Portaryal of Mankind's future?

[Alba gu Brath]

I was just playing the game "Mass Effect" for xbox and I was wondering, how amazing it would be to live under those circumstances. (Killer robots etc aside).

What do you think the possibility of a sort of "Galactic League" actually existing is? Imagine if we actually found evidence of an ancient civilization on another planet and uncovered the secrets to space travel.

I hope there turns out to be some truth in these portrayals of the future. I couldn't stick the thought of us never advancing in that area and being stuck on earth forever, especially when there is so much more to learn about out there.

Thoughts?

[Chaigidel]

we will likely die the place we were born.

we will likely go extinct before we ever meet another species.

[Mar77]

we will likely die the place we were born.

we will likely go extinct before we ever meet another species.

We (as in the people alive today) will probably never see anything close to expansion outside the Solar System. Settling the Moon might be within the grasp of the first half of this century, but otherwise we will still be Earthlings.

We are advancing in space technology (for going to Mars among other things), though at the moment we seem to be retracing our steps more than anything else...

[Wheelchair]

we will likely die the place we were born.

we will likely go extinct before we ever meet another species.

Captain deppression saves the day again!

[Dayman]

Not to mention Mass Effect hinges itself on FTL travel, currently impossible.

[MaximiIian]

Not to mention Mass Effect hinges itself on FTL travel, currently impossible.

Well, the Mass Effect universe is hinged entirely on the Protheans and the Mass Relays. All of the advanced, sci-fi technology shown in that story is based completely on the existence of element zero, the mass effect phenomenon, and various plot-related things.

So, while cool, Mass Effect is not a good indicator of our future.
Halo's UNSC (prior to contact with the Covenant) is more realistic; or Cowboy Bebop.
Though even they still hinge on some kind of FTL.

[Alkarin]

sort of like the star trek universe? i find this kind of stuff very interesting. it pains me to know that i will most likely not live long enough to see a true significant leap into space colonization/terraforming

[Baron von Sky Hat]

It'd be incredibly awesome to come into contact with another species. However, from what I'm aware, the odds are rather stacked against it. Not in whether they exist, necessarily, I think there's a fair amount of popular thought even among scientists that given the number of stars and likely number of worlds, it would actually be fairly incredible if there wasn't other life somewhere at some point.

However I think there's very much a split as to whether it would ever be the case that one of these other potential-life worlds happened to have a civilization that was even vaguely the same stage as us at the same time.

That said, should space colonisation ever really kick off, it's fairly possible that the distances and times involved would mean any colonies would very much be their own entities (at least initially, even if you believe that FTL travel will become possible). So I could envision a league of planetary nations of some sort, albeit more likely the nations would all be human...

[Holger Danske]

It'd be incredibly awesome to come into contact with another species.

Yes, if that species is inferior to us, otherwise I think we'll rather wish that we never had stuck our nose that far out of the door...

[Time Commander Bob]

Yes, if that species is inferior to us, otherwise I think we'll rather wish that we never had stuck our nose that far out of the door...

The likelihood is if we found extra-terrestrial life with intelligence comparable to our own (having somehow agreed on what intelligence is) they would be very different from anything we have ever seen and thus it will be hard to see who is superior (what makes one species "superior" to another?). The only thing we can say with any degree of confidence, is that they will be well suited to their environment and us to ours.

[Ketzerfreund]

The main problem with even only colonising Mars alone is the justification of commiting time and effort towards such a project.
There is not enough of a reason do do it, social ones aside (economic reasons are absolutely non-existant) - and I doubt anyone will ever invest the time and resources for social reasons alone. So, for hundreds of years we won't see space colonisation at all. Because there's just no good enough reason to do so.

Aside from that, I doubt mankind will ever make it to the point where the effort of colonising other planets is negligible enough. Before that happens, Earth's civilisations will have crumbled. We're not even able to learn from past mistakes as it is.
Take the demise of the Easter Isle's civilisation, for example. They drew themselves to near-extinction and the actual civilisation to doom for the competition about who can build the biggest stone face. Today it's about who can build the highest sky-scraper. The same crap that leads nowhere is going on and on.

Not only we won't see serious space colonisation in our lives. Our grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-children won't either.

[Holger Danske]

You didn't really get the point there did you?

[Time Commander Bob]

You didn't really get the point there did you?

I understood perfectly what you said and I responded by saying that you were using human standards in which to compare and predict extraterrestrial behaviour (in that alien superiority means them being able to overpower us and manipulate/destroy us). All I'm saying is the chances of the first extraterrestrials we meet being similar to us is slim, and our warring habits are unfortunately, part of who we are.

[Don in the North]

hmmm given mass effects relationship thing, i think exploring the galaxy on my own and going captain kirk on every hot alien chick i see is very appealing indeed

[Chaigidel]

I find it quite invigorating to think the taint of our foul people will never spread oily into space like some unspeakable beast from the 84905 hells

the depression is all yours, I absolutely love the idea of human extinction.

[Phalanx300]

Space colonies... They are already planning on starting one on Mars in our livetime.

[Helm]

Well I'm sure it's possible to find a technological solution to the distances involved in space travel, though we're not going to discover it any time soon.

[Phalanx300]

I´ve seen these shows where they already have a plan for colonizing Mars and they could do it now but they first want to try it on the moon to be sure it works and stuff .

[Hakkapeliitta]

I´ve seen these shows where they already have a plan for colonizing Mars and they could do it now but they first want to try it on the moon to be sure it works and stuff .

Colonizing Mars? I really doubt that. We might be able to send a manned mission to Mars, but something like a colony is propably centuries away. Maybe what you mean is a permanently manned outpost.

[Mar77]

Colonizing Mars? I really doubt that. We might be able to send a manned mission to Mars, but something like a colony is propably centuries away. Maybe what you mean is a permanently manned outpost.

Isn't that essentially what colonization is? What exactly makes a permanent outpost different from a colony? They both have people living in them after all, both probably partaking in some sort of experimentation. While cities on Mars might be out of the question for at least a century, it could certainly occur faster than we may think. After all, who in 1909 would of thought that we would be going to the moon 60 years later when airplanes themselves were still rather primitive. While we may attempt to predict the future, we cannot predict the curve balls that come out of nowhere and revolutionize technology...that could be what lets us colonize faster than we (still trapped in the early 21st century) believe.