Call me an optimist if you will, but I assume that we will be capable of traveling at effectively greater than light speed some day. I understand that current theories (SR) prohibit this, but they also prohibit LENR. Some ideas concerning worm holes, among others, are being kicked around that one day may open an unknown door.
One of the amazing things about human thought is that we tend to be incapable of extending our minds beyond science that is currently understood. Remember many years ago when it was suggested that the US patent office should be closed because there was nothing of importance left to invent? We remain trapped within that mode of thinking to an extent even now. I hope that one day we will communicate with alien species and be roughly their equals with respect to intelligence. We will be in big trouble if they think of us in the manner that we look upon lower earth species. There is reason to believe that intelligence of a biological origin has a limit since once a species such as man reaches a certain level they can dominate their home planet. Little is to be gained after that level of intellect has been achieved since the dangers from competitive creatures quickly dissolves. Unfortunately, machines should be capable of virtually unlimited knowledge since they are designed for that very feature and evolve rapidly. It will be troublesome if a Star Trek like "Borg" group was designed into existence with the desire to cleanse the galaxy of lesser races. It does appear that interstellar trade in materials would be stretching it a lot. IP might always be important to others that inhabit the universe and free trade in non war related concepts would be acceptable. Lets hope that war between species is not carried forward as a normal function, and I can think of no reason for it to be useful once free access and trade is established. It is fun to delve into science fiction subjects, especially when one is about to fall asleep at the keyboard. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Oct 24, 2012 6:09 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:Aliens Favour Romney <[email protected]> wrote: There's a nice little SciFi short story about this (sorry, can't remember title or author). The basic theme is that trade is in concepts rather than objects, since these are readily exchanged, and of value to many. Exactly. Concepts, and the templates for replicators. (Replicators are universal production machines that can make anything.) I doubt we will ever be able to communicate with an alien species enough for practical purposes, but if in the distant future people colonize other stars, I can well imagine a stream of data between the other stars and our solar system. It would include things such as: News & gossip Scientific research Patents and intellectual property Replicator templates for everything from new machines and recent works of art, to new kinds of food, ready-to-eat meals, and possibly new species or important people. If another Einstein is born on Alpha centauri they may send us a copy of him. Novels, movies Pornography! It is a little difficult to imagine how we might pay for this kind of "trade." How could this be a commercial transaction in any sense? Do you wire transfer money to people you can never have physical contact with you? I assume that a spaceship will take decades or centuries to reach even the closest star. What is the point of sending valuable physical objects or currency to someone's great-great grandchild? Would you fax them a check? How would they cash it, with what organization? Who would keep track of the balance, and why? Would you send them a barrel of currency? Why not send them one dollar in a replicator template and tell them to reproduce it. Actually, cash money will soon be rendered useless and ridiculous by replication machines here on earth. Within a few centuries we will be able to make perfect copies of currency, and probably diamonds or even gold coins, if we learn to transmute elements. I have heard that a good computer scanner and printer can already make a counterfeit dollar bill that fools a change machine or a MARTA ticket machine. Anyway, such "trade" will be useful for stars within ~30 light years. After that, the new technology will be old, and the news will be history. See chapter 10 of "Profiles," "Space, the Unconquerable" Quote: "[Interstellar] space can be mapped and crossed and occupied without definable limit; but it can never be conquered. When our race has reached its ultimate achievements, and the stars themselves are scattered no more widely than the seed of Adam, even then we shall still be like ants crawling on the face of the Earth. The ants have covered the world, but have they conquered it -- for what do their countless colonies know of it, or of each other? So it will be with us as we spread outward from Mother Earth, loosening the bonds of kinship and understandÂing, hearing faint and belated rumors at second -- or third -- or thousandth-hand of an ever-dwindling fraction of the entire human race. Though Earth will try to keep in touch with her children, in the end all the efforts of her archivists and historians will be defeated by time and distance, and the sheer bulk of material. For the number of distinct societies or nations, when our race is twice its present age, may be far greater than the total number of all the men who have ever lived up to the present time." - Jed
