The Ocean Cleanup Fleet and the Hovercopter - Quantum #4 - A Bedtime Story

0:04 Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world. I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime Stories. Tonight, as promised, we're headed back into the quantum computer universe because I had a great suggestion from Josie from Bracebridge to do an episode where you go to different parts of the Earth and clean up trash and save wildlife and that sort of thing. I'd been meaning to go back to the quantum universe for a while and I thought this was the perfect excuse to do that. If you have an idea for the quantum universe or any other universe, you can leave it for me on speak Pipe.

0:46 I think there were a couple way back in the past, and I'll go back and try to find them for the quantum universe. But if you want to do another one just to remind me, that would be great. Before we get started, I just want to give a big shout out to some of my newest Patreon sponsors. First up, thank you too, Calder, Hayes, Hattie and Mark for sponsoring the sponsoring the podcast on Patreon.

1:12 I really really appreciate it.

1:14 And last thank you to Brandon, Melissa, Josie and Charlie from Bracebridge for their Patreon sponsorship as well. Apparently they started listening for the first time with my hydro one episode when I was caught in the middle of an ice storm about a year ago now, and funny enough, not the first.

1:38 People who told me that was the episode that led them to the podcast, so who knew.

1:44 If you'll like the podcast, don't forget to rate it and review it wherever you're listening, consider joining Patreon if parents think that's a good idea, or you can even check out some of my books that are available online. I actually went back due to some views and stuff like that, and fixed up some of the older books.

2:03 So Cards of Power has just been updated the first volume of it, just as a different format. There's no need to buy it again or anything like that if you already have it, but if you're buying it new, I've just kind of spread things out a little bit. I made it a little bit longer, with bigger words and that sort of thing, something I'd always wanted to do, and fix a couple little mistakes I found when I was reading it for my other podcast, and I also changed one of the pictures in the coloring book because I saw another review that pointed out something strange in one of those pictures. Not a huge deal, but I did replace it. Anyways, you can check all of those out on Amazon. The link should be in the description.

2:43 And now it's that time again. Time to get as comfy as you can in that bed. Close your eyes and imagine yourself doing what the kid in the story does. Imagine yourself waking up in your very own bed. Before you can even sit up properly, you hear Quantum's voice speak from your wrist. Good morning, he says, cheerfully, I have a surprise for you. You blink and lift your arm.

3:21 Quantum's tiny, smiling face is glowing on the screen of your watch. A surprise, you ask, Yes, please look beside your bed on the nightstand. You should find a button. You look beside your bed, and sure enough, there is a night stand there, even if there wasn't before, and even stranger. Sitting on top of that night's stand is a little red button. Oh what does it do? You ask?

3:56 I believe, Quantum says. The best way to answer that question is to press it. You hesitate for a second, because, well, you're not really sure about pressing this big red button. On your night stand. But eventually you decide to go for it. You press down on the thing, and for a moment nothing happens, and then your bed begins to move. Oh, you jump off the bed as the entire thing slowly slide sideways across the floor with a smooth, mechanical hum, revealing a large square of metal, a hatch of some kind. Quantum, you built something under my room. I built something under your room, under much of the house and under a good portion of the yard. Quantum replies, I was productive and I had a lot of energy to work with.

5:05 You hurry over and kneel beside the hatch. It's made of dark silver metal with little glowing blue lines around the edges, and there's a handle in the middle of course, dry opening it, Quantum suggests you grab the handle and pull. The hatch lifts up with a hiss, and beneath it. There's not a ladder or stairs, or you know, some sort of elevator. Instead, there's a slide. The shiny metal slide curves steeply down into glowing blue light below. You built a secret underground base, you say, staring down the slide.

5:51 That is correct, And you made the entrance a slide that is also correct. I have researched children on your world thoroughly. Slides are extremely popular. You grin huh fair point. You sit down at the top, grip the sides, and push off. You shoot downwards, immediately twisting through a polished tunnel of metal and blue lights. The slide curves left, then right, then drops more steeply, and your stomach flips in the best possible way. At the bottom. You burst out of the tube and slide across a smooth metal floor before coming to a stop in the middle of a gigantic underground chamber, one that definitely wasn't there before.

6:50 You stand up slowly and your mouth falls open. The base is enormous. The walls are smooth steel and dark gray metal, broken up by glowing blue lines that run along the floor and ceiling like streams of light. Overhead, huge support beams arch high above you. One side of the chamber is taken up by an enormous new printer, far larger than the one in your room upstairs. Thick energy canisters are plugged into the back of it, though none of them are glowing anymore, which makes you think they might be empty. Or close to it. Beside the printer, mounted against one wall, like the heart of the whole place, is Quantum's main body, its screen glowing brightly. A group of helper bods drift quietly through the air.

7:50 Nearby.

7:52 There are more than before, several of them, all hovering carrying tools, scanning surfaces and moving the last few panels of metal into place along the walls. But most of the base is still empty, just a huge open space. This is amazing, you say, thank you, Quantum says, there is still much to do. At present. The base contains a primary fabrication chamber, energy routing systems, robotic docking stations, secure storage and launch access. However, many facilities remain unbuilt.

8:37 You slowly turn in a circle. You built this whole place while I was sleeping. Yes, mostly printed it. You sleep for a long time, which is super helpful. I can't believe this, Oh you should. It is standing directly beneath your feet, Quantum replies, I meant it more as a figure of speech. You walk toward the giant printer, where one of the helper bots floats past, carrying a tool nearly as big as itself, sitting beneath it. Is the folded up submarine in the shape of a backpack.

9:18 So what happens next, you ask, do we start building all the cool stuff now? Yes, Quantum replies, but first we need more material. And after researching your Earth, I have found many possible sources. Quantum screen changes and suddenly a map of Earth appears different places, blink and red. I've spent the night analyzing publicly available information. There are many areas on Earth in desperate need of cleanup. According to the Internet, every year, an estimated nineteen to twenty three million tons of plastic waste leaks into the aquatic ecosystem, rivers, lakes and see you stare at the map that much. Yes, Also in twenty twenty two alone, the world generated and estimated sixty two billion kilograms of electric waste. That is

10:26 sixty two million tons. You look from the map to quantum screen, so there's basically garbage everywhere. That is a somewhat simplified summary, Quantum says, but yes, essentially the map zooms in in an area marked with a glowing symbol. I would like to start by expanding our aquatic operations, but first we require more high quality material. Electronic waste will be especially use It contains metals, circuitry, structural materials, and many components suitable for advanced fabrication. With such a large quantity, it will be less necessary to reorganize atoms themselves into different materials. You nod slowly, all right, so you want me to go get a bunch of e waste correct. Also, in order to facilitate this, I have

11:30 made substantial upgrades. A deep metallic rumble passes through the base.

11:37 Floor.

11:38 Panels in the ground slide apart, and from below something enormous begins to rise. You take a step back as a machine lifts up through a giant hatch in the floor and settles into the middle of the launch bay. It looks kind of like a helicopter, a cargo ship, and a futuristic drone smashed together. It's large and silver gray, with a rounded sort of cockpit at the front and four massive circular devices mounted around it, one on each corner.

12:17 They resemble giant propellers from a gigantic drone, except there's no blades. Instead, each one glows faintly with a sort of blue white energy. At the bottom is a wide intake of some kind that looks well, kind of like a tractor beam if your knowledge of science fiction is right. Mounted on the rear are several large energy tanks that look almost identical to the ones from the submarine. What is that you ask? That? He says is a hover You walk around it in awe. It's huge. It needed to be. The plans I have drawn up for the upgraded submarine and ocean cleaning device are much larger than a backpack size. Therefore, you will need something larger than a hover scooter to relocate it. The hover copter contains

13:27 its own collector beam, d atomizer, storage tanks, and dual navigation modes. You made a giant flying garbage vacuum. That is correct, you grin? I love it. A hatch on the side folds open, revealing the cockpit. Quantum begins explaining as you climb inside. It has several flight modes. In hover mode. The right hand lever controls eltude, lifting it up and down. The left hand joystick controls forward, backward, left and right, or by twisting it you can spin in circles. It is very similar to the controls on a toy drone. Hover mode is ideal for precision movements picking things up, dropping things off, or landing. You sit in the pilot's seat, staring at the controls. As the side closes up. On the right hand side, you see

14:35 two levers. One looks like the height lever the spaceship is talking about, and the other is marked throttle. There's a central steering wheel that's sort of folded into the dash at the moment, and a little lever on the left hand side. What's the other flight mode? You ask? In the other flight mode, the reconfigures, the steering wheel folds out, and the entire thing acts more like a traditional airplane, only one that will not fall from the sky if you come to a complete stop. In this mode, speed is controlled with the throttle on the right hand side of the steering wheel, and the rest of the ship is controlled with the wheel itself. Pulling back pulls the ship upwards, pushing down moves it forwards, and steering

15:33 left and right. As you may have guessed, steers it left or right. I suggest you start with a basic takeoff. The base starts to rumble again, then sunlight shines in over top of the hovercraft as a gigantic.

15:54 Hatch opens up.

15:56 Oh starting hover copped now the hoofer copter hums to life. All of the little controls on the dashboard laid up at once and well, it starts to sort of hum. Now pull up on the right hand lever to move yourself straight up and out of this place. You do just that, carefully, pulling up on the control. The hum grows louder, and the ship starts to move up, higher and higher and higher. Out of the hatch and above your home. You look at a little glass panel below you, one that lets you see what's directly below, which should be helpful for landing. A huge opening in your lawn slowly starts to close until it completely disappears, appearing as if nothing was there in the first place. You practice hovering around on the little copter, moving left and right

17:10 on the joystick. The copter itself moves directly right or directly left as you push in that direction. If you push forward, it moves forward, and backward it moves backward. You try twisting the joystick, and the copter twists with it. It's actually really easy to fly in this mode, though not particularly fast. A GPS map appears on the display in front of you, with a glowing path leading away this is your destination, a large electronics waste depository. With this additional energy collected, we should have no problem completing the submarine upgrades to continue our cleaning of the Pacific garbage batch. Now, are you ready to switch to flight mode?

18:08 I guess so, you say, press the button. A big blue button lights up that says flight mode, right beside another button that reads hover mode, which is currently glowing green, probably to indicate that it's on. You press the flight mode button, and the ship hums slightly differently. Now simply press forward on the throttle and steer with the steering wheel.

18:40 The steering wheel pops out of the console in front of you. You take hold of it with your left hand, put your right hand on the throttle, and press forward. Instantly, the hover copter surge is ahead. Whoa, you say, as the trees blurbneath. You pull back slightly on the wheel and the craft climbs pointing upwards. You angle left to avoid a group of buildings.

19:10 Just in time.

19:12 You should be more careful. Quantum says buildings are to be avoided. Luckily, I have built in safety devices to take over control if you are doing something too dangerous. Oh, probably a good idea. The hover copter continues to shoot forward atn incredible speed as adrenaline pumps through your body.

19:38 You are doing exceptionally well for a first attempt. However, the depository of electronic waste is not particularly close. I suggest you give it a little more gas.

19:55 Okay.

19:56 Once you find yourself high above any possible obstacles, you do exactly as Quantum suggests and press forward on the throttle. The ship zooms forward at incredible speed, and you hear a sudden banging noise as you presumably break the sound barrier. You may notice that you don't feel the speed as much as one might in a traditional Earth aircraft. Quantum says that is because I have also built in a small artificial gravity device. This way you can travel at up to ten g's without feeling the acceleration against your body.

20:42 You zoom up through the clouds and over top of the world at absolutely incredible speed until Quantum's voice appears again. I believe we are reaching the destination. Lower your altitude and switch back to hover mode. You look at the little GPS and see that the little dot that indicates where you are is approaching. The little dot that indicates where the e waste is. You slowly pull back on the throttle a little bit and push forward, dipping down below the clouds at a much more reasonable speed. Below you lies a huge sprawl of discarded machines, Mountains upon mountains of broken monitors, televisions, old computers, tangled wires, printers, microwaves, cables, keyboards, phones, and piles of metal frames just glinting in the sun.

21:48 Oho you say yes, Quantum says humanity is extremely skilled at inventing future garbage. You lower into hover mode and slowly use the lever to bring the craft down over top of the site. Activate the Collector. Quantum suggests. A screen over to your right lights up with a button that says activate Collector. As soon as you press the button, the screen displays all of the garbage below and asks you to select a target. You select, a gigantic pile of garbage hit except and a cone of energy shoots downward like a tractor beam. Suddenly, broken electronics begin lifting from the heaps below, small pieces at first, and then wull clusters of devices, enormous tangles of metal and wire.

22:55 They rise into the beam, vanish into the intake, and are instantly deatomized, breaking them down into their well most basic components. The energy tanks at the back begin to glow brighter and brighter. The process is actually astonishingly fast, Quantum, you say as you watch, this thing is incredible. Yes, Quantum says, I am aware. The ability to use a larger three D printer allowed me to construct more advanced materials.

23:36 In this case, you have now collected a substantial amount of material. We should return. You turn off the little garbage vacuum device and lift back up into the air above the clouds, before switching into flight mode once again and pressing forward on the throttle again. You hear a loud boom as you pass the sound barrier and keep on going. The clouds zip below you as you keep an eye on your little GPS, checking to see if you're anywhere near your home, and then you see something in.

24:17 Front of you. It grows larger and larger.

24:21 At first it looks a little bit like a bird, and then you realize it's an airplane, an airplane that you're heading directly towards. You quickly pull back on the joystick or steering wheel, I should say, and the ship zooms up above the gigantic passenger plane, then past it at incredible speed. You press forward and dip below the clouds until things start to look rather familiar again, until you see your own home. You switch to hover mode and sl slowly lower the thing down towards your house.

25:04 A huge hatch opens in your yard out of seemingly nowhere, and you carefully aim the ship directly above it, and then slowly lower it down.

25:18 Through the hatch.

25:20 The hatch closes above you, the sunlight disappears, and immediately the little helper bots are already moving, grabbing the huge storage tanks and moving them over to the three D printer. You look over to see the little backpack sized submarine already in place, and then the printer starts up. It hums to life. Golden energy surges through the transparent channels in the machine, and you see parts forming with incredible speed. Walls, panels, engines, mechanical arms, collector systems, printing modules, and all sorts of other pieces put together in a gigantic metal square or wel cube. Before you know it, the gigantic square is completely made. It's time to upgrade our ocean cleanup operation.

26:23 Please lift the hover copter up higher so we can activate the tractor beam. Uh. Okay, you haven't even had time to get out of the thing in the first place, because Quantum moves rather quickly. The hatch above you opens up again and you use the lever on the right to increase your altitude. Hovering just above the ground beside your home, the helper bots fly the gigantic square below you, and Quantum's voice appears again. Activate the tractor beam, Quantum says, and another little button lights up tractor beam. You press the button, a light shines down below you and snaps the gigantic square that apparently folds out into a submarine onto the bottom of the hover copter. Next destination, the Pacific garbage patch, a little GPS map appears once again.

27:32 You lift the ship up high above the clouds, before once again switching to flight mode and pressing forward on the throttle again. There's a gigantic boom as you pass the sound barrier and zip forward over top of cities, over top of forests and lakes and rivers, until you eventually come to a huge body of water, the Pacific Ocean.

28:02 You zip over the ocean at incredible speed until the water below begins to change. You slow down as you see scattered debris appear first, and lower the ship towards the water. Soon you see larger clusters than wide streaks of floating garbage, then, at last a great sprawling mass of the patch itself. You slow into hover mode and lower the giant cube toward the water. Stand by for activation, Quantum says, activating submode. The tractor beam disengages. The square falls to the ground and splashes into the water, and then it begins to unfold. Panels split apart, sections extend, Haull pieces rotate outward. Massive side collectors swing into place, A larger body emerges from within the cube. Windows appear,

29:09 tanks extend. A wide rear section opens up to reveal something new, a whole fabrication bay with its own three D printer and storage area, until that too becomes completely covered in a hard metal shell. You stare through the cockpit at this strange transformation. The new submarine is huge. That's gigantic, you say, I am glad you approve it had to be gigantic. Quantum replies, because it is no longer a simple submarine. It is now a mother sub I have added storage and printing chambers on the back.

29:59 This the vessel can now process collected waste into usable energy and fabricate additional clean up devices in the field so it can build more machines. Well it's out here, that is correct. Some will collect floating debris, Some will travel underwater to recover submerged waste. Some can be deployed near inlets and river mouths where much of the plastic enters the water in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, an estimated nineteen to twenty three million tons of plastic waste enter aquatic ecosystems every year. Interception is now a priority.

30:47 You lower the hovercraft onto the surface nearby, climb out and board the mother ship. Inside everything is bigger than before. There's more room to move around, more screens, more controls, and in the rear, behind a sealed doorway, a new on board printer glowing with quiet power. You sit at the controls and start the collectors. The mother sub moves forward.

31:21 Huge amounts of floating plastic slide into the front system. They're pulled inwards, deatomized, and routed into the internal energy banks on a nearby screen. The available material count rises rapidly. Then the rear printer comes to life. Inside the fabrication chamber. At the back, metal parts begin appearing almost immediately. A small submersible body forms, smooth and compact with miniature collector arms and a rear intake. You watch fascinated as a dissembled piece by piece. Quantum, are you building another sub already?

32:10 That is correct, he says, this is Unit one, autonomous debris collection submersible. The little machine finishes printing, a hatch opens at the rear of the mother sub, and the many sub drops neatly into the water. On the display, you watch it dive beneath the surface and begin moving away. It will now collect debris independently and return stored energy to the mothership. The printer starts again. A second many sub forms, then a third. After that, a group of little hovering helper drones are printed, as well, little flying robots that can put together together smaller pieces into larger structures, or move stored energy bins from one machine to another.

33:09 Before long, the operation has become something much larger than one kid in one submarine. The mother sub moves steadily through the garbage patch while it's new helpers spread out like a growing clean up fleet. You stand in the center of it all, looking from the front screens to the fabrication bade, the glowing ocean outside, and realize that this could actually change the world using garbage to create new materials. This is amazing. And since we're using all of the garbage to create more things. To get rid of the garbage, we'll have more material then we know what to do with Before well before you'll even know it.

34:07 I believe your immediate task here is complete. The cleanup fleet can continue autonomously. Also, I believe it is your bedtime. You smile, so you're saying I should go home. Uh, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. You leave the mothership running, climb back into the hover copter, and lift up over top of the water. You rise high above the ocean before switching into flight mode and pressing forward on the throttle, once again creating another sonic boom as you blast into the sky. You fly over the ocean until you come back to the land, where you once again fly over cities and oceans and lakes and rivers before coming to some nearby territory. You switch back to hover mode as you approach your house and carefully lower the machine down

35:11 into the little well cargo bay hatch. The hatch closes above you as the hovercraft or hover copter comes down with a soft landing and a little hiss, the hover copter opens up. You climb down out of the hatch and walk back over to the slide that brought you down here in the first place. Uh, Quantum, how do I get out of here?

35:42 You ask?

35:43 That is easy. You just use reverse slide mode. Have a seat on the slide as if you just arrived, Quantum says. So you sit down on the bottom of the slide facing the normal direction. A little circular piece of metal folds up from the bottom and pushes against your feet, lifting you backwards up the slide, around the corners and up through the hatch until you find yourself standing in the middle of your bedroom, above the little secret hatch. You step off, close the hatch door, and move over to the bedstand and press the little red button again. The bed slides back into place. You climb into it, pull the covers up over top of yourself, and rest your head on the pillow.

36:44 The lights in the room turn.

36:46 Off and you begin to just focus on your breath, noticing your stomach rise and fall with each deep breath. With each out breath, you try to release a little more tension, noticing any tension in your arms and your legs and letting it melt away. Soon it feels as if you're just floating on a cloud. Your mind wanders off to thoughts of new dreams, new adventures, and new fun things you can build with a three D printer.

37:35 To come, good night everyone in.

39:25 New York. More union, no no thing, no.

44:27 More. M m

50:06 M