By Gary Michael Church
“June 15, 1940 – Using the Berkeley cyclotron, researchers demonstrate that neutrons captured by uranium 238 lead to the creation of element 94, plutonium.” (In 1941 the Manhattan Project begins) http://www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1940.shtml
“In January 1950, President Truman made the controversial decision to continue and intensify research and production of thermonuclear weapons.” https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/hydrogen-bomb-1950
“On September 27, 1960, The first operational semiconductor IC is created.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit
In 1972 the first modified DNA molecule was created and 2 years later the first genetically modified animal; a mouse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_animal
Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was a proposed missile defense system first announced publicly by President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
I love connecting the dots, probably because of the many years I spent troubleshooting autopilot systems on aircraft. When I see a new development often a pattern springs to mind and I just have to ruminate on it and am driven to fabricate some kind of coherent picture from that pattern. I watched a YouTube video today and went through that routine. In light of artificial intelligence, climate change, and the scourge of neo-liberalism, the modern world is facing an incredibly uncertain future. Most people do not come close to understanding the tremendous changes now in progress. The first silicon computer chip was made the year I was born and almost 60 years later we find humankind in this most disturbing situation. Some of the danger can be blamed on computer technology but it is more a finely woven tapestry of interacting threads woven across the centuries that now seems almost complete. I personally have come to the realization that unless we find a cure for individual mortality our species as a whole is likely doomed. And sooner than we think.
If this blog entry is about an indefinite lifespan a visitor might wonder why all the references to nuclear weapons are necessary. Reading my other entries would paint a picture of a future where an indefinite lifespan has made space travel a necessity and nuclear weapons technology the key enabler. First the fission bomb and then the fusion bomb and then the bomb-pumped laser have made Nuclear Pulse Propulsion (bombs) the sure way to travel through space. The likely technologies run like this; space solar power as the cure for climate change and the economic engine to build hollow artificial moons. Nuclear pulse would be used to lift enormous masses off the surface of the Moon. The resulting space solar power infrastructure would be the cure for climate change and then be used for beam propulsion systems allowing launch vehicles to carry millions of people a year into space.
At some point the space solar power network will be powerful enough to accelerate these artificial moons towards other stars at some percentage of the speed of light. Upon arrival centuries later these “slow boats” will slow down with Nuclear Pulse. But before they do there is one piece of technology required that we don’t have yet: Freezing people without damage thus allowing them to be revived decades or centuries later. And here is the chicken or egg problem: as long as people keep dying we have lebensraum on Earth and don’t need to go into space. Freezing people is just the first step in reversing aging and humankind spreading into the galaxy. If the space solar power network becomes powerful enough it may be able to manufacture small black hole singularity engines to propel “fast boats” close to the speed of light. In this case freezing people may not be needed as time dilation will make for short trips. In fact, the likely scenario for passengers on slow boats is to be awakened early for transfer to fast boats at some point in the voyage.
The second step after freezing people is to be able to extend their lifespan indefinitely. That is essentially what the technology being discussed in the link below is about. Artificial intellects (Artilects as Hugo De Garis calls them) are the wild card. Quantum computers might give rise to “Quartilects” that join with GEnetically MOdified HOmo SApiens in a symbiotic relationship whose goal is to….what? For that I would go back to the Russian Cosmists and their “Common Task” to resurrect the dead.
1:50 to protect eradicate and prevent disease, keeping our aging population healthy.
Ice on the Moon 