3 ms·
It’s pretty clear why we’re all fascinated with faster than light travel (it makes the Universe feel accessible on our comparatively tiny timescales), but it’s
by qubex 6y ago
It’s pretty clear why we’re all fascinated with faster than light travel (it makes the Universe feel accessible on our comparatively tiny timescales), but it’s also a sheer display of narrative obstinacy on our part that we continue to try to find loopholes in the rules of the Universe to allow something that so patently ain’t meant to be.
Just build ‘em dormant A.I. probes, set ‘em off on their long lonely drifts, and let the magic of self-reproducing Von Neumann automata take hold once they arrive in a star system with suitable resources!
- aeternum 6y agoUnfortunately probes just don't capture the human imagination like manned exploration does. Perhaps a reason to invest in tech like neuralink? If we eventually merge with AI, perhaps each of those probes will ultimately feel like an appendage that is just slower to respond.
- aeternum 6y agoUnfortunately probes just don't capture the human imagination like manned exploration does. Perhaps a reason to invest in tech like neuralink? If we eventually merge with AI, perhaps each of those probes will ultimately feel like an appendage that is just slow to respond.
- boxed 6y agoI disagree. http://localroger.com/k5host/pitv.html http://localroger.com/k5host/pitv.html I have re read that dozens of times. It's a striking and powerful vision of a possible future.
- aeternum 6y agoSo the machines put them on a barren planet in the middle of interstellar space with no source of natural light? Seems like a pretty desolate end for humanity. I'd rather merge my consciousness with the probes and explore, something like this: http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html
- boxed 6y agoHome is home. But keep reading for more :)
- qubex 6y agoIf Moore’s Law keeps on going, it’s only a short matter of time before not only can we upload a single consciousness to a probe, but a fully functioning copy of all our society’s members’ consciousnesses. They will either be able to interact and amuse themselves and evolve during the trip, have their threads suspended and thus essentially put into hibernation until arrival, run at some clock-reduced rate so they perceive the travel as being extremely swift, or some combination of any of these items, and then some. If Moore’s Law doesn’t keep on going... well, then... perception of (very) swift travel it is... ;)