How bright is our future? That depends greatly on how feasible is interstellar travel. And we don’t really know that, because we are still pretty ignorant about what lies between the stars. Oh it all
The ability to have sustained growth doesn't seem like a good predictor of the propensity for colonization. Europe had lots of room and resources in the 1600's when North American colonization began in earnest. The question is: are there people who want things that can only be found outside of the solar system, e.g. certain resources, adventure, glory, liberty, etc. "Room" is probably not high on the list.
Unless you're talking time frames in order of a thousands years, we have plenty of resource here in the solar system to sustain a massive level of growth. Terraforming Mars and Venus is going to be a damn sight easier then interstellar colonization, and we have plenty of material to make millions of man made habitats. I'd love to go to another star as much as the next nerd, but it isn't a requirement for growth for many thousands of years.
Northern and southern hemisphere results combined on page 34.
The best explanation I can think of, is that there are interstellar magnetic field structures, localized on the sub-light-year scale, which concentrate and canalize the flux of cosmic rays.
Even without expansion off of Earth there are several ways in which humanity could continue to improve its standard of living. First, longevity could be lengthened. Second, cost and effort of manufacture and construction could continue to decline, meaning we get more and do more for the same portion of wealth spent. Third, despite the large number of people on Earth, there's still room for growth. For example, going to a large-scale arcology-style of urban development might result in greater population densities yet at the same time greater space per person due to better use of vertical space. So far it hasn't done so, but that doesn't mean we might not figure out a group of technologies that can make it work in a economical manner.
Fourth, we can improve the education of the average human and eventually the intellectual capacity of humans collectively. All this can be done without moving a single person off the planet.
Interplanetary development and trade (which includes development of asteroid resources and anything done in the Solar System sphere) probably will do as much as practical to improve the quality of life of people.
On interstellar scales, you are after bigger aims than quality of life, such as star system-scale computing, interstellar colonization, survey of every large object in the galaxy, or search for and investigation of intelligent life throughout the Milky Way, maybe um, "endstate" development (construction of things that are intended to last to the heat death of the universe), just to name a few.
Interstellar economics would be rather peculiar with information having a far transportation lower cost than physical materials and the relativistic communication delay affecting everything done at that scale.
Indubitably, it's figure out true interstellar or the standard of living won't get much higher than now. Unfortunately, there's no obvious solution to this dilemma.
The ability to have sustained growth doesn't seem like a good predictor of the propensity for colonization. Europe had lots of room and resources in the 1600's when North American colonization began in earnest. The question is: are there people who want things that can only be found outside of the solar system, e.g. certain resources, adventure, glory, liberty, etc. "Room" is probably not high on the list.
Unless you're talking time frames in order of a thousands years, we have plenty of resource here in the solar system to sustain a massive level of growth. Terraforming Mars and Venus is going to be a damn sight easier then interstellar colonization, and we have plenty of material to make millions of man made habitats. I'd love to go to another star as much as the next nerd, but it isn't a requirement for growth for many thousands of years.
The most recent paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2326
Northern and southern hemisphere results combined on page 34.
The best explanation I can think of, is that there are interstellar magnetic field structures, localized on the sub-light-year scale, which concentrate and canalize the flux of cosmic rays.
Even without expansion off of Earth there are several ways in which humanity could continue to improve its standard of living. First, longevity could be lengthened. Second, cost and effort of manufacture and construction could continue to decline, meaning we get more and do more for the same portion of wealth spent. Third, despite the large number of people on Earth, there's still room for growth. For example, going to a large-scale arcology-style of urban development might result in greater population densities yet at the same time greater space per person due to better use of vertical space. So far it hasn't done so, but that doesn't mean we might not figure out a group of technologies that can make it work in a economical manner.
Fourth, we can improve the education of the average human and eventually the intellectual capacity of humans collectively. All this can be done without moving a single person off the planet.
Interplanetary development and trade (which includes development of asteroid resources and anything done in the Solar System sphere) probably will do as much as practical to improve the quality of life of people.
On interstellar scales, you are after bigger aims than quality of life, such as star system-scale computing, interstellar colonization, survey of every large object in the galaxy, or search for and investigation of intelligent life throughout the Milky Way, maybe um, "endstate" development (construction of things that are intended to last to the heat death of the universe), just to name a few.
Interstellar economics would be rather peculiar with information having a far transportation lower cost than physical materials and the relativistic communication delay affecting everything done at that scale.
It seems as though the cost for the home planet could be high. The expenditure may face political resistance.
Indubitably, it's figure out true interstellar or the standard of living won't get much higher than now. Unfortunately, there's no obvious solution to this dilemma.
I don't see the problem. Sure meat bodies would have serious issues but hardening against radiation should be fairly simple for ems.
Bad link to the article. It appears to have been severely truncated.