[ExI] Billions of Interstellar Planets

[David Lubkin]

I wrote:

 > Since I learned about the Oort cloud as a kid in the Sixties, I have
 > thought it quite possible that the outer perimeter of ours is close
 > enough to the outer perimeter of the Centauri triple system that we
 > could just expand our way rock-by-rock.

Eugen replied:

>If you're solid state, self-healing, fully static and relativistic,
>time and space is of no essence. In fact longer hops will be better
>for the cruise duty cycle, and will assert you're keeping ahead of
>the joneses.

I am not at present solid state, etc. Given what we know, I am more
confident of my personal prospects for an indefinitely long lifespan
from repairing and augmenting my current form than from migration
to a different substrate.

Repair in situ is essentially a modest improvement on nature.
Solid state sentient life is conjecture, as is migration from meat to
chips, as is a CELSS sufficient for an interstellar journey.

As a cautious man, I like having the option of getting to another
star system with (more or less) my current body, long-established
propulsion and vehicle, and never being more than a short hop
from an outpost of civilization.


-- David.