Stephen Hawking and the human emigration project

[Twoducks]

What, so if we go to space humanity will finally put aside their differences?? If Hawking is afraid of another Cuban crisis.... what the hell does living in space solve? The guys on space get saved if the Earth blows? Super great and all until they blow themselves up too. Remember that the "lucky" ones up there will be the same ones that f@ck up the world already behind their big desks.

- I was hearing about solar powered cars and clean energy since I was a 10 year old. Fast forward 20 years and FINALLY I'm seeing something productive out of all of that.

- Huge-ass and über expensive computers and cell phones were the most high tech. Fast forward 20 years and today’s computer/cellphone tech makes the old stuff look like the stone age.

WHY so big a difference in tech evolution? Because a few SOB's have slowed that evolution. Until those SOB stop controlling and resisting change, going to space will mean crap because the cancer will still be there.

When humanity changes and can coexist with its own planet and itself THEN it will be ready to go colonise space. If not, then all you would have is the same autodestructive species but in spaaaaaaaaace (and vaccinated for the next N1H1)!!!!!

BTW, the mighty "free market" does crap for change and evolution unless they have no other choice or the State (as in us) pays their bills. European governments have had to give funding and other positive incentives so that power companies started going green.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Twoducks

[RD Blade]

Edit:

Aaaaaaaah, forget it...

Edited August 12, 2010 by RD Blade

[VT 1010]

For the more cynical among us, at least if humanity is more spread out across the galaxy, it will take longer to kill each other. And you never know, we could end up uniting as a species to fight against space bugs.

[Snail00]

For the more cynical among us, at least if humanity is more spread out across the galaxy, it will take longer to kill each other. And you never know, we could end up uniting as a species to fight against space bugs.

as of late I think someone should put that crackpot hawking out of his misery!

[reddsun1]

Agent Smith probably put it more succinctly than anyone in recent memory:

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."

[RD Blade]

as of late I think someone should put that crackpot hawking out of his misery!

There are people out there that have it coming waaaaaay more than him.

[frothymug]

Yes, necessity IS the mother of invention, as I said in my last post.

We made it to the moon, because it was the dream of so many talented individuals. Unfortunately, we're getting to the point where everyone is just too engrossed in their own lives and more complacent than ever nowadays. Their adventures consist of living their lives vicariously through celebrities... most of whom really need to have the poo kicked out of them for the things that they do on a daily basis.

...but back to the subject. I keep trying to figure out what we'll need to really get people looking up at the night sky again and dreaming of visiting those tiny specks of light someday. I'm one of those people, and it's why I decided to go back to school and study aerospace engineering. Everyone's entitled to their dreams, but they must first overcome their apprehension; the false veil that tells them that they won't ever acheive their goals.

[Renato]

Yes, necessity IS the mother of invention, as I said in my last post.

We made it to the moon, because it was the dream of so many talented individuals. Unfortunately, we're getting to the point where everyone is just too engrossed in their own lives and more complacent than ever nowadays. Their adventures consist of living their lives vicariously through celebrities... most of whom really need to have the poo kicked out of them for the things that they do on a daily basis.

...but back to the subject. I keep trying to figure out what we'll need to really get people looking up at the night sky again and dreaming of visiting those tiny specks of light someday. I'm one of those people, and it's why I decided to go back to school and study aerospace engineering. Everyone's entitled to their dreams, but they must first overcome their apprehension; the false veil that tells them that they won't ever acheive their goals.

Heh, I like this post, and I like this thread in general. It comes as rather timely for me, as next month I will be teaching a course precisely on the subject of how space exploration could/should play a great role in our lives within the coming decades.

With our energy resources rapidly depleting I think we should have turned to space for accumulating space solar power or oxygen/helium/water harvesting on the moon (like in that new "Moon" movie), but the issue is how would that affect our society. Plus the scrapping of the Space Shuttle really put a damper on the manned space missions, so while we have Richard Branson planning his Virgin Galactic endeavour in the realm of space tourism, the practicality of going into space has to become more economical real soon, real fast. It just costs too much money and fuel to blast stuff into orbit every time.

That's where I think the research being done right now in space elevators should play a key role... Now the only problem is to get people to stop laughing and consider the fact that as fictional as that may sound, it may just be one of the few real solutions to the problems plaguing us right now.

As for space emigration, I'm sure some of you have heard of Gerard O'Neill, if not, wiki him up, he was one of the first aerospace engineers to realistically propose the concept of space colonies way back in the 70s. So rather than building a Mars base or something, a space colony might be more realistic to start off with.

[Snail00]

There are people out there that have it coming waaaaaay more than him.

i agree I dont have enough paper in my printer. I only mentioned him since he was part of the topic. Humans are insecure little children. Once we learn to live with each other, discard notions of political ruler ship, religion and that includes this new religion called science and respect our back yards then maybe we can move forward. What has science or scientists given us. Sure the first thing they did when they smashed two atoms together was make a bomb. Science has given us cool gadgets at the expense of others quality of life, taken our ability to be better social animals and added more destructive elements to our natural world in which we need to survive. Its insane to think humans in space would be any different. The more I hear this quack talk the more I am starting to realize my choice of being agnostic rather than fully atheist was the right one. What they are doing at cern is just one example of the SO CALLED INTELLIGENCIA becoming more and more arrogant. I heard this scientist trying to put people at ease that the tests they were doing were safe but to me it sounded the same as a politician trying to explain the economy was good when you see collapse everywhere. Too much faith in science like anything else is dangerous and we forgot to ask the question should we?

[frothymug]

I agree that some of the stuff they do at CERN raises the hairs on the back of my neck, but you have to realize that the biggest reason they do stuff there is to gain a better understanding of quantum physics. If they can prove the existence of subatomic particles, like gravitons (and their function), they may learn to manipulate that subatomic energy and produce an anti-gravity or gravity control effect. It's stuff like that that makes me smile. We'd fix all of our problems with fuel restrictions in getting material into space.

Also, they didn't smash two atoms together to make a bomb. They fired a neutron into an atom and split the thing into two smaller atoms. It's that discovery that's led us to nuclear power and eventually will lead us to nuclear fusion. Fusion is an incredible source of energy, but it CAN be used as a weapon of terrible destructive force, as we've seen in H-bomb tests.

I'll have to read up on the space elevator; I completely forgot about that concept. For now, it might be worth looking at if we can somehow get some sort of manufacturing plant onto the moon. At this point, I believe there is at least a steady source of iron on the moon. You'll have to fact-check me on that one... Being able to build stuff on the moon will be so much easier once we need to get it into space.

[eriku]

What has science or scientists given us.

The computer and internet you are using to post your comments? Without those things your call for the murder of a quadriplegic wouldn't be heard by as many people.

Edited August 12, 2010 by eriku

[RD Blade]

It's not really funny, but phrased like that...whooooo.

[jenius]

I think there is a lot of misplaced anger in this thread. There is no ruling elite desperate to make sure new technologies don't surface. The reason we never made it "to the year 2000" where we'd all be driving hover cars is because of our own limitations, not ones foisted upon us by people reluctant to change. Instead of a hover car you got a high definition flat screen TV. There were huge technological leaps from 1900 to 1950 which got people thinking "in another 50 years, everything we can dream of will be possible!" That's not really how it works. We got a lot of things people didn't bother to dream of and realized other things we DID dream of didn't make much sense to actually make/do. The space program in the US is (ironically) a land mine. People say "Why spend billions of dollars to go into a vacuum when that money would do so much good in my community?" Think of all the books you can buy for local libraries with the money it takes to fuel a shuttle... let alone building a fleet of them. That's not to say people don't generally like the space program but it's that luxury you keep putting off until you have extra cash. Space colonization is a huge way off.