Here are some of the favorite quotes from the Starship Century Symposium held May 21st and 22nd, 2013 at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination – University of California, San Diego.
“By the time we are ready to build starships we will know where to send them.” ~Planetary scientist Ian Crawford
“Just because a planet is habitable does not mean it’s inhabit-ed!” ~Popular physicist Paul Davies
“Transition from non-life to life identified with phase-shift in pattern of information flow from bottom-up to top-down.” ~Popular physicist Paul Davies
Gregory Benford’s good conference guidelines: “Questions are more interesting than speeches.”
“Geoff Landis just solved a huge problem. Religions are the answer for starships and best bet is Scientologists going home.” ~Peter Schwartz
Scientist-writer Adam Crowl comes with the day’s top non sequitur: “Nanobots are people too!”
“Even when external world has granted all it can there still remains the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.” ~A.C.Clarke
“Assuming stable wormholes exist and we master the physics, we may be able to use them to explore the stars” ~John Cramer
John Cramer on interstellar exploration via wormholes, or “going there without having to wait.”
‘Greatest Nerd’ Jon Vos Post: “Don’t ever think of anyone as your enemy. Because it makes you their victim.”
Jim Benford on sailships: “I come not to bury rockets but to praise them.”
Sci-fi author Allen Steele quoting Grateful Dead: ‘The future’s here…and we are on our own.’
“Asteroids hold the key to opening up the solar system.” – Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources
NASA’s Geoffrey Landis on NERVA: “Nuclear rockets can be workhorses that open solar system.”
“When cold, water is just another type of rock.” ~Geoffrey Landis
The question that will decide our destiny is not whether we shall expand into space. It is: shall we be one species or a million? A million species will not exhaust the ecological niches that are awaiting the arrival of intelligence.
–Dyson