89 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
89 lines
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HTML
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<a href="https://beckmeyer.us/">Joel Beckmeyer's Blog</a>
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<h1>The Generation Ship Problem</h1>
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<div class="title-header-date">
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<time>Friday, March 19, 2021</time>
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<p>After talking about the hardware and software problems of
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digital permanence, I’m struck by a classical Sci-Fi
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motif with a conundrum: the <strong>Generation Ship</strong>; a ship
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outfitted with all of the technology, infrastructure, and
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storage to support lightyear-scale human travel.</p>
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<p>But what about that technology on the ship? If we build
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one of these ships, we need to accomplish one of several
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things in regards to information storage:</p>
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<h3 id="1-innovate-to-the-point-where-the-lifetime-of-the-storage-devices-is-able-to-support-lightyear-scale-travel">1. Innovate to the point where the lifetime of the storage devices is able to support lightyear scale travel.<a href="#1-innovate-to-the-point-where-the-lifetime-of-the-storage-devices-is-able-to-support-lightyear-scale-travel" class="heading-anchor" aria-label="Anchor"><img src="/images/chain-link.svg" class="color-adapting-image" height="20"></a></h3>
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<p>That’s a tall order, given where we are right now with
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physical storage devices. As I mentioned in one of my
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previous posts, the average lifetime of physical storage
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devices is less than 100 years, no matter if it is a hard
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drive, solid-state drive, etc.</p>
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<h3 id="2-provide-the-facility-to-create-new-storage-devices-to-replace-the-failing-old-ones">2. Provide the facility to create new storage devices to replace the failing old ones.<a href="#2-provide-the-facility-to-create-new-storage-devices-to-replace-the-failing-old-ones" class="heading-anchor" aria-label="Anchor"><img src="/images/chain-link.svg" class="color-adapting-image" height="20"></a></h3>
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<p>Again, in my mind a tall order, since it would require
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facilities on the ship to create storage devices. The
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problem of having materials is at least solvable by just
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sending the ship with all of the materials it needs in
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advance.</p>
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<h3 id="3-provide-the-facility-to-revitalize-storage-devices">3. Provide the facility to revitalize storage devices.<a href="#3-provide-the-facility-to-revitalize-storage-devices" class="heading-anchor" aria-label="Anchor"><img src="/images/chain-link.svg" class="color-adapting-image" height="20"></a></h3>
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<p>One of the main reasons I’m even thinking about this is
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because I’m an individual with limited resources.
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Accordingly, I think about things in terms of
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broken/working, on/off, etc. With enough resources, there
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is a much larger chance of being able to repair, re-purpose,
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and otherwise revitalize storage devices, increasing their
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lifetime. E.g., if the only failure in the hard drive is the
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control circuit, that is an “easy enough” repair.</p>
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<p>I like to toy with the idea of a generation ship a lot in
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my head, but I think it’s really fun to think about the
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technical possibilities and needs of a ship like this.</p>
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<p>Have any questions? Let me know on <a href="https://matrix.to/#/@joel:thebeckmeyers.xyz">Matrix</a>, or start a discussion on <a href="https://social.beckmeyer.us/TinfoilSubmarine">Fediverse</a>!</p>
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