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The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
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Low-Gravity Longevity?
November 10th, 2008
A friend of mine emailed me to ask about something he remembered Timothy Leary saying in a speech 30 years ago:
“Our enemy is gravity. That’s why we die. We are all fighting the earth’s gravitational pull. We will live forever, once we escape the pull from Mother Earth.”
Leary had some kooky ideas for sure, involving his Exo-Psychology theory and searching for a higher intelligence and building space colonies. LSD was, in his view, was to prepare us for way out environments like space. I kind of like his idea, metaphorically at least, that humanity can live forever once we stop putting all our eggs only in the basket of Earth, but Leary was perhaps being literal.
My friend doesn’t take Leary seriously, but he was wondering if there was any truth to the notion that escaping our gravitational existence could improve our longevity.
The short answer is that there may be, but we don’t know. There are certainly long-term physical changes that occur in microgravity environments that have been studied on Mir and the ISS, but these are not clearly related to longevity. There is evidence that high-gravity environments may shorten lifespans, but that doesn’t mean that low-gravity environments will necessarily do the opposite.
I am wondering though how Leary may have influenced science fiction. In the movie Contact S. R. Hadden moves to Mir to prolong his life, and somehow the microgravity there is supposed to slow his cancer. I recall other science fiction stories about people moving to space when their health required it. Maybe this was just the idea that if you’re old and feeble, with weak bones, space is a less demanding environment on your system. I’m not sure though. Anyone remember any specific stories?
Anyone have suggestions about where this idea comes from in science fiction? Is it Leary? It isn’t known experimental fact in humans or animals — mammals at least. Or is it just speculation that too many people borrowed from each other, like how only humans can navigate hyperspace, or how looking at hyperspace will drive you mad, or something odd like that?
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My guess is this comes from Arthur C. Clarke. He mentions in one of his essays a colleague who thought the pain of dying of cancer would be reduced on the Moon, IIRC, and he had at least one story where the Terrible Secret is that people who live on the Moon live much longer, the catch being that only a very few people could be supported there.
That sounds familiar. I read a bunch of Clarke way back when, but only tend to remember the details of his famous stories since those are the memories that get regularly reinforced.
I actually read a story (a love-story I think) where people drop like flies in space. Because of the radiation. So it’s not universally recognized. (And no, don’t remember author or title.)
Yes, outside of low earth orbit, anyone in space is going to have to have radiation shielding or deal with the consequences. I’ve read that some astronauts have reported seeing Cerenkov radiation associated with cosmic rays passing through their eyes.
I was really worrying only about the effects of gravity right now though. On the whole, space is not the easiest place to live and stay healthy for the long run.
I haven’t read anything in regards to this, but it could easily be possible that the concept got some legs after Einsteins Twin Paradox became everyday discussion.
It’s a difficult concept to grasp, and I could easily see the barest gist of it – “Traveling through space makes you age slower” becoming a sort of quasi-meme that just floats around the social consciousness.
Arthur C. Clarke, “Death and the Senator”. A anti-space senator discovers he has a heart-illness that can be cured/overcome by living in microgravity. He decides to die rather than give up his principles.
Clarke probably advanced this theory in some of his non-fiction works (Challenge of the Spaceship, etc.) as well. The thought was if the heart had to work with less strain, you’d live longer.
Of course that was before we found plaque in the blood vessels, fatty foods were bad, smoking was bad, microgravity weakened your bones…
As for the movie version of “Contact”, I think he moved to microgravity because it lessened the pain of the cancer, he knew he’d die eventually.
I’m currently reading Arthur C. Clarke’s book, “2001A Space Odyssey” and I quote,
“Children grow fast in low gravity.But they don’t age so quickly-they’ll live longer than we do.”
He probably put this theory in the book because of his dying colleague.
Yeah, Clarke seems to be a primary candidate for spreading this idea, and idea that doesn’t seem to have any evidence that it is true.
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