>The idea that it might be worthwhile to actually ship something (including ourselves) to another star system is based on very quaint notions of identity bindin

>The idea that it might be worthwhile to actually ship something (including ourselves) to another star system is based on very quaint notions of identity binding and what it takes to produce things. I often think that the forms we take on now aren't suited for space travel (unless you consider living on a planet that is in motion through space as space travel) much less staying in low earth orbit for a year. We have to bend backwards to engineer materials to shield our presently fragile bodies, imo quite futilely, from the harshness of space. I think we'd be much better off modifying our bodies (or even rethinking what constitutes a body/form) to be able to withstand this harshness, at least in the interim before we can build a system that can somehow propagate energy FTL, though I definitely think we should pursue the latter, as the benefits could be realized on earth.