Quote from: HalfjackHyperspace jump drives would be handy too.

Yeah, my solution to all this is "If you want to go there, have the Wookiee pull back on the sticks."

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Yeah, my solution to all this is "If you want to go there, have the Wookiee pull back on the sticks."

I agree with your implicit assertion: we need to start work on developing the Wookiee immediately!

Quote from: HalfjackI agree with your implicit assertion: we need to start work on developing the Wookiee immediately!

step 1:  combine some sort of uber-rogaine with the gene for height.

step 2:  

step 3:  wookiees!

Go to a phish (or any jam band) show; wookies are already among us- the movies did not give a proper indication of the  smell though.

Quote from: HalfjackWith a light sail system (solar won't be much use for most of the journey so you're going to need to shoot giant lasers at it from the moon or something) you're getting accelerations on the order of millimeters per second squared.  But it is constant and you don't carry fuel.  On the other hand, it's not entirely clear how you slow down for the second half of the voyage.

I've seen some ideas to this effect. Of course, the most realistic conjectures to this effect place a very small probe vice a colony ship.

I have nothing contribute... except to say please continue with this awesome technobabble. I love this stuff.

Also, Dyson spheres, arcologies.

I very much liked the idea of Verner Vinge's in 'A Deepness in the Sky' where long distance travel between stars was solved by medical tech. Not so much hibernation, though there was that, or Busard ramjets, though there was that also,  but more so the fact that people lived thousands of years. So a long trip in space at significant fractions of the speed of light wasn't as big a deal. (or were people almost immortal?)

Quote from: darI very much liked the idea of Verner Vinge's in 'A Deepness in the Sky' where long distance travel between stars was solved by medical tech. Not so much hibernation, though there was that, or Busard ramjets, though there was that also,  but more so the fact that people lived thousands of years. So a long trip in space at significant fractions of the speed of light wasn't as big a deal. (or were people almost immortal?)

I agree.  I also love the nature of "civilisation" that falls out of this and what it all looks like to a traveller that has lived tens or hundreds of thousands of "objective" years in his four or five hundred year objective lifespan.  Watching civilisations in a kind of time-lapse photography.

Quote from: HalfjackI agree.  I also love the nature of "civilisation" that falls out of this and what it all looks like to a traveller that has lived tens or hundreds of thousands of "objective" years in his four or five hundred year objective lifespan.  Watching civilisations in a kind of time-lapse photography.

heh.  It's funny that you mention "civilization" regarding space travel, because I was having an odd thought about human adaptation the other day.

It occured to me that it might not be until we've been a generation or two out into space before the human species can actually instinctively understand the dynamics of moving about in space, especially in regards to things like tactical decisions.

It just seems like when you hear people talk about subjects like this, either they instinctively begin treating space as a 2d plane, or they acknowledge that free movement in 3-dimensions should afect tactics and things, they just don't seem to have more than vague ideas of how.  And speaking from simulator experience, I can tell you that getting the hang of free flying a vessel in combat with proper Newtonian physics in effect is damn tricky.

Present day space missions all have their flight plans and trajectories rigorously calculated in advance, and the relatively slow speeds of most of out orbital missions are as such that if any fine adjustments need to be made, they too can usually be spotted well in advance.  

Which leads me to believe that perhaps the next great evolution of the human species will need to be a generation that instinctively can understand movement in space in a way present humans generalyl can't.

Quote from: J Arcane... Which leads me to believe that perhaps the next great evolution of the human species will need to be a generation that instinctively can understand movement in space in a way present humans generalyl can't.

Huh!  Neat.

Quote from: J ArcaneWhich leads me to believe that perhaps the next great evolution of the human species will need to be a generation that instinctively can understand movement in space in a way present humans generalyl can't.

I think that for hard sf it's hard to imagine that humans are going to ever be much better at this than a high end computer, but there's also not a lot of fun in a scenario where the computer's better than you at everything.  What I mean is, I think that's implausible but would make a fine premise for a game I'd want to play.

Quote from: HalfjackI think that for hard sf it's hard to imagine that humans are going to ever be much better at this than a high end computer, but there's also not a lot of fun in a scenario where the computer's better than you at everything.  What I mean is, I think that's implausible but would make a fine premise for a game I'd want to play.

I would counter-point that by gesturing my finger towards some of the things that our brains do that we still can't get computers to do accurately, or at least all that well.

Like walk.

Quote from: HalfjackI think that for hard sf it's hard to imagine that humans are going to ever be much better at this than a high end computer, but there's also not a lot of fun in a scenario where the computer's better than you at everything.  What I mean is, I think that's implausible but would make a fine premise for a game I'd want to play.

Didn't some crappy TV show have a similar premise when it came to FTL navigation?

Sounds like the beginning of the spacers guild in Dune. Maybe a class structure builds because of this difference in people who 'get' space movement and those who don't.

edit: Sosthenes, SciFi Channel Dune?

Quote from: SosthenesDidn't some crappy TV show have a similar premise when it came to FTL navigation?

Well "Dune" relies on enhanced humans for FTL navigation that is somehow intrinsically impossible for computers.  I think it's a bit mystical, but if mystical is part of the theme it works for me.