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Do you think mankind will ever reach one of them? Robots or humans? Interstellar ark or von Neumann machines? Or will these planets be simulated in VR?

stephengillie 10y ago
What kinds of science and technology advancements will be needed to make a Starship Enterprise a reality? The first step is getting more humans living in space or on planetary colonies.
- hugh4 10y ago
  The laws of physics probably don't allow for FTL travel. It's probably not a good idea to pin all our hopes on narrative conveniences invented by the writers of space operas. However, if we can extend our lifetimes substantially and harness enough energy to travel at substantial sub-light speeds we can do alright as an interstellar species.
labster 10y ago
We're already living in VR. Each of us are just threads running on the Universe VM. All we need to do is find a use after free bug in reality, and we'll be able to go wherever we want.
- brendonjohn 10y ago
  Using what humans have learnt from developing software as an analogy for how the universe operates is fine until you start expecting human-type exploits to also be present in the rules of physics. At that point you're basically hammering a square peg into a round hole that may not exist, expecting the analogy to hold true.
  - maxander 10y ago
    If there are bugs in the universal algorithm, they'll not be the kind of bugs you find in C, but the kind you find in the ideal programming language. So research into better programming languages is crucial to human transcendence!
api 10y ago
I think humans will eventually visit a few planets and maybe live on the Moon or Mars. To go further will require either radical bioengineering or AI / brain upload. (The distinction gets blurry there.) We are just too fragile and we don't live long enough for interstellar trips. Even the outer solar system may be prohibitively hard for us.
- monk_e_boy 10y ago
  I guess we could upload our personalities to a computer then fly around in space for thousands of years. Then grow a body on whatever planet we feel like.
maxander 10y ago
Even if we don't, the observation that all these potentially-life-hosting worlds are (or aren't) dead would tell us something important.

stephengillie 10y ago

What kinds of science and technology advancements will be needed to make a Starship Enterprise a reality? The first step is getting more humans living in space or on planetary colonies.

hugh4 10y ago
The laws of physics probably don't allow for FTL travel. It's probably not a good idea to pin all our hopes on narrative conveniences invented by the writers of space operas. However, if we can extend our lifetimes substantially and harness enough energy to travel at substantial sub-light speeds we can do alright as an interstellar species.

labster 10y ago

We're already living in VR. Each of us are just threads running on the Universe VM. All we need to do is find a use after free bug in reality, and we'll be able to go wherever we want.

brendonjohn 10y ago
Using what humans have learnt from developing software as an analogy for how the universe operates is fine until you start expecting human-type exploits to also be present in the rules of physics. At that point you're basically hammering a square peg into a round hole that may not exist, expecting the analogy to hold true.
- maxander 10y ago
  If there are bugs in the universal algorithm, they'll not be the kind of bugs you find in C, but the kind you find in the ideal programming language. So research into better programming languages is crucial to human transcendence!

api 10y ago

I think humans will eventually visit a few planets and maybe live on the Moon or Mars. To go further will require either radical bioengineering or AI / brain upload. (The distinction gets blurry there.) We are just too fragile and we don't live long enough for interstellar trips. Even the outer solar system may be prohibitively hard for us.

monk_e_boy 10y ago
I guess we could upload our personalities to a computer then fly around in space for thousands of years. Then grow a body on whatever planet we feel like.

maxander 10y ago

Even if we don't, the observation that all these potentially-life-hosting worlds are (or aren't) dead would tell us something important.