In many science fiction novels and films There is speculation about the concept of a “spaceship,” a massive ship that could literally contain cities inside.so that on long astral voyages, which can last decades, this huge crew can advance with generations being born within the ship itself.
Well, far and away, this is what Jeff Bezos dreams of. The Amazon founder, who is now focused on his space company Blue Origin, believes this might one day be possible.
During a recent interview with podcast host Lex Friedman, Bezos said that these habitats, like those first described by science fiction writer Gerard K. O'Neill, They can allow an astronomical number of humans to survive.
“I would like to see a lot of humans living in the solar system,” he told Friedman. “If we had a billion people, we would, at any given time, have 1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins.”
“The only way to reach that vision is With giant space stations“Bezos added. “The surfaces of the planets are simply too small.”
Bezos believes the land will be a museum in the future
The Blue Origin CEO's vision is strikingly different from that of his main space competitor, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who claims he is working to make humanity “multi-planetary” and create cities on other planets like Mars.
In reality, The CEO of SpaceX has emphasized on numerous occasions that his company's ultimate goal is to colonize Mars. So much so that he sometimes mentioned the possibility of rehabilitating the planet by launching nuclear missiles at its poles, in a way that would cause the temperature of the star to rise.
However, NASA had to take action on this matter to warn that this initiative would not be effective, because the effects of the atomic bombs would be temporary and the conditions would not persist over time to ensure a habitable ecosystem.
For his part, Elon Musk also sees no coherence in Jeff Bezos' plan since then The logistics will be very complicated. “Large amounts of mass must be transferred from planets, moons or asteroids,” he said. “It would be like trying to build a United States in the middle of the Atlantic.”.
But the Amazon founder's vision of what Earth will become is much darker. He told Friedman that he believes our planet will eventually become a vacation destination, allowing us to hop on a ship to visit it, “the same way you can go to Yellowstone National Park.”
The CEO also sounded optimistic about the future of AI, telling Friedman that people are “very concerned” about the risks of the technology.
