How Could Humans Live for Centuries in the Stars?

[@Astrographics-ve4yq]

Visit gamersupps.gg/Astrographics, and use code Astrographics for 10% off on Gamersupps products.

[@Kelvryn]

Its hot in the stars. We can't live there. In space however, That we could do.

[@aaronmicalowe]

This is a natural progression of, "the grass is greener on the other planet".

[@4ryan42]

Generation ship leaves on a 500 year voyage. 300 years later, we can go 10 time as fast, and, with the old mission long forgotten, a new mission is launched. The original mission arrives at its destination, and finds that the later mission has already been there for 150 years.

[@adamwu4565]

It is therefore imperative that the old ship should remain in continuous contact with Earth. That way, all new technological advances made of Earth can be sent to the generation ship. So they can upgrade their engines to increase their speed as they go. Or the new mission with the 10x faster engines will be sent to catch up and rendezvous with the old ship, bringing along the parts needed to upgrade the old ship's engines, and then both ships continue on to the destination together.

[@Warlock8ZERO]

Sounds like the exact plot to a couple Star Trek/Stargate episodes, haha.

[@Warlock8ZERO]

@@adamwu4565 This unfortunately would never work if you can't communicate faster than light, it takes 8 mins for the Suns light to reach us, so a round trip of just saying "Hello" would take around 16 mins, Pluto is 5hrs+, so it would take 10hrs, our closest habitable planet is 4+ light years away, so if the ship is somehow halfway there, it would take years to communicate, good luck on any larger distances. But realistically it would take thousands of years to get there, so picking them up is an awesome idea, but I doubt they would even speak the same language any more haha, or if they remember what the point of the trip was after so many generations.

[@brianupsher6675]

​@@Warlock8ZERO He mentioned a second ship being created that 10x faster than the initial ship. This means the initial ship is, at best, moving 1/10th the speed of light. If the upgraded engine is designed 300 years after the initial launch it would only take 33.3 years for a message to reach them. If you encode all the instructions in a single message 2-way communication becomes unnecessary. You would simply receive the blueprints/instructions and proceed with the upgrade. No need or point in 2 way communication with earth once you have the needed info.

[@adamwu4565]

It’ll work fine for the shorter interstellar distances. You can’t have real time conversations of course. But sending cultural and technological updates would only be slightly impeded. If the ship is halfway to Alpha Centauri, it’s only a 2 year lag. The latest bestselling novels or blockbuster movies from Earth will still provide entertainment for the shipboard crew even if it arrives 2 years after its publication. Technological updates a few years late will still be useful. The shipboard crew gets the schematics for the iPhone 47 when the iPhone 51 is on sale back on Earth. It will still be an improvement over the iPhone 43’s they had went they first left the solar system.

[@lordMartiya]

A good story about a generation ship suffering from internal conflict is Orphans of the Sky, by Heinlein. Early in the voyage the ship suffered a mutiny, and by the time the novel is set the Crew is a group of primitives that don't even know the Ship isn't the entire universe and the Trip is a literal travel.

[@gordonbrinkmann]

Yes, I remember that book 👍

[@TomPlatts_Phys]

Honestly love these videos. I currently study a Masters in Physics with an emphasis on Astrophysics and Space Science and my dream is, in just under half a decade, to pursue a PhD in Theoretical Physics with an emphasis on Gravity and potentially Dark Matter, I want to unlock secrets, and hopefully in my lifetime I can do that. Keep giving us the great content.

[@BishopStars]

Didn't you hear? Dark matter isn't real. It's just a logical result of higher dimensional entropy.

[@camiloclarkson1122]

Good Luck!

[@Martingray7875]

False

[@TomPlatts_Phys]

@@camiloclarkson1122 Thank you.

[@camiloclarkson1122]

@@TomPlatts_Phys You'll need it. I hear god does actually play dice. (says the journalist arts grad)

[@lignamorren]

If the shipboard travel time is 404 years, think of the risk of getting to the star, and the planet is NOT FOUND.

[@rtyrsson]

That was actually pretty funny. 🤣🤣🤣

[@rjswas]

🤣

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Lol funny. But, in reality any such journey would need to be preceded by robotics to terraform and create infrastructure before the colony ship even departs.

[@toddjohnson7572]

Going 10% the speed of light (I think he suggested that as a 'realistic' speed) -- it'd take 44 years (10x slower than light speed) to get to the nearest star. So there's that.

[@toddjohnson7572]

@@The1stDukeDroklar : Yeah, but if going 10% the speed of light takes 400 years, that means it's 40 light years away. So there's a 40 year delay on information. And we'll have many many projects sending things out there based on previous data gathered given to us, and they all won't be spot-on either. Year 2080: We send first observable mechanisms out to a star 40 light years away that gives evidence of planets having a degree of hospitality. Year 2100: We realize this failed, and do it all over again. We're learning. Year 2120: We do another round Year 2270: They arrive and take pictures. Very little as they're zooming by so fast (only 150 years to get there), but enough evidence to make it worth sending a more robust, modern slew of interactive probes there. Takes us 40 years to get the info, and another 10 years to assess and build what to send. Year 2520: Small ships with bots arrive at said planet, and observe & explore (kinda like Mars today, but in a better way). Going a little slower, taking 200 years, it being more robust. Good news -- it's worth putting to the real test. We get initial info in 2560, and for 10 years observe, and another 10 years to build n launch what we assess to send. Year 2780: More ships arrive testing it's landscape and building. We get initial info in 2820, and for 10 years observe it all and with more data, in 10 years we send more robust stuff to really start terraforming it to a degree, based on knowing what it has and all that. Year 3090: Lots of robust bots/beings arrive to really do some dirty work, doing terraforming, etc. Year 3500: We've got it terraformed to grow crops and some things built to the extent that we can send out main generational ship out. Year 3900: The robotic non-human Beings arrive to settle into it. Yeah, it's not set for humans as it's terraform design, but the genetically very different beings [manually] evolved from original humans in combination with robotics as part of itself.

[@adamwu4565]

To ameliorate some of the ethical issues, we must not send a crew, but rather a community. Something like an O'Neill Cylinder housing an entire small town's worth of people. So only a small fraction of the people will need to be employed as part of the mission critical crew, and you will hopefully have a large enough population that you will always have volunteers for those positions. Everyone else will be free to pursue other community-related lives of their choice. They can do science, entertainment, art, etc, for the general benefit of the community as a whole. And you don't send a single ship, but a fleet of ships. With multiple ships you have more options. Not only is there more redundancy to parts failures on individual ships, but if enough of the colonists decide they want to turn around and head back to Earth, or choose a different final destination, they at least have the option of taking a few ships and doing that. And, as faster propulsion technologies are developed while the fleet is in transit, you have the option of building faster ships that can catch up and rendezvous with the fleet, bringing new colonists to join to fleet. These ships would also be available to turn around and bring people who want to, back to Earth. Basically, your fleet isn't going on a mission to found a colony, it will already BE a colony. In continuous cultural communication with Earth, with commerce and human travel between them. The fleet itself a small nation, and each ship within a city therein. Functionally not different from something like a colony on Mars. A colony that just happens to be moving gradually further and further away from Earth. Maybe you also take a small asteroid or comet along with you (or build a few of your ships onto such objects) which can serve as sources of raw materials for making replacement parts, or even building additional ships to house a growing population. Of course this is a much bigger task to build than a single smaller generation ship and it will be further into the future before humanity would be capable of this. But the fact that each ship in the fleet is already a self-contained independent community means that you won't be beholden to the quality of the planets in the target star system. You can use the resources available in the target system to make more space habitats to house the people instead. Meaning you have a wider range of potential destination sites, each closer on average to the last. If you can get your propulsion up to 10%c or higher, then you can make the journey times between star systems shorter than 2 human lifespans. Meaning there's no middle generation stuck on the ship for their entire lives.

[@rtyrsson]

Very interesting and well thought out idea.

[@deanlawson6880]

Yes this is definitely the way!! I agree completely that it's just not plausible to send "generation ships" that will be enroute to a distant generation for any longer than 2 generations. That way you have the "launching generation", and then the "landing generation".. That may possibly be practical. Also definitely agree that a small fleet that is already a "colony" or community needs to be constructed and sent for the reasons all listed above in this excellent post above. Nicely done!

[@peterkirby1753]

We are essentially already on a Generation Ship 🌍

[@adamwu4565]

And indeed, the most extreme version of the Generation Ship concept is the Shkadov Thruster (and upgraded variants that can move even faster) that turns a Dyson Swarm around the sun into an engine that can move the whole solar system towards other stars, with journey times of tens of thousands of years. Once you get close enough a few thousand to a million people are dropped off in the new star system to start up a new colony there, while the Sun and Earth move on to the next star. Each new colony in turn builds itself up to a Dyson Swarm in a few thousand years, makes its own Shkadov Thruster, and repeats the process. The whole galaxy gets colonized in a few hundred million years.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Spaceship Earth!

[@Shoelessjoe78]

I read that in Neils voice 😂

[@alargefarva4274]

You’re not wrong!

[@maxwarboy3625]

Yes, we are on a generation ship And IT'S GOING NOWHERE _SLOWLY_ - human created and powered crafts could go way faster to destinations we choose instead of GOING IN CIRCLES

[@QBCPerdition]

This made me think of an idea for a story (perhaps one already exists, but i am not aware of it) where, after flying for hundreds of years and dozens of generations, the ship finally gets to its destination, finding conditions that are damn near perfect for colonization, only to find that the culture that has developed, of necessity, to cope with existing on the ship, does not want to leave it.

[@gordonbrinkmann]

Just have to love those YT ad breaks... Simon: "...splitting such a ship into factions for the long term and turning it into a pressure cooker for an even larger conflict or a..." Ad break: "A dirty dishwasher!"

[@HighBaconPriest]

Imagine finally reaching your destination only to find that humans have already been there for centuries because we finally found a way to travel at FTL speeds.

[@Migolcow]

A couple of counterpoints: 1) People feeling "trapped". If the ship is big enough, this shouldn't really be a problem. For millennia, Humans have often had entire lifetimes in a single village, when circumstances and bad options for travel existed. Even in modern times, it's not uncommon for some people in a small city to remain there their entire lives, especially in countries that don't allow their citizens much freedom. Some may hate it and resent their forebearers, and there would be problems, but on the whole I don't see this as an insurmountable. 2) Fuel: You do need a LOT of fuel...for getting started. Then when you reach your destination, for slowing down you would need some for manuevars (that bled speed using astral bodies at your destination. But for 99% of the journey? Nada. An object in space will stay travelling at a consistent speed in the same direction with no fuel used due to inertia. As long as you had good navigation and calculation on your initial thrust, you're fine. This could just be a really powerful set of booster rockets in the solar system launch.

[@Shopkeeper99900]

100% agree

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Problems with that statement. Space isn't a vacuum and the particles encountered would slow you down although it wouldn't be massive. At relativistic speeds, you're not going to be able to use gravitational effects of objects to slow down because you are traveling far too fast for that to have a meaningful breaking effect. You will need the same amount of fuel to slow down as it took to get up to speed.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

Peak civilization is making just enough colonies to survive. Then making a matrix, and living in it while being taken care of by some who don't want to go in. Or shifts. (Or robots if you trust em.) Laws of physics sucks. So many restrictions possibly. Technology has limits. I want to be a god of my mind in a simulation where I can do anything, be anyone, and share it.

[@Martingray7875]

​@@The1stDukeDroklarCompletely true.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

@@Martingray7875 Which is completely true? My critique of a couple points? Or the OPs original assertions?

[@cherokee43v6]

I think the key to the 'social' aspects raised is that the planners /must/ approach the design of the mission in such a way that the voyage itself is the destination. Sending the bare viable minimum with extremely tight tolerances in order to achieve a tightly defined end goal is a guarantee for failure. The term 'world ship' has to be embraced philosophically as well as technologically. The ship will be 'the world' for its inhabitants. It's 'complement' must be large enough that a viable 'crew' can be recruited from each generation to serve the needs of the ship or the automation of the ship must be sufficient so as to obviate the need for having a 'crew' during much of the voyage.

[@isaacbenrubi9613]

Factboi is trying to tell us he's actually 69420 days old.

[@Th3Mast3rL0ck]

"today's episode of 'the show' brought to you by" simon forgot which channel he was doing as ad read for, good save fact boi

[@crazyeyez1502]

He keeps changing channel names. Lol

[@danielforgedragon3446]

I caught that too, FACT Boi slipped

[@jefffoy530]

The Voyage of Rama series is an excellent depiction of this concept.

[@BishopStars]

Those books are excellent. Children of Time by Tchaikovsky and Seveneves by Stephenson especially.

[@ndbsolar]

You don't send humans. You send frozen embryos, and an AI ship to raise and educate them in the final 20 years of the journey. This will avoid the majority of the issues that could occur on the journey.

[@davidvomlehn4495]

This requires robots who can provide appropriate human enculturation, in which case the robots are effectively human. So, skip embryos and just send the robots. This both highly practical and disturbing.

[@ndbsolar]

@@davidvomlehn4495 Of course. That is one of the reasons that Tesla with their SpaceX connections are developing them. But not sending human embryos would defeat the main purpose of the mission

[@sommmeguy]

We already have the technology to build an artificial cell. In the furniture, we could probably just send the robots first, then send them the recipe for humans. Assuming the new planet has organic molecules the robots could whip up a batch in no time. Of course, not sure what the point would be because by that time humanity will have figured out how to live sustainably on Earth or be extinct.

[@sommmeguy]

Why send embryos when the robots or a few humans could make them when they arrive? kzbin.info/www/bejne/qH3Ep5Wiab54hKMsi=1QQwdsq8TEIa8H4O

[@augiegirl1]

7:21 One nitpick: In “Wall-e”, the false promise is returning to Earth once it’s cleaned up, not finding a new home planet.

[@andrew_kaven]

If we consider ships that can, for generations, function in outer space as they travel toward their destination, another possibility naturally emerges: ships that are never intended to reach an actual planet. Instead, they would be populated by people who, along with generations after them, live entirely in space - traveling between star systems or existing in the void, collecting materials and energy to build more such ships. And if Space Humans indeed emerge, they would be adapted to live almost anywhere in the Universe, unlike us, who are "preprogrammed" to survive only within the fairly narrow environmental conditions found on a handful of planets. Note1: Possible idea for a new video :) Note2: Pretty scary thouth - if such mechanism viable that are the chances and timeframes for humanity to be visited by one of the ships of such space nomads? Note 1: Possible idea for a new video! :) Note 2: A pretty scary thought-if such a mechanism is viable, what are the chances and timeframes for humanity to be visited by one of the ships of such "space nomads"?

[@dbireland2003]

Don’t think that will happen. We will do 4 year exploration for about 120 years supplying mars and outer rim exploration.

[@keithwalmsley1830]

Wouldn't be quite so bad if the ship had a holo-deck as per Star Trek TNG, otherwise I think people would die of boredom or rebel as you say.

[@rtyrsson]

True. A holodeck makes anything and everything possible to pass the time. In fact, if every passenger's cabin was a holodeck they could have whatever home and life they chose within it. Each one could theoretically create an entire town for themselves individually.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

Make it a matrix where I can do crack cocaine with Simon Whistler, and you all, without actually doing it. All while being whatever I wanted. Cypher from the Matrix wasn't right, but wasn't wrong either. He was onto something. Why expand sucking up resources when you can have an improved version of it. All by living hooking into a machine that doesn't have the same restrictions reality does. The brain is amazing, and flawed. My dreams are superior to reality. I can somehow feel MORE when dreaming. Make up entire back stories, and love people. All in a very short time. We need to control that aspect, and embrace it as a civilization. Even if we still expand like a parasite. It will still be useful in generational ships. My favorite way of near FTL travel is using essentially a particle accelerator/mass driver to launch a man sized capsule. Only enough to sustain the person in cyro, and some thrusters to maneuver. So a casket. After being launched through the vast emptiness of space, with no way to stop they eventually reach their destination. Where they then start paassing through magnetic rings that slow them down starting outside the system gradually getting slower till you get to some orbit. If they miss. Well... Well I don't know why I typed it I would never do it. I always loved that type of travel.

[@davidvomlehn4495]

I think a multgeneration ship capable of repairing itself will also have so many resources available that there will be plenty to do even without holodecks. I think we can count on much in the way of cultural stimulation from Earth. Unless Bad Things happen to Earth.

[@mikep3226]

In the book "Voyage From Yesteryear" by James P. Hogan, there is an alternative to a generation ship. In a future when Earth is in a quiet period, they are outfitting a ship to travel unmanned to another star, with powerful engines, advanced sensors, communication gear, an advanced AI, etc. when it is discovered that the star has a potentially habitable planet. This causes them to add a facility to carry biological material and add programming to the AI so that humans (as well as all the plants, etc. needed) could be created and raised at the destination. The main part of the story is actually about generations after arrival. The ship sent back the data about the habitable planet, and the Earth bound groups having fallen back to squabbling send generation ships to "absorb" the colony. The story is about the social contrast between the inhabitants and the incoming crew.

[@MovieFanatic4500]

A good movie based around an idea similar to this is Aniara from 2018. Highly recommend. It's a solid character study on people trapped in a spaceship with no destination in sight for centuries.

[@Jetfighter1011]

At the risk of detracting from the show, I cannot tell you how fast I would buy a custom Simon Whistler flavor of gamer supps

[@MrHeadlee]

5th dimensional travel is practically instantaneous from 4th dimensional points of view and can cross any distance in the same time frame.

[@InquisMalleus]

Something they always seem to forget on these things is the psychological effects of actually reaching the destination. Would they want to leave the ship - the only home they've ever known? Could they adjust to the new reality of the planet and the lack of technology and routine they have always had? What about the social breakdown when the strict discipline required to keep a generation ship going is no longer necessary because resources are now not a limiting factor? With the ability to spread out and formation of multiple settlements where you no longer know everyone, tribalism could easily rise - and the formation of nations and ideologies that don't get along? The technology is easy, it's the humans that hard.

[@ThomasCoote89]

Children of Time is a FANTASTIC book and really is a must read!

[@deanlawson6880]

Really good and interesting video Simon! These are all really good things to think about when it comes to deep space flight to other stars, colonization, etc.. Thanks for this!!

[@cameronmadden8723]

I love this episode would like a deeper dive if its possible love the fact you brought up war and factions up, very interesting

[@toddnolastname4485]

There was a tv series called Ascension that was about this. Except that it wasn't.

[@JNF-SATX]

A good analog would be a cathedral. Decades to build, can last centuries, and requires religious-like belief to see it through. That’s probably why the Expanse series had Mormons do it

[@maximusaralieous1728]

Great video, love the reimagining of the Mass Effect track in the background.

[@Ionut-bg6vw]

0:30 and when they do this a faster more advenced ship will already reach the destination:)

[@t.g.2777]

If we find way to open portals to other places that is scientifically possible way to effectively travel faster than light

[@Zidbits]

One huge problem; radiation. The radiation at relativistic speeds is literally off the charts. You'd need shielding which itself, would become radioactive via secondary radiation. Relativistic speeds cause unique characteristics like the intense beaming of radiation in a narrow cone due to the particle's high velocity; a prominent example of this phenomenon is synchrotron radiation. There's several papers on the topic and none good. They're not insurmountable but they're not cheap or easy problems to solve. Radiation is an aspect of space travel glossed over by just about everyone, but it's probably one of the biggest issues.

[@davidvomlehn4495]

Agreed. Why is it that so many advocates of Mars colonization focus on the lack of atmosphere but omit radiation consideratitions? (Note that i am also pro-Mars colonization, just, c'mon folks, we have to solve *all* the problems)

[@underSTATEDexcellence]

Once they figure out how to manipulate time dilation such as when in close proximity to working within the event horizon of a black hole, then they will have that whole space travel thing figured out.

[@M3CHR0M4NC3R]

Living IN the stars would be difficult indeed, among the stars would be far more realistic.

[@denverparsons7330]

imagine travelling all that way and discover that we were wrong and the planet is completely inhabitable

[@moonasha]

Hey you forgot to mention the most illustrious and great movie about a generation ship that totally wasn't made fun of on MST3K: Space Mutiny.

[@CRASS2047]

Imagine a generational ship leaves for a 400 year journey. 150 years later, a new technology on earth is discovered to allow warp drives and a new ship is sent out. It catches up with and docks with the now 175 year old generational ship, and picks up the great, great, great grandchildren of the original passengers, and cuts their trip down to a few months.

[@toddjohnson7572]

Warp drives will never happen, though. It's more than merely concrete that you can't "fly" as fast as the "speed" of light (or better put, the 'speed' of reality). We wouldn't be able to "catch up" to them traversing the same way they did (unless we were going ~50% the speed of light VS their outdated 10%).

[@CRASS2047]

@ with current technology, sure. Imagine we find a way to part, and slip between quantum particles . If we last long enough, we will eventually figure out a far superior propulsion method

[@stancil83]

18:20 War in 2250 would likely be unrecognizable to historical paradigms, with the line between human and machine, civilian and combatant, and war and peace increasingly blurred. Or it could just be: "Hey, that's my rock! Give it back! Pew pew."

[@FireThemAll]

No annoying foreground music 🥳

[@martinh2783]

Why invest in a generation ship when you can build a stellar engine like a Caplan thruster and just drive the solar system closer?

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

Why does no one ever consider the possibility of the Earth being one of these Generation ships? “Uh, it’s not a ship!” Yea, thanks for that.

[@gordonbrinkmann]

Because unlike the idea of a generation ship, Earth is not steered to a destination to find a new home... unless you begin to say something like "God built this ship and sent us on a journey, we just don't know the destination."

[@tenacious3911]

Maybe we could just send all the frozen heads, like the one Simon wants to become.

[@SeeingBackward]

14:58 The lack of natural sunlight is literally the only difference that was given from the actual Earth, and not all of us are fans of it...

[@TheSwamper]

Replicators are far beyond us now, but I can see some futuristic 3D printers being able to create many replacement parts as needed. They might even be able to print food.

[@MusicalRaichu]

They need raw materials to manufacture from. Unless worn out parts are fully recyclable, they'll run out eventually.

[@TheSwamper]

@@MusicalRaichu True. We could take some 'ink' to start. I was thinking that he printers could use materials common in space.

[@MusicalRaichu]

@@TheSwamper If a vehicle is traveling at high speed to reach another solar system, then mining asteroids etc. would be difficult. It would have to expend propulsion resources to slow down as it reaches a resource-rich region along the way and then speed up again. It would add generations to the journey.

[@rtyrsson]

There are already companies that can 3-D print fake steaks. I'll never be eating one... ever, but they do exist.

[@Kelnx]

You wouldn't need to run the engines continuously for hundreds of years. At most, depending on available fuel and reaction mass, you would run them long enough to continually accelerate to your desired speed. At that point, engines won't need to run again until you reach your destination and need to decelerate, or for any course corrections during the journey. As for the 10% of c figure, that all just depends on fuel and reaction mass. If you had enough (somehow) you could accelerate up to 99% of c and that would cut your trip down considerably including serious time dilation effects. Of course you would need the same amount of fuel and reaction mass to decelerate at the end of the journey, so that is going to be the real limiting factor on engines and speed.

[@toddjohnson7572]

Anywhere close to something kinda close to 99% won't ever happen though. Speed x Size = Destruction level -- in terms of hitting stuff on the way to destination. Maybe 50%? IMO, that's stretching it a long ways.

[@Kelnx]

@@toddjohnson7572 I mean, even at 10% c you're already assuming there is some kind of shield or something. Granted matter density of space is pretty low, but if you are going any significant factor of c velocity you're going to wear away your hull colliding with charged particles unless you have some shielding scheme. I should hope by the time we can build a generation ship we've already figured out shielding. Otherwise, that might be a disaster.

[@Graptopetalum]

In the Sumerian creation myth, the monster/goddess Tiamat sounds suspiciously like an alien generation ship. She's associated with salt water, suggesting that she was propelled by salt water nuclear rockets (that is a theoretical thing). There's even a rebellion between the younger and older generations. Likely colonizing Earth wasn't the original plan but resulted from the rebellion. The colony seems to have been fairly short lived (from about 4000BC to 3000BC) but it did kick off, or at least accelerate, human civilization. Am I the only person who's thought of this?

[@simracing4simpletons978]

Increasing the human lifespan feels like a definite thing, it's just a matter of when. The rate at which we're unlocking medical advancements and our understanding of the human body is one of the fastest of any of our scientific pursuits. Right now it would take many generations for one of those multi -century journeys, but imagine if you could match a century per generation, or even two centuries per generation. All of a sudden that human factor of lost generations becomes much less of an issue. It's not the only issue, and it doesn't completely solve it, but it should be something worth considering when thinking about this near/medium-future undertaking. If we ever get there. Just because we live for roughly 75 years now doesn't mean we won't be living 150 years by 2400

[@davidvomlehn4495]

There is no way that crew and colony size are dictated by genetic variability. A much more significant constraint is how many people it takes to simultaneously have the skills and physical capability to do all the huge number of things required to handle routine and emergency tasks necessary. This number is much, much larger, especially in a challenging environment such as a starship or a new planet. It's nice to think skills can be learned as needed, but say a starship is impacted by a stray rock. It's too late to train trauma surgeons, and you need to have enough people who can weld on patches before all the air leaks out. If anyone knows of an effort to be able to produce such estimates, please drop a comment.

[@robdevilee8167]

I think that rust, metal fatigue, micro-meteorite impacts, will make long missions impossible. You'd have to keep fixing the ship, essentially rebuilding it several times over the course of the journey, but you don't have the resources for that when you're in the middle of nowhere. You cannot keep recycling materials of the ship either, because you'll end up losing something every time you do that, every time the ship would have to become smaller...

[@djgeorgetsagkadopoulos]

In theory you could harvest materials from asteroids or planets that are on your path. Then bring those materials aboard your ship which has the right factories to produce what's needed. Remember, theoretically at this point humans posses the technology to harverst resources from space. It's not the ship that won't be capable to do this journey. It will be the human nature that will jeopardise the journey every once in a while..

[@Istandby666]

The ships parts will be 3D printed. Robot parts 3D printed. Human parts 3D printed. Food 3D printed.

[@QBCPerdition]

Next, do a video on suspended animation, probably the only sort of viable alternative to a generation ship.

[@dr4gon166]

Simon needs to slap his editor! The quality drops several times in this video. Not the first time the editing has been SHODDY either!

[@JackRLong12]

By the time this would be a thing, imagine the type of VR or similar would be hundreds of years down the road. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between that and reality. Would definitely help with the boredom. Maybe just plug people in the whole time, like in the Matrix but then, do you tell the generations that'll be born and die in space or just immediately plug them in and keep them plugged in until they pass? You'd essentially be the same as the machines at that point but hey, the mission might succeed...lol

[@myrlyn1250]

"In the year 2525 If man is still alive If woman can survive They may find..."

[@rtyrsson]

Yeah, another woke statement.

[@member529]

you dont have to go faster than light to travel a large distance in a short period of time....just bend space so the destination is right next to you and then just move the very small distance to it. Then when you un-bend space back how it was, you be the full distance. Simple :D

[@nickmiller8131]

This video will be playing to everyone waking up on the generational ship in 3000 years

[@toddjohnson7572]

Wouldn't 10% of the speed of light = 10x slower than light would take to get there? Meaning, instead of getting to the nearest star in 4.4 [light] years, it'd take 44 years, not 406?

[@mattstakeontheancients7594]

He was talking about Trappist I believe taking 406 years. It’s roughly 40 Lys away.

[@bradlevantis913]

It’s fascinating to think about generations of humans who could live there entire lives without ever seeing earth, or walking on any planet

[@stancil83]

14:50 So it's just like Earth. Cold beans.

[@GrandmasterBBC]

Humanity may one day undertake such a bold endeavor. But until we figure out how to approach the speed of light, it's improbable at best. We need Zefram Cochrane.

[@Dusk_Sarsis]

I have to nitpick this a tiny bit. I've read children of time (fantastic book) and that's not a generation ship. They utilized cold sleep and rotating shifts so only a few people were awake and aging at a time. the people that arrived at the destination were the same whom left the planet. Not the same thing as a generation ship. A later ship only accidentally becomes this, not by design or intent.

[@RustyShacklefordsGribble-lw5dc]

If ever a ship was built it will leave a trail of bodies. 100's of thousands will live out thier entire lives and perish on it. The equivalent to burial at sea

[@robertplant6667]

As long as there is no xenomorph onboard, it could work.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

This is quite possibly one of the LEAST likely potential future technologies that will ever happen.

[@GadreelAdvocat]

A generation ship would be an icy asteroid or moon with atmosphere (hint hint). If moon with atmosphere, could float dynamos clear sphere lights in it's atmosphere. Artificial gravity could be in opposed rotating cylinders built within the asteroid. It could be mined while on route to it's destination. The resources mined could be used to terraform said planet which could take a while before landing on such planet. Then the asteroid could be a moon of said planet, used for infrastructure of it's moon(s) if there or other.

[@Hirome_Satou]

I think it's unlikely that humanity would want to nor need to colonize another solar system for tens of thousands of years.

[@augustwest9727]

Parker Solar Probe is the fastest thing we've ever flung into space it's moving at 400km/h so that is 190 times slower than your theoretical 75 million km/h ship. The people who arrived would have evolved to be completely different then the people who left.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

It's 3030, Deltron and Audimator are here to save the day.

[@BlueRoom275]

Some NHI have the ability to warp space time. That’s the only realistic way of interstellar travel, but how long before we can discover how that works is anyone’s guess.

[@danwylie-sears1134]

"Ship" is a crummy metaphor to use when we're talking about a place where thousands or millions of people, or maybe billions, will spend their entire lives. These will be more like cities or artificial worlds. They'll be a place to live in the interstellar void. The fact that they're expected to eventually arrive in another solar system gives them an indefinite future without outside intervention, but it isn't the point, any more than the point of a city founded at some time in the 1800s is the industry that will become the main driver of its economy at some time in the 2100s. It's just something that will happen in the city's future, that will sustain it after its initial economic purpose is no longer viable. As for the ethics of bringing a generation of people into existence on a habitable place adrift in the cosmic void, I'm glad that our parents did so, along with our grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on all the way back. We can leave now, sort of, but only to low orbit, only temporarily, and only in very small numbers. And we couldn't at all until shortly before I was born. If we have a problem with people not being able to leave the world they're born on, something like generation "ships" is the only solution.

[@anthonyhayes3991]

If you are on a generational ship, as space is at a premium what would you do with the dead. Put them into space, store them in some form ?

[@rtyrsson]

Eject them into space and move on. It would be all but identical to burial at sea, such as navies do during war.

[@danielstokker]

No you will be cremated and your ashes will feed the vegetation on the ship yo keep the nuttient in the soil up so you keep planting crops

[@Abbadon3232]

On such a ship you need to recycle everything.

[@GrouchierBear]

To be honest, by the time you have the ability to build a ship that could support and sustain generations of people for hundreds of years in space, you've kinda defeated the purpose of sending out a generation ship in the first place. At that point, it's more productive to build slightly simpler habitats and just stay in our own star system near the virtually limitless resources we already have. If a massive generation ship was ever actually launched by humans, it's most likely going to be because either a) the people who built it don't want to be part of the rest of humanity or b) because the rest of humanity is getting rid of them.

[@jamesmartin6050]

The generations between departure and arrival who will never see Earth or the new home could struggle to find fulfillment in their lives on the generation ship.

[@garyclark3843]

Makes me wonder if the genetic transport from the Stargate SG1 episode "Scorched Earth" wouldn't be a better idea.

[@watcherit1311]

Humans might already be a genetic shipment from some more advanced civilization far far away (or just a random genetic material brought by an asteroid). So it is worth trying something different :)

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

The success of a generation ship depends on children born aboard taking over the necessary duties, as well as having children themselves. Even if their quality of life might be better than, for example, that people born into poverty on Earth, philosophy professor Neil Levy has raised the question of whether it is ethical to severely constrain life choices of individuals by locking them into a project they did not choose. A moral quandary exists regarding how intermidiate generations, those destined to be born and die in transit without actually seeing tangible results of their efforts, might feel about their forced existence on such a ship.

[@marknovak6498]

We would have to build a ship in an asteroid to protect the machinery and occupants from the cosmic rays of interstellar space.

[@avirtualworld4U]

Here I thought we were already on that ship we call it Earth, Are we there yet!

[@matthewkeating-od6rl]

Two great movies on this was ascension a couple of episodes tv show and pandorum a full fledged horror movie.

[@reecedrury4145]

Think something like cyrostasis makes so much more sense

[@nikolay5165]

wow i found a new Simon Whistler channel in the wild. Thought i collected them all

[@icantthinkofaname987]

we could go a lot faster with something like fusion power or a black hole drive (if simon hasn't covered this already I'll be very surprised)

[@Zer0_Cool69]

I think the ship should look like Mega Maid

[@Jimmy-Dubz-low]

You're gonna have trouble finding a dry dock for maintenance. Especially when you get past 15B miles from home. I would be more conservative and build mini moons (truck stops as it were) in the solar system. This would allow for sufficient minerals and engineering base to make large structures. Once you reach Pluto, thought can be put into utilising the Ort Cloud area. By this point, something on scale can be deployed where said "dry docks" can be manufactured ahead of civilian traffic. The story ATM is essentially taking a cross-country road trip without roads, gas stations, and garages never been developed. It's ridiculous! To put this into a simple context, take Alien movies. 1st is about a mining ship. The 2nd about terraforming and colonists. 3rd is the rule of law. And 4 is corruption and finding home. It's a basic process that Scott's team figured out in the 70s, tbf.

[@TheLazyLifter]

While a generation ship would have to maintain life for hundreds of years, what if instead we sent a seed ship managed by an AI. It would only have to maintain molecular life until it arrives at its destination.

[@CartoonHero1986]

Anyone else watching this keep thinking "Accession included that as a plot device." A Who Done It crime in a generational ship sci-fi with a huge plot twist? Yes please!

[@JIMIIXTLAN]

A spaceship that will endure extreme environments and last for hundreds of years good luck with that

[@jefffoy530]

Earth is in fact one of these generation ships.

[@TheKalaxis]

Gotta get catapulted through the mass effect relays and then engage the ODSY drive

[@ateam8083]

Project Arora using h bombs as propulsion could reach close to light speed with current tech

[@peterabah2114]

What's this one channel number 26?

[@jasonthomas369]

With the advancement of AI, if it doesn’t destroy us first, we may be closer than we think

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

Never happen except in sci-fi. Who would actually volunteer for something like that? Not me or any normal or sane person I know, and a starship manned by idiots and crazies isn’t going to get very far.⚛❤

[@danidavis7912]

All of the commenters here (and the author of this story) need to read Arthur C. Clarke's, "Rendezvous With Rama".

[@chrisjeffery9582]

I believe adults in suspended animation (a la Passengers) is the only way humans would have a shot at surviving sub-light interstellar journeys, generational ships being a non-starter for human psychology.

[@davidvomlehn4495]

There are quite a few examples of isolated island cultures with pretty small numbers, so I think you're okay on that. However, they live in environments which are relatively friendly to meeting basic physical needs.

[@RussSharpe]

Orphans of the Sky by Robert Heinlein. A generational space ship classic sci-fi novel.

[@wingoreviewsboxingandmma3667]

How would we evolve after generations of traveling through deep space? How fast would we evolve?

[@michaelheckmann3791]

I think you should reread Seveneves course there was no generation ship, they never even left earth orbit.