IS HUMANKIND TRULY DESTINED TO VOYAGE TO THE STARS?
- Paper number
IAC-11,D4,1,2,x12063
- Author
Dr. Seth Shostak, SETI Institute, United States
- Year
2011
- Abstract
The traditional arguments against interstellar travel rely on the well known difficulty in building spacecraft that can bridge light-years of distance in a period of time measured in centuries or less. Often, whether or not we believe that our descendants will ever visit other stellar systems boil down to arguments about the feasibility of spacecraft that can travel a significant fraction of light speed, or whether we might someday be able to use “arks” or suspended animation as tools for sending humanity into the Galaxy. However, these discussions, while interesting, ignore the rapid advances in information technology that might make interstellar travel by humans irrelevant. In this paper, we describe some ideas as to how our descendants, a century hence, will have compelling alternatives to rocketing hominids into space. We may yet know what lies in the unexplored recesses of the Milky Way without having to voyage there ourselves.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-11,D4,1,2,x12063.ppt (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.