A Mathamatical Nightmare-Odds must be astronomical.

[C-speed]

Also, I'd like to add that although NSXGMS is correct that it is highly unlikely that any intelligent life will come in contact with another set of intelligent life due to the shear size of the universe, this only holds true if you're solely speaking of traveling the vastness of space using conventional means.

By conventional means, one would have to travel at the speed of light (and even then it would be too slow to be optimal), however as Einstein already proved, anything with a mass cannot travel that fast - period, even if you have infinite energy to propel the 'ship'.

(traveling near or at the speed of light or beyond the speed of light is beyond the scope of this threads' topic, but I'd love to talk about it if anyone is curious )

It has also been shown that unconventional means of space travel is very possible - such as through the use of worm holes or the bending of space time. Although, we as humans currently do not have the ability/technology to accomplish this type of travel, it doesn't mean that another far more advanced species hasn't already developed this type of space travel.

Although I don't watch Star Trek, I believe this is how they are able to travel the vastness of space in a timely manner.

 

[NSXGMS]

Also, I'd like to add that although NSXGMS is correct that it is highly unlikely that any intelligent life will come in contact with another set of intelligent life due to the shear size of the universe, this only holds true if you're solely speaking of traveling the vastness of space using conventional means.

By conventional means, one would have to travel at the speed of light (and even then it would be too slow to be optimal), however as Einstein already proved, anything with a mass cannot travel that fast - period, even if you have infinite energy to propel the 'ship'.

(traveling near or at the speed of light or beyond the speed of light is beyond the scope of this threads' topic, but I'd love to talk about it if anyone is curious )

It has also been shown that unconventional means of space travel is very possible - such as through the use of worm holes or the bending of space time. Although, we as humans currently do not have the ability/technology to accomplish this type of travel, it doesn't mean that another far more advanced species hasn't already developed this type of space travel.

Although I don't watch Star Trek, I believe this is how they are able to travel the vastness of space in a timely manner.

Nice take, although I should have qualified my statement to mean any method of traveling faster-than-light (FTL) indeed constitutes FTL. IOW subspace manipulation and wormholes (both featured in Star Trek) would be acceptable, but these methods also may not be physically possible with any technology--even the most advanced technology created by the most supreme intelligence, either artificial or natural. I do tend to agree that actual FTL travel is probably physically impossible under normal circumstances where traditional physics applies.

Again, Star Trek serves as a good reference in that even with those "alternative" means of FTL travel--thousands of times faster, in fact--possible the entire series never ventures past the Milky Way at any time. The existence of technology to travel thousands of times FTL might still be very unlikely to bring us in contact with any other intelligent life, even travelling hundreds of thousands of times FTL, particularly if the life is more than a couple of galaxies away (out of over 100 billion galaxies). Again, we are reminded how inconceivably large the universe is.

 

[myguitar]

It's not technically infinite (you can calculate/measure it), but it is constantly expanding forever. Still pretty nuts.

The reason universe is always expanding is that all of it is trying to get away from Chuck Norris. :tongue:

 

[adrenaline_nsx]

astronomy is beautiful, never ending. Our sun would be seen as a tiny star to anyone on another planet out of our solar system. Before I go, I wish we make some kind of contact with some other life form. We are not alone, universe is never ending.

 

[yojack1]

Also, I'd like to add that although NSXGMS is correct that it is highly unlikely that any intelligent life will come in contact with another set of intelligent life due to the shear size of the universe, this only holds true if you're solely speaking of traveling the vastness of space using conventional means.

By conventional means, one would have to travel at the speed of light (and even then it would be too slow to be optimal), however as Einstein already proved, anything with a mass cannot travel that fast - period, even if you have infinite energy to propel the 'ship'.

(traveling near or at the speed of light or beyond the speed of light is beyond the scope of this threads' topic, but I'd love to talk about it if anyone is curious )

It has also been shown that unconventional means of space travel is very possible - such as through the use of worm holes or the bending of space time. Although, we as humans currently do not have the ability/technology to accomplish this type of travel, it doesn't mean that another far more advanced species hasn't already developed this type of space travel.

Although I don't watch Star Trek, I believe this is how they are able to travel the vastness of space in a timely manner.

Also unfortunately, even if a machine could be built for incredible speeds, those inside still would have to cope with the G forces not only on acceleration but deceleration. To make that survivable it would take ages just to get up to speed so there is probably a cap to top speed even with limitless power.

Zero to approaching the speed of light in an instant like on Star Trek could never be.

 

[White92]

Zero to approaching the speed of light in an instant like on Star Trek could never be.

It could happen with VTEC.

 

[sahtt]

Very interesting and fun topic. I've been reading/studying this stuff my whole life.

I would just like to add contrary to what Sahtt stated (i'm sure he just mis-typed), the universe is NOT infinately expanding. The universe is indeed expanding, but at a decreasing rate. Thus, at one point in the distant future, the universe will stop expanding, and begin to contract.

Once it contracts back to a single point of mass, a new big bang will occur.

Again, this shows that our universe began with a big bang, will eventually end, and a new universe will be created, cyclically - over and over again. However, this in no way (scientifically) shows how or where all the mass/elements/energy originally came from. That's where religion comes into play.

I'm not an expert or PhD by any means, but check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe and as far as I know the universe is indeed expanding at an accelerating rate.

"Recent observations have shown that, from 7.5 billion years after the Big Bang onwards, the expansion rate of the universe has actually been increasing, concurrent with the Open Universe theory, and marked 'Accelerating' on the graph."

Whether it will do so infinitely is controversial and unknown to me though. I haven't kept up with my studies in the past few years so it's very likely new findings will differ from my knowledge.

 

[sahtt]

I'm very impressed with Sahtt [first name would be nice] on this subject and in particular, his style and delivery. It's complex and difficult to comprehend but thats what makes it so fascinating.
So now that we have an idea how far stars are, has anybody calculated a percentage of stars not only with planets with possible life, but ones that could incubate intelligence.
With that, whether it's 1 out of 100, 1 out of 100,000, or 1 out of 1,000,000 we could estimate how far [in light years] away the closest Martian might be.
As you can tell, I'm leading up to another unidentified flying question.
Can't wait [HINT] .

You can always check the profile

 

[NSXrunner]

Just a small monkey wrench to add to this topic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So what we might find as beautiful, might be nasty to Commander Blurg from planet Nebulon. That same drive or blade of grass might cause his skin to peel off. The odds become even more astronomical to think of another race of beings that would like the same things we do. Just a thought....:redface::smile:

 

[White92]

Just a small monkey wrench to add to this topic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So what we might find as beautiful, might be nasty to Commander Blurg from planet Nebulon. That same drive or blade of grass might cause his skin to peel off. The odds become even more astronomical to think of another race of beings that would like the same things we do. Just a thought....:redface::smile:

So true. We could take a plant as a gift and sign of peace, but that same plant could also wipe out that entire race or species or whatever the newfound life would be called.

 

[steveny]

Just a small monkey wrench to add to this topic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So what we might find as beautiful, might be nasty to Commander Blurg from planet Nebulon. That same drive or blade of grass might cause his skin to peel off. The odds become even more astronomical to think of another race of beings that would like the same things we do. Just a thought....:redface::smile:

You mean he picks up the dog crap out of the grass then picks a few pieces of rouge grass blades from the pile of dog crap throws them on the ground then puts the dog crap in his mouth and squishes it around and through his teeth like a 4 year old does with mash potato's? Definatly an alien!:biggrin:

 

[yojack1]

Just a small monkey wrench to add to this topic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So what we might find as beautiful, might be nasty to Commander Blurg from planet Nebulon. That same drive or blade of grass might cause his skin to peel off. The odds become even more astronomical to think of another race of beings that would like the same things we do. Just a thought....:redface::smile:

Remember the episode on the original Twilight Zone series titled "THE COOK BOOK"? I knew there was another good reason to be thin.

 

[NSXGMS]

Just a small monkey wrench to add to this topic. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So what we might find as beautiful, might be nasty to Commander Blurg from planet Nebulon. That same drive or blade of grass might cause his skin to peel off. The odds become even more astronomical to think of another race of beings that would like the same things we do. Just a thought....:redface::smile:

Very true. Just consider how many things affect humans differently on this planet. How many diseases have wiped out people after the introduction of explorers/imported goods? And how many plants/animals some humans are allergic to and some not. And we're the same species from the same planet!

 

[NSXGMS]

Remember the episode on the original Twilight Zone series titled "THE COOK BOOK"? I knew there was another good reason to be thin.

To Serve Man...:wink:

 

[yojack1]

To Serve Man...:wink:

Correct. See what happens when posting while hungry. The title and content got reversed. Back to the fridge!:wink:

 

[yojack1]

To Serve Man...:wink:

Bye the way, I like your car! Good choice.:wink:

 

[bambbrose]

Also, I'd like to add that although NSXGMS is correct that it is highly unlikely that any intelligent life will come in contact with another set of intelligent life due to the shear size of the universe, this only holds true if you're solely speaking of traveling the vastness of space using conventional means.

By conventional means, one would have to travel at the speed of light (and even then it would be too slow to be optimal), however as Einstein already proved, anything with a mass cannot travel that fast - period, even if you have infinite energy to propel the 'ship'.

(traveling near or at the speed of light or beyond the speed of light is beyond the scope of this threads' topic, but I'd love to talk about it if anyone is curious )

It has also been shown that unconventional means of space travel is very possible - such as through the use of worm holes or the bending of space time. Although, we as humans currently do not have the ability/technology to accomplish this type of travel, it doesn't mean that another far more advanced species hasn't already developed this type of space travel.

Although I don't watch Star Trek, I believe this is how they are able to travel the vastness of space in a timely manner.

True that anything with mass can not travel at the speed of light, but also remember that anything of mass can be converted to energy in the form of photons (light).

I like to think of a bundle of sunlight as nothing more than an arrangement of energy.

I also like to think of humans as nothing but an arrangement of mass and energy.

Now, think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory here. If humans were ever able to figure out how to convert mass to energy in a controlled manner, as well as energy back to mass in a controlled manner, what is preventing humans from being converted to light energy, blasted across the universe, and reconverted back to humans? The theory should hold, but the technology required would be insane.

Also, remember that due to time dilation, once we were converted to the light energy and sent off in the correct direction, time would not be passing for us. So we would end up at the collector end of the system instantaneously (although if we were to turn around and travel back, earth would probably no longer exist when we arrived depending on how far we travelled).

Just something else to think about. To say that mass can't travel at the speed of light is true, but what is the difference between mass and a photon? To me it is just the difference of arrangement or information.

I do not think that a photon is the most fundamental unit in the universe. I think information is the most fundamental unit. A photon doesn't exist without the information explaining its location, time, and energy level (or does it?)

 

[nsx2tall]

Isn't anyone following this thread just a little bit pissed that they don't teach particle physics, cosmology or relativity in school? I've been a student of these things for a couple of years now and what I've discovered is truly shocking. Many of the discoveries in these disciplines were made before I was born.

Now why was I learning models of the physical universe circa 1898 throughout high school?

 

[NSXGMS]

Isn't anyone following this thread just a little bit pissed that they don't teach particle physics, cosmology or relativity in school? I've been a student of these things for a couple of years now and what I've discovered is truly shocking. Many of the discoveries in these disciplines were made before I was born.

Now why was I learning models of the physical universe circa 1898 throughout high school?

Well, as I get older I appreciate these areas a little more and I'm not sure I'd have had the discipline or motivation to sit through this stuff in high school.

I just hope schools get better at teaching basic math, English and history...I have low expectations.