"Centenarians were not uncommon these days. But very few reached 150. Nobody reached 200."
-"What Shall It Profit?," p. 79.
At the beginning of "The Troublemakers," Enrico Yamatsu states in his Starward! that:
the Pioneer, launched in 2126, will take 123 years to reach Alpha Centauri;
that this means five or six generations;
that it is longer than a long lifetime.
I would call it six generations, taking one generation as about twenty years, enough time for someone to be born and to become a young adult. If some people, however few, are reaching 150, then 123 years is shorter than a long lifetime. A baby, taken into the Pioneer before its launch could reach Alpha Centauri. Just. But there would still be six generations born in the ship. If such a ship were ever to be launched, then far better arrangements would have to be made for the lives, activities and sanities of its crew. Many would have to be scientists, their attention directed outwards, studying the universe as the ship passed through it. There would have to be libraries, audiovisual entertainment and virtual realities (if possible). The way the ship is organized and socially divided seems crazy to me.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, "The Troublemakers" was one of Anderson's earlier stories. He had a very different idea of what a generation asteroid/star ship might be like in TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS. But conflicts and simple old skulduggery will still be part of human life aboard such a ship.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
The thought I'm trying to bring out is that in the framework for TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS and "Recruiting Nation" Anderson gave us more sophisticated and nuanced speculations on how a generation ship would be managed. And that's no surprise--because both "Recruiting" and TALES were first pub. in 1970, while "Troublemakers" was pub. in 1953. Anderson had 15 or more years to think thru more deeply the question of how a generation ship might work out.
Ad astra! Sean
See the videos on Isaac Arthur's channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g
Some of them are about STL interstellar travel.
In most of those he assumes major advances in anti-aging before any interstellar trips are started.
Kaor, Jim!
Frankly, I'm skeptical about the likelihood of any serious life extending meditech becoming practical. So I lean more to generation ships being used for STL extra-Solar colonization.
Ad astra! Sean
I find it odd that you have expressed far more skepticism about anti-aging than about FTL.
There is lots of evidence that *nothing* can go faster than light, but some organisms live longer than humans. Substantial life extension if it is developed will likely be too late to help you or me, but it is *far* more likely than FTL.
Similarly, ways of organizing society that make it more peaceful are not a sure thing, but different existing and past societies have had more or less violent crime, and looking for likely causes can improve matters.
Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels of Our Nature" documents long term decline in human violence (yes, with spikes, but a long term declining trend). One suggested contributing factor is that executing or jailing men convicted of violent crimes has tended to remove "genes for" violent behaviour from the population.
Kaor, Jim!
I realize, given current knowledge and technology, FTL is not likely anytime soon. No argument there. Albeit some scientists don't completely dismiss it.
I grant some animals have very long life spans. So I admit the possibility of serious extending of life spans for humans someday.
I simply want crime and disorder kept firmly in check. And that requires whether Utopians like it or not, the existence of a State using its monopoly of violence to punish and deter crime.
Ad astra! Sean
I don't really think a peaceful society would work without something that is effectively a State.
One nice thing about the potential of space habitats is that there can be lots of experiments in ways of running societies, including things you or I would expect to fail badly. But some might work better than we expect, and the experiment would only include people who *willingly* decide to move to the space colony.
The space habitats would also allow interesting experiments in ecosystems.
Kaor, Jim!
Agree, what you said about the State, under whatever form it has, if some kind of peace and order is to be had.
Agree, the opening up of a new frontier off Earth means, among other things, it would be impossible for crazed ideologues to corral all mankind into a single socio-politico form or straitjacket. I would fully expect some of the more harebrained "experiments" to fail. Others might become despotic, as on Venus, in "The Big Rain."
I have no objections at all to O'Neill habitats being built. I only wish one or two had been constructed by now!
Ad astra! Sean
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