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  • Imagine you could generate electricity

  • from your hands.

  • You'd be able to power anything you want,

  • with a single touch.

  • Now what about generating

  • electricity with your feet?

  • Or even your blood?

  • Actually, our bodies constantly conduct electricity,

  • and it all has to do with our atoms.

  • When we send signals through our nervous system,

  • like our brain telling us to

  • click on this video,

  • that's electricity going from

  • Point A to Point B.

  • It's safe to say that

  • without our own, internal electricity,

  • we'd be unable to do anything.

  • But could we ever conduct electricity like this?

  • Unfortunately, you wouldn't have lightning bolts

  • coming out of your hands,

  • at least not yet.

  • That'll be a story for another What If.

  • But you could generate electricity in other ways,

  • and we might not have to do anything different

  • than we're doing today.

  • That's because using humans to generate electricity

  • is already happening.

  • There are modules that turn kinetic energy

  • from people walking or dancing

  • into electricity.

  • These modules can be placed in high traffic areas like

  • airports, malls, and

  • even city streets.

  • The idea is when you step on the module,

  • it compresses and springs back up,

  • powering a small generator,

  • which then creates power.

  • Each step on one of these tiles

  • can create up to 20 joules of power.

  • Or, if you'd like to generate electricity while

  • getting your sweat on,

  • you can hop on a special elliptical bike.

  • A fully sustainable gym in New York

  • has eco-bikes that generate their own power.

  • During a workout,

  • you can create 160-watt hours of electricity,

  • or even more.

  • Talking about joules and watts is fun,

  • but what does it mean exactly?

  • How many lightbulbs, TVs, and buildings can we power?

  • Well, unfortunately, even with an eco-bike

  • and the steps from one thousand pedestrians,

  • we'd be lucky to power up

  • a single light bulb for more than a couple of hours.

  • Kind of lame, I know,

  • but that's because a traditional light bulb

  • uses about 100 watts to be powered for a full hour.

  • So at this rate,

  • with us casually producing electricity like this,

  • we're never going to be able to get rid of traditional electricity.

  • But what if we could?

  • What would we need to do

  • to power the world with human conducted electricity?

  • Well for this to happen,

  • we'd need to cover every single road,

  • of every city on Earth,

  • with these energy-producing floors.

  • In a city like Tokyo,

  • with millions of people walking the streets every day,

  • we'd be able to produce

  • trillions of joules

  • that could be converted to power entire buildings.

  • But walking probably won't be enough.

  • We'd also need millions of people

  • solely dedicated to producing electricity full-time.

  • Picture hundreds of thousands of people dancing,

  • and having 24/7 raves,

  • attempting to produce as much electricity as possible.

  • And if that's not your style,

  • you could bike or run to power your buildings.

  • This would take millions of people

  • who would need to be paid,

  • and be in good enough shape

  • to dance and workout for hours on end.

  • And even if you had that type of energy,

  • doing so for 8 hours a day,

  • five days a week,

  • would take a severe toll on your body.

  • If all that isn't enough,

  • we could use our poo to produce electricity.

  • That's right.

  • Toilets are being developed right now

  • that can convert your bathroom breaks

  • into energy.

  • They do it by composting your waste

  • and oxidizing it.

  • This releases electrons

  • which get passed through a load-bearing circuit

  • and then generate energy.

  • But what is energy anyway?

  • You can find the answer to that in the show Order and Disorder,

  • available on Curiosity Stream.

  • They have this great episode about the story of energy,

  • where it comes from, how we use it today and what energy might look like in the future.

  • Seriously, if you like What If, you're going to love Curiosity Stream.

  • They've got original, award-winning documentaries talking about the same stuff we do here on What If,

  • black holes, extinct animals, exoplanets - you get the idea.

  • And since they're the sponsor of this What If episode,

  • they're giving you access to the site for free for 30 days.

  • After that, it's just $2.99 a month, or just $19.99 a year.

  • Using humans to create electricity

  • would seriously help the environment.

  • A lot of traditional electricity

  • burns fossil fuels,

  • which produce greenhouse gases that harm our Earth.

  • Producing electricity by running and dancing,

  • while adding more wind turbines and solar panels to help us out,

  • would make the world a greener place.

  • The human race

  • could completely generate its own power

  • if we were all dedicated enough.

  • For something that might be a little bit easier,

  • but still achieve the same results,

  • we could cover the Sahara desert in solar panels.

  • But that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.

Imagine you could generate electricity

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