Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

ArcticMyst Security by Avery | Browser Hide by Avery

Space Discussion Thread

As for the Mars story: Terraforming the planet seems impossible, but if additional structures could be built from material on mars, it could be less cramped than a space station. Obviously mars does have soil, but i'm not sure to what degree that could be used to build airtight, pressure-resistant structures or how much extra material from earth would be needed to do that.

The risk from virusses or such already present on mars seems pretty low - there is no evidence of any life there, and anything on the surface has been frozen, dried, irradiated and such to a point where it would be likely to be viable. Even then it would have to be compatible to earth biology, which would be unlikely if it developed on its own, but likely in some kind of panspermia scenario.


Teleporters are things from science fiction entirely. The heisenberg-compensators do not exist.

If the technology roughly works like what is displayed in star trek they could easily by re-configured as replicators, allowing you to xerox people has often as you wish... you could even have a 'print 1000 copies' function on one that does exactly that.

Interestingly it could have a very nice 'safe game' function too: just scan but not destroy the departing passenger, saving the scan in memory (which must me large enough to do so for the system to work).

If i got severly injured tomorrow i could just print of tonights saved version of myself, and euthenise tomorrows me to make sure there are no duplicates - it would just be an 'undo' for any mishap, including accidental death.

Even crazier, it could be used to make longer term backups, perhaps restoring a person before they developed cancer, reloading and saving a version of them 10 years ago. Or be 10 years younger in the present era for entertainment.

I don't believe a teleporter like that can ever exist, but if it can, it would fundamentally change what it is to be human, and individual, or even just alive.
 





Benm said:
I don't believe a teleporter like that can ever exist, but if it can, it would fundamentally change what it is to be human, and individual, or even just alive.
Click to expand...

There is a book I read a few years back, from the 80's or 90's I think, I remember it stuck out because the movie Surrogates was also playing at the time.

Can't for the life of me remember the name, or author, but the premise of it was that technology had been discovered that allowed the creation of clay(? putty) temporary clones, blanks, that could be imprinted from the mind of user, to go out into the world, and take care of tedious jobs.

These temporary clone blanks quickly degraded, and had varying levels of ability, with color denoting the general quality level. Green being worst, and platinum being a top end model that could last for while.

The most interesting premise of the book to me was that these temp clones could then be returned to the originator, and the memories were uploaded back into the mind of the original. This in effect allowed people to live many many lives, and to do things they would never otherwise consider. Want to swim with sharks and punch one in the nose? Go for it! Want to pet a bear? Have fun. Even if the body is destroyed the memories are stored to be uploaded back into the original human being.

Really wish I could remember the name of the book. If anyone knows what it, please post.
 
Sweet, this has become a sticky!

Another possible explanation is that once a species grows too advanced, they can't control themselves and eventually lead to their destruction & extinction. If we humans already have that ability, it wouldn't surprise me what some highly advance civilization can do!

-Alex
 
Unless said civilization has the ability to significantly expand it's environment. Given that technology and science are very quickly outpacing traditions, religions and prejudices, if there are some breakthroughs that allow the human race to begin to colonize space, one distinct possibility is that we will see the formation of planet spanning nation states, with whole solar systems controlled by say the chinese, another by the japanese, another by jews, and more by islamic state descendants.
 
I think we can remove this planet as possible contender for life?

WASP+19+b.png


Or check this out: The darkest planet! Darker then coal! Lasers would be perfect here :D

original1.jpg


-Alex
 
Last edited:
Hap said:
Sweet, this has become a sticky!

Another possible explanation is that once a species grows too advanced, they can't control themselves and eventually lead to their destruction & extinction. If we humans already have that ability, it wouldn't surprise me what some highly advance civilization can do!

-Alex
Click to expand...

Awesome! I've never had a thread stickied in a place I didn't moderate before.

I think the idea of civilizations getting so advanced that they destroy themselves is very reasonable. Looking at ancient "lost" civilizations, they were mostly very advanced compared to their neighbors. Two possible scenarios could be that either they develop a destructive technology that gets out of hand or they become overly dependent on tech that eventually fails them or exhausts resources.
 
Rivem said:
Awesome! I've never had a thread stickied in a place I didn't moderate before.

I think the idea of civilizations getting so advanced that they destroy themselves is very reasonable. Looking at ancient "lost" civilizations, they were mostly very advanced compared to their neighbors. Two possible scenarios could be that either they develop a destructive technology that gets out of hand or they become overly dependent on tech that eventually fails them or exhausts resources.
Click to expand...

Very possible that is what could happen to us if we aren't careful!

Has anyone here heard of the planetary game "Space Engine"? I just downloaded it about 15mins ago and it's simply amazing the distances in space and how interesting each planet is. I also get very intimidating when standing on one of Jupiter's moons and seeing this HUGE planet rise into the air! If anyone is interested in getting it, it's free! :yh:

-Alex
 
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

Hap said:
Did you know there are more stars then grains of sand on Earth?

It's very possible some distant planet away is having this exact same conversation on their version on LPF :yh:

-Alex
Click to expand...
Very late on this subject and my first post as this thread as it can get mind boggling with all the theory's and possible alien forms, plus I know in my lifetime i'll never see anything.
But just this morning I was watching the story of the Hubble and they randomly pointed to a spot in space with it in an area about the size of the hole in a drinking straw and within something around 24 hours they had counted 10,000 stars and stopped. So I can see the sand theory even though I kinda doubted it:undecided::thinking:
 
Last edited:
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

GSS said:
Very late on this subject and my first post as this thread as it can get mind boggling with all the theory's and possible alien forms, plus I know in my lifetime i'll never see anything.
But just this morning I was watching the story of the Hubble and they randomly pointed to a spot in space with it in an area about the size of the hole in a drinking straw and within something around 24 hours they had counted 10,000 stars and stopped. So I can see the sand theory even though I kinda doubted it:undecided::thinking:
Click to expand...

It's insane isn't it! There are so many planets, so many stars it's a shame we'll never be able to see all of them & get to see some very cool stuff which we have never thought could be possible!

-Alex
 
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

Hap said:
It's insane isn't it! There are so many planets, so many stars it's a shame we'll never be able to see all of them & get to see some very cool stuff which we have never thought could be possible!

-Alex
Click to expand...

It's impossible to truly comprehend the sheer scale of it - always blows my mind.

Talking of space games - haven't played Space Engine, looks cool, would probably set my desktop computer on fire with those graphics. Should try out Kerbal Space Program if you haven't already - might enjoy that too. Especially with the newer versions that have cool shader/texture packs and better performance.
 
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

diachi said:
It's impossible to truly comprehend the sheer scale of it - always blows my mind.

Talking of space games - haven't played Space Engine, looks cool, would probably set my desktop computer on fire with those graphics. Should try out Kerbal Space Program if you haven't already - might enjoy that too. Especially with the newer versions that have cool shader/texture packs and better performance.
Click to expand...

Yeah haha. Their website recommends a minimum of 4GB's of Ram to run Space Engine properly, my laptop has 6GB's and I still lag at some parts :(

Anyway, what's cool is that you can choose to travel at different speeds in the game. So like 50KM/H or 1cc(light speed) or 50cc. Even traveling at light speed it still takes awhile to travel the solar system! NEEEED MOAR SPEED :D :D

-Alex
 
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

diachi said:
It's impossible to truly comprehend the sheer scale of it - always blows my mind.
Click to expand...

We simply do not have any natural, experience based reference points for those kinds of sizes and distances. Nothing that even comes close. I feel that's part of the reason that many extremely intelligent, otherwise rational people turn to religion. They begin to see a very tiny portion of the scope of the known universe and it is extremely humbling.
 
Re: Interstellar Space Travel

InfinitusEquitas said:
We simply do not have any natural, experience based reference points for those kinds of sizes and distances. Nothing that even comes close. I feel that's part of the reason that many extremely intelligent, otherwise rational people turn to religion. They begin to see a very tiny portion of the scope of the known universe and it is extremely humbling.
Click to expand...
That, or they believe the complexity and beauty of our universe/world couldn't be purely accidental. I've also encountered a few people who simply cannot accept the big bang theory without bringing religion into things. If it's impossible for everything to come from nothing, then the impossible must be possible or something like that. I don't wanna turn this into religion discussion 2.0 though:undecided:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.





Back
Top