Will it be ever possible to have long term space travel?
- Thread starter ReadyAndWilling
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ReadyAndWilling
Fleet Captain
a lot of the time, those things are needlessly complex are actually necessary.
Oh, please. Earth will almost certainly remain fairly habitable for millions and millions more years. Now, here's a radical thought: how about we concentrate on stopping babies from starving to death in our own era and let our far-future descendants work out the long-term, possibly spacefaring survival of the species?
You're right. Earth, with all its natural wonders, amazing biodiversity, wealth of ethnic and cultural history/activity and women of all sorts (with all their sorts of soft, nice-smelling bodies), is a pretty dull place. Sealing one's self into a cramped plexiglass compound full of only a handful of girls at most sounds much more fun.
Wait -
Yes. We are traveling through space now. In a way Earth and even this galaxy is like a space ship. It's a wonder we haven't passed through any weird space anomalies. But as mentioned Space travel holds a lot of problems for the human body. We have this pesky need for air food water and gravity that we just cant seem to shake.
Oh, please. Earth will almost certainly remain fairly habitable for millions and millions more years. Now, here's a radical thought: how about we concentrate on stopping babies from starving to death in our own era and let our far-future descendants work out the long-term, possibly spacefaring survival of the species?
You're right. Earth, with all its natural wonders, amazing biodiversity, wealth of ethnic and cultural history/activity and women of all sorts (with all their sorts of soft, nice-smelling bodies), is a pretty dull place. Sealing one's self into a cramped plexiglass compound full of only a handful of girls at most sounds much more fun.
Wait -
Thank you Gaith. You are wise beyond your years and have managed to say what I have failed to get across in months. I'm a sci fi geek so I absolutely love the idea of people exploring the far reaches of the galaxy. I also understand it's a fantasy.
Oh, please. Earth will almost certainly remain fairly habitable for millions and millions more years. Now, here's a radical thought: how about we concentrate on stopping babies from starving to death in our own era and let our far-future descendants work out the long-term, possibly spacefaring survival of the species?
You're right. Earth, with all its natural wonders, amazing biodiversity, wealth of ethnic and cultural history/activity and women of all sorts (with all their sorts of soft, nice-smelling bodies), is a pretty dull place. Sealing one's self into a cramped plexiglass compound full of only a handful of girls at most sounds much more fun.
Wait -
Right. Why would we want to leave a planet that currently has:
Dangerous smog filled cities and over-crowding of suburban.
Dangerous city gangs, suburban gangs, and drug cartels.
Over-use of non-renewable resources and dangerous toxic chemicals being dumped in lots that become a housing development in the future, which cause the children and adults to die.
Oh and why would we want to leave deadly diseases that come because we don't handle things correctly like food or livestock.
why would we leave a place were crazy third world countries get a illegal nuclear warhead. Speaking of nuclear why would we leave a place where to super-powers could blow up the earth twenty times over.
Why would we leave huge trash yards that are over filled so its dumped in the ocean.
Yeah I can't see why anybody would want to leave.
-wait.
While you and Deckerd might think its fantasy that people would go live in a ship so that we could colonize other worlds. The world you write about is also fantasy. Lets review your points.
1. Natural wonders
what like the Amazon Rain Forest which is decreasing in size each year because of Slash and burn technique.
or like the Coral Reef which is being destroyed by what other than human activities. Or the fact that deserts are becoming common because over use of land and warming climate, due to human activities.
2. Amazing Biodiversity, really? Even with the thousands of species becoming endangered or extinct each year due to human activities.
3. Wealth of ethnic and cultural history is just that history, not enough to matter. With these people hating these people and through hating them do unspeakable acts of violent. Like genocide. Don't see where that is a good thing throughout.
4. women of all sorts
Right because the Obesity rate is going even higher in all kinds of ladies. So you can wait here for your Victoria secret model, that of course would be so into you.
All the things you mention aren't actually doing much to the planet but far more importantly, they aren't doing much to the future of humanity either.
You can take the worst excesses going on and keep doing them for a thousand years and it still won't make much difference to the planet. It's been around an awful long time and it's going to be around for even longer. The population is levelling out this century and then it will start to decrease globally. You can doom and gloom all you like but unless the atmosphere magically disappears, humans aren't going anywhere soon.
Living in a tin can in space for your entire life will never be attractive until the sun starts to burn out.
You can take the worst excesses going on and keep doing them for a thousand years and it still won't make much difference to the planet. It's been around an awful long time and it's going to be around for even longer. The population is levelling out this century and then it will start to decrease globally. You can doom and gloom all you like but unless the atmosphere magically disappears, humans aren't going anywhere soon.
Living in a tin can in space for your entire life will never be attractive until the sun starts to burn out.
Yeah, apparently you live in a tin can. Where do you get your info that we can do things in excessive amounts and it doesn't do a thing to the planet? The things I mentioned aren't doing anything to the planet, really?
Please for the sake of everyone pick up a magazine, a newspaper, and or do some homework with your computer. I can provide proof of my comments, can you?
Population going down globally? A billion people here a billion people there says otherwise. First India had the worlds largest population, now China does. Where are you getting your information? Glenn Beck's website? Sarah Palin's website? Chrisitine O'Donnell's website?
According to the US Census Bureau clock on world population, as of 21:37 UTC today the world population is 6,884,263,995, and is projected to increase by 76 million over the next year. When you compare that 76 million figure to the almost hysterical population increases the world saw during the second half of the twentieth century, Deckerd is right, the increase is definitely slowing and in many parts of the world the population hasn't just leveled off, but has begun to decrease. Some nations in Europe have increased immigration to control the rate of decrease, even Japan is considering doing the same.
If it were not for illegal immigration, America's population would be steady. With a one person increase (birth or legal immigrant) every twelve seconds and one death every twelve seconds.
http://www.glennbeck.com seem to be concentrating more on government finance that population numbers, and plugging his latest book.
http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin is spending some time today ribbing the president on his mistaken claim that the US has 57 states. (LOL), also plugging her latest book.
http://www.sarahpac.com continues to raise money to remove said president. (any amount will help)
http://christine2010.com is basically shutdown.
Or not, don't both of those items involve cutting down trees?
Careful now, or the worldwide conspiracy theory on global warming will be trotted out.
Not just in the Amazon Jungle, recently on a vacation on the Hawaiian island of Muai I watch the harvesting of sugar cane, they used the slash and burn method to harvest the crop, with the cane being collected after the fires die down. In the case of the Amazon Jungle, what is happening is that one type of plant (trees and bushes) are being replaced with another type of plant (food and forage). The Amazon river basin isn't being turned into desert, it is very lush and green. Lush and green with food.
I've been there on three occasions in my life, have you?
These things that you just dismissed are what makes us Human, without them we'd all be one people, which sounds pretty bland to me, we're defined by our differences and our heritages. It's part of what makes us unique individuals. It's what gives us pride in who we are.
Even with the thirty odd hot wars ongoing, the vast majority of people in the world live their lives in peace. And many of these wars are being fought for good purpose, the wars in Iraq, Afganistan, northern Mexico are being fought against very bad people, maybe we should all just stand aside and let them do as they please. KJbushway there are sound reasons that wars are fought.
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Don't forget Robert Heinlein’s 1941 novella “Universe,” probably the first story to use that concept.
Compared to our hunting and gathering ancestors of just a few thousand years ago, most urban dwellers today already live in a highly artificial environment. It's just a matter of degree. To those who would be born and live out their lives aboard a multi-generation spacecraft, their lives would be normal; they would never have known anything else. Like indoor cats.
Now, here's a radical thought: how about we concentrate on stopping babies from starving to death in our own era and let our far-future descendants work out the long-term, possibly spacefaring survival of the species?
False dilemma. Human society will never be perfect. We'll never completely eliminate poverty, war, crime, starvation, disease, bigotry, or any of that bad stuff. That hasn't stopped us from reaching out and exploring.
H.G. Wells said:
Because the profits and resources available in off-world locations--Titan, for example--would make it considerably easier to accomplish that?Oh, please. Earth will almost certainly remain fairly habitable for millions and millions more years. Now, here's a radical thought: how about we concentrate on stopping babies from starving to death in our own era and let our far-future descendants work out the long-term, possibly spacefaring survival of the species?
No, dude, I think you're onto something there! How many women are we talking about?
^^ I suggest a ratio of ten women to each man. Of course, that would necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship. But it would be a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. And since each man would be required to do prodigious service along these lines, the women would have to be selected for their sexual characteristics, which would have to be of a highly stimulating nature!
It also sort of happened in "The Garden of Rama," where the ship's government was overthrown by a Japanese mafia boss who launched a genocidal war against an alien species. And in "Pushing Ice" the crew of a mining vessel, unwittingly abducted by an alien probe on a generation-long journey to the other side of the universe, became mired in a series of incredibly bitter (though mostly bloodless) civil wars. Lots of beatings and fistfights, but a crew of astronauts isn't exactly going to fight Bunker Hill in space suits with a bunch of screwdrivers and a shovel.
In point of fact, we usually reach out and explore as a means to an end when these conditions become unbearable. Columbus, after all, was looking to open new trade routes to places where European governments could find new sources of natural resources to relieve the highly-depleted Europe; overfishing in Europe's rivers and lakes, deforestation, pollution, poor crop rotation, famine... it sucks to think about it this way, but Western society inevitably seeks to grow beyond its means, which in turn creates the necessity to locate new means of growth. When we reach out into the stars, it won't be because we're so great and advanced and egalitarian, it'll be because we're a bunch of greedy fucks who are never satisfied with what we have and always want a little more.
Will it be ever possible to have long term space travel?
Almost certainly not. And besides Mars, where would we go, anyway? Not that Mars is all that exciting. A barren bunch of rocks - we have lots of places like that here. Whoop-de-doo. And cuter girls, too.
Chances are we'll always be limited to Starship Earth - but that's hardly a bad thing, imho.
Pretty much, yep.
Interstellar travel is the fantasy and myth of our age. We, as human beings, will never do it.
I wouldn't say never. But not anytime soon. Look at how far man has come in just 100 years in flight. Man didn't learn to write it's history down till the last few thousand years and it didn't learn to move on land without the use of animals and such till the last couple hundred years with trains. Didn't learn to make cars till the last 130 years or so. Didn't learn to travel in space till the last 60 years. Almost all of our real traveling innovations have come the last 200 years probably. Faster than light travel may be impossible. But it may some day be possible to make a planned generational travel to say the Centauri system for example. Of course it would have to be planned to last for thousands of years and we would have to get all available information. And anything like this is a pure speculative thing on when it could happen. But I wouldn't say it's impossible or will never happen. Not in our life time probably.
Nobody thought in 1960 that we would be on the moon within 10 years.
Nobody thought in 1960 that we would be on the moon within 10 years.
I agree with the Generation Ship idea being a few centuries off. I don't agree that it our planet's population is leveling off. After all the statistics mentioned are for NOW. Let's say the Generation ship is about 300 years down the road. We don't know the changes that will change the population. I think the population will start growing again. After that no one will want to stay on cozy little Earth. There may be other places in the solar system, but nothing like having a blue sky over it. A Generation ship builds the hope of having a family member of having a home with a sky over their head. The problem with a Generation ship is that something faster could be created mid-trip by Earth and sent to the Planet. (I remember reading a book like that)
YARN
Fleet Captain
Will it be ever possible to have long term space travel?
Almost certainly not. And besides Mars, where would we go, anyway? Not that Mars is all that exciting. A barren bunch of rocks - we have lots of places like that here. Whoop-de-doo. And cuter girls, too.
Chances are we'll always be limited to Starship Earth - but that's hardly a bad thing, imho.
Pretty much, yep.
Interstellar travel is the fantasy and myth of our age. We, as human beings, will never do it.
Never is a long day.
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