Then I guess we're sunk, if the best thing we can do is argue over the Internet.  

No, everything will turn into GalCiv2. We will invent the hyperdrive and give it to all the other races and then the Drengin and the Dread Lords will come to kill us all but we won't be able to do anything about it because we will be too busy arguing over the internet about how to stop them.

This has been a fun thread to read and I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

No-one could be happier to see interstellar space travel become a reality more than me But our world has far too many issues to deal with before that level of space travel becomes truly viable I think. Our population is enormous, far too large for this planet, we are still hugely dependent on fossil fuels despite our economic woes of late and the pressing need to address global warming. When the effects of global warming kick in and the climate truly changes, the economic and social effects cannot be overstated, not to mention the fact that we humans just won't stop breeding. The shutting down of the gulf stream will freeze Europe, while the rest of the world overheats. I wonder what will happen when resources on our little planet start to run out and areas become uninhabitable? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious - nevermind space wars...we will find ourselves in a pretty big mess down here.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

once we hit the intersteller lvl. We will have to add another layer of government.

What will happen?

Nothing.

Mankind isn't going to be around that long. The technology is WAY, WAY beyond our scope right now. At the rate we're going, I don't see it ever happening either - we'll be extinct before it happens. It's just a science-fiction dream.

It will never happen. I think some idiots will blow earth up long before sci-fi style colonization can occur. It will not be in our life time at any rate even if they don't.

Man, there's a lot of pessimism in this thread. Mankind's not going anywhere just yet, folks. Those nukes are all just for show anyways. Besides, we likely won't ever experience interstellar war. Faster Than Light travel is impossible by our current understanding of physics. In fact, some would say that if an object that had mass managed to go faster than light, the entire universe, past, present, and future, would tear itself asunder. Then again, some theorists swear by intelligent design.

The point is, is that it takes time to get between stars. Light needs four-ish years to get from here to Alpha Centauri, the closest stable star system to Sol. We can't physicaly go that fast, so we have to use conventional means of getting around, like fusion reactors. Thus it would take us four and a half-ish years to get from here to there, AND THAT'S ASSUMING that we can get up 99.9% the speed of light. A more realistic estimate would be something close to 25-30%. So its going to take us tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of years to get from Sol to Alpha Centauri.

That means that your enemy (assuming Alpha Centaurians are hostile buggers) is going to have that much time to prepare for you and that much time to advance his technology. Your new, top-of-the-line battlefleet is going to find itself awfully outclassed by an order of generations once it gets to its destination. Additionally, the enemy doesn't even need a battlefleet of his own to kill you. Why, if he knew what vector you were coming in on, he could just toss twenty dollars worth of buckshot in your path and destroy your entire multi-gazillion dollar fleet. Why? Because if your ship runs into anything while its going 25-30% the speed of light, you're dead. EVEN THE SMALLEST PEBBLE could turn your big, burly flagship totally inside out. Just like a Triumph Spitfire doing 90 into a wall. You COULD hope that the debris from your ships (still going at relativistic speeds) would smash into the enemy planet, though.

So, basically, interstellar warfare is a nightmarish impossibility. Take comfort you fatalists! Mankind can't quite extinguish itself that easily. INTRAstellar warfare is still another thing entirely though.

well a pound worth of anti-matter could wipe out the human race and every thing on earth nicely

so your saying that a anti-matter matter reaction has less power then the ration of oxygen and hydrogen. look here WWW Linka anti-matter matter ration has more power then you think.



well i saw some thing on the science channel i think that there are making caves usable for agriculture with specale UV lights or something like that i can't remember

Hmmmm...? The Second Law of Thermodynamics clearly states that all energy in the universe is rapidly becoming unusable. If this be so, then it follows that eventually there will no longer be usable energy in the universe, unless more is being created. Which directly contradicts the First Law of Thermodynamics, as it states that energy (and matter) can be neither created nor destroyed. We therefore are left with the conclusion that eventually the universe will have no usable energy left. If the universe has been around forever, then we should have reached this point long ago, and this conversation proves we have usable energy. Meaning that the universe has not been around forever. If this be so, then we are in need of a reason for the universe to suddenly come into existence, for we cannot have an effect (the universe) without a cause.

If I had to grade you for your rhetoric, I would give that a solid F. You managed to use two non-sequiturs, a red herring, and a false premise all in the same paragraph. Who taught you formal argumentation, and where can I go to slap them?

Your explanation of thermodynamics earns a passing C-. I'd stick with the fundamentals next time, you only failed to show your work.

-Bigglesworth

who the hell are you a teacher i am still on spring brack i don't whont to listen to nor should i see a grade for at least two weeks.