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06-30-2015, 08:12 PM
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Phylum
No Artificial Colours
 
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We can of course imagine some new method of travel that isn't limited by current physics, but that's little better than factoring a miracle into your calculations.
This is by and large the reason science isn't more interested in colonising planets, too. You send those people off and they're gone forever*. Any kind of communication gets more and more delayed. If you land on a nearby habitable planet it would take 4 years to send a message over radio, and another 4 years for them to return anything. They can't send anything back to us unless they also take the tools to manufacture rockets. Even then, by the time we tell them we need something will we still need it? How would we even know they got the message?

Like BM said, life on another planet would be completely distinct from us. You might think we'd have the peace of mind that they were alive out there somewhere, except we wouldn't because even if you receive a message of them they could still have all died years ago.

Also why humans? Why not put zebras on another planet? I'd be more interested in seeing life extended to other planets. If we're thinking on a universal scale, then we're not just some species, we're alive like so much else on this goddamn rock. Why not preserve life, rather than just our relatively insignificant species?

Also everyone is assuming humans not going extinct also means civilisation lives on, and I think that's pretty optimistic.

edit: *Not to mention that it might be their kids or grandkids or great great grandkids etc. that actually arrive, so you have to wonder about the genetics and inbreeding. We don't want some 3 toed, buck-toothed banjo player being the first human to colonise another planet.

Last edited by Phylum; 06-30-2015 at 08:14 PM..
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