I take "a generation" to be about twenty years, just long enough for someone to be born and to become old enough to start a family. By this reckoning, one century is five generations. However, a generation is very different from a human lifespan. The Biblical span is seventy years, seven tenths of a century, but individuals can live into their nineties or even past a century. I remember three of my four grandparents. They were born in the late nineteenth century. My adult granddaughter and her contemporaries can now have children who will live into the twenty-second century. Someone dying early in the twenty-second century might remember me having talked about my grandparents who were born in the late nineteenth century.
In the generation ship, the Pioneer, there will be people who:
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But if none of the people who started on the long journey to Alpha Centauri, plus their children and grandchildren, are likely to be alive at journey's end--then the events and concerns of every day life on the PIONEER will be of far greater interest to them. Not what might happen in a fairly remote future most don't expect to see.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Grandchildren will make it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, but most likely the great grand children.
Ad astra! Sean
People's actual concern with the future generally tapers off quite strongly after the lifespan of their children.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Which is what I was trying to say.
Ad astra! Sean
I only knew one of my grandparents -- the others all died before or during WWII.
The grandmother I did know was born in the 1890's, as was my wife's foster-mother.
One thing I noticed about my mother was that she was much more cautious about possible exposure to infection than people of my generation -- later, I realized that she'd been born well -after- germ theory became part of popular culture (she was born in the early 1920's), but well -before- antibiotics became widely available (which wasn't until the 1950's.)
She told me once that one of her close friends in Peru in the 1930's died of rabies (caught from a bat) and one of bubonic plague.
And she really, really hated and loathed bats.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Not really unreasonable of your grandmother. Even minor cuts can get infected, and rabies is a real danger!
Many years ago, a bat got into my bedroom. My first thought was to kill it. Because of the rabies risk. However, wisely or not, I decided to capture it with a bag, and release it outside the house. Which I did. Altho I did not get bitten, that might have been foolish of me.
Ad astra! Sean
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