3 ms·

Will we ever achieve near-light speed travel and catch up to these guys? Or do we first reach the point where we can upload our consciousnesses into machines (

Will we ever achieve near-light speed travel and catch up to these guys? Or do we first reach the point where we can upload our consciousnesses into machines (bio or silicon) such that speed no longer matters as much? Off topic a little, but I feel that Heinlein-esque generation ships or frozen embryo payloads carrying biology and all that bio requires are not the future of human expansion. I think it’s long-lived mechs carrying encodings of human neural pathways, with maybe just enough biology to generate randomness. (Could we make hearty fungi function as synapses?)

Workaccount2 2y ago
Reminds me of the sci-fi trope where the first humans are sent off into deep space to reach a new habitable planet. And when they arrive it's already full of cities and life because their original ship was much slower than the high tech ships that came later, beating them by decades to the new planet.
- elcritch 2y ago
  I’d be pissed the newer ships didn’t stop and give me a lift! Rude of them.
- kyriakos 2y ago
  This is part of the story of the new Peter F. Hamilton book "Exodus The Archimedes Engine" [1], which is also the basis for an upcoming game by ex-BioWare developers [2]. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205670068-exodus https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205670068-exodus [2] https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US
stronglikedan 2y ago
Considering the energy requirements for near-light speed travel, I'd bet on the latter, if I were a betting man.
Gazoche 2y ago
We don't need to go that fast, Voyager 1 is only travelling at 6% of the speed of light. UPDATE: 0.006%, not 6%
- amenhotep 2y ago
  0.006%, if anyone else was taken aback by this. I wonder what a world where 17 kps was 6% of light speed would look like.
  - tivert 2y ago
    > I wonder what a world where 17 kps was 6% of light speed would look like. A Slower Speed of Light: http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/ http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/
  - Gazoche 2y ago
    Oof, I'm tired today. Yes I was missing a few zeroes, thanks for the correction :)
elcritch 2y ago
You just described a Dalek of sorts which is a bit terrifying.

Workaccount2 2y ago

Reminds me of the sci-fi trope where the first humans are sent off into deep space to reach a new habitable planet. And when they arrive it's already full of cities and life because their original ship was much slower than the high tech ships that came later, beating them by decades to the new planet.

elcritch 2y ago
I’d be pissed the newer ships didn’t stop and give me a lift! Rude of them.
kyriakos 2y ago
This is part of the story of the new Peter F. Hamilton book "Exodus The Archimedes Engine" [1], which is also the basis for an upcoming game by ex-BioWare developers [2]. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205670068-exodus https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205670068-exodus [2] https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US

stronglikedan 2y ago

Considering the energy requirements for near-light speed travel, I'd bet on the latter, if I were a betting man.

Gazoche 2y ago

We don't need to go that fast, Voyager 1 is only travelling at 6% of the speed of light. UPDATE: 0.006%, not 6%

amenhotep 2y ago
0.006%, if anyone else was taken aback by this. I wonder what a world where 17 kps was 6% of light speed would look like.
- tivert 2y ago
  > I wonder what a world where 17 kps was 6% of light speed would look like. A Slower Speed of Light: http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/ http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/
- Gazoche 2y ago
  Oof, I'm tired today. Yes I was missing a few zeroes, thanks for the correction :)

elcritch 2y ago

You just described a Dalek of sorts which is a bit terrifying.