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Wed 18 May, 2005 09:56 am
Some time in the future perhaps Man may be able to colonize the nearer solar systems. Let's say that you had an opportunity to emigrate to a colony world in a solar system 25 light years away. By travelling very close to the speed of light, your ship could get you there in just a few months. However, 25 years would have passed both on Earth and on the colony you were travelling to. Should you ever decide to return to Earth, a minimum of 50 years would have passed, and just about everyone you ever met would be dead. By setting foot on the ship, you are committing to the fact that you will never see your friends and relatives again, or, really, the world you know, even if you return. Are there circumstances under which you would do it?
Can we take our Cocker Spaniel?
Well, the best revenge is to outlive your enemies.
I would probably pass up the opportunity, as things stand at the moment.
I think everyone who would like to live in space should do so, the sooner the better.
dyslexia wrote:I think everyone who would like to live in space should do so, the sooner the better.
Presumably this is addressed to me? Thanks for your interest in and respect for my science board thread.
Brandon you are becoming extremely paranoid here just lately..... perhaps Dys was addressing me, or maybe all of us....perhaps it was a good natured poke. Calm down dude.
I would go and would invite those loved ones who cared to join me to do so. It would be a great adventure.
Acquiunk wrote:Can we take our Cocker Spaniel?
I wonder if there would be some provision for family pets, or whether space and resources on board would be too scarce.
I thought at least I'd get some discussion of the Special Relativity aspects.
blueveinedthrobber wrote:...I would go and would invite those loved ones who cared to join me to do so. It would be a great adventure.
To say the least. Here in the US, we are all descended from people who had the guts to get up and go. Aside, I suppose, from the condemned criminals who were offered pardon in exchange for emigration. There is an interesting sub-plot about that in James Michener's "Chesapeake," a great novel which follows several families of immigrants, together with a family of Indians, for several generations.
Special relativity effects like, "The best revenge is to outlive your enemies."?
Leaving your friends, family, and motherland for potential adventure and profit is the American way.
But the colonists must be young and smart leaving the earth for the genetically infirm and telephone sanitizers.
I may be too old, but if I was 18 I would sign up immediately even under the constraint that in a year my twin brother would be almost 60. But then, not only is time relative---so is age.
Rap
"you will never see your friends and relatives again, or, really, the world you know, even if you return"
That part is okay fine. But people ... hey folks ...
There would be no internet there!
You can't surf the web from 10 light-years away!
In every other respect okay, but unless we could take the entire archive.org with us and have computers simulate a large online community, this just ruins the whole deal for me.
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"The nice thing about the internet is that nobody knows you're a virus".
JJJJJJJuuuuuussssssttttttt TTTTTTTTTTTTyyyyyyyyypppppppppeeeeeeeee SSSSSSSSSSSllllllllooooooooowwwwwwweeeeeerrrrr...................
Sure wou could, the returned mail would be a bitch, but the information and technology would be almost the same.
Rap
Interesting problem.
You could stream data back to Earth, like posting a blog of your trip for everyone to read.
The Earth could stream data up to you, like getting a continuous news feed.
But nothing interactive like email conversations, phone calls, IM, discussion forums, or webpages beyond whatever the Earth decides to blindly transmit up to you.
The information you get would always be ten years old.
And there would be no way for either you or the Earth to confirm
that it was even received okay, until twenty years after transmitting it.
Mmmm...
raprap wrote:JJJJJJJuuuuuussssssttttttt TTTTTTTTTTTTyyyyyyyyypppppppppeeeeeeeee SSSSSSSSSSSllllllllooooooooowwwwwwweeeeeerrrrr...................
Sure wou could, the returned mail would be a bitch, but the information and technology would be almost the same.
Rap
A 50 year delay is more than most users are probably willing to put up with. Also, your info. about life on Earth would be 25 years out of date.
CodeBorg wrote:The information you get would always be ten years old.
I postulated a system 25 light years from Earth, so you could get information that was only 25 years old, but responses to questions would take 50 years.
I was told that some people are already signing up to go and start colonies. Could this be true?
AE
AngeliqueEast wrote:I was told that some people are already signing up to go and start colonies. Could this be true?
AE
Not really. It's probably centuries in the future. I think our max speed today is about 20,000 mph. Light speed is 670 million mph.
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