...Crew.

Earth is doomed. A rogue, intersteller object is observed, too late, on a direct collision course. Nothing can save our planet. We have only a year to prepare.

An interstellar trip-completing, fully provisioned spacecraft is ready to launch. Who should we send? Three scenerios.

Scenerio One: Choose from amongst the various Sciforums members. Which two members should be sent into distant spacetime as saviors of Homo Sapiens Sapiens?

Scenerio Two: Choose from amongst all humans presently living. Which two should be sent into distant spacetime as saviors of Homo Sapiens Sapiens?

Scenerio Three: Choose between Scenerio One's and Scenario Two's Saviors. Who should we really send to save our DNA for future generations amongst the stars????

Oh. Don't forget to offer rational reasonings for your choices for each of the three scenarios. :)

I think we need more than two, but I'd suggest to porfiry if he sees this to move it over to free thoughts so more people can join in. Excellent idea, mr. g.

If I didn't nominate myself I'd say...hmm I'll have to think about this. There are a few people I can think of worthy of an interstellar journey, but...I must counsel meeself.

Scenerio One: Choose from amongst the various Sciforums members. Which two members should be sent into distant spacetime as saviors of Homo Sapiens Sapiens?I vote for bbcboy and Sir Loone. :D

(now I'll give it some serious thought.)

Peace.

Okay.

So, we can dispense with the plainly difficult to rationalize Adam & Eve sort of thing -- caretakers of a big boat load of cryo-preserved ova and sperm.

One womb is insufficient to the task of preserving the human race on another planet, as was earlier observed.

Though it is easier to provision a two-person interstellar dingy that can travel near-light speed so as to make trip travel time less than the lifetime of its occupatants, the availability of unlimited (soon to be completely devalued) monentary resources makes a more massive, harder to accelerate vessel the more practical solution.

How many more wombs should be accomodated aboard so as to better ensure the survival of humanity?

Who amongst us would wish to go?

Shall human males ever be masters of their shipboard fate prior to landfall on some distant world?

I couple hundred empty steel beer can's after a drinking festival and a little ingenuity, some patience and a welding kit I'm sure I could sculputre my own escape module...

But where would I escape to ????????????????????

yeah???

Here's a question; would it be such a tragedy if all human life (or all life period) was gone from Earth?

If you pictured the catastrophy in the universe as a whole then I'd say that the same occurence would be similar to squishing an amino acid. But in the Milky Way and the Orion Arm, who knows....we may have a large part to play in the galactic scheme.

"How many wombs.." ? Are you refering to women or are you suggesting loose wombs of some sort?
I suggest we send me and some nice person, a clone of me perhaps..:D Then we can use all the spermcans that were meant to ensure the survival of humanity to trade for luxury provided by aliens. Then they could breed...they are trying to get hold if it anyway, so let them have it and rejuvenate their race.

I honestly think our destruction would be the best thing possible for the Solar System. In all honesty, what other creature or being has caused more death and suffering amongst other creatures and beings?

We don't know, but I'd say that every other intelligent race in the universe that has ever, ever existed has. Intelligence is generally formed by evolution, by natural selection. When a species like homo sapien develops an obvios and incredible advantage over its counterparts, and also happens to be a herbivore (by default), it is inevitable that things will be killed. With intelligence comes love, and from love stems every feeling a person could ever experience. Love is a counterpart to the genetic programmed instinct to breed, therefore all of the feelings we know are known and experienced by every single intelligent creature in existence . I'm sick of hearing that we destroy the earth and destroy things that live on the earth.

Do any of you know that humans have, if any purpose, the power now to give life and take it away. As we mature quickly with technology spreading from every pixel of the planet every species that has become endangered or extinct by our cause or by nature will be replenished by the art of cloning. I hope to visit a secluded area in Siberia populated by mammoths and saber toothed tigers.

Deductive reasoning, for some reason there is a lack of it.
And now I'm satisified, and feel very intelligent:D :D :D

I am sick of hearing about us destroying Earth too, though for different reasoning. I don't believe it's such a bad or sad thing. I don't believe we are the only life forms in a possibly infinite Universe (or, if finite, VERY large) so I don't see how our end is tragic. I realize that with intelligence comes death, but with many other things comes suffering as well. Humans, for one reason or another, are always going to cause useless suffering and pain. It is in our nature to discover an excuse to kill. Whether it be religion or land, we will always find an excuse to kill.
My only point is that I see zero tragedy in us dieing off. I couldn't care less. Whether or not we are destroyed, we are not about to take the Universe down with us. And unless you believe Time is nothing more than a figment of our mind, then Time will go on.

Bring on the apocalypse! haha!

You don't care? Don't you care about yourself, or the ninety eight percent of us who don't kill other things or people on purpose? The media may make us look like a race of brutal murderers but if you go out and experience life you will see quite the opposite. We are compassionate with rare exceptions. The world you talk about is overrun with mindless killing machines. This is not so. The US and the Taliban, for instance, are full of soldiers who either go into the military because they want to see the world (obviously the US) or because they really have no other job oppurtunities (the Taliban, some, but not all Al Queda fighters). Look beyond humanity as a whole. The corporations need to make a news network dedicated to talking about good things. Like:

"In other news today, lifelong friends blabla and blabla happily married today, kissing gracefully in front of two hundred friends and relatives."

If the media was like this then you would think quite the opposite of the human race and what we mean to the universe. Say the universe is infinite: doesn't this give us plenty of time to explore and spread ourselves about it? All we need is another breakthrough, and based on the entire recorded history of everything I think that faster-than-light travel requires only a lot of collective nonlinear thinking. Doing so has invented the wheel, the car, the airplane, and the process of nuclear fission (maybe fusion if we're lucky!).

I need a smart blonde for the new world - must have a green thumb....:D

Love is beauty. The greatest thing man can experience.

All I am saying is that I do not consider it a tragedy if we are destroyed. I do not believe it to be the worst thing possible. I believe it is a slightly selfish feeling to think that our death is sad and bad for the Universe. What is sad, that no more love will be felt? That's a pretty big assumption is it not?

Bebelina,

"Wombs" is used in the context of "women of child-bearing age and ability, or the future expectation of child-bearing ability."

My take on the issue of crew make up is that -- in the absence of suspended animation/cryogenic technologies -- the major percentage of crew members should be female, selected for maximum fertility, from families of demonstrated reproductive ability. That said female crew members for the most part collectively span an age range from adolescent to late 20's.

The compliment of male crew members should be of a number sufficient for maintaining trip-long crew population -- assuming the greater likelihood of the mission being multi-generational -- and to serve as a suppliment to artificial insemination from onboard stores of cryo-genically preserved sperm that will maintain a broad genetic character of the onboard gene pool.

Afterall, inbreeding isn't in the best interest of the species, no matter how much people might like their cousins. :)

Bebelina

I suggest we send me and some nice person, a clone of me perhaps..

I'm ready if you're ready.

... as long as Mr. G doesn't mind. :D

Aaaww, don´t hurt Mr.G´s feelings for you... :p

I believe that we should send a ship loaded with clone-able DNA samples and a few robots to teach the people once they've been created. Maybe even we could program the robots to implant a knowledge chip that would tell the human babies and children how to speak and our history. I believe the minimum amount of people we should send should be 160, half male, half female.

But under the restrictions here's who I think should go:

Me, in ten years. Yeah, me and an intelligent female sciforums member my current age who has not yet joined, who hopefully will sooner or later, somewhere on the world....

If not then I at least nominate wet1. He's the astro-nonomy guy around these parts. Or maybe Porfiry, he's the king of the sciforums, if it weren't for him we wouldn't be having this conversation. Hmmm hmmm hmmm

lol, bebelina, n1

Tyler, it may not be tragic now, but assuming we survive and succesfully begin to colonize mars and the moons of jupiter amongst other places our species may become invincible, meaning that it could be inevitable that we'd colonize the stars.

[Q],
... as long as Mr. G doesn't mind.
Bebelina,
...don´t hurt Mr.G´s feelings for you...
Umm, you both misunderstand. I've been poking fun at [Q], not coming on to Bebelina. And, here, folks think my self-image gets unruly. :rolleyes:

Pollux V,
...we should send a ship...with...robots to teach the people once they've been created...
Let me guess. Your first babysitter was a televison, your second was a computer.. :)

Wouldn't you just once like to suckle at a real breast? ;)

No, damnit mr g. I lived in NYC and had this great Polish baby sitter who would take me all over the place. I didn't get interested in computers until I was around eleven and tvs have never been a big thing for me. It just seemed like a better idea, rather than sending two people you send a few hundred who don't need to eat or sleep or breath.

What can be learned about human behavior from automatons? Or about interpersonal Human relationships?

Adults, especially, must be actively present during the early childhood of new humans. People must be nutured by other people, not by their tools.

Let's get back to thinking about an evolving Onboard society.

How will the roles of males and females in modern Terrestrial societies, evolved over time, differ from their roles in an intersteller Onboard society?

I think that stricter laws would have to be in place in orbital colonies since generally small broken laws by terrestrial terms could be disastrous for colonies, i.e a speeding vehicle hits a store on earth, no one his hurt since the driver bails onto wet green grass, but if he does it on a colony the driver could still bail out but he risks blowing a hole the size of a car in the wall between space. That would suckeveryone out. They would likely have to go everywhere by foot or elevator-train like machines.

Mr G.

Adults, especially, must be actively present during the early childhood of new humans. People must be nutured by other people, not by their tools.Perhaps. The best solution would be to have people who are trained in the raising of children. Parents are almost universally significantly unqualified to raise children in an optimum manner.

Cris

Pollux,

but if he does it on a colony the driver could still bail out but he risks blowing a hole the size of a car in the wall between space. That would suckeveryone out. They would likely have to go everywhere by foot or elevator-train like machines.No I disagree. Accidents will happen through many means, and we can’t assume they wouldn’t. Any such space vehicle will need to be built in small modular units. If any single module is pierced then it can be easily isolated. Or IOW there can be no large open spaces on such a vehicle.

All doors would need to be automatic and as independent as possible and kept closed at all times except of course for people moving in and out. A lot like the doors on Star Trek Enterprise.

Cris