Essentially it is a number of space probes (10 sounds good) with really tough bacteria in hibernation.

When all life... on earth is about to become owned by... e.g. our sun explodes... and death stars...

We armed the probes by sending a constant signal.

As soon as all human civilization is totally screwed, the probe will detect the loss of signal.

It will turn itself towards a preprogrammed planet... and fire its rocket.

After that... its just another random metal rock hurdling though space, till it reaches a other world, and hopefully starts a new life there.

On every probe, there is three sections...

a rocket with electronics,

a hardened "Data Bank", which holds information about humans, as well as a copies of our DNA if the aliens ever wants to reproduce it. In addition it has some useful technology that will help if they are still in the mechanical age(or higher).

And a random assortment of useful life starting chemical and sleeping bacterias. (oh and a heat shield, which shatters on impact on hard grounds)

Note: maybe perhaps its better to make the databank section orbit the alien planet instead.
-- mofosyne, Sep 24 2008

Panspermia or exogenisis. http://www.space.co...s_all_001027-1.html
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 24 2008]

Noah's Asteroid Noah_27s_20Asteroid
Virtually the same idea [ldischler, Sep 24 2008]

A World Out of Time by Larry Niven http://en.wikipedia...A_World_Out_of_Time
"whose mission is to find and seed suitable planets as the first step to terraforming them" [baconbrain, Sep 24 2008]

I'll donate some DNA if you like.
-- neelandan, Sep 24 2008


Sorry, [neelandan], that's only half your DNA.

Erm, Larry Niven covered seeding planets in several of his SF books. But he never considered waiting until AFTER the human race had died off. Why do that? Why wait? Why not send the seeder probes out as soon as they are built? We'd have some partially-terraformed planets cooking away when our colony ships arrive.
-- baconbrain, Sep 24 2008


If one of these rockets landed and the bacteria evolved sentience, then faster-than-light travel, they might show up here tomorrow.

Google panspermia.
-- bungston, Sep 24 2008


if we will see another tom cruise-like sentient form evolve, and postulate to his globe that these were his evolutionary roots, I'd recommend against this idea.
-- williamsmatt, Sep 25 2008


Why do we Humans keep thinking OUR civilization is the best, and OUR DNA must permeate the Universe, and OUR race must survive at any cost?

My view is: Sure, it's cool that Earth has intelligent life. Sure, it's cool that it's so intelligent, that it's trying to kill not only itself, but its whole world. But it's NOT cool that it's trying to spread to other worlds, pollute them, rape them of their resources, and proceed to the next planet business-as-usual style. What blood-thirsty Man did first to Earth, he now wants to do to the Solar System and the Milky Way. My personal opinion is that we send out scientific probes to gather information, but the money that would go towards colonization should first be used to solve our problems here. We have no reason to believe that our colonists, or even the successors of our DNA, will be less aggresive than ourselves.

That being said... Some theories state that life on Earth started from DNA trapped in a meteor which crashed here a while ago. The state of the planet at that time was such that the DNA was able to reproduce and we know the rest of the story. It is likely that the same is going on all the time in different places in the Universe. Most of meteors don't have DNA in them, most of those that do get burned in the atmosphere or get fried with too much radiation, those that survive the landing find themselves on a planet which won't support life. Even if the planet is OK and the DNA actually reproduces a few times, then it just might get unlucky and be hit by the next meteor.

So, it's easy to believe that there is lots of DNA (or its alien equivalent) roaming the Universe and falling onto most planets. Another 10 or 1000 probes with a flu virus inside won't make much of a difference, even if those probes are designed to help the little guys make a new home.

Of course, the idea great for Sci-Fi.
-- piwoslaw, Sep 25 2008


//Why do we Humans keep thinking OUR civilization is the best, and OUR DNA must permeate the Universe, and OUR race must survive at any cost?//

Because it's clearly true. Just look at the Olympics medal table if you don't believe me. Even Togo got a medal this time round but do you see any extra-terrestrials on the list? No, didn't think so.
-- DrBob, Sep 25 2008


Well that just proves my point! Surely it is mankind's destiny to rescue the Universe from naff Euro-pop and flared trousers? All to the accompaniment of an embittered commentary by Terry Wogan about how the Martians & Venusians have voted for each other for years despite mankind obviously being best and now we are going to strip-mine their planets just to show 'em who's boss!
-- DrBob, Sep 25 2008


Rescue the Universe from flared trousers by strip-mining? I do not want to watch that.
-- baconbrain, Sep 25 2008


Strip-miming sounds intriguing enough, and would provide its own rescue from flared trousers. I wonder how far down the white face paint goes?
-- bungston, Sep 26 2008



//it's cool that Earth has intelligent life//

I liked that, but then piwoslaw got all preachy.
-- ldischler, Sep 26 2008


I'm pretty sure all our probes have some bacteria on them and studies have shown they are very rediation resistant, so Voyager bakes this pretty well except it isn't aimed at a close planet. As as for why we think we are the best and should we be spreading ourselves into the universe, my answer is yes. Though it does worry me that another society tinks the same thing and sends us a probe that we see as meteor that carries a bacteria that kills us all off. I guess this is unlikely since the bacteria eveolved in a different ecosystem, but it is possible especially if panspermia is true. As for whether we should we be doing it because we are a broodish and violent people and basically act as a virus on the world that we live on, I would answer that most of not all wars are based on societies exceeding the needs of their lands and trying to grab others. This won't happen in space as it is effectively infinite. In the future I don't think we will live on planets as much as in big ships and then just mine planets and others for raw materials.
-- MisterQED, Sep 26 2008


//only a few generations away from our much delayed adaptation to the Earth's environment and completing our evolution into apes// It's a choice and one that I think many will take, but with the latest news about one researcher rebuilding a beating heart from almost scratch, she started with a dead heart and washed all the muscle off, and others where people are converting adult cells into stem cells, I can only see immortality as a possible option for either me or at least my grandchildren. Immortality either comes with mass expansion, the end of procreation or war. I vote for the first, that we expand into space's nearly limitless expanse, allegorically taking the virus that is the human race airborne. If most leave, the ones left behind can choose to refuse the lure of immortality and go back to nature. I would not be one.
-- MisterQED, Sep 27 2008


I think fifteen hundred years would be plenty.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 27 2008



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