Hot Shit! It's the future I've been waiting for!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

[GrannySmith]

It's  like a dog that gets all fucking excited every time the fridge opens.

Well, to be fair, I get excited every time the fridge opens, too . . . :P

It's fun to think of the possibilities. Opens up the imagination and whatnot. Gives people boners.

that, and  it does help one come up with brilliant science fiction stories,though this one is already taken 

nigel, i don't see imagining in the same way as believing, and similarly, hoping that something nice will come out of a science project or research does not mean believing it will succeed 
and come on, i'm pretty sure a lot of us getting all about speculative science didn't wait for pop science facebook pages or new scientist to make us interested.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's  like a dog that gets all fucking excited every time the fridge opens.

Well, to be fair, I get excited every time the fridge opens, too . . . :P

It's fun to think of the possibilities. Opens up the imagination and whatnot. Gives people boners.

that, and  it does help one come up with brilliant science fiction stories,though this one is already taken 

nigel, i don't see imagining in the same way as believing, and similarly, hoping that something nice will come out of a science project or research does not mean believing it will succeed 
and come on, i'm pretty sure a lot of us getting all about speculative science didn't wait for pop science facebook pages or new scientist to make us interested.

No, it's just one more nail of mediocrity in the coffin of a board that used to be full of intelligent and stimulating conversation.

Have at it, it's what you're here for. I'll be joining Cain in the fucking off category.

[East Coast Hustle]

Yeah OK. Or else it's that Facebook is contagious. Because it seems like for years there almost never used to be these "OMG SPECULATIVE SCIENCE!!!" threads, and now it's kind of like the board has turned into a subscription to New Scientist and nobody seems to understand anymore that "science that might be a thing" is not on the same level as "science that is a thing".

I feel like I need to buy the board a subscription to Skeptic just counteract it a little, before you fuckers are believing that every funded research proposal is OMG A NEW FUTURE. 

I'm so sorry. Please forgive me for being interested and/or thinking stuff like this is fun. I'll be sure to run things through the Department of Scientific Veracity before I post again.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Yeah OK. Or else it's that Facebook is contagious. Because it seems like for years there almost never used to be these "OMG SPECULATIVE SCIENCE!!!" threads, and now it's kind of like the board has turned into a subscription to New Scientist and nobody seems to understand anymore that "science that might be a thing" is not on the same level as "science that is a thing".

I feel like I need to buy the board a subscription to Skeptic just counteract it a little, before you fuckers are believing that every funded research proposal is OMG A NEW FUTURE. 

Ma'am, I don't care of you ARE the Dark Empress with plans to subjugate the populace to do your evil bidding. I resent the implication that I have anything to do with Facebook!!! :P :P :P

[Bu🤠ns]

Nigel...but what about this!



Specifically....
Alt text: The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance.

WE HAVE TO SAVE OUR INTERSTELLAR REPUTATION!

[Faust]

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

[Left]

It's  like a dog that gets all fucking excited every time the fridge opens.

That's because the good shit's in the fridge.
I look at any news that indicates my civilization won't collapse entirely in 20 years to be a Good Thing...That's why I keep talking about our immediate solar environs as tappable resources.
...It's because I worry about us.

If we colonize the solar system first we'll learn how to build sustainable civilizations in places that are REALLY trying to kill us, which will be useful as we wander onward.

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

The "ark" or whatever you'd call it, concept still is more workable then...we have to pack a civilization.

[Doktor Howl]

http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive#pq=8QXedT

Alpha Centauri in 2 weeks. 

Yeah, this came up a few months back.  Glad to hear they're still on it.

[Doktor Howl]

What is up with this board and shitting itself over speculative technology?

This one's fairly solid, IIRC.  NASA has been dicking with it since the 60s, but managed to get around the one technical complication that made it "wouldn't it be nice", and apparently they're making some progress.

[Doktor Howl]

It's  like a dog that gets all fucking excited every time the fridge opens.

Well, to be fair, I get excited every time the fridge opens, too . . . :P

It's fun to think of the possibilities. Opens up the imagination and whatnot. Gives people boners.

that, and  it does help one come up with brilliant science fiction stories,though this one is already taken 

nigel, i don't see imagining in the same way as believing, and similarly, hoping that something nice will come out of a science project or research does not mean believing it will succeed 
and come on, i'm pretty sure a lot of us getting all about speculative science didn't wait for pop science facebook pages or new scientist to make us interested.

No, it's just one more nail of mediocrity in the coffin of a board that used to be full of intelligent and stimulating conversation.

Have at it, it's what you're here for. I'll be joining Cain in the fucking off category.

Well, shit.

And here I was, just sitting down to write.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

How's that? Like, we could get to Alpha Centauri in 2 weeks, but it would seem like several thousand years on the ship?

[Doktor Howl]

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

Where'd you get that bit?

[Faust]

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

Where'd you get that bit?

We looked at some examples in school. Anything inside the bubble experiences a slower time frame relative to that outside the bubble. You get the same effect at relativistic speeds where more time elapses for example on the clocks of a satellite compared to on the earth.

We did however only look at the super dense ring version of the craft, so maybe they have figured out some way to overcome that.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Its a cool idea. It's a shame that the proposed bubble would have to experience the relative timeframe of actually travelling that distance at non relativistic speeds.

It means it could never have a live crew, and that the electronics would have to have a very good shelf life.

Where'd you get that bit?

We looked at some examples in school. Anything inside the bubble experiences a slower time frame relative to that outside the bubble. You get the same effect at relativistic speeds where more time elapses for example on the clocks of a satellite compared to on the earth.

We did however only look at the super dense ring version of the craft, so maybe they have figured out some way to overcome that.

I suspect, this is going to make my head really hurt, but how did they figure that? How does that happen? I guess I'm having trouble seeing how that's possible.