Why It’s IMPOSSIBLE to Leave the Solar System | Leonard Susskind

Описание: We're not going to the stars. After decades of optimistic space advocacy and science fiction narratives, physicist Leonard Susskind reveals the uncomfortable truth: humanity is permanently trapped in our solar system. Not because we lack ambition, but because the physics, biology, and economics of interstellar travel impose barriers that are fundamentally insurmountable. Discover why the nearest star Alpha Centauri, just 4.37 light-years away, might as well be infinitely distant: reaching it at 10% light speed requires energy equivalent to a major city's annual electricity consumption just to move 1,000 kilograms, the rocket equation makes chemical propulsion impossible requiring more fuel than exists in the universe, even fusion propulsion needs mass ratios of 100:1 or worse, and the journey takes 40+ years one-way with no possibility of return. Learn why human biology fails in space: bones lose 1–2% density monthly, muscles atrophy irreversibly, cosmic radiation delivers cancer-causing doses with no adequate shielding solution, and psychological breakdown is nearly inevitable over multi-decade confinement. Understand why proposed solutions don't work: laser sails only work for gram-scale probes not humans, generation ships face unsolvable social cohesion problems across centuries, suspended animation doesn't exist and may be impossible, consciousness uploading is speculative technology decades or centuries away. But Susskind offers hope: the solar system itself is vast beyond comprehension, containing enough energy (from Dyson swarms) and materials (from asteroid mining) to support trillions of people in millions of O'Neill cylinder habitats for billions of years. A sobering but ultimately optimistic vision of humanity's actual future—not as galaxy-spanning empire, but as mature solar system civilization that's sustainable, achievable, and more than enough.