Six ways to infinity... and beyond
The Astronomer Royal
believes humanity's future lies in the stars. But, as he tells Paul
Bignell, we will first have to change our ways
Interstellar travel, hyper-computers, space mining - they all sound
like the stuff of Star Trek and Buck Rogers, but they're among the
latest predictions from one of Britain's most eminent scientists. And
the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, is better qualified than most to
gaze into the future.
The astrophysicist and cosmologist offers glimpses of a "post-human"
universe in an essay, "To the Ends of the Universe", written for an
forthcoming book.
 He says subjects that were once in the realm of science fiction are
now subject to serious scientific debate. And he warns that humanity is
not the "terminal branch of an evolutionary tree" and could yet evolve
into organisms capable of travelling to other galaxies.
Rather than taking millions of years, he says, post-human evolution
will happen much faster due to technological advances and genetic
modification. He suggests that during the coming century the entire
Solar System will be explored and mapped by flotillas of "tiny robotic
craft".
"What we've traditionally called 'the universe' - the aftermath of
'our' Big Bang - may be just one island, just one patch of space...
There may have been an infinity of Big Bangs, not just one. Just as
Earth is a very special planet among zillions, so - on a far grander
scale - our Big Bang was also a very special one. In this hugely
expanded cosmic perspective, the laws of Einstein and the quantum could
be mere parochial bylaws governing our cosmic patch. Our current concept
of physical reality could be as constricted, in relation to the whole,
as the perspective of the Earth available to a plankton whose 'universe'
is a spoonful of water."
Prof Rees is to deliver the Cambridge University lecture at next
month's Hay Festival on this subject, but he admits futurology is a far
from precise science. But he is certain that human beings will shape
their own "far future".
This modern era, he says, is the first "when we've had the
technological power to affect the whole species - starting perhaps with
the H-bomb. One worries about... how new technologies could have a
catastrophic effect if used unwisely."
Sir Martin's predictions
1. Spotting distant planets that may sustain life will require a
telescope larger than anything currently available.
When it starts operation in the early 2020s, the European "Extremely
Large Telescope", with a mosaic mirror more than 39m across, will target
for observation planets of similar size to Earth that are orbiting stars
much like our Sun.
2. Prof Rees says spaceflight should not be billed as "tourism" in
the style of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, because of the
obvious dangers.
However, he believes five-day trips taking paying customers around
the Moon are likely within a decade. Round trips to Mars, taking about
500 days, are the next step, as recently proposed by the US tycoon
Dennis Tito.
3. By the end of the 21st century tiny flotillas of robotic space
exploration craft, aided and abetted by the successors to the Hubble
Telescope, will map the entire Solar System - planets, moons and
asteroids - initially with a view to the possible exploitation of
minerals.
4. Don't expect mass emigration any time soon - our universe is too
inhospitable. However, in a century or more, colonies of adventurous
humans are likely to be living independently from the Earth - either on
asteroids or on Mars.
5. The time needed to travel to nearby stars will far exceed a human
lifespan. Interstellar travel, therefore, will only be an option for
what Prof Rees calls "post-humans", who evolve (not by natural
selection, but by design) to cope with hibernation or suspended
animation.
6. Hypercomputers will have the power to simulate living organisms -
perhaps even entire worlds or "virtual universes", incorporating
artificial life. This would then allow for a new kind of "virtual
time-travel".
- The Independent
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