In our second look at possible futures for Earth we examine the concept of Ecumenopolises, planet spanning cities homes to trillions. We'll examine concept in detail, starting with the first portrayals of it in fiction and extending on how Arcologies and other technologies we've discussed on the channel might be employed to create a Ecumenopolis and what they might be like to live in. Support the Channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/cs02-ecumenopolises Cover Art by Jakub Grygier: https://www.artstation.com/artist/jakub_grygier

Comments

1. If you block all the infrared or ultraviolet light to the planet you could completely screw up the natural ecosystem.
2. the ideal solution to your heat problem is thermoelectric converters. It's extra power generated and its concievable to say that you can regulate the ammount absorbed so it can even be applied to tempurature regulation as well.
3. I disagree with your value on life being ''positive'' rather than inherently negative, but other than that very good information. The value state of something and its justification exists independently of its existence. Because life is, does not mean it ought to be. If all life was gone, it would not be inherently negative (as no beings would exist to experience non-positive value states) as however beautiful planets such as Jupiter or Neptune are and moons like Titan and Titania we don't tend to value the lack of beings on them as ''bad.''
   
   However, life as it currently exists is inherently negative for the vast majority of sentient beings (with the vast majority of suffering occurring for animals in nature, and the human operated animal industries of meat, leather, etc). However, if you plan to invest seriously in alleviating suffering for animals and humans (both wild and domesticated) then I would wholeheartedly endorse Ecumenoplises and Arcologies.
   
    I know its a minority opinion (that life is inherently negative for the vast majority of sentient beings), but I don't think its a fair characterization to say the argument is merely arguing non-sentient beings (like rocks) have more ''value'' than sentient beings (like humans), but that sentient beings have more potential to experience negative value states, and therefore it is not inherently positive to maximize the amount of sentient beings in existence. (and by extension not always positive to maximize the utility of population, human or otherwise)
4. 6:53 Can anyone tell me where that is?
5. Looks like Coruscant. Did I spell that right?
6. Great content Isaac, I love this stuff!
7. So Corresant or Tarris is possible or not?
8. haven't watched the video yet: Coruscant?
9. It'd be interesting to cover the heat differential of planetary crust power system of Trantor Asimov described.
10. Again,just amazing information!!!
11. So the Planet Gideon, in Star Trek TOS, would actually be manageable. Just build vertically. Still reintroducing mortality to the population would be quite useful if you intend to stay only on that planet.
12. Glad the Cantos got a mention. one of my favorite series
13. Do you work at NASA? If not maybe someone will hire you soon if not one day id love to have a company and hire you!
14. orth?
15. In science fiction, AIs are often shown in administrative positions, organizing and controlling vast amounts of information. Do you think it is viable that AIs would be used to for example control the millions of spaceships visiting an Ecumenopolis? The scale in this video is just mind-boggling, but it really shows how hard it is for humans to comprehend even how big this planet is, let alone distances and volumes in space. I wonder how long it would take our population to grow into the trillions.
16. Visions for Oarth.
17. Where have you have been all my life
18. Isaac Asimov wrote an essay where he calculated what the population would be if the entire Earth was covered by a city with the density of Manhattan. 13 trillion. He pointed out hos quickly we could reach that figure with population doubling, and also the consequence to other species - the only other species left would be highly productive algae food crops and the bacteria dealing with our wastes.
19. Amazing channel! You put so much effort and detail into these videos and its really refreshing to see an optimistic view on these topics. Often I find people like to talk about things like overpopulation and saying how we need to reduce the world population because there aren't enough resources to go around, and I never understood that view. If anything the only reason there is scarcity is because it isn't economically profitable to invest in solving these problems, and the idea of living space scarcity I always found beyond absurd when you look at places like Hong Kong and then drive through the American countryside. Personally I always thought it would be amazing to live in a megalopolis like that, to me it always seemed like everything would be about 10 stories high with plants courtyards and windows everywhere, elevators taking people up and down and lots of elevated walkways crisscrossing between the buildings. How cool would that be? The single building arcology idea seems a bit silly when you could have a full city of smaller buildings that are all sort of connected with each other and surrounded by vast farms tended by robots.
20. Instead of wasting the heat dumping it into space, instead convert it into electricity. At the level of technology where Ecumenopolises become possible, then it's not such a far step for the same technology to be able to convert heat to electricity fairly simply.