Is Interstellar Travel Possible?

[Alien 13]

Moving any object with mass, be it a single proton or a huge ship makes little difference at close to light speeds so the heavy stuff will have to take the slow ride but you could send an automated factory unit first then update it on a regular basis at light speed on what to build next.....

Alan

[iPeace]

Imagine arriving...only to have to quarantine. 🙄

[Rusted]

If all multiverses are co-located then we couldn't just "nip next door" to take a short cut.

This might rule out holidays on distant shores.

[PaulM]

Hawkings thinks go shame this never went anywhere

BBC News - Hawking backs interstellar travel project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36025706

As for the comments about sorting things out on Earth first. We will be the species that travels the stars and does bad things we are the evil empire unfortunately

Edited August 24, 2020 by PaulM

[DaveL59]

what concerned me on the theorising about finding a new earth was the idea that we'd lug crop that we use here, clearly not learned from introducing foreign species on our own planet and the effects that can have, we'll happily go do the some on another one too. 

[Viktiste]

On 21/08/2020 at 23:08, alberto91 said:

What do you think? do you think it's achievable this century?

No.

And that is quite possibly one of the more frustrating aspects of life - so many places we will never visit. 

[maw lod qan]

I will be quite satisfied if we could just get to Mars while I'm alive and senile. 

As far as interstellar travel this century, only if some really incredible minds can do some amazing things.

I still see us struggling to just figure out how we can even things out amongst the different people living on Earth now.

While having his first pizza and Michelob with the whale scientist, James T. Kirk said "we dont use money in the 24th century!"

I've always worked hard to earn a living and accepted that. I've also known quite a few who did their best to get by, not doing anything, just riding the system. Know some now. 

Till we can get past money, I dont see much hope for us advancing to the point we get out of our own solar system.

And I cant see a solution with that. 

[Rusted]

Money is a severe limitation on human progress. Why?
This is not a political discussion because politics ceases to exist. Why?

Money has worked, up to a point, in highly damaging cycles, but will soon end when AI/robotics eliminates most "work."
What then? Does everybody who is "laid off" or retires instantly become a "free-rider" and/or "a burden on society?"

We have some major rethinking to do about the value of a work unit [human bod x 40hours+offspring.]
What if there really is no productive work for the vast majority.
How do we feed them? Or should we just turn them into Soylent Green?

They can't all make beads for barter for the new generation of lifetime unemployed "hippies."
Nor can they all produce one-off electric cars [for barter?] in the newly empty factories.

Without "earners" we have to invent a whole new way of paying for our "toys." What toys?
No wages means zero demand from the vast majority for anything except food and shelter.
With no "earners" there are no taxes. How do we pay for all the "essential" services?

Do we "give" the billions of newly unemployed "work" in manually building barrages against sea level rise using just shovels and wheelbarrows?
Just to keep them off the streets? Do they then "earn" their daily ration of bread and water? Or do they "idle" at home and wait to die?

A system of barter is extremely inefficient in supporting society [as a whole] and very likely to lead to vicious local warlords endlessly scrapping over "turf."
I believe society will rapidly collapse to medieval levels in all meanings of the term. 
This is a nearly impossible hurdle to surmount with present attitudes and societal control systems.
Every technological society must eventually face it. Where are all the aliens? They never overcame this huge obstacle.
 

[maw lod qan]

You've hit the nail on the head!

We are quickly coming to a point that will decide just how much longer "life as we know it" can go on.

I fear what's to come for my grandkids. Some really great things will happen, but I dont think they'll see us heading towards the stars.

[DaveL59]

2 hours ago, Rusted said:

What if there really is no productive work for the vast majority.
How do we feed them? Or should we just turn them into Soylent Green?

They can't all make beads for barter for the new generation of lifetime unemployed "hippies."
Nor can they all produce one-off electric cars [for barter?] in the newly empty factories.

Without "earners" we have to invent a whole new way of paying for our "toys." What toys?
No wages means zero demand from the vast majority for anything except food and shelter.
With no "earners" there are no taxes. How do we pay for all the "essential" services?

 

following from this, no work and lots of time to do whatever, cue population boom when they find procreation is a nice way to idle time away... more stress load on housing and essential services and maybe a rapid collapse into anarchy

[Peter Drew]

I have 14 years experience of not having to work and managing on very little income, it's called retirement.  However, rather than waiting to die I'm keen to make my final laps round the Sun just as fulfilling as any previous ones.       🙂

[maw lod qan]

1 hour ago, Peter Drew said:

I have 14 years experience of not having to work and managing on very little income, it's called retirement.  However, rather than waiting to die I'm keen to make my final laps round the Sun just as fulfilling as any previous ones.       🙂

Me as well. Partially retired, work 3 days to make up for my youthful stupidity and an I'll wife.

But times are going to be hard for the younglings just getting into the working world.

At work the are trying out an automated floor machine, so eventually most of the maintenance workers will be downsized to just one or two doing things that can only be done by hand.

But every morning R2D2 is sitting there confused, having forgotten its path and is waiting for someone to restart it.

[andrew s]

Technology led doom has been predicted at least from the industrial revolution and probably back to the invention of the wheel.

The reality is that technology has led to a longer life span,  better standard of living and literacy across the whole world population . ( See "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling et al)

Regards Andrew

PS This may be judged as too politically so please delete if it is and accept my apologies .

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, andrew s said:

Technology led doom has been predicted at least from the industrial revolution and probably back to the invention of the wheel.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=doom+doom+were+all+doomed&&view=detail&mid=2D4D3DF75CC99D8FD91D2D4D3DF75CC99D8FD91D&&FORM=VDRVSR

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Interstellar travel by humans is a long time away. Probably a couple of hundred years at best.

Visiting our closest neighbouring planet is a huge challenge we have yet to crack and the massive distances involved travelling around the solar system are prohibitive to humans.

Speculation about interstellar travel is just science fiction dream weaving until we establish a base on our moon, get to Mars and reach further out into the solar system.

However, in the near future, I'd bet on Breakthrough Starshot shooting those mini probes off into the galaxy. Given enough time and investment the engineering challenges can be overcome.

 

[Rusted]

When I were a lad.. we were so poor "they" could only afford rockets once a year. 
Levi jeans hadn't been invented. So teenagers went around in shorts until we were almost "grown ups."
Shops were lit by light bulbs and the "supermarket" meant the village coop with ten staff behind the single wooden counter.
Blackened miners waked down the high street in noisy boots heading for the galvanised bath in front of the fire.
Houses were warmed by the single coal fire in the "living room" and you could scrape ice off the single glazed, iron clad windows.

Cars were few and far between in many villages. You could still cross the road without looking.
I was half way across when the first city traffic jam was invented. It was safe to use the zebra crossing at last!

My first two jobs were in the changing rooms of computers the size of sports halls and tamed by white coated boffins.
I remember listening to the first "simultaneous" stereo broadcasts on Dad's 23" valve TV and valve radio.
While I watched the moon landing on a rented, 17" Black & Grey, cable powered, valve telly, which constantly broke down.

Then came the Sinclair ZX81 and you could write rude words on the same telly which showed the BBC for only two hours a day.
Before very long they let you write rude words in colour and so t'Internet took off. The rest is modern technological history.

We are already on the last and steepest bit of the curve and not far short of exponential growth in scientific knowledge:
While "simultaneously" watching village idiots perform under the terrifying overhangs of public idiocy.

Medieval time, as we knew it in my 1950s youth, has completely ceased to exist in our rush towards the stars.
Never underestimate the magical acceleration of science and techno to flabbergast us all.