I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time. I can tell how long as the receipt from when I bought it (dated 1998) was still stuck in the book. Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience, edited by Ben Finney and Eric Jones, is a collection of papers published in 1985. Although 30 years old, much of the information is still relevant today. We know more about the science and engineering on what it will take to colonize space now, but that’s the only change.
The papers cover a wide variety of topics, not just the engineering and science side for colonizing space, but also a lot of anthropology and history, how and why Man has moved about the globe, especially a lot of focus on the Polynesian migration. Theories as to why migrate also abound, but are also relevant.
Discussions cover O’Neill Colonies, Dyson Swarms, Asteroid and comet mining, Comet Traveling Nomads, space drives, and time frames to reach the nearest stars. There are also papers that discuss how Mankind might spread across the stars, as well as fill up our own solar system, using star-lifting to extend the natural life of the Sun, and use the local resources. It also touches on the Fermi Paradox, why haven’t we seen them, as well as the early years of SETI.
Contributors include the likes of Carl Sagan and David Brin, as well as several papers, mainly as section intros, by the two editors.
Overall a darn good read, well worth the time as it will make one thing about where will we go next, and how.
In closing, I am left with one question: When will we get a volume 2?
