Personally, I’ve never really seen the need for such a thing. There’s no great rush to jump dozens of light years away when we have hundreds of planets and moons and other large bodies we’ve barely even taken a glimpse at right here in our own back yards. We can go right up to a Kardashev II civilization without having to travel more than a few light hours away.
There’s no great rush to jump dozens of light years away when we have hundreds of planets and moons and other large bodies we’ve barely even taken a glimpse at right here in our own back yards
It’s not particularly likely that any of the planets or moons around other stars are habitable either. At least not “step out of the ship and take a nice deep breath of the fresh air, picking an apple off of a nearby tree and making some kind of comment about how it’s like Eden” habitable like is so common on TV. It’s likely that if there’s a native biosphere then that planet is going to be incredibly hostile to alien life like us.
Build habitats. If you’ve got the tech to build a starship then you’ve got the tech to build a habitat, it’s way easier. Habitats will give you exactly the environment you want, not whatever you happen to find.
As long as the atmosphere is roughly similar, the native biosphere would have very little defense against us. Sure, some of the defenses that local plants and animals developed against each other might cause issues, or they might not.
We would be an invasive species on the grandest scale. A completely foreign biology would maybe have useful nutrients, or maybe not. That would be the key, but the periodic table will be the same everywhere, and chemistry being what it is, we’d probably see similar molecules, at least the simple stuff. Basic hydrocarbons and such.
The complex biochemistry would be vastly different. That could trip up human explorers.
It takes years of traveling at or near the speed of light to go to any of them. It takes tens of thousands of years at the speeds we currently reach.
Edit: Oops, read this wrong. I thought they were implying exploring close stars. They were discussing only our solar system, which is still large so takes a long time, but there aren’t any naturally habitable places, and nothing that’d be easy to terraform.
There won’t be any new people there until our colonies get there in the first place, so it’s a self-solving problem. Tourists can travel as fast as the colonists can.
I’m not assuming we’re “uniquely special.” I’m not saying anything about us at all. You’re saying there are “new people” out there, that’s a positive assertion. I’m asking you to back that up.
To my surprise and delight, the article itself confirms Betteridge’s Law of Headlines by starting off with:
Personally, I’ve never really seen the need for such a thing. There’s no great rush to jump dozens of light years away when we have hundreds of planets and moons and other large bodies we’ve barely even taken a glimpse at right here in our own back yards. We can go right up to a Kardashev II civilization without having to travel more than a few light hours away.
Don’t need to go light years, it’s the speed that’s important.
If you can hop to Mars in 8 seconds instead of 8 months we can explore our backyard a lot better.
None of those are habitable
Orbiting Habitats are
It’s not particularly likely that any of the planets or moons around other stars are habitable either. At least not “step out of the ship and take a nice deep breath of the fresh air, picking an apple off of a nearby tree and making some kind of comment about how it’s like Eden” habitable like is so common on TV. It’s likely that if there’s a native biosphere then that planet is going to be incredibly hostile to alien life like us.
Build habitats. If you’ve got the tech to build a starship then you’ve got the tech to build a habitat, it’s way easier. Habitats will give you exactly the environment you want, not whatever you happen to find.
As long as the atmosphere is roughly similar, the native biosphere would have very little defense against us. Sure, some of the defenses that local plants and animals developed against each other might cause issues, or they might not.
We would be an invasive species on the grandest scale. A completely foreign biology would maybe have useful nutrients, or maybe not. That would be the key, but the periodic table will be the same everywhere, and chemistry being what it is, we’d probably see similar molecules, at least the simple stuff. Basic hydrocarbons and such.
The complex biochemistry would be vastly different. That could trip up human explorers.
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It takes years of traveling at or near the speed of light to go to any of them. It takes tens of thousands of years at the speeds we currently reach.
Edit: Oops, read this wrong. I thought they were implying exploring close stars. They were discussing only our solar system, which is still large so takes a long time, but there aren’t any naturally habitable places, and nothing that’d be easy to terraform.
because, much like the show the warp drive is from, it’s not about colonization or exploiting resources, but meeting new people and going new places
There won’t be any new people there until our colonies get there in the first place, so it’s a self-solving problem. Tourists can travel as fast as the colonists can.
That’s a fantastic assumption
Got any evidence to the contrary?
I’m not the one that made a supposition 😉
You said:
What new people?
Any that are out there :)
You have to assume we are uniquely special to think no one’s out there, do you have any evidence that that’s the case?
I’m not assuming we’re “uniquely special.” I’m not saying anything about us at all. You’re saying there are “new people” out there, that’s a positive assertion. I’m asking you to back that up.