Milliongenerations:Motivation

Why milliongenerations.org?

Life is wonderful. The realization of our own existence creates the hope that others will continue to share it.

Is there a problem?

Perspectives on the survival of civilization on this planet for even a few hundred or thousand more years tend to be pessimistic. History provides plenty of examples of collapsed civilizations and we have consumed most easily accessible resources.

Stephen Hawking maintains that our only chance of long term survival is to spread into space (click here for his talk at TED 2008. He worries about the survival on a scale of hundreds of years, not billions. Jumping solar systems and consuming planets would be a longer phenomenon than just staying on earth until we've used it up or destroyed our civilizations in conflict. If those making the jump went on like we did, however, livable places in the galaxy could be expected to be consumed as quickly as people can travel (in the order of a million years plus on the order of a thousand for each planet). Unless, that is, someone, somewhere found and implemented ways to continue while favorable conditions exist. This would offer a longer perspective and would postpone a miserable ending for those left behind almost indefinitely. If we started here on earth, it would also give much more time to make the jump feasible.

milliongenerations.org asks what follows if one assumes that civilization manages to continue sustainably. And someone may come up with inspiring ideas and we may find that it actually is feasible after all.