5 ms·

I agree this is unlikely to be true, but I keep in mind what we know now and what we knew 1 million years ago. The energy to run a PC would seem obscene to peop

I agree this is unlikely to be true, but I keep in mind what we know now and what we knew 1 million years ago. The energy to run a PC would seem obscene to people even thousands of years ago (let alone what a PC is and what it can do). Pull someone from earlier in this timeline and see what they think of airplanes. 2.6 million years ago: Stone tools 1.7 million years ago: Controlled fire 5,000 - 3,000 BC: Writing 3,000 BC: The wheel 1543: Nicolaus Copernicus publishes his heliocentric model of the solar system 1687: Newton publishes "Principia Mathematica" 1915: Albert Einstein publishes the general theory of relativity. 1969: Apollo 11 mission successfully lands the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon.

Timon3 3y ago
This is exactly my thought as well. There are a bunch of very interesting things in development: fusion energy is getting closer and closer, approaches for warp bubbles are being discovered without humongous energy requirements, possibly a room-temperature normal-pressure superconductor, etc. It's hard to predict how much research all of these will take to fully harness, but given our previous rate of progress I'm still very hopeful that the world in 100 years will have technology we can't even dream of.
yowzadave 3y ago
A laptop consumes energy at the same order of magnitude as a human body—not an “obscene” amount. The physics of accelerating an organism to the relativistic speeds required to make space travel feasible are in a completely different realm.
- pshirshov 3y ago
  Based on what we know it's highly unlikely/impossible but what if you don't have to accelerate?..
  - Eji1700 3y ago
    What if god is real (or gods, or whatever)? That's what this all boils down to. It's the exact same line of logic. Sure there could be an omnipotent all powerful being that just chooses to stay hidden from us for no provable, observable, or obvious reason. It's just impossible to prove or disprove. What if they don't need to accelerate? Neat, it's STILL a shit ton of energy. What if they can teleport? Neat, it's STILL a shitton of energy. What if they can hop dimensions or bend the universe? Neat, it's STILL a shit ton of energy. What if it's not a shit ton of energy? Fuck it why not, how did they find us? They have tech for that? Fuck it why not, why aren't they showing themselves beyond these extremely rare sightings? They have a reason for that. Fuck it why not, why would every government hide these? Tech or war or something. Fuck it why not, why hasn't SETI or one of the thousand other independent science observatories or detectors not picked up any of this or reported on it?..... and on and on and on. So i can't prove that tomorrow the Sun God Ra won't descend from the heavens and sit atop the pyramids as if it was his throne and rule from on high, but I damn sure don't have any evidence that's why the sun is moving across the sky.
    - pshirshov 3y ago
      I totally agree with your way of thinking, that's the only way to stay sane. But this green men circus makes me really uncomfortable at this point. I kinda want to believe.
- mritchie712 3y ago
  It'd be an obscene amount a few hundred years ago.
srvmshr 3y ago
You provided an timeline of human evolution, but has fundamental physics changed at the core? Unfortunately, we haven't found any drop-in replacement to Newton's first & second laws for e.g.; Conversely, more & more of physics is condensing towards established standard models proving that our model of universe is more definite. In the quantum space our research is mostly finding new interactions, not fundamental particles everyday. Energy & it transformations are the biggest truths eventually. To propel crafts capable of interstellar voyage, immense energy burst is needed for propulsion. We have seen no evidence of the kind of physics which will break relativistic models - and no material which can sustain the thermals in the process. At the core of it, our chances to find another habitable world & intelligent species wherever they might be is rapidly reducing. Universe is expanding faster than previous estimated and probably double as old if you consider recent research. Our window of opportunity to establish contact passed probably before we came into existence. It is like predicting we'll be able to detect God by advances one day. That supernatural being could exist - but most scientific evidence points to a hard no, given we already know it is a mental / emotional construction.

Timon3 3y ago

This is exactly my thought as well. There are a bunch of very interesting things in development: fusion energy is getting closer and closer, approaches for warp bubbles are being discovered without humongous energy requirements, possibly a room-temperature normal-pressure superconductor, etc. It's hard to predict how much research all of these will take to fully harness, but given our previous rate of progress I'm still very hopeful that the world in 100 years will have technology we can't even dream of.

yowzadave 3y ago

A laptop consumes energy at the same order of magnitude as a human body—not an “obscene” amount. The physics of accelerating an organism to the relativistic speeds required to make space travel feasible are in a completely different realm.

pshirshov 3y ago
Based on what we know it's highly unlikely/impossible but what if you don't have to accelerate?..
- Eji1700 3y ago
  What if god is real (or gods, or whatever)? That's what this all boils down to. It's the exact same line of logic. Sure there could be an omnipotent all powerful being that just chooses to stay hidden from us for no provable, observable, or obvious reason. It's just impossible to prove or disprove. What if they don't need to accelerate? Neat, it's STILL a shit ton of energy. What if they can teleport? Neat, it's STILL a shitton of energy. What if they can hop dimensions or bend the universe? Neat, it's STILL a shit ton of energy. What if it's not a shit ton of energy? Fuck it why not, how did they find us? They have tech for that? Fuck it why not, why aren't they showing themselves beyond these extremely rare sightings? They have a reason for that. Fuck it why not, why would every government hide these? Tech or war or something. Fuck it why not, why hasn't SETI or one of the thousand other independent science observatories or detectors not picked up any of this or reported on it?..... and on and on and on. So i can't prove that tomorrow the Sun God Ra won't descend from the heavens and sit atop the pyramids as if it was his throne and rule from on high, but I damn sure don't have any evidence that's why the sun is moving across the sky.
  - pshirshov 3y ago
    I totally agree with your way of thinking, that's the only way to stay sane. But this green men circus makes me really uncomfortable at this point. I kinda want to believe.
mritchie712 3y ago
It'd be an obscene amount a few hundred years ago.

srvmshr 3y ago

You provided an timeline of human evolution, but has fundamental physics changed at the core? Unfortunately, we haven't found any drop-in replacement to Newton's first & second laws for e.g.; Conversely, more & more of physics is condensing towards established standard models proving that our model of universe is more definite. In the quantum space our research is mostly finding new interactions, not fundamental particles everyday. Energy & it transformations are the biggest truths eventually. To propel crafts capable of interstellar voyage, immense energy burst is needed for propulsion. We have seen no evidence of the kind of physics which will break relativistic models - and no material which can sustain the thermals in the process. At the core of it, our chances to find another habitable world & intelligent species wherever they might be is rapidly reducing. Universe is expanding faster than previous estimated and probably double as old if you consider recent research. Our window of opportunity to establish contact passed probably before we came into existence. It is like predicting we'll be able to detect God by advances one day. That supernatural being could exist - but most scientific evidence points to a hard no, given we already know it is a mental / emotional construction.