Quote:
Originally Posted by Battlebasset
Bottom line: Space is big. Really big. The nearest star would take 4.3 years to reach at the speed of light. Approaching that speed would take an enormous amount of energy. And there is plenty of scientific evidence that no physical being can go faster than the speed of light.
Add to that the issues with space/time as you approach the speed of light, and the fact that we have never, since looking for them starting in the early 70's, picked up any radio signals, leads me to only one conclusion: We have never been visited by alien life. And if intelligent life is out there, it's really far away. And rare.
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For most of human history the average speed on land was 3 mph. Speed under sail, particularly in open water, was a bit better: maybe 6 knots (about 7 mph). If you wanted to go coast-co-coast in 1860 you had several choices: covered wagon = 5-6 months. Taking a sailing ship around Cape Horn took roughly 200 days, assuming you got there at all. Going down to the isthmus of Panama, crossing overland and boating on up the Pacific coast took about 43 days. Then steam power came of age and with the transcontinental railroad you could get from NY to San Francisco in a week--and at 85% less cost. Today? About four hours.
Remember when the sound barrier, according to quite a few educated minds at the time, was NEVER going to be broken? We were also NEVER going to reach the moon. We would NEVER discover other planets because they didn't exist. Lots of NEVERS back then. Heck, I knew plenty of people in my youth who before Orville and Wilbur came on the scene thought that heavier-than-air flight was NEVER going to be achieved. Until it was.
I heard once some time back (1980?) that the sum total of humanity's knowledge doubles every two years. Maybe. Sounds like a huge number and I suck at math. But one thing I DO know is that the people claiming NEVER, will, in time, ALWAYS be wrong.
I probably won't be around to see it, but I have no doubt that my grandchildren will, one day, be able to see Voyagers 1 and 2 on display at the Smithsonian. And the history books of THEIR children will contain detail not only evidence of alien life but also the encounters between aliens and humans.