I think a bunch of different people could have this same title for a video
and make very different videos. Alright, challenge accepted. Good
morning Hank, it’s Tuesday. Let’s talk about the fastest things
in the universe. So first off, if the cosmic inflation theory is correct,
moments after the big bang the universe was expanding faster
than the speed of light. So it may be that the fastest thing in the
universe was the literal beginning of the universe which is weird to
think about. But in general, speeds around the universe are wild.
Like Hank, as you pointed out, until about 100 years ago no human
had traveled faster than around 120 miles per hour. That is of
course unless you consider that all humans were on a planet that
is traveling around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. And the
sun itself is traveling around 487,000 miles per hour as it orbits
around the center of the milky way galaxy. And we are
of course, along for that ride. So when it comes to speed as you
acknowledged Hank, a lot depends on our frame of reference. Not just in astrophysics,
but also like in everyday life. So let me approach the question this way.
I think the fastest thing I’ve encountered in my own life is the accelerating speed
in which humans are generating and sharing information. Like for the first 99%
of human history, all anybody knew about the value of pi was that it was like 3.1
something. It wasn’t until around 2,000 years ago that mathematicians
in China were able to calculate pi to the 7th digit. 1,400 years later
the Persian mathematician Jamshīd al-Kāshī was able
to calculate pi to about the 15th digit. By 1946 with the help of electronic
calculators we could calculate it to just over 1,000 digits. And today
we know the value of pi to 62 trillion digits. A more human way of
thinking about this-- around 48 terabytes of information float through the
internet in 1992, the year I first got online. That’s all the emails,
all the transferred files, are the chat rooms, everything worldwide.
These days, vlogbrothers, just vlogbrothers, generates more
information flow every year than the entire internet did in 1992.
You can see the speed increase everywhere. Like in 2007 when we
first started uploading Youtube videos, the quality was approximately this.
But the videos took over an hour to upload despite containing you know,
at most like 9 pixels. This video is hundreds of times bigger but will
take less than 10% of the time to upload because the acceleration
of information sharing is mind-boggling. I’ve been thinking about this Hank
because I’ve had an unusual weekend. My friend Craig, who is a highschool
teacher and one of my favorite people, ran a 100 mile trail race this weekend.
He finished in just under 24 hours and I had the privilege of pacing Craig,
like running alongside him and encouraging him for 17 of those miles.
Which, I don’t wanna make myself the hero of Craig’s run but that was
the longest run of my life. Anyways, we were running in a forest usually
without cellphone reception so we were often alone. Like, alone in a
way I hadn’t been in a long time. I had no ability to transfer information
except in the oldest fashioned ways with my voice and my hands.
I had no ability to text Sarah to say I was struggling but safe. I had no
ability to check GPS if I made a wrong turn, and this I realized was
the human story not just 1,000 or 100 years ago, but 15 years ago.
Like when I fell in love with Sarah I didn’t have a cellphone. I thought
they were a fad, like beepers. I’ve always been a genius at predicting
the future. Running in the dark with Craig on Saturday night, in truth he
was pacing me more than I was pacing him. And we were running
slow because, you know, that’s the only speed I’ve got. And it was
only in being separated from the internet that I began to glimpse its
true speed. How it’s ceaselessly churning, delivering information worldwide as
fast as it can be ingested, or even faster really. I love the internet and
I am so grateful for it. But that evening I will confess to feeling
relieved that I was free from the deluge. But of course Hank, if there were no
internet there would be no Pizzamas! All the Pizzamas stuff including this
wonderful hoodie is available only for the next few days and only at Pizzamas.com.
All proceeds go to charity! Hank I’ll see you on Monday.