41–50 of 67 posts
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Which is why we need to work on the aging problem. Once that is solved, we can explore all we want.
We've already solved that with reproduction. We need to figure out how to out-live our planet.
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Correction: laws of physics as we currently understand them For example, we still don't understand inertia and gravity. Nothing is impossible.
This is what I like to refer to as the "bias of computing." The idea is that we deal with so much scientific progress in our fields that we tend to think that scientific progress can take us anywhere and no restriction will stand up for long. However, this is a fallacy that really has no grounding in the laws of physics. What reason do we have for thinking that information can travel faster than the speed of light? M…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is why we need to work on the aging problem. Once that is solved, we can explore all we want.
We've already solved that with reproduction. We need to figure out how to out-live our planet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is why we need to work on the aging problem. Once that is solved, we can explore all we want.
Agreed. Aubrey de Grey is a crazy bugger, but he's got the right idea.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I like to refer to as the "bias of computing." The idea is that we deal with so much scientific progress in our fields that we tend to think that scientific progress can take us anywhere and no restriction will stand up for long. However, this is a fallacy that really has no grounding in the laws of physics. What reason do we have for thinking that information can travel faster than the speed of light? M…
But if we never dreamed it so, then we never would have tried and never would have broken down those other barriers. Just the fact that we've broken down all those other barriers inspires me to believe.
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For anyone who didn't get the 'joke' (like me) and who knows nothing about Star Trek (also me), turns out that "V'Ger" is a Star Trek character. From Wikipedia: "A sentient being that evolved from Voyager 6, a fictitious space probe from the 20th Century that vanished into a black hole and was given life by a race of living machines. The story of V'ger and its return to Earth to seek "the creator" forms the plot for…
I'm personally waiting for V-GINY.
Technically he was only following the example of the V'Ger guy who isn't being downvoted.
It's almost as if the universe was created to mock us. So much space to explore, but physical law makes it impossible to explore more than the smallest, most insignificant fraction.
Correction: laws of physics as we currently understand them For example, we still don't understand inertia and gravity. Nothing is impossible.
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nothing to replace it? See SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.
SpaceX in a few more years should be able to do human transportation to orbit. Virgin Galactic is for space tourism and doen't fulfill any of the roles the shuttles were used for. When the shuttle retires, there really isn't anything else (in the US) that comes close to replacing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_com...
It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested). The dreams of exploration we had from the time of the first man in space through the 1980s were so wonderful and optimistic. I grew up reading OMNI and Discover, watching Carl Sagan on television and playing with toy Space Shuttles. When the Voyager left earth, we believed that man would wa…
> It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested). Thank you for introducing me to Tangerine Dream.