Maybe, neanderthals were really just big friendly lugs, the peaceful branch of the human family. And we hypersapiens outcompeted them for food, territory, women and booze.
S
Look at the Bonobo, the Peaceful Bonobo
by Satanus 41 Replies latest jw friends
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Mad Sweeney
As to c, well, I bow to the thoughts of a scientist who is much, much more intelligent than you or me:
Call me idealistic but I bow to the thoughts of a poet:
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.~Alfred, Lord Tennyson
If we want to achieve travel to other places in our galaxy that is effectively faster than light (if not literally), we will achieve it.
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Nickolas
Stephen Hawking IS brilliant indeed, but his musings on the subject are not the be-all\end-all of physics research either...
I am unaware of any serious physics researcher who is even remotely close to busting open special relativity theory. After more than a century of brilliant minds trying, there is no experiment that has contradicted special relativity. None. The fastest experimental acceleraton achieved of subatomic particles has been .99 of c, at which point the mass of the particles became so large there wasn't enough energy available to move them faster, which is precisely what Einstein calculated. Hawking is just agreeing with Einstein and, for the time being at least, special relativity is the be-all/end-all of physics.
If we want to achieve travel to other places in our galaxy that is effectively faster than light (if not literally), we will achieve it.
That sounds a great deal like faith, MS. Einstein's calculation that objects gain mass as they accelerate has been confirmed time and time again. As an object, regardless of initial mass, approaches the speed of light, its mass begins to approach infinity as does the amount of energy required to further increase its speed. To go beyond infinity is impossible, and that is why nothing can travel faster than light speed. Sorry guys, that's just the way it is.
Anybody wanna snuggle? Eat a few head lice?
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VampireDCLXV
Good grief! I wasn't talking about busting open special relativity... I'm merely thinking there might be a workable loophole somewhere. Just because a loophole exists doesn't mean that the whole law comes crashing down...
V665
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Broken Promises
As an object, regardless of initial mass, approaches the speed of light, its mass begins to approach infinity as does the amount of energy required to further increase its speed. To go beyond infinity is impossible, and that is why nothing can travel faster than light speed.
So you're saying the speed of light is infinity? The speed of light might be incredibly fast, but surely there could be something that is faster.
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VampireDCLXV
So you're saying the speed of light is infinity?
No BP. The speed of light (C) = 299,792,458 m/s and, in theory, nothing is faster than that.
What he's saying is that the amount of energy required to propel even a sub-atomic particle to the speed of light (C) would approach infinity and THAT is impossible... by known conventional means. I'm saying that there might be a loophole discovered in the future somewhere that doesn't require "conventional" means.
Nick... oh ye of little faith.
V665
P.S. Man... what a twisted place. How did we get from talking about monkeys to interstellar travel and the speed of light?
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Broken Promises
What he's saying is that the amount of energy required to propel even a sub-atomic particle to the speed of light (C) would approach infinity and THAT is impossible... by known conventional means. I'm saying that there might be a loophole discovered in the future somewhere that doesn't require "conventional" means.
Theoretically, you can never approach infinity. Infinity is what it is.... infinity.
I agree with the loophole theory.
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sabastious
A friend of mine used to say he'd rather be raped by a Bonobo then mauled by a Chimp.
-Sab
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Nickolas
I agree with the loophole theory.
The loophole theory is just plain loopy. How and where do we look for this loophole, or do we create it somehow? Do we need some kind of machine to exploit it? What does it even look like? Where's the physics??
Remember, we're talking about extraterrestrial space travel.
Even with a rudimentary understanding of special relativity, we know that propelling matter at speeds above c isn't going to happen. Period. So the loophole would have to be some sort of shortcut through the spacetime continuum whereby point A is somehow closer to point B through some kind of existing tunnel in which the laws of physics no longer apply - a so called wormhole. If such a thing exists (and there is absolutely zero evidence that one does) that would facilitate alien space travel to the Earth, it would coincidentally need to have one opening near Earth and the other near the alien planet. The exceedingly long probabilities, of the goldilocks requirements of the two planets, abiogenesis happening on each planet, and now coincidental wormhole exits, begin to collide and pile onto one another and, much like particles approaching infinite mass as they get closer to c, the probability of extraterrestrial space travel being possible approaches zero. (Unless, of course, you inject some sort of suspended animation scenario into the equation, which has its own set of problems to deal with).
This, I'm afraid, is one more human foible, just like belief in invisible gods and other beings. This one's more modern, but it's still irrational belief without a shred of evidence or even clear logic or theory to support it.
Nick... oh ye of little faith.
Guilty as charged.
How did we get from talking about monkeys to interstellar travel and the speed of light?
Bonobos are apes, not monkeys. Just want to clear that up. Besides, isn't interstellar travel a more interesting topic than orgiastic primates?
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Mad Sweeney
- What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- - The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)
- Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.
- - Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859), Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College, London.
- That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.
- - Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909.
- There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- - Albert Einstein, 1932.
- I also lay aside all ideas of any new works or engines of ware, the invention of which long-ago reached its limit, and in which I see no hope for further improvement...
- - Sextus Julius Frontinus, governor of Britania, 84 C.E.
From these and many other similar phenomena of nature such as the seven metals, etc., which it were tedious to enumerate, we gather that the number of planets is necessarily seven... Besides, the Jews and other ancient nations as well as modern Europeans, have adopted the division of the week into seven days, and have named them from the seven planets; now if we increase the number of planets, this whole system falls to the ground... Moreover, the satellites are invisible to the naked eye and therefore can have no influence on the earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist. - Francesco Sizzi, astronomer at Florence. [Arguing against Galileo's 1610 announcement of his discovery of four moons of Jupiter.]
- The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it... Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- - Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839), French surgeon
- Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- - Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859), Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College, London.
- Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- - Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)
