- 9 months ago
The greatest hurdle in human interstellar travel is the "human" element itself. Had it not been for our desire to take ourselves to the stars, interstellar travel might have become feasible long ago. Humans are complex organisms with numerous demands, such as a constant supply of air, large quantities of food and water, as well as social interaction and medical care. Meeting these requirements necessitates considerable energy, infrastructure, and payload, adding weight and complexity to already limited rocket capacities. NASA’s five hazards of human spaceflight—radiation, gravity, isolation, distance from Earth, and closed hostile environments—become even more daunting in interstellar contexts. Disturbingly, proposed solutions, like "animated suspension" or "warp drives," remain in the realm of science fiction. The challenges posed by the "human factor" complicate interstellar missions extensively. While we could focus on purely robotic missions, to circumvent these issues, here it is essential to address the five significant challenges that remain salient for human interstellar travel.
Cosmic radiation poses significant challenges for interstellar flight, worsened by extended travel durations, high speeds, and vast distances. The absence of gravity also presents health risks for the crew and future generations. As humans venture farther from Earth, where our biology and psychology originated, adaptation to new environments becomes inevitable, albeit potentially detrimental. Initial changes may lead to chaotic or hostile behaviors, and managing such responses poses further concerns. The safety of reproduction in space remains uncertain, complicating human survival, given our physiological aversions to a zero-gravity environment. Additionally, maintaining harmony among crew members in confined spaces is challenging, as humans often exhibit negative emotions like anger and jealousy. With no known precedents for long-term cooperative behavior beyond a year, the psychological impacts on mission success are unpredictable. Interstellar crew dynamics will also raise civic and ethical questions regarding governance and cultural interactions, particularly as voyages might become autonomous and independent, necessitating discussions about leadership structures, language, and potential conflicts among diverse backgrounds.
In the distant future, if various challenges are addressed, humanity may have the opportunity to visit another star system. However, the reality could differ from our expectations, with humans potentially playing a subordinate role as observers, while advanced machines undertake the journey. Our once-held capabilities may have evolved into sophisticated technology. An alternative could involve transferring information rather than physical humans to the stars, as human biology and psychology are fragile. Thus, machines might convert our data—durable and cap
Cosmic radiation poses significant challenges for interstellar flight, worsened by extended travel durations, high speeds, and vast distances. The absence of gravity also presents health risks for the crew and future generations. As humans venture farther from Earth, where our biology and psychology originated, adaptation to new environments becomes inevitable, albeit potentially detrimental. Initial changes may lead to chaotic or hostile behaviors, and managing such responses poses further concerns. The safety of reproduction in space remains uncertain, complicating human survival, given our physiological aversions to a zero-gravity environment. Additionally, maintaining harmony among crew members in confined spaces is challenging, as humans often exhibit negative emotions like anger and jealousy. With no known precedents for long-term cooperative behavior beyond a year, the psychological impacts on mission success are unpredictable. Interstellar crew dynamics will also raise civic and ethical questions regarding governance and cultural interactions, particularly as voyages might become autonomous and independent, necessitating discussions about leadership structures, language, and potential conflicts among diverse backgrounds.
In the distant future, if various challenges are addressed, humanity may have the opportunity to visit another star system. However, the reality could differ from our expectations, with humans potentially playing a subordinate role as observers, while advanced machines undertake the journey. Our once-held capabilities may have evolved into sophisticated technology. An alternative could involve transferring information rather than physical humans to the stars, as human biology and psychology are fragile. Thus, machines might convert our data—durable and cap
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00:00:00The most challenging problem with human interstellar travel is the human part.
00:00:12I strongly believe that interstellar travel would have been a reality many decades ago
00:00:16if it wasn't for our recurring dream of taking ourselves along to stars.
00:00:21Humans are demanding delicate, unpredictable and vulnerable living organisms
00:00:26that require too many resources for nurture.
00:00:29Humans need a constant supply of breathing air, massive amounts of water and food
00:00:34in addition to the nagging requirements of space, socialization and medical attention.
00:00:39All these needs require a stupendous amount of energy spent on infrastructure, payload to LEO
00:00:45and unspeakable extra technical and material requirements.
00:00:49All these human-caused requirements add unwanted weight and bulk to the precious payload lifted via rocket
00:00:56and add to the already critical mass to be propelled across the vast distances between the stars.
00:01:03Additionally, NASA's five hazards of human spaceflight not only apply for interstellar flight
00:01:08but are exacerbated by at least multiple orders of magnitude.
00:01:12In the context of interstellar flight, suddenly the seemingly solvable problems of radiation, gravity, isolation
00:01:19and hazardous environments become almost hopeless enigmas.
00:01:23Forget the often portrayed ability of human suspended animation
00:01:27and the utilization of warp drives or wormholes.
00:01:30Sadly, Superman is not coming in the case of interstellar travel.
00:01:35These scenarios are, and will likely remain, the stuff of science fiction.
00:01:42Freezing humans like poultry meat or machines that generate artificial gravity, like if you're wearing magnetic shoes,
00:01:48are just comical jokes in scientific circles.
00:01:51And any other more realistic means to solve these problems remain, at best, undeveloped.
00:01:57Ultimately, to put it mildly, the many problems introduced by the human factor will be much more challenging in an interstellar mission.
00:02:06Putting aside the gargantuan technical hurdles with putting humans in pickle jars and shipping them off to the stars
00:02:12and focusing on the actual challenges, we may here discuss these five hazards.
00:02:17So for now, let's ignore the fact that exclusively machine missions suddenly remove most barriers to interstellar travel.
00:02:24Again, it helps to look at these challenges by listing them as they relate to NASA's five hazards of space flight.
00:02:30Here, I will call them the five challenges of human interstellar travel,
00:02:34and they include radiation, gravity, isolation, distance from Earth, and closed hostile environments.
00:02:41Cosmic radiation becomes a tremendously bigger problem in interstellar flight.
00:02:46Due to the unimaginably longer travel periods, the blinding speeds likely required, and the distance to be traveled.
00:02:53These alone exacerbate the situation many-fold.
00:02:57The lack of gravity remains an issue for interstellar flight.
00:03:01Both radiation and gravity must be solved problems for the health of the human crew and their possible en route descendants.
00:03:09Our distance from Earth, the planet where our biology and psychology evolved, will be lost in the rear view.
00:03:15At this sight, humans will necessarily change and begin to adapt to whatever environment they will inhabit, for perhaps centuries.
00:03:23This change will depend on too many factors to list here.
00:03:27But one thing is certain, change will occur.
00:03:30And we should expect that not all changes will be advantageous.
00:03:33For example, initial changes may be unexpected and chaotic, even hostile.
00:03:38Some in the crew may respond to drastic changes with violence.
00:03:42If so, how will these cases be handled?
00:03:45Our ability to procreate in space is at best unknown, at worst is utterly unsafe and harmful for both the mother and the child.
00:03:54Our bodies don't like space.
00:03:56And, of course, the lack of gravity and the hopeless lack of suitable air are punishing truths we must accept.
00:04:03I believe an Earth-like destination will be very hard to find within a few light years from Earth.
00:04:10The challenges with human isolation on a spacecraft remain thorny and unsolved problems.
00:04:16And, of course, these become colossal problems for interstellar crews.
00:04:20Human psychology is quite fragile and human interaction is volatile.
00:04:25In many instances, humans revert to jealousy, anger, hostility, envy, hatred, and other damaging behaviors.
00:04:32These are ingrained in us and are likely to remain part of our lives foreseeably.
00:04:37Curiously, life would probably be a boring stage without them.
00:04:41And, to my knowledge, no human crew has been able to work peacefully and harmoniously for any space-related project for periods over one year.
00:04:49So, the effects that closed environments will have on the human crew and the effects those humans will have on mission is, at best, not known.
00:04:57Further hurdles with interstellar travel involve agreements in human interaction.
00:05:02There may be many civic and ethical questions in an interstellar voyage, as it will likely be, or become, autonomous or sovereign.
00:05:10I believe interstellar voyages will likely, eventually, be independent from any nation on Earth.
00:05:16So, questions of the form of command or government will have to be answered.
00:05:20For example, which will be the encouraged or discouraged or dominant cultural, social, or religious system?
00:05:27Will racial, ethnic, and behavioral differences be an issue?
00:05:30Also, there may be ethical problems with recruiting, education topics, among others, as there are currently on Earth.
00:05:37What should be the default spoken language on board?
00:05:41Who should be in management or command positions, and why?
00:05:44Also, there may arise human factors that are damaging to command and hierarchies specific to long-duration space travel, causing turmoil or mutiny.
00:05:53At best, many decades into our future, and if all these problems are solved, we may have a shot at visiting another star system with humans on board.
00:06:01But, things may be a lot different than what we would commonly expect.
00:06:05Humans may not be in charge, perhaps relegating or having been demoted, to a position of mere spectators.
00:06:11Relics carried along on a trip designed and executed by ultra-advanced machines.
00:06:17Our past abilities long ago having been passed on to advanced systems.
00:06:21Other possibilities include traveling to the stars only as information.
00:06:25The fragility of human biology and psychology may be the things that keep us from traveling to other stars.
00:06:32But, machines may be used to send our information to the stars in the form of nearly indestructible data, to be decoded at the destination by machines.
00:06:41Or, humans may travel to the stars as DNA.
00:06:44And, machines would grow humans at the destination, bypassing the need to nurture fully developed or developing human bodies.
00:06:52Ultimately, I believe our trip to the stars must start with a single question.
00:06:59Why?
00:07:01So, without further ado, here is my final chapter on this series, Challenges of Interstellar Travel, The Human Factor.
00:07:22Any foray into space, especially into outer space, is a difficult and challenging undertaking.
00:07:36But, the challenges multiply when you add humans to the mix to these space missions.
00:07:43Adding human crews to space missions multiply mission difficulties by orders of magnitude.
00:07:51More than we usually like to admit, the human body is a fragile and delicate organism that requires a lot of maintenance,
00:08:00a lot of care, a lot of technology working for its comfort, its well-being and its upkeep.
00:08:07Just think of your last long trip or vacation or visit to a far away place from home.
00:08:15The amount of supplies, resources, materials, luggage that you have to take with you to keep your comfort,
00:08:23keep your health and maintain a routine when it comes to everything that you must do during the day,
00:08:30during your active hours, during sleep, etc.
00:08:33Also, think about the food and the water, liquids that you consume during that time, during the trip.
00:08:41The amount of food that you may take with you and the amount of food that you may acquire or buy or purchase along the trip.
00:08:49Many of us may also need attention, such as social care, social attention, interaction with others.
00:08:56Also, we need activity when it comes to exercise, bodily activity and also intellectual or brain activity.
00:09:05We need to keep busy to keep our mental and body health up.
00:09:10Many of us also need medical attention in the form of medicine, in the form of checkups and routine checkups of current health conditions.
00:09:21Many times necessary for many people.
00:09:23Also, our mental health has many requirements.
00:09:26It needs socialization.
00:09:28It needs some sort of spirituality, hope, goals, purpose, explanations.
00:09:34It needs to explain to itself many things around them.
00:09:38It needs to justify actions, justify efforts.
00:09:42It needs to be satisfied with its lifestyle, its surroundings, the achievements that it has made, our psychological health.
00:09:54It's a huge consumer of resources, energy.
00:09:58So we as humans require a tremendous amount of resources, energy, which comes in the form of bulk, weight, baggage.
00:10:07It takes up a lot of space, it takes up a lot of energy again, a lot of resources in the form of funds or monetary funds, money.
00:10:16And also takes the support of other people, technology and systems and methods all around a single human being.
00:10:25Let alone a entire group of humans such as a space based or space bound crew of astronauts that would require even more resources than the average human here on earth.
00:10:39Think of the long trip again that you were going to embark in here on earth.
00:10:44You need to take all of the things, luggage, equipments, all of the, again, food, drink with you that you expect to use.
00:10:55And when we're talking about space bound crews, these same resources are multiplied by many, many fold.
00:11:05Because the trip times expectation to be out in space is a lot, usually a lot longer than any trip here on earth.
00:11:14Especially when we talk about deep space travel.
00:11:17And unlike here on earth where you can also gather things from your surroundings as you go during your trip.
00:11:25For example, in route to your destination and at your destination you can also gather stuff that you might have forgotten.
00:11:32Stuff that you may need that are extra that you may have not thought of.
00:11:36And in space this is utterly impossible.
00:11:39You cannot stop anywhere in space and gather up materials, gather up resources that you may have forgotten on earth.
00:11:46You have to take every single thing you will need during your entire trip and stay at your destination and your way back.
00:11:53You must take all of those with you.
00:11:55Again, for you the human and the human crew on that space mission.
00:12:00That is why the human factor is a very large challenge for any space mission.
00:12:07Especially that of space missions to outer space such as interstellar missions.
00:12:14So I will organize the challenges dealing with human factors on this program.
00:12:19I will list them and discuss each one of them.
00:12:22Of course there are space challenges dealing with human factors that match the NASA's five hazards of human space flight.
00:12:31That also apply to interstellar travel.
00:12:34These five hazards are the hazard of ionizing radiation.
00:12:38The hazard of gravity fields.
00:12:40The hazard of distance from earth.
00:12:42The hazard of closed and hostile environments.
00:12:46And lastly the hazard of isolation.
00:12:49All of these hazards pose problems to human health.
00:12:53Human well being.
00:12:55So from those I will derive the many challenges that deal with the human factor for interstellar travel.
00:13:03So first to define human factors.
00:13:06Human factors are just situations.
00:13:09A factor.
00:13:10It's a changing and evolving situation or occurrence.
00:13:15And it changes and evolves because that is the nature of humanity.
00:13:20We are very unpredictable in many ways.
00:13:23In some ways we are a lot more predictable biologically.
00:13:26We have a lot of variation between people.
00:13:29We have even more variation psychologically between humans and people.
00:13:34And there are many health and whether it's biological health and psychological health, mental health challenges that are present here on earth.
00:13:45Let alone in trips to space away from earth.
00:13:49These challenges will be magnitudes more severe and significant in long duration trips such as interstellar travel.
00:13:59Just to keep it in perspective, the distances that we are talking about here when talking about interstellar travel are unimaginably vast.
00:14:09They are almost unfathomable and well away, well removed from our everyday experience.
00:14:16Interstellar travel means traveling to other star systems away from our own solar system.
00:14:24The closest, of course, you may know that it's the Alpha Centauri star system.
00:14:29And that is 4.37, I believe 4.37 light years away.
00:14:35And as you may know, we are hopelessly incapable of reaching any degree of the speed of light at the moment.
00:14:41So the trip there would take close to several thousand years with current technology.
00:14:49So using current technology, we would be on a trip longer than perhaps written history.
00:14:56So to put it more in perspective, if you think of the Babylonians or Sumerians back several thousands of years ago,
00:15:04if they were to embark on an interstellar trip somehow, they would just now be close to the nearest star system in Alpha Centauri.
00:15:14And that is if they would be using current technology somehow.
00:15:19So given that scenario, it would be likely that we would not be even able to communicate with the crew that would be arriving at the Alpha Centauri system from those many thousands of years ago.
00:15:32At the very least, there would be a significant language barrier between the crew at Alpha Centauri and us here on Earth currently.
00:15:42Again, the nearest star system to our own solar system is the Alpha Centauri system.
00:15:47And it is about 4.4 light years away.
00:15:50That is 277,000 astronomical units or AU's.
00:15:56Again, an AU is the average distance between the Earth and our Sun or about 93 million miles.
00:16:05That is about 150 million kilometers.
00:16:08Also, to give you a bit more perspective, the farthest that a small human crew has traveled to outer space currently is the surface of the Moon.
00:16:17That is a significant but mere 384,000 kilometers away from Earth.
00:16:23And as you may know, it did take an international effort to put a few people on the surface of the Moon.
00:16:32So you can begin to appreciate the vast and enormous challenges that we may face to embark on a interstellar trip or mission.
00:16:43Even to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.
00:16:47So to tackle the first challenge involving radiation, space radiation or ionizing radiation.
00:16:53As you may have learned from my previous discussions on space radiation from NASA's five hazards of space flight.
00:17:02Space radiation is among the most severe problems that we have for deep space flight or travel.
00:17:10Because there is such a thing as ionizing radiation, basically a radiation type from space, either from other stars or from our own Sun.
00:17:20So basically, these are star sourced or born particles, highly energetic particles that are traveling nearly at the speed of light.
00:17:30At their atomic composition, basically their bare cores, their bare atoms stripped of any electrons are traveling.
00:17:38And these are from elements such as iron, gold, silver, boron, just about every element on the periodic table are flying around in space.
00:17:49And especially hazardous are the heavy elements.
00:17:52Again, those with heavy cores or atomic centers that have many protons and neutrons, again.
00:17:59And they wreak havoc when they collide with, for example, human cells, DNA, etc.
00:18:07They destroy those cells and DNA structures.
00:18:12And, of course, that causes all kinds of issues, health issues.
00:18:16Whether it's right away, whether it happens immediately or it happens over time.
00:18:22This is something that is a huge problem for human health.
00:18:26Because as it passes through the human body, these highly energetic particles collide and rip electrons out of the atoms of our own cells and any other material or compound that it may traverse.
00:18:41And these particles traverse just about every material known since they are so small and they are traveling so fast.
00:18:49So that is probably the worst problem encountered when taking humans along in our space missions.
00:18:55Because we need to worry about that, protect humans somehow from this space radiation.
00:19:00Which, by the way, we have no effective and proven technologies to shield us from these particles.
00:19:07Yes, we do have components or methods or some technologies or materials, all of that.
00:19:14We have some materials that may block some of this radiation, but not entirely, not all.
00:19:21Especially when we consider our current limitations, technological limitations, such as our ability to put high payloads, high amounts of weights to space from Earth.
00:19:34From Earth, it is very difficult to carry weight to space, very costly.
00:19:40So we are limited at the moment how much weight and space and size we can carry to space.
00:19:48So we cannot carry, for example, high amounts of water, which is a known filter or blocker of radiation.
00:19:57Not the entire amount of radiation, but a good portion to at least slow down the damage done by this ionizing radiation.
00:20:06Also, materials like lead, which are very heavy, as you may know, and again, also very harmful to human health.
00:20:14However, lead is effective in blocking at least a good percentage of the radiation that comes from space.
00:20:21But you would need a lot of it.
00:20:23You would need meters of the thing all around the spacecraft to significantly block a good portion of the radiation coming from all directions.
00:20:33I mean, these things are coming from all angles during space flight, not only in the direction opposite of travel, but from everywhere in space.
00:20:42So, obviously, humans are a big complicating factor there for missions to interstellar space because of the radiation and the need to protect these humans from radiation,
00:20:54which is going to significantly complicates the mission and require energy and resources to that same mission.
00:21:03Shielding systems would have to be developed, built, most likely on Earth's orbit, since they would have to be very large, of colossal scales, kilometer scales.
00:21:16And these systems, again, may include passive systems, such as just systems that shield, that are static, that do not move, basically non-moving parts that are just there blocking,
00:21:28acting, acting as a literal physical shield between you and the radiation in space, again, using those materials and compounds that are known to shield some of the radiation.
00:21:39Or there may be active shields, such as magnetic, strong, very strong, enlarged magnetic fields that more or less act like the magnetic field that we have on Earth that deflects all of these particles,
00:21:55high-energy, high-flying, fast-flying particles, before they reach our atmosphere or before they reach the surface of the Earth or us.
00:22:04But this is extremely difficult to do, since the energy requirements would be prohibitively enormous,
00:22:11and also the scale and the magnitude at which we need to produce and build and maintain these systems are just utterly out of our reach at the moment.
00:22:25Moving on to gravity. Gravity has debilitating effects on the human body, therefore causing problems,
00:22:32problems dealing with human factors on any space flight, let alone interstellar missions to space.
00:22:39Gravity is a necessity. We need gravity to be healthy, to be happy, to survive.
00:22:46Our body has evolved exclusively to be healthy, to be happy, to be satisfied on Earth's gravity.
00:22:55We call it one G, one Earth gravity, and anything outside of that, again, as I've mentioned, will be detrimental to our health,
00:23:04and also to our mood, to our psychological health, not only our biological health.
00:23:10Our hearts, our circulatory system, our nervous system, our digestive system, just about every system that we have depends on gravity,
00:23:20with perhaps very few exceptions, and the way our blood flows through our veins.
00:23:26Even the place where our hearts are, are a product of the many thousands, perhaps millions of years of evolution,
00:23:33of life on Earth, from which we ourselves come from.
00:23:38So, the minute we step off from the surface of the Earth, our bodies begin to suffer and decay,
00:23:45and in very major part because of the lower gravity out in space, what we call microgravity.
00:23:52During low gravity, or no gravity, our bodies begin to shed bone mass, bone density, as well as muscle mass,
00:24:01and again, our cardiovascular system begins to decay.
00:24:05The same with our vision, our eyes shape, the shape of its lens, and the eyeball itself begin to deform,
00:24:12and there are other effects of gravity in our body and our brain.
00:24:17So, gravity absolutely needs to be provided.
00:24:21Systems need to be placed in place that work to offset the effects of low gravity,
00:24:28or to provide gravity itself by artificial means.
00:24:32As of right now, the only system that I'm aware of that may provide gravity,
00:24:38or something that feels like gravity, is centrifugal force.
00:24:42But again, we are limited from this because of the sheer scale of the structures required
00:24:49to comfortably and safely provide artificial gravity, or centrifugal force of gravity.
00:24:55These structures would have to be enormous in dimensions, more in the kilometer scale.
00:25:01They would have to be kilometers in diameter.
00:25:03These most likely circular structures, or torus donut-shaped structures,
00:25:09where we would be inhabiting the actual donut tube.
00:25:13We would be pretty much standing on its outer surface as it spins around.
00:25:18It would have to be spun continuously throughout the trip.
00:25:22And again, such construction is, as of now, out of reach for an interstellar trip.
00:25:30So, we would have to basically be able to build those types of ships to provide gravity.
00:25:36Gravity is an absolute necessity for a long-term interstellar trip.
00:25:43So, to move on and discuss the human factor when it comes to the hazard of distance from Earth.
00:25:50The human factor involved with that is that that will change our outlook, our attitudes, our mood,
00:25:58our mental health, and even biological health, I believe.
00:26:02As we get away from Earth, we begin to think more independently.
00:26:08In fact, any interstellar mission with current technology would necessarily be a one-way trip.
00:26:15Let me explain.
00:26:16Because, for one, the crew will be gone for thousands of years with current technology, at least, if not longer.
00:26:24The crew will travel into space and time in a manner, most likely, that will leave Earthlings behind away from communication.
00:26:34The communication will be drawing in delay, in a gap, and eventually it will be to where it is just ineffective.
00:26:45It will first be delayed by minutes, there will be a lag of maybe hours, and then that will steadily grow.
00:26:53Especially if we somehow reach any degree of the speed of light with future propulsion systems.
00:26:59The delay will just grow very fast and be days, weeks, months, years, in very short order.
00:27:07So, there may be a point where communication is just ineffective and even impossible, depending on the conditions outside of the ship,
00:27:16depending on the propulsion system, there are many factors.
00:27:19And, just accounting for time and space, communication will be very seldom limited, at the very least.
00:27:27And, at the very worst, ineffective or even impossible.
00:27:30So, crews may be cast off as they leave Earth.
00:27:35Basically, they will become an independent and autonomous entity, the moment they leave Earth.
00:27:42And, perhaps knowingly so, back on Earth and the crew, knowing this themselves, they basically are a cast away, cut away portion of humanity.
00:27:52Never to return, or at least never to return to an Earth that they would be familiar with, recognize, be part of again.
00:28:00Humans may basically evolve, language may evolve to a point where we probably won't be able to communicate,
00:28:07because the languages on the ship and the languages on Earth would have evolved to be incompatible, unrecognizable.
00:28:14Not understood by both parties, just like it has throughout the millennia here on Earth.
00:28:20It is likely it will happen between the people leaving on the ship and the people back on Earth.
00:28:25Also, biology may change, evolve to a degree that, even if the crew were to return, they would be pretty much another species,
00:28:35a separate and incompatible species with humans.
00:28:39And this is even more so if genetic manipulation is accepted and occurs on the ship for the humans on board to be able to survive,
00:28:49or at least survive a lot better in the hostile environment of space.
00:28:55And how is this a challenge, especially a human factors challenge?
00:28:59Well, again, the psychological stress, mental stress, stress of knowing this, especially those people that are born en route to an interstellar destination,
00:29:12may all of a sudden realize that they were basically volunteered to a space mission.
00:29:18Yes, you may argue that that's what basically happens all the time here on Earth.
00:29:23When you're born, you're not asked where and who you're born to, what situation you're born into.
00:29:29So this could pretty much be applied to a crew born on board.
00:29:34They are part of a space mission without their consent, yes, but who has consent when they're born about anything.
00:29:41So you may look at it that way.
00:29:43But again, the interstellar crew would be most likely on a one way mission to whatever destination, whether it's Alpha Centauri system or any other.
00:29:53So at the very least, initially, the mission has to be ready for psychological challenges, problems,
00:29:59at the realization that you are leaving Earth for good, that Earth is going to be utterly unreachable ever again.
00:30:07So the initial crew will have most likely psychological, mental health issues with that.
00:30:13And that may translate to biological problems, health problems, illnesses, long term, even terminal diseases eventually.
00:30:21Not only this psychological, biological human factor would complicate the mission, but also the supplies, the mission autonomy required,
00:30:30all of the energy requirements, all of these factors, because there are humans on board are going to be magnitudes more consuming, intensive, problematic.
00:30:42Again, as if compared with a mission without any humans on board, which would be a lot more simple,
00:30:48because you would not need to maintain these humans on board, their health, etc.
00:30:53You would more focus on the mission itself, the outcome of the mission, without so much worrying about the health of the humans throughout.
00:31:03And just to take a quick detour, and discuss a bit of the reasons, now that it's mentioned, the reasons why we would embark on an interstellar mission.
00:31:15The ones used most in sci-fi movies are complete and utter destruction here on Earth,
00:31:22and the unhabitability of Earth could be a cause.
00:31:27Maybe not now, but perhaps many millennia into the future.
00:31:31The Earth may become inhospitable enough for us to want to go look for friendlier, more welcoming, more habitable places.
00:31:40Again, this is very, very far into the future.
00:31:43If it even happens at all, as of right now, we know of no place anywhere in the universe so far,
00:31:50you know, with the small amount of research we've done that is as hospitable as Earth for us.
00:31:56Of course, this may change in the future, maybe not so much in the far future.
00:32:01Our knowledge of other exoplanets, as they call them, may expand.
00:32:06There are telescopes operational right this moment, I believe.
00:32:09The James Webb telescope is perhaps going to bring some more light, shed some more light on that.
00:32:15And perhaps we may learn of exoplanets that are very like Earth or even more hospitable to human life, potentially.
00:32:25But as of yet, there is no such place that we know of.
00:32:29Others argue that it is a lot easier and less resource consuming to not destroy the Earth,
00:32:37to stop destroying the Earth, to even rejuvenate the Earth or fix the Earth than embark in such mission.
00:32:44So, in other words, make the Earth last a lot longer and make it or keep it a lot more habitable,
00:32:51as much as we can humanly can possibly make it and as much as our knowledge and technology will allow us.
00:32:58Another popular reason is worldwide catastrophe, whether it's an unsuspecting meteor or Chicxulub scale meteoric event,
00:33:09that may threaten our existence here on Earth.
00:33:12Again, this is probably even less likely to occur than environmental collapse,
00:33:19because of the likelihood of any impact from space is so low at this moment in our solar system.
00:33:29And also our current technological abilities would probably allow us to deflect or nudge such celestial body
00:33:40that is incoming toward us just enough so it can miss us, perhaps by a few thousand kilometers.
00:33:47So, again, that is, I would think, unlikely to happen.
00:33:51With our current technology, we are good and getting better at tracking bodies, orbiting bodies that may come close to Earth,
00:33:59and even more so if they are larger than the average micrometeor.
00:34:05So, that is likely not to be a big problem for us in the near future or in the far future, especially.
00:34:14Another popular idea of why we would want to leave Earth, or at least a good portion of us,
00:34:21or a sample of the human population to ensure our continued existence in the universe, is overpopulation.
00:34:30There are fears by some people, perhaps many people, that the Earth will run out of space for humanity to be sustainable,
00:34:39and we may quickly run out of resources, etc.
00:34:43But, this is unlikely.
00:34:45Most industrialized, advanced nations, populations, their populations come to a plateau eventually,
00:34:53where people, on their own accord, have less children, less kids, and populations seem to plateau and even decrease over time.
00:35:02And this is a pattern that, again, happens over and over with industrialization and advancement in technology,
00:35:10advancement in education, quality of life, etc.
00:35:13So, this is quite unlikely.
00:35:15Right now, humanity is all over the place, all over the globe.
00:35:19They inhabit many areas of the world, but not nearly any significant percentage of the available land mass of the world.
00:35:28When you look at the available square mileage, square kilometer area available on the land of the Earth,
00:35:35especially those that are habitable, it is insignificant the amount of land that we are currently inhabiting.
00:35:42So, we have plenty of space.
00:35:44So, the only limiting factor, among the most limiting factors that we have right now,
00:35:49is our choices to limit our own selves, limit immigration, limit where we can and cannot live.
00:35:57So, it is not, for the most part, something that is physical, that's a limitation, space limitation that we are facing.
00:36:07We have plenty of space.
00:36:08We don't occupy perhaps not even 10% of the Earth's land mass.
00:36:14Even if we allow for generous areas for each human, and this is not to change or perhaps even improve in the future,
00:36:26as we advance into the future.
00:36:28So, I believe that is not a good reason for us to embark on interstellar travel.
00:36:34So, personally, anything outside of just sheer exploration and just the voluntary expansion of humanity and perhaps life into the universe,
00:36:45anything outside of that is just not a real good reason, not justifiable, and basically unnecessary.
00:36:53It is an unnecessary endeavor to leave Earth because we can't take care of it, because we give up on taking care of it,
00:37:01or because we think that we're not going to have enough space when there's people with thousands of acres of land all around them,
00:37:08and they claim they own them, and, you know, they put picket fences and no trespassing signs all around their ranch area, their land area,
00:37:16and then they say that the Earth is overpopulated.
00:37:19So, these are not good reasons.
00:37:21So, the best reason I believe that humanity may embark in interstellar travel would be just voluntary expansion of life into the universe.
00:37:32Not by necessity, but by choice, because we want to, because we see it as something that is beneficial to not only the people that remain on Earth,
00:37:44but to life itself.
00:37:46For whatever purpose we believe life has, we may believe it is beneficial for us to expand our reach, our capability, existence in the universe.
00:37:57So, to move on to closed and hostile environments in space, that has a lot to do with human factors, especially for an interstellar mission.
00:38:19The mission, again, to another star system other than our own will be very long and very isolated,
00:38:30and the time and distance are going to compound and make whatever environment enclosed, whatever environment the astronauts occupy,
00:38:42whether it be a huge arc or a smaller, more conventional spacecraft, those will necessarily become closed and perhaps hostile environments.
00:38:54They will be necessarily closed environments because the spacecraft itself, with current technology, with our current capacity for building,
00:39:05and the systems that we can currently build will be necessarily smaller, limited in size, therefore cramped, therefore limited in space, habitable space, and quite spartan.
00:39:20Again, there will be little space for storage, for food, water, commodities, food growing.
00:39:27So, the crew and the equipment will likely be small if we are to consider current technology, our current state of technology.
00:39:37The crew will likely have limitations of movement. You won't be able to go out and run a mile, two miles around the ship most likely because of the space limitations.
00:39:46You may have to run that mile or two on a treadmill. You may not be able to play tennis or football on a field on the ship because of the, again, space limitations.
00:39:57So, you will be limited as far as movement. That makes it an enclosed environment.
00:40:03You will also face, more likely than not, a hostile environment when it comes to the microbial population.
00:40:10NASA pretty much specifies the hostility of an environment due to its danger when it comes to biology, microbes, bacteria, disease, etc.
00:40:22Those will become problems in an enclosed environment in space, especially if there is low or zero gravity throughout the trip, throughout the duration of the mission.
00:40:33Again, bacteria may evolve and change to harmful forms.
00:40:37Even bacteria that are neutral or friendly within our bodies may evolve into something that may be harmful.
00:40:44And again, this could happen a lot more rapidly during low gravity.
00:40:49The hostility in these environments may also come from other people, other humans, other astronauts.
00:40:55People may have disagreements. Most likely there will be. That's almost a certainty.
00:41:02There will be disagreements. There will be perhaps pretty deeply held beliefs and customs, deeply held ideas, ideologies that clash, that are incompatible with other peoples.
00:41:18And they may uproot or unearth other problems such as indifference, such as hostility even, such as even violence and lack of cooperation.
00:41:33A breakdown in communication may occur due to these differences and the inability to put those differences aside or not allow those differences to affect the way you behave with other people, your friendliness, politeness, your cooperation level.
00:41:50Again, communication level, those may be impacted and the mission may be impacted as well, perhaps negatively.
00:41:57And perhaps there may be bigger problems arise. At worst, mission compromise or mission failure.
00:42:05There may also escalations of hostility and even violence that may lead to problems as serious as attempts at hurting each other, the crew, the crew hurting themselves.
00:42:20And even there may be attempts at murder. And perhaps one or one of those attempts may be even successful.
00:42:27It is not inconceivable that these things may happen in space and that makes whatever environment this is occurring a hostile environment.
00:42:36It is not necessarily the case that the crew will make the environment a hostile one, but it may very well become one and the mission must be ready for this and must be able to either prevent it or deal with it.
00:42:52If it does arise and perhaps fix it and sort out the problems and come to a remediation of whatever problem may cause other issues such as hostility.
00:43:04Again, the convoluting or the problematic factor here, not only being the human crew or human population, but also the duration in which this human population will be together in an enclosed environment, i.e. the spacecraft.
00:43:21So the longer the trip goes, again, with current technology, we're foreseeing about several thousand years en route.
00:43:30Problems will surely arise and many may arise to the level of severe consequences.
00:43:38Again, there are methods to mitigate this, but we have very little experience with long duration flights.
00:43:47And we have precisely zero experience with ultra long duration flights such as many decades to hundreds to thousands of years of human space habitation.
00:43:58We have no idea what may come from such long duration in space.
00:44:03Lastly, isolation. Isolation provides challenges dealing with human factors similar to distance from Earth and hostile environments.
00:44:13Isolation will change the mood of the crew, most likely, especially in its initial phases.
00:44:19Isolation is basically the separation from Earth.
00:44:23As discussed, an interstellar mission will likely be a one-way trip.
00:44:28A crew that will be cast away from Earth as soon as it blasts off from the Earth's surface
00:44:34because of the currently expected massive and substantially long distances and vast distances of space that will have to be traversed.
00:44:46And the hundreds to thousands of years of duration of the missions will necessarily cast away whatever crew goes on these missions because of the time that will pass between the mission start and arrival at whatever star system the mission goes.
00:45:08Even if it's the nearest star system at current technology levels, it is hundreds to thousands of years away.
00:45:17And again, if you try to communicate with an Egyptian or Sumerian today, if they were somehow able to communicate between the vast time difference, thousands of years with one of us, the difficulty is obvious.
00:45:33It would be, I believe, an impossibility pretty much to communicate with such person and differences would be so vast that we'd be talking to someone from another planet.
00:45:44They have no idea all the technological advances that we have experienced and all of the knowledge that we have gained for the most part.
00:45:52And they would be utterly unfamiliar with everything that we are familiar with.
00:45:58So we would basically be two different races with two different languages trying to communicate somehow.
00:46:06It may happen to some degree, but just imagine that multiply by a couple of orders of magnitude and attempt to communicate with a race that broke off from Earth and they have become pretty much other species biologically.
00:46:22The way they think, the way they behave, the course of the development of their technology would be, I would believe, vastly different than the course of change in technology that took place on Earth.
00:46:35Whether it's the Earth advances a lot faster as far as technology goes or the technology on the ship advances a lot faster than the Earth or merely the difference in environments would create different types of technologies or necessitate different types of technologies where the evolution of technology would be vastly different.
00:46:55Would basically cleavage and stray away far, far from each other.
00:47:01So isolation would be a significant challenge on a human crewed interstellar mission because we would have to worry about the human factor during this isolation.
00:47:12What will the humans do on board?
00:47:14What will happen socially?
00:47:16What will happen biologically?
00:47:18What will happen psychologically with these humans once they are broken off and be on the run?
00:47:24Will the worst of our traits surface and take over the mission and perhaps despotism, perhaps the form of government or command hierarchy on board could devolve into something like a kingdom, something like a monarchy, something like a dictatorship?
00:47:45Or will it continue and look for the participation and cooperation of most of the crew, if not all?
00:47:54There is no telling.
00:47:55Once the ship leaves, it is up to the crew what they decide to do.
00:48:00Ultimately, it is up to them.
00:48:01Yes, their oaths, their promises, their training will play a very large factor, but it is unknown what will happen, especially when we're talking about multi-generations.
00:48:13What will the next generation be like?
00:48:16What will they decide to do?
00:48:18What changes will they impose or vote upon or enact in the future?
00:48:24There is no telling.
00:48:25Talking about the unknown, the last, perhaps, set of challenges that I would like to discuss is the very fact that there are a lot of unknowns.
00:48:37Once the interstellar crew goes on this very long, very challenging mission to whatever star system, even if it's the closest 4.4 light years away, there will be many unknowns that perhaps will be discovered.
00:48:52Perhaps some of them will not even be registered.
00:48:55Many unknowns perhaps will be learned or solved.
00:49:00Perhaps on routes, technology develops in a way, or the human mind develops in a way, or perhaps thinking about the problems can help or will help solve some problems that baffled many on Earth, most on Earth, or all on Earth.
00:49:17And in routes, there may be discoveries made.
00:49:20For example, dark matter, dark energy, which are basically other unknowns that we believe must exist because of other phenomena may be discovered, may be understood, may be even manipulated, may be even harnessed.
00:49:35Long sought-after answers on Earth, such as the prevention of perhaps some illnesses, diseases, such as cancer, AIDS, would likely, or maybe would be solved in space through research, through dedication, through laser-focused research and efforts.
00:49:56So, for example, through gene manipulation, we may be able to prevent cancer entirely.
00:50:03Through gene manipulation, we may be able to also prevent illnesses such as AIDS, other illnesses, herpes, etc.
00:50:11We may prevent illnesses with many of our organs, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, or we may be able to reverse those, fix those, cure those somehow.
00:50:24We may be able to slow aging to a point where we could extend our lives and quality of life significantly.
00:50:32I'm not going to really speculate for how much and how long.
00:50:35I mean, it could be by a significant margin.
00:50:38I don't believe, like many say, about being able to live forever.
00:50:43I don't know if people would even want that, most people.
00:50:46And it may not even be possible, since not even the most complex and large or simplest structures in the universe remain as they are forever.
00:50:58So change is, I believe, a universal necessity.
00:51:03And living forever is incompatible with this change.
00:51:07Change must occur.
00:51:09So if we, let's say, for a minute, we can imagine that we live forever.
00:51:14In what state do we live forever?
00:51:16Do we freeze a certain state?
00:51:18Do you want to freeze yourself at what stage in your life?
00:51:20Is it in your mid-40s?
00:51:23Is it in your mid-20s?
00:51:25Is it as a child?
00:51:26Is it as an elder, adult?
00:51:28There are too many questions there and too many possibilities to even consider that could be something that may be possible in the future.
00:51:37Again, extension of life may be something that is discovered either on Earth, before any interstellar trip or travel effort, or while the mission is already en route.
00:51:48Whether it's on Earth or on board, or both, there may be discoveries made back on Earth, as well as on the ship.
00:51:56And this may advance the medicine on board.
00:52:00I call it space medicine.
00:52:01To the point where health may not be a worry, may not be a worrying factor.
00:52:08It may just be something that it is taking care of, perhaps even with automated systems.
00:52:13There is a possibility also of cybernetics advancing to the point that we blur the line between the living and the synthetic, or the machine.
00:52:24Between biological and machine, as many of our sci-fi films and stories, from as far as memory goes, say, or account, there may be a time that what we often call cyborgs, robots, or half-human, half-robots, hybrids, whatever the name of the time may be, for them, for those.
00:52:46But as we are, right now, doing with many of our prosthetics, implants, brain connections to organs, such as to robotic limbs, for example, arms and hands that could be controlled by brain impulses, brain signals somehow picked up by machines, wiring, and implants.
00:53:09We are doing that stuff today, so that may evolve in advance in the future, perhaps to a recognizable stage.
00:53:18So, it is not inconceivable that we may begin to have or implant artificial vital organs, such as lungs, livers, kidneys, artificial hearts even, and perhaps eyes, perhaps other very critical and even vital organs.
00:53:38Even areas of the brain may be replaced by computers or computer-like equipment, or even entire brains.
00:53:46So, there may be a time that our technology, when it comes to, for example, computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, electronics, or even some other type of technology that we yet are to develop,
00:54:00that is perhaps a combination of those, or perhaps something entirely new, perhaps something that's more in the solid state area of science, or maybe perhaps more in the organic state of science.
00:54:14We may come up with other types of technologies, perhaps organic-based technologies, such as a video game I remember from years ago, where spaceships are basically living organisms,
00:54:26that are basically grown, and they are able to live in space and house, and be used as arcs for different races.
00:54:36So, this may be, to some degree, something that could be possible in the very far future.
00:54:42It is hard to know, of course, with any kind of certainty, but it is these unknowns that make, I believe, an interstellar mission very attractive, captivating,
00:54:54and something that we may want to go for, for the advancement, not only of technology, but the advancement of civilization and humanity as a whole.
00:55:06And, finally, on what I believe will take place for humans in the far future, dealing with interstellar travel,
00:55:15this is my opinion, and my estimation, my humble and ill-informed layman's view or estimation of what may happen in the far future for humanity, our species, and the cosmos.
00:55:30I believe, in the far future, that we will fly among the stars, that we will go to other star systems, beginning, of course, with the most obvious, our closest star system, the Alpha Centauri system.
00:55:44But, perhaps, this will not happen in the way that most of us think, humans, valiantly, and finally coming together, and in cooperation,
00:55:53building vast, mega starships, using orbital structures, and embarking in concert, and caravans of huge ships going into these interstellar missions to Alpha Centauri.
00:56:07That is, I believe, what a lot of people think of when they think of interstellar travel.
00:56:12Perhaps, maybe one ship, instead of many, and arriving at the destination, maybe in fierce time, somehow accelerating to a very good percentage of the speed of light, perhaps 50% or more,
00:56:26arriving at the Alpha Centauri system, perhaps within a decade.
00:56:30And, this is all fine to think this way, but it is utterly unrealistic, I believe.
00:56:36I believe, when we do, finally, head to the stars, it won't be us at the helm, it won't be humanity building the ships, it won't be humanity even planning the mission,
00:56:49it won't be humanity even piloting and controlling the systems that take us there.
00:56:56I believe, in the far future, we may be laid back, lazy, perhaps incapable of performing the tasks that we once did, of taking the charge that we once did.
00:57:09We will probably be, in our comfort, depending on computerized, automated, artificial intelligence systems,
00:57:16to do just about everything for us, including our planning, including all of the work, whether it's manual labor, calculations, design, layouts, developing methods, developing systems.
00:57:31So, it would be, I believe, computing and artificial intelligence will develop to the point where humans will have to do very little,
00:57:41especially on high-end tasks that I believe would be missions to space, especially interstellar missions.
00:57:49These would require extremely advanced computing, extremely advanced thinking, and heavy labor,
00:57:57not to mention the gargantuan efforts to build, plan for, design, build the ships in orbit,
00:58:04and the cooperation needed, the organization needed, the detailed and meticulous planning and execution that would be needed.
00:58:14Humans, I believe, will come to the conclusion that all of that is better done by their ultra-smart systems,
00:58:22that they, once upon a time, in the very far past, developed.
00:58:27Their ancestors developed.
00:58:29I believe there may be a point where artificial intelligence will match the capability of humans in every conceivable way,
00:58:42in thinking, in planning, execution, computing, designing, in cooperating with other machines, other systems.
00:58:51All of the manual tasks, mechanical tasks, would be better done by machines,
00:58:57just as they are done much better and faster and more efficiently by machines in automated manufacturing plants of today.
00:59:05So, if the trend continues, and I believe very strongly that it will in those many areas that are very significant and very relevant to space exploration of technology,
00:59:17again, propulsion, the study of science, cosmology, planetary science, interstellar science, etc.
00:59:25All of that may be automated to the point where machines, or computers, or robots, whatever you want to call them,
00:59:32are going to have taken over, long ago, all of those tasks.
00:59:36And they, perhaps along with some input from some humans, may decide to go and take humanity, take biological life to the stars.
00:59:45By that time, they themselves may think of themselves as alive, as conscious.
00:59:51Consciousness is a very hard thing to define, and that definition may be further blurred in the future,
00:59:59with the extremely smart systems that may arise, may be so smart,
01:00:04and may be able to build and duplicate the feelings, the thoughts, the actions of humans so closely,
01:00:12and with such high fidelity that humans themselves may not be able to tell the difference between machines and biological organisms.
01:00:20Maybe humans, humanoid organisms, or beings.
01:00:24So, I believe this to be more likely to occur in the very far future.
01:00:28Sometimes we see or attempt to project a lot of what we know from our present into the future.
01:00:36And I believe that is a mistaken approach many times.
01:00:39Sometimes it may work.
01:00:41Sometimes it may be right.
01:00:42But I believe many times it may be the wrong approach.
01:00:45You may have to mix things a little bit, change things a little bit, make things extreme a bit.
01:00:50Because I believe that's the trend.
01:00:52And I believe that someone from the past would see today's world as extreme in many ways, perhaps most.
01:01:00So, you would need to think extreme when you think about the far future.
01:01:05Because what seems to be extreme to us now may be the norm in the far future.
01:01:11And I believe also it's the give and take.
01:01:13You develop a lot in one area, you take away from another.
01:01:17I believe that is a natural phenomenon in our universe.
01:01:20If you spend a lot of effort and time, for example, doing one type of thing, one work,
01:01:26you are utterly forgetting and, I would say, ignoring another area in which you are going to be underdeveloped.
01:01:33In which you are going to be lacking knowledge, lacking skill, practice, and everything.
01:01:37I believe this will occur also at one point where humans will depend, will become so dependent on technology.
01:01:45Because, again, that is the trend.
01:01:48Today, we depend on computers through our, what we call smart devices, phones, laptops, tablets, etc.
01:01:56A lot more than 10 years ago.
01:01:59And certainly a lot more than 20 years ago.
01:02:01So, if the trend continues, that is what that tells me.
01:02:05That we will continue to depend more and more on technology.
01:02:08More and more on smart systems to do things for us.
01:02:12Such as looking at our GPS maps instead of looking at street signs, road signs, and figuring out, by landmarks, where we are, what direction we're traveling.
01:02:23Almost no one on the road uses a compass to see what direction they're headed.
01:02:27All they have to do is look at their screen.
01:02:29It has a compass on it.
01:02:31No one busts a paper map.
01:02:32I say no one, just in the generic sense, but I know there are exceptions.
01:02:37But, most people don't look at paper maps.
01:02:41So, sorry about the noise.
01:02:43There was some sort of ice ball that hit the roof of my vehicle.
01:02:46I'm driving through a winter storm.
01:02:48What looks like a winter storm right now, through Kentucky.
01:02:51So, that's what I believe will happen.
01:02:53We will be taken for a ride to the stars by our, I would say, semi-sentient, semi-conscious, extremely capable artificial intelligence systems and machinery that will design, build, launch extremely capable spaceships that have very efficient and powerful propulsion systems.
01:03:17They may even perform breakthroughs with propulsion in many other systems, perhaps all of the systems and problems that I just mentioned.
01:03:26The machines may make breakthroughs in all of those, perhaps the most important ones.
01:03:32Propulsion, gravity systems, anti-radiation shields, and space medicine.
01:03:38They may perform breakthroughs in all of those systems, all of those areas, and take us to the stars.
01:03:44I believe this to be more likely than we doing it on our own, at the helm, and in control.
01:03:52Now we'll leave it at that.
01:03:52Thank you very much.
01:03:53This has been the challenges of interstellar travel with focus on the challenges with human factors.
01:04:02Thank you very much.
01:04:03This has been Hector Vladimir.
01:04:06Thank you very much.
01:04:08Thank you very much.
01:04:38Thank you very much.
01:05:08Let's go.
01:05:38Let's go.
01:06:08Let's go.
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