Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to The Ultimate Project: 10000 Year Journey

Ship of fools.
ER — (archived)

Sure, I've fantasized about being a part of the Great Exploration, even of risking my life to be a part of a grand adventure, the settling of a new world, meeting alien intelligences, seeing for myself the glories of the Wild Black Yonder.

But in reality it would be little better than being a galley slave, not only for your lifetime, but for the lifetimes of your descendants as well. Can you see spending your entire existence being #2 maintenance tech on the backup starboard air scrubber? At least, being a pioneer offers adventure and the possibility of great achievement as the payoff for the probability of risk, hardship and an agonizing death under an alien sun. After all, my forefathers were Conquistadudes!

But on a generation starship, the only good voyage is a dull one. And for the vast majority of the crew, life would be at best a routine job in cramped quarters, hydroponic food, recycled air, naval discipline, and nothing out the windows except the same old constellations, until you died. The requirements of the mission would trump the normal dynamism and social evolution of a natural human community.

Sure, I'd love to go, but only if I knew I was going somewhere, or at least, that I might have a fighting chance of coming back.

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