> I'm not even sure that "space wars" will be that common. War is expensive, even more so when you have to do it on top of space travel. Using the example from

> I'm not even sure that "space wars" will be that common. War is expensive, even more so when you have to do it on top of space travel. Using the example from the article, if Earth considered "Gliese 581 d" Space Commies or something and sent an army NOW at c/4, we would get a message saying "We're here, will engage" in 2118. That's beyond the life expectancy of anything but a small percentage of people being born now. Using xkcd logic, it was like WW1 Germans deciding "We will invade Russia", send his Pickelhaube corps and when they get to Moscow its 1998 and the Soviet Union has collapse already. They would be using Gewehr 98, they would be slaughtered by a single T-34 out of a museum. News of 1998 Moscow (and pictures of McDonald's on Red Square) would arrive to Angela Merkel. 100 years is a damn long time.