Jake Mckeegan

One of the most important steps in the history of human civilization is for mankind to become a multi-solar system species. To do this, we must either travel faster than light, expand our lifespan, hibernate, or be immortal. We’ll cover faster than light in another post. For now, let’s focus on “immortality”, the indefinite continuation of a person’s life, hibernation, and Archaea.

I decided that Voyager 3 could freeze Archaea, and then send it to another solar system. Archaea is a type of microorganism that can survive in extreme environments. It can survive the coldest of cold, and the hottest of hot. Archaea also can survive extreme radiation, and has an incredibly long lifespan. Unfortunately though, Archaea wouldn’t be a useful asset outside of our solar system, and they might become an invasive species in a different environment. If they did become an invasive species, then we may never know whether or not other solar systems truly have no life. Not knowing that would make it impossible to answer one of our biggest questions: are we alone?

So, Archaea is out. But, what if we, humans, could become immortal? Immortality means living forever, and it could be a viable alternative to Archaea. With immortality, we could live through the long years that it would take to go to another solar system. The only thing is… we don’t know how. Nobody has ever successfully proven that immortality in humans is possible. Plus, only a few organisms out of millions and millions have ever achieved this. But, there is research being done on this by people like Bryan Johnson. Until we reach true immortality, we’ll have to explore other ideas.

Going at the speed that the fastest man-made machine has ever gone (430,000 mph) it would take us 6,514 years to get to another solar system. So, a longer lifespan is desperately needed. But, how could we become have a longer lifespan? Well, without the help of biotech, humans can live to a max of about 125 years old. That won’t work. With biotech, we could live longer. But, at what cost? Bionic organs? While that might be good with some people, I like my human organs. The only time this is okay is when it is needed and people have lost an organ. There has to be a better way!

I wish that humans could just go into some deep sleep, like hibernation, while they were on the mission. We wouldn’t need as much food and water (which would free up space) and it would increase the lifespan of the passengers. It could also stop people from getting bored on the trip. This could be a good idea. But, until we can hibernate, we might need to look into other ideas.

So, what are some other ideas? Time dilation? Time dilation says that “The faster an object moves, the slower it experiences time” (I actually posted about this: https://jakemckeegan.com/2024/01/27/time-dilation-and-time-machines/, I’m also going to publish a post on why it works later on). So, maybe if we went incredibly fast then time would slow down, and a journey of 100 years for us would only be 80 years for them? Could this idea be the key to bringing life outside of the solar system?

Listen in next time to find out.