Another silly space poll.

Some folks think it would be a great idea to send people to colonize a planet around another star, and have proposed (either as sci-fi or for real) sending a bunch of people for a long-term (multi-generational) trip.

Since we do not presently have the technology to freeze people and then revive them, so that those who volunteer could sleep through the hundreds or thousands of years of the voyage; and we don't have the technology at present to reach relativistic speeds in a space ship, so that time and space dilation would allow the trip in less than a lifetime by local clocks on the ship; such a voyage would mean that those who embark would spend the rest of their lives on board the ship, and their children and maybe grandchildren would do so also, and only a distant future generation would ever land on the target planet.

Assuming a suitable planet were identified with reasonable confidence, would you volunteer to go, and spend the rest of your life on a space ship, so that your descendants could start a new life on a new and virgin world, with all the modern technology, but a clean and unspoiled planet with resources for many generations to come?

Assume also that the space ship is adequately shielded against cosmic rays, and that it's big enough to create gravity by spinning, while at the same time having recreational facilities at both 1G (on the rim) and weightlessness (at the center), as well as intermediate, so you wouldn't suffer bone loss but you could play in zero G.

Only couples could sign up, but you would not necessarily have to go with your present spouse if you could find someone else that wanted to go as your partner.

 

I'll start. I'd only go if some extremely intelligent and totally hot woman would go as my partner. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth giving up my summer hiking in British Columbia. This means I wouldn't go, since my condition would never be met.

 

Presumably it would be necessary to maintain a constant population on the ship. Therefore each couple could produce two surviving children. So birth control would be not only available, but mandatory. (... Oh, you meant THAT pill. Sure. Why not? All modern technology would be available.)

For the purposes of this poll, you do not need to pay. This is just a "would you go?" poll. Not an "are you rich enough?" poll.

Of course, you would not be paid to go, but on the ship everyone would have everything needed for life, and would be required to share in whatever work needs to be done. It would be a communal effort. I am assuming that out of six billion people on Earth, a few hundred would easily be found to volunteer, though maybe the idea would be so popular that the Earth-bound administrators of the project could auction off the places. But for this poll, no money changes hands. You volunteer or not, and then you are accepted or not.

In fact, for the purposes of this poll, Prius Chat members get first crack, so even if you think you are not really suitable, you can go if you want. The rest of the colony will be made up of people who pass all the criteria.

 

As a child, I read a sci-fi novel or short story in which that happened. The first ship arrived at the planet only to find an entire human English-speaking population spread out over the entire world. Turned out faster space ships had been invented, left later, and got there a hundred years before they did.

I was thinking a crew of a few tens of thousands.

I did say the poll was silly.

 

Those "defects" are the variation that allow evolution. And on a new world, with different conditions, we and our plants and animals will have to evolve in order to survive in the new environment. I think a few tens of thousands will be enough of a breeding stock to make a go of it. Of course, survival is not guaranteed. They might decide to have a war before they even get there and all that arrives is an empty ship. Or they blow the ship up.

But none of us who start out will ever get there, so it's really just about having a shot at spreading the cancer that is the human race to other planets before we go extinct on this one.