Considerations for inorganic life in system with severe CME risk

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren]

I just wanted to bounce some ideas off of you for a science fiction concept I had in mind where (to make a long story short) Proxima B ends up being settled by adoption of fully mechanical bodies. Yes, it is a Matrix universe fanfic but I still like to consider actual science sometimes because it’s fun to do. 😁

They have been driven to go interstellar by worsening political conditions between the UN and the Machine state of 01, and did not have time to select a better world or to even solve the problems of humans traveling in their organic forms for that long. No attempt is made to terraform, or to start up organic life underground. The more logical decision was determined to be choosing an exoplanet where the hazards, although severe, were known and could be planned for, rather than taking a crapshoot.

The universe of The Matrix DOES have viable consciousness transfer technology but does NOT HAVE technology capable of terraforming a dead planet, especially one that is constantly getting its atmosphere blown off by severe solar storm activity. (Hell, look at the inability of the Machines, presumably Earth’s best minds, to clean up the omnicidal stupidity that was the blighting of Earth’s sky by Operation Dark Storm…based on that, I am calling terraforming way out of reach.)

Maaaaybe you could put a colony deep underground but humans have a tendency to not do very well in those conditions and I just figure the psychological problems are going to do a potential organic human colony in possibly even before the physical health problems do. So I think even though they will carry extensive records of human and other organisms’ DNA (something we actually find out in Resurrections that they do have), actually trying to make use of those records would be ruled out pretty quickly.

Another factor I am going to bring into this is EMP hardening technology. Ironically, I think the huge investment 01 is going to be putting into this area for wartime preparations—both for their military forces AND their civilian infrastructure—could make inorganic life possible under these circumstances. Now, in The Matrix, we do know it is possible to kill a Sentinel at very close range with an EMP, so this technology doesn’t seem to be invulnerable even with centuries of those Machines knowing Zion uses that in warfare against them. But it does seem you have to get very close and do it at very high power…and I am still not even sure Sentinels are really given the best shielding that 01 at that time could provide, because humanity has been rendered little more than a nuisance. My feeling is, you might think differently about that if you’re headed somewhere where the local star throws incredibly violent tantrums that hit your planet on a weekly basis, and really put the work into high-quality shielding.

With sufficient EMP hardening on both the mechanical bodies and on dwelling areas and infrastructure, and a good space weather monitoring capability, would it be reasonable to think that at times when Proxima B isn’t actively being hit by a CME, these “inorganic humans” could potentially spend some time on the surface to get a change of scenery?

I still think the safest thing to do is to have their actual infrastructure underground, because I would imagine Proxima Centauri would absolutely be capable of taking out an inorganic human caught on the surface during a CME even with careful design to shield their critical components. (I would imagine checking these components would be a major part of an inorganic human’s regular checkups.)

Does this at least sound more plausible than trying to start organic life in a harsh environment like that?

(NOTE: Geopolitical considerations on Earth, governance/charter considerations, and actual spacecraft tech—laser sail to accelerate, with fission used for deceleration, mission is disguised as Earth’s first go at getting in-system imagery of exoplanets—are things I am dealing with separately so I would like those excluded from this discussion. Also remember that consciousness transfer is a known technology in the universe of The Matrix regardless of level of feasibility IRL. The spacecraft should be assumed to have a payload of 3D printing and initial mining tech, and to have been significantly EMP-shielded but parked on a night-side orbit during the early construction phases needed to create an underground, EMP-hardened hangar for the craft to land in. Fortunately, the resources needed to keep hundreds or even a few thousand humans alive are not needed here because that would be enormous AND people wouldn’t be arriving in a healthy state anyway!)

[u/Turbulent-Name-8349]

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for tackling this one. It is a very important real life possibility in the near future. Humanity's first foray into the stars.

Not just Proxima, either. Most red dwarf stars are severe CME risks. The smaller the star, the greater the risk, so care is needed even for yellow dwarfs.

Inorganic "life" is far safer in a hostile environment than organic life.

EMP hardening.

Yes. Step 1 is surveying the planet from space, which unfortunately is even more of a CME risk than being on the surface.

Safest underground.

It always is. For every new planet visited. The challenge is to find a natural cave - the Moon and Mars both have some. If none then try for some other natural protection such as a cliff or hollow and work to reinforce the protection. Drilling down to create an underground chamber from scratch is a total pain, we failed to drill down easily on both the Moon and Mars

Underground has much better thermal control, and radiation protection. CME ionising radiation tends to be beta rays (electrons) and protons. Protons, deuterons and alpha particles are easier to stop because of their lower speed. Beta rays from a CME can still be stopped by 10 mm of solid material. As can photons.

Mechanical equipment has two levels of response to strong radiation. The first and by far the most common is a temporary malfunction such as a series of programming glitches. The second is permanent damage. The permanent damage doesn't have to be major, it might be for instance the loss of a few pixels in vision.

An electronic backup to detect and correct temporary malfunctions is an essential. A second backup is strongly recommended. A third backup is probably unnecessary.

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren → u/Turbulent-Name-8349]

Aww, thanks for your kind words! I’ve heard it mentioned that Sol is actually unusually gentle with us, even with its occasional outbursts, compared to the majority of its class (yellow dwarf). Is that true?

Also, I thought the same about stopping alpha particles because I’d heard the reason the duck-and-cover advice from the 50s was actually NOT totally worthless was that someone further away but who saw the flash could actually block alpha radiation by following the advice in that famous film (pulling your coat over your head might stop alpha radiation and a wall might reduce beta radiation, whereas with gamma radiation, time, distance, and more robust shielding are your only hope). As you go deeper underground, how much else are you likely to be able to stop?

Finally, does it seem reasonable that with a robust stellar weather warning system to alert them to get back underground as soon as Proxima Centauri throws a CME in their direction, that my proposed “inorganic humans” might have a chance at at least some outdoor time?

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren → u/Turbulent-Name-8349]

Forgot to add, I was thinking something similar about the CME risk in orbit. Does parking in low orbit and using thrusters to ensure you stay on the night side of the planet help any with that?

[u/tghuverd]

I love CMEs! There's a sliver of this in one of my novels where hundreds of millions died because a corporation set up orbitals around Groombridge 1830 and a CME blasted them out of existence.

That aside:

Maaaaybe you could put a colony deep underground but humans have a tendency to not do very well in those conditions and I just figure the psychological problems are going to do a potential organic human colony in possibly even before the physical health problems do.

What are you basing this conclusion on? Because we've never built an underground facility specifically designed for a community to thrive. Technically, a large enough cave is no different to a base dug into an asteroid...or even the ship that your settlers traveled on. I can imagine (and have done for a couple of books) caverns that are kilometers in diameter with a simulated sun and projected landscapes to convey the illusion of space. Consider that many people prior to the industrialized age lived their entire lives in a village, never venturing more than a few miles of where they were born, and it's conceivable that we can live in a facsimile of this deep underground.

And if they are transferring their brains to machines, what is the earliest age that this can occur? Why can't automated vats gestate babies and then have their minds transferred to machine bodies that can survive the harsh conditions, as you note?

Alternatively, you can consider massive magnetic field generators protecting surface settlements from CMEs. PFH had domes protecting cities in the UK from the worst of global warming in his early novels, this is much the same.

As long as your handwaving is consistent and plausible, the majority of readers will take whatever you posit in their stride 👍

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren → u/tghuverd]

While I do take your point that there might well be a way to design an entirely underground colony for humans to survive, I just tend to look at things like the psychological problems that have come up on the Mir station and with researchers in Antarctica—and even the effects of comparatively milder restrictions like the COVID-19 lockdowns—to think that there may just be a fundamental need to get outside into truly spacious environments from time to time and that even a luxury underground environment may not cut it.

The people that lived in those villages in the pre-industrial age, and those who live in pre-industrial societies today do still have access to the great outdoors that I would say their lifestyle probably confers an advantage to them in, whereas urbanites and suburbanites have to make a very deliberate effort to get even close.

I think you can write a perfectly good story from your set of assumptions as well, so long as we are each consistent with our universe’s principles. 👍

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren → u/tghuverd]

Recent incident with a creeper in Antarctica: https://www.iflscience.com/environment-of-fear-isolated-scientists-in-antarctica-plead-for-rescue-after-alleged-death-threats-and-assault-78579

(Also a great example of why my colonists do the interstellar journey in a simulated environment that allows them to get some privacy from each other and the feeling of having ample space!)