Re: First Ark to Alpha Centauri

From: Anthony Cerrato (tcerrato_at_optonline.net)
Date: 12/04/04 

Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 11:46:55 -0500

"George Dishman" <george@briar.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cops9a$vuh$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> "Anthony Cerrato" <tcerrato@optonline.net> wrote in
message
> news:7jSrd.4460$V03.3282@fe12.lga...
> >
> > <abdul.ahad@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> >
news:1101987591.939560.26430@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

[snip]

> > All in all, I think this thread shows IS travel by Gen
ships
> > is not as easy as it looks! If we take into account the
> > probability of total ship failure due to malfunctions,
> > particle collisions, fuel [mass] exhaustion, radiation,
and
> > all manner of social problems including disease,
mutation,
> > political friction/wars, etc etc, the cance of survival
over
> > lengthy voyages is small I think. It is no wonder they
have
> > not reached Earth's neighborhood by now--if, even
further,
> > the number of intelligent civs in the galaxy on average
is
> > normally sparse, the answer to Fermi is pretty darn
clear.
> > ...tonyC
>
> Most of the engineering problems could be overcome. The
> real problems would be social, you can't re-engineer
> the passengers (though perhaps that's another story).
>
> George

I do agree that the most serious problems would probably
turn out to be sociologically related, but I don't think we
should underestimate the physical problems either. How can
you solve problems like "particle collisions, fuel [mass]
exhaustion, radiation," (to name only a few)--that is to
say, without massive trade-offs in losing resources and or
energy and sacrificing many other options (e.g.,
particularly, limitations on navigability may be serious.)
Seems to me to be many complex problems with Gen
ships...barring really magical tech advances, that is. Maybe
this will come in the next 10,000 to 100,000 years
though--if we last. :) ...tonyC