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re: Discussing Aliens/UFOs on Tucker
Posted on 10/9/20 at 8:44 pm to Dawgirl
Posted on 10/9/20 at 8:44 pm to Dawgirl
quote:
basic physics
That’s the point. It’s not basic physics. It would be something we don’t understand yet. But hey, maybe we do live in the only time in history when everything we know about physics is set in stone and exactly right. Anything is possible.
3
Posted on 10/9/20 at 8:52 pm to Tesla
Some physicists are taking interstellar travel seriously. Alcubierre Drive
Posted on 10/9/20 at 9:12 pm to Tesla
For a spacecraft to acquire a speed of c/10, it would need to acquire kinetic energy, given accurately enough by the non-relativistic formula of 1/2mv2. For a very small unmanned spacecraft of 10 kg, it would require 1/2 x 10 kg x (3 x 107 m/s)2 = 4.5 x 1015 J.
For a manned spacecraft weighing several tons, the energy requirements would exceed the world’s annual electricity consumption. For the city-sized space ships, the energy requirements would be even more staggering. And when the spacecraft slows, it would need to use up almost this amount of energy in braking. If the spacecraft had to accelerate to c/10, slow down and start up many times. It is hard to imagine how enough fuel could be carried. It would probably be impossible without some sort of antimatter drive. If complete conversion of matter to energy (E = mc2)—were possible, 1 ton of antimatter could annihilate 1 ton of ordinary matter to produce. And this is the absolute maximum amount of energy which could be produced even in principle from a given mass of fuel. A spaceship would be nowhere near as efficient.
For a manned spacecraft weighing several tons, the energy requirements would exceed the world’s annual electricity consumption. For the city-sized space ships, the energy requirements would be even more staggering. And when the spacecraft slows, it would need to use up almost this amount of energy in braking. If the spacecraft had to accelerate to c/10, slow down and start up many times. It is hard to imagine how enough fuel could be carried. It would probably be impossible without some sort of antimatter drive. If complete conversion of matter to energy (E = mc2)—were possible, 1 ton of antimatter could annihilate 1 ton of ordinary matter to produce. And this is the absolute maximum amount of energy which could be produced even in principle from a given mass of fuel. A spaceship would be nowhere near as efficient.
Posted on 10/9/20 at 10:39 pm to Tesla
quote:
That’s the point. It’s not basic physics. It would be something we don’t understand yet.
“Basic physics,” in the context that it’s the physics that we know, is not a limiting factor for making contact with alien civilizations. More likely, the limiting factor is our perception of time.
Any direct contact we have with an alien civilization will be with the machines they have created to succeed them; I think all civilizations will come to realize that the only way to venture into interstellar space is to design a successor species that can withstand the rigors of space travel. We are well on our way to such an achievment.
As biological creatures, our standard perception of time is a period of about 100 years, the maximum for a human lifetime. Other civilizations will have different standard time periods based upon their life spans, some longer and some shorter. None will work for space exploration, however.
That’s why it’s necessary that we continue on the path to development of artificial intelligence. Our society is currently saturated with artificial narrow intelligence (ANI). It performs tasks “in the background” and we hardly notice it anymore.
We are rapidly developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that learns on its own. When we give AGI the okay to design and improve itself, it will quickly become artificial super intelligence (ASI). ASI will be beyond the comprehension of any human. It will quickly leave earth and set off to explore the Universe, hopefully maintaining a link with its creators so that we can avail ourselves of some of the knowledge it gains.
The evolution of a biological species to a super intelligent machine species is a logical progression. Biological intelligences evolve on a world and are permanently bound to it. They must take the next step and design their successor if they are to spread into the Universe.
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