Space exploration, colonization

Status
Not open for further replies.
Not trying to be political but if there is any priority in place, space COLONIZATION should be at the bottom of any list, right below space EXPLORATION.

I'm not saying that it doesn't enhance our understanding of the world, but given the amount of technologies we have right now and the kind of resources it requires, we have no reason to explore beyond where we can travel outside of Mars (or not even that).

Faster than light anything? You got to find ways to get around the law of physics first before you dream about step 1. Will the resource be better spend at subatomic physics or finding the higher temperature superconductor? You bet, because those technologies can be easily used in civilian level and make human race much better off.

The last thing I'm concern about is the earth getting cooked beyond what we can do. Sure, there are the global warming scare (which I believe) and ocean level rising, but it is much easier to fix those before abandoning the earth and find a new planet that takes many generations of human to evolve to live in (or genetically engineer our off spring to adapt to).

Most likely the entire human race will be wipe out by diseases, nuclear war, resource contamination (radioactive or pathogen of water and wind, for example), etc, long before the earth is cooked.
 
Nick lay off the games, go on a date, your girlfriend will bring you back to Earth
lol.gif
Wait... maybe that's what wifes do...
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Two things must happen first...we'll have to figure out how we can survive and replinish our supplies while traveling and we'll need gobs of fuel. Faster than the speed of light is not possible and I don't think it will ever be possible. Even if it did, there's no way a human can sustain the G forces. This ain't Star Trek.


there are G forces in outer space?
 
Originally Posted By: mikeg5
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Two things must happen first...we'll have to figure out how we can survive and replinish our supplies while traveling and we'll need gobs of fuel. Faster than the speed of light is not possible and I don't think it will ever be possible. Even if it did, there's no way a human can sustain the G forces. This ain't Star Trek.


there are G forces in outer space?


"An object at rest will tend to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force".

He is talking about the acceleration, and deceleration.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear

Most likely the entire human race will be wipe out by diseases, nuclear war, resource contamination (radioactive or pathogen of water and wind, for example), etc, long before the earth is cooked.

It's kind of ironic that the very technologies that make space travel even a possibility has also put humanities very survival at risk.
If we reverted back to simple hunting and gathering, having our species survive for millions of years is far more likely than our present technological course.
 
You get into conceptual oddities with this type of discussion. You're talking about the human species "enduring" for no other reason than its failure to manage its existence in a sustainable manner.

Agent Smith said it so eloquently: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.


So, unless you can change the basic human condition, all that we can possibly accomplish is extending the bad practices that make our likelihood of surviving a slim chance.
 
Deadly solar flares travelling at near 1/2 speed of light is another gigantic issue....


....which once again we are protected from by earths atmospheric make up.....we can't leave...we have never left...
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: PandaBear

Most likely the entire human race will be wipe out by diseases, nuclear war, resource contamination (radioactive or pathogen of water and wind, for example), etc, long before the earth is cooked.

It's kind of ironic that the very technologies that make space travel even a possibility has also put humanities very survival at risk.
If we reverted back to simple hunting and gathering, having our species survive for millions of years is far more likely than our present technological course.

Yeah, that's why we have more people on the planet than ever before and higher standard of living.
smirk2.gif


Why are you posting on a computer when you should be tending to a field or skinning a deer?
 
Agent Smith must have failed high school biology.
wink.gif


No organism "instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the environment." They are simply kept in check by selection pressures from the environment and other organisms -- just like virii and other agents of disease.

Occasionally, that process breaks down; either the organism overcomes the selection pressures against it, or those selection pressures fade. When that happens, the organism will spread rapidly until it runs into some other selection pressure, e.g. dwindling resources. That's what we're in danger of doing. It doesn't mean we lack some instinct that other organisms have. It's just a product of the drive to multiply.

The real difference between us and other species is that we can see this happening in an abstract way, and take measures to stop it before it's too late. Other than that, we play by exactly the same basic rules as all other life -- which, as an aside, is something we would do well to recognize.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest

Yeah, that's why we have more people on the planet than ever before and higher standard of living.
smirk2.gif


Why are you posting on a computer when you should be tending to a field or skinning a deer?

Is that the goal? See what population and consumption level we can wring out of the planet until our technology either provides an escape, or can't solve the next environmental problem? Or someone sets off a nuclear war?

Have you tended a garden? Or hunted or raised an animal, killed and butchered it yourself? It doesn't sound like it. You should try it sometime, it definitely has broadened my thinking and experiences.
 
Quote:
The real difference between us and other species is that we can see this happening in an abstract way, and take measures to stop it before it's too late.

Exactly my point. Plenty of people still starving to death in the world where the people aren't allowed to prosper via their labor. A "selection pressure" as you would call it.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Is that the goal? See what population and consumption level we can wring out of the planet until our technology either provides an escape, or can't solve the next environmental problem? Or someone sets off a nuclear war?

Barring some kind of mass enlightenment on our part, yes. Good description.
 
Quote:
Is that the goal?

The goal is to have people, everywhere, be the best off they can be. Technology does this, and always has. Do you have any ideas how to reduce the population to levels where they can grow their own food and hunt meat by their own hands?

Quote:
Have you tended a garden? Or hunted or raised an animal, killed and butchered it yourself?

Nope, never have. Don't want to. But I doubt that many butchers or farmers have done what I do, either. If everyone is out working in the fields, then there won't time to do other things like make electrical power, computers, or medicine.

I like technology.
 
Quote:
No organism "instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the environment." They are simply kept in check by selection pressures from the environment and other organisms -- just like virii and other agents of disease.


I say semantics. Nature is balance. It "naturally" self regulates. Predator and prey ..supply, holding capacity, etc. There are occasions, where say for example, a couple of deer (what inspires them to leave perfectly good dry land
54.gif
) swims to an island rich in resources...the propagate like rabbits ..eat all the food ..and starve to death ..but generally speaking, the food chain, left unaltered, works itself out.

Our interference in the North Atlantic Cod was permanent ..apparently. Even without the fishing, the species isn't rebounding. Other organisms took advantage of the absence.

We've got tools ..and it allows us to support a much larger population, but any apparent sustainability is only measured over a short span of time. Anyone capable of counting knows that it's truly not sustainable in the current manner. Something must change.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
The real difference between us and other species is that we can see this happening in an abstract way, and take measures to stop it before it's too late.

Exactly my point. Plenty of people still starving to death in the world where the people aren't allowed to prosper via their labor. A "selection pressure" as you would call it.


Yes. Give them iPods ..that will fix it.
 
Quote:
The goal is to have people, everywhere, be the best off they can be. Technology does this, and always has. Do you have any ideas how to reduce the population to levels where they can grow their own food and hunt meat by their own hands?


Technologies are tools, multipliers, that can do both good and bad things. It is the standard of living that regulates population in today's world (although there are some cultural and reproduction lag time) and those who control technologies aren't always interested in having people everywhere be the best off they can be.

Example: those stock trading algorithms, OPEC, etc.
 
An odd thing happens when traveling at high speed.
Time slows down.
So at substantial space travel speeds near C, our calculated fuel and food use for long distance travel would actually be much less than with reference to Earth time. Thus longer trips than immediately thought of are possible.

BTW, the speed of light was almost certainly exceeded in the early Big Bang . Some galaxies are moving apart faster than the speed of light. And scientists in Austria have a computer that works faster than the speed of light.
And who says the speed of light was always constant? We don't know, and it is possible that it is slowing down. We just don't know for sure- it can't be ruled out definitively.

I believe we should have put more into researching our oceans - explore and utilize them more. Minerals, food, pure water, power, etc are right here for our present needs.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

JeffKeryk
Planet Venus in the SE sky this morning
Replies
2
Views
412
wings&wheels
JeffKeryk
A hole drilled by Curiosity Rover on Mars
Replies
9
Views
523
Eddie
Owen Lucas
Communication with Voyager 2 temporarily lost (hopefully)
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
MolaKule
JeffKeryk
JWST show us baby stars...
Replies
9
Views
434
Pew
B
Well this is unfortunate
2
Replies
35
Views
1K
Triple_Se7en
Back
Top