[ExI] Planets galore!

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins
Subject: Re: [ExI] Planets galore!

>...Yummy!  The answer to whether to stay where the information flow is
hyper fast and rich or go off exploring?  Take your entire planet with you.
I saw a paper by some mad scientist that I don't have immediately at hand.
Its premise was that it might be possible to introduce just the right size
black hole into a planet in a way where the energy released by infalling
matter just balanced the gravitational force of the hole with enough
internal heat generated to keep the planet 
reasonably warm at the surface without a nearby star...  - samantha


Mad scientist?  HAH!  I match his madness, and raise him a schizophrenic
hallucination!

Agreed, the interstellar traveler takes the planet and local star along, but
this isn't the way to do it.  You create an MBrain, reflect about half the
star's light in one direction, creating a gentle force going in the other
direction (conservation of momentum.)  Too gentle in fact, for it takes 20
million years to get to the nearest star, assuming you don't attempt to slow
down, but rather leave some stuff behind to reproduce and do it all again.

In the meantime, you gravitationally deflect off of the other star to change
your direction (a few milliradians with each of multiple deflections) either
outward toward the nearest neighboring galaxy or toward the core of our own,
thereby starting on a billion year trip, using the orbit velocity of the sun
around the center of the galaxy, which is a couple hundred km/sec as I
recall.

In this fashion, we populate the entire universe eventually, for we deposit
our seed in some of the younger stars as our own approaches old age.  That
should keep our mind-children going until heat death of the universe or the
big rip.

John Gribbin has just released a book called Alone in the Universe, in which
he argues we are the only advanced civilization.  If so, we need to get
going, even if the available acceleration is only a few microns per second
per year, or 300 meters per square year, if you prefer those units, and by
the time we get it all to the nearest star we are going about as fast as a
Boeing 737 flies.

I pitched the notion to a group of aerospace engineers on 4 November 2011.
Their unanimous response was "huh?"  Followed by some quick calculations to
show that yes it is theoretically possible, followed by what the hell
difference does it make, what we can do 20 million years from now?

Paper available on request, non-serious inquiries only please.  There really
is a pitch however, about 18 MB PowerPoint.  Samantha, do you want to see
it?

spike