The Sword and Laser discussion

I think six years is too long for me, but I'm sure everyone is different. How long could you leave your friends and family for? Would your answer change if you thought someone might die while you were away? Is there a difference in how long you're willing to leave if the mission would save your loved ones from an imminent threat instead of a long term one like climate change?

Ever? A few years. But that answer changes depending on when in my life we're talking about.

In my 20s, 5-6 years would have been an easy Yes. Later in life as my parents aged and needed me? No amount of time.

I think the nature of the trip, how big the ship is etc all play into this too. A trip on the Enterprise is one thing, on a small, relatively cramped ship entirely another.

I could do six years easily. I could even do it solo. in fact that would be preferable.

Unless I could choose the crew. Weed out the people who would seriously piss me off after an extended trip.

Either that or I'm throwing them out the airlock. "Oh no he/she forgot to hook their tether on correctly" ;-)

Caitlin wrote: "I think six years is too long for me, but I'm sure everyone is different. How long could you leave your friends and family for?”

Forever.

In the mid 80s I had knee surgery and couldn’t leave the house. I didn’t see anyone for three weeks and didn’t even notice. The internet didn’t exist, I hate the phone, and there were only four channels on the TV. Still had no problem not talking to anyone.

If I could do that at 20 years old, I know I could go to infinity and beyond today.

When my daughter was young, I didn't want to leave her at all. I got a big raise to do consulting and it was local at first, then travel during the week, then a three week overseas trip. I would call my wife and three year old kid and she'd say in her stilted kid voice, "Come home, daddy." Left that gig for a no-travel job.

Now, she's reaching the end of high school and soon the active-tending part of parenting will be over. At that point I could go for years. Possibly forever. I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid and the desire didn't go away, just the actual chance to do it.

Trike wrote: "there were only four channels on the TV."

Wow, you had 4 TV channels in the 80s. I had 2.
I didn't get my 3rd channel until 1994 :-?

I hate phones too. I have a mobile phone, but never carry it. I find it weird that people obsess over their smart phones and can't live without them.

We are grumpy old men ;-)

I have a two-year-old and the longest I’ve been away from him is a weekend. Don’t think I could manage to stay away from him any longer!

I don't have or want children, but I can't imagine trying to tell one under 15 or so that I'd be leaving for years. Even if I knew I'd be fine, how in the world would I know they'd be fine?

As for leaving my husband and my family/friends that I see regularly...I think the longest that I would agree to for my job is a few months. I don't have a strong desire to be an astronaut though.

In terms of a space voyage, I'm not sure any time would be good, since I'd either be trapped with other people, or without anyone to call on if stuff goes wrong, and both of those sound scary, though managing by myself would be far preferable.

In terms of having to leave behind friends and family forever... I have seen my closest friend maybe two or three times this year; I don't really need close regular contact the way a lot of people do, so pretty much forever. Maybe Tassie Dave, Trike and I could take a big ship together, then stay the hell out of each others way except in cases of emergency!

My family as in siblings and parents, and beyond? No problem. No contact needed. Spouse and child? Much harder, but for the greater good, maybe.

But complete isolation with no human contact? Let's just say that in college, if my roommate went home for the weekend, I lasted until around 10 am Saturday morning before I was knocking on doors and looking for friends.

I don't have kids, and no SO, so at the moment I could leave for a few years, maybe up to ten years. But isolation could be hard, I can go a couple of weeks without talking to anyone, but need some kind of contact after that.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "In terms of a space voyage, I'm not sure any time would be good, since I'd either be trapped with other people, or without anyone to call on if stuff goes wrong, and both of those sound scary, though managing by myself would be far preferable.

In terms of having to leave behind friends and family forever... I have seen my closest friend maybe two or three times this year; I don't really need close regular contact the way a lot of people do, so pretty much forever. Maybe Tassie Dave, Trike and I could take a big ship together, then stay the hell out of each others way except in cases of emergency!"

I'm the same. The hardest thing would be leaving my cat.

I don't have kids, but I'm close with my aging parents and I have an SO, so... I could only do 6 years if it were a real save-humanity thing. 2 years max seems a little more doable in terms of my earth relationships.

But to be honest, I'm selfishly more concerned with how I'd do mentally, trapped in a little space ship for longer than a few months. :O

I can happily spend about a day alone. If I wouldn't be alone, I still wouldn't want to miss years of new music, comics, books, movies, shows & video games.

Ian wrote: "I can happily spend about a day alone. If I wouldn't be alone, I still wouldn't want to miss years of new music, comics, books, movies, shows & video games."

FOMO is a real concern for some people. I know people who hate even going to sleep because of it.

Trike wrote: "FOMO is a real concern for some people. I know people who hate even going to sleep because of it. "

I actually have thought this is part of the reason I have a difficult time sleeping in moving vehicles (road trips, or while flying). I can do it, but I have to be dead tired, and nothing going on around me. And when at sleepovers, I always had a difficult time going to sleep knowing others around me were awake. I usually don't have as much of a problem with this with roommates, or so's. But given a preference, I'd still prefer going to sleep last. Besides FOMO, I think there may be trust issues here, especially with regards to others at the wheel/ controls, but I've just learned to roll with it, as it is part of who I am now.

The one good part about this, is it is often a great excuse to stay up reading in bed.