Would you like to be able to stay for a very long time by breathing underwater? I want us to think a bit about this simple question. Even though it is one of the important questions that I can ask in this period, in which we are trying to live for long periods even in space, this is an issue that few people emphasize. In this video, after giving an example of technology and design on the subject, I will suggest a book that emphasizes why it matters and gives us a vision.
The world we live in is heavily covered with water. More over, there is an increasing possibility of turning into an even more water world. Global climate change will lead to the melting of ice at the poles and rising sea levels in the world. It is estimated that the average temperature will increase by 3.2 degrees until 2100 and the lives of nearly 3 billion people living in the coastal areas will be affected. Others see the real reason to go to other planets and build colonies as a backup plan against this inevitable trend. Whereas perhaps what we have escaped may be our salvation. That thing that is not available on any of the satellites, planets, as a backup plan. Oceans that look like another planet inside our planet that we haven’t yet discovered. In the future, we may need to lead a more intertwined life with them. For this, we need technologies that will make it easier for us to stay underwater for a long time.
We invented astronaut clothing because we couldn’t breathe in space. We also have diving suits to stay under the sea. But these are difficult to use and bulky clothes. You can also stay underwater for a limited time depending on the capacity of the oxygen cylinders. Last year, a new vehicle was invented that allowed us to stay underwater for an unlimited time. Weighing 3.5 kg and working only with body power ExoLung This device called allows you to dive up to 5 meters. The principle of operation is very simple. When you stretch your legs, the tube is emptied and filled with your breath. Meanwhile, fresh air is drawn through a hose extending to the water surface. When you pull your legs in, this fresh air is sent from the tube to your nose. Compressor, battery, motor, etc. you are breathing underwater with only body movements without anything. You don’t need a special dive license to use this, but short training is required. We will see if this device, which is still in the testing phase and whose patent is pending, will indeed become widespread in the future.
For some work like exploring underwater or doing maintenance/repair, this advanced snorkel can be used, but it is a dream far from being able to live underwater. Moreover, you need to move unlimitedly in order to have unlimited time. There is a need for a different solution in order to really stay underwater without being tied to the water. A biomimetic solution…
People are looking at nature to solve complex problems; it means they imitate their systems, models, biomimetics. Do you want to live underwater? Examine the animals that can live there and investigate how they survive.
There are some mammals that can live under the sea. For example, whales and dolphins. But as I said these giant sea creatures are mammals, that is, they look more like humans than fish. Because they breathe like us. They take the oxygen they need from the air, not from the water. They are able to live in the sea, keeping their breath underwater for a very long time. It should not be confused with fish. For example, a shark is not with its lungs, but with its gills; It takes oxygen from water, not air.
So can we humans do this? Yes, we can, according to the Japanese biomimetic designer Jun Kamei. It can be printed with 3D printers and act as a kind of gill Amphibio designed special clothing called. He says that he has made this design with the vision that people who will have to live with water in the future can live underwater as much as they spend on land.
In order for a diver to stay underwater for 30 minutes, he has to carry almost 50 kg of clothing and equipment on land for over 1 hour. In fact, divers trying to save the children trapped in a cave system in Thailand last year had to carry tons of equipment in a winding road for miles. It would be very useful to be able to dive and spend time underwater without having to use such equipment. This mask and gill mixture called Amphibio wraps around the body and wants to replace these heavy tubes and devices of divers.
In doing so, they were inspired by insects that could dive into the water. The hydrophobic membrane works by replenishing the oxygen in the surrounding water and distributing the carbon dioxide accumulated in the system. A working prototype of this garment with pores and cavities was also produced. The sensor above measures the amount of oxygen renewal that occurs in the water around the garment. This gill, which has a flexible structure, changes shape when the air comes into the system inside the garment. When the amount of oxygen carried from the water into the mask is measured, the increase in this can be seen. In this experiment, the oxygen supply rate was determined as 0.19 L for a 1 square meter water surface. 32 square meters is required for the typical oxygen consumption of a person. 3D printers have been used to fit such a large surface into a small garment. The designer placed it somewhere between free diving and scuba diving. Considering the amount of oxygen, pressure, and light in the water, it is predicted that this garment can be submerged for a long time with this dress up to a depth of 10 meters.
The simple tool I described before was very close to the production stage when I was preparing this video, but it was not produced yet. I gave that example to look at the subject from a technology perspective. The Amphibio garment I just described is a bit older. I transferred it to look at the subject from a design perspective. I am telling all this because I read a much older dream and this dream inspired me. This is the dream of a writer who deals with the subject from an art and science perspective. He wrote in a novel about 100 years ago.
I’m talking about Alexander Belyaev and his novel “The Water Man.” I mentioned this book without mentioning it in the Bermuda Triangle video I released last week. I mentioned how people who fear the unknown demonize what they don’t know. This is one of the themes of this novel. I’ll come to the other soon.
The author Alexander Belyaev is not as well known as other writers of Russian literature Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin. Frankly, I met this book for the first time. I would like to briefly talk about this dating story as well because I can tell you that it may lead you to discover new things. There was a movie released in 2017: The Shape of Water called The Shape of Water. I watched Mexican director Guillermo del Toro because I love it, but frankly, I can’t say that I liked the previous movie as much as the “Pan’s Labyrinth”. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the idea of the relationship between an aquatic human creature and an ordinary person living on land. Then, when I read the claims that this movie was actually inspired by the movie “Amphibian Man – Water Man” shot in Baku in Azerbaijan in 1962, this time I discovered that movie. Right now all Russian or English speakers can watch. Although I found common points between the two films when I watched, the subject itself became more interesting than these similarities. Because in this 1962 film, the creature that lives under the sea is not a monster, but a waterman. On the other hand, he is not a complete person. Then when I learned that this movie was adapted from Alexander Belyaev’s novel of the same name, my curiosity started to increase. But I could not find any opportunity, I could not access the book, I postponed it, etc. but he stayed in one corner of my mind saying “one day must be read”. There are many more such books that I sweep into the corners of my mind.
What happened then?
If you remember, I had performed HGWells’ Time Machine. The platform that publishes this audiobook has sent me new book alternatives for me to read Storytel.
Meanwhile, Storytel is the sponsor of this video and it is a platform that I am very happy to collaborate and promote. There are also the most current, most read books. There are also books that you can improve yourself. There are also business books. You carry an audio library with you around the world, around the clock. The “Water Man” I made my voice was broadcast last week at Storytel, I placed the link in the comments section. You can listen to this book and thousands of them for free during the first 14 days.
Among all these books in different categories, I enjoy reading and listening to the most timeless classics. Although these are fictional and imaginary books, the people and the characters are so vivid that they will definitely catch you somewhere. That’s why they’re getting classic. That’s why they exceed the time and place they are in.
The author of the Water Man is a Russian, but things take place on the shores of Argentina in South America. As you read and listen to the lives of local fishermen there, you realize how similar it is to the human behavior patterns in us. This book is written in the science fiction genre. You start reading 100 years ago, thinking that a book written in this type will be very invalid now, but it’s not. The examples of modern design and technology that I just gave you remain funny. You ask why? Because the problem of the author is not the technology or science of the period he lived in. It’s a very fast-changing thing. His problem is the relationship of people with it. This part does not change much. When you discover the dynamics there, you gain a different vision.
I want to read one of the chapters that affect me most without missing the surprises of the novel. The author, who is also a lawyer, makes his head character defense in court in this section. His main character, Salvator, is a scientist. A doctor. His “waterman” like his son is in a sense his work. When you read the book, you will understand how it happened. See what the man says that water from defending people in court … it is İhtiand that demonize
“the first man among the first fish and fish between İhtiand people are going to feel lonely. But if other people were going back to the ocean after him, life would be completely different. At that time man would easily triumph over this great power, over water. ”
The idea of victory over nature is of course a bit controversial. But the characters don’t have to agree with us, do you? Let’s be open to differences and continue reading.
“You know, what is this power? Do you know that the surface of the ocean is equal to three hundred and sixty-one million fifty thousand square kilometers? More than seven-tenths of the Earth’s surface is covered with a desert of water. This desert can accommodate millions and billions of people with desert, inexhaustible food and raw materials. More than three hundred and sixty of a million square kilometers; this is only the surface area. But man can also spread to a number of underwater floors. Billions of people can settle in the oceans without rushing. ”
In other parts of the novel, it has been described so well that what underwater life might be like can ask a person why he still lives on land.
“And his strength! Do you know that ocean water absorbs solar energy equal to seventy-nine billion horsepower? The ocean would have been boiling for a long time if it hadn’t put its warmth in the air and elsewhere. A truly unlimited source of energy. How do land people use it? Hardly ever.”
“And the power of sea currents! Only Gulfstream moves ninety-one million tons of water per hour with the Florida tide. This is three thousand times more than a large river bears. And this is just a sea stream! How do land people use it? Hardly ever.”
“And the power of the waves, the tides! Do you know that the force of the impact carried by a single wave in one square meter is thirty-eight thousand kilograms? Thirty-eight tons of force on every square meter of the surface transmits the wave to forty-three meters, so the force reaches millions of kilograms; the tide rises more than sixteen meters; that is, to the height of a four-story house. How does humanity use this force? Hardly ever.”
Indeed, when we think of the world, when we look at it globally, it is as if we were actually clicked on a deserted island in the middle of a water planet – a two-dimensional space. However, when we go down to the waters, a third dimension opens up before our eyes… A section about that comes right now.
“The creatures on the land cannot reach high above the surface of the land, except for the birds, and cannot go too deep inside it. Life in the ocean, on the other hand, goes down almost ten kilometers deep from Ecuador to the poles. ”
“How do we use this unlimited wealth of oceans? We are fishing; we only lay our nets on the top layer of the ocean, leaving the depths completely untouched. We collect sponges, corals, pearls, aquatic plants, just these… ”
“ We go underwater only for work: we set up the bridge legs and dams, we take out sunken ships. Only this! But we do this with great effort, with great risks, mostly at the expense of the victims. What a misfortune that man dies underwater in the second minute! On the other hand, if a person could live and work under the headless, oxygen-free water? What great riches he would reach! Here is the specialty. It tells me… ”
This book explains them both in İhtiyandr and Salvator. Unfortunately, we know what people make when it enters an undiscovered part of nature. However, if we can learn to be more merciful and respectful towards nature, the living creatures, and each other, these riches of us are sufficient and increased for all of us.
But as Salvator said …
“I’m afraid to wake the devil of human greed.”
