Life on an Interstellar Ark Ship

The vast gulfs between stars may take decades or even centuries to travel, requiring enormous generation ships carrying families and whole ecosystems with them. What will life be like on board such arks?
Try Cell to Singularity, free to play: l.linklyhq.com/l/1uNoF
Megastructures Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @isaacarthursfia
Visit our Website: www.isaacarthur.net
Join Nebula: go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur
Support us on Subscribestar: www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a...
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord
Credits:
Life on an Interstellar Ark Ship
Episode 436; February 29, 2024
Produced, Written & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Graphics:
Fishy Tree
Jeremy Jozwik
Legiontech Studios
Music Courtesy of
Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com/creator
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Ultra Deep Field"
Sergey Cheremisinov, "Labyrinth", "Forgotten Stars"
Taras Harkavyi, "Alpha and ..."
Miguel Johnson, "So Many Stars"
Lombus, "Cosmic Soup", "Hydrogen Sonata"

[@malcolmt7883]

With failure meaning death of everyone on board, I suspect a colony ship would would have harsh discipline. The crew might even call it a dictator-ship.

[@Boethius4748]

I both lol’d and groaned. You win Dad Joke of the week.

[@comentedonakeyboard]

dictatorshits are not particularly good at keep things running theire way better at covering mishaps up

[@boltaurelius376]

You gotta get along with everyone om the friend ship

[@thiagocorreia296]

ty

[@ProfessorNiiji]

Yes. Everything is done by the book. Unless you get a captain kirk type

[@tonyportcullis488]

Going to miss Frank, great guy. Dibs on his locker.

[@Mrosen7542]

HAL did it.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Nice catch :)

[@splashpit]

Does Franks wife need her grass mowed ?

[@comentedonakeyboard]

RIP Frank

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

99999999999999o

[@dariustiapula]

Co-op games would be hitting hard.

[@Rift2123]

The lan events would be real lol

[@mattstorm360]

@@Rift2123Ship wide lan party!

[@dariustiapula]

Better hope no one throws the remote in rage. That would probably be expensive to replace.

[@SofaMuncher]

Rock and stone brother

[@mattstorm360]

@@dariustiapula They get the 3D printed replacement.

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

Sorry, did you say that there are no dogs on the colony ship? What kind of nightmare dystopia do these colonists want to build?

[@neilatkinson3974]

Ya, that would be a no-go for me too.

[@placebogazebo9671]

Don't worry. They have dog embryos and many other critters, both domestic and wild, frozen for use when appropriate on the new planet.

[@DarkZerol]

Why would anyone want living and breathing domesticated animals like dogs running around on a colony ship? That would just add another level of complication to the crew aboard the ship especially safety wise not to mention taking up valuable space and resources within the ship. The colonists could easily just clone something like a dog with available genetic samples or genetically spice or selective breed together certain species of canine to create some new species more capable of adapting at the environment of whatever new planet they are colonizing.

[@Toxinomist]

at least cats!

[@1st2nd2]

​@@DarkZerol The psychological benefits of a dog should not be underestimated.

[@clonan03]

I always question the idea of wide spread frustration with "I never agreed to this trip" by generation 2. Think about it, I NEVER agreed to the trip to the New World yet it never occurs to me to be mad at the Pilgrims when things in life are difficult. There will always be complainers but when you are born into and raised by an environment, it IS home. Some almost mythical "Earth" is the same as talking about Camelot and just as believable.

[@smith22041]

On the miniseries Ascension there's a thing on board the ship called "the crisis". It's this existential dilemma that everyone has to go through when they realize that, you know, their life has been circumscribed for them. You know, everybody they ever know or ever will know is already around them.

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

Kids at that point are rather frustrated about stories of this mystical earth. The other extreme is upon arrival. Naturally the older ones are in higher positions. If they decide that all must land on the new world; its stupid, but thats human. Better leave ship in orbit. Some are glad to get on solid ground. Others will surely prefer to stay in space. 🚀🏴‍☠️🎸

[@manwiththeredface7821]

Their REAL problem is that they can't even leave. They truly feel trapped. Not only trapped but born inside a trap and their parents decided for them to be born in it. If you dislike living in the neighbourhood or even state or country you were born in you can pack up and move elsewhere. These people on a generation ship far away from anything can't.

[@Thete]

If you don't like the place you live on Earth, you can generally move to another town. On a generation ship, if you don't like it--and a lot of people might not like being surrounded by walls on all sides, never feeling sunlight or breathing fresh air, never finding love, seeing as the number of eligible partners on a generation ship would probably number in the dozens, less if you're gay, so your odds are pretty slim, and of course there's the fact that you can't walk for even an hour in one direction without being back where you started And on a generation ship your options are suck it up or jump out the airlock, there's no moving someplace that better suits you.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

That is a very good point, about the New World! In my own life (here in sweaty FL) I have wondered why we moved to the hottest place available... By the time I thought to ask this question it was too late for an answer. I haven't really ever had any conversation about why my relatives moved to America... I have a good idea, but don't know the specific story, I think it's as you suggest, we just took it for granted!

[@emmettobrian1874]

I'm entertained by the idea of a manor house where there's the crumbling "old wing," the section of the house the family uses and the "new wing" that's under construction. I imagine a colony ship like that, with a constant cycle of crumbling, existing and reconstruction.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Nice image :)

[@garethbaus5471]

Sounds about right.

[@misssueyloo]

Ooh that’s a very cool addition to these type of stories!

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

9999999999999999999ooooooooooooo

[@platosbeard3476]

It's Reynold's 'slowing down' that I really like. Instead of being frozen, your perception of time is just really, really slow; journeys of a 1000 years that feel like a few hours.

[@Texasplit]

How do they extend lifespan?

[@Ducky69247]

Well the faster you move, the slower time passes for you, effectively slowing down your aging compared to the people you left behind, who would die off long before you, but you still experience the time as if it were passing normally

[@Ducky69247]

But he mentioned it being nano tech

[@Wesley-wg2qi]

​@@Texasplit life extension will happen long before interstellar travel

[@Texasplit]

@@Wesley-wg2qi yeah I get that… I was just curious of the method

[@francoislacombe9071]

You really can't "get back to Earth" at the end of such long voyages, because the Earth you left will not be the one you arrive at.

[@Rahim1969]

It's still Earth the environment may change but the name is the same.

[@leonardgibney2997]

Even without time-warping.

[@lastword8783]

@@Rahim1969the name might change too 😂

[@missbstuurman]

​@@lastword8783😂tru

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

ooooooooooooo9999999999999999999

[@calebkirschbaum8158]

I would expect generation ships to go to places in a fleet size of 10. It gives redundancy for just about anything, and lets you have priorities to allow trade between ships, this following cultural patterns with strong and weak ties. You can then also allow immigration between places, and lower chances of rebellion or a dictator. Once you arrive at your location, you can easily split your fleet up as a percentage of people who want to head back home, want to go to another colony, start this colony, or go to a new planet. Even if 45% wants to stay, 22 wants to proceed, 21 wants to go back to earth, and 12% wants to go to a different colony, you could easily leave 5 at the colony, 2 to proceed, 2 back to earth, and 1 to a different colony.

[@splashpit]

This would also make sense for breading diversity

[@garethbaus5471]

Plus once they arrive they might be able to build more ships within a decade or two depending how good they are at establishing colonies. Potentially none of the ships need to stay behind with the people who choose to stay, so they might only need to retrofit the fleet for continued use.

[@user-rw2uh5bv3o]

Battlestar Galactica touched on this a bit

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

999999999oooooooooooooo

[@blinkonceonsunday1325]

I could see the possibility of 2 or three ships traveling together to allow for the possibility of evacuating a ship in case of a catastrophic malfunction or mishap. But each ship would need to be self-sustaining because travel between ships would require all of them to stop mid-flight, so inter-ship trading would be minimal at best. Since O'Neill cylinders are typically conceptualized as being joined in pairs for stability, I could see two or three joined pairs of cylinders being launched on a joint mission. It would allow for artificial gravity and stable internal environments in each cylinder. You could also configure each cylinder to mimic the conditions of different Earth environments. Tropical, jungle, savannah, arctic, temperate, forest, etc. One of my earliest memories of this type of concept is the old Sega game Phantasy Star III. The people had forgotten all about their mission, but you find out later the entire game world consists of various biodomes connected together on a huge colony ship.

[@retsz]

Oh wow, I’ve been watching this channel every week for years and I honestly thought Isaac Arthur was just a name you chose for yourself to invoke the works of the two authors when discussing our potential futures since so much of it feels like science fiction compared to the world we’re in today. I must’ve missed it when you’ve mentioned it before. That’s pretty lucky to have been given probably the most appropriate name possible.

[@friendlyone2706]

After a while, after meeting many people, you begin to take seriously the view we've been given our names -- our assignments -- before we were born -- and not by our physical parents.

[@Shin_Lona]

​@@friendlyone2706 You get to choose your name when you create your character... everything else is RNG though. 😆

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

999999999o

[@arrjay2410]

I like the idea of the 'Gardener Ship'. The ship itself is the destination. The possibility of yourself or your ancestors being colonists on another world would be appealing, but the ship and the life you live there would be the purpose for going. There is also the possibility for stories about people being 'required' to go into cryo-sleep, who are Dissenters, or as a response to some crisis, and waking up decades or even centuries later when the issues that put them there are no longer relevant.

[@commode7x]

Another user suggested using a gardener fleet, rather than a gardener ship. Rather than a single, monolithic ship, a small fleet or large squadron of ships functions as a mobile nation with the possibility of multiple groups that are able to quickly break off from the group, specialize in production, or handle things their own way.

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

oooooooooooooooo9999999999999999999

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

itotiti

[@cannonfodder4376]

Washing dishes while listening to this last night on Nebula was wonderful. Your storytelling and world-building are excellent as always. Always a joy to see. Most informative and entertaining Isaac.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

99999999oooooooooooooooo

[@jeremygreer4039]

I love the casual use of XO without explanation for non-Army peeps.

[@Zurround]

Both versions of Battlestar Galactica are basically generational ship but multiple ships working together and traveling together (under the protection of the Battlestar) rather than a single ship.

[@LaughlessVR]

Looking forward to the vrchat world jam the NSS is putting on. Hope to be exploring megastructures in VR with you all.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Me too, I'm one of the judges for it and very much hoping to be awed :)

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

itititi

[@05Matz]

Oooh, that sounds exciting. Might want to do similar events on more advanced platforms too, like Resonite. I think I remember seeing demonstrations of variable-direction gravity, etc. there in the context of rotating space habitat mockups, which I don't think VRC supports.

[@Eldagusto]

Yes! I was waiting for this one! I love your Ark ship episodes!

[@Runetrantor]

TIL its your actual name. Honestly yeah, it so on point I was dead certain it was a pseudonym. Talk about nominative determinism. XD

[@SoberGin]

Woo! Happy Arthursday! I love these episodes so much, the idea of arc ships through the stars are always some of the most interesting to me.

[@Cmdtheartist]

I love these fan-fiction style videos, where you let your imagination go not quite nuts, but not in any way boring.

[@seanobrien798]

Perfect timing for the video as I get ready to play a game about a ship sent on a journey to the stars with some crew "asleep" and some "awake" and trying to maintain the complex ship.

[@JK-uv9zj]

I remember being in the audience at Bay Con in San Jose maybe late 90's/early 00's. The panel was titled "Reaching the Nearest Star by 2100" or something close to that. Four panelists, including Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Pournelle's central thesis was we could do it with a generation ship using current technology, but we wouldn't based on resource requirements and finding the volunteers. Given all the advances just in the past couple decades, I'm not sure he was right in this instance. Granted, we're running out of time to hit the 2100 mark.

[@Texasplit]

Heck the only thing I could say was 100% wrong about that is not being able to find volunteers… your biggest problem would be filtering through the volunteers

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Advances, you say? Is there an APP now?

[@JK-uv9zj]

@@leonardpearlman4017 I was thinking more of AI advances. We're already seeing it in pushing the stability of fusion toroids forward, and in a lot of other fields with complex interactions. To me, it looks like it will greatly accelerate science and engineering in general.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Pournelle was always very insightful, though of course even the best don't have a crystal ball, sounds like a panel I'd have really enjoyed though

[@horsemumbler1]

I really don't think we have the chops for a generation ship right now. We absolutely have the tech to start colonizing the Moon and the asteroids, and embark on th journey down the space-hab tech tree for real, but we can't even realistically think about designing, let alone building such ships, until we have the shipyards to build them and the long years of hard won experience to inform the design. I think it fair to say that we have the tech base with which to build the techbase to build generation ships. But until we get really good at building with what we have in this system, I can't think of any reason to gamble on taking the trip before we've explored our immediate frontier.❤

[@joesiesjazzyjunk]

There will be cats on board, the best stowaways!

[@joshjones6072]

And cats are very common on submarines. Haha So cats would probably be very common on ark ships.

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

ititu

[@comentedonakeyboard]

People born on Earth have not signed up for living on this Planet either

[@HuntingTarg]

That pulls on a dangling thread of philosophy: Nobody chose to exist. We all do regardless of how we react to it.

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

ututyty

[@deadowl7709]

Dude. I have been pondering these things- For like forever! I am so captivated and inspired.

[@Jay_Scott_Raymond]

Book recommendation: "Mirabile" by Janet Kagan. Its actually a collection of short stories organized into chapters of the book. Set on a colony world, settled by a colonization fleet, not a single ship so that's nice. The premise of insuring biodiversity by burying extra genetic code to be turned on or off at need and forgetting to account for mutation is questionable, but the stories showing the unique cultural elements of the resulting colony are a lot of fun.

[@philliplessley7743]

I actually want to hear the rest of the Francis Bailey's story. I was really enjoying it on my drive in to the shop this morning. Thanks!

[@djlejeune-author]

This was great! More like this please. I love the what if concept here and the imagining what life will be like when these technologies come into play

[@0x0404]

The biggest problem is, especially with repair from external damage you are not going to have 100% recycle rate. You are also not going to be stopping anywhere but the destination, accelerating on the way there and decelerating halfway, so you won't be collecting random asteroids for resources. You are going to have to leave with over 100% of the expected resources to get there.

[@DreadX10]

Nomads traversing the Sahara go from watering hole to watering hole. They don't take a high risk direct route but a lower risk longer route. An arc-ship might do the same thing. Not going the direct route but via some stars that gives them the possibility to stock up on resources. Discovery ships, a few centuries ago, bypassed the 'not having a 100% recycle rate' by sailing in a fleet. The problem you actually talk about is one of PPP (P.ss Poor Planning).

[@PaulTomblin]

You could drop small automated drone miners that could decelerate, mine the asteroids for needed supplies and fuel, and boost back up and catch up to the ark ship.

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

ututut

[@PhantomSinger1]

A large enough ship can develop its own range of cultures, given enough time. The engineers will develop their own highly detailed language around the machines and tools they use, much like how doctors have their own language to describe what a problem is and where it's located in the body. There'd be some crossover between the cultures since they have to cross-communicate to keep the ship running, but the regional slang could get wild in 30 years. Passengers who opted to sleep the whole way will need a primer on what means what.

[@HuntingTarg]

Akin to Capt. Steve Rogers keeping a notebook on cultural and technology changes in the 21st Century. I always thought that adding that story thread to "The Winter Soldier" was a very intelligent piece of 'flavor.'

[@user-rs1wl2lg7j]

utiu

[@user-zo7mr3op8i]

Yep! People who live in adjacent streets off the same road can have recognisably different accents.

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

9oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[@user-kx4cf7iy5u]

9oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[@bobpeters61]

The "Star Trek" episode mentioned here didn't just depict an ark-ship population having forgotten they were on a spaceship. The ship was run by a despotic rogue AI that actively suppressed and punished such knowledge.

[@SeanSoraghan]

The orville had a similar episode

[@EtzEchad]

This will never happen because nobody will volunteer to join a ship if they won't see the destination.

[@FattyMcFox]

Nowadays Many dream of colonizing space because they are waiting for something worth waiting for. A new start is that thing, so they dream of leaving here, because staying is so uncomfortable.

[@Free_Krazy]

Can anyone recall this amazing series i saw once, the star looked like Owen Wilson but i cant find it in his history. Anyways it was about him getting a ticket on this generation ship from an elderly woman he was caring for and became close to, but he woke up early with a couple other people and they had to save the station. This video just reminded me of my since abandoned near decade long search...

[@loragunning5394]

Just found this channel, subscribed, most likely gonna end up binge watching older episode to catch up, while watching new ones as they come out. The game "Cell to Singularity" also may be something I'll look into. Just what I need, more games and You Tube!

[@foodomanthemagnificent2650]

This came at the right time for me! I'm planning a TTRPG campaign around living in a generation ship.

[@RandomYT05_01]

Seeing as so much free land will be available for all who go on these trips, I can see them being conducted as a means of wealth generation for all onboard.

[@guardsman-against-the-chaos]

This is good timing as I have just started writing a story based on the idea of life in a generation ship.

[@mistergoats4380]

same

[@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg]

Is it a manga?

[@guardsman-against-the-chaos]

@@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg No just going to be a book. I've never really tried reading manga. With chainsaw man being my only exceptions so wouldn't know how to make such media.

[@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg]

@@guardsman-against-the-chaos that's pretty cool But what's with the username then?🧐🧐🧐

[@guardsman-against-the-chaos]

@@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg Im a big 40k fan and my favourite faction is the Imperial Guard. Oh I see what you mean now it looks like I spelled manga, it's man against.

[@zoobie2000]

top class as always. thanks for making this video

[@tiffanynajberg5177]

In cryo, taco tuesday can last for decades.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Now I want tacos...

[@tiffanynajberg5177]

@@isaacarthurSFIA eternal taco, just one ark ship away😀

[@user-zo7mr3op8i]

But think of the fines for overdue Library Books.

[@MegaManZero11]

Connecticut resident here.... and im just glad we got a mention 😅😅 lol love your videos 😎

[@paulo3799]

First 5 minutes sounds like a mix of pushing ice and 2001 Love it

[@Yolaf_]

I love my life on our interstellar ark ship, also I love the ship, couldn’t think of a more beautiful design

[@garymcpeters7541]

War on a generation ship was done in the 1940’s by Robert Heinlein in “Universe”

[@smoore6461]

That's interesting, I thought this episode sounded like 2323. I was not sure, though, and I was going to go listen to that episode to see if I was right. Fantastic episode, sir. I REALY love these story episodes. I was just re-listening to the outward bound series last night. Colonizubg Titan is still one of my favorite episodes, but I love the travelers tale as he spends time on each new colony. I do like the idea of a fleet of colony ships so people can move from their "small town" to another "small town" to at least feel they could go somewhere else where they felt they didn't know everyone. This episode is in line with the story I am currently working on. I felt the journey was less covered than the destination. SFIA is the best tool for science fiction writers out there!!

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Could you please make a video about the perspective of large populated ships as super-organisms, where humans are not the top of the decision chain, but just (very advanced) cogs in the machine, just components of a much larger emergent entity, and maybe even to the point of such ships self-reproducing in a somewhat analog to organic species (for various reasons, excess population/resources, lack of resources leading to need to parallel task resource gathering in multiple places; rifts in goal priorities among the multiple groups of elements in the system etc) ?

[@donwald3436]

Alone forever with KZbin and Netflix that's my life now lol.

[@RandomGuy-lu1en]

love this series! More!

[@_photonx6017]

I think a mission like this *might* be possible a millennium from now, but not in anything near a century. IMHO we'll be doing very well to have Aldrin cyclers to the Asteroid Belt --maybe to the outer planets--by then. I'd love to be proven wrong, though. Brian Aldiss also wrote a good book about a ship population which forgot its mission.

[@durrcodurr]

Just a quick comment on developing software updates for generation spacecraft on Earth: Very unlikely, it makes much more sense to have all the software engineers you need on board, rather than back on Earth where the software industry is constantly changing. Software staff on board can not only keep maintaining aging systems, they also can react more immediately to problems instead of waiting 10 years for an update.

[@SourBogBubble]

Thanks for the efforts!

[@mrrob7531]

My boy Issac…I love this freakin guy! Amazing videos my man…keep them coming.

[@paulishjones7035]

Another wonderful vid.

[@VailingGoose]

Thank you Isaac

[@sergeysmirnov1062]

This makes me think of the VN "Analogue: A Hate Story" where we piece together what happened to an abandoned ark-ship and read how the life on it was

[@Kinetic-VR]

A planet named Plymoth. Very nice. Thank You Isaac Arthur! Kinetic

[@AbdulSoomro-kj5lt]

Best space channel in existence

[@marjanjanevski7702]

The planet Earth is one big arc that goes to plases that are unknown to humanity.

[@ilkoderez601]

It's true, some episodes are better than others and this one is really good.

[@larrysouthern5098]

One of my favorites.. Moby Dick.. Mutiny on the bounty... Planet of the Apes.. ( Rod Serling).. SHOGAN..the t.v. series All came to my mind about ...when it comes to exploring going to unusual places.. Thank you Issac Author.. 😊

[@scottbillups4576]

Thanks for this video. I love all the content you and the group keep producing. In this video, you hand-wave some reasonable estimates about 'Gardener fleets arriving at a world, helping the settlers get started, restock, and launch again to a new world', and you say 'build a new ship or two', and 'send ships back o the previous world' etc., etc. Do you know of any simulations where you show pupulation growth, #-ships growth, worlds colonized, etc.? I saw your Crawlonizing video, and thats the process I am looking at simulating. Seems like we'd take-over the galaxy exponentially, like viral-growth.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

I need to rewatch this a few times to try and get interest in working on a thing back. I'm coming up with a sci fi fanfic for Resident Evil to do with just what it would take to bring about the apocalypse in that universe and what an ark ship escape effort and the defensive war to build it might look like. My conclusions were that it would take a climate collapse and multiple mutagenic pathogens released across the world at once. They have soldiers and infrastructure and scientists that do nothing but train for and wargame out a fight against ravenous mindless infected with varying forms of horrific mutation. It would take a helluva lot in my opinion to make that particular universe experience a true end of the world scenario. And Isaac I love your videos that put a more realistic spin on what it would take to bring about the end of civilization, the world, the planet, ect, and how its harder than it seems. To me its not an ark ship unless there's a cataclysm back home that the inhabitants of that ship are running from. If there isn't one, if there's the means to make more back home, then its an ordinary gardener ship. To me a scenario like the end of Deadspace 3's DLC is the sort of scenario that would necessitate an ark. And something like that would likely start as complete chaos in the oort cloud while surviving ships assembled and took a tally of what life forms were available. A good Deadspace 4 or Deadspace multiplayer in my opinion would be trying to grab up the samples and materials needed to build an escape fleet and a self sustaining ecosystem in it. And of course the prize would be the wreck of the Ishimura and the fight to restore its famous planet cracking systems would be the final step before the final battle. The final battle itself would be using that planet cracking technology to rip apart one of the Bretheren Moons; eldritch monstrosities capable of driving a planet insane, and they themselves are giant sociopathic eldritch undead in the shape of a planet. Just one planet cracker is not enough, so they would still need to escape. But tearing apart a Bretheren moon is something that they've managed to prevent so far. The shock of that kind of failure might give the surviving ships a sporting head start to escape!

[@TheGenericavatar]

Always the nice visuals. :)

[@bboxx069]

I always listen to yours or a Bigfoot podcast when going to sleep. Keep up the good work.

[@chromabotia]

Another great episode Isaac! A good sf novel on this topic is, "Starship" by Brian W. Aldiss. Also, I remember a great short story on this theme by A.E. vanVogt in which a multi generational starship arrives at their destination only to find it already colonized by Earth, because technology never sleeps.

[@FredPlanatia]

The predecessor to the role-playing game of a post-apocalyptic world, "Gamma World" was called "Metamorphosis Alpha". The game-setting was an interstellar arc ship gone awry. I like the cover illustration for this Isaac Arthur episode: its what i imagine the ship "Warden" looked like before the cataclysm.

[@lenwhatever4187]

Those born on such a ship are unlikely to want to get off. The ship will have been their whole life and a planet surface would be more alien. No world above (the other side of the ring or tube) would be something foreign. The "originals" would likely be the only takers.

[@15_muhammadkhoirurrizqi93]

Lets pray for frank, his legacy may not be forgotten

[@Gabrong]

maybe those software engineers shouldnt use chatgpt for programming an ark ship

[@rynieryarom4277]

They sould really change to something that's not so ancient.

[@Gabrong]

@@rynieryarom4277 chatgpt 10.3?

[@keithplymale2374]

You should write the full story of the Life of the Francis Baily, First International Starship. I would enjoy reading that.

[@brianbrenton1025]

I can only sleep well, and peacefully while your channel is playing.

[@heinrichmuller7974]

i can't help of think of this one line from The Expanse, i think its Amos who when looking upon the mormon generational ship says _"they're all gonna go crazy and kill each other out there"_

[@alton19pinto]

oh my gosh, I love that game! I love it even more now that I know that they were inspired by you! Also, inspiring video as always

[@ej2796]

"ANIARA" (released 2018) is another great movie about what might happen on a extended deep space voyage. The ship in the movie isn't specifically created to be a generational settler vessel, but instead a large cruise liner that shuttles pasengers between Earth and Mars. On the jouney it suffers a catastrophic event that leaves them with no fuel to correct course and drifting on a trajectory that is calculated to excape the solar system...with little hope of rescue. Good news is that the ship is equipped with core systems, that with enough diligence, ingenuity (and luck), have the potential to sustain life "theoretically" indefinitely (so a long, long time). I thought it was a extremely good movie and fairly realistic portrayal of being on such a ship. Its a different senario than a purpose planned voyage, but still poses similar challenges. It is a foreign language movie with subtitles. I personally liked it enough to watch more than once, because it moves over a lot of ground fairly fast.

[@ynraider]

Just an absolutely haunting film... HIGHLY recommended for SciFi fans!

[@ej2796]

@ynraider Indeed! To me it just reinforced the notion that the most likely answer to the Fermi paradox could very well be that getting to and settling other star systems might be, for all intents and purposes, unfeasible. Or at least impractical...in any practical sense of the word, at least lol. We should probably be focused on ensuring the sustainability of the planet we are on now, first and foremost. There's a very good chance it is the only life sustaining (and beautiful) one we get a crack at.

[@boobah5643]

@@ej2796Of course, you're assuming we need planets...

[@ej2796]

@boobah5643 True, there's that. But toes in the sand, sun on the face and wind in the hair is just a far preferred kind of life than the sterile halls of a facility or a station. And I also tend to assume that Murphys law would usually make those kinds of situations...uhmm, "less than permanent" in the long run lol.

[@EdricLysharae]

This is why I liked Project: Hail Mary. You need to give humans living space and at the right population to prevent them from going crazy.

[@adviksharma6125]

yk even if i were to die in the deep darkness of space, id still take the chances to go onto one of these if it means there is a chance of humanity advancing

[@ianharrison5758]

I wouldn’t mind dying in space

[@archapmangcmg]

My thoughts on "why freeze" are simply boredom. After 10 years in the same small town, with no prospect of a real-time talk with anyone outside, spending time on ice may well be appealing, if only to let time pass so there's some news when you're awake again.

[@djj949]

Love the storytelling

[@TimXander94]

I’m less than five minutes into this video, but I feel compelled to state how awesome these narrative elements are. They bring the physics to life like nothing else. Truly exceptional production quality. I really want to read an entire novel or even a series of novels about this woman’s life.

[@davidrediger6407]

The Starlost, a 1973 Canadian Sci-Fi Tv series. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called Earthship Ark, which following an unspecified accident has gone off course. Centuries after its original launch however, most of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware that they are even aboard a spaceship.

[@211212112]

One or two of the armada could be specialized to be an automated laser/space depot. Also could send an automated laser station ahead to destination in order to slow and stop incoming ships so they don't have to use ships to slow down. Ark ship lifespan be measures in MTF (mean time to failure)

[@UrdnotChuckles]

I figure fully immersive VR experiences and the like would be really popular on any long-term voyage anywhere. And the people who made such experiences would also be quite popular. :)

[@andrewjones5529]

Please put the books you mentioned at the end of each episode. I always hunt for them

[@ventusvindictus]

These videos make me want to hop aboard an ark ship.

[@tonyduncan9852]

We are already on the finest Ark Ship in the Universe. It needs no destination. Just not to be destroyed, and instead maybe even improved a little. 😎

[@HIGHNUNES]

There is a picture at 9:42 and I am wondering where you found that? I remember a sci-fi book my grandmother had that contained pictures similar in style. It was short on descriptions but showed old war spaceships, some ground vehicles, etc. and alluded to an old space war or space wars and I have been searching for it years.

[@apathyguy8338]

No dogs? No way in hell I'm going.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Great video one of your best! Which outside of the opening story which was still very nice I agree with the rest of the video! Which in my 1000 year sci-fi setting generation ships were used after human kind was settled in the entirety of our solar system and was used to settle some of the next 30k stars around Earth... But the conflict a cuorse when after the first few generations of gertional ships were sent out cheating FTL was discovered and so was able to catch up to some of the ships and offer them the ability to retrofit under way to be massive colony ships that settle more then one star over dozens of years... But because majority of those on these ships left the solar sytem because they hated the faction who invented the FTL tech declined the offer most of the time. Also I do plan on writing a book on one of these ships though not anytime soon as I have a lot more stuff I have going on in that setting and elsewise.

[@McGee4531]

I have a concept that I haven't really seen all that much that I'd be interested I seeing you do a video on. Solar (star) ecology. Like void ecology but in solar bodies. Extremophiles that swim and live in stars like fish in the sea.

[@lezking5060]

Planet Orth? Grand Dotter? Engineeyars? Refuyal? Sertlors? New Yoors Day? Woold?

[@Public_Defender53716]

Playing Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game was an interesting take on life on a generation ship

[@daniellafferety4025]

A storyline on prison ships as colony ships.

[@RobDunn-S6PT]

Think Australia!

[@NuclearArbitor]

Not having thought about it much, i assume mass would be at a premium, rather than volume. That would cost somewhat in living space, since the air you fill it up with has mass and thus requires deltaV, but air is pretty low density.

[@albertorafaelcisnerosperfe4899]

Excellent❤

[@robertcarnazzo6382]

Based on sending colony ships after we have a long history of living in space, I think that it would not be a single colonizing ship, but multiple ships traveling as a group. This would give an ability to have people move between ships much like we do today between cities. Would then be a larger traveling system allowing knowledge to be maintain, and make more sense where people would easily live on a ship. As a system, there would be fewer issues of upheavel, concern of people being born not wanting to continue with the trip.

[@annoyed707]

Watch out for that 'class G solar star'.

[@orgrout]

This subject reminds me of the 2 final books of Rendezvous with Rama but also two videogames ( Colony Ship and the upcoming Exodus ) , there scenarios evolving around colonizing other star systems ..

[@Reddotzebra]

If you have self-replicating tech then the ideal option would be to have it make a giant space ship, filled with pod bays that then deploy the small and compact planet seeds to whatever planetary systems look interesting as it travels. It's pretty much the ultimate gardener ship, and even if people would prefer to make the journey on ice or chugging along on conventional colony ships, instead of being reconstituted from digital templates, you could still sent it out as the vanguard for an even bigger fleet, and since your planet changing tech would have hopefully terraformed the planets by the time those get to their destination, you could promise every colonist a land of milk and honey.

[@michaelsparks6084]

You should write a trilogy Isaac! Your imagination should be explored, maybe a TV series…..

[@AlexKasper]

There must be a decision point in the risk calculation regarding picking a colony ship destination that becomes unsuitable versus investing much more into long range detection technology.

[@user-de2jm1uf6z]

Jesse Dollamore mentioned you in his channel. So I quickly found you again....and subscribed. Thanks to him & you Issac.