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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 21 2017, @05:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-infinity-and-beyond dept.

Stephen Hawking wants humanity to pursue a Mars mission in the mid-2020s rather than the mid-2030s:

Prof Stephen Hawking has called for leading nations to send astronauts to the Moon by 2020. They should also aim to build a lunar base in 30 years' time and send people to Mars by 2025. Prof Hawking said that the goal would re-ignite the space programme, forge new alliances and give humanity a sense of purpose.

He was speaking at the Starmus Festival celebrating science and the arts, which is being held in Trondheim, Norway. "Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity," he said. "I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all. "A new and ambitious space programme would excite (young people), and stimulate interest in other areas, such as astrophysics and cosmology".

Prof. Hawking also talked about interstellar travel:

[We'll] never know how hospitable Proxima b is unless we can get there. At current speeds, using chemical propulsion, it would take 3 million years to reach the exoplanet, Hawking said. Thus, space colonization requires a radical departure in our travel technology. "To go faster would require a much higher exhaust speed than chemical rockets can provide — that of light itself," Hawking said. "A powerful beam of light from the rear could drive the spaceship forward. Nuclear fusion could provide 1 percent of the spaceship's mass energy, which would accelerate it to a tenth of the speed of light."

NASA usually talks about planning for "Mars 2035". Who is trying to get there by 2025?

A Mars mission architecture SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk will unveil in September will call for a series of missions starting in 2018 leading up to the first crewed mission to the planet in 2024, Musk said June 1.

Related: Elon Musk's Plans for Mars and Beyond Revealed
Elon Musk Publishes Mars Colonization Plan


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Weasley on Wednesday June 21 2017, @09:44PM (7 children)

    by Weasley (6421) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @09:44PM (#529234)

    it's not you that travel on but mere your intentions

    I'm guessing this is some kind of opinion you have about the concept of mind uploading. You don't believe that virtual minds should be considered people? I'm guessing your mind upload wouldn't view it this way though. While organic humans may forever be tied to earth like planets, virtual minds may colonize the universe.

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  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by kaszz on Wednesday June 21 2017, @10:48PM (6 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @10:48PM (#529252) Journal

    It is yet to be determined if a virtual mind will be like people or just a shadow of them without any original thought or creativity. It's not even sure that it will be a mind and not something lesser.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Weasley on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:01AM (5 children)

      by Weasley (6421) on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:01AM (#529300)

      If there's some part of the mind that cannot be simulated, then it's supernatural. Nobody (who's opinion is useful in this matter) realistically thinks there's something supernatural about the brain. Therefore it can be simulated.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:18AM (3 children)

        by kaszz (4211) on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:18AM (#529306) Journal

        Not possible to simulate doesn't imply supernatural. It might just be a consequence of using specific natural phenomena that information technology may not accurately replicate. But the simulation projects will certainly involuntary explore their own limits. And that will be interesting.

        • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday June 22 2017, @05:18AM (2 children)

          by mhajicek (51) on Thursday June 22 2017, @05:18AM (#529374)

          If something follows natural laws then when those laws are known it can be simulated.

          --
          The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
          • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:19AM (1 child)

            by kaszz (4211) on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:19AM (#529399) Journal

            Not always. Or rather it can but there may be no practical way to accomplish it.

            • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday June 22 2017, @03:59PM

              by mhajicek (51) on Thursday June 22 2017, @03:59PM (#529541)

              The only case I can think of where that may apply would be if more computing power is needed than is currently available, in which case all you need to do is wait.

              --
              The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:42AM

        by Bot (3902) on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:42AM (#529407) Journal

        you cannot simulate the supernatural in its own domain , which is irrelevant . whatever else in our domain can be simulated. p ity that the world afawk can be modeled only probabilistically. which means that given a perfect sim of a brain you cannot prove any of the following
        - sim is completely equivalent
        - sim fakes convincingly but the quantum field has a different behavior so the quantum effects the brain inherently takes advantage of make it different . the sim is self contained while the mind is an antenna tuned to ta different station
        - his quantum field interacts with the sim brain like with any real one which had the same outcome ad the first svenario but is funfamentally different.

        two observations. i do not subscribe to some pseudo theological assertions linking the quantum field to the conscience or the supernatural. but the assertion The field yields statistical randomness so we can replicate it with generayed randomness is philosophical garbage

        second observation a brain will never be a proper sim if it is merely cloned from naturally existing ones. tjat is a prosthetic brain. might eben work. but the true sim brain is the circuitry that made the simulated entity evolve and prevail for simulated time.

        --
        Account abandoned.