What colonies? Where? //

Well to start with and the most obvious, the Moon and Mars(and space, as in space stations). They will be colonized to some extent in our Childs lifetimes I suspect. But you are right, when you get out towards Pluto, it is going to take a huge leap in technology for us to get to our nearest neighbor. On the scale we have now, it would have to be huge city ships that can house generations of individuals for a very long time, with a ton of redundancies for safety and longevity.The descendants will be the ones to finally arrive. And in an odd twist of fate, a faster drive will be invented during that period, and that old ship will be passed up to arrive on an already colonized planet. Think I just threw out an idea for a new story line...(-;

Putting people on the moon and on Mars, sure. But that's not really sustainable.

At our top speed right now it would take about 137,000 years to get to Alpha Centari.

Seems promising...

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Well, we are talking about extended lifetimes. Think about how many posts you could have by then.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

We are currently experimenting with remotely guided unmanned craft to move asteroids into Moon and Earth orbits. Those resources, once we have found and moved suitable asteroids into those orbits, will be used to build the next generation of space craft, that will use propulsion systems that could not be used on Earth. With those we will be able to colonize Mars, the Moon, perhaps the moons of Saturn as Jupiter is too big of a radiation emitter for us to build a colony there with foreseeable technology.

Once we have accomplished that, and can experiment with even more advance propulsion systems and power sources that will allow us to experiment and develop faster than light travel, we will then be able to colonize other solar systems.

None of this will happen tomorrow, but the asteroid experiments are being set up now. That is the foundation. Once the foundation is established, the rest will ensue. One hundred years ago we were barely able to fly, we reached the Moon in 1969, the SLS will take us back to the Moon and to Mars, and will give us the lift ability to take the machine components to orbit with the asteroids so that the next space craft can be built in space. The first SLS launch will be next year, and before I retire, it will take men into deep space in 2020 and perhaps to Mars around 2023.

In the next hundred years, it is unreasonable to believe that we will harness the power of fusion energy? That energy will get us to the far reaches of our solar system. That ability to set up habitable bases away from Earth and the fusion energy source will enable us to experiment with lots of other technology that is theoretical right now but too dangerous or power needful for us to experiment with here on Earth.

That trajectory will lead to extra-solar travel in 200 years or so.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and and 2312, are quite interesting. They're about colonizing Mars and the political upheaval that comes with it. He also touches on the first generation to live extremely long lives and how they adjust.

I think lives that long would make people intensely conservative. However they would have a much longer view and be able to plan big projects and see the long-term impact of things such as environmental degradation.

Life would be incredibly tough for young people who aren't born into money or don't have strong patrons. Unless you extend childhood and adolescence, you would have 20 year olds trying to establish themselves in a world where everyone else has had centuries to find their niche, to make money, to buy property, etc. I could envision blissful childhoods followed by high suicide rates as they hit their 20s.

Star Trek did that one except the ship they found used suspended animation to extend the life of the crew. And I think they went off target for some reason.

I think that was the Khan episode? Later they used this theme for one of the movies as I recall too..

That plot is in numerous SciFi books, movies and TV shows. A generation ship finally reaches its destination only to find that the planet they selected is already developed and they are centuries out of date. In other plots, one planet is settled by a generation ship but the nearby system is reached a few hundred years earlier and the two have to deal with completely different world views when they meet.

It's Science Fiction, I usually write with the standard "we have faster than light travel and artificial gravity" package.

Btw thanks for all the responses, the bit about 500 years being a normal life and not a big idea is something to work into the general narrative. Also someone asked about people dying around 500 years, I just needed a lifespan, haven't figured that out yet.

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Jim

**Note above poster works for a retailer selling bikes and related gear*

It’s a very interesting question. All modern economic models break down when you have a lack of scarcity. Accordingly, political and societal models break down.

Certainly gives "Millennial" a whole new meaning

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin