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Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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I'm wondering if some kind of bio-engineering would be better. For some reason I just can't see myself trusting a machine to keep me alive 24/7. Genetically modify human beings to be simply all around stronger and less fragile and it would be easier to send them flying around all over the galaxy. You'd still have to deal with the problems of supplying air, water, and food of course but I imagine people would be more comfortable with genetic modification then plopping brains into a robot.

There are a lot of people who wouldn't agree to this on principle. There are also a lot of ethics concerns around bioengineering of humans, including with discrimination. Whites used to discriminate against blacks just because they looked different. And modern bioengineering, with some applied thought, time, and money, can achieve a lot more than just making people look different.

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And as for deep space, there is some chance that we will eventually be able to re-write our own genetic code so that our brains don't decay with age. Couple that with mind machine interfaces and we could be starships; with inputs directly to our senses we could dream away the voids between the stars.

Do you read Alistair Reynolds? Because I remember that's one of the things he toys with frequently in his novels and short stories.

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Here's a good animation of what a trip to Mars might look like using a spacecraft powered by 3 VASMIR engines.

I can imagine ion thrusters being used a lot in long distance travel.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

Let Toyota design it... we'll be there in less then 40 days. Of course we will arrive at Jupiter before the fuel runs out.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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Originally Posted by Nemmerle (Post 5265179)

It is my belief and hope that we're moving towards an integration of man and machine.

Oh hell no. I dont want to be a damn machine. Humans need to stay humans, not become cybernetic organisms.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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Originally Posted by Afterburner (Post 5265182)

That level of genetic modification is never going to help you or me. You want to re-write someone you do it when they're all of a few cells high. But then you’ve got a lot of moral and legal problems, whose going to own these modified humans’ genomes? Aren't there human rights issues in tailoring a child specifically so that it can do a job when it gets older?

The advantages of bionics is they're entirely voluntary, potentially applicable to us in some form or another - this woman for instance already has a robotic arm; (kinda cool, though not anywhere near what I'm talking about of course) - and you can program computers to perform certain tasks much more precisely than an organic circuit. I don’t think we’ll be looking at really good mind machine interfaces in our lifetimes but then again people said we’d never see computers in the home.

I think that they will be, certainly at first, things you do bit by bit. I don’t imagine too many people just ditching their organic bodies entirely. But as you get older and your body starts to break down... I imagine that’s where most of the technology is going to come from.

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Originally Posted by Afterburner (Post 5265182)

I mean personally I like my fleshy self. Unless the robot will be capable of perfectly mimicking the human body(albeit, with added bonuses), I'm not interested. I want to have all of my senses intact, want to be able to feel pain even. It's all a part of being human to me.

In a sense beyond having certain a combination of biological capabilities I was never good at being human anyway. There are bits and pieces of my fleshy self I like of course. Touch, taste, sound, sight - never had much of a sense of smell but the few smells I do get are nice I suppose. Can't say I particularly like pain but if you didn't have it....

Hopefully you should be able to wire those in at some point though. Be devilishly complex but at the same time

There are bits of my fleshy self I could definitely do without. Having to eat, needing to sleep.... =p

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Originally Posted by Mr. Pedantic (Post 5265194)

Do you read Alistair Reynolds? Because I remember that's one of the things he toys with frequently in his novels and short stories.

I don't. But next time I buy some books I might seek him out. :)

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Originally Posted by NiteStryker (Post 5265850)

Oh hell no. I dont want to be a damn machine. Humans need to stay humans, not become cybernetic organisms.

You don't have to become one but I don't see why humans need to stay humans.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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Originally Posted by Nemmerle (Post 5266105)

True, though I wouldn't doubt that putting our brains into robots or spaceships is also going to cause a big moral dilemma for a bunch of people.

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I think that they will be, certainly at first, things you do bit by bit. I don’t imagine too many people just ditching their organic bodies entirely. But as you get older and your body starts to break down... I imagine that’s where most of the technology is going to come from.

In a sense beyond having certain a combination of biological capabilities I was never good at being human anyway. There are bits and pieces of my fleshy self I like of course. Touch, taste, sound, sight - never had much of a sense of smell but the few smells I do get are nice I suppose. Can't say I particularly like pain but if you didn't have it....

Hopefully you should be able to wire those in at some point though. Be devilishly complex but at the same time

There are bits of my fleshy self I could definitely do without. Having to eat, needing to sleep.... =p

So long as the full battery of senses could be wired into an android body then yeah, I'd be fine with it. I just don't see that happening within my lifetime. We're moving fast with this stuff but I don't think it will get to the point where our replacement limbs are better then our current limbs before I die (unless they make that pill that makes people live forever). Eventually yeah, but I don't know how soon.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

I'll stay non-machine, thank you. I dont have a problem controlling machines, but when the machine becomes a part of you, thats the line.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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Originally Posted by NiteStryker (Post 5266443)

I'll stay non-machine, thank you. I dont have a problem controlling machines, but when the machine becomes a part of you, thats the line.

Are you 100% certain? If you lose a hand, do you want to be able to still engage in things that'd require both hands? I can see why having some sort of computer or AI might be worrisome, but machines by themselves seem like a solution to human biological problems.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days

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Originally Posted by Crazy Wolf (Post 5266522)

Would I want it? Probably, but I wouldnt want to become half machine. I am human, not a cyborg. I am ok with machine enhancements, but not with integration.