Hawking: Humans must colonize other planets
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I wonder how wheelchair accessible the Space Shuttle really is? :-D
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] I agree with you that my argument is useless. [Red Stateler] Hey, I am part of a special bread, we are called smart people [Captain See Sharp] The zen of the soapbox is hard to attain...[Jörgen Sigvardsson] I wish I could remember what it was like to only have a short term memory.[David Kentley]
No problem, as long as that robotic arm is working properly.;)
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Hawking Interview[^] Set phasers to stun ...
"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out," said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer. "But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe," said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday. Erm .. wouldn't the possibility of 'nuclear war' also 'spread out into space'. Or are we going to leave the troublemakers behind here on Earth?
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"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out," said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer. "But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe," said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday. Erm .. wouldn't the possibility of 'nuclear war' also 'spread out into space'. Or are we going to leave the troublemakers behind here on Earth?
Well, to me it looks like he's proposing colonizing other systems by flying there with near-speed of light. The persons travelling would only spend a short amount of time in flight because time is slower for them; but war would probably not spread since the response time for any information exchange would be several years - by the time the war declaration arrives, the war is already over.
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Well, to me it looks like he's proposing colonizing other systems by flying there with near-speed of light. The persons travelling would only spend a short amount of time in flight because time is slower for them; but war would probably not spread since the response time for any information exchange would be several years - by the time the war declaration arrives, the war is already over.
I suppose I was not clear. The people who had travelled to the other planet are not necessarily disinclined form starting a nuclear war on said new planet amongst themselves. Regardless of who is/was fighting on Earth. That's all ... send people with war tendencies specifically bred out of them to far planets for best chance of survival, or at least 'compatible' species.
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I don't know, but once he's in space he wouldn't need one.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
Gary Kirkham wrote:
but once he's in space he wouldn't need one.
actually he would. He has almost no mobility, although he could float easily enough he would not even have the strength to push himself around. But a proper space designed harness should be able to be adapted to something similar to his voice synthesizer.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out," said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer. "But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe," said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday. Erm .. wouldn't the possibility of 'nuclear war' also 'spread out into space'. Or are we going to leave the troublemakers behind here on Earth?
Blake Miller wrote:
Erm .. wouldn't the possibility of 'nuclear war' also 'spread out into space'. Or are we going to leave the troublemakers behind here on Earth?
He's referring to mitigation of the problem. If we colonize in several places, the likely hood that we wipe every colony out via nuclear warfare is much lower than if it was just one planet where a small percentage of those responsible for taking away the only place we have to go.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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I suppose I was not clear. The people who had travelled to the other planet are not necessarily disinclined form starting a nuclear war on said new planet amongst themselves. Regardless of who is/was fighting on Earth. That's all ... send people with war tendencies specifically bred out of them to far planets for best chance of survival, or at least 'compatible' species.
It's an "all your eggs in one basket" type scenerio. Yes the people colonizing other planets would have the same hatreds, same political issues, same tendancy toward violence that is part of our society at large. But if xx colony goes it won't take Earth, if Earth goes xx colony won't. The more colonies the greater chance of at least one surviving, is the theory.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Blake Miller wrote:
Erm .. wouldn't the possibility of 'nuclear war' also 'spread out into space'. Or are we going to leave the troublemakers behind here on Earth?
He's referring to mitigation of the problem. If we colonize in several places, the likely hood that we wipe every colony out via nuclear warfare is much lower than if it was just one planet where a small percentage of those responsible for taking away the only place we have to go.
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
you type much faster than me... I call foul!
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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you type much faster than me... I call foul!
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
you type much faster than me... I call foul!
Yeah, and I just noticed some typos in my post too. Oh well, we can't have everything. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon A multithreaded, OpenGL-enabled application.[^]
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Gary Kirkham wrote:
but once he's in space he wouldn't need one.
actually he would. He has almost no mobility, although he could float easily enough he would not even have the strength to push himself around. But a proper space designed harness should be able to be adapted to something similar to his voice synthesizer.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
OK...I know very little about him. I guess I was thinking in terms of paraplegia. I had another thought. Maybe we need a hospital in space that cares for long term bedridden patients. They wouldn't need to be turned to prevent bed sores; just a couple of tethers to keep them from wandering too far.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
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I wonder how wheelchair accessible the Space Shuttle really is? :-D
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] I agree with you that my argument is useless. [Red Stateler] Hey, I am part of a special bread, we are called smart people [Captain See Sharp] The zen of the soapbox is hard to attain...[Jörgen Sigvardsson] I wish I could remember what it was like to only have a short term memory.[David Kentley]
Be fair. The guys already like Davros.
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OK...I know very little about him. I guess I was thinking in terms of paraplegia. I had another thought. Maybe we need a hospital in space that cares for long term bedridden patients. They wouldn't need to be turned to prevent bed sores; just a couple of tethers to keep them from wandering too far.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
Gary Kirkham wrote:
I had another thought. Maybe we need a hospital in space that cares for long term bedridden patients.
Unfortunately the results of microgravity prolonged exposure could be worse than any other health problems: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Microgravity_Bad_Hair_Day.html[^]
The most serious concern is the loss of bone calcium that increases with the length of a mission and shows no sign of cessation. The calcium loss from bones subjected to extended microgravity takes place at 10 times the rate of an elderly person suffering from osteoporosis._________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Gary Kirkham wrote:
I had another thought. Maybe we need a hospital in space that cares for long term bedridden patients.
Unfortunately the results of microgravity prolonged exposure could be worse than any other health problems: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Microgravity_Bad_Hair_Day.html[^]
The most serious concern is the loss of bone calcium that increases with the length of a mission and shows no sign of cessation. The calcium loss from bones subjected to extended microgravity takes place at 10 times the rate of an elderly person suffering from osteoporosis._________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Well it depends if you want to come back down to earth or not. On the other hand, microgravity could help the healing of patients with hearts problems (less effort, less strain on the muscle).
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Well it depends if you want to come back down to earth or not. On the other hand, microgravity could help the healing of patients with hearts problems (less effort, less strain on the muscle).
Pierre Leclercq wrote:
Well it depends if you want to come back down to earth or not.
true, but given the rate of loss of calcium, no one really understands what that will do to the human body. The bones could become so brittle that you could break your own arm pushing off from the side of the space ship.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Pierre Leclercq wrote:
Well it depends if you want to come back down to earth or not.
true, but given the rate of loss of calcium, no one really understands what that will do to the human body. The bones could become so brittle that you could break your own arm pushing off from the side of the space ship.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Oops, that would be like that crystal bone disease. I think some cosmonauts have stayed in space for over a year. 6 years is much longer. Might have to build an artificial gravity ship (one of those with turning wheels).
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Hawking Interview[^] Set phasers to stun ...
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Oops, that would be like that crystal bone disease. I think some cosmonauts have stayed in space for over a year. 6 years is much longer. Might have to build an artificial gravity ship (one of those with turning wheels).
Over two years actually... guy looks pretty good for now. Astronauts who were on SkyLab for a long time did have muscle problems when they came back though. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7852[^]
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Oops, that would be like that crystal bone disease. I think some cosmonauts have stayed in space for over a year. 6 years is much longer. Might have to build an artificial gravity ship (one of those with turning wheels).
Yes, but, as Professor Hawking pointed out, it would not seem like six years to the astronauts making the journey. This is because of the effects of special relativity. As velocity increases, the passage of time slows. This has been verified by experimentation. At near the speed of light time would pass so slowly that what we on earth would measure as six years the astronauts would only measure as a matter of months or weeks or maybe even days depending on how long it took to reach maximum velocity.
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Gary Kirkham wrote:
I had another thought. Maybe we need a hospital in space that cares for long term bedridden patients.
Unfortunately the results of microgravity prolonged exposure could be worse than any other health problems: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Microgravity_Bad_Hair_Day.html[^]
The most serious concern is the loss of bone calcium that increases with the length of a mission and shows no sign of cessation. The calcium loss from bones subjected to extended microgravity takes place at 10 times the rate of an elderly person suffering from osteoporosis._________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
Unfortunately the results of microgravity prolonged exposure could be worse than any other health problems: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F\_Microgravity\_Bad\_Hair\_Day.html\[^\] The most serious concern is the loss of bone calcium that increases with the length of a mission and shows no sign of cessation. The calcium loss from bones subjected to extended microgravity takes place at 10 times the rate of an elderly person suffering from osteoporosis.
If you are staying in space permenetly that wouldn't be an issue