What if the Sun were to go Nova

[Rawedge Rim]

Or we find a way to get there faster. Or we develop a artificial gravity system that mimics closely enough earth gravity that we dont have the atrophy effects.

The germs and virus thing could be the hardest one to figure out. You bring in some virus and WHAMO! All dead. But hey, "No balls, no blue chips" they say!

simulating gravity, at least in the short term shouldn't be that difficult. Simply applying thrust will simulate gravity, or using centifigal force.

The real problem is getting there in less than a several generations, and the techical difficulties in keeping a machine in good working order over a long period of time, especially without lots of spares and raw materials. (Not to mention hitting a grain of sand at some significant fraction of C2 will create one very large ass hole in the hull the spacecraft)

[finn]

There are some that believe that such a threat (from climate change) is already with us: imagine the length of the thread in the Tank....... people would be calling each other "Novaists" and declaring that the science is all wrong and that the dangers are imaginary, created only to ensure that research money kept flowing!

I'd see problems ahead for human race. The breaking down of national interest being the first and the shit-fight for political power and influence being the next. There are a lot of people on this planet who would not give a rats arse too many of these tend towards being the successful types in business/industry. Frankly I'd see 1000 years of laissez-faire with occassional rallies that would die down under the weight of disinterest. Pretty much everything would be done using the issue as its rationale ("we have to have this curfew and house to house search to help us save humanity from the Nova...... if you don't agree with that, then clearly you are against humanity; an extinctionist no less....... haul him away boys!").

The best way to preserve the species would be to start now with a view to developing drives and cryogenics for initial launches within a hundred years. Send ships from there on with better and better chances of survival. Send them to different destinations, with different missions and different options available to them. Some would be self sufficient arcships, some seed ships, managed by a humankind that would change and not be "planet able" looking after cryogenic humans who would, send out capsule of embryos containg vast databases of knowledge of humanity.. etc. Use every option available hoping one would get through.

Most human innovation has come about as a result of war; this would be the war against time. Maybe the imperative would drive innovation to solve the problems of interstella travel. However I can't help but think that you'd get the scientists from China and Russia and the US and Europe to work together real easy, but getting the people who run them to agree would be nigh on impossible.

[Avatar]

The real problem is getting there in less than a several generations...

I take it we've all seen the recent research into the immuno-suppressant effects of low gravity?

--A

[Rawedge Rim]

The real problem is getting there in less than a several generations...

I take it we've all seen the recent research into the immuno-suppressant effects of low gravity?

--A

I imagine that we could make ship enviroments relatively sterile, and even breed people to thrive in low and zero gee enviroments. I don't see yet a way to keep a machine functioning for the hundreds of years it would take to get to the nearest star with our present technology, and if we managed that, why this new species would want to live on a planet with gravity, when they could make robots that could do the work there. And for how long would this new species remain 'human' as we know them, or even identify with 'humans' as we know them.

[SerScot]

RR,

That's an excellent point. But humans today are changing. We are decendents of earlier species and we carry those earlier species genetic materials. Should it be problematic for us to launch long term Colonization missions even if it may result in speciation given that our genetic information will still be preserved even if in a different form?

After all the only constant in the Universe is change.

[Zarathustra]

You don't have to transport live humans. All you need are the ingredients. Sperm and egg doesn't take up nearly as much space, doesn't need artificial gravity, or food, or to be kept alive like a whole human. Sure, the first generation would have to be raised by robots or holograms of real humans, but we'd survive.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

All questions of biological viability become moot if we would simply convert ourselves into cyborgs or, ideally, self-aware AI programs in fully non-organic bodies. At that point ships wouldn't even need to consider food, waste disposal, or life support other than minimums of temperature and pressure required for machinery to operate normally.

[Rawedge Rim]

All questions of biological viability become moot if we would simply convert ourselves into cyborgs or, ideally, self-aware AI programs in fully non-organic bodies. At that point ships wouldn't even need to consider food, waste disposal, or life support other than minimums of temperature and pressure required for machinery to operate normally.

but then would we still be human, or just a high falootin' computer program. Heck, just send Siri

[Hashi Lebwohl]

That would also provide an introduction to us for any extraplanetary species which happens to come across our vessel. Once they are able to translate our language into theirs they can ask Siri all sorts of questions about us.

They may wind up sending the ship back, though.

[Rawedge Rim]

That would also provide an introduction to us for any extraplanetary species which happens to come across our vessel. Once they are able to translate our language into theirs they can ask Siri all sorts of questions about us.

They may wind up sending the ship back, though.

Klaatu barada nikto!!!

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Are you certain you pronounced all the syllables exactly as you were supposed to?

[Rawedge Rim]

Are you certain you pronounced all the syllables exactly as you were supposed to?

let you know if the Earth is still here tomorrow

[Avatar]

I imagine that we could make ship enviroments relatively sterile, and even breed people to thrive in low and zero gee enviroments.

Personally, I think the sterile environment would be a bad idea unless you planned on never stepping foot outside again. Breeding low-g humans...maybe...but we evolved to a specific gravity and our bodily functions, even structure, depends on it.

Over a few (or many) generations, we may adapt, but there would be no returning to gravity for those people. We would indeed have undergone speciation then.

--A

[finn]

Humans could adapt to weighlessness (or a reduced centrifugal gravity), they could also given time adapt to a higher gravity again, however over the lengths of time involved, Those running an interstellar mission ship would be faced with and would have to accept that their life on a planet was probably over and that their riole would be as caretakers of the primary load that may be cryogenically preserved people or embryos or DNA signatures or downloaded personalities; whatever.

Getting to a habitable planet would be the main mission, those tasked with the job would not be going down to the surface.... bit like Moses!

[ChoChiyo]

In my youth, I'd always dreamed of living on the moon or on Mars in one of the habitable domes that would support artificial atmosphere. I remember poring over Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Podkayne of Mars... dreaming of the day I'd be there. Now I'm old, and I just want to get to Hawaii just ONCE before I croak. And I'd absolutely LOVE it if someone would invent robotic knees for me...

[Zarathustra]

My mother had knee replacement surgery. Now she has titanium knees. Of course, she wouldn't have needed this surgery if she weren't morbidly obese. She also has numerous other ailments that could be solved ... not with robotics, but with self-restraint. If the sun were to go nova, those with self-restraint would be the one's I'd advocate getting into the gene pool of whatever lifeboat we create. If we have to keep inventing technology to help people get over problems they could solve themselves, we're wasting our resources and time.

Granted, I'm all for finding technological solutions to human shortcomings. Maybe we could also find a single technological solution to lacking self-restraint, then it wouldn't matter. But then we wouldn't have the risk takers who make such things possible, by refusing to restrain themselves to what is given.

Good to see people we haven't seen in a while ... or maybe I'm just lacking in attentiveness.

[Damelon]

Hi Cho!

A long time it's been. I hope you make it to Hawaii. I was there for the first time last month. It's quite an experience.

[ChoChiyo]

If the sun were to go nova, those with self-restraint would be the one's I'd advocate getting into the gene pool of whatever lifeboat we create. If we have to keep inventing technology to help people get over problems they could solve themselves, we're wasting our resources and time.

If we took only the ones with self-restraint we'd lose the creative geniuses like Oscar Wilde and Freddie Mercury!

Life would be infinitely LESS if neither of them had been with us--even if briefly.

I guess I'd give preference to the smart, creative folks with clear, unprejudiced minds and strong work ethics. But that's just me.

How are your Mom's titanium knees working out for her? Eventually I will have to break down and have the surgery, but I am not a big fan of pain, and there is no way having your knees removed and replaced with foreign objects cannot be painful.

Yes, I am phobic about almost every medical procedure....

I think it is an interesting question for debate--what kinds of people would we take for seeding the universe with our human wayfarers? The healthy and the strong? The creative and poetic? The technogeeks and rocket men and women? What about people like Stephen Hawking? Or my niece, now deceased, God rest her sweet soul, who lived for 25 years but only functioned at the level of a 9 month old infant. Would I have had to leave her on earth to be vaporized? I think I'd have stayed with her here if that was the decree. Then humanity would miss out on my uniqueness....

[ChoChiyo]

Hi Cho!

A long time it's been. I hope you make it to Hawaii. I was there for the first time last month. It's quite an experience.

I am so happy for you that you made it to Paradise! I want to live on a planet just like Hawaii--that is inhabited by a native species of intelligent kittens!

[Avatar]

Welcome back Cho.

--A