141–150 of 168 posts
Isaac Arthur made a compendium called Civilizations at the End of Time [1] that goes into this territory. This guy, in my opinion, goes above and beyond even your typical hard scifi. Can't recommend highly enough. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p58yFf7aZsM&list=PLIIOUpOge0...
Interesting. What's up with his pronunciation of the words earth and stars ? Everything else is perfectly pronounced.
I started reading this and then thought "what a waste of time". This pertains in no way to my life or the life of anyone for the foreseeable future. I read it just after the one about taking pictures preventing people from experiencing things and remembering them. Putting these together reminded me that reading some of these things on HN is preventing me from living. And with that, I'm gonna close this laptop and go…
The people who actually take humanity to the stars (if it happens) will likely be motivated, in part at least, by this and other grand, cosmic ideas. I personally find it motivating and invigorating in a certain sense. But, of course, if it is bumming you out, then definitely go do something else :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So would the light from those stars also be moving outward faster than the speed of light?
No. In fact, if two objects are far enough apart, then the amount of new space created between them will be so great that light will never be able to travel between them. Neither object will ever be able to see the other.
To accelerate stars, you squeeze them until a jet of matter comes out in the opposing direction. For ideas on getting matter out of stars, see "star lifting". Furthermore, most of the useful energy in stars is not their nuclear binding energy, it is their potential as gravitational fuel, for example when added into a black hole via the Penrose process. It makes sense to accelerate stars toward the central dwelling pl…
How silly. Saying we don't know how to move a star is exactly the same as saying "you just squeeze it", right up until the point you actually go out there and actually fucking squeeze it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was on mobile so didn't have the time to post a link to more than "search on star lifting", but now that I'm off mobile, have a link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_lifting EDIT: more material directly on moving stars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine https://www.dynamical-systems.org/zwicky/stellarengines.pdf
You've also removed the part where you called those pontifications "engineering". edit: No, seriously, the initial comment shat on the author of the link for not knowing anything about mega-engineering. That's what I was calling silly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just gave this a go. It's amazing, thank you for putting it on my radar. At first his speech impediment makes it harder to follow, but 5 minutes in you're used to it and you're just riveted by the content and the clear communication style. This is quality stuff.
I guess it’s more fun to dream about the world millions of years in the future, but wouldn’t we gain so much more if we spent all of our energy trying to optimize acquiring knowing more rapidly in the next few decades? For example, supply 9 billion humans with clean, renewable energy by 2050. Accelerate cures for cancers, heart disease, malaria, etc. Large colony on Mars within 20 years, ...
I support The Long Now foundation and others who try to think and plan far ahead in to the future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea that humanity will ever travel even to the nearest star is pure fiction. Anyone who thinks otherwise just fails to grasp the distances involved. They are so large as to be beyond understanding.
Let's be a bit more positive on Humanity's progress eh? Humanity is on the cusp of three major technological breakthroughs that will quite literally change everything. 1) AI. Even if we don't reach ASI in the near term, we'll have ANI to help us research new technologies in months/years rather than decades. 2) Asteroid Mining. Whether it's Musk/Bezos/A. N. Other, the very first time someone brings down an asteroid. I…
Here's my take on the future: We'll upload ourselves and use much less energy. As uploaded agents we'll have all the advantages of software - forking multiple instances of ourselves, backup for assured immortality, plugins and upgrades, changing our appearance at will, slowing down or speeding up, becoming part of a collective - everything. It will be Life 2.0, very different from our life. We've already "uploaded" p…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can produce more food than ever with less energy. Knowledge transfer is always improving, and with computer programs it will be even easier to transfer knowledge. You guys need to clarify what "a collapse" is. Not eating as much meat? Do you really think that we would not be able to power our computers or not be able to produce rice/wheat on any industrial scale? The amount of FUD spread without any foundation for…
> We can produce more food than ever with less energy. Knowledge transfer is always improving... I imagine that's what people said before the Dark Ages too. It's not as if empires and civilizations haven't ever fallen before.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've also removed the part where you called those pontifications "engineering". edit: No, seriously, the initial comment shat on the author of the link for not knowing anything about mega-engineering. That's what I was calling silly.
People need to stop abusing the term “engineering.” This is dungeons and dragons fantasy with s bit of math for color.