[avz]

I agree with your conclusion, but I always find that these discussions miss the role of medical science.

The key parameters governing feasibility of human interstellar travel are the average human lifespan in years and typical interstellar distance in lightyears. These are roughly 72 years and 5 lightyears, respectively. So it takes about 70% of a human lifespan to travel a typical interstellar distance at 10% of the speed of light. This is... not great.

The key realization is that the relationship of these two numbers is in a sense an accident of biology and astronomy.

It is usually assumed that future technological progress might enable travel at a large fraction of the speed of light, but it is often missed that future medical progress might extend human lifespan to say 400 or 1000 years.

A scarier realization is that intelligent aliens might have natural lifespan that make interstellar travel seem far more practical.

[AlexanderTheGr8]

Human hibernation should be able to solve that problem. I know I am asking for too many things but the challenges for the Apollo mission were even more extravagant.

They had to figure out how to launch from earth's gravity, go exactly to the moon, decelerate, land without accident, launch back again, go exactly to the earth, decelerate and land without accident. Atmospheric reentry is almost 25000 degree Celsius, hotter than almost anything we had ever experienced.

So, given a century, surely medicine will figure out hibernation. And then humans can continue their lifespan when they reach their destination.

[moloch-hai]

https://cantrip.org/slow.pdf