6 replies to this topic

[nickthird]

Say that in the future hibernation is possible and someone makes an offer for you to go to a distant planet apply your talents and skills for 1-5 years and get back, I foresee two major problems with finding anyone who would agree to this.

 

1. The people you know, even if they can live indefinitely always have some risk of an accident. If you wait for 100-500 years, some are not going to be alive when you return.

 

2. This is the major problem: in 100-500 years the company that sends you to space could very well be bankrupt or long gone. Even if it is a country that is paying for you, you have zero guarantee you will actually get any payment in 500 years. And even if your boss will pay you, how the hell can you negotiate how much that rate is going to be in 500 years (think of inflation etc)? In an age of AI, things will become much less predictable, resources like gold can be found or not found in space and their value may fluctuate wildly as a result. Even if you get paid as % of the average salary, the average salary could be very low because the basic things may become close to free, but you still can't buy anything good. What can you use as a reference point for your salary when the future is so unpredictable?

 

The only way I can see people wanting to do this is if hibernation itself is expensive or not available for everyone and it may be less of a risk to hibernate in space. So people would just get paid by the hibernation experience (to get to the future faster).

[MightyMouse]

1. Mars One project received thousands of applications. Thousands of people who are ready to leave everything and take a one way trip to die on a dry-ass piece of rock. There are always plenty of people who either have no close ones or are willing to say goodbye to them in order to experience such a journey.

 

2. Do you really think that main motivation for such an expedition would be money? Imagine the scientific thrill and glory. Imagine the adventure. Brightest minds will be lining up for it. As for money. You won't need any during the expedition, and when you return you are a superstar. 

[nickthird]

1. Mars one received far less applications than the numbers they published. From my understanding pretty much none of the applicants had any useful skills. The fact that the trip was one way in my opinion increased the appeal for these people.

 

There is a huge difference between the situation today, when going to Mars seems novel and romantic, compared with the situation in the future where people would be travelling to other planets all the time. So going to a very distant one would be more like travelling to the north pole, which very few want to do.

 

Besides, in the future you will be able to play in games where you discover aliens etc on distant planets with VR. Who would cut themselves off the entertainment to travel to some remote rock?

 

2. The reason money is so important is due to the loss factor. While you are travelling for 500 years hibernating and doing nothing, all of your friends are advancing in their lives in whichever ways. When you get back you are no superstar, just an out of date has been, one of many such missions.

[MightyMouse]

Well, there's always a possibility of sending automated probes instead then.

[YOLF]

Ideally, I think they pay you up front and you get land on the planet... But if we're living forever, who cares? The trip's just a blip on the radar. I don't think I'd want to die anywhere though... the settlement would have to be sustainable and I'd have to have access to all the life extension drugs and supplements that I wanted as a condition of setting foot on the far away planet or the ship that's going there.

[YOLF]

Finasteride can have some cancer side effects, though I suppose that calorie restriction can protect against that. I wish we had more people from the  Post Finasteride Syndrome Foundation looking for the cure in our community, I imagine we could figure it out pretty quick, or figure out how to prevent it from happening if we had the details of their experience to work with.

[kurdishfella]

On the other hand, I think there can pose a threat to send space probe throughout space because what if there are extraterrestrials with bad intentions that follow it back to where it came from.

Edited by kurdishfella, 03 November 2020 - 08:36 AM.