Megastructures of the Future Explained

Ok, who else likes space-time and futurism with Isaac Arthur?

If I could make a recommendation since we're alluding to grand-human structures, Paolo Soleri, an Italian Architect, came up with some breath-taking mega-structure designs I used to look at as a kid in the local library all the time. I'd recommend Curious Archive to do a follow-up series of megastructures alluding to the Arcology systems Soleri postulated, maybe of the types of centric cities from Futurist Jacque Fresco, there are so many!

The one that I always immediately imagine when I hear the word megastructure is The City from Blame. While we don't ever get any clear numbers on just how big it is, there was an empty space about the size of Jupiter in one spot. It seems to be a Dyson sphere that takes up most if the mass in the solar system, and maybe most of the space too since Nihei, the author, said it was probably the diameter of Jupiter's orbit. The main selling point of the manga is the atmosphere though. He really sells the idea of this thing being not only mind-bendingly gigantic, but so insanely old and decrepit. 11/10 wonderful manga.

The Ringworld is essentially an extremely squat O'Neill Cylinder, isn't it? And the spherical one is kind of just a smooshed O'Neill Cylinder, isn't it? What I'm saying is, I want O'Neill Cylinders, dang it. Also, Helium-3 from Jupiter would be a good source of energy.

This guy deserves so many more subs

Megastructures are so fascinating but I'll always prefer good old earth. Kinda glad to be in an age where we can imagine these incredible structures without having to worry about living on one. Another amazing video, CA! edit: if you want to read a story about the anxieties of living in a rogue megastructure try the manga Blame!, its legitimately one of the best sci fi epics out there

The ringworld you described sounds exactly like the one was envisioned by Larry Niven in 1970 his book "Ringworld". I would highly recommend reading it to anyone who hasn't done so.

Honestly Mega structures are basically the real life equivalent of making a utterly massive-scale minecraft farm, like the ones you might see on the Hermitcraft server. They both take insane amounts of resources and technology to make, but in the long run, boy are they worth it.

The colonies from the Gundam series always fascinated me due to how they integrated a day and night cycle , solar energy harvesting and their cylindrical shape, with inhabitants building smaller structures horizontally in relation to the colony; sth akin to an elongated ringworld.

"This is a ringworld, something you may have seen or heard of before" I can't imagine where I might have seen THAT before

Always loved Anderson Disks as a concept, and this artist's take on it is honestly the most gorgeous I've ever seen I also love the nicoll dyson beam structure

One of my favorite megastructures would have to be a "Celestial Factory." The idea that a civilization could construct a planet with exact specifications for the civilizations needs.

You've touched on my favorite topic of discussion in SciFi! There is SO much back history of megastructures that this barely scratches the surface. Could you possibly do more research into this and put out at least one more video? Neil Blevins is not the only one who has put pen to paper and made a compilation of these objects, and he's certainly not the first. I would love for you to dig deeper into this subject and possibly add to this with earlier works (and their artists) of such structures. I feel that it was remiss not to include the names of the primary designers when their well-established work was mentioned outside the sphere of copyright law; such as Dyson Spheres, Clarke Space Elevators, the Niven Ringworld (in particular, using the ring with the "shadow squares" belongs exclusively to Larry Niven). Perhaps we should give credit where it's due... PLEASE do more videos on this subject!

What an awesome breakdown of the Gigastructural Engineering Mod for Stellaris.

A Dyson laser could be useful for terraforming planets by increasing their temperature artificially

My curiosity sparks every time I listen to you. You deserve more subs, truly.

You have done a Star Wars reference mentioning the Death Star, I can now die happy

Ngl YOU NEED A MILLION SUBS. 5 reasons why: you make a variety of amazing content. you have an amazing voice like david attenbrough good. you also talk about unpopular topics and science fiction. also you just seem so cool to accept fan suggestions

You sound so smart really like it. Hope you get to 1 million real soon

Putting it on my Christmas list