Magellan's Last Voyage

Radiation, isolation, bone degradation, relativiity, fuel limitations of such great distances, the list goes on and on as to why it is not currently feasible for interstellar travel. Whether the likes of Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlen et al fully understood the limitations that would still plague the dream fifty years later, who knows..? But certainly, even an eighties kids like me believed at the time, that in the distant future of 2025 we would at least have a base on Moon, and likely one on Mars. Sadly, the reality is that man seems as far from realising those boyhood dreams as ever.

Late stage capitalism is upon us, and the system is already eating itself. The rich get ever richer, at the expense of society, and save for a few (with questionable agendas), the super wealthy are more interesting in hoarding their wealth than feeding progress. The technology of the famed warp drive, or wormhole spacegate has never materialised, ultimately because of the quest for profit over progress. And so, we remain annexed by ignorance from the wide universe.

With our current technology, only an AI robot might stand even the remotest of chances of becoming a new Magellan. With no environmental or phsical limitations, and a potentially limitless lifespan, an AI might get to see closeup, what none of us ever will, although the irony is that not even the creators of the AI will ever be able to share in its discoveries, as there would be no way to communicate with it.