Will humanity ever become a interstellar civilization?

Eventually the oil reserves will run out, they are a *finite* resource, which the entire economy and industry of the world currently relies on. The oil reserves we are wasting now took millions of years to form, and provided the basis for all of the technological advances of the past 100 years.

If modern civilisation collapses back to pre-industrial revolution levels or worse, will there be enough oil left, or will the remaining reserves be located where we can use them, to provide the energy for a new industrial revolution, and allow us to regain current technological levels?

Faster than light rockets are incoming

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/nasa_eagleworks_warp_drive/

We already have the technology for interstellar travel...

http://www.openminds.tv/lockheed-skunk-works-director-says-esp-is-the-key-to-interstellar-travel-video-1092/23042

I'm not even going to bother reading that article.

The Alcubierre (sp?) Warp Drive would consume almost unlimited amounts of exotic matter to power.

I love you.

@topic, yeah probably...once we put away childish things. We've got a hell of a long way to go, we still have people upset with each other over land, skin pigmentation, favorite bronze age myth, and favorite political party. These things all need to be set aside or thrown away for things to get that far.

fusion rockets are faster than normal rockets as well and that's already happening

http://science.time.com/2013/09/11/going-to-mars-via-fusion-power-could-be/

The warp drive will happen as well, they found a solution to keep the amount of power needed workable

they also have space distortion travel

IF properly funded this will still happen in our lifetime, if not... well sadly for us we won't see any aliens then lol

Possibly.

Project Orion was designed in the 60s and is said to be able to reach the closest star with newer thermonuclear bombs in only 44 years at about 8% to 10% of the speed of light.

Maybe in the year 10k but by then the world would be a terrible place to live on,

Given enough time, the possibility is certainly there.

Whether we destroy ourselves before then, well...

I admit that fusion could happen within our lifetime if we ever conquer Helium-3, but the fact that you believe warp drive and space distortion travel are even within several generations of us let alone you will live to see it probably happen is beyond me.

I'm a layman and I understand simple concepts like that. Properly funded or not.

@Boddicker said:

@evildead6789 said:

@Boddicker said:

@evildead6789 said:

@thegerg said:

@ferrari2001 said:

@thegerg said:

@ferrari2001 said:

@GazaAli said:

I'm positive we'll return to the stone ages before that happens.

Returning to the stone age may be necessary to recognize our mistakes as a civilization and rise above them to become a far more technological society. Unfortunately we are unwilling to spend money on scientific advancement. We could have landed on Mars and other bodies in our solar system by now if we only came together and did it. That in turn could lead to bigger and better technologies to take us farther and farther into the stars. Becoming an interstellar civilization is certainly possible but it would take radical societal change. Specifically people's strong negativity towards science.

"Unfortunately we are unwilling to spend money on scientific advancement."

Who is this "we" you are a part of?

Look at any countries national budget. Such a miniscule percent of their budget goes to scientific endeavors. More likely it goes to the military and unnecessary spending programs. If the world economy spent even a moderate amount of their money on science programs, starting with young people in school and on through actual scientific communities our scientific discoveries and abilities would be far beyond where they are today.

Science and tech are advancing at ridiculous rates these days. You need to look places other than government spending. Also, military spending results in tons of scientific discoveries and developments. Let's not dismiss them.

Faster than light rockets are incoming

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/nasa_eagleworks_warp_drive/

I'm not even going to bother reading that article.

The Alcubierre (sp?) Warp Drive would consume almost unlimited amounts of exotic matter to power.

fusion rockets are faster than normal rockets as well and that's already happening

http://science.time.com/2013/09/11/going-to-mars-via-fusion-power-could-be/

The warp drive will happen as well, they found a solution to keep the amount of power needed workable

they also have space distortion travel

IF properly funded this will still happen in our lifetime, if not... well sadly for us we won't see any aliens then lol

I admit that fusion could happen within our lifetime if we ever conquer Helium-3, but the fact that you believe warp drive and space distortion travel are even within several generations of us let alone you will live to see it probably happen is beyond me.

I'm a layman and I understand simple concepts like that. Properly funded or not.

Well i'm an engineer,

the only problem is funding

Like the author said, if we needed helium 3 for military purposes, we would have all the helium 3 in the world

If we would work together and get organized in this way we would already have big and fast spaceships. The problem is we keep on fighting each other and capitallism, while it is certainly needed, is having too much influence on our world. If everyone would work together, we would all be richer.

Everything space exploration related only get's a fraction of what was invested for going to the moon.

No, because that would require for this world not to remain terrible.

From my personal thoughts, my concern with this concept is that we wont last long enough to advance ourselves to such a point. as things currently stand, our priorities as a species are misordered. Right now we our so concerned with this planets resources, and money, and while we have space exploration capabilities, its priority is on the back burner in comparison to our wars and siphons of our own resources here on earth.

space exploration is more like a global government hobby than it is a thought means of solution to the ticking clock we have here on earth. Unfortunately, as things stand right now, this fact doesn't seem to be on any road of change, and seems we will be stuck driving further away from that road for quite a while. meanwhile our resource levels are already becoming dangorous, and our control over the stability of our own planet is sketchy at best.

What this may come to mean is that our clock may run out long before we refocus our priorities soon enough to do something about it.

Only after we explored all depths of our oceans first.

it will never happen.

we are smack dab right in the middle between two nutbag religious populations of over a billion people each that are determined to have an apocalypse.

once we manage to overcome our pitifully short lifespans that will open up real possibilities.. we think nothing of taking long car/air trips now because the time is a small fraction of our lifespan. what's a 20 year trip if you have the lifespan of 10,000+

sadly you may have a point there

We can only hope the americans and moslims try to respect each other.

respect has little to do with it when both holy books end with an immolation of the unbelievers and each others groups are the unbelievers.

the future is hopeless because of the poorly written over edited prophesies of a bunch of bronze age sheep shaggers.

not sure such a thing deserves respect

An engineer who can't trim a quote tree. lol

Seriously, the problem with warping space is that the ship itself occupies some of that space, not to mention its occupants.

you're both radical and that's why you don't get along.

They live among us and we just leave em alone, we give them chances and all they must do is abide the law.

although we still have problems there is also hope, you cannot just erase thousands of years of culture.

both cultures have there advantages though, but we don't need another world war just to figure out that you must give in a bit to comprimise.

it's seems they have a solution for that problem

if i'm to lazy to trim a quote tree, capitalize my I's or even forget syllables

then that's not an argument

It's not an argument, but it's telling.

There's so many different factors to consider in all of this. I guess my biggest question is, should we even be leaving Earth? And should we be out there in space? It seems to me that we still don't have a very good explanation for what's going on here, and we can only hypothesize and estimate about what is going on out there in the vast unknown.

And it's true that society has made some really big advancements in a short period of time, but there's really so much to take into consideration... I think we would have to take several baby-steps to reach the point where we can even become a space society. If we were to spend a crap-ton of money to develop some sort of spaceship that would carry civilization onward to some distant destination, we would need for that ship to be prepared for damn near everything. We would almost need a second Earth, lol.

If the New World Order establishes their one world government probably not. They'll take over and then implode in upon themselves and we'll be back to amoebas. If people snap out of the mind programming and stop the economic manipulation then we'll probably travel the stars sooner as opposed to later. There's enough resources on the planet for everyone to eat well, be educated and for us to send manned spacecraft to other stars which won't happen when less than %1 of the population steals most of the wealth, hides it, lies about it and then kills anyone who legitimately exposes them.

maybe you're not, but your laws and customs are

but I doubt you're not radical, your own would reject you if you we're not

we already had this discussion

in our eyes you're radical

why, because if a 20 year old with a 15 year old has sex we don't consider them child rapists.

because prostitution is legal here

because we have a social security system

because we don't have a sex offenders list

because we have no death penalties

because jail sentences are not as harsh besides if you did hainous crimes

because drug use isn't considerd a crime

because we don't sell guns in supermarkets

because health care is free

because housing and basic luxury is free when you don't find a job

because we have privacy laws that are sensible

because we have common sense

We try to find the middle ground, you radicalize to root out the so called problem, which will never work, and the older your country/culture will get , the more you will realize it.

Unless we can figure out a way to use wormholes, then I don't think so. :( Space is much bigger than you think. It takes light years to get to another star. And we wouldn't travel to a star unless there is a planet that can support life.

interstellar travel what now?

I'm not sure if you realize what radical means, it's another word for extremism. The extreme of something means too much of something. Since your laws are more harsh, we can't be the radicalist.

Our laws can't be more radical than yours because they're more lenient. Not only that, not all laws have to be enforced at all times.

It's the same with the heavy penalties on adultery, alcohol, sex out of marriage in moslim states, they're simply radical laws.

I never said I was anti usa, I'm not anti moslim as well. I'm against harsh penalty for petty crimes though. Or certain rules that only serve the elite.

I can recognize we're different, that doesn't change the fact some of your laws are radical.

whatever, it's a big one you said you respected my culture, that's enough for me

People talk about the technology required to travel in space, what about the negative effects that being in outer space does to the body? For example, the fact that people's bone density goes down.

Until we all get disappointed a few years later.

you understood me

oh you don't respect my culture then

which pretty much proves my point

Jesus fucking christ you guys, trim your goddamn quote trees. It takes ten fucking seconds.

well either you respect it or you don't , there's not a middle ground here lol

sorry , everything I posted is factually correct