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mr_mitm

Or warp drives are simply impossible or at least ultra unfeasible. Nothing unsettling about that thought.

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It is unsettling though. Because it places a limit on what has so far been essentially limitless success as a species.

Without travel beyond our solar system, we won't last forever.

And that's kind of sad for me.

We won't last forever anyway. Nothing does.

If I was a really advanced civilization and the universe was nearing its end, I'd embark on a project of unparalleled scale that might wind up resembling a big bang with a spark of panspermia-precursor seasoned in.

Goosebumps thinking of how many universes could have played out before this one. Or alongside it.

Goosebumps just with ours already: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA

May I... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

Indeed, we know so little about the nature of things that it's really a bit premature to hold our current understanding as the final word over what will happen.

For one thing, a large fraction of possibilities involves simulations. In a simulation with successful traits, some constants and elementary particles might turn out to have been misunderstood later on...

Doesn’t seem like a limit to me, other than a limit on speed (and of course there will be limits on speed).

We don't need a warp drive to get to the next star, it would just make it faster.

Exactly. If we set our minds to it and dedicated enough resources we could likely reach the next star within the century: 40 years travel time at 0.1c with something like nuclear pulse propulsion, and we could probably get the remaining technical challenges for achieving that out of the way in 30 years.

It’s sad to not last forever? That’s an interesting thought. I understand, don’t get me wrong, but it’s completely unnatural in so many ways.

In a physically constrained system all exponential growth becomes at best a sigmoid sooner or later... it's only sad if you let it make you feel this way.

We don't need FTL to colonize beyond the solar system, not at all.

Not unsettling, but a little bit melancholy.

Superluminal travel being infeasible probably limits our species to our own solar system.

You don't need anything near light speed for single human lifetimes to navigate beyond the solar system but it will be a one way trip mostly devoid of communication. We can seed the galaxy but can't watch it bloom.

> but it will be a one way trip mostly devoid of communication

Which describes our species' travels until only a few thousand years ago.

Absolutely. We want FTL in stories because it allows us to tell a sequential narrative across vast galactic distances. We want FTL in science and mathematics because humans as a species don't like hard limits to what is allowed. We want FTL in our life because few people are willing to cut all ties to their family, friends, and society to wander off into the void without hope of ever returning or being heard from again. But... some people are okay with that finality of their decision to push limits and that's how islands over the horizon get discovered and settled.

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