100-Year Starship Study Public Symposium

From 29 Sep - 2 Oct, I was at a public symposium in the US.

The conference was called the 100 Year Starship Study Public Symposium. Despite the incredulous-sounding nature of the conference, I was precisely there, hearing from the likes of SETI head Jill Tarter, Long Now Foundation co-founder Steward Brand, numerous sci-fi authors, just to say the least.

The conference's objective was to study the feasibility of an organisation to build the starship - not for the actual starship construction per se, but about the nature of the organisation that would be necessary to build it. I was mainly in the forums that explored the economic, social, ethical and legal consideration; and the religious and philosophy.

There was an ethical consideration of the debate - that the organisation would have to consider seriously the ethical considerations of such a endeavour. Could we leave behind the various forms of discrimination when we build and send people to the starship?

Lessons were shared about the previous starship projects. Voyager 1 was touted as one, and there was discussion about the historical evolution of the project. The length of the Voyager programme had to endure technological and personnel changes, and there has to be constant re-training of the people who are involved in the project. Interest with the public has to be constantly evaluated to gain broad-based support. The public has to identify and participate with the 100 YSS for the project to sustain itself.

Gaming industry and game mechanics could be integrated into 100YSS; 100YSS should also be marketing-led as well. Marketing-led in that 100YSS has to identify key stakeholders and to interact with them to sustain themselves too. Concretizing other suggestions on relatability, Gould suggests that 100YSS become a brand that people can relate to, such as "Starship approved" products. By focusing on Starship as a brand, visibility with the public can be achieved.

The economics on Earth should eventually be sufficient to sustain the construction of the starship, given general economic and population growth trends.

Religious considerations would have to be factored in. The change in the worldviews in the wake of a discovery of other forms of life on other planets would have secondary and tertiary considerations not yet thought about in a sustained fashion. Some religions have engaged with questions of salvations on other worlds and related questions, while other religions seem to have built-in ambivalent responses to the possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligences. And the language with which we discuss the exploration of space - exploitation or learning?

There remains a lot more conceptual space with which to explore the entire 100YSS.