NEW VIDEO: What if the World turned to Gold? - The Gold Apocalypse

Speaking of apocalypses, I'd love to see a Kurzegesagt take on the imminent Yellowstone eruption.

Oorslavich

It brought up a discussion from college: how strong is Minecraft Steve? Very. Carrying a full load of gold blocks, 2688 cubic meters of gold, Steve weighs about the same as 25 empty Space Shuttles. All of this mass in an average 65 liter human body, Steve is still many orders of magnitude less dense than a neutron star.

Mark S Benedict

We've learned that if it weighs the same as a duck and is made of gold your are being duped

I'd say the lesson is this: magic and magical thinking, though humans have a tendency to gravitate toward it for various reasons, is nearly always easily shown to be not only impossible, but actually disastrous if it were. Next time you catch yourself being pulled toward a magical explanation for a phenomenon, consider what it would really mean for the way the world works. You'll probably realize that the magical explanation is not the most likely one.

Tja, es ist eben nicht alles Gold, was glänzt. ;-)

I do really enjoy these hypothetical, whimsy videos. There’s plenty of sources to go to to find up and coming research or videos breaking down how the earths crust formed but not many content creators delve into the more fantastical ideas with such gusto and research.

That's a lot of dead ducks for the "March of the Ducks" month... 😿

Philippe Schrettenbrunner

Personally, I learned some new, detailed examples of how delicately balanced chemistry, physics, and perhaps other fundamental laws are. Like changing Planck's constant, a minor change to atomic structure, weight, physical properties, etc. would affect everything. Fun thought experiment and this video really only scratched the surface! 👍🏼

Would the ocean boil off into gas in the last example? Or would the pressure keep it at liquid state?

Haezan

I really doubt it would die. They’re currently posting a video a month I thought? Besides, not all of them are aimed at you. They’re for people from different backgrounds and curiosity in different fields. This kind of video brings me a lot of joy, just as much as their more technical ones.

Haezan

Oath, all their videos are fantastic

Haezan

I think we're just considering the rock that makes up the earth here Magic

Don't listen to the haters. Your science videos are fun and your fun videos are sciencey! They're so busy pooh-pooh-ing the subject of this video that they've missed that the kind of thinking and analysis you're doing here are key for dreamers who want to change the world. You want to cure disease? Make humans fly? "What do you *mean* by that" is very important when trying to figure out how to do it -- as your dramatically different examples of three different versions of "turn into gold" show!

Staren

There’s a phenomenon observed on reviewing sites like Yelp where bad reviews are often actually from long time supporters of a business who are displeased with what they may view as a unfavorable change in their favorite product. The bad review isn’t really a bad review, the critic just seems to view themself as a product consultant for the business, demanding that the business makes the product the way they want it made. I point that out because the phenomenon is also clear in these comments, where actively paying supporters of this channel also seem to think they know what’s best for its direction. The loudest critics sometimes are among the most brand loyal. Keep doing your thing, Kurzgesagt.

Saturnine

Wouldn't also the oceans be gold in scenario three...?

Forodriac Origamius

I don't know what I learned, but it was great

I agree with some of the comments. Before Kurzgesagt was a source of interesting different science videos based on real research. Now it only shows "how to destroy the humanity/the planet/the universe?" videos. I think in part it might have to do the rigorous approach you take before publishing any video, spending thousands of man/hours per work. Though commendable, this approach is not very productive if you work on so many distinct topics: medicine, physics, chemistry, ecology, zoology, etc. Have you considered choosing just one or two main topics and publishing videos only about those? For example, human medicine and astronomy (I'm not saying it must be specifically those two)? That way, you can "reuse" the knowledge learned from previous videos in new different ones. As an example, your videos about the Immune system are some of the best I have watched in the Internet, and I recommend them to others. Otherwise, you will publish only 3, 4 videos a year and your business will die.

Fabiano

In the third "idea" why did the water ocean not turn into gold?

Duke BG

I learned a lot about gold actually, thank you for sharing! I wonder why gold is always said to be from the core of a sun, and that is why it is found on earth. Meaning, it is quite a rare mineral in the whole universe

I throughly loved this video and learned a lot.

Josh Albus

I loved this video, very Randall Monroe. Have you considered collaborating? This sort of deep scientific analysis of fantastical thoughts is right up his alley.

and destroyed lol

Can Midas just touch himself I don't want to die thanks.

I must admit that I thought that this was going to be a dud but it was actually really good. I learnt a lot about how matter behaves. Thanks!

Richard McLeod

I mean literally the previous video was about a serious topic? I think it feels like all videos are “playful/childish” because people meme the hell out of it, not so much that all videos actually are that.

Willem Maathuis

Come on folks - some of these are becoming so so sophomoric that it's not fun any more. Please consider returning to actual thoughtful stuff rather than listening to the inner 11 year old. What's next - what if everyone could fly like Superman? I'm hanging in here for the ducks, but that's about it.

Jon Adams

That we live in a very narrow band of comfortable parameters and that any sudden extreme change is an existential threat to all of us. Oh, hey there, Climate Change.

Malovich

I learned that Kurzgesagt loves to find creative ways to blow things up.

All your jewellery would be worthless.

Bester