Generation Ship Vs Better Tech?

[Lakenheath 72]

I think before we discuss generation ships, that there needs to be an effort made at creating an enclosed self-sustaining environment.

I find it fascinating that traveling in the galaxy is limited by a large number of variables - physical (radiation, dust, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, etc.), psychological, physiological, and financial. I think humans will be able to find solutuions to some of these variables; however, I think others will go without solutions.

 

[publiusr]

It's all about size. Size is your friend in terms of making a habitat.

 

[RAMA]

Starseed launchers, Nanoparticle probes, utilizing self-replicating, mind uploading tech, embryos, or foglet will be the most efficient and likely tech for interstellar travel. I'm not that hopeful of supra light speed/travel.

 

[Silvercrest]

Oh, so a book about a generational ship spending many years to reach her destination, only to find their destination has already been colonized, has already been done.

Yeah, slower-than-light travel sucks.

The original Guardians of the Galaxy comic in (I think) 1969 featured this scenario, as did Heinlein's Time For the Stars. Although neither was a generation ship. The former was a sleeper ship with one guy, and the latter used relativistic speeds.

I think before we discuss generation ships, that there needs to be an effort made at creating an enclosed self-sustaining environment.

This.

I think tech for a generational ship would have to improve greatly. We haven't even had anywhere near success creating a close system here on earth for even as long as a year.

And this.

Even if the tech was in place I can't see this kind of thing being pulled off without a mutiny happening at some point, probably sooner than later. Forced medication to keep everyone submissive and artificially happy wouldn't work in the long run, either.

I don't really share macloudt's mutiny concern, though. I think humans can be bizarrely disciplined at times. It's possible, though.

I've gotta say it's a little disturbing for our mods to be discussing mutinies and methods of discipline.

 

[Mary Ann]

[Worf]Little?[/Worf]

 

[{ Emilia }]

Starseed launchers, Nanoparticle probes, utilizing self-replicating, mind uploading tech, embryos, or foglet will be the most efficient and likely tech for interstellar travel. I'm not that hopeful of supra light speed/travel.

Wait... but you're hopeful of mind uploading?!

I mean, considering we're nowhere near being able to even understand how it could work in theory.

 

[Metryq]

The original Guardians of the Galaxy comic in (I think) 1969 featured this scenario, as did Heinlein's Time For the Stars.

The chronology in TIME FOR THE STARS does not work credibly. The idea of a "torch ship" being intercepted en route by an FTL ship originally appeared in VARIABLE STAR, a "lost" Heinlein that was published posthumously.

In TIME FOR THE STARS the torch ships have telepathic communicators to instantaneously relay discoveries back to Earth. It was the nature of telepathy that led to the development of an FTL stardrive. When the torch crews are recovered and returned by FTL ships, they learn that FTL ships have already begun colonizing other worlds—

—yet none of the telepaths on Earth informed the torch crews, "Hey, your mission is terminated. You will be picked up by FTL ships very shortly." Doesn't jive.

 

[sojourner]

Maybe the communications were garbled because the torch ships were experiencing time dilation?

 

[Metryq]

Maybe the communications were garbled because the torch ships were experiencing time dilation?

The time dilation and twins paradox themes were central to the story. The Earth-bound twin grew older while the star-side twin aged more slowly. The telepaths experienced the dilation directly—hearing their twin "drawl" or jabber at high speed, until falling completely out of contact during the middle part of each star jump.

Some of the relayed communications involved the "new physics" implied by the instantaneous telepathy. So everyone was aware that something was afoot. The fact that an FTL drive was in the works should not have been a surprise.

Heinlein opted to play it for the emotional edge. The central character's ship was exploring a planet (not even under drive) when the big breakthrough occurred. By delaying the news until after many of the crew died while exploring said planet, there's this whole "if only" sadness to the events.

As I said, it doesn't wash.

(I don't remember much about VARIABLE STAR, as it was not that good. That story did not have telepaths. The torch ship was isolated out in the void when the FTL ship pulled alongside and knocked. In van Vogt's "Far Centaurus" one of the sleepers awakes mid-flight as part of the routine and witnesses some unidentified mass blazing in the darkness. Upon arrival at the new star, the crewman who witnessed the strange apparition learned that it was an FTL ship that braked too fast to avoid a collision with the sleeper ship. That's a fascinating idea, but the FTL ship should not have been anywhere near the flight path of the sleeper ship. Their "intercept" courses for the destination would be very different.)

 

[Snaploud]

I don't like the idea that the future of humanity would be created by a group of people who have been stuck inside a metal box for generations. That seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Metryq]

Then there's Steve Martin's stand-up routine about the Earth blowing up: (paraphrased) C'mon, you people don't remember when the Earth blew up? And we all flew to this planet in the giant space ark? And the government decided not to tell all the stupider people because they thought it might... (suddenly getting it)... Ohh!