The first and largest problem would be
the descendants. The concept of self-worth and a reasonable future would be the biggest problem in such
a society, as it is in any society. Why they were trapped on the inside of a massive ship lumbering
along through the galaxy needs to be addressed absolutely.
Self worth is largely based upon ones perceived achievements in life. This of course is also a conceptional reality in large based upon perception of ones self to their peers, or possibly the public, or even having just helped make life better. That brings me to the
one and only scenario I think would work. Or could work as we are now at our
evolutionary stage.
Go
nuts and build build build. And I am talking about the ship. Here is where if we
could develop artificial gravity, this would really be amazing, but since we
don’t have it, it’s out. Yep, still the big round tube. Only now, you really do
build it all the way. You build a city within it. A real one. I'm talking about a big freaking ship here, not some thing where you actually know at all times that you are on a ship. Rebuild our entire basis of society inside a
ship. People would already be living and growing up on it while it was being
built. Theirs would be a society all its own over a period of time. When it
came time to leave the rest of us behind, (yeah, my arse I’d be staying), they
wouldn’t be missing that need of self-worth, or of having no future. They would
have their own world in basically every sense of the word. By the time this thing was built, and lets throw a bit of magic in here anyway just for fun and speed up the process. Lets say we actually built the basic of this thing in 200 years time start to finish. (I know that's impossible, we all hate each other too much yet.)
But even in that time period, people would have already been living aboard this new world. They have miles and miles of area, a complete real city that has or is still being built. Hell you could even go fishing in areas that had water out in a somewhat country style setting where things are grown and raised. You'll have new forms of sports arising, new types of view-able entertainment, and of course I mean actors and plays, movies etc. They would develop their own form of monetary system, hopefully more responsible than here and not for things such as food and medicine etc. (My society, I'll envision it my way. You all can have fun tearing it apart.) You'd have stores, shops, places to go and eat, new fads and new music over time. You'd have a new world. You'd have such a variety of people, that freedom of choice for careers would be basically not much different than on earth, with the exception of a few more, and a few highly modified. I suppose to help even more with the basic needs of human nature and the desire to do something different it would be possible to replicate the seasons to a point. If that could be done, you would have a true generation ship.
This is not a world ship, it isn't nearly big enough, nor nearly advanced enough. This is something that we could basically start building right now, right out there. We just need to do some mining of asteroids, and the one place i really haven't decided if I would want to mine to this extent. Our moon. Anyway, forget the tech part again, and lets just assume we built this monstrosity. It is quite possible
that in such a scenario, they could actually become akin to the nomads here on
earth. Wanderers of the galaxy.
This is the only chance I can see of a generation ship working in any scenario that it was built out of. Whether it was to save the race, because the world was overpopulated and needed room for it's people, or my reason; just for the simple fact that it could be done.
This concept however would take the entire planet working together. And there goes my ship.
I'm leaving out all other scientific concepts here such as brain mapping and cloning to keep original crew present. Or deep sleep or anything else like that. Also leaving out all tech ideas such as nuclear rocket system which we did build, ion drive, all of this. This is just about the legitimate society issues that would be faced. Looking for a way to fix that, and see if it could be held off for what shall be considered a very long age indeed.
Maybe if we'd stop shooting at each other, for even a freaking year, and shoot for somewhere close out there as a prototype colony on the moon, maybe we would learn something again in general. People as a group seem to need a goal. A place to reach to or they end up like we are now. Get the entire planet behind the same idea at once, and maybe we'll get somewhere finally. Yeah, I know, wish in one hand and...
That's basically it there. I almost titled this differently. I almost titled it as follows.
"Generation Ship, is it Possible or Why I can't sit for a Week."
Okay, got me a cushion and a padded chair. Have at it. Hope you all liked my little concept idea at least.
