Thursday, March 06, 2003 :::
 

I'm a member of the Planetary Society (planetary.org) and this was in the
latest magazine - devoted to interstellar travel. Friedman and Murray are
certainly serious space folk - but much more in the robot camp, especially
Murray, I think.

From "The Planetary Report" January/February 2003.

"Bridging the Gap: A Discussion with Freeman Dyson"

(interesting discussion about the ways and means of interstellar
travel. I like the end where Dyson gives an opinion about robots
versus astronauts)
....
Bruce Murray: I have one last point. We've been thinking about humans
migrating, and adapting in some form, to other worlds in this solar
system at least. There's an alternative possibility: to stay here and
send only sensors and surrogates elsewhere. I'm wondering, in the 30
to 40 years since you first began fantasizing about some thse things,
how do you feel about this alternative vision?

Freeman Dyson: Well, I detest it. It's quite possible that if we
decide to go that way, I will become a rebel and go off in my little
spaceship and leave everybody else behind. So, I hope we'll all be
rebels when the time comes.

Louis Friedman: so, you won't be satisfied sitting in some room with
a hologram of data pouring in?

Freeman: No. I will have lost any freedom that I may have had. It's
a matter of taste, of course, but I hope there will always be people
who rebel against that kind of thing.

Bruce: But it's so much easier to live here than elsewhere.

Lou: None of us, to quote John F. Kennedy, is "doing this because
it's easy, but becuse it's difficult."

::: posted by Joel at 8:18 AM