Exporting braiiinnnsss!

Usual “End of the world, decide who gets to go to New Earth” scenario.
You are assigned the task of gathering the top ten geniuses(besides yourself, Skald) to make the trip. Other geniuses may get picked by others, but your choices are guaranteed a ticket on the S.S. Dernière Chance.
Who would you pick?

Only people that are currently alive, please-this ain’t a hearse.

No takers?
Do you want me to rename the ship the S.S. Idiocracy? :smiley:

Is New Earth already inhabited with cities and infrastructure? Or are we going to be homesteading?

Homesteading on a planet no more(or less) dangerous than the one we currently occupy, but without a structures or pollution, colony to be established at the most optimal location possible. No experts needed for the trip over-in fact, cryosleep for everybody.

We need some smart people, but what we need more are young, healthy women to bear children. If the purpose is to survive, then I’d rather take healthy young women over older geniuses

And that’s a great subject for another thread. Just take it for granted that enough young ladies have been picked out by somebody else, and your only job is to pick out the geniuses that would most helpful on the new planet.

Thanks for the compliment. Since you’re apparently granting that I’m going, should I assume you want Rhymer Enterprises to provide the actual space ships? :wink:

But to answer the question, I must insist that Neil Gaiman go.

I must ask: Why?

Oh, and Skald? Sorry, but Libby-Burroughs got the contract. They’ve got a salesman by the name of Smith and, dayumm he’s good!

Probably for the best; I was going to cheat you anyway as a matter of principle.

But as to why we should bring Gaiman: I’m confident that you’ll have scientists and engineers aplenty, just to run the ship. I’d want to make sure there was some artistic and literary genius as well.

Experts in what? Every field has geniuses in it, the real question becomes what fields are the most important. People like Edward Witten or Terence Tao are both brilliant, but they are brilliant in physics and math. Would that really matter if you are starting a new civilization? I assume you need to worry more about building shelter, restarting agriculture, building an economy, etc on earth II.

Elon Musk should go. He has shown an ability to start businesses the world needs, not just businesses that have a market demand. He would know how to find out what earth II needs, then start businesses to meet that niche.

Aside from that, I don’t know. Probably 9 people I’ve never heard of.

Any info an “expert” can provide can probably be transported on the ship’s computer. So what we need are skills that include more than just “knowing” things, skills that require hands-on training.

Martha Stewart - to keep the pod and spaceyurts nice and homely
Kurzweil
Some ubisoft game designers - to make things fun to keep cabin fever away
An android version of James Cameron, who halfway into the journey reveals himself to be android and thus create amongst the humans a big existentialist puzzle about the real value of the human journey through the cosmos
John William - to make an inspiring soundtrack for the crew
William Gibson - just cause
And Vanilla Ice