yeah, i know, Albert... i thought of that too... but it seems to me that it would still be an issue....


besides, you can't put people in suspended animation for 20 000 years and have them still be, oh, say 20 years old at the end... they'd need to procreate.

i dunno... i can see it going horribly wrong so easily, like any stranded on a deserted island scenario - someone eventually gets shoved off on a raft (and if that happens once per generation... that's a lot of rafts...)




oh, and AD, it really sucks that America's so paranoid. sorry to hear that.

Sorry to hear that news AD. No going away party for you. On the other hand all those supplies for the party can go towards Par's going away party.

Alison don't you read any science fiction novels? These questions have been pondered ever since man has looked up into the sky and decided: "Damn those stars look a long way off! Well better make sure the kids have alot to do it's going to be a long trip!"

A common way to solve this generation ship problem is suspended animation. Though the systems could fail. It's not going to be an easy task to go 20,000 years on a ship but I believe we have to do it. The Earth is humanities cradle but one one day we must grow up and leave... Well if we don't destroy each other first.

You could always just use a hyper drive to get there in less than 6 months.

That's fucking lame, AD. We should go after those Al Qaeda fuckers.

(Also, Beck's news is lame as well.)

SDF-1

re intergenerational space vessels...

how would that work? I mean... yeah, a society would simply persist on the space ship... but can you imagine being one of those middle generations? say you're in year 680 of traveling, but you're totally aware that your entire purpose is to maintain a space ship and pass on offspring for their offspring's offspring's offspring... to eventually land on some unknown planet. i'd feel some real serious existential angst... and what if you suddenly decided you didn't want to have children?

and what if the generation that lands on the planet decides that their society's persisted happily on the space craft for long enough that they ought to just stay on the space craft... who needs this planet...

how big a space ship are we talking? wouldn't there be some SERIOUS inbreeding?

Another Nathan Fillion show cancelled too soon...

Paras, I was actually thinking the same thing earlier today. I was thinking how it would be funny if today we sent an inter-generational space ship to the planet and it would take like 20,000 years to get there... but by the time they got there they would find the planet was already colonized 16,000 years ago because we developed worm-hole warp technology 4,000 years after they left, hahaha. Wouldn't you pissed? hahahaha

Hi Adrian,
I agree this is problematic. I did not anticipate the visa issues and have always
thought fondly of Canada as the 14th US Colony. I think the only option now would be to
apply for a J-1 visa, but this may take up to 2 months, which would likely cut into your
summer productivity too much. Baylor won't even accept volunteers, not that I would have
suggested that. So I guess we're stuck. I blame Al-qaida. Perhaps we can try again
next summer, but start earlier (e.g. January) on the visa application.

Best regards on your exams,
Dave Spencer

Well damn...