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"The universe..." -xkcd (xpost) (imgur.com)

submitted ago by Entrarchy

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[–]ablos 9 points10 points ago

Let's go to space, AND PLUNDER THOSE PLANETS.

[–]intravenus_de_milo 2 points3 points ago

I think they've just retreated to inner space, universes of their own creation. How close are we to exploring the universe with our mind?

It's said a quantum computer of sufficient size could run "more calculations in an instant than there are atoms in the universe."

For a species as young as ours, the jump from hunter gather to quantum computing is kinda stupefying when you think about it. Huge unimaginable stretches of time can pass with nothing happening at all, and here we come along and start entangling the fabric of reality to do arithmetic.

In my mind that's somewhat more ambitious than the mere act of figuring out how to traverse from point A to point B in physical space.

[–]kraetos 0 points1 point ago

Point A to point B isn't the hard part. Point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time, that's the hard part, and it's nothing to scoff at.

That said, singularity is approaching, and when it hits, maybe time won't matter anymore.

[–]intravenus_de_milo 2 points3 points ago

I just learned about quantum cameras the other day even tho the article is kinda old.

Imagine a device much more sophisticated than this one that could image distant planets like this guy claims

You feed all this data into the biggest baddest quantum computer you can imagine and it generates a simulation of the alien world that's accurate down to the quantum level.

You don't have go anywhere, you put on your VR goggles, or plug in your brain stem, or whatever, and just go visit. For all we know earth is the most popular intergalactic tourist destination and our virtual selves interact with aliens on a daily basis.

[–]treelovinhippie 1 point2 points ago

Ahh ok, at first I thought you were talking about some kind of quantum entanglement. I've heard that no information is transmitted in that scenario.

But if you're simulating alien worlds, I guess that would be possible. An incredible amount of energy would be required to first capture the alien world's information. Then there would be a huge delay in transmitting that information from there to here (with light being the absolute limit). So by the time you received the alien world simulation and plugged in, the alien world will have changed dramatically.

In any case, it would be far more energy efficient simply to imagine (or compute) and simulate an alien world while still on Earth.

[–]intravenus_de_milo 0 points1 point ago

I don't know how much energy it would take, but it does kinda make me wonder how much longer these giant mirror telescopes are going to be the way to look into space.

[–]florinandrei 1 point2 points ago

And then Nature shoots a kilometer-size flying mountain of rock from outer space into your quantum computer.

[–]intravenus_de_milo -1 points0 points ago

So? I'm always curious about these kinds of appeal to emotion. You do realize the entire universe will expand until all matter itself breaks down into a quantum fluctuation right? There's no where to run, asteroid or not. In all absolute honestly what difference does it make if humanity goes extinct tomorrow or 10 billion years from now?

[–]muffley 0 points1 point ago

Slightly under 10 billion years.

[–]florinandrei 0 points1 point ago

The logical conclusion to that is to lay down now and stop breathing.

[–]intravenus_de_milo 0 points1 point ago

No it's not. It just means that some grand plan to save our species for posterity is specious, as there ultimately is no posterity.

[–]florinandrei -1 points0 points ago

That's what they said about space travel in 1899.

You seem to believe what we possess now is the ultimate knowledge.

[–]sightcast 3 points4 points ago

Why not link to the original comic on the xkcd site?

[–]Entrarchy[S] 0 points1 point ago

65 years

[–]arahman81 0 points1 point ago

Should state that the quote in question is the alt-text (or title-text, hover-text, whatever).

[–]Entrarchy[S] 0 points1 point ago

Thanks for adding that!

[–]iamadogforreal -4 points-3 points ago

More than likely its littered with nuclear war aftermaths and survivors busy trying to gain the minimum calories needed to live.

A human migration project on a planet with thousands of nukes ready to blow over the smallest international slight is probably a waste of time. Its a prereq to get rid of nuclear weapons. The space migration crowd needs to merge with the anti-nuke crowd because the Drake equation looms large.

edit: nice, downvotes.

[–]MrJMaxted0291 0 points1 point ago

Nuclear power is likely our best means of preserving colonies on other celestial bodies. Solar power is useless for the earth month it takes for the moon to go through a night cycle, wind power is impossible because there is no wind on the moon, similar problems plague all other forms of currently realised renewable energy.

Thorium powered nuclear plants show plenty of promise for communities living in these hostile, far flung worlds.}

It's also worth noting that there's no way we could drive ourselves to extinction with nukes either. We don't even have enough nukes to wipe out every heavily populated cityscape in the world, let alone every single human being.

[–]deakterinbuuuuu3rg 0 points1 point ago

I upvote you. Sometimes these space-believers are worse than god-believers! "Yeah, let's populate the galaxies, just push the warp-speed button".

There must be a reason we don't here from any other "civilization". It could be like we are categorized to a low-level self-nuking type. And in the hitchhikers 6789.0 it says "EARTH:DO NOT COMMUNICATE, DO NOT FEED, RATHER GO TO NEPTUNE: MARVELOUS ICE SCATING"

[–]thebrownser 0 points1 point ago

Yea in our less than 100 years of listening in a 15 billion year old universe we havent found anything so might as well give up.

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