In Space

Poul Anderson, World Without Stars, Chapter IV.

The outward journey is long because there is:

"...a large relative velocity to match." (p. 23)

Landomar's sun becomes just another star although the galaxy does not visibly change. The ship runs automatically while the nine-man crew passes the time.

"Most of us had lived a sufficient number of years in space that we didn't mind the monotony. It's only external, anyhow. After a century or three of life, you have plenty to think about, and a cruise is a good opportunity." (ibid.)

They have had some memories edited, though? I will shortly reread the passage where memory editing is explained. Again, Anderson shows us how indefinitely extended lifespans would change perspectives. Apart from thinking, it might also have become easier to meditate? - i.e., to allow thoughts to arise and pass without getting caught up in them. On the other hand, this requires practice, not just longevity. Some very old people are very unmeditative.

Enver Smeth, only thirty, grew up on Arwy, "...a bucolic patriarchal settlement like Landomar." (p. 23) So there is another population that inhabits a planet. Valland, nearly three thousand years old, sings a song that he himself had composed about five hundred years previously. What a thought. Valland's age dates the novel as somewhere around 5000 A.D.

Argens indicates that memories are edited every century or two.