The Wait Dilemma
Day 295 / 365
Many scientists use computer programs to simulate small particles in order to study or predict their physical properties. These simulations are very time consuming and can some times take days or even weeks to finish. If a simulation would take more than 6 months to run, it is thought of as useless. Because before it would we complete, we would definitely have faster machines that could run the same thing in less time.
This is known as “The Wait Dilemma”, and this has some interesting implications in space travel as well. Consider this little thought experiment that I read about a while back.
It’s the year 3000, and man has finally created its first interstellar ship. The destination is the nearest star Alpha Centauri, and it will take them 200 years to reach it. They will be put into a coma and frozen so that they could survive that long. A few young brave souls embark on this journey, to become the first humans to set foot in a different planetary system. 200 years later when they finally reach there, they find a human colony already flourishing on the planet!
What happened there?
The explanation for the seemingly bizarre conclusion of that story is again the wait calculation. After the astronauts would have left, science would still be progressing on earth. Maybe by around the year 3100, they invented faster than light travel and could reach Alpha Centauri in less than 5 years. Thus by 3200, many many humans had already been transported to the new planet system, while the first ones didn’t even reach it!
This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here
Yesterday’s blog — The Secret Coca Cola Recipe