Our current space tech so depressing

D

Deepak

B3D Yoddha
Veteran
Considering how vast the distances in this universe, I am really sad to see our current state of affairs in Space Tech. I am really wondering how are we going to contact/find other Intelligent civilizations in the universe. I have a feeling that instead of us finding it could be other IETC (Intelligent ET Civilisation) finding us.

Another concern, if we are to travel intra/inter galactic distances then even travelling at speed of light wouldnt be enough. So if we leave out the fancy worm hole theory then it means that we need to travel at many times the speed of light to reach vast distances, but it is supposedly impossible, and even if we somehow do it then would it mean that we will never be able to reach anywhere at "current" time....this is so confusing.

Is there any hope?
 
To me, it'd be more important to discover some possibility to move around the world with no delay, like beaming etc. I frankly don't care if there are any intelligent beings out there. If there are some, we're pretty sure to make them our enemy very fast, knowing the human nature...
 
There is nothing hard in having a space ship travel to the nearest stars. We could do that today. It would just take a long time. And it is quite possible for humans to actually travel to the stars as well, in the not-too-far future. That will take a very long time as well.

Who says it has to be possible to travel to another star in mere hours or days, just because we want to, and such fast travel is common in books and movies? Nature doesn't care about that.
 
Dude, man was in caves or living on the plains for tens of thousands of years. Testing out different theories of governments and societies to find which were semi-stable and which were not took thousands of years. Even after science had achieved a fairly rigorous form in both approach and tools (mathematics, etc.), the process of using that knowledge to develop technology sufficient to launch an industrial revolution still took hundreds of years.

Within a single man's lifetime we have witnessed both the first powered flight and man landing on the moon. And you're dissapointed in our pace of progress?

Back to reality! We're still technical children, but our pace of development is nothing short of astonishing.
 
DiGuru said:
There is nothing hard in having a space ship travel to the nearest stars. We could do that today. It would just take a long time. And it is quite possible for humans to actually travel to the stars as well, in the not-too-far future. That will take a very long time as well.

Who says it has to be possible to travel to another star in mere hours or days, just because we want to, and such fast travel is common in books and movies? Nature doesn't care about that.
Click to expand...

Well you can only be as fast as the speed of light, which is still too slow to reach anywhere interesting quickly.

Unless a ship is an enclosed environment, with potentially limitless supply of energy and supplies (think cultivating and farming inside the ship, using minerals and resources artificially made with available materials taken from space) would work. Someone would be born in the ship, grow and have children. Eventually that society would reach "somewhere". Or someone.

Individually it might just be useless, but as a society it would be successful.
 
Deepak said:
So if we leave out the fancy worm hole theory then it means that we need to travel at many times the speed of light to reach vast distances, but it is supposedly impossible, and even if we somehow do it then would it mean that we will never be able to reach anywhere at "current" time....this is so confusing.
Click to expand...

I have a pet theory that the reason faster-than-light travel isn't possible is precisely because of all the confusion it would cause ... as is the Universe looked at the potential consequences and said "sod it, not getting into that mess, Max Speed C".

More seriously, FTL is either possible, or it isn't. It's not like a technology that can be developed ... like inventing the light bulb or some such. If it's physically impossible, then no amount of human ingenuity will yield a means of travelling faster-than-light.
 
Theoretically, it would be only possible if you had some kind of stasis bubble around the ship. So stasis would be the first thing to invent before we think about faster-than-light travelling.
 
Deepak said:
Considering how vast the distances in this universe, I am really sad to see our current state of affairs in Space Tech. I am really wondering how are we going to contact/find other Intelligent civilizations in the universe. I have a feeling that instead of us finding it could be other IETC (Intelligent ET Civilisation) finding us.

Another concern, if we are to travel intra/inter galactic distances then even travelling at speed of light wouldnt be enough. So if we leave out the fancy worm hole theory then it means that we need to travel at many times the speed of light to reach vast distances, but it is supposedly impossible, and even if we somehow do it then would it mean that we will never be able to reach anywhere at "current" time....this is so confusing.

Is there any hope?
Click to expand...

I have to ask. Why is it disappointing? Cause we're used to Star Wars movies? Where ZZZZZAP and u're on the other side of the Universe?

It's obvious that human immagination will always be much further than human technology. Even when we will be able to travel faster than speed of light (if we ever will), people will still be disappointed because, for example, we can't cure every illness, or we can't shoot a planet down with just one laser beam, or because we can't go even faster than whatever speeds we will be reaching.

I'm sure human resources could be much better spent than they are today, but living in disappointment is wrong.
 
If we want to spend the huge resources to do it and can generate the energy required (fusion), you could go almost anywhere in the Galaxy (as long as it is in a straight line) in about two and a half years subjective time. And we could start that now, if we would spend a significant amount of the global resources to do it.

You need a large moon, or another very large rock, drill a hole through the center, install a magnetic accelerator along the length of it, and start shooting the mass of that rock through it. It takes you almost a year to reach a speed close enough to the speed of light that way, after which time is diluted to a fraction, and you reach an incredible speed in subjective time.

When you come near your destination, you start spewing mass towards it, and it takes another year to slow down. And at the end of the journey you have to find another moon to be able to come back, as the one you used to get there will be spent.

:D
 
DiGuru said:
If we want to spend the huge resources to do it and can generate the energy required (fusion), you could go almost anywhere in the Galaxy (as long as it is in a straight line) in about two and a half years subjective time. And we could start that now, if we would spend a significant amount of the global resources to do it.

You need a large moon, or another very large rock, drill a hole through the center, install a magnetic accelerator along the length of it, and start shooting the mass of that rock through it. It takes you almost a year to reach a speed close enough to the speed of light that way, after which time is diluted to a fraction, and you reach an incredible speed in subjective time.

When you come near your destination, you start spewing mass towards it, and it takes another year to slow down. And at the end of the journey you have to find another moon to be able to come back, as the one you used to get there will be spent.

:D
Click to expand...

Have you read The Sparrow? :D
 
london-boy said:
Have you read The Sparrow? :D
Click to expand...

No. Should I?

I actually heard about that about 25 years ago, and I didn't believe it, so I did the calculations myself for our Moon. It would work, but I really have no idea how we could get such a gigantic operation done, to demolish the whole Moon in an ordered way, and in a matter of a mere two years time.
;)
 
london-boy said:
I have to ask. Why is it disappointing? Cause we're used to Star Wars movies? Where ZZZZZAP and u're on the other side of the Universe?

It's obvious that human immagination will always be much further than human technology. Even when we will be able to travel faster than speed of light (if we ever will), people will still be disappointed because, for example, we can't cure every illness, or we can't shoot a planet down with just one laser beam, or because we can't go even faster than whatever speeds we will be reaching.

I'm sure human resources could be much better spent than they are today, but living in disappointment is wrong.
Click to expand...
Ah, but you were born into the age of wonder....you missed seeing it develop LB. Some of us are used to seeing sci fi ideas become realities, in my short lifetime:

1. Microwave ovens- Blew everyones minds when they first came out in the 70s, and justifiably so...there was nothing like it ever before.

2. Portable phones- They may not seem like any big deal now, but when I was a kid the idea was inconceivable and the early ones looked more like portable infantry communication devices than their modern breatheren....and I'm talking mid-80s here.

3. Computers- Need I say more? These new fangled ones really are just all "Star Trek" to me, and I built the fucker! :oops:

4. Internet- Man, I can't tell you how many books I read about this worldwide computer network that could give you the answers to just about anything and allow you to communicate with people all over the world...but I can tell you with a straight face that I've been dreaming about it since I was about 7-8 years old. (And that's 30 freaking years ago man!) I never really thought it would happen/take off in my lifetime, it's another of those "pleasant surprise" thingies for me. :)

So yeah, some of us are used to living in an age of limitless wonder....let us dream! :p
 
Digi, that's exactly what i was saying!!

We are continuously evolving, but our imagination will always be thinking of the next thing. And cyclically, that is exactly why we are evolving! If we didn't have our imagination, we wouldn't be striving for technological advancement.

At the same time, being disappointed for "not being there just yet" shouldn't be the right attitude :D
 
digitalwanderer said:
I dunno, I'm still a bit miffed that I ain't driving a flying car yet. :(
Click to expand...

Demand keeps it from being affordable/available. Blame those uncivilised bastards who are content with normal cars!! :devilish:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
Samsung SyncMaster S27A850D Mini-review
Replies
2
Views
8K
Grall
G
Berek
A trillion voices in the silence of space-time
Replies
0
Views
1K
Berek
Berek
K
  • Locked
Why we're the only intelligent life in our galaxy
16 17 18
Replies
354
Views
20K
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
B
Kaotik
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
10 11 12
Replies
238
Views
42K
Kaotik
Kaotik
A
Frontlines: Fuel of War--32 players, Dedicated Servers, BF style gameplay
2
Replies
32
Views
21K
nintenho
N
Back
Top