Phil Metzger

Director, Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research & Education @UCF. Prev: co-founder NASA KSC Swamp Works. Space Mining. Space Settlement. Science.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Three collections of threads from over the years, sorted by how interesting (IMO). I hope you enjoy!

1. IMO, the best 🧵s.
https://t.co/PGIE3r1XqL

2. The 2nd best set.
https://t.co/Ygvlbezy0H

3. The 3rd best.
https://t.co/VMkJf4xgCd

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

This third and final 🧵 of 🧵s is for the those that I put into the 3rd tier of interestingness. I hope some will enjoy them, but they are probably not for all. /1

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@DanielWhiteson I haven’t a clue. My flight got rerouted through London instead. 🙃

I’m headed to the Many Pathways to Space is Astrurias, Spain.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Okaaaay, so the airline helpfully auto-rebooked me to London instead of Miami so I won’t have to spend the night in Miami, but my connecting flight still leaves Miami to Madrid. 🤦‍♂️

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Craziness. Trying to coordinate meeting up with my wife in Oviedo Spain after my flight to Miami got delayed and I miss my connection to Madrid. She is going on another route and is already in Chicago. I get to sleep in the Miami airport tonight.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@Thunder46216520 No, but somebody just texted me about it 😂😂😂

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Craziness. Trying to coordinate meeting up with my wife in Oviedo Spain after my flight to Miami got delayed and I miss my connection to Madrid. She is going on another route and is already in Chicago. I get to sleep in the Miami airport tonight.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@KennyEvitt Yes. I’m not saying it is impossible, just that I don’t expect to live forever because I don’t think it will happen soon enough. Maybe I’ll be wrong! I’m bearish on it, with emphasis on the “ish” :)

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

I’m bullish on AGI/ASI, robotics, and civilization in space, but I’m bearish on longevity takeoff. For just one example, how do you fix DNA damage in all 86 billion neurons of the brain without disrupting your personhood?

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

I was speaking briefly for the length of a tweet. What I mean is how do you do such extensive work in all the cells of your body including the neurons without side effects that ruin your brain or other parts of your body? It’s possible but I’m not bullish on it within our lifetimes.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Most medical interventions are clumsy compared to the molecular-scale adaptations of biology. Yes, we could in principle develop molecular treatments to fix DNA damage in every cell without chemical side effects, but I’m bearish on it compared to other tech because it is a much harder problem than other tech.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@ZbynekDrab Yes, for sure, because not repairing it eventually causes death unless something else gets us first. My thinking:

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Most medical interventions are clumsy compared to the molecular-scale adaptations of biology. Yes, we could in principle develop molecular treatments to fix DNA damage in every cell without chemical side effects, but I’m bearish on it compared to other tech because it is a much harder problem than other tech.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@KennyEvitt Not the DNA repair itself, but the unintended side effects of trying to repair it:

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Most medical interventions are clumsy compared to the molecular-scale adaptations of biology. Yes, we could in principle develop molecular treatments to fix DNA damage in every cell without chemical side effects, but I’m bearish on it compared to other tech because it is a much harder problem than other tech.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@Napoli_Fella I agree that may be the way to go, but I think it’s a much harder problem than other tech so I’m not an optimist it will happen within the lifetimes of already living adults.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@Christo31306687 Kurzweil has indeed been amazingly right.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Most medical interventions are clumsy compared to the molecular-scale adaptations of biology. Yes, we could in principle develop molecular treatments to fix DNA damage in every cell without chemical side effects, but I’m bearish on it compared to other tech because it is a much harder problem than other tech.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@lip_cheese 😄😭😭😭

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

A friend in Germany asked me to forward this research opportunity for PhD students on habitability in space, from the perspective of theology, humanities, and social sciences. Open to post graduates in those areas. Deadline to apply August 17.

https://t.co/24qOeakviW

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@summeroff The damage does affect our personhood: it eventually causes death.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@Phrankensteyn Cumulative DNA damage eventually kills us if something else doesn’t first.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@librab103 But I’m mainly responding to the idea of longevity takeoff — that ppl alive today (maybe in their 30s, say) will live forever because longevity will increase >1 year per year.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@librab103 I think there’s a lot to be learned from other species but even they hit a wall of lifespan in the same order of magnitude. (~250 years instead of 120)

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

In fact, we asked caterpillar how they’re able to make tracks work, since they almost never work at Lunabotics. Cat told us you need lots of steel and horsepower so the rocks getting in the tracks will be crushed to fine powder and extruded. On a low mass vehicle for the moon it is a challenge.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

Heading to Astrurias, Spain tomorrow to participate in the “Many Pathways to Space” conference and to see the ECLIPSE 😎 Gigi is coming, too. 💃🕺

Here is my conference abstract:

https://t.co/xnW98ctUX4

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

@henrycobb Tracks on low-mass vehicles are problematic in lunar regolith. We have seen most track systems fail due to jamming during the Lunabotics competitions.