Should computers be sentient? Or become sentient? General consensus is NO AI at Launch, but once a ship leaves the Sol system, an author can alter this rule to fit their creative destires.

• I like AI's but they are like superman—too powerful. Or how can we keep them to an intelligence level not too much more that humans? --DaveK

• My problem with artificial intelligences is I don't know how to make them only as smart as humans. Once they get too much smarter then what use are humans? We can simply say that human intelligence is the limit but that is cheating. -- DaveK - 25 Jul 2004

The general consensus is NO FTL. This also means NO FTL communications

• Faster than light travel is too non-scientific at this time. Also is is unimportant to the story. If FTL is near instanteous then the whole story premis falls apart. If it is simply faster than light but only by a few tens of times it simply moves the location of the colony planet farther out in the galaxy. Also no FTL communications. The use of FTL communications has been requested to be reviewed. There is some physics that may allow it. --DaveK - 04 Aug 2004

• This is still my biggest concern with the idea. Probes or telescopes, the data needed to push evolution into a certain direction maynot be accurate because it will be old. When we look out into the universe now, we don't see what the universe looks like now. We have a very skewed image of what things really look like. If we launch our ship based on telescopic evidence of a star and its planet, and try to slowly introduce environment changes to spark evolution toward being able to live on that world, we are sure to run into the fact that here now does not equate with here then. The same is true with probes. Any signal from the probes will take time to reach the ship, and it will take time for the probes to reach their destination. I offer this compromise: Use probes that are connected to the ship through quantum entanglememt. We would have to fudge the science abit to allow entanglement to pass information. However, regadless of how long the probes took, once in place, all data recieved would be real time. Said probes could be nothing more than fist sized packets of sophisticated instruments and light enough to be able to be accelerated to near light speeds and able to cross distances in shorter times. See Dave's excellent numbers on relativity and near light travel. We can also make use of telescopes, et. along the way. -- EmptyKube - 27 Jul 2004

Who launches the ship?

• A government, a world wide government, a space based government, private enterprise, a religious group, or a secret society - Secret Federation of World Wanders. See thoughts in the government union. My vote is for the newly created SEA Union! smile --CmAmidon - 27 Sep 2004

• Why not all three? Different groups would have different, and competing reasons for both their own launches and also for wanting to stop another groups' plans for launching. -- AnnelieseFox - 24 Jul 2004 15:34:01

• Or each government, group, or organization can have their own space on the ship. Sounds good. It could lead to a lot of conflict. Not bad for a story environment. -- DaveK - 25 Jul 2004 02:18:45

Natural Disasters? Meteor impacts? Stellar Phenomenon? Technological Marvels? Peave Accords? This sectoin is for anything not covered by the other pages [Alien Contact?], [Earth Government and Politics?], [Wars?], [Earth Environment?].

• Or other world wide events that would be referenced either in passing or as the cause for particular behavior by the crew. I'd say no. If no wars, lets say no major geological of climatic upheavals that have thoroughly altered our lives. That's fodder for another science fiction book. --DaveK

• On second thought, perhaps this is a mechanism? If Earth is threatening to give up the ghost, then that's motivation to reach far into space. However, I think this reasoning is too cliche. Battlestar Galactica comes instantly to mind. --CmAmidon - 27 Sep 2004

Climate Change? Sea Leave Rise? Pollution? Similar to today?

• Unlike most politicians these days, I do believe in global warming. (CLimates have always changed in Earth's past, we've only accelerated that changed today with our CO2 and Greenhouse Gases). Higher sea level, scarcer fresh water (once the oil is gone, fresh water is the next resource for which blood will be spilled.) As to America, I don't see a cease to suburban sprawl. Cities will continue to wither interally and spread externally. Open space in the east and far west will be nearly gone, but very few people will remain in the PLains except aroudn metropolitan centers.

Any past wars of interest? Did it lead to a world government?

• I'm an optimist. So I say no big wars, maybe some large terrorist activity (but that may be local events coloring my judgement). And the current nations have consolidated into large regional federatons. --DaveK

• Sure, no wars is fine with me. I always agree with regional consolidations. Here's threeI definately believe in: The EU going strong (perhaps plus Canada). A SEAU (Southeast Asian Union). USA would still be fiercely independent. Some other possibilites: perhaps an Oceania Union (Australia, Indonesia, Pacific Islands). or SH Union, Southern Hemishphere Union, perhaps Sub-Sahara Africa, Australia, Indonesia, etc).

• See comment in the "wars" area. I think more trade pacts and unions in that regard, but most of the world will still be destitute and bickering with one another. I think a strong SE-Asian economic union would absolutely undertake a mission like this. These days China and Japan are much more forward thinking. Right or wrong, China is seriously thinking about space again, manned missions, space colonies, the whole shabang. Eventually add on India, Vietnam, Mongolia, South Korea, etc, and I think you have a recipe for a concerted effort to make a push into space. Perhaps another space race is in order between the SEA (Southeast Asian Union), the EU, and the USA. --CmAmidon - 27 Sep 2004

• I would suggest moon colonies, mars colonies and some habitats in the asteroid belt. --DaveK

• I agree with this. Certainly moon and mars. We could do this in the next 20 years if Humanity real wanted to do it (though few of us do. We're still too busy killing each other.) By 2150 I think colonies at these localities are a plausible future. CmAmidon - 27 Sep 2004

Have aliens been contacted? Radio or physically?

• What if we introduce the discovery of an alien wreck somewhere in the currently reachable solar system (Earth, moon, nearby asteriods, Mars, et) with immense data storage regarding the species own colonial or survey efforts. Such a discover might just spark enough interest to inspire putting together missions to some of the worlds, and detailed planning to attempt to adjust the crew's biology to fit the destination environs. --DaveK

• I would argue against introducing anything alien early in the endeavor. Let Humanity figure this stuff out on its own.

First of all, I want to say that anything here is my personal opinion only and you are more than welcome to ignore every bit of it.

!!First Impressions

I was immediately engaged with this idea. The thought of exploring evolutionary changes over vast distances and time is fantastic. I've done some reading about how species spread over the planet and how evolutionary forces come to play...and I've done some personal speculation of my own.

!!My thoughts on evolutionary spread

It seems to me that it is in the genetic coding of every living thing on this planet to "go forth and multiply"..."to cover the earth." This leads to some interesting conflicts, but also explains why most species tend to aggressively attempt to colonize every square inch of real estate that they can occupy. This might be a condition of life in general, or it might be specific to certain evolutionary rules that happened to dominate here.