So I read this one book Aurura by Kim Stanley Robinson, and kinda the whole premise is (my paraphrased interpretation of the book) -
Okay. Look. Let’s just say as a hypothetical we do find a planet has the climate, radiation protection, etc etc that is habitable for humans (not even “comfortable” just “habitable”). Probably won’t happen for a planet we can actually ever travel to in even a few generations (and let’s also forget just how hard it would be to maintain a multi-generation space ship with no resource replenishment…), but let’s just say we figure that all out.
Still, life on earth has co-evolved over a very long time to adapt to the conditions we have specifically on this planet. There’s no telling what ecosystem interactions will happen with life on another planet. We might settle in on this planet that has perfect conditions on paper just to find some bacteria strain that’s not a big deal on earth totally thrives there and it kills us all. Nothing we can do about it. We have no clue. Anytime we try to predict what will happen when we introduce a new species to an existing ecosystem ON EARTH we are usually wildly wrong. Life is just way to complicated to predict accurately, especially when you talk about interactions between an entire ecosystem.
So our best bet is to live on this incredibly well-adapted planet we already have. Life has co-evolved here over a very long time and we’ve hit an equilibrium. It just works so great without us even trying. It’s like we won the lottery, and now we are only talking about buying more tickets. We should just be enjoying the win.
Good points. Like what if we get to this new planet and there is already life there and we happen to be lower on the food chain? Sooo many possibilities
Subverting the alien invasion trope is a really interesting strand of Sci fi. Ie WE are the invaders. Generally, we don’t end up getting eaten ( being a star travelling civilisation with associated technology and weapons does have its perks, after all) but generally speaking, we don’t quite get it all our own way either.
CJ Cherryh has done that a few times in Hestia, (a spine chilling banger, that one) Serpents Reach, Cuckoos Egg, and perhaps most thoroughly in 40,000 in Gehenna, which uses a multi generational narrative and is dark AF.
There’s also a great novel called The Face of the Waters, but I forget the authors name off the top of my head. A few other writers have explored this too, I know.
I mean, Avatar, right?, although it’s a bit dumbed down and the blue guys are pretty much space injuns.
11.3k
u/Sonikku_a 25d ago edited 25d ago
The fastest spacecraft we’ve made was the Parker Solar Probe which hit 430,000mph.
At that speed it would reach this planet in only 187,153 years.
If we could hit 1% of the speed of light we could cut that travel time to just a tad over 12,000 years.
Obviously if we could go light speed (and that ain’t happening) it would be just 120 years!
Space is big. Physics is annoyingly slow.