, I loved this book, I had it especially ordered from the library but I would like to buy this book soon.
drbswa's review against another edition
4.0
Very fascinating read and quite easy to get hooked in with Dr. Michio Kaku's style of writing. As always, Dr. Kaku does a fantastic job of tickling the part of the brain that gets one excited for the future possibilities of science and technology. The only thing keeping me from giving a higher score is that Dr. Kaku has once again fallen into his usual rhythm of overly-fantasized conjecture, particularly when he talks about his own area of expertise: theoretical physics. I won't doubt the possibilities, but a physicist of his level should perhaps consider emphasizing just how unlikely some of these things are. Postulating that we could see the use of his laser-porting concept "within the next century or so" is particularly far-fetched. Despite all that, this is still a book I would highly recommend for fans of astronomy, space exploration, and the future of technology. It certainly makes one think about what may be possible in the future.