02-02-2020, 10:35 PM
In a YouTube video about three weeks ago, Isaac Arthur explored the question: would it be possible for modern technology to develop without fire?
He asked this question within the context of the Fermi Paradox; however, that's not what I intend to do in this thread. Instead, this thread is simply about the idea of "tech without fire" in its own right (independent of the wider "Fermi Paradox" question). Still, I think this video serves well enough as a starting point for the topic, so here it is:
The video is 20 minutes long, which is quite short for an Isaac Arthur video, but still pretty long for someone who isn't used to his content . If that's too long, then the first 8 minutes or so are just background about how this situation might arise, so if you're only interest in the main "what-if" question, then you can probably skip to 8:20 and start from there. Or, if you don't wish to watch the video at all, then here's a summary of the main points:
So, yeah... I feel like this video only scratches the surface, but those are his initial thoughts. Do you have any other ideas of your own to add here?
He asked this question within the context of the Fermi Paradox; however, that's not what I intend to do in this thread. Instead, this thread is simply about the idea of "tech without fire" in its own right (independent of the wider "Fermi Paradox" question). Still, I think this video serves well enough as a starting point for the topic, so here it is:
The video is 20 minutes long, which is quite short for an Isaac Arthur video, but still pretty long for someone who isn't used to his content . If that's too long, then the first 8 minutes or so are just background about how this situation might arise, so if you're only interest in the main "what-if" question, then you can probably skip to 8:20 and start from there. Or, if you don't wish to watch the video at all, then here's a summary of the main points:
- There are multiple reasons why a hypothetical intelligent species might be unable or unwilling to use fire. Perhaps they live underwater; perhaps their planet is so humid that fires are difficult to start; or perhaps they're furry predators that have little use for fires (at least, for keeping warm or cooking food).
- Some obvious early technologies which require fire are metalwork (for weapons/tools) and pottery (for waterproof storage). However, both of these can be done without fire: weapons and tools can be made out of materials like bone and flint, while animal hides can be used for make waterproof containers. They wouldn't be as good as metal or ceramic equivalents; however, they'd get the job done.
- Some specific technologies (such as the navigational compass) would be much harder to replicate without fire-based metalwork. However, there would still be ways in which this species could navigate: magnetic objects would probably still exist, and if that failed, they could use the stars (or perhaps a much closer moon, if they had one!)
- Writing is certainly possible without fire (there are plenty of things we could write on or write with), and even a printing press could be done (metalwork does make it easier to create typesets, but it wouldn't be impossible without it)
- If you want an example of a modern technology which might be possible without fire... nuclear energy is a good candidate. Making safe nuclear reactors would be difficult without fire-based metalwork, but fairly primitive ones would be possible. (In fact, more advanced ones might even be doable if this hypothetical species had far greater resistance to radiation than we do! Once they have something like this, they should be able to do nuclear-based metalwork - which would remove probably the greatest barrier to modern technology)
- Even if alternative solutions don't seem obvious to us... it's likely that this alternate species would continue to evolve to become more intelligent over the millennia. As a result, they'd be in a much better position to find these alternatives than we currently are (though, this doesn't feel like a satisfactory answer to the question, because it's difficult to predict what those alternate solutions would be, and how they would be arrived at )
So, yeah... I feel like this video only scratches the surface, but those are his initial thoughts. Do you have any other ideas of your own to add here?
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