It sort of makes you wonder; what would really happen to a group of people sent out to explore these places, and then have them (or their children) comes back to what is essentially tens of thousands
of years worth of time passed by. What could the crew do? Who would be waiting for them? Would Earth still be inhabited by humans? If the human race managed to live on that long, would anyone
even know they were coming back and/or be expecting them/have plans for their arrival? It seems like a journey like this would only really be beneficial to the crew, to be able to see these places and
learn things for their own personal benefit, because no one might be around back on earth to find any of the information they collected useful. The only use for something like this would be to move the
human race to another habitable planet, otherwise the technology seems kind of pointless to us, the people staying back here on earth, who will never know or in any way use the information to be
learned far out in these long to reach places.
[QUOTE=Adamrd;50948676]It sort of makes you wonder; what would really happen to a group of people sent out to explore these places, and then have them (or their children) comes back to what is essentially tens of thousands
of years worth of time passed by. What could the crew do? Who would be waiting for them? Would Earth still be inhabited by humans? If the human race managed to live on that long, would anyone
even know they were coming back and/or be expecting them/have plans for their arrival? It seems like a journey like this would only really be beneficial to the crew, to be able to see these places and
learn things for their own personal benefit, because no one might be around back on earth to find any of the information they collected useful. The only use for something like this would be to move the
human race to another habitable planet, otherwise the technology seems kind of pointless to us, the people staying back here on earth, who will never know or in any way use the information to be
learned far out in these long to reach places.[/QUOTE]
I mean, things aren't so bleak if you only think locally. Like if we sent people to a planet on Alpha Centauri and they were capable of traveling near light speed, only about 8 or 9 years would pass in Earth's frame for a round trip (not counting time spent on the planet itself). So if we imagine human expansion throughout the galaxy, time differences aren't so huge for nearby worlds. Things aren't too bad if you stop thinking of Earth as the center of everything, and imagine travel only between nearby star systems and only compare times between those systems.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;50949169]I mean, things aren't so bleak if you only think locally. Like if we sent people to a planet on Alpha Centauri and they were capable of traveling near light speed, only about 8 or 9 years would pass in Earth's frame for a round trip (not counting time spent on the planet itself). So if we imagine human expansion throughout the galaxy, time differences aren't so huge for nearby worlds. Things aren't too bad if you stop thinking of Earth as the center of everything, and imagine travel only between nearby star systems and only compare times between those systems.[/QUOTE]
So think of it as intergalactic leapfrog rather than intergalactic darts?
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;50949169]I mean, things aren't so bleak if you only think locally. Like if we sent people to a planet on Alpha Centauri and they were capable of traveling near light speed, only about 8 or 9 years would pass in Earth's frame for a round trip (not counting time spent on the planet itself). So if we imagine human expansion throughout the galaxy, time differences aren't so huge for nearby worlds. Things aren't too bad if you stop thinking of Earth as the center of everything, and imagine travel only between nearby star systems and only compare times between those systems.[/QUOTE]
Sure but imagine how disconnected those worlds would be. I mean you can only send messages at the speed of light, so we're talking 8 or 9 years response time for any message you send. Communication isn't really possible at that point, the best you can do is have a constant feed sending information about what was happening on that other world several years ago. Imagine if humanity colonized from one end of the galaxy to another. It would be over 100,000 years before even a message could be sent between them. At distances like those we're not just talking about cultural disconnect, we're talking about [I]evolutionary[/I] disconnect. It'd be fascinating to see what kind of diversity would come from human culture and even biology out of that kind of situation, but it's kind of sad to think of how little of it one person would ever be able to see, even just through communications. Nobody could ever compare modern humans on one side of the galaxy with modern humans on the other.
[QUOTE=Revenge282;50949218]So think of it as intergalactic leapfrog rather than intergalactic darts?[/QUOTE]
Basically.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;50949238]Sure but imagine how disconnected those worlds would be. I mean you can only send messages at the speed of light, so we're talking 8 or 9 years response time for any message you send. Communication isn't really possible at that point, the best you can do is have a constant feed sending information about what was happening on that other world several years ago. Imagine if humanity colonized from one end of the galaxy to another. It would be over 100,000 years before even a message could be sent between them. At distances like those we're not just talking about cultural disconnect, we're talking about [I]evolutionary[/I] disconnect. It'd be fascinating to see what kind of diversity would come from human culture and even biology out of that kind of situation, but it's kind of sad to think of how little of it one person would ever be able to see, even just through communications. Nobody could ever compare modern humans on one side of the galaxy with modern humans on the other.[/QUOTE]
That's precisely why you have to think locally. You're reasonably connect to people within your star system, a fair bit of lag between you and nearby star systems, and quite disconnected from stars far from you.
Space is beautiful, cool and amazing but yet it's also so depressing..
Mildly related to the video, but didn't Jake share a while ago that he had cancer? It looks like his treatment is going well for him.
I never knew about this light cone idea. It really makes me think that there will never be a way for us to see aliens, that ancient aliens are bs, and that maybe intergalactic civilization really is that difficult to conquer/create/sustain. I mean other life would have to face the physical difficulties that we are also facing so it probably takes a miracle to meet another intelligent life form.
[QUOTE=Adamrd;50948676]It sort of makes you wonder; what would really happen to a group of people sent out to explore these places, and then have them (or their children) comes back to what is essentially tens of thousands
of years worth of time passed by. What could the crew do? Who would be waiting for them? Would Earth still be inhabited by humans? If the human race managed to live on that long, would anyone
even know they were coming back and/or be expecting them/have plans for their arrival? It seems like a journey like this would only really be beneficial to the crew, to be able to see these places and
learn things for their own personal benefit, because no one might be around back on earth to find any of the information they collected useful. The only use for something like this would be to move the
human race to another habitable planet, otherwise the technology seems kind of pointless to us, the people staying back here on earth, who will never know or in any way use the information to be
learned far out in these long to reach places.[/QUOTE]
There's a really good sci-fi book on this called The Forever War
[img_thumb]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ki76Qf64L.jpg[/img_thumb]
Basically a guy is sent to fight a war against a hypothetical enemy that humanity doesn't even understand yet, all in the name of predictive warfare light years away. Every time he comes back on leave from these short engagements, it's been decades, even centuries. And the technology and culture has changed radically.
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