[Canadian_Mind]

Damn near every other tech in star trek has either been proven theoretically possible, or has already come to fruition. No reason why warp drive won't happen.

[Jabberwalker]

It seems that our species caves to travel in space ... to colonize the place. I'm sure that it derives directly from our nomadic ancestry. We may have to develop new dreams, then. There is absolutely no guarantee that "progress" is inevitable, that it always runs in the same direction and that we will (clever though we are) always find a technological fix for everything that our hearts desire. The analogy with the Oregon Trail is a bit disingenuous as there is a vast difference between developing a better conestoga and overcoming the apparently fundamental relativistic problems of even approaching the speed of light (let alone exceeding it). Our pop-lit has mad inventors coming up with fixes in the garage for stuff like this but, if it is even possible to travel above the speed of light, the solution may very well be thousands of years off, yet. Our popular entertainment sci-fi has taken on some sort of "reality" to us and all of the Star Trek "gee-whizz" appears to be possible because of a few pop-sci articles to that effect. It is an extreme long shot that we will not be kept in this solar system by the limits of sub-light travel. if you think that we should populate surrounding space, we will be sending off one-way, multi-generational space shots (we would probably use up our planet's resources with about a dozen of these shots) that will not be able to interact with us in a meaningful way ever again. It's a sad, lonely thought but we are probably stuck here. We need to find ourselves better dreams that are more suited to reality ... how about doing away with poverty, disease on a planetary scale. Let's continue to evolve in the environment that we come from rather than hoping that with another mass migration we will leave our problems behind us.

[saturn_656]

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

It seems that our species caves to travel in space ... to colonize the place. I'm sure that it derives directly from our nomadic ancestry. We may have to develop new dreams, then. There is absolutely no guarantee that "progress" is inevitable, that it always runs in the same direction and that we will (clever though we are) always find a technological fix for everything that our hearts desire. The analogy with the Oregon Trail is a bit disingenuous as there is a vast difference between developing a better conestoga and overcoming the apparently fundamental relativistic problems of even approaching the speed of light (let alone exceeding it). Our pop-lit has mad inventors coming up with fixes in the garage for stuff like this but, if it is even possible to travel above the speed of light, the solution may very well be thousands of years off, yet. Our popular entertainment sci-fi has taken on some sort of "reality" to us and all of the Star Trek "gee-whizz" appears to be possible because of a few pop-sci articles to that effect. It is an extreme long shot that we will not be kept in this solar system by the limits of sub-light travel. if you think that we should populate surrounding space, we will be sending off one-way, multi-generational space shots (we would probably use up our planet's resources with about a dozen of these shots) that will not be able to interact with us in a meaningful way ever again. It's a sad, lonely thought but we are probably stuck here. We need to find ourselves better dreams that are more suited to reality ... how about doing away with poverty, disease on a planetary scale. Let's continue to evolve in the environment that we come from rather than hoping that with another mass migration we will leave our problems behind us.

It may well take a thousand or more years for us to figure out interstellar travel, that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it. Looking after the rock we got is all fine and good, but its resources are finite and either we exhaust them and starve to death or we are all wiped out in the next global extinction level event.

If the human race wants a future, it's out there. We stay here and our cradle will become our coffin.

[Jabberwalker]

$1:

It may well take a thousand or more years for us to figure out interstellar travel, that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it. Looking after the rock we got is all fine and good, but its resources are finite and either we exhaust them and starve to death or we are all wiped out in the next global extinction level event.If the human race wants a future, it's out there. We stay here and our cradle will become our coffin.

... or we learn to become another type of species. We've been out-migrating for 100,000 years. We finally "met ourselves" from both directions a half a millennium ago, we've run out of places to run to. We can become a better species using technologies that are within the realm of possibility. Travel at anything more than well down into sub-light speeds is utterly beyond our practical understanding and we may never overcome what Einstein says we can never overcome.

[DrCaleb]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

It may well take a thousand or more years for us to figure out interstellar travel, that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it. Looking after the rock we got is all fine and good, but its resources are finite and either we exhaust them and starve to death or we are all wiped out in the next global extinction level event.

If the human race wants a future, it's out there. We stay here and our cradle will become our coffin.

$1:

These are the missing practical arguments: safeguarding the Earth from otherwise inevitable catastrophic impacts and hedging our bets on the many other threats, known and unknown, to the environment that sustains us. Without these arguments, a compelling case for sending humans to Mars and elsewhere might be lacking, But with them—and the buttressing arguments involving science, education, perspective, and hope—I think a strong case can be made. If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.
Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense the stirring of a breeze.

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1994.

http://www.spacequotations.com/colonization.html

[Jabberwalker]

It's sad but, based on what we know now, that is our fate. We had better find new, more appropriate dreams for the future of our species. Carl must have known all of this.

[DrCaleb]

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

It's sad but, based on what we know now, that is our fate. We had better find new, more appropriate dreams for the future of our species.

Which is what much of science is geared toward, getting us off this 'pale blue marble'. The justifications for this journey are in that link.

$1:

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan

[Tyler_1]

I think someone should figure out how to make stargates, then we can rocket them out and once they land we can just walk over and see whats up.

[Jabberwalker]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

It's sad but, based on what we know now, that is our fate. We had better find new, more appropriate dreams for the future of our species.

Which is what much of science is geared toward, getting us off this 'pale blue marble'. The justifications for this journey are in that link.

$1:

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan

... could be, might be ... no guarantees. There is a big difference between "laughing at Fulton" and overcoming general relativity.

[DrCaleb]

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

It's sad but, based on what we know now, that is our fate. We had better find new, more appropriate dreams for the future of our species.

Which is what much of science is geared toward, getting us off this 'pale blue marble'. The justifications for this journey are in that link.

$1:

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan

... could be, might be ... no guarantees. There is a big difference between "laughing at Fulton" and overcoming general relativity.

General and Special Relativity don't integrate well with Quantum physics and String Theory. Einstein hated Quantum theory because of how incompatible they were. The beauty of the Quantum theory is that it allows for wormholes, and almost embraces them in the design of the universe.

Even warp drive seems probable - not moving an object through space, but changing the nature of space around the object so that it becomes somewhere else. We live in interesting times!

[Jabberwalker]

I really hope that we can zoom across the galaxy. I really do. I will never know, nor will you, if we really can.

[bootlegga]

BRAH BRAH:

God help the human race if this stupid bitch procreates on Mars.

God help us if YOU procreate on Earth!

[saturn_656]

bootlegga bootlegga:

BRAH BRAH:

God help the human race if this stupid bitch procreates on Mars.

God help us if YOU procreate on Earth!

Did BRAH delete his post??? Can't find it in the thread.

[bootlegga]

Nope, it's near the bottom of page 2

[saturn_656]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Nope, it's near the bottom of page 2

Getting old... Eyes don't work like they used to.