In James Blish's
Cities In Flight, both longevity and faster-than-light are regarded as necessary for interstellar travel. In Robert Heinlein's
Methuselah's Children, it makes sense when the long-lived Howard Families hijack the second generation ship. They are naturals for interstellar travel. And one of them is a genius who invents an FTL drive en route.
In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:
immortality is developed on Earth but is a dead end;
a generation ship takes six generations to reach Alpha Centauri;
FTL is developed later.
In haste. Off to visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop. Back here later today maybe.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I hope Andrea is doing better! And does he also like to read science fiction?
Given a large enough generation ship able to support an adequate population, I don't think unusually extended life spans would be needed for STL interstellar travel/colonization. But a lot of patience would be needed for such a journey. Again, I had in mind what we see in TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Andrea's health remains poor, unfortunately. He has read sf and also is very well informed on world affairs so we have very interesting conversations.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sorry about the first point, but I'm glad about the second one. I thought it interesting how he admired the late Margaret Thatcher.
Ad astra! Sean
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