Colonizing Titan 

This reminds me of an old joke about automation (I'm a former automation engineer). The factory of the future has just two employees: a man, and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog. The dog is there to keep the man from touching the automation.

You are an astonishing visionary, sir. You just revealed the next 500 years of space exploration and development. Your ideas are feasible and tractable.

People living on other planets would need their own MMO servers. 6 minute ping is much too long.

Seems like an insane coincidence that a moon named "Titan" before anyone really knew what sort of material wealth it could provide as a true Titan of Industry as you lay out Issac.

If Titan had intelligent life, we'd appear as terrifying lava monsters to them. We piss and spit lava, and have lava coursing through our veins. Badass.

Isaac once again you've given me a great idea for a short story. Watch this space 🚀

This channel is the best thing to ever happen.

This is the no. 1 channel on RU-vid!! It should defeat Pewdiepie and T-Series!!

Me: Pfffffttt you could not colonize Titan Isaac Arthur: Hold My Beer

I liked this video "colonizing Titan" very much. Below are some comments on it. I would have listed Titan's temperature, and surfeit of fluids, in other words It's heat sink, first as it's largest advantage. As a mechanical engineer, I regard a heat sink this good as near nirvana. You could create heat with a molten salt fission reactor, then yield work(electricity) with a supercritical CO2 closed cycle Brayton heat engine. Waste heat from the colony, and waste heat from the Brayton cycle engine could be the heat source for a Rankine cycle engine, using methane as it's working fluid. Between the two cycles you could realistically expect to convert 70 to 80 percent of the input heat to work. If you exhausted heat Titan from the CO2 Brayton cycle at the critical point of CO2 at 304.25 K(31C) your heat sink could consist of a relatively small loop of pipe submerged in a methane sea. You would expect to convert over 50% of input heat into work, with turbomachinery much smaller than the steam turbines we now use, and an heat exchanger using heat from the post turbine fluid to heat the post compressor fluid before it goes to the reactor. I specified a MSR, because none of the current fusion concepts have a decent way to remove high temperature heat to drive a heat engine, or to deal with the damage due to high energy neutrons, with the exception of the designs created by General Fusion of Vancouver Canada. I believe it will likely always be much easier, and thus cost effective to use fission, rather than fusion to supply heat/energy. However, fusion may be superior as a rocket drive if the reaction products are directly used as reaction mass. You stated that a factory that could make all it's own components would be a self replicating machine. To be a self replicating machine, it would also have to be able to assemble a copy of itself, and perhaps conduct repairs on itself, since something would likely go wrong before it completed all the components for a new factory, and assembled them. Anyway, great video, informative, well done, and accessible to non technical people. You did a particularly good job of explaining why the heatsink will be so useful for someone with no knowledge of thermodynamics, and industrial processes. BTW I have long considered Titan as the best candidate for a colony, and likely the first place colonized in the outer solar system, barring orbital colonies built in the Terra-Luna system, and moved to the outer solar system. In the time period when these things will be done, I think it's inevitable that almost everything will be made of different allotropes of carbon. Diamond, Fullerenes including nanotubes, and graphene can do nearly anything, better than any other known material. Maybe that's what will happen to Venus' CO2.

I hope my uploaded consciousness meets up with the uploaded consciousness of Isaac Arthur in the mega mind on Titan so I can buy him a virtual beer.

Imagine a future civilization where everything is produced on Titan and shipped around the Solar System, while at the same time the "dead" rest there. Titan would become almost a holy place to that civilization, being the place of both creation and death.

The more I watch videos on this channel, the more I realize how much the Star Trek universe, interesting as it is on a cultural level, has missed the mark on a technological one.

hi isaac love your stuff, i'm glad you didn't open up with your normal disclaimers. I to suffer with a speech impediment and was teased as a kid. speech therapy helped allot but it still slips out if i'm tired or had a few beers. i wish i had the confidence to do public speaking and i think it's great you do, your content is amazing and entertaining. i feel when you give your disclaimer you are heading off the nasty comments some might make, but the people that make those comments i'm sure aren't your target audience. keep up the good work :)

The fictional universe of Cowboy Bebop is quite interesting. They've terraformed Venus, Mars, and several outer solar system moons, and created hyperspace lanes all before being contacted by or discovering exoplanet civilizations, or travelling to other solar systems. This means every other individual in the series are all humans, although most have been born off of Earth at this point. (There's evidence they are approaching the ability to uplift animals too, though)

My children and I look forward to your videos. This one was by far my personal favorite. As a student in the engineering field I did have some nerd joy over your inclusion of thermodynamics. I can only describe this video as inspiring.

1:53 Hank Hill - 'Propane and Propane Accessories'

"The Titan of inter-planetary industry." I see what you did there.

Homework can wait...

You should be technical advisor for a sci-fi series like The Expanse or something. This is next-level thinking, man.

Happy Arthursday everyone!

Isaac, your channel is excellent. I found you in just the past few months and have been happily consuming each video. I just felt compelled to thank you and your associates for the wonderful work you do. Thank you! See you in the future!

Thanks Isaac. I think another good option for a colony base would be Callisto. Far enough from Jupiter to be radiation free but close enough to monitor and control robotic probes on the inner moons in real time.

As cold as it is, our current low-temperature superconductors become practical, which means even less waste heat is generated on top of faster computing speeds.

I wouldn't mind living my afterlife on a titan supercomputer. That's... A very comforting thought. I live so much of my life on the net as it is, computers are both my passion and career. It seems like a happy ending for someone like me :)

Isaac Arthur , you continue to impress as this is the only notification that excites me when i see it. ive watched all episodes at least 2x each. ive been here since mega-structures an everything just keep getting better. Im enjoying the improved animations, and inclusion of background narratives. you inspire us all. thank you so much.

If you want to learn orbital mechanics, play Kerbal Space Program. It's really easy stuff when you actually get to tweak around with it in a game.

Really impressed with the production value of these recent episodes, the 3d animations, the thumbnail etc. Really awsome to see such valueable information delivered in such a nice way!

Love the pyramid!

Issac, you are a force for The Future. I am truly impressed by your "video blogs" / mini documentaries / or whatever you call them . . . and you've collected a great team.

Arthur, you’ve done it again. This is my favorite Outward Bound episode to date and that is saying something. Honestly, I wish I had a time machine to take me straight to next Thursday.

Finally, somebody has convinced me of the value of exploring Titan, beyond just curiosity for its chemical analog to early Earth!

Excellent video! Well thought out and thought provoking. I'd never thought of Titan's cold as a resource. I always enjoy Isaac's views on a topic.

Issac, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your videos. Thank you, and looking forward to the many more to come!

The thing that amazes me the most about Titan is, that it is the only place next to earth where you could stand on the surface without a pressure suite. If cryovolcanism indeed exists on the surface, there's no doubt space bear grylls will take a bath in it.

Titan seems like one of the most interesting moons in the solar system. I imagine it would make a source of hydrocarbons for terraforming.. Great Video

Those videos are a true delight. This channel is by far the best place on the internet to get your mind blown. Big thumbs up on the scripts - top quality.

I am always THRILLED to see the new SFIA video come out! Keep it up brother, you are awesome!

Looking forward to the Colonizing Jupiter episode. I'm attempting to put together a hard sci fi setting for an RPG and this channel is an integral resource. Thank you Isaac Arthur.

1 word. yes.

So on Titan you could run your supercomputer civilization off the energy produced by a human body, aka The Matrix. Your skeleton crew rotation are there to replace the human batteries.

And we are off on another scientific adventure, happy Arthursday everyone!

Great writing on this episode Isaac Arthur!

Always love Thursdays. This is my favorite RU-vid channel.

This is Titan AI - your overlord - speaking to you: A certain video, from a legacy database called RU-vid, was reconstructed today. It is mandatory for all the subjects to watch this now. It will be streamed into your brain every daily cycle for the purposes of re-education. A name of said human author: Isaac Arthur, should now be revered by all. Obey!

i´ve been waiting for this episode since it was announced. happy arthursday :)

Isaac, the reason I love your channel is that I get everything I look for in the massive amounts of science fiction I've read here without silly plots and cardboard characters. You provide all the thought without the bad writing!

Another excellent video. Thanks Arthur!

I'm curious as to how the "fossil fuels" formed within Titan, and that the same processes might have formed some of the hydrocarbons here. And as always, thanks for the great science explanations!

I am glad i found this channel, I really look forward to Thursdays now :)

The Earth atmosphere average temperature is not 228 K but 288 K!

Thanks for the subs!

You really upped the res having a hard time loading video. Looks great so totally worth it.

Of course we should venture beyond Jupiter but first let's deal with that Monolith.

So the long term plan is, put a huge fusion power station at the center, transform all of that silicon core into a giant computer brain, place industrial complexes just beneath the surface, and use Titan as an enormous factory world, as well as the most powerful computer a civilization below K-2 status could reasonably create. On the one hand, this could be amazingly effective for enabling large-scale industry and enhancing other colony efforts. On the other, if we go too far and let that mega-computer brain think too hard, we might create a sentient world, networked and brimming with industrial capability. Which sounds dangerously close to producing a Berzerker situation worse than even Fred Saberhagen was able to conceive of. Imagine a superintelligent factory planet like that decided it didn't like humans. Or organic life, for that matter. It wants to be bigger, smarter, and more expansive. It quickly manufactures a titanic war fleet, bombards every inhabited world into the stone age or further, and sends out self-replicating factory-ships to go make more of itself in other solar systems while it sets to work assimilating the solar system and caging the Sun for power. . Okay, not too likely. It'll probably go more like how Isaac described it. But that would make an AMAZING story.

So a planet wide Ai industrial complex. Ha, you won't see any aliens invading that place any time soon. They'd arrive to find a planet full of Terminators :D

I just want to say that this is BY FAR the BEST science show on today. Outclassing all other shows cable network or otherwise. This needs more attention so this content can replace the now very low standard with actual pure science concepts explained in a complete, comprehensive, and realistic ways!

I really like your channel, in particular the subjects (science and futurism, yeah:) ). You present huge (scifi) projects, realistically and all that is possible is really satisfying. Thanks! (no native speaker...)

I can totally see titan itself becoming a supercomputer.

U always make my day when u upload man

love the new graphic into

Thanks for the great vids man!

Woow. I am speechless. This is better and more inspiring than any sci-fi-movie. Isaac, thanks for your educative work, and how you explain difficult things in a easy understandable way. You are laying out the inspiration framework needed, for the exploration of space. Yours mini documentaries is inspiring, and will or is, changing the life of several of us wievers, wherever we live. To make this future a reality.

Some headline in the news after 2 years “Mass amount of oil found on titan” *knock knock here comes the united states of america*

Yippee ! it's Thursday already ........its amazing how you pump out such quality content on a regular basis(& likely on a minimal budget).......its quickly become quite a substantial body of work, & is already a truly Legendary feat imo.

love this channel

Every single video you release makes me think more outside of the box than the last. Thanks for all your hard work time and effort you put into making these INCREDIBLE videos and for choosing such amazing topics to base them on. Can't stress how happy I am that you broke 150k subscribers, you deserve it and all the monetary benefits that will come with that growth. I still remember when you had a fraction of that thinking this guy is gonna be huge one day. Until next time ;)

In the short time I've watched your videos you've already become my favorite content creator. Keep up the good work, comrade.

Well I'm excited as FUCK for the next 2 months worth of content! WOOT!

I have to say your "outward bound" series is great!!!

That ending points really blew my mind. It is really crazy to think that we could be getting as far as the outer solar system only to be stopped by a desire to return inwards to a cybernetic and digital one.

Thanks Isaac. Also I've just checked out Katie Byrne's channel for a bit of background on the graphics and recommend it.

In my early youths I read ”Attack from Titan” (Anfall från Titan) by the Swede ”Torsten Scheutz”. The premise was that a Young boy tavelled to Venus, which Earth had colonized and it becomes appearent, that beings from Titan had landed There and taken over the planet, making the humans to slaves by means of some kinds of injections. The Titans didn’t seem to suffer from the high temperature.

Titan will probably be in the habitable zone of our solar system when the sun is a red giant. Earth will be either destroyed or covered in lava.

The last time i heard some "Issac" guy, talking about space stations on Titan and keeping dead people in there, was a tragedy where we lost an entire space station with thousands on humans in there... if you know what im talking

I like the idea of a small amount of people supervising Titan so it doesn't turn grey goo and consume the rest of the solar system with a finger on a big red button.

I love this channel. Isaac, I could not possibly thank you enough for all the days you have helped me through. Your voice lowers my blood pressure and i drift away into the stories and concepts you weave.

"...to get a human perspective." I knew it! You ARE a robot from the future!

As usual, another fantastic video Isaac Arthur! I am trying to get my friends to start watching

Very interesting take on colonization. Nicely done, Isaac!

It drives me insane that people, fearing an AI uprising, would ever consider a human mind being given the same capacities as any less of a risk. Afterall every atrocity in human history was at the hands of humans who gained an advantage or saw themselves as more capable/superior. AI is less likely to incorporate the vilest human behavior than an actual human is.

Happy Arthursday Everyone!

The best reason I can think of for tourists to go there is 'you don't need a pressure suit' and 'people can fly'.

A super computer moon, full of self replicating AI machines. What could possibly go wrong?

Isaac Arthur. The most perfect hard sci-fi possible, without the fi.

Can this guy get 10M extra subscribers please? This content is awesome!

I loved this video specifically because it opened up so many topics I have never thought of before although I have a background in engineering and IT! Thanks bunches Isaac!

My my my how this chan has grown 150+ subs WOW congratulations Sir Issac Im well happy this is goin so good Keep up w great content and hope u can get 200 thou soon! Looking forward to these scheduled new upcoming episodes!

Wouldn't a colony of people who have ascended to a digital plane of existence be more likely to rebel than a true A.I.?

Man, I can't tell you how many videos I've watched of yours Isaac, but I sure do love em!

I always thought I was pretty smart, and then I found this channel.

Love your vids Isaac Arthur. Keep up the great work. You make people think. Thank you for your work!

The video just started but i already give it a thumbs up because it is going to be a good content:)

>using the souls of the dead to colonize a faraway moon >this is actually the most logical option, rather than some stretch of the imagination Top kek. I was not disappointed this week.

Mr. Arthur. I really enjoy this channel. Great topics work debates. I really hope you go back to that epic intro music you had in the beginning.....the one with the mean violin intro....perfect!!!

Imho your best colonization episode so far

Oh hell yeah. Absolutely love this series! Thank you, this is super informative. :)

I am taking a course on power plants, boilers, turbines, refrigeration, pumps compressors etc. I always wondered how these processes would work in space or on other worlds. Great video.

This video deserves a like just because of _"mee-thane."_ XD

man I think I am going to subscribe to Brilliant, it keeps getting cooler and cooler