--- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], Sal Sunshine <salsunshine@> > wrote: > > > > On Apr 3, 2008, at 12:41 PM, hugheshugo wrote: > > > > > I like to be optimistic and think there is millions of planets > with > > > life out there but I wouldn't be surprised if we were the only > > > intelligent creatures, it really is a fluke that we got this > smart. > > > Just think of the string of events that all had to happen to lead > to > > > us being the only animals in the history of earth with > consciousness, > > > it's got to be billions to one against. > > > > > > But we don't know what we don't know. I really hope the place is > > > teeming with life and we make contact in my lifetime, just a radio > > > signal would do for me, I'd die happy knowing there is someone > else > > > out there. Not because being alone is too painful, but because I'm > > > incurably romantic. Does that sound weird? I can't tell. > > > > Not at all, I'm a romantic too. But it's just that with some > things, > > sometimes a cigar really is a cigar, and it's nice to be able to > let > > go of what > > seems to be a hopeless hope. But I can understand not wanting to > as > > well. > > > > Everywhere else is deader than disco. > > > > Great line, BTW--man, that's dead! (I hate disco.) > > > > Sal > > > > I'm glad you don't think it's weird, I logged on again just to try > and justify it if you did. But I'll expand on it anyway now I'm > here ;-) > > There's just something about looking through a telescope at the night > sky that really gets me. Looking at pictures in a book or on the net > just isn't the same as having the actual light thats travelled > billions of miles form an image in your mind. All the planets look > amazing, I know it's my mind adding special effects but it all seems > so serene and stately, always moving but always predictable and was > always there all the time waiting for us to discover it. It's a > gobsmackingly amazing place we live in and nobody knew til Gallileo > thought to look at the sky one night, inagine being the first to see > all that, what trip he must have had. > > My favourite things to look at are galaxies, they're all so far away > that light left them before the human race even existed, and light > travels at 180,000 miles per second! over a year it really covers > some ground. The closest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is 2.9 million > light years away, it's the furthest thing that can be seen with the > naked eye. I like to think of a ray of light leaving there, when > proto-humans were still getting the hang of walking upright, > travelling across the void while we developed language, culture > civilisation and technology, finally flowing down my telescope and > streaming into my eyes, it's a beautiful sight, the combined light of > 4000 million stars. > > You can see objects so far away that mammals were just a twinkle in > Mother Natures eye when the light you see left them. It blows my > mind. > > It's not weird is it? Of course not, it's wondrous. > > But Saturday Night Fever is one of my favourite albums. That probably > is weird.
Hugh, There's an NYU professor by the name of Kaku who wrote a book several years ago that addressed the possibility of ETs in the universe and the possiblity of interstellar travel. He wrote that these are all possibilities that could happen. Specifically, he stated that ETs who could visit us would have to be more advanced technologically than us. They would have to develop technologies that can almost instantaneously get their astronauts here on earth. Even traveling at the speed of light would be too slow! Then, there is the popular science that states that if one travels at the speed of light or greater one could find oneself going back in time. This is fascinating theory, but does not help the future of intergalactic space travel. Nonetheless, he offers a solution to the dilemma of the urgency to space travel. That is, the Sun as we see it today is not going to last forever. It will explode and die eventually in a few billion years. As such, humans have a stake in developing advanced tecnologies to get out of the local area in astronautical terms and survive. He stated that the solution can found in finding and utilizing the other dimensions in space time. >
