November 30, 2008: Future Technology and Parallel Worlds - Dr. Michio Kaku
Dr. Kaku then examines Iran's nuclear ambitions, noting that their hardened underground facilities do not resemble a civilian program. He estimates that President-elect Obama will face a critical decision point within a year regarding Iranian enrichment. The conversation shifts to his book Physics of the Impossible, exploring the realistic timeline for technologies like fusion power, space elevators, and antimatter propulsion.
The final hours cover parallel universes and string theory, with Dr. Kaku describing how the multiverse concept has moved from fringe speculation to mainstream theoretical physics. Art and Dr. Kaku also discuss the economic crisis, Obama's incoming cabinet, and whether advanced alien civilizations might already be invisible to human detection.
Key Moments
India and Pakistan on launch-on-warning hair trigger: Kaku says India has roughly 80 atomic bombs, Pakistan about 40, with missiles that can hit each capital in minutes on launch-on-warning status, comparing it to two people holding guns to each other's skulls with no warning time.
The moon once tripped American nuclear early warning: Kaku recounts the moment over-the-horizon radar locked onto an unseen object and US missiles and bombers were put on alert, only for the moon to rise minutes later as the cause of the false alarm.
Solar mainspring will one day shred the satellites: Kaku describes the sun's 11-year polarity flip as a wound mainspring whose release sends shock waves at Earth, warns that one day a sunspot 'rifle' will hit and devastate the internet, telecommunications and satellites, and notes an astronaut already had to shelter in a hardened module.
Wandering black holes that could devour the solar system: Kaku says astronomers have actually tracked a wandering black hole, calling it no longer science fiction, and warns one could sneak up invisibly and gobble up the sun and Earth without so much as a burp.
Rivers of time fork and the grandfather paradox dissolves: Kaku explains Einstein's river of time can fork or form whirlpools, so going back to shoot your parents simply lands you in a parallel universe where you've killed someone else's genetically identical parents while your own timeline is intact.