31 ms·

Buddy, we're gonna dysonsphere every sun in the galaxy. Mars isn't arrogant, it's just that we have to learn to crawl before we start running.

Udik 7y ago
Should we wait until we get a warp drive engine? Because thinking of reaching anything further than our solar system with our current physics (not technology- that we can improve by building stuff) is more silly than trying to cross the Pacific ocean with help of a floating rubber duck.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mkl 7y ago
  Even at (way) sub-light speeds, it's probably possible. Whether it's automated self-replicating ships (possibly carrying humans as gene sequences), or generation ships (seems pretty hellish!), a number of people have estimated mathematically that it's doable. Estimates vary wildly, of course, as there are many unknowns, but basically exponential growth gets unintuitively fast. Some links (there are many more pages too): https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-self-replicating-spacecraft-could-take-over-the-gal-1463732482?IR=T https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-self-replicating-spacecraft-coul... https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/how-long-would-it-take-colonise-the-galaxy https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/scie...
  - Udik 7y ago
    This is not "travelling" any more. This is sending spores hoping they will take root somewhere, but they will be forever disconnected from us, in space and, more importantly, in time. What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? Even if you build ships that carry human genes sequences and send them on a million years trip, who is going to benefit? The sequences you sent?
    - ben_w 7y ago
      > What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? I’m told there was a book on this exact topic. I’ve never read it, because other people tell me it’s now wildly out of date. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene
      - bavell 7y ago
        I can confirm it's both wildly relevant and insightful :)
    - randallsquared 7y ago
      > What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? Life. It's what living beings do. If some group of living beings stop doing it, there are fewer of them, later.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- warent 7y ago
  There's no point waiting for something which may never happen. Traveling outside of the solar system is 100% possible with our current understanding of physics and is just a matter of resources/ logistics, meanwhile "superlight speed" is currently 0% possible with no guarantee that it ever will be possible.
- DennisP 7y ago
  With fusion rockets, we could get to at least one percent light speed, and maybe ten percent. At one percent, assuming exponential growth, we could colonize the entire galaxy in a million years or so, barely a blink in geological time. We could also colonize objects in the Oort Cloud, just gradually hopping outward from rock to rock, with fusion to power our little colonies, ultimately reaching interstellar distances. It'd be a little slower, but it'd happen without any special effort.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  The next solar system is a mere 4 lightyears away. We have engine designs from the 1960 capable of reaching 5% the speed of light (Project Orion and successors). That's 80 years travel time, completely viable with current technology. Of course it makes more sense to colonize at least one other planet in our solar system first to learn on a smaller scale with lower stakes. But waiting for entirely new physics is unessesary.
ForHackernews 7y ago
Love the optimism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- DennisP 7y ago
  It's entirely possible that the Great Filter is behind us. If life itself is extremely rare, then the only life that exists will necessarily have passed through it, and will look out on a near lifeless universe.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  If we assume a great filter exists and that we haven't passed it already, it follows that we should be concerned about events that could wipe out humanity (or human civilisation). Establishing at least one self-sustaining human colony outside earth, preferably followed by one outside the solar system, drastically lowers the number of possible doomsday scenarios. Everything from asteroid impacts to thermonuclear war and biological warfare to pandemics becomes much less likely to wipe us out if we live on more than one planet. The independence wars of those colonies might become brutal, but the small risk from interplanetary warfare is dwarfed by all the scenarios that are solved by inhabiting more than one planet.

Udik 7y ago

Should we wait until we get a warp drive engine? Because thinking of reaching anything further than our solar system with our current physics (not technology- that we can improve by building stuff) is more silly than trying to cross the Pacific ocean with help of a floating rubber duck.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mkl 7y ago
Even at (way) sub-light speeds, it's probably possible. Whether it's automated self-replicating ships (possibly carrying humans as gene sequences), or generation ships (seems pretty hellish!), a number of people have estimated mathematically that it's doable. Estimates vary wildly, of course, as there are many unknowns, but basically exponential growth gets unintuitively fast. Some links (there are many more pages too): https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-self-replicating-spacecraft-could-take-over-the-gal-1463732482?IR=T https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-self-replicating-spacecraft-coul... https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/how-long-would-it-take-colonise-the-galaxy https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/scie...
- Udik 7y ago
  This is not "travelling" any more. This is sending spores hoping they will take root somewhere, but they will be forever disconnected from us, in space and, more importantly, in time. What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? Even if you build ships that carry human genes sequences and send them on a million years trip, who is going to benefit? The sequences you sent?
  - ben_w 7y ago
    > What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? I’m told there was a book on this exact topic. I’ve never read it, because other people tell me it’s now wildly out of date. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene
    - bavell 7y ago
      I can confirm it's both wildly relevant and insightful :)
  - randallsquared 7y ago
    > What's this mania you have of disseminating yourself? Life. It's what living beings do. If some group of living beings stop doing it, there are fewer of them, later.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
warent 7y ago
There's no point waiting for something which may never happen. Traveling outside of the solar system is 100% possible with our current understanding of physics and is just a matter of resources/ logistics, meanwhile "superlight speed" is currently 0% possible with no guarantee that it ever will be possible.
DennisP 7y ago
With fusion rockets, we could get to at least one percent light speed, and maybe ten percent. At one percent, assuming exponential growth, we could colonize the entire galaxy in a million years or so, barely a blink in geological time. We could also colonize objects in the Oort Cloud, just gradually hopping outward from rock to rock, with fusion to power our little colonies, ultimately reaching interstellar distances. It'd be a little slower, but it'd happen without any special effort.
wongarsu 7y ago
The next solar system is a mere 4 lightyears away. We have engine designs from the 1960 capable of reaching 5% the speed of light (Project Orion and successors). That's 80 years travel time, completely viable with current technology. Of course it makes more sense to colonize at least one other planet in our solar system first to learn on a smaller scale with lower stakes. But waiting for entirely new physics is unessesary.

ForHackernews 7y ago

Love the optimism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

DennisP 7y ago
It's entirely possible that the Great Filter is behind us. If life itself is extremely rare, then the only life that exists will necessarily have passed through it, and will look out on a near lifeless universe.
wongarsu 7y ago
If we assume a great filter exists and that we haven't passed it already, it follows that we should be concerned about events that could wipe out humanity (or human civilisation). Establishing at least one self-sustaining human colony outside earth, preferably followed by one outside the solar system, drastically lowers the number of possible doomsday scenarios. Everything from asteroid impacts to thermonuclear war and biological warfare to pandemics becomes much less likely to wipe us out if we live on more than one planet. The independence wars of those colonies might become brutal, but the small risk from interplanetary warfare is dwarfed by all the scenarios that are solved by inhabiting more than one planet.