"Can you build a real lightsaber?" documentary by Dr Michio Kaku

Michio KooKoo is one of my favorite people ever.

 

Kaku, not KooKoo. But yeah he is an awesome scientist.

 

You can’t.

 

a) The OP video is blocked in the US for copyright infringement.
b) Kaku didn't develop a real lightsaber.

 

The end of the documentary concludes that it's probable though not currently possible. It just needs a few more decades of development. Can't you access it through proxy?

 

I've seen it before.

 

Then you'd know the details for his hypothetical lightsaber, which is a possibility in the future according to him.

 

What Kaku has developed isn't an actual lightsaber. It's a ceramic rod enveloped in plasma. If he has any more to say on the subject besides that, perhaps you could explain it to us in your own words.

 

How would you differentiate it from the lightsaber of Star Wars with regards to function? Even early lightsaber prototypes in Star Wars were actually enclosed in mobile small gas chamber tanks before simpler hand held types were produced.

 

Well for starters, lightsabers don't have a ceramic rod along the axis.

 

Right. They use metal-like hilts. But that metal is not in our reach. Perhaps they exist in our universe on another planet.

Or, within the metal hilts there are nano tubes to prevent the metal from over-heating and melting.

And who knows, we could find crystals on another planet to energize and create such beams. In Star Wars they're found on a specific planet.

But this documentary tries explain lightsabers from all the materials we have on Earth. If Anakin was passed what Kaku created in Attack of the Clones, when he's given a green lightsaber, he could just as well use that and the function would be the same.

The beam from Kaku's lightsaber would probably resemble that of Kylo Ren's. It's a plasma beam.

 

Or a magnaguard staff
https://www.starwars.com/databank/electrostaff

As good as it gets
https://www.seeker.com/solid-light-made-from-photons-1767874285.html

A thermal lance is good for cutting.

Not a saber, but this looks a lot like the weapons from MOONRAKER

 

Eclectro staff is different. Watch the documentary. It's a lightsaber using hot plasma and functions like a Star Wars lightsaber but using the materials we have on Earth.

If we were to land on other planets and find materials like khyber crystals and whatnot , we'd have an even closer comparison, but this fares just about as close.

 

It's a ceramic rod enveloped in plasma. Insisting it's actually a lightsaber is utterly ridiculous.

 

Go tell the physicist that. Unless you care to explain in detail why it's not?

I could say the same about actual sabers. They're not sabers but rods with handles on them. You get the point.

 

The truly interesting part of that video is where Kaku talks about the power source. That, by itself, would be utterly revolutionary, with tons of immediate applications.

 

Totally. But what I think Kaku's future inspired invention would look like is the early gas powered lightsabers as seen in this comic image:

 

A beam of light recoiling of another beam of light has never made a lot of sense. I know it isn't supposed to. But essentially if the thing can cut effortlessly, I don't see why the fighting wouldn't be more like modern competetive saber fencing instead of the swashbuckly stuff. If one did have a cutting virtual blade that had no weight to the actual cutting length, and therefore no momentum, fighting would be a lot more similar to that, with fights over in eyeblinks.


as an example, Kendo practitioner vs a saber fencer. These kinds of things are never completely telling: a lot depends on the fighter, their body, fitness, reach, etc, but the footwork and lunges in modern fencing make it one of the fastest sports on earth. There's a reason Bruce Lee used fencing when he worked on the footwork for his jeet kun do.

 

Here is the thing though. That power source is a de facto bomb.

Ever notice how, as batteries get more powerful, you hear about more/hotter fires?
https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Aircraft_Batteries

Those electrons want out--and they will find a way to get out--one way or another