ditch mr. bubbles and bring your little
sister because this week is going to be
by Yoshiaki
hello Internet welcome to game theory
now with a hundred percent more flash
and 500 percent more audience pandering
who says learning can't be exciting this
week we're talking about the
philosophies of eine rand just long
enough to say that we're not talking
about the philosophies of ein ran
because you know what Bioshock is a
whole lot more than just an Objectivist
romp through a utopian society
it's an Objectivist romp through an
underwater utopian society which as we
all know increases its coolness by a
factor of 23 but could we really build
an underwater self-sufficient city like
the developers depict in Bioshock this
week we're looking at the science
involved from handling water pressure
and undersea forests to geothermal
energy and real-life millionaires
currently working to make rapture a
reality so would you kindly inject
yourself with that used syringe of slug
stem cells cuz we're taking a trip under
the sea according to bioshock's official
wiki rapture is located underwater a few
hundred miles west of Iceland's capital
city of any geography buffs out there
hey Gabby very good a gold star if you
can spell it that area of the Atlantic
is actually some of the shallowest ocean
water on earth only about 656 feet deep
or 200 meters if you're a viewer who
actually understands the appeal of
soccer a football compare that to
Marianas Trench which has a depth the
equivalent to cutting Mount Everest off
at sea level placing it on the ocean
floor and still having a mile of water
on top with water weighing in at 62
point 5 pounds per cubic foot even in
the shallows of the Atlantic Ocean any
architect of Andrew Ryan's would have to
contend with an immense amount of
pressure but surprisingly the solution
to the problem exists right in your own
kitchen cabinets
the Triton 36,000 is a new submarine set
to explore the depths of Marianas Trench
making it only the fourth expedition in
history to do so that's right there have
been more missions to the moon than
there have been to the bottom of the
ocean however what makes this
expedition different is that the sub is
practically a glass fear made out of
Pyrex the same stuff as in mom's
casserole dish
unlike other materials the Pyrex sphere
will actually strengthen under the
increasing water pressure why this super
glass is necessary for the cup I use to
measure the water going into my easy
Mack is beyond me but here's the thing
the Pyrex name has been around since
1915 with its current formula being
developed in the 1940s according to the
game rapture was finished in 1951
meaning that the cities network of
rounded tubes and pipes could easily
have been made from this pressure
resistant material and the spherical
bathysphere system like the Triton sub
takes full advantage of using geometry
to displace water pressure however the
rest of bioshock's urban planning
wouldn't hold up nearly as well the
stone buildings and statues would erode
faster than Lindsay Lohan's dignity and
the sharp geometric patterns of the
city's art deco design would do nothing
to evenly distribute the immense amount
of pressure in short it's possible but
it ain't too smart building the
structures though is only the first
issue how about oxygen I mean an
underwater city is cool and all but
without air debris that would kind of
suck well the game offers a solution one
mission has our hero Jack roaming
through the hills of Arcadia raptures
undersea garden to revive the trees that
provide part of the city's crucial
oxygen supply in real life an indoor
ecosystem isn't the challenge here
the real problem is getting sunlight
through the water and to the plants the
photic zone is the name given to the
uppermost layer of the ocean where 70%
of the world's photosynthesis takes
place however this only extends 100
meters down which if you've been paying
attention is only half the maximum
possible depth of the ocean where
rapture is located now you know that I'm
not one to take the easy way out I mean
I practically illustrate every fifth
word of my scripts but here I think it's
accurate to say that Arcadia is simply
located in the top of one of raptures
tallest buildings because think about it
300 or so feet up by building standards
isn't that high to begin with especially
for a city modeled after New York look I
had an explanation already with light
bulbs being able to recreate Sun lights
natural wavelength but if you see here
this area of the game is lit entirely by
what's streaming in through the glass
ceiling meaning that this part of
Rapture must be in the you photic zone
so that's growing the garden but what
about the oxygen itself well the plants
are a nice touch but like a degree in
classical languages they're pretty
useless you see oxygen is easily
produced from the electrolysis of water
which for rapture there's never a
shortage of basically run an electrical
current through the liquid and have it
separate into hydrogen and oxygen it's a
process that's existed since 1800 and
submarines have been doing it for years
so there's no doubt that rapture could
have easily incorporated it no the
bigger issue is the removal of the waste
carbon dioxide we breathe out and sure
trees would make a little difference but
what's really necessary is a co2
scrubber a device which absorbs carbon
dioxide out of the air so it can
literally be thrown away like waste a
process that dates back to before 1878
it's an easy solution making underwater
living that much more enjoyable so we
have our buildings and we have our air
supply all we really need now is the
power the eighth level of Bioshock
brings Jack to Hephaestus the fiery
furnace a plant that uses the Earth's
geothermal energy to produce the bulk of
raptures electricity and here is where
the developers over at 2k show their
brilliance because on land utilizing the
natural heat of Earth's molten interior
poses multiple problems including
transporting it all the way to the
surface and the fact that it's very
location specific meaning that you have
to be around a convergence of two
tectonic plates to harness the heat
available in Earth's lower layers but
rapture being on the seafloor eliminates
the first problem altogether because
you've already gotten rid of hundreds of
feet of piping as for the second
remember what I said a couple minutes
ago about raptures location hey Gabi
Iceland exists on the mid-atlantic ridge
and on a geological hotspot what this
means is that the country is
loaded with geysers and volcanoes as a
result over 50% of Iceland's total
energy consumption comes from geothermal
sources and to wrap it all up in a nice
little package using geothermal energy
in Iceland dates back to 1930 over ten
years before rapture was even conceived
meaning that not only is it possible to
build the city today
unbelievably all the technology for an
underwater city existed by the time
Andrew Ryan started his plans in the
1940s all told it appears that Bioshock
provides a decent lesson on underwater
urban planning plus the 40 setting is
actually the year when the technology to
make this possible all came together so
why hasn't this happened who says it
hasn't have you researched the ocean
floor around the mid-atlantic ridge
lately I have and my research didn't
turn up anything still the idea of
oceanic living is catching on underwater
restaurants a secret underwater hotel
planned off a private island in Fiji a
1.5 billion dollar underwater complex in
Dubai but most bio shockingly evolved in
2008 a group of millionaires including
the founder of PayPal started the
seasteading Institute an organization
dedicated to making independent floating
ocean nations okay so they're not
underwater but stick with me here cuz
this is a biggie they want these
floating independent nations to run on
libertarian principles lazy thier hands
off each man entitled to the sweat of
his brow in other words Andrew Ryan's
and yes ein Rand's philosophy okay so we
didn't get through the whole episode
without mentioning her again sorry the
first test of this is set to happen near
the San Francisco Bay some time coming
soon so keep an eye out for that in the
meantime I recommend that everyone throw
away their retro scuba gear and pour
salt on any suspicious looking slugs but
hey that's just a theory a game theory
thanks for watching
beyond the season some swear
my locker stands golden side
I
it's beyond the stores it's me