The
part that gets me is Voyager 1, launched 35 years ago, is 17 light
hours away. Hours. That gives my little brain the slightest sense of how
vast the universe is. The fastest thing we’ve ever set loose would take
approximately 18,734 years to travel one light year. Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our own, is
4.367 light years away. Wow.
Makes me realize that any thoughts of finding another planet to inhabit when we destroy this one are just so much fanciful nonsense. Perhaps we should just go easy on this planet.
Makes me realize that any thoughts of finding another planet to inhabit when we destroy this one are just so much fanciful nonsense. Perhaps we should just go easy on this planet.
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Didn't Carl Sagan think that was a bad idea? Sending a menu into space telling folks where we lived, what we had to offer, etc.? I've read enough sci-fi to know what to expect when the aliens come to visit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm also not inclined to believe the more hippyish notion that the aliens want to come to Earth to be our friends and end war and hunger and cure disease. Hey maybe that will transpire, but I'll look to our own history and see how many instances have transpired of numerically and technologically (and immoral and/or ruthless) opponents marching or sailing in to wage war, displace, enslave, expropriate resources, etc., etc.
DeleteAnd any alien race/species will be technologically superior to us.
Although, I just watched District 9, and lo and behold, they came to us, but we mistreated them.