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The Universe Within 12.5 Light Years

(www.atlasoftheuniverse.com)
266 points algorithmista | 1 comments | 05 Sep 25 22:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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stephc_int13 ◴[06 Sep 25 01:21 UTC] No.45145686[source]▶
When the Fermi Paradox was first posited, scientists and engineers seemed to believe that interstellar travel was soon to be technologically achievable, a few decades, maybe centuries for the less optimistic. Progress around space propulsion has kind of stalled since then and we should maybe question the possibility of interstellar travel as this would give an easy but unpleasant answer to the famous paradox.
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shireboy ◴[06 Sep 25 01:36 UTC] No.45145776[source]▶
Right- “where are all the aliens?” is answered by either “they don’t exist” or “they do but physics of the universe prevent them from moving between solar systems.”
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VladVladikoff ◴[06 Sep 25 02:17 UTC] No.45146004[source]▶
This feels very defeatist to me. Technology continues to advance, exponentially. And there are hypothetical ultra fast space travel technologies that we haven’t yet been able to fabricate but could theoretically in the future. e.g. Alcubierre warp drive.
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losteric ◴[06 Sep 25 03:23 UTC] No.45146347[source]▶
> Technology continues to advance, exponentially

Why should we believe it will continue to advance exponentially? And even if it does, we many find none of the hypotheticals pans out - perhaps we advance exponentially and there is nothing feasible to reach even 0.01c

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1. notTooFarGone ◴[06 Sep 25 12:33 UTC] No.45148730[source]▶
Yeah it's always quite naïve to say technology will be always exponential. We only had like a few thousand years - if it's logarithmic we wouldn't know it for the next 10000 years.