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The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

icarusinterstellar.org

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Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#51
post #45
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I disagree that uploading minds is more feasible. One is more of an engineering/physics challenge, and uploading minds is dependent upon a vast set of unknown unknowns. We aren't even out of the door on the idea of biological computing let alone at the mailbox.

One key difference is that we know brains can exist. We might not know the entirety of how they work, but the important thing is we already know they can be reproduced in some fashion. Hyperdrive or any other form of FTL travel is purely in our thoughts. Nothing currently exists that even proves it is possible in our current reality. For all we know we could spend an infinite time attempting it and never achieve it.

True, however a key distinction i'm making here is knowing something exists and knowing how it works and being able to replicate that in another system could be just as much of an infinite timesink.

I'd rephrase the "nothing currently exists that even proves it is possible" to, nothing has been observed to demonstrate its possibility.

That and things like warping space could throw a wrench into the "we can't travel faster than light". But maybe we can end run around it. Though the same can be said of the brain, we really know we don't know a lot more than what we don't know about physics.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#52

The numbers only become science-fictiony large if you want to go fast. Why not go slowly? The only reason humanity is obsessed with speed is because of our short life spans, but that is a solvable problem. All we have to do is to eliminate aging and it's associated diseases, and then we can take our time going to the stars. The most difficult part may be accepting limits upon our appetites, so that we are not driven…

Ignoring the whole "we'll just cure mortality...how hard can it be?", people tend to go batshit crazy after spending a couple of months in confined conditions looking at the same faces day after day. Think they're going to do better mentally when they look forward to the same for a 100 years.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#53
post #50
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (remember technological progress is exponential not linear) No it is not. For example, airliners fly about as fast as they did a generation ago, and if you buy a desktop computer today it won't be noticeably faster than the ~3 year-old one you're using now. Do you really think the next TV you'll buy will be exponentially bigger than the one you have today? Prepare to be disappointed. warp-engine would require FTL t…

I must say that the idea of a single human cell traveling through space at relativistic speed, with the end goal of landing on a planet and growing into a fully formed human is one of the wildest and most unique ideas I've heard in a long time. Perfect sci-fi material. Totally awesome.

Agreed, although not entirely original. Inspired by actual work in this area - http://www.spacecraftresearch.com/MII/MII_overview.html

I was getting my head around what "100µm" and a "few micrograms" meant, and I found that the human ovum is ~3.6 micrograms and around 100µm in size.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#54

Master the art of "the transporter" with information being sent via optics. Send a ship out into space. Aboard will be an environment for humans and a big receiver on the side. Send the ship. Wait until it reaches it destination. "Beam" humans to the ship. If boredom ensues, reverse the transmission. Leave the "Stargate" behind. :) Edit: see quantum entanglement Edit 2: Thinking aloud about quantum entanglement. I un…

Edit 7: Learn what all those words really mean and how they relate; drop the whole thing a get a beer.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#55
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the ovum develop and be nurtured? Sympathetic alien surrogates? Why not seed more simple lifeforms, such as genetically modified bacteria, upon hundreds of "candidate" planets so that by the time our generation ships arrive there's a good chance some basic terraforming has already occurred.

> How would the ovum develop and be nurtured? Sympathetic alien surrogates? You could send along artificial wombs and some kind of computer/AI to raise + educate the first generation born.

Never been a parent, eh?

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#56
post #54

Master the art of "the transporter" with information being sent via optics. Send a ship out into space. Aboard will be an environment for humans and a big receiver on the side. Send the ship. Wait until it reaches it destination. "Beam" humans to the ship. If boredom ensues, reverse the transmission. Leave the "Stargate" behind. :) Edit: see quantum entanglement Edit 2: Thinking aloud about quantum entanglement. I un…

Edit 7: Learn what all those words really mean and how they relate; drop the whole thing a get a beer.

Thanks for the tip. Ever thought about going into teaching?

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would the ovum develop and be nurtured? Sympathetic alien surrogates? You could send along artificial wombs and some kind of computer/AI to raise + educate the first generation born.

Never been a parent, eh?

\shrug\ It's all sci-fi tech anyway. Artificial wombs probably aren't that far off: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-08/artificial-wom...

There's a clear demand for advanced reproductive technology, and it would offer the secondary advantage of neatly sidestepping the current abortion debate.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#58

TL;DR: Chemical propulsion is a dead end. But, the alternatives require matter/energy of ridiculous scale (hundreds of times the power output of human civilization, launching hundreds of millions of tons of matter into orbit). We're not going anywhere, any time soon.

That's not true. Project Orion would have been propelled by detonating small nuclear bombs, which have huge amounts of energy. It would be absurdly expensive, but technically feasible today.

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#59

Master the art of "the transporter" with information being sent via optics. Send a ship out into space. Aboard will be an environment for humans and a big receiver on the side. Send the ship. Wait until it reaches it destination. "Beam" humans to the ship. If boredom ensues, reverse the transmission. Leave the "Stargate" behind. :) Edit: see quantum entanglement Edit 2: Thinking aloud about quantum entanglement. I un…

You can't use entanglement to do FTL communication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem

Re: The Challenge of Relativistic Spaceflight

#60

Master the art of "the transporter" with information being sent via optics. Send a ship out into space. Aboard will be an environment for humans and a big receiver on the side. Send the ship. Wait until it reaches it destination. "Beam" humans to the ship. If boredom ensues, reverse the transmission. Leave the "Stargate" behind. :) Edit: see quantum entanglement Edit 2: Thinking aloud about quantum entanglement. I un…

You can't use entanglement to do FTL communication. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem

Glad to learn something new. Thanks.
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