The key to this argument is assumption. What exactly do we assume was, is, and will be true that will mean interstellar space travel was, is, and will be possible. Most of the arguments posted here focus on these assumptions insightfully, though some do not. My take is this:
Insterstellar travel is currently not a practicle capability of Humans with our current level of technology and understanding of physics. However, it would be logical to assume our capabilities will become greater with time based on the fact that our capabilities on many fronts have increased significantly over time so far. I think this is a reasonable assumption provided you accept the likelihood that we still have much to learn on the subject (but if you assume we've already learned most information that can be learned which would be relevent to the subject, then bless you child). I think it is unreasonable to apply our current understandings and expectations to exactly how and when anything will come to be such as when or even if we'll be able to travel beyond the Sol system. This is a particularly foolish belief since we can only make guesses on our future capabilities based on our limited present knowledge on the subject which undeniably still excludes the knowledge necessary to attain interstellar trekking capabilities worth writing home about. Think of it this way, we now know much about Earth (it's likely structure, composition, location, history, life forms, etc), but we are constantly learning new things about it and everything on or in it at a rate that suggests we've only scratched the surface (both literally and figuratively). The more we learn about it, the more we realize how much more there is to learn.
I think its extremely shortsighted to think we know even a significant portion of all knowledge that could be learned and utilized for enabling practicle transportation of humans to the stars (or anything else for that matter). To think that an infinite universe won't provide much more to learn than our tiny corner of it can teach us (a corner we've barely scratched the surface of too) is, frankly, foolish. Now, I could go on, but here's the gist: try not to deem something impossible that we really have no real way of accurately judging it to always be impossible based on what we think we will ever know about that something.
-David M.
Slashdot Mirror
The key to this argument is assumption. What exactly do we assume was, is, and will be true that will mean interstellar space travel was, is, and will be possible. Most of the arguments posted here focus on these assumptions insightfully, though some do not. My take is this: Insterstellar travel is currently not a practicle capability of Humans with our current level of technology and understanding of physics. However, it would be logical to assume our capabilities will become greater with time based on the fact that our capabilities on many fronts have increased significantly over time so far. I think this is a reasonable assumption provided you accept the likelihood that we still have much to learn on the subject (but if you assume we've already learned most information that can be learned which would be relevent to the subject, then bless you child). I think it is unreasonable to apply our current understandings and expectations to exactly how and when anything will come to be such as when or even if we'll be able to travel beyond the Sol system. This is a particularly foolish belief since we can only make guesses on our future capabilities based on our limited present knowledge on the subject which undeniably still excludes the knowledge necessary to attain interstellar trekking capabilities worth writing home about. Think of it this way, we now know much about Earth (it's likely structure, composition, location, history, life forms, etc), but we are constantly learning new things about it and everything on or in it at a rate that suggests we've only scratched the surface (both literally and figuratively). The more we learn about it, the more we realize how much more there is to learn. I think its extremely shortsighted to think we know even a significant portion of all knowledge that could be learned and utilized for enabling practicle transportation of humans to the stars (or anything else for that matter). To think that an infinite universe won't provide much more to learn than our tiny corner of it can teach us (a corner we've barely scratched the surface of too) is, frankly, foolish. Now, I could go on, but here's the gist: try not to deem something impossible that we really have no real way of accurately judging it to always be impossible based on what we think we will ever know about that something. -David M.