From: whisper@ozemail.com.au   
      
   On 7/02/2026 3:34 pm, a425couple wrote:   
   > Well, there are other considerations.   
   > AI powered mission to span thousands of years----   
   >   
   > from   
   > https://boingboing.net/2026/02/05/the-fantasy-of-starships-is-no-more-   
   > realistic-than-magic.html   
   >   
   > The fantasy of starships is no more realistic than magic   
   >   
   > Ellsworth Toohey  1:16 pm Thu Feb 5, 2026   
   > Cover for  Cover for "Tiger, Tiger" by Alfred Bester   
   >   
   > Interstellar travel — the kind in Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune — will   
   > never happen. The fantasy "exists on the exact same level of   
   > plausibility as wizards," argues Jason Pargin, author of John Dies at   
   > the End. Not because science lacks imagination, but because the   
   > distances involved are so absurd that no amount of future technology   
   > could overcome them without literally breaking the laws of physics.   
   >   
   > Proxima Centauri, the nearest star, is 4.25 light-years away — a 50   
   > trillion-mile round trip. Getting to Mars is already a borderline   
   > impossible 3-year, half-trillion-dollar ordeal that we've spent decades   
   > just talking about. Getting to Proxima Centauri would be like doing the   
   > Mars trip 170,000 times in a row. At current spacecraft speeds, it would   
   > take 500,000 years.   
   >   
   > Even in the "hopelessly optimistic scenario" of traveling at one-tenth   
   > the speed of light — thousands of times faster than anything we know how   
   > to build — a grain of sand hitting the hull would detonate with nuclear   
   > force. The trip would still take 80+ years, requiring a ship that's   
   > essentially a self-contained civilization with enough redundancy to   
   > survive every conceivable disaster, powered by more energy than humanity   
   > has ever produced.   
   >   
   > As for the sci-fi workarounds? "Suspended animation" is just asking us   
   > to invent immortality. "Generation ships" would mean imprisoning people   
   > in space without their consent — children born on the ship would live   
   > and die having never seen a tree, a lake, or any human being outside   
   > their floating prison. "We can make this work if we just solve literally   
   > all of the flaws in human psychology, morality and socialization,"   
   > Pargin writes.   
   >   
   > His real frustration is that this fantasy was sold to us as humanity's   
   > purpose. "If it depresses you to imagine humans still confined to Earth   
   > 1,000 years from now, it's your imagination that has gone wrong because   
   > that is, inarguably, the best case scenario."   
   >   
   > Previously:   
   > • Author Jason Pargin on the 2000-era website that accidentally   
   > destroyed the world   
   > • Not quite jumping to hyperspace, but Star Wars-esque spacecraft   
   > propulsion isn't all sci-fi   
   >   
   >   
      
      
   I 100% agree.  It's great to see some sensible discussion in this ng   
   instead of the usual sci fi nonsense.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)