Life on an Interstellar Ark Ship

The vast gulfs between stars may take decades or even centuries to travel, requiring enormous generation ships carrying families and whole ecosystems with them. What will life be like on board such arks?

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Credits:
Life on an Interstellar Ark Ship
Episode 436; February 29, 2024
Produced, Written & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur

Graphics:
Fishy Tree
Jeremy Jozwik
Legiontech Studios

Music Courtesy of
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Ultra Deep Field"
Sergey Cheremisinov, "Labyrinth", "Forgotten Stars"
Taras Harkavyi, "Alpha and ..."
Miguel Johnson, "So Many Stars"
Lombus, "Cosmic Soup", "Hydrogen Sonata"

[malcolmt]

With failure meaning death of everyone on board, I suspect a colony ship would would have harsh discipline. The crew might even call it a dictator-ship.

[clonan]

I always question the idea of wide spread frustration with "I never agreed to this trip" by generation 2. Think about it, I NEVER agreed to the trip to the New World yet it never occurs to me to be mad at the Pilgrims when things in life are difficult.

There will always be complainers but when you are born into and raised by an environment, it IS home. Some almost mythical "Earth" is the same as talking about Camelot and just as believable.

[platosbeard]

It's Reynold's 'slowing down' that I really like. Instead of being frozen, your perception of time is just really, really slow; journeys of a 1000 years that feel like a few hours.

[tonyportcullis]

Going to miss Frank, great guy.
Dibs on his locker.

[emmettobrian]

I'm entertained by the idea of a manor house where there's the crumbling "old wing, " the section of the house the family uses and the "new wing" that's under construction. I imagine a colony ship like that, with a constant cycle of crumbling, existing and reconstruction.

[francoislacombe]

You really can't "get back to Earth" at the end of such long voyages, because the Earth you left will not be the one you arrive at.

[calebkirschbaum]

I would expect generation ships to go to places in a fleet size of 10. It gives redundancy for just about anything, and lets you have priorities to allow trade between ships, this following cultural patterns with strong and weak ties. You can then also allow immigration between places, and lower chances of rebellion or a dictator.

Once you arrive at your location, you can easily split your fleet up as a percentage of people who want to head back home, want to go to another colony, start this colony, or go to a new planet. Even if 45% wants to stay, 22 wants to proceed, 21 wants to go back to earth, and 12% wants to go to a different colony, you could easily leave 5 at the colony, 2 to proceed, 2 back to earth, and 1 to a different colony.

[retsz]

Oh wow, I’ve been watching this channel every week for years and I honestly thought Isaac Arthur was just a name you chose for yourself to invoke the works of the two authors when discussing our potential futures since so much of it feels like science fiction compared to the world we’re in today. I must’ve missed it when you’ve mentioned it before. That’s pretty lucky to have been given probably the most appropriate name possible.

[arrjay]

I like the idea of the 'Gardener Ship'. The ship itself is the destination. The possibility of yourself or your ancestors being colonists on another world would be appealing, but the ship and the life you live there would be the purpose for going.
There is also the possibility for stories about people being 'required' to go into cryo-sleep, who are Dissenters, or as a response to some crisis, and waking up decades or even centuries later when the issues that put them there are no longer relevant.

[classarankyoutubeherokeyb]

Sorry, did you say that there are no dogs on the colony ship? What kind of nightmare dystopia do these colonists want to build?

[davidrediger]

The Starlost, a 1973 Canadian Sci-Fi Tv series. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called Earthship Ark, which following an unspecified accident has gone off course. Centuries after its original launch however, most of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware that they are even aboard a spaceship.

[cannonfodder]

Washing dishes while listening to this last night on Nebula was wonderful. Your storytelling and world-building are excellent as always. Always a joy to see.

Most informative and entertaining Isaac.

[blackadder]

Imagine a generational ark ship on its way to a distant star. 50 years into the journey, Crewman "Captain, we are receiving a message... from Earth..." Captain "What does it say?" Crewman "It says look out your right window... we have warp now. We'll race you...."😂

[Zurround]

Both versions of Battlestar Galactica are basically generational ship but multiple ships working together and traveling together (under the protection of the Battlestar) rather than a single ship.

[Eldagusto]

Yes! I was waiting for this one! I love your Ark ship episodes!

[LaughlessTheClown]

Looking forward to the vrchat world jam the NSS is putting on. Hope to be exploring megastructures in VR with you all.

[Jay_Scott_Raymond]

Book recommendation: "Mirabile" by Janet Kagan. Its actually a collection of short stories organized into chapters of the book. Set on a colony world, settled by a colonization fleet, not a single ship so that's nice. The premise of insuring biodiversity by burying extra genetic code to be turned on or off at need and forgetting to account for mutation is questionable, but the stories showing the unique cultural elements of the resulting colony are a lot of fun.

[jeremygreer]

I love the casual use of XO without explanation for non-Army peeps.

[seanobrien]

Perfect timing for the video as I get ready to play a game about a ship sent on a journey to the stars with some crew "asleep" and some "awake" and trying to maintain the complex ship.

[PhantomSinger]

A large enough ship can develop its own range of cultures, given enough time. The engineers will develop their own highly detailed language around the machines and tools they use, much like how doctors have their own language to describe what a problem is and where it's located in the body. There'd be some crossover between the cultures since they have to cross-communicate to keep the ship running, but the regional slang could get wild in 30 years. Passengers who opted to sleep the whole way will need a primer on what means what.