Spike writes:
> Im heading out on a road trip, but perhaps some
> of us can write up rubuttals and objections, or perhaps just
> some sketches of how interstellar travel could be accomplished,
> given a few hundred more years of technological advance. I
> feel we really are that close to that lofty accomplishment, within
> centuries. spike
Frank Tipler has a good article on mature interstellar travel at
http://math.tulane.edu/~tipler/wired.html (apparently a shorter version
was published in Wired).
Hal
The year is 2100. AI's and human downloads have begun to explore and
colonize interstellar space. The spaceships carrying the AI's and
human downloads are tiny, massing no more than a kilogram. Quantum
computers, which can code more bytes of information in 400 atoms than
there are atoms in the entire visible universe, do not require much
mass. An entire simulated city with thousands of humans and AI's can
be coded in a few grams. And a tiny spaceship has a huge advantage
over the ponderous rockets of today. Powered by matter- antimatter
annihilation, such tiny spaceships can reach 90% of lightspeed with
only a few kilograms of fuel. At such a speed, the nearest star,
some four and one-half light years away, will be reached in only five
years. Acceleration to 90% of lightspeed will be very fast, because
the downloads and AI's will be impervious to acceleration. Humans not
living in computers can take only a few gravities of acceleration,
and can take that small acceleration only for a short time. Simulated
humans will experience only the usual one gravity acceleration in
their simulated environment. Human downloads have such a natural
advantage over present-day humans in the environment of space, that
it is exceedingly unlikely non-downloaded humans will ever engage
in interstellar travel. The stars are to be the inheritance of our
downloaded descendants, of the children of our minds rather than
our bodies.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:19 MDT