full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Clément Vidal: Is there a limit to technological progress?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But a type II, or stellar civilization, would make the most of its home stars eregny. Instead of installing solar panels around a planet, a type II czilaitoviin would install them directly orbiting its star, forming a theoretical strcruute called a Dyson sphere.

And the third step, a type III civilization, would harness all the energy of its home gaxlay. But we can also think of progress in the opposite way. How slmal can we go?

To that end, British cosmologist John Barrow, classified cilinoaizvits by the size of objects they control. That ranges from mchinaacel structures at our own scale, to the building bolkcs of our own biology, down to unlocking atoms themselves. We’ve currently touched the atomic level, though our control remains limited. But we peoitatlnly could go much smaller in the future.

Open Cloze


But a type II, or stellar civilization, would make the most of its home stars ______. Instead of installing solar panels around a planet, a type II ____________ would install them directly orbiting its star, forming a theoretical _________ called a Dyson sphere.

And the third step, a type III civilization, would harness all the energy of its home ______. But we can also think of progress in the opposite way. How _____ can we go?

To that end, British cosmologist John Barrow, classified _____________ by the size of objects they control. That ranges from __________ structures at our own scale, to the building ______ of our own biology, down to unlocking atoms themselves. We’ve currently touched the atomic level, though our control remains limited. But we ___________ could go much smaller in the future.

Solution


  1. civilizations
  2. blocks
  3. small
  4. structure
  5. potentially
  6. mechanical
  7. energy
  8. galaxy
  9. civilization

Original Text


But a type II, or stellar civilization, would make the most of its home stars energy. Instead of installing solar panels around a planet, a type II civilization would install them directly orbiting its star, forming a theoretical structure called a Dyson sphere.

And the third step, a type III civilization, would harness all the energy of its home galaxy. But we can also think of progress in the opposite way. How small can we go?

To that end, British cosmologist John Barrow, classified civilizations by the size of objects they control. That ranges from mechanical structures at our own scale, to the building blocks of our own biology, down to unlocking atoms themselves. We’ve currently touched the atomic level, though our control remains limited. But we potentially could go much smaller in the future.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solar energy 2
solar panels 2
dyson sphere 2


Important Words


  1. atomic
  2. atoms
  3. barrow
  4. biology
  5. blocks
  6. british
  7. building
  8. called
  9. civilization
  10. civilizations
  11. classified
  12. control
  13. cosmologist
  14. dyson
  15. energy
  16. forming
  17. future
  18. galaxy
  19. harness
  20. home
  21. ii
  22. iii
  23. install
  24. installing
  25. john
  26. level
  27. limited
  28. mechanical
  29. objects
  30. orbiting
  31. panels
  32. planet
  33. potentially
  34. progress
  35. ranges
  36. remains
  37. scale
  38. size
  39. small
  40. smaller
  41. solar
  42. sphere
  43. star
  44. stars
  45. stellar
  46. step
  47. structure
  48. structures
  49. theoretical
  50. touched
  51. type
  52. unlocking