#141931 - 07/28/08 10:50 PM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: ironraven]
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Enthusiast
Registered: 11/04/07
Posts: 369
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There are really only three reasons to leave one's solar system:
-Acreage with good air and water. There is a LOT of water and metal and methane and for all we know light hydrocarbons out there in the form of comets and asteroids. And there is plenty of acreage out there if you use grow lights and green houses and constructs of various types. But it won't be beach front.
-Precious and unique luxury trades. Spices, drugs, and organics like textiles, woods and perfumes that can't be synthesized worth a damn. Maybe antimatter, on a NIMBY principle. Everything else.... if you can get FTL or even sleeper ships, you can harvest those asteroids and comets. You only trade trinkets like fish hooks and belt buckles and the cure for cancer with the local primitives because the don't know the true value of their worth.
-Spreading the word. Yes, I'm talking about witnessing the miracle of Humf'slurch to the ignorant and backwards primates who are too innocent to know the truth. And while we're doing that, we'll be using them as cheap labor and janissary troops, while trading them cheap trinkets. And if they give us too much grief, slaughter the brave and loud, and make slaves of the rest. Or lunch. Or we'll have a one way sleeper ship that has two choice- take slaves or be slaves, and either way they'll try to beat us down. I'll add a fourth: -Curiosity
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#141934 - 07/28/08 11:02 PM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: ironraven]
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Addict
Registered: 07/18/07
Posts: 665
Loc: Northwest Florida
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From ghosts to aliens... not a bad bit of topic drift :P
There are really only three reasons to leave one's solar system: (snip)
BTW, Jeff, Nightmare Planet? You wouldn't have read Hogan's Giant's Trilogy by chance? I can think of several other reasons to leave one's solar system: Sport/competition/personal accomplishment and scientific or cultural curiousity leap to mind. I don't recall reading or even hearing of Hogan's Trilogy, but I'm sure I stole that phrase from somewhere, rather than thinking of it myself. Although I see carnovorism as offering certain evolutionary efficiencies in accreting sufficient high quality nutrition, I've also thought that predators and prey seem to expend an awful lot of energy running around chasing and evading that could otherwise be used for more productive pursuits, and wondered if perhaps nature could have found another way to create evolutionary pressure. Jeff
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#141955 - 07/29/08 12:07 AM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: Jeff_M]
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Veteran
Registered: 09/01/05
Posts: 1474
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Still, suppose a flying saucer descends on the White House Lawn. The President calls you for advice because of the noticable brilliance you've displayed in this forum. What do you tell him.
Jeff
I'd tell him not to [censored] off Gort.
Edited by LED (07/29/08 12:08 AM)
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#141957 - 07/29/08 12:13 AM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: CityBoyGoneCountry]
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Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
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I agree it is there, but I don't see it being a major driving force when stacked against economic ones.
_________________________
-IronRaven
When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.
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#141986 - 07/29/08 02:32 AM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: LED]
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INTERCEPTOR
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 07/15/02
Posts: 3760
Loc: TX
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I'd tell him not to [censored] off Gort.
LOL!!!! -Blast
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#142015 - 07/29/08 10:22 AM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: LED]
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Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
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I'd give that advice to any one.
_________________________
-IronRaven
When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.
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#142034 - 07/29/08 01:41 PM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: LED]
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Paranoid?
Veteran
Registered: 10/30/05
Posts: 1341
Loc: Virginia, US
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I'd tell him not to [censored] off Gort. HAHA! 
Edited by Nicodemus (07/29/08 01:41 PM)
_________________________
"Learn survival skills when your life doesn't depend on it."
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#142068 - 07/29/08 04:13 PM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: CityBoyGoneCountry]
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Geezer
Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
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"That's why we can never understand the mind of an alien unless we actually meet them."
That's no guarantee at all. Think 'job interview' or 'courtship'. Nice behavior up front, really lousy on a daily basis afterward. How would we know if they were lying or telling the truth?
We don't even know how cats think, and we've been around them for a few thousand years, at least.
I do remember a comment from many years ago, something about "we suspect that aliens are smarter than we are, but not as good-looking". In a country where the people are trained to evaluate other people based on their appearance, if the aliens are handsome or cute, we don't have a prayer.
Sue
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#142166 - 07/30/08 01:49 AM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: CityBoyGoneCountry]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 2432
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I'll add a fourth:
-Curiosity
I think that is the most powerful reason. Humans want to know. We want to know and not just know in the form of pictures and data streams. We want to know what it feels like to be there. We want to know the effect of unique locations, and the trip getting there, has on a person. This is a very deep desire. While we do go to expand territory, profit from natives and recruit new believers this is not true of many of the most difficult explorations and travels. The travels to the moon, Everest and both the north and south poles don't fit into the exploration for profit model. There were no natives to browbeat into compliance. No natives to trade with. No great wealth to plunder. No reasonable hopes of opening large territories to to provide living space for a crowded nation. The late George Carlin had a line about how people would buy just about anything: 'Nail two things together that haven't ever been nailed together before, and some schmuck will buy it from you'. Uniqueness has an intrinsic value in the human mind. Unique places are also assumed to have value. Not so much for collection or resale. But as an alchemical ingredient to effect the human mind.
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#142215 - 07/30/08 01:01 PM
Re: Do you believe?
[Re: Art_in_FL]
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Rapscallion
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 4020
Loc: Anchorage AK
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I am reminded of Q's admonition to Picard about the importance of exploration inward being of greater value than that of the cosmos. I would tend to concur, that self exploration and discovery are pre-eminant, and whatever interest we have in the great wide open should be pursued only to the extent that it will increase our understanding of ourselves more. Before we go shucking out big bucks to deploy yet another space program to the moon, maybe we should consider how that money can be better spent taking care of fundamental needs a little closer to home. In other words, if going to the moon will somehow help us find a cure for cancer that much quicker, then maybe the investment is worth it. Otherwise, for the budget needed to do that sort of thing, I would think the same amount of money applied to laboraty r&d here at home might go a helluva lot further.
_________________________
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
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