The first crew would face the most difficult challenges. Imagine the relief after expecting to establish the fundamentals of civilization, and instead are just assigned your living quarters.
I would definitely prefer to be a leader of new world than just be sent to my room.
I guess. I’m more of a space socialist, myself. Silly me always assumed that equality and collaboration would be a precursor to colonization of other worlds. Musk is trying so hard to prove me wrong. Lol
What if you set out with the idea of starting socialist utopia on a new planet and get there to find booming corporate dystopia?
Put me back to sleep and wake me for the revolution.
Let’s burn this bitch down and start over with the common man in mind, and the needs of everyone met.
Or let’s go find a new planet. With blackjack, and hookers.
I don’t know how you can look around at the world and think that will ever be a thing.
If people stopped starving, beating,.and raping children for 2 generations it would be possible. Humans have no need to compete with each other for survival already. If we could just get a generation or two with minimal human inflicted trauma it would be obvious.
Seems possible to me.
If people stopped starving, beating,.and raping children for 2 generations it would be possible.
How do you propose we achieve this? We’d have to isolate a group of people who’ve never experienced abuse and set them up somewhere the rest of us could never come in contact with them again.
Step one: School breakfast and lunch for all. Food benefits for struggling families on top of that.
Let’s get it done.
Space is big. You can always go out and find a different place.
Except you’re basically a caveman. You leave and you’re one of the world’s foremost engineers, trusted to know everything necessary to build a new settlement from scratch, with no help from Earth.
You get there and your engineering knowledge is 3000 years out of date. The only people who are interested in your skills are archaeologists and anthropologists. They use an app to ask you questions like “Could you demonstrate how you used woodpaper to wipe your anus?”
What a fascinating point. I’d be fine holding antique engineering story hour as my contribution. Who knows what old gems were lost over the years. It sounds like fun, even if I was just a novelty.
If the records survived, they might not need anything from you, because they’ve already watched it all on video. But, maybe some of them would be interested to see it in person once. Even if we know how warriors fought 3000 years ago, it would still be interesting to see a true expert warrior using their weapons in a way that took a lifetime to master.
If the records didn’t survive, you might be a valuable person to study for a while, but it might quickly get tiring to basically be a sideshow performer, there to delight the people who think of you as this ultra-primitive thing that’s nearly an animal.
I would bet it would be pretty frustrating for most people after a while. You’d have this mental image of yourself as a sophisticated, modern person who was respected by his/her peers. Suddenly, you’d be living in a world where people around you might be struggling to contain their disgust. Things that are normal to you like eating meat or peeing in a toilet might be seen as animal-like behaviours.
If you’re lucky, then your sophisticated construction and engineering techniques might be seen as impressive feats of craftsmanship. In a world where robots fasten everything that needs fastening, just driving in a nail or using a screwdriver might be seen as something really fancy, like we’d now see the kinds of stonemasonry that they might have had millennia ago.
But, if your self-image is that of an advanced engineer, and the best you can hope for is to be seen as a quaint old-timey craftsman, that might not be very satisfying.
You’re absolutely correct from a “best practice” standpoint, but only the standards make it into records. That’s the source of our admiration of “old-fashioned know-how.”
Real life experience can’t be catalogued. The index doesn’t have dirt under its nails. Sure, I’d be obsolete and out of place in the day-to-day, but I’d always be ready to coyboy up in a crisis.
In the meantime, I could probably make a decent living creating one-of-a-kind newly handcrafted antiques for the neo-hipsters.
I think I’d really enjoy our movie, btw.
Real life experience can’t be catalogued
In ye olde days it couldn’t. But, what if the current database of YouTube videos survives? You’d get every non-expert trying everything in any way possible. If books and podcasts survive, you’d have every discussion on why things are done a certain way and not another way. Assuming it all survives, there’d be so much more information to future archaeologists and anthropologists than today. Right now we just dig up a shard of pottery and try to figure things out from whatever we can glean from that pottery.
It would make for a cool movie. The only problem is trying to imagine a really distant future that makes the present look barbaric.
They had fun with that in Demolition Man with the three shells. Star Trek TNG did it in The Neutral Zone where they had a bunch of people from the 20th century including a financier who couldn’t accept the lack of money in the future. But it’s really hard to make a future that’s believable and makes the present look barbaric.
That’s so true. I’ve thought about that quite a lot watching sci-fi. I really enjoy the idea of trying to create a completely new culture or civilization without first seeing it as an inevitable evolutionary progression. I think that’s the only way to really imagine a civilization that far into the future.
I love that you thought of the three shells. It’s absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi mechanics to leave unexplained phenomena up to the viewer or reader. Most stories end up as a bland socialist paradise or a dystopian nightmare. I like the idea of something different altogether, or a blend of present-day and something else entirely. Kind of like how Taco Bell won the fast food wars. Lol
The only problem is trying to imagine a really distant future that makes the present look barbaric.
But it’s really hard to make a future that’s believable and makes the present look barbaric.
This episode of Star Trek: DS9 from 1995 depicts life in 2024
The Bell Riots weren’t what they were cracked up to be. Either that, or they got the date wrong.
But, the writers in that scene went really easy on the set dressers and costumers: “Ok, it’s a street scene in 2024, but everyone is poor, and as a result they don’t have anything built after… say… 1995.”
Well at least you didn’t have to spend the rest of your life building civilisation from scratch.
Could be even worse than that. You could arrive to find a planet dominated by talking apes with humans living as primitive animals, only to later find that your ship whipped back around and you were on Earth all along.
I love you, Dr. Zaius!
You know, this is the live-action remake Disney needs to actually make. They own the rights to The Simpsons and Planet of the Apes. They could absolutely make a feature-length Planet of the Apes musical. And I don’t want them to use the CGI apes like they use in the modern films. Bring back the 1960s makeup. If you’re going to do it, do it right.
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Yeah but it’s all strip malls and Arby’s.
Don’t you dare slander Arby’s and the Big Montana!
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That’d be why I’d sign up
At least you aren’t a soldier ready to restart a war that’s been settled
Babylon 5 had an episode on this. A sleeper ship was launched and a few years later we got jump gate tech from an alien race.
The Orville too. And apparently this show called “Ark” too (going by other comments). And in books and video games too. Seems to be a common sci-fi trope.
That’s how they found Khan in Star Trek.
It was also the plot of a sci fi story Far Centaurus by AE Van Vogt.
The Ark, tv series.
This was also an episode of The Orville.
Also an episode of Babylon 5.
Is it good? I’m looking for a new series to watch
Very very very good
I caught a few early episodes on Syfy channel and they didn’t impress me much. After a few days I saw a few more random episodes and started to care and get attached to the story and characters.
I’ve watched what I think is everything that is out now, 2 seasons I guess. I’m liking it a lot more than I would expect. High potential for it to keep being good. But yeah, the starting episodes are a little slow.
Thanks for the warning but I actually already enjoyed the first episode very much. I like the setting, the characters and their dynamics and I think it has a lot of potential while already being fun to watch. I’m looking forward to the rest of it and thanks again for the recommendation! And by the way: It’s renewed for a third season.
Yep, then I’m sure you’re gonna like it. I was really surprised in some situations in the plot and like where it’s going. At the end of s2 I was craving for more really hard. Very happy for the s3 being approved.
I did like the gag where the robot didn’t understand the boundaries of practical jokes and amputated someone’s leg as a prank.
I finished watching it a few weeks ago and I don’t remember that 😅. But I likely skipped a few episodes here and there, so no surprises there.
Oh you were talking about that series. I’ve never watched it. But that fun.
Ah. Different comment chain.
How is that not great for me? Setting up a colony must be hard work and all around pretty horrible.
I think that’s exactly what one would be hoping for. One does this to escape the reality of human civilization and seek the adventure of building it over again.
It’s like a start up. Show up early and buy in on low stocks, work your ass off, retire at 40. I’d assume it’s something like that. Pick the best place to build your house, claim all the resources.
Or maybe he just wanted solitude.
Curious that the star is called Barnard because that’s the name of the doctor that first performed a successful heart transplant.
I think its just a common surname
I consulted my Ivy League homeslice Chad G.P.T. III about the surname Barnard and he promptly provided the following response:
“… the surname Barnard, it’s not super common, but it’s not rare either. Here’s a quick breakdown: • In the U.S., it ranks around #2,500 to #3,000 in terms of frequency. That puts it in the mid-range — you’ll definitely run into it now and then, but it’s not like Smith or Johnson (if you’re looking for Johnson, so is Chad) • It’s more common in South Africa, partly because of Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the guy who did the first human heart transplant. The name has some Dutch/Afrikaans roots. • Also seen in the UK, Australia, and Canada with moderate frequency.
Origin-wise, it comes from the Germanic personal name Bernhard (“bear” + “brave/strong”) — which morphed into Barnard in English-speaking countries.
Merry and Pippin: “we should leave only after the 13th breakfast because by then the Eagles will already be on route and we can just use them.”
Minmaxing LOTR? Nice
That’s the plot of a nice obscure theatre piece I know, but they don’t travel that far, are awake, and see the other ships pass. It’s awsome and fun for the audience and super frustrating for the characters.
This is a take I never saw before on this matter. Is there a source?
It’s never been officially published and it’s not in English - it trully is obscure. It was played several times though with enough success and I do have the whole thing on my computer somewhere, probably (or at least I know who to ask for it). I’m not sure it’s worth reading in automatic translation, but if you’re interested, I could send it to you.
Oh, then it could be difficult. Thanks anyway.
That was the only memorable part of Starfield for me.
It wasn’t the only memorable thing for me, but it was memorable. Honestly I still think Starfield is a great basic framework for a video game, I just wish they put an actual finished video game onto that framework
Yep, and the biggest letdown. I expected the main quest to be meh, but side quests to he pretty fun.
They had the opportunity to create a really cool mission out of this, but instead created one of the most interesting stories and least fun questlines.
Jerks didn’t come pick me up on way there? Wtf dudes.
That’s on you bruh. You shouldn’t have placed that bumper sticker that said, “if this spacecrafts a rockin, don’t come a knockin”.
Omfg ugh why did i do that!
That was the generational spaceship lagging behind you on their 30rd generation, now mutants
Just be glad they managed to fly around your ship and not through it. Navigating at those speeds is hard, matching speed with an older ship, connecting to it and transfering all the people over is probably also difficult.
Not to mention those in the older ship are probably brought into hypersleep in a different way then more modern ships, so they might not actually be equipped to handle the people from the older ship.
Ikr? Rude.
With some variations, used already a few times in games and series.
Technically you just slept through the whole thing
The Fry Maneuver
Couldn’t be bothered to pick him up on the way.
Call that one a win.
Take risk of signing up for a 3000 year hyper-sleep trip.
Reap the rewards of being a pioneer without having to do any of the hard work.
join intergalactic ship pilgrimage hoping to be a pioneer to a new world
Land to late stage capitalism and the same oppression you were just trying to escape.
Id shoot myself immediately.
A mission in starfield (shit game but honestly decent writing at the very least) included just this. A generation ship finally arrived at its destination long after FTL travel was invented to find that the intended colony planet was already a fancy resort planet. You have to broker some kind of agreement between the parties.
It’s a couple of Star Trek episodes too. Similar idea is how they found Khan.
That’s why you outfit your ship with mass drivers.
Any parasites roaming around on your paradise? A couple hundred rocks at 2% light speed will clear that up.
Nice nice, and in the 3000 intervening years they’ve developed alpha particle cannons that shred your entire swarm of rocks and puny physical spaceship to white hot quantum loops as they sip megachampagne on their continent sized airships as they watch your fleet unwillingly transition to light
The gun that fired the barrage was the size of a juice box floating somewhere in orbit, they have millions of them
You didn’t even get a chance to pull your finger off of the mass driver button
It’s not made on earth so it’s mega sparkling wine
As if that future civilization would treat you as anything but a zoo specimen
Damn, you make it sound better and better. Just sent me out already!
50+ years younger too.
The real solution to this is simple. You’re a ship full of colonists dreaming of settling a new world, right? So go settle a new world! Ask the citizens of your target world for an FTL-capable spaceship, climb aboard, pick a new target further afield, and head off into the wild blue yonder. It seems that’s the least they could do in such a situation.
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Except the new FTL-capable ships are the result of 3000 years of advancement. You wouldn’t even be able to figure out how to use the bathroom, let alone do the navigation and piloting to reach a new planet.
Imagine we had some Egyptians from -1000 BC who suddenly arrived unexpectedly in the modern world. They think Ra, Anubis and Horus control their fates. Iron is the most advanced technology they know of, but you’re proposing we make them astronauts?
Iron is the most advanced technology they know of, but you’re proposing we make them astronauts?
Honestly, that would be fucking hilarious to watch.
