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SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997 |
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#11 | |||||
Silent Hunter
![]() Join Date: May 2008
Location: Storming the beaches!
Posts: 4,254
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To clarify, I'm not saying that we shouldn't ever attempt to explore other planets or other star systems. I'm just saying that we're not quite ready for it yet, and I think that throwing public resources at faint hopes that there might be some form of life we might learn something useful from is not the wisest use of said resources at the moment. Consider: As it is now, private industry and governments alike are already throwing considerable resources into developing more efficient energy-generation technology. Eventually, they'll succeed. We'll need that tech to develop a viable platform for extraplanetary or extrasolar exploration anyway, so why invest resources in detecting something we can't reach and have no use for at the moment? Quote:
As a thought experiment, imagine that we suddenly went extinct today. We've been sending and receiving organized high-power transmission en masse for almost a hundred years. No advanced civilization within at least 30 light-years (generously rounding down) has responded. If a civilization existed that was at least equivalent to ours in terms of technology, they would have responded by now, or we would have at least picked up their broadcasts, so we can safely assume that that no such civilization exists within 30 light-years. Now imagine what would be left of our civilization by the time they got here. There wouldn't be much left, even if they were somehow capable of travelling at light-speed. All of our most advanced technology requires constant maintenance and power and energy of some type. There would be no useful record that they didn't already understand. Quote:
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In this case, mathematics strongly suggest that there is nothing reachable. Quote:
At the moment, though, I have to go to work. edit-2 Goddamnit! No sooner do I finish editing this post after getting out of the shower when I get a call saying my work order has been cancelled. <double-facepalm>
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![]() I stole this sig from Task Force ![]() Last edited by UnderseaLcpl; 03-07-11 at 07:00 PM. |
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