The Weather Out There - Long Now
I really liked this short story.
Link tags: interstellar
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Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
This wide-ranging essay by Nick Nielsen on Centauri Dreams has a proposition that resonates with my current talk about evaluating technology:
Science produces knowledge, but technology only selects that knowledge from the scientific enterprise that can be developed for practical uses.
Then there’s this:
The most remarkable feature of how we got from the origins of our species to the complex and sophisticated civilization we have today is that, with few exceptions, none of it was planned. Technology was not planned; civilization was not planned; industrialization was not planned; the internet was not planned.
[1701.01109] Fast Radio Bursts from Extragalactic Light Sails
We examine the possibility that Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) originate from the activity of extragalactic civilizations. Our analysis shows that beams used for powering large light sails could yield parameters that are consistent with FRBs.
I’m guessing Paul Gilster may have thoughts on this.
Our Generation Ships Will Sink / Boing Boing
Kim Stanley Robinson pours cold water on the premise of generation starships for crewed interstellar travel.
The more I hear about Aurora, the more I think I might enjoy reading it.
(Xrisk 101): Existential Risk for Interstellar Advocates | Heath Rezabek - Academia.edu
Exemplars proposing various solutions for the resilience of digital data and computation over long timeframes include the Internet Archive; redundantly distributed storage platforms such GlusterFS, LOCKSS, and BitTorrent Sync; and the Lunar supercomputer proposal of Ouliang Chang.
Each of these differs in its approach and its focus; yet each shares with Vessel and with one another a key understanding: The prospects of Earth-originating life in the future, whether vast or diminishing, depend upon our actions and our foresight in this current cultural moment of opportunity, agency, awareness, ability, capability, and willpower.
TARS, CASE & KIPP from Interstellar
Print out the plans, fold and glue/sellotape the paper together, and you’ve got yourself the best sci-fi robots in recent cinema history.
Archeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
A free PDF download from NASA on all things SETI, specifically the challenges of interspecies interstellar communication.
Project Icarus
A joint effort by the Tau Zero Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society to research the design of an interstellar spacecraft.