The Harvard Club of the Netherlands invites you to a popular lecture

1. The Harvard Club of the Netherlandsinvites you to a popular lecture by Nobel prize winnerProf. Dr. Gerard ’t Hooft Science ≠ fiction

2. SCIENCE SCIENCE - FICTION and Gerard ’t Hooft Utrecht University

4. Cassini – Huygens mission

5. Foundations of Modern Science

6. the ATOM with electrons

7. What modern science has taught us: There are very strict rules The rules can be derived from what is NOT possible: ● Energy is conserved: 1) No energy out of nothing 2) No energy out of heat ! Unless there are temperature differences ! ● All masses generate the same gravitational force Anti-gravity is not possible !

8. ● There are speed limits ! • 1) The speed of sound • The speed of light Air: 344 m/sec Copper: 3100 m/sec Stone: 5971 m/sec 299 792 458 m/sec

9. The speed of sound is approximately the limit of all velocities that can be obtained using chemical substances only:

10. The exhaust velocity in most rockets is limited by approx. 3 km/sec To reach Earth orbit, you need about 9 km/sec The Earth’s escape velocity is approximately 11 km /sec

11. Steel: 154 kNM/kg = 392 m/sec ² Nanotubes: 48,462 kNm/kg = 7 km/sec ² The same numbers are decisive for the concept of a space elevator The limiting factor is the strength of a tether relative to its weight It is expressed in terms of GigaPascal / specific weight, or Newton meter / kg

12. Nano tubes Consisting of carbon atoms only

13. Applications of tethers: The space elevator tethered satellites Catapulting spacecraft to higher velocities But never velocity differences much beyond the sound velocity of a few km / sec Also the wheels of an automobile would explode if you would drive faster than that ...

14. To reach much greater velocities in space, you must use nuclear propellants (or solar energy if you can ...) Freeman Dyson The characteristic velocities in nuclear reactions is one tenth of the speed of light ...

16. A black hole

17. Black hole diameter is proportional to its mass One solar mass = 3 km. Velocity of light = 300 000 km / sec Important restrictions: Space travel: people will probably never be able to travel faster than approx. 1000 km/sec, a lot slower than light velocity ... ! “Space-warp” will remain fiction forever .... Black holes are no “worm holes” The mass would have to exceed 10 000 solar masses (so you can’t bring them along in your space ship), and even if ... Communication and transport to other stars (than our sun) will remain problematic.

18. What fantastic thingscan we still imagine without clashing with science ? Information technology Truly intelligent computers do not contradict any of our present knowledge – it is just difficult ! The IT revolution has only just started !

19. The basic units in computer chips can still become a lot smaller – and faster !

20. Richard Feynman, 1959, APS CalTech: “There is plenty of Room at the Bottom!”

21. Moore’s Law The information period has only barely begun Computer software and hardware can become a lot better and faster Computers can become intelligent, indeed a lot more intelligent than humans ... Robots (automated machines, controlled by computers), may become tiny and universal, but: if they are tiny, their vision will be very bad ... !

22. Will NANO TECHNOLOGY determine our future?

23. A proteine and DNA 10 nm

24. Genetic engineering offers fantastic possibilities in the future Food water energy space colonization The Human Genome

25. The future How will space be colonized ?

26. Asteroids: ~ 1 year Can we go there ? The Moon: 3 - 4 days The Solar System Mars: 8 months Jupiter moons ~ 2 years ? Saturnus moons ~ 3 years ? Then: Uranus, Neptune, etc. Pluto and beyond ?

27. Human Colonization ... Our motives: curiosity and expansionism But human colonization will only happen if affordable ! For essential information SF authors perhaps underestimate: the Media the Internet remotely controlled machines (robots) To keep funding agencies interested

28. a SCENARIO

31. CAM BOTS

32. The Lunar hotel The first colonies will be small and under ground ... Glass can be made on any planet Ice is also a magnificent building material

33. MARS ! John von Neumann: Robots can reproduce themselves. Robots can become semi-intelligent . Self-reproduction and intelligence are not possible today but not forbidden by science ! Neumannbots

34. To the stars ? Travelling to the stars will take thousands or millions of years Humans of flesh and blood will not be interested in such long-lasting trips But perhaps living oranisms can be spread and cultivated.

35. Our science is also the science for intelligent creatures elsewhere in the Universe if these creatures exist at all, they will be subject to the same limitations therefore, we should not expect visits by creatures of flesh and blood But their neumannbots might be able to reach us they haven’t done so yet.

36. THE END

37. Are neumannbots dangerous ? Not if we adhere to some fundamental principles. Read Richard Dawkins All “evolutions” must be orchestrated from one central point (on Earth) Then all neumannbots will be genetically identical. They behave like termites. The “queen” stays on Earth.

38. Cassini

42. Atomic nucleus electron Matter as we know it: atoms More than 10 000 x greater distance !

43. Atomic nucleus Neutron Quarks Proton