Sam Webster-Harris
speaker
698 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2025
last heard 8 Sep
Sam Webster-Harris’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
One option is to build an impossibly huge rocket on Earth that will eventually get something incredibly tiny all the way to Mars.
Or a much better option is to launch with lots more of the stuff you actually want inside the rocket to take with you and then pick up extra fuel along the way.
For orbital refueling to work, you need standardized docking protocols, fuel transfer systems, depots stationed at key orbital positions for your space trip.
It's a bit like learning to cross your T's and dot your I's.
It's kind of dull logistics and infrastructure that feels a lot like homework.
But it's these powerful basics that turn science fiction into reality.
And as they say, today's homework is tomorrow's achievement.
So as you probably guessed, I could talk about fun future things endlessly, but I'll stick with just those two fun ideas for this episode.
Considering the future of life itself on Earth and how it possibly spreads across the solar system, it's pretty cool.
Perhaps even in 100 years, these ideas will be taken completely for granted, a bit like our billions of eggs a day that show up in your breakfast omelette or your burger mayonnaise, in your cakes, muffins and quiches, and yes, even in your Death Star lasagna.
What a time it is to be alive.
Alrighty, I hope I didn't overcook the concept there as it is pretty simple to grasp but I felt it was really worth exploring from a few different angles across history, science and domains that might give you some ideas to really think about how to use the concept.
If you found the episode interesting do please subscribe and follow the whole journey as we tour through the entire history of innovation in chronological order and if you could do me a favour please tell all your clever friends about it or drop a like and comment on your podcast player of choice.
On my side, I am aiming to quit all my other work-life commitments and go full-time on this project, and if you want to help me with that, from next week onwards, there will be a premium layer to support me.
Every single public episode that I have will have an accompanying premium episode which will offer some behind-the-scenes info on my notes, extra stories, fun facts, and of course, any listener questions on the topics of that episode.
So if you do have any questions for me relating to this episode, please stick them in the comments and the answers will eventually one day appear in premium.
On the subject of my infallible optimism for things that may one day appear in the future, it's nice to remind ourselves that in the future, where we are now might just feel like the beginning.
As Charles Darwin said, from so simple a beginning, endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, are being evolved.
With that, remember, what we know is a drop and what we don't know is an ocean.
So, please stay curious.
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