So let's examine a fallacy that science
fiction has given us. It's an understandable one, but a fallacy
nonetheless.
Fiction requires some continuity,
tension and drama in order to be enjoyable. Therefore, space opera
and other kinds of science fiction that span large volumes of space
involve traveling very fast through space. For the purposes of this
discussion, we will include non-traveling means of getting somewhere
in the term 'traveling'. In other words, hyperspace, warp drive and
star gates all qualify.
Fictional travel is fast so that the
author doesn't have to deal with the fact that slow travel and slow
(light speed) communication pretty much means that any society in a
given star system is more or less cut off from its nearest neighbor.
It also means that individual characters don't have to be developed
for each stage of the story. This maintains continuity and keeps the
audience invested in what's happening.
But real life doesn't require tension,
drama and excitement. In fact, in space travel, these things are
going to be avoided to every possible degree.
No, in real life, space travel will be
boring, routine and predictable. The question is now how do we get
there quickly, it's how do we get there in a useful amount of
time.
The
current human lifespan is roughly 75 years. If we assume a
reasonable upper limit on travel of 0.1c (3×10^7 meters/sec or
18,600 miles/sec), then a round trip to the Centauri system is
approximately 80 years. That's just a touch longer than a single
human lifetime. Too long for a round trip, and a one-way trip would
be useful scientifically, but not in a way that would make it moreso
than an unmanned series of probes and surveyors.
But
what what if the human lifespan were increased? Double it, to 150
years, and an 80 year round trip becomes something more reasonable.
A major investment of one's life, certainly, but one could expect to
return with a number of years left to live.
Instead
of doubling it, add a zero. With a 750 year lifespan, Centauri
become no more of a life investment than a couple of hitches in the
military or Peace Corps.
And
what if the human lifespan becomes indefinite in one of many possible
ways? What if people were to live long enough that hundreds or even
thousands of years are worth committing to such exploration? At that
point, 0.1c suddenly becomes a very useful speed indeed.
With
proper planning and application of resources, we could leave
scatterings of colonies from one side of the galaxy to the other.
Some humans continue onward, choosing a life aboard starships the
size of Australia, others choose to stay somewhere, making new lives
on worlds as yet unseen by human eyes.
With
advances in medicine and genetic engineering, not only could we turn
ourselves into true astronauts and cosmonauts, we could create
children capable of living nearly anywhere. The human race could
branch out into thousands of different sub-species, all human, all
different, spread out through the galaxy.
To
populate even one galaxy seems like an impossible task. It might
(possibly) take us two million years.
Anyone
interested in joining me?
531
No comments:
Post a Comment