About the space faring civilization I'm completely against this idea: it is a fairy tale aimed to distract the attention on the sad fact we are destroying our dear blue planet: "Ok we failed with this planet, let's try another one" is not what I'd call a progress. If longer term survival means to live into a metal box on the surface of Io or Europa, I'm not volunteering

The Total Perspective Vortex is a small, featureless steel box, the most horrifying torture/punishment in the known Universe. The hopeless victim stands in the Vortex, and suddenly shown, for the merest instant, the whole of the Universe: the whole infinity of creation, spanning over several trillion light years, and countless millennia, with an insignificant dot saying "You Are Here".

-- Total Perspective Vortex

As indicated by the Total Perspective Vortex, it's hard for us puny humans to get our head around the vast time scales involved ... but, given enough time and peaceful cooperation on Earth, becoming a spacefaring civilization is not a fairy tale, it's a certainty. As for not enjoying living in a metal box on Europa, your descendants will be genetically engineered to enjoy that. :)

I doubt that a successful interstellar spacefaring civilisation will be Homo sapiens though. A new species, genetically engineered for longer life spans and living in high radiation, low gravity environments (and metal boxes on Europa) would stand a better chance of success. And being supported by an army of self-replicating AI robots would also make a huge difference (e.g. to build infrastructure on a terraformed Mars) ... albeit with a risk they'll turn against us and wipe us out.

I suppose we might try using these long time scales to persuade folks to please stop destroying our dear blue planet now, though I doubt boffins speculating on interstellar space travel would have any impact on our current global warming crisis.

I just took a peek at an estimate of our chances of survival which scarily predicts:

an informal survey of experts on different global catastrophic risks at the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference at the University of Oxford suggested a 19% chance of human extinction by the year 2100 ... enumerating the risks as:

Anthropogenic:

• AI
• Biotechnology
• Cyberattack
• Environmental disaster
• Experimental technology accident
• Global warming
• Mineral resource exhaustion
• Nanotechnology
• Warfare and mass destruction
• World population and agricultural crisis

Non-anthropogenic:

• Asteroid impact
• Cosmic threats
• Extraterrestrial invasion
• Pandemic
• Natural climate change
• Volcanism

After we survive by becoming a glorious spacefaring civilisation, our next challenge will be to escape the heat death of the universe via a wormhole to another Universe. :)

References Added Later

• Space colonization (wikipedia)
• Space habitat (wikipedia)
• Human outpost (wikipedia)
• Terraforming (wikipedia)

• Dark energy (wikipedia)
• Future of an expanding universe (wikipedia)
• TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (youtube: fascinating and speculative sci-fata)

Hello again,

sci-fata is a syncretic neologsim for science fairy tales :)

I like too much your posts eyepopslikeamosquito and I always upvote them; this time I was tempted to downvote as I totatlly disagree with your point of view :) Then I thougth "he is a sympathic good fellow" and I upvoted you as always: small acts can have big consequences in long time terms. Infact:

> .. your descendants will be genetically engineered ..

I hope my descendants will be part of the Resistence sabotaging this fool plan. I hope also your and mine descendants will find a shared point of view or an agreement in memory of our ancient friendship dating just after the end of the Analogic Era :)

L*

There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.

I was tempted to downvote as I totally disagree with your point of view :) Then I thought "he is a sympathetic good fellow" and I upvoted you as always: small acts can have big consequences in long time terms

Thanks for letting me know. :) Curiously, I feel the same way. I always enjoy and upvote your posts even when I disagree with them.

Reminds me of Tit for tat, which evolutionary psychologists sometimes use to explain reciprocal altruism in animal communities. Also a good way to play Prisoner's dilemma.

I'll cover this interesting topic in future episodes, along with the neurotransmitter Dopamine, outed at the Role of Dopamine in Gamification. BTW, I've experienced a severe addiction to code golf and now suspect Dopamine was implicated. Ditto for those who've felt "addicted" to Perl Monks (which also uses gamification).

The only other relevant brain chemical I'm aware of is the neuropeptide Oxytocin, well known for creating feelings of trust (crucial to good teamwork). If anyone knows of other relevant brain chemicals, please let us know, so I can include them in later episodes.

References Added Later

• The Evolution of Cooperation (wikipedia)
• Tit for tat (wikipedia)
• Grim trigger (wikipedia)
• Prisoner's Dilemma (wikipedia)