If people are interested in this stuff (and I hope a lot are), the Planetary Society [1] do weekly podcasts and events and talk about this and other areas. The Benford's are always good to hear because they're articulate, clever and so enthusiastic (the Economist cartoon has a Benford present as well I think).<p>A recent event was recorded in Pasadena "Is this the Starship Century?", a 90 min video with some great discussion about spaceships [2]. A book is out as well. It's good to dream, isn't it?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.planetary.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.planetary.org</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.scpr.org/events/2013/09/25/1153/next-the-starship-century/" rel="nofollow">http://www.scpr.org/events/2013/09/25/1153/next-the-starship...</a>
That article was way too conventional for my taste. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive</a> is my dark horse tech in this field.
Reminds me of one of my favourite reads, "Are Black Hole Starships Possible", <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1803" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1803</a>