Light speed is a “you must be this clever to participate” barrier to becoming an interstellar species, that’s all. Even if it’s not breakable, it just means you gotta be able to plan hundreds or thousands of years into the future.
We can hardly plan 5 years into the future, let alone hundreds of thousands… It’d be pretty sad if the answer to the Fermi paradox is that everyone is too stupid to participate.
everyone is too stupid to participate
if they are anything like us, its probably for the best.
I don’t know, man, I kinda want to hear some of this Vogon poetry I’ve been hearing so much about.
meh. its only the third-worst in the Universe. you gotta go for the good stuff!
That was awful. Thank you.
It’s not “just” the speed of light though, light is limited by the speed of information, also known as the speed of causality. If you were to somehow exceed that, then your future light cone becomes very messed up, and effect starts to be possible before cause.
Just put a bunch of dna on an asteroid. Nature will figure the rest of it out.
Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.
Do you believe that the wide expanses of our planet Earth were crafted for the common ant to explore?
There is no evidence to suggest our planet or any animals on it are crafted.
Of course, but I’m trying to work within the established framework of the meme here
I think it wouldn’t be too unreasonable to suggest hyperintelligent ants could build a vessel the size of a human or larger and travel the Earth with enough speed.
Some of those ant colonies are larger than people so, seems reasonable enough.
That’s closer to us exploring our solar system I think, in scale, than it would be for us to explore even the galaxy let alone the whole observable universe let alone the whole universe.
Except that a large point of my comment is pointing out the hubris of man, so it’s important to note that ants are not hyperintelligent. They organize and build, but there is a finite limitation to their capability, at least in this and any known previous state of their evolution. Like that we are the most intelligent thing on our little planet doesn’t imply to me that we are not effectively to scale with ants on the cosmic level.
The intelligence doesn’t matter. The point is what is physically possible.
Even if we were hyperintelligent in the same scale as making current ants intelligent enough to build ships to ride the world around in, we’d still have to face the issue of the speed of light being a limiting factor.
Unless we actually manage to find some of those theorised strange particles which would fit with the math of the warp engine theory.
Alright, valid, you’re right, the presented limiting factor in the meme is in fact the SoL and not actually man’s ability to reach it. I concede, cheers.
To be clear it’s lightspeed in space time, we “just” need to get rid of time to conquer the space.
I mean, have you seen the human back, fuckin psychopath LMAO
Also the Universe: continues expanding
I see you around a lot and appreciate your contributions. When I don’t have a good response, I’m just going to comment, “Kolanaki!”
When the game is open world but no fast travel or mounts.
Don’t forget the part where it’s constantly expanding. So it’s 96B ly so far.
A faster light speed wouldn’t make a difference, since she made the universe 96 billion light years wide.
Stupid relative distance measurements ruining all our fun
Something tells me this isn’t a bad thing. If there is an edge of the universe, it’s probably going to be a very strange place.
Imagine there being just no stars behind you. Just nothing. On one side you see the universe, like a wall of stars and lights, and next to that just pure nothingness. The void.
You could never get to the void because space-time has already accelerated the edge of all matter away from you faster than the speed of light.
Not “the void,” no, but “a void,” yes. As the universe continues to expand faster than the speed of light, the stars outside of our galaxy will slowly disappear from view. There will come a time when the night sky is just the milky way and darkness elsewhere. I don’t know if anything will still be around to observe it, though.
Or the quantum foam, or both, it’d be wild to be able to stare out into that sorta of black, in a metal way.
A bit off-topic but the voids in the universe (such as Bootes void) are scary af.
Good thing there isn’t one since we probably live in a donut.
It does sort of feel like we’re in the butthole of universes, doesn’t it?
I thought it was technically a three-dimensional donut shape progressing along a sort of 4D taurus that we only exist on the “surface” of?
That’s a common misconception. We actually live on the surface of a 3D bear claw progressing along a 4D cruller.
Torus*
It’s actually turtles all the way down.
Ah shit 🤯
Indeed, but the way the math for expansion works is that there is something called a Hubble horizon and that makes it impossible to ever reach the edge, since it is moving away from us faster than light. (The limit doesn’t apply to the expansion of space-time).
Quite a nifty solution by the Supreme Programmer to avoid us hitting the limits of the simulation. I couldn’t have designed it better.
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“Space. It seems to go on and on forever… But then you get to the end and then a giant gorilla starts throwing barrels at you.”
–Fry, “Futurama”
Well it was a more convincing solution than just having level crossing arms come down and an infinitely long train cross every time you get near the edge.
So… is Rick the top God or are there infinite simulations?
Just along the Central Finite Curve.
Hey I hear there’s a nice restaurant out there
And Earth is already stranger than some would like.
And that is scary. If the is one takeaway from observing the universe it’s that there are always bigger and stranger things out there somewhere.
Tell me all your thoughts on God 'cause I would really like to meet her
Disclaimer: To any higher power listening, I am not done living and do not want to meet God/a god immediately. There’s still plenty of candy left in this piñata.
blows raspberry
Willem
Defoeeee
You can’t do this to me. I started this company. You know how much I sacrificed?!
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving and revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, that’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned a sun that is the source of all our power. The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see are moving at a million miles a day. In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It’s a hundred thousand lights years side to side. It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand lights years thick but out by us it’s just three thousand lights years wide. We’re thirty thousand lights years from galactic central point, we go around every two hundred million years and our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding, in all of the directions it can whiz. As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed thereis. So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth and pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space because there’s bugger all down here on earth.
Gotta appreciate the classics.
Might as well watch it
You lost me at miles
Edit: /s for brevity
Same. Miles per second? What the hell kinda unit is that? Over here, we use Texases per lamb’s tail shakes.
Score of furlongs per Mississippi
Edit: duck autocorrect
I don’t want to criticize internet absurdity for many reasons, including but not limited to the fact that I depend on it to survive. Having said that, what’s the application of a length to area ratio?
I am referencing the Mississippi, a time unit. One Mississippi is equal to roughly one second.
Wow, that’s a lot better than my comment. Sorry I whiffed it.
Let’s say we reset everything today, wipe out everyone’s memory. God will be forgotten, science will still exist. People will figure out science sooner or later.
God will always exist before science, it is necessary to rationalize existence to have any hope of living long enough to develop science.
If there’s no meaning to what you’re doing, there’s no point in dealing with suffering. Only through extreme alienation from suffering can you start to have a non divine world view.
If I’m being honest, I think people will figure out god too. All it is is a question.
“Did someone do all this?”
It’s a reasonable question. Easy to ask, hard to answer. Attempt to identify this variable “someone”, and people will eventually land on some kind of god.
I mean you can answer that today lmao.
Exactly my point! I was a staunch atheist in childhood, mostly out of rebellion against Christianity. I’m something else now because I asked the question in sincerity. I’m still definitely not a Christian, mind you. But man, the void is cool to ponder about.
In a similar boat, I guess I would be considered a pantheist by definition.
Staunch atheist growing up, asked myself a similar question. My religious views don’t necessarily change my view of how the world comes to be, or promises anything like eternal salvation; just an acknowledgement that all of this comes from something and by definition you could consider that something to be god.
Any extrapolations ontop of that would have to be considered faith or conjecture.
In fact I think most people would find it somewhat depressing to come to a similar conclusion initially, but the questions that come from this pondering have really helped me find a harmony with the universe and I’m appreciative of that
Hey, welcome to the club! Pantheism has helped me find some deceptively obvious truths in life. “As above, so below” being a big one. Meshes remarkably well with science, and if anything it rekindled my enjoyment of science and reality in general. It’s the healthiest relationship I’ve ever had with “religion”.
Yes, but the point is that every time god is “rediscovered”, the form of that god changes as does the scripture surrounding that new religion.
Science, for the most part, wouldn’t diverge from our current understanding of it, because it is ultimately our understanding of the world and its fuctions.
Different form, same essential content.
Science laws won’t cease to exist, but if you wipe out everyone’s memory, their knowledge of that science will cease to exist - so they’ll have to figure it out from zero - and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be another placeholder in a sense (i.e. what religions have been historically) for what’s yet to understand.
I think the intent is more “Scientific discoveries could be rediscovered, your One True Religion wouldn’t be.”
Its probably for the best.
If humans are able to get to another planet with life on it we would probably do horrific unspeakable things to the aliens.
I feel like I would treat my Togruta wife very well ;-;
Real talk tho, humans will eventually reach the stars, being negative/nihilist about it and saying it’s better if it doesn’t happen is dangerous because people like Elon/Donald will definitely do horrible things if people with remorse and morals aren’t involved/ already established there / the one’s initiating
Not saying you’re nihilist, but I go to Uni in SF and everyone is so anti-imperialism that they think any form of colonization (even on a dead planet like Mars) is bad and it’s pretty grating.
Elon should not be the one who decides how the land/living conditions are set up
I wouldn’t have any problem with a completely dead planet being colonized by humanity but I absolutely do not trust humanity as a whole when it comes to a planet with life on it we don’t even respect our own species much less other ones history has shown this over and over again.
even if it is an inevitability doesn’t mean that it is positive just because it was inevitable that nuclear weapons got invented doesn’t mean that It’s a good idea for us to have that technology I would rather nukes not exist.
It’s not nihilist to recognize historical precedent combined with current human conditions and come to a logical prediction.
The fact is that any manned vehicle capable of interplanetary travel is by the nature of the energies involved, also a weapon of mass destruction. A spaceship is a weapon in the same way a car can be a weapon.
So either you massively restrict access to this technology, or you create a system of surveillance and defense that is so pervasive and effective that it makes 1984 look benign, OR you just say fuck everyone else and use that weapon to remove yourself from range of everybody else’s weapons.
Proliferation is an existential problem for anyone in range.
The usefulness of a fusion engine as a weapon is directly correlated to its efficiency.
It doesn’t really matter what kind of engine it is if it’s going fast enough.
Anything with enough mass and acceleration to move a human being from planet to planet in a reasonable timeframe has the kinetic energy required to wipe out a city. Once you start reaching relativistic speeds, you can take out entire planets by simply not slowing down on approach.
Although you are correct, this destroys the engine.
A good, efficient fusion engine just needs to point the exhaust end towards the enemy and the hyper-accelerated particles will punch a hole through the target for you. And then you point at the next target, etc. etc.
Also, it’s a butchered quote from Larry Niven’s Known Space books, referred to as the “Kzinti Lesson” - because the Kzinti thought humanity was unarmed and helpless until they discovered that humans are really good at improvising weapons.
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Dispensing freedom you mean.
When putting together an outfit always remove the last accessory you put on.
Are you trying to get my pants off?
This is assuming that the universe is for us. It’s probably not for anything, but to the extent that it is for a kind of life, it might not be us.
alcubierre drives are (theoretically) a thing. wormholes are also a (theoretical) thing.
we could just bend space.
Okay… go ahead!
😀
sure! give me a couple hundred years.
You know, if you could use one of them wormhole thingies, you could already be there!
Checkmate!
look, give me a couple of centuries alright. its complicated.
just a couple of centuries bro, please bro i swear just a couple of centuries.
You have 1¾ centuries to have a fully functioal wormyhole-thingamabab so that you can make your Abercrombie drive.
Do not disappoint me.
And a small loan of a trillion dollars!
And sending a space ship at at least a good fraction of light speed to a nearby star uses more energy than our total civilization uses at the moment. We’ve got some work to do before climbing up the Kardashev scale we’re anywhere close to that kind of travel.
Read this and thought it had something to do with the Kardashians.
