THis Guy Walks Up.........

[Steve Gagne]

This guy walks up and goes, "Gek gek gek."

The second guy goes, "Poq'l?"

The first guy goes "Rrhak'uhl!"

The second guy goes "Rrhak'uhl poq'l?"

So the the first guy goes, "RRHAK'UHL TZU'UHL!!!!"

<B'LEN> <B'LEN> <B'LEN>

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Hey, whatsa matta you? You never heard an ALIEN KNOCK-KNOCK joke before? It's pretty popular on Beta Centauri Prime, but probably loses something in translation. Imagine a whole civilization based on a warped sense of humor. They bankrupted their whole population to perfect space travel....just so they could come here to catch Seinfeld on cable. KNOCK KNOCK!

[galtgulch]

>>>"Imagine a whole civilization based on a warped sense of humor. They bankrupted their whole population to perfect space travel."<<<

Speaking of space travel, I recently heard that unless our species finds a way to find another planet to move to that it will not survive. A planet has been found "just" twenty light years away which is at the right distance from its sun to enable human life to manage but is five times larger than Earth.

I gather that travel at the speed of light or anything close to it is not practical so I wonder how long it would take to get there? I suppose it would require several generations living aboard such a space transport vehicle to make the trip.

Well the sun has another five or is it ten billion years before it becomes a red giant star and engulfs the earth and the entire solar system out to Neptune and Pluto. So there is time to find a way to sidestep the bullet. The fact that a huge percentage of species which have inhabited the earth over the last three or four billion years have become extinct suggests that our own species may not be around for much longer anyway. But if anyone can survive my bet is on humanity.

I found the humorous start of this thread to be... amusing. But your mention of space travel conjures up issues I am curious about. I try to imagine what life on a large space transport would be llke for the generations which will never know the Earth except from info brought along for the ride. It might be sad that they would not be able to ever know and experience life on Earth as we know it. The fact that Earth might be doomed at that point would be small consolation.

galt

Edited April 30, 2007 by galtgulch

[Steve Gagne]

...Speaking of space travel, I recently heard that unless our species finds a way to find another planet to move to that it will not survive. A planet has been found "just" twenty light years away which is at the right distance from its sun to enable human life to manage but is five times larger than Earth.

I gather that travel at the speed of light or anything close to it is not practical so I wonder how long it would take to get there? I suppose it would require several generations living aboard such a space transport vehicle to make the trip....

...your mention of space travel conjures up issues I am curious about. I try to imagine what life on a large space transport would be llke for the generations which will never know the Earth except from info brought along for the ride. It might be sad that they would not be able to ever know and experience life on Earth as we know it. The fact that Earth might be doomed at that point would be small consolation.

galt

Actually, interstellar travel has been part of the conception of the US space program from the beginning. Ion engines have been around since the 50's. But it took scifi to flesh out some of the ideas:

"For the World Is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky"

From the official website

My old man had his own semi-humorous take on it. That we originated at planet Hephaestus, then we "hephaformed' Mars; our forbears blew up Hephaestus (now know as the asteroid belt); while a remnant settled Mars. Then we "ariformed" earth, and when our forbears settled here, they created an ecologic disaster of previously unknown proportions on Mars, requiring abandonment of that planet. Now we're discussing climate shifts and getting ready to "terraform' Venus, and looking at only a remnant surviving to do it. After Venus, where would we go?

That's where the interstellar thing comes in. Not only does NASA have files on hollow earthlike artificial environments, but also for ISS-style docking capabilbies, as well as ship "clusters" -- a mothership (with an artificial earthlike environment) with a ring of isolated orbiting satellite ships for specialized functions (power, observation, science/medicine, etc.) All in all, a fun topic to think about.

[BaalChatzaf]

Speaking of space travel, I recently heard that unless our species finds a way to find another planet to move to that it will not survive. A planet has been found "just" twenty light years away which is at the right distance from its sun to enable human life to manage but is five times larger than Earth.

galt

The universe will eventually grow cold and dark. -All- life will cease.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Steve Gagne]

The universe will eventually grow cold and dark. -All- life will cease.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Yes, Dr. Bob. but not in the lifetime of of our species. Who knows if the the next evolutionary step will even be sentient in a sense that we could understand?

Ah well, untill then, all honor to the shards! And obeisance to their Lord!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The universe will eventually grow cold and dark. -All- life will cease.

Bob,

I have seen you make this comment before. Your knowledge is based on mathematical projections going forward in time. Mathematical projections going backward in time give us time without time and space without space that went boom (or gronk or fssssssh or whatever). I imagine pre-gronk was cold and dark too.

Is the universe ultimately a math equation floating on time like the Silver Surfer or Aladdin on a magic carpet?

I can think of a lot of quips for that one. Zero-sum metaphysics, etc.

Michael