I believe it is humanity's ultimate destiny to evolve into an interstellar society!

[CmdrShep2154]

What would you think of a person who believes that democracy and freedom will ultimately triumph over tyranny and oppression and then humanity will expand into space? Humanity will abandon failed outdated ideologies like fascism, communism, and unequal greedy capitalism.

I believe that worldview wholeheartedly.

Pop culture often reinforces those views.




Will it be a free society like America or Canada to lead humanity to the stars or will it be a despotic authoritarian society like China?

[Shadowferal]

If we are to evolve, it is as beings of energy.
...won't need your stinkin' spaceships!

[Masark]

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

Those are the two options for our future.

[Polyxo]

I knew who started this thread the exact second I read the title.

[Deja Thoris]

I don't see how.

I was watching a documentary on voyager, if you put the earth and the sun on a table, the next cloest star on that scale would be over 6 miles away.

Voyager, which is the fastest thing around (10 miles per second) has only just left the solar system and it did that after 35 years. In interstellar terms its not even off the front doorstep.

So unless we do some sc-fi shit like wormholes or teleportation, it ain't happening in the next few thousand years.

[Shadowferal]

I don't see how.

I was watching a documentary on voyager, if you put the earth and the sun on a table, the next cloest star on that scale would be over 6 miles away.

Voyager, which is the fastest thing around (10 miles per second) has only just left the solar system and it did that after 35 years. In interstellar terms its not even off the front doorstep.

So unless we do some sc-fi shit like wormholes or teleportation, it ain't happening in the next few thousand years.

In other words, my post above...does come across more seriously!

[Gaidax]

Yes, unless we nuke each other into oblivion over whose imaginary friend has the biggest dick.

[Techno-Druid]

Realistically humans will never be an "interstellar society", at least in our present biological state. Even becoming a multi-planet species would probably require some level of gene editing.

We'll probably never "evolve" beyond having extreme ideologies or identities either. People will always form an identity based in contrast to someone else and there will always be disagreements on virtually everything, from faith to the meaning of scientific discoveries. That's just how humans are, how primates are, and we'll probably never change or want to change that.

[Gaidax]

Realistically humans will never be an "interstellar society", at least in our present biological state. Even becoming a multi-planet species would probably require some level of gene editing.

This will definitely come to that. All this stalling so far is just biding time until floodgates will open. I'm pretty sure I will live to see babies in the womb gene modified to add or change major traits and in 200 years from now, give or take, this will be a common practice akin to getting a flu shot, alongside with the ability to modify yourself.

That is unless we manage to nuke ourselves into the stone age.

[PC2]

Yes we can go inter-stellar but we've only transformed a tiny sliver of the Earth into useful stuff. Eventually we could terraform 100 billion planets and populate them with 100 billion people each. The march of progress.

[Techno-Druid]

This will definitely come to that. All this stalling so far is just biding time until floodgates will open. I'm pretty sure I will live to see babies in the womb gene modified to add or change major traits and in 200 years from now, give or take, this will be a common practice akin to getting a flu shot, alongside with the ability to modify yourself.

That is unless we manage to nuke ourselves into the stone age.

You're in luck, we already have two (three?) gene edited babies in China who were modified to have a resistance to HIV (with a potential, unintentional brain boost as a byproduct). The experiment was originally declared as being illegal, but later we found out that the government of China probably knew about it.

We also have a growing biohacker movement in the US, with guys like Josiah Zayner and David Ishee performing surgeries on themselves. Ishee is a dog breeder who is trying to modify his dogs to suppress a protein known as myostatin which regulates muscle growth (and do it to himself). There's actually a documentary coming out about it on Netflix.


The main thing with biohacking and gene editing is it's probably not as utopian as you would think, at least not yet. Each gene or gene variation comes with its own pros and cons. Like going back to the myostatin suppression/knockout, you get more unregulated muscle growth and less fat, but you also have to eat more to sustain yourself.

[PC2]

If we are to evolve, it is as beings of energy.
...won't need your stinkin' spaceships!

eh, you may need physical objects with mass to process information. Either way it would be based on the same substrate-independant principles.

[Gaidax]

You're in luck, we already have two (three?) gene edited babies in China who were modified to have a resistance to HIV (with a potential, unintentional brain boost as a byproduct). The experiment was originally declared as being illegal, but later we found out that the government of China probably knew about it.

I am aware and this is what I meant by eventual floodgates opening. And by the way, this is a reported case, you can only imagine how many unreported ones go under the radar there. And yes, I am pretty sure China (and who knows who else) conduct human experiments in the field for some time now. This case is just the one that slipped through the cracks.

Right now the world is a bit bogged down by ethics and what not, but at some point in will be widespread enough in rogue or shady states to the point where Western world will realize that you can't really stop this and embrace this as well with some regulation that will be lightened up as we go.

It's not utopia, it's a real thing and in next decade you will see even more reported cases of this to the point where people will start looking for treatments there, that's when the gates will open.

[Lochton]

I would be great but we need to get past one of the biggest hurdles that humanity has; capitalism. We need to fix some wrongs and the only way we can at the moment is by slicing economic growth expectations.

[ParanoiD84]

Just need the The God Emperor of Mankind to guide us in these dark times creating the Imperium of Man. Xenos beware

Nah but i doubt we see a interstellar empire before we completely fuck this planet up.

[PC2]

I would be great but we need to get past one of the biggest hurdles that humanity has; capitalism. We need to fix some wrongs and the only way we can at the moment is by slicing economic growth expectations.

Growth is already low in the West, can't "slice" it without stagnation or a shrinking economy. We can't get to the stars without growing.

- - - Updated - - -

Nah but i doubt we see a interstellar empire before we completely fuck this planet up.

It makes no sense to see an interstellar empire "before" the planet is effed.

The planet isn't even effed, unless you believing in baseless fear mongering.

[ParanoiD84]

fear mongering.

Still looking at where we are now i dont see it ever happening. And no fear mongering how can you fear what you care nothing about or does not affect you, maby our future generations though are fucked.

I also say alot of places are doomed/fucked like lets say a random country here Burundi, despite being one of the poorest and hungriest countries in the world, Burundi's population has grown rapidly. As are many nations in africa to give one example, what are we doing against that? absolutely nothing and if they already have issued feeding themselves how do you think they manage when africas population is said to double/tripple in the next decade's.

Just one example and i say overpopulation is/will be a huge problem in the near future. This planet also dont have infinite resources so there is that so unless we do move to the stars i say we are pretty fucked, not for a while though.

Does not look good for alot of part on this planet already. Future looks pretty grim but we wont be alive then so meh.

Can also couple that with unending conflicts and wars as there have never been world peace and never will on this planet, world leaders are not getting along very well either.

[Daedius]

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

Those are the two options for our future.

Back in Ages of old, people thought the same thinking there wasn't anything beyond. Come explorers.

Should we ever get to the point of commercial and domestic space travel would bring the return of the excitement of exploration all over again, if not more so.

Pity I won't be around to be at such a point in our eventual future...

[Pannonian]

I don't see how.

I was watching a documentary on voyager, if you put the earth and the sun on a table, the next cloest star on that scale would be over 6 miles away.

Voyager, which is the fastest thing around (10 miles per second) has only just left the solar system and it did that after 35 years. In interstellar terms its not even off the front doorstep.

So unless we do some sc-fi shit like wormholes or teleportation, it ain't happening in the next few thousand years.

Generation ships. Humanity could colonize the whole galaxy in about 2 mio. years with them. We cannot leave our galaxy, but everything inside - just takes time.

Ultimately we need to reach out to the stars... or die, because our own planet has not only limited resources, but also a limited life span.

[Dhrizzle]

Generation ships. Humanity could colonize the whole galaxy in about 2 mio. years with them. We cannot leave our galaxy, but everything inside - just takes time.

Ultimately we need to reach out to the stars... or die, because our own planet has not only limited resources, but also a limited life span.

Seems like a waste of effort, if we have the technology to make ships that can sustain life and move it between stars we might as well just make them not move and stay in the solar system.