Colonizing Space

[NYOrdeal]

What are your opinions on the colonization of space?

If anyone is familiar with Michio Kaku, i personally feel that colonizing space would be a "Type II" civilization.

If you have not read about the different types of civilizations he refers to..then read the following:

Physics of Type I, II, and III Civilizations

1) The laws of thermodynamics. Even an advanced civilization is bound by the laws of thermodynamics, especially the Second Law, and can hence be ranked by the energy at their disposal.
2) The laws of stable matter. Baryonic matter (e.g. based on protons and neutrons) tends to clump into three large groupings: planets, stars and galaxies. (This is a well-defined by product of stellar and galactic evolution, thermonuclear fusion, etc.) Thus, their energy will also be based on three distinct types, and this places upper limits on their rate of energy consumption.
3) The laws of planetary evolution. Any advanced civilization must grow in energy consumption faster than the frequency of life-threatening catastrophes (e.g. meteor impacts, ice ages, supernovas, etc.). If they grow any slower, they are doomed to extinction. This places mathematical lower limits on the rate of growth of these civilizations.
In a seminal paper published in 1964 in the Journal of Soviet Astronomy, Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev theorized that advanced civilizations must therefore be grouped according to three types: Type I, II, and III, which have mastered planetary, stellar and galactic forms of energy, respectively. He calculated that the energy consumption of these three types of civilization would be separated by a factor of many billions. But how long will it take to reach Type II and III status?


==============

If you want the whole article..just in case your interested.
http://www.mkaku.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1

Anyways answer the main question.[/b]

 

[Blaze]

Talk about reviving an old thread.

I have to say Michio Kaku is my hero. The man is so amazingly intelligent and is doing a fantastic job at educating the masses.

Anyway, I am going to offer my low intel opinion regarding humanity colonizing the far beyond. I personally believe we have no business partaking in this endeavor when we cannot even live in equilibrium with our mother planet. Humanity is too much like a virus in our current form. We (the people in control) simply consume in gargantuan quantities without thinking, gee how can I replace that for future generations?

The common man who is kind hearted has no control over things like allocating funds towards progressive technologies, meanwhile crooked governments and corporations swindle the planet of all it has to offer. By the time we get people who actually CARE in charge of governmental administrations, we will have already passed the point of no return.

I don't believe we will ever get around to colonizing space. As much as I would love to spend my future summers at Gliese 581 or someplace similar, we won't make it. Unless we get some sort of intervention from an advanced alien species. I wish they would show up already and help us realize life is too precious to care only about profit margins and territorial expansion. We might be the only form of intelligent life for hundreds of light years and we are slowly documenting our own demise. What kind of species willingly pushes itself in the direction of self destruction? Almost makes me think we don't belong out THERE.

 

[CosmicNeurotica]

People are too preoccupied with what Blaze mentions. It's all politics BS. Even when we went to the moon, we didn't really care about space. We just wanted to be the first.
The people who actually care and WANT to colonize space are the ones who are helpless. And then we forget about it and become one with the pack again here on Earth.

It's going to take a non-partisan Einstein leader who can get the rest of the world on board with not believing in god to get us in space.
That ain't gonna happen.

 

[lunaticbinge]

Tool speaks the truth. People are concerned with the trivial crap the media and the government tells us is important. Not to mention the average persons general complacency towards the subject. Out of sight, out of mind. Have to say, even if the majority of the world's interests and funds were aimed at the stars, it would still take centuries, if not millennia to reach them, let alone live amongst them.

 

[hoddesdon]

The moon landing in 1969 was actually a hoax.

 

[Solitudes_Grace]

"It shouldn't be humans to Mars in 50 years. It should be humans to Mars in 10!" --Robert Zubrin

It probably won't happen, but can it happen? I think the answer is "Of course it can!" Human beings have proven they are pretty good at innovation and exploration, so I say, "To the stars with us!"

 

[Mr.Moon]

One of my biggest dreams is to see space and what else is out there with my own eyes.. Now of course I'm not smart enough to be an astronaut though. Just something along the lines of space exploration/travel/colonization or something.

It's such an amazing and beautiful thing out there beyond the sky. I'm a pretty big dreamer though.. I doubt I'll still be breathing when/if that comes around though.

Sometimes I feel like we concentrate more on Luxury rather than necessity and curiosity these days.

 

[talisman]

I'm sure within sometime in this millenium wewill begin colonising other planets in the solar system, probably starting with Mars and then moving to the moons of the planets further out. Most likley it will be commercially driven with a lot of private funding.

Colonising beyond our solar system would probably require a huge leap in technology and even then it may be a one way trip. I doubt there would be much commercial gain to that, so its likely the motivation for interstellar colonisation would be non-commercial...maybe religious or exploration based or possibly people simply wanting to build a new society upon some deeply held ideological principle.

If we have over-crowding problems down here on Earth we'll simply build artifical cities in space or on whatever big rock we can find. I doubt we'd travel far away in large numbers.

Of course I'd love to see Star Trek style exploration of the universe, but realisticlly it's probably very unlikely to happen anytime soon if at all.