Do you believe in aliens?

I wonder how many "volunteers" would be found that hated the Earth so much, that they would willingly launch into space knowing that they would never see the Earth Again, and would spend their life traveling in a finned cylinder, filled with electronics, with at best, a handful of other travelers, which are so pressed together, that the only way that they could escape them, if they became so inclined, was through death...either naturally or via murder.

Despite any heroic traits they may have, which is more often than not, fostered by the desire for fame, which they could never enjoy in their solitude. Or curiosity, which I'm sure would fade over time. I think that they would need to be kept permanently drugged, just to tolerate the situation. It would be a cold, black hell.

Of course, the sci-fi answer to that is cryosleep, but that has it's own problems.

columbus and crew probably felt the same.

mickey megabyte said:

columbus and crew probably felt the same.

No, Columbus never expected to spend his entire life searching for a route to India, or anywhere else. Both he and his crew knew that they would return to Europe, unless they died, one way or another. Seamen have been known to spend a few years at sea (whalers), but even they went home eventually. In any case, their voyages were certainly more interesting than being shot into space.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there


The speed of light need NOT be a limiting factor in interstellar travel. The General Theory of Relativity (Einstein) allows for the idea of Wormholes and essentially "Warp drives" although it could be centuries away before we can actually construct the hardware.

The great advantage of Warp drives is that you travel in "Real Time" and avoid the "Time dilation" effects if you were actually able to travel at near Light speed. This means that say a 41 light year round trip to Gliese 51 could be done say at 6 months in warp and you would return back to earth both having aged 6 months.

The other way you would do your trip in NO TIME but on Earth everything would have aged 41 years.

Cheers
jimbo

All that is still theoretical and I'm afraid it will be a long time before it can be proven, let alone actually performed.

One thing that really bugs me is that, statistically speaking, it is impossible for us to be alone in our galaxy, not to mention the universe. Yet still, if you so mention aliens in any serious conversation, everyone looks at you as if you are listed on those people search sites. Why is that so hard to accept?

annoys me to no end.

seekermeister said:

I wonder how many "volunteers" would be found that hated the Earth so much, that they would willingly launch into space knowing that they would never see the Earth Again, and would spend their life traveling in a finned cylinder, filled with electronics, with at best, a handful of other travelers, which are so pressed together, that the only way that they could escape them, if they became so inclined, was through death...either naturally or via murder.

Despite any heroic traits they may have, which is more often than not, fostered by the desire for fame, which they could never enjoy in their solitude. Or curiosity, which I'm sure would fade over time. I think that they would need to be kept permanently drugged, just to tolerate the situation. It would be a cold, black hell.

Of course, the sci-fi answer to that is cryosleep, but that has it's own problems.

Perhaps your earlier comments were not clear but I was commenting as others have done that almost everything that was once viewed as science fiction has actually been developed so it is not wise to simply dismiss ideas that do not appeal. We might have problems with matter transference as per Startrek but many things although extremely complex and expensive to do often do come about. Although the 'freezing' of humans during long voyages is entirely possible - it is the staple for most SF films - there might just be another means for populating other planets as I suggested, even if it is a remote chance.

As to the comments above perhaps it says more about yourself than those who might voluteer for such missions in the future - hatred of the earth or its inhabitants is probably not something that would apply to them but sacrifice and a genuine desire to help the human race and to further our knowledge would be. Who knows for what reasons we might travel to other worlds - we might just have to if we are endangered or we might simply have developed the technology that makes it possible.

:)

pincushion said:

seekermeister said:

I wonder how many "volunteers" would be found that hated the Earth so much, that they would willingly launch into space knowing that they would never see the Earth Again, and would spend their life traveling in a finned cylinder, filled with electronics, with at best, a handful of other travelers, which are so pressed together, that the only way that they could escape them, if they became so inclined, was through death...either naturally or via murder.

Despite any heroic traits they may have, which is more often than not, fostered by the desire for fame, which they could never enjoy in their solitude. Or curiosity, which I'm sure would fade over time. I think that they would need to be kept permanently drugged, just to tolerate the situation. It would be a cold, black hell.

Of course, the sci-fi answer to that is cryosleep, but that has it's own problems.

Perhaps your earlier comments were not clear but I was commenting as others have done that almost everything that was once viewed as science fiction has actually been developed so it is not wise to simply dismiss ideas that do not appeal. We might have problems with matter transference as per Startrek but many things although extremely complex and expensive to do often do come about. Although the 'freezing' of humans during long voyages is entirely possible - it is the staple for most SF films - there might just be another means for populating other planets as I suggested, even if it is a remote chance.

As to the comments above perhaps it says more about yourself than those who might voluteer for such missions in the future - hatred of the earth or its inhabitants is probably not something that would apply to them but sacrifice and a genuine desire to help the human race and to further our knowledge would be. Who knows for what reasons we might travel to other worlds - we might just have to if we are endangered or we might simply have developed the technology that makes it possible.

:)

Since you find it necessary to reply by taking personal snipes, I won't bother you further by responding to this, despite it's lack of a logical foundation.