Technology and Progress
In this essay, I will give my views on technology and progress, focusing specifically on space travel, computers and transhumanism. Futurism is not just predictive. It is also normative. We are concerned with what we should do, not just with what will happen. So, I’m going to talk about what I think will happen, what probably won’t happen, and what I think we should try to do. Space Travel Let’s start with space travel. I don’t think we’ll be traveling in space very much, even within the solar system. Interstellar travel is way out of reach. I can explain with a few simple calculations. The nearest stars are about 5 light years away. To travel to the stars in a human lifespan, you have to be going very fast. Suppose that we travel at 1/3 light speed. That would get us to the nearest stars in about 15 years. Of course, we’d have to accelerate and decelerate, so it would be longer: more like 30 years. From the perspective of the people in the spaceship, it would take less t