Long term space flight could be too overwhelming for the human body in its present form. There is space radiation, challenges with bone loss, and the body has evolved for 1G or one Earth Gravity Unit, not near weightlessness. Humans also seem to need food, and oxygen and all sorts of other things, that turns out to be a big challenge, even sending people close by to places like the Moon or Mars for instance. Okay so, let's talk shall we?
Not long, ago I was discussing all this with an acquaintance from a purely futuristic standpoint, even Sci Fi theory if you will. We postulated that we might take a human brain and put it into an exoskeleton, and it would fly the spacecraft. He suggested that perhaps the human brain ought to be part of the spacecraft instead? He also wonders if we might find handicapped people who are paralyzed and can't their current bodies anyway to volunteer for the mission at hand.
Not long, ago I was discussing all this with an acquaintance from a purely futuristic standpoint, even Sci Fi theory if you will. We postulated that we might take a human brain and put it into an exoskeleton, and it would fly the spacecraft. He suggested that perhaps the human brain ought to be part of the spacecraft instead? He also wonders if we might find handicapped people who are paralyzed and can't their current bodies anyway to volunteer for the mission at hand.
Okay, but we have to decide if we want a thinking spaceship or just one which has an organic autopilot and control system? If the latter, it wouldn't take a whole human brain to do that. Maybe we don't need a full brain, rather just brain cells, the number needed to control the device, or even a UAV here on earth.
Of course, may we wouldn't want a human brain and all, but to use the brain which is more adapted towards spatial thought and thinking, something like a bird which thinks in 3-D, or a dolphin which lives in a 3-D environment they can travel within under its own power. A human pilot on the ground would have this sort of a brain, and therefore think slightly differently. But human brain cells may be the wrong type of brain to use for this. Do we dare modify humans in some way, do we dare build a new species to travel to space as our ambassadors? What's the solution?
These are tough issues for those coming from a religious context, and yet, we must ask these questions if we are too explore the stars and boldly go, especially using our current technologies. Should we incorporate cybernetics, robotics, and computers to integrate with flesh and blood? Should we send humans as they are to cope, live or die, as maybe the case? What's more human, what's the answer? Questions, more questions than answers indeed. So, please consider all this and think on it.
Article Source: Lance Winslow
No comments:
Post a Comment