What keeps me up, nights

And no, it's not that... 😇

It's actually something I wonder about- if we sent a starship, would anyone go? And if they are willing to go, are they worth sending?

Yes, that's harsh, but I'm worried. Yes, there are actually 8000 or so people (out of 330 million) who are willing to turn their back on blue skies for the rest of their lives for whatever reasons. So out of those 8000, surely there will be 24 who have the right skillset to make it worth sending them. Right?

But my worry is this: the skillset isn't the whole story. The rest of the story goes like this. It takes a certain type of person to be a pioneer. Make no doubts about it, that's who these people are- pioneers. Pioneers are seldom people who fit in with others well or they wouldn't be good pioneers. They have to be willing to take the entire human race and kiss them goodbye. That's true for our future Martians and much more totally true for anyone willing to take that ride to the stars.

Our future Martians can have some hope that they can catch a ride back some day and that others will follow their lead to redder pastures, so to speak. The pioneers on the starship may have to give up even that much hope. No further influx of new faces, no messages from home after a half hour wait, no nothing.

So... how many hardy pioneers do we have now? When we get where we're going, we'd better dam well have more than a couple dozen in the crew! For one thing, we'd better have either enough people for a diverse gene pool or a wide selection of frozen eggs and sperm (inside heavy shielding, too). I would also think that the entire crew does a rehearsal of a few years in isolation. If someone can't get along during that period, they have no business on a starship! Maybe if the crew can stand being alone with that limited interaction, they can stand giving up the rest of us forever.

Pioneering in real life is not a walk in the park. Find in one person a good team player and someone able to stand very real isolation. Best to give the crew the opportunity to bring along whatever books, movies, or other trinkets they feel like bringing. Anything to maintain that delicate tie with the rest of humanity, even if it's mostly an illusion.

Perhaps the best thing would be enforced group activities. Our own pioneers had little (I speak of the Plymouth Colony folk) but their Sunday worship. They didn't have square dances or many group meals, unlike the pioneers 200 years later. Perhaps by then people had learned that lesson. I like to think that wagon train leaders had given that some tiny bit of consideration. And lastly, the captain has to maintain the discipline of crew structure. He's going to carry one helluva load, I assure you. I'm reminded of the hero of Robert Heinlein's book Tunnel In The Sky. He found all this out by having it smack him in the face. Sink or swim. So expect the crew selection team to experience any number of nervous breakdowns and anxiety attacks. Heaven help them if they pick the wrong people. I once went through the personality test for the theoretical crew of a theoretical starship and qualified for the captain's billet. I've never quite figured out if I was happy about that or not.

Most days I think I'm rather proud of that, so on those days I guess their testing may not have been too far off. Maybe.  I do know that I'm a lot closer to the needed type the older I get. Yes, that means that the crew really should have some 'village elders' along. There are things that we learn about ourselves and life that simply can't be learned in less time. Oh, it can be passed on, but it's really rare to find anyone younger who will not only listen, but believe and act on what he's told. Usually they're too busy making their own mistakes.

That's the value of age, you see- we've already made all the stupid mistakes.