Stephen Hawking is wrong, aliens wouldn't want our resources and would be friendly. .

[pw38]

No. It would take you over 4 years just to reach the nearest star.

It would take 100,000 years, or way over 1,000 human life times just to cross our own galaxy at .99c.

Just to get to the next major galaxy would take 2 million years of travel at .99c through completely empty intergalactic space devoid of any resources at all (no planets, asteroids, nebulas, stars, hydrogen, nothing).

And there are many billions of galaxies separated by tens and hundreds of millions and billions of lightyears.

Space is big. Longcat is long.

We need the capacity to go 1000s of times faster than the speed of light just to explore our own Milky Way in the span of a human life.

It's depressing really. There IS other intelligent life out there. There can't NOT be. And we will never know. Nor will they.

From who's standpoint are you referring? The traveler or the "outside world"?

 

[Sunny129]

No. It would take you over 4 years just to reach the nearest star.

It would take 100,000 years, or way over 1,000 human life times just to cross our own galaxy at .99c.

Just to get to the next major galaxy would take 2 million years of travel at .99c...

it only takes light (or an object moving at or near the speed of light) 4 years to get from our solar system to the nearest star from the viewpoint of an observer in our solar system. from the point of view of the object traveling at 0.99c relative to us and our solar system, the trip takes far less than 4 years. b/c the object is traveling at an appreciable fraction of the the speed of light, it experiences relativistic time distortion/dilation. i.e. time passes slower and slower for an observer as he/she approaches the speed of light. the value of the time dilation correction factor remains quite close to 1 until velocities of 0.1c and greater are reached, and it increases without bound as velocity approaches c. hence light (or any observer, if it were possible to accelerate a mass to the speed of light) does not experience time b/c at the speed of light, time stands still. any resources aboard a ship traveling that fast would also experience time dilation despite not being a conscious being, and so it would last longer than what an earthbound observer would have calculated as the fuel/food/whatever supply.

i'm not saying it wouldn't still take years, decades, and possibly centuries to travel appreciable cosmic distances even if we had the technology to travel at or near c. but it wouldn't take nearly as long to make the journey as an earthbound observer's intuition would have you believe, b/c the earthbound observer does not have the same viewpoint as the observer traveling at or near c relative to the earth.

 

[Chaosblade02]

There is a theoretical system of civilization scale, for a variety of possible civilizations out there. AKA the Kardeshev scale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

Type 1 would be a civilization would have mastered the resources on its home planet. Human civilization isn't even this far. We are close, but unlikely to achieve this until a couple hundred more years.

Type 2 would be a civilization that has has mastered the resources of their entire solar system.

Type 3 has mastered resources over an entire galaxy.

Type 4 would be a civilization who has mastered the universe.

The curve between each type is pretty massive. Especially between type 2 and type 3.

Basically where I'm getting at is any potential Alien civilizations out there that would have the means to visit Earth would probably be at least a type 2 or higher. And probably not have much interest in Earth other than maybe observing us from time to time. It would be unlikely Earth would have any resources they might need that they couldn't get from an uninhabited planet elsewhere. We would probably be seen as extremely primitive, not only in technology but in our behavior in general. We would be troglodytes from the perspective of a type 2 civilization.

Its also possible that they could be so much different that there would be no real way to communicate on any level with us, which would prevent them from stopping by and saying hi. Humans are a very social species, and it might not be the case for some others. The last thing a high level civilization of mechanical beings would want to do is small talk with troglodytes.

Earth is on the outer rim of the galaxy, and theoretically a high level civilization would be congregated closer to the center of the galaxy because it is more active. There are more stars, and other things that could be used as an energy resource. Probably thousands of elements unknown to us that they are using. Elements are believed to have been created by stars out of the most basic elements, in an area with more stars present, there could be a larger variety of elements present that haven't reached us out on the edge of the galaxy.

 

[C1]

What if E.T. thinks we're evil?
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/19/7419399-what-if-et-thinks-were-evil
===========
http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/93334-sony-digital-binoculars-record-hd-3d-and-7mp-stills

 

[Matt1970]

I bet there is some race of Aliens circling our planet intercepting our Internet laughing at us right now for such primitive thoughts. Then they push the button on thier Tachyon propulsion device and return home to thier planet 1000 light years away in time for dinner.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Everyone keeps assuming there is any aliens out there in the first place. I personally do not think so, I mean if a chance freak thing happened and some chemicals had just the right enviroment to start life the odds of it happening somewhere else would too hard to even calculate.

I believe the Bible was right God did this not freaks of nature.

 

[tommo123]

life happened here, that means it can be done. that means statistically it happened elsewhere considering the number of stars and the number of galaxies. means it's probably happened a lot actually

 

[C1]

Can life evolve from a different chemical code?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44209530/ns/technology_and_science-space/

 

[tommo123]

whether they say yes or no, scientists can be wrong. remember when they thought life couldn't exist in hydrothermal vents?

http://www.extremescience.com/zoom/index.php/life-in-the-deep-ocean/42-deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents

i'd guess it takes a cradle of sorts to create life, but once it exists it's pretty damn hardy and can adapt to insane conditions and may be almost impossible to completely wipe out - like cockroaches!

 

[exdeath]

it only takes light (or an object moving at or near the speed of light) 4 years to get from our solar system to the nearest star from the viewpoint of an observer in our solar system. from the point of view of the object traveling at 0.99c relative to us and our solar system, the trip takes far less than 4 years. b/c the object is traveling at an appreciable fraction of the the speed of light, it experiences relativistic time distortion/dilation. i.e. time passes slower and slower for an observer as he/she approaches the speed of light. the value of the time dilation correction factor remains quite close to 1 until velocities of 0.1c and greater are reached, and it increases without bound as velocity approaches c. hence light (or any observer, if it were possible to accelerate a mass to the speed of light) does not experience time b/c at the speed of light, time stands still. any resources aboard a ship traveling that fast would also experience time dilation despite not being a conscious being, and so it would last longer than what an earthbound observer would have calculated as the fuel/food/whatever supply.

i'm not saying it wouldn't still take years, decades, and possibly centuries to travel appreciable cosmic distances even if we had the technology to travel at or near c. but it wouldn't take nearly as long to make the journey as an earthbound observer's intuition would have you believe, b/c the earthbound observer does not have the same viewpoint as the observer traveling at or near c relative to the earth.

Relativity aside, point being, we'd need to achieve 100c or 1000c to make exploration of the galaxy possible within the human lifespan. c is too slow. Let alone the next nearest spiral galaxy or universe.

 

[pw38]

Relativity aside, point being, we'd need to achieve 100c or 1000c to make exploration of the galaxy possible within the human lifespan. c is too slow. Let alone the next nearest spiral galaxy or universe.

No you need a new way to explore because A. from our understanding you can't go faster than light, and B. the closer you get the faster the outside universe ages so unless you want to phone home to find out the Sun has long since turned into a white dwarf and the Earth is a scorched ball of rock you need to find another way to do it. Wormholes offer a convenient way, assuming they're possible.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Relativity aside, point being, we'd need to achieve 100c or 1000c to make exploration of the galaxy possible within the human lifespan. c is too slow. Let alone the next nearest spiral galaxy or universe.

No you need a new way to explore because A. from our understanding you can't go faster than light, and B. the closer you get the faster the outside universe ages so unless you want to phone home to find out the Sun has long since turned into a white dwarf and the Earth is a scorched ball of rock you need to find another way to do it. Wormholes offer a convenient way, assuming they're possible.

To expand on what Pw38 is saying, if you had some magic way to suddenly accelerate to .999c you could cross the observable universe in a very short time, I haven't done the math, but it would probably be measured in hours instead of days. The only trouble is when you used your magic space breaks to return to more normal speeds you would see that the universe, and everything in it, has aged 40 billion years. You have only aged, and noticed, a few hours, you have literally time traveled. You could then turn you ship around and spend a few more hours heading back, only too see the universe age another 40 billion years. Do this a few times and you could in the course a week or two reach the heat death end of the universe.

 

[jhansman]

Very, very interesting (and sometimes amusing) topic and discussion. Yet, I cannot grok all this speculation. Did you people not see "The Day the Earth Stood Still"? Everything you need to know is in that film. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

 

[C1]

Humans don't work well with others whom we view as a threat.

Whatever the outcome, the new research is another reminder that you don't survive long in this universe if you can't figure out how to live within your means.

"The bottom line is, if there are intelligent civilizations out there, they pretty much have to have figured out how to grow in a sustainable way," Haqq-Misra pointed out. "We're not doing that, and [other civilizations] might make some moral judgment on how we're managing our resources."

http://www.livescience.com/15678-aliens-attack-earth-global-warming.html

 

[sarsipias1234]

Flim flam a wham shim sham a lama ding dong!

What is weird is that if you traveled at 99.999% of the speed of light you would effectively become a black hole to the relatively stationary universe. So black holes are just objects traveling as close to the speed of light as possible. They just seem stationary to us human beings because our lifespan is too short to witness the black holes move through space relative to all matter in the universe. Life is weirder than you think.

I thought I read somewhere that near light speeds would be capable of traversing the entire universe in 70 years.

 

[Thermalzeal]

Until we break the light speed barrier we're not exactly worthy of our existence. Some days, I wish something would fly out of the sky and reformat our hard drive.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Until we break the light speed barrier we're not exactly worthy of our existence. Some days, I wish something would fly out of the sky and reformat our hard drive.

And what if the light speed barrier is not capable of being broken?
All the good science says that is the case.

 

[jackofalltrades]

And what if the light speed barrier is not capable of being broken?
All the good science says that is the case.

All the good science said the sound barrier couldn't be broken until it was broken, Because our science isn't all that good Yet.

One day in the future someone will break the light barrier and return 100,000 years later to realize einstein was right once you go faster than the speed of light your time slows in relation to everyone elses. But I don't know I could be wrong maybe once we have the flux capacitor working and hitt 88 mph it will all just come together.

 

[pw38]

All the good science said the sound barrier couldn't be broken until it was broken, Because our science isn't all that good Yet.

One day in the future someone will break the light barrier and return 100,000 years later to realize einstein was right once you go faster than the speed of light your time slows in relation to everyone elses. But I don't know I could be wrong maybe once we have the flux capacitor working and hitt 88 mph it will all just come together.

You don't have to go faster than light to witness the effects of time dilation. We've already observed it first hand. Also Einstein never said time slows once you pass light speed because he never said you could faster than light to begin with. I know we should never say never but I highly doubt we'll ever pass the speed of light. We'll have found more practical ways to traverse the universe anyway, something I believe any alien species that could visit us will have done by then themselves. Keep the warp speeds and hyper drives to science fiction lol.

 

[jackofalltrades]

You don't have to go faster than light to witness the effects of time dilation. We've already observed it first hand. Also Einstein never said time slows once you pass light speed because he never said you could faster than light to begin with. I know we should never say never but I highly doubt we'll ever pass the speed of light. We'll have found more practical ways to traverse the universe anyway, something I believe any alien species that could visit us will have done by then themselves. Keep the warp speeds and hyper drives to science fiction lol.

No einstein never said it was possible but he said if it were possible there would be a time dialation due to the speed.
I believe we will see the speed reached and broken but like you have said other forms of transportation will be more effective.

 

[SMOGZINN]

No einstein never said it was possible but he said if it were possible there would be a time dialation due to the speed.
I believe we will see the speed reached and broken but like you have said other forms of transportation will be more effective.

I don't think you know what you are talking about. Even back then good scientists didn't think that the sound barrier was impossible to pass. The few that said that we would never pass the sound barrier were talking about engineering problems, not physical possibility. They meant that device they could build would be able to survive the forces, and for the time they were right.

But the speed of light barrier is not a matter of engineering. It is not a matter of us simply not knowing how. We have good hard science that has been backed by many, many, many tests that show that there is simply not enough energy in the universe to move a single atom faster then the speed of light.

Also, time slows down anytime there is a relative speed difference. If I move 5 mph faster then you, there is some time dilation. It is just so small that it can’t be measured. As you approach the speed of light it gets big enough to be monumental, the speed of light itself can not be reached, but if it could time would stand still. If the calculations are still valid at that point (they are probably not, not that it matters) then time would actually start to run backwards when traveling faster then the speed of light.

 

[C1]

Unlike ordinary particles, the speed of a tachyon increases as its energy decreases. In particular, E is zero when v is infinity. (For ordinary bradyonic matter, E increases with increasing speed, becoming arbitrarily large as v approaches c, the speed of light). Therefore, just as bradyons are forbidden to break the light-speed barrier, so too are tachyons forbidden from slowing down to below c.

However, although the Tachyon travels faster than light speed (c), they are believed to be incapable of interacting with normal matter.

 

[jackofalltrades]

I do find it interesting the people tell me I don't know what I am talking about when NOBODY really knows what they are talking about for sure and all of you know I'm right about that.

We are talking about unprovable theories at this time, not proven facts. I really find it interesting though how so many people like to tell me I'm wrong when they cannot even prove they are right. What should be said is this: " from what I know I must be right because you have to be wrong" Guess what ?we could both be wrong about everything!

 

[jackofalltrades]

Unlike ordinary particles, the speed of a tachyon increases as its energy decreases. In particular, E is zero when v is infinity. (For ordinary bradyonic matter, E increases with increasing speed, becoming arbitrarily large as v approaches c, the speed of light). Therefore, just as bradyons are forbidden to break the light-speed barrier, so too are tachyons forbidden from slowing down to below c.

However, although the Tachyon travels faster than light speed (c), they are believed to be incapable of interacting with normal matter.

I see a theory here not proof. Please do not flame me or anything I do not want to argue I have never said I was right or even qualified to even say I was right, I spoke of what others before me who were much smarter than I have said.

I believe we all can only speak from the knowledge we currently have, and in 1000 years the ones who read this post if that is even possible would say what idiots they were.

 

[C1]

Ye of little faith
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/patricia/lcaus2.html

But so is the Higgs Boson conjectured and 9 billion dollars has been invested in the CERN collider to find it.