Interesting question--WOULD you explore space?

[yuiyoshida]

Last edited Wed Jan 31, 2018, 05:23 PM - Edit history (2)

If you had the chance to go on a huge space ship to explore the Universe and it meant never coming back to earth, would you go?

16 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Exploring space with other like minded people would be blast!,
	6 (38%)
	Uh no, I am too comfortable in my life on earth.
	0 (0%)
	I would have to seriously consider it
	3 (19%)
	I would leave it to the more educated to go, I wouldn't feel qualified
	0 (0%)
	I would really miss friends and family, I couldn't go, (assuming they wouldn't go with you.)
	0 (0%)
	The real chance to meet other beings in vast space, would be remote at best.
	0 (0%)
	other
	2 (13%)
	If my spouse or special mate went, I would have to go...
	4 (25%)
	If Neil deGrasse Tyson is going, count me in!
	1 (6%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[hlthe2b]

1. I don't think I could exist without my pups...

Last edited Wed Jan 31, 2018, 04:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Plus, I get migraines. But, I would be sorely tempted.

[yuiyoshida]

27. Lets assume you could take your pets

And the best medical facilities available in case of other planet contamination.

[hlthe2b]

30. I'm in!

[yuiyoshida]

31. take the helm Mister Hlthe2b...

[lagomorph777]

32. As long as I don't have to come back, hell yeah I'm in.

We can leave Trump back on Shithole Earth right? Or maybe drop him off on a moon of Saturn?

[yuiyoshida]

35. lol...

abandon Trump on the Space station, yes!

[FSogol]

2. Could I take Salma Hayek with me?

How much Guinness Stout could I take?

[yuiyoshida]

3. Assume they have a replicator that can

provide you any kind of food, made from matter... so anything is possible. But you can't create other human beings, unless there is a halo deck.

[FSogol]

4. I better stay on earth then, just in case. n/t

[yuiyoshida]

5. If your spouse or mate went ,would you feel obligated to go if invited?

[FSogol]

9. I like earth so much. It's where I keep all my stuff.

[Old Vet]

6. Intresting yuiyoshida, But life without my wife, weed, and my cats ............

I like the way you think though, replicator, now how cool would that be.

[yuiyoshida]

10. Assume you could take your wife , family and pets provided they weren't too large

Assume its like the ENTERPRISE- D

[Old Vet]

22. Well then I would say the same thing if someone said jim, Want to party on the yacht..FUCK YEAH

But do I get a replicator gun? Please

[yuiyoshida]

33. phasers and Phaser rifles are available..

[Kaleva]

7. I probably wouldn't live long enough to get past Pluto.

Traveling a million miles a day, it would take 9.5 years just to get to that former planet. It's about 25 trillion miles to Alpha Centauri. If my calculations are correct, it'd take 68,493 years to get there traveling at a million miles a day.

[yuiyoshida]

13. just for fun, assume the ship had warp drive

or some way of folding space, so you could travel incredible distances.

[Kaleva]

16. Okay. Just as long as I don't have to wear a red shirt.

[yuiyoshida]

20. Everyone would have the same uniform

but probably with some kind of way of separated the difference sciences

[pangaia]

76. Hell, yeah ! I'm in!!!

Especially if we get an Alderson Drive.

Yuiyoshida, YOUR BEST POST EVER !!

Are you going?

[yuiyoshida]

82. its too bad my last name isn't

Sulu. heh!

[pangaia]

83. LOLOL!!

Maybe it really is !

[John Fante]

8. If it was for a year or two, yeah definitely.

Forever? No chance. My lovebirds alone would keep me from going.

[yuiyoshida]

37. You can take your pets...

all pets except for large animals like horses and Cows..wouldn't be able to go. All food was provided by a replicator.

[Deb]

11. No, I love the wonder, mystery and beauty of the night sky

Being too close would spoil that.

[Kaleva]

21. It's 62 miles to space

But up in space, one can be millions or billions or trillions of miles from anything.

[Deb]

43. Close as in learning everything I can about it

Besides everyone will need a welcoming upon return.

[Blue_Tires]

12. It would depend on the specifics of the situation

but I'd give it serious thought.

[Thyla]

14. I would.

It would be cool to take the family, kind of like Lost in Space meets Red Dwarf. That said I couldn't knowingly drag the kids along until they are old enough to fully understand.

[yuiyoshida]

17. cool answer

and hey welcome to DU!! Yokoso! Irasshaimase! よこそ！ いっらっしゃいませ!!

[Thyla]

26. Thank you for the welcome :)

[yuiyoshida]

29. you are most welcome!

どう いたしまして~!

[Old Vet]

52. Yeah, Welcome Thyla to DU.............

[Thyla]

62. Thank you

[JuJuYoshida]

15. we could be the first couple to get high in space! lol

[yuiyoshida]

18. lol!

Yes, growing weed in the Bio Lab!!

[left-of-center2012]

19. If I had a supply of pork rinds

maybe

[yuiyoshida]

23. lots there...

There would be a replicator.

[Old Vet]

28. No Problem, yuiyoshidas got a replicator gun.

[yuiyoshida]

38. well something like it...

[Old Vet]

53. Just a thought, Can we still vote?

[yuiyoshida]

64. its a ship, so there is a captain

and the captain commands the ship. Voting will probably not be allowed.

[Old Crow]

24. Talk about a momentous decision! Put me down for "Seriously consider it."

A key question I'd want addressed before deciding: Will I be able to regularly communicate back to Earth about what we experience? If such communication wasn't possible, for whatever reason, I don't think I'd go because I wouldn't want to cut myself out of human history. If, on the other hand, I could send a journal or book back? I'd probably pack my duffel bag.

[yuiyoshida]

25. lets say you could communicate but it would take

a little time lag, so they might get the message within a month.

[Old Crow]

34. That would work. I'm leaning toward heading out on the ship.

I'm an inveterate journal writer. If my experiences and impressions could make it back into the current of human history, I'd feel I was making a valid contribution with my sacrifice. On the other hand, if I were to never be heard from again, it makes me think of a tree falling in a forest that's never heard by anyone. Whew. Weighty question.

[Hortensis]

36. Explore SPACE? Not other solar systems and planets? No.

Not even if we could bring all our loved ones. That thing's not near big enough to be my entire world.

And just think if there was a rebellion and the crew were killed and all the books burned, and a new religion arose in which there was no "outside"? Couldn't chance it.

[yuiyoshida]

42. interesting but if you had people who were all

into SCIENCE, like... this gentleman, would you go?

[Hortensis]

45. :) Not a Heinlein fan? I love your gentleman. He'd definitely

be a draw. I was totally charmed, and impressed, when he said he never goes outside without looking at the sky.

Space is almost all emptiness beyond imagining, though. I'd have to look forward to exploring destinations, not just spend the rest of my years cruising through emptiness, which is what that never returning sounds like. After all, if we could slip through tesseracts and get places in fairly short order, we could get home also.

These are ultra deep field galaxies found by focusing the Hubble telescope on a very small area of "empty" night sky. Tens of thousands of them out there in that little area alone, and their light started traveling toward us 400-800 million years ago! Definitely where no man has gone before. (So far as we KNOW...)



Wow!

Fun question, thanks.

[yuiyoshida]

46. The universe is a big place

in Science fiction the first Star Ship, Enterprise was on a five year mission before coming home. Like Navy ships, they always return to the original port. So lets assume that it might be possible to return...but the Captain chooses to spend his entire life exploring only a certain section of space and it will take a lifetime.. would you go?

[Hortensis]

48. Yes, I think...so.

Our kids are grown, the beloved grandchildren who used to run and throw themselves on us (still want to but far too big) are soon to enter a quarter century or so of preferring to just know their grandparents are there for them in the background. We mostly wouldn't be there for them, but we'd represent big lives and big choices. And we could send messages home.

Just think what we'd see and contribute to mankind's knowledge. Of course, we'd be among those who got to say "beam me down" and always survive the adventures ahead.

Did I say "think" so? Yes!

[Old Vet]

55. Could you even imagine smoking a joint with him followed by a critical thinking conversation......

[byronius]

39. HELL Yes.

Let's go.

[hunter]

40. No way in hell.

I'm one of those boring people who thinks the speed of light is absolute. I'd certainly be long dead before that huge spaceship reached anywhere interesting, nor would I ever be willing to selfishly commit my descendants to that sort of journey in some hollowed out asteroid, generation ship, or similar.

My grandfather was one of the many engineers who landed men on the moon. Bits of his metal are there and in the Smithsonian. I inherited a bit of metal that orbited the moon. As a very honorably discharged World War II Army Air officer I'm sure my grandfather would have enthusiastically made the trip to the moon himself, nevertheless I think outer space belongs to our intellectual offspring, engineered beings biological or mechanical or both, who have no trouble living there; the kind of folk who could run around naked on the surface of Mars day or night.

Human biology is just too damned specialized for life on earth, and deep space a very hostile environment for us. Artificially intelligent space explorers can inform us. If we are lucky they'll still like us when they surpass us in intelligence, maybe even take a few of us along as guests in their own explorations

The only reason the International Space Station works is that it orbits within the protection of earth's magnetic field. Beyond that, radiation exposure has significantly unpleasant impacts on human health.

So much as i enjoyed the book and movie The Martian, those sorts of stories only work if we ignore the actual health hazards of a deep space environment.

I have seen a way to make Mars and the Moon habitable for humans, but it involves superconducting unobtanium or a whole lot of nuclear powered heavy lifting.

[yuiyoshida]

44. Well if it had all the comforts of home, like the ENTERPRISE D, would you go?

[hunter]

49. My wife would be one of the higher ranking science or medical officers.

I'd be some boring tech, cursing legacy x86 code and other kruft.

Our kids would be friends with Commander Worf's kid, our youngest and Alexander Rozhenko best buddies in childish crimes and mayhem, landing us in mandatory weekly family counseling sessions with Deanna Troi.

Awkward.

My first T.V. crush was Lt. Nyota Uhura. I was a third grader obsessed with radio and I knew she'd understand. My wife was similarly a Vulcan student of Dr. Leonard McCoy. She had the uniform and the ears.

I was also witness to some of the earliest slash.

[Kaleva]

63. The Enterprise D had only one bathroom. I have 3 here in my home.

[yuiyoshida]

65. I am pretty sure the ship builders who built our

Virtual Ship with many places to use the facilities.

[zipplewrath]

47. You're a bit behind the times

"Faster than light" travel is known to be able to exist by a few different means (none of which we know how to do yet, and would require more energy than we currently generate on the whole planet).
Yes, the radiation problem has been known for some time. So have the solutions, which involve lots-o-rock from the moon, or caves on whatever planet one intends upon inhabiting. And again, there are concepts which involve "local" electromagnetic shielding requiring levels of power that would be difficult to generate by today's technology.

[hunter]

58. In my physics nothing goes faster than light, and nothing goes slower.

We are all interference patterns written upon the light.

Being creatures of pure energy isn't what we expected, it's not Star Trek or angels.

The flu virus and athlete's foot are also creatures of pure energy.

That nifty Einstein equation, Eee equals Em Cee squared, doesn't mean matter can be turned into energy, it means that matter IS energy.

We are all creatures of the light, whether or not we like it.

[zipplewrath]

81. There is more than "your" physics

You realize "your" physics is merely a moment in time, and it appears it is a moment in a time past.

[hunter]

85. Everybody has their own personal model of physics...

... some only loosely based upon observed reality.

Today's standard model of particle physics is astonishingly complex. There's plenty to explore there and to speculate upon as a physicist or science fiction author.

In my model there's no such thing as time, certainly not in the Cartesian sense of x,y,z, and t dimensions. Notions of time travel, warp speeds, and other science fiction devices often arise from this inadequate Cartesian model of the universe.

I'm wholly comfortable in a universe without faster than light drives and time travel. Just because those things don't exist doesn't mean things can't get really strange, or that humanity will run out of places to explore.

[procon]

41. To infinity and beyond! Yeah, wrong franchise, but I would go and never look back. nt

[Blaukraut]

50. In a heartbeat, if my hubby, kids, grandkids, cats, and dogs could go too n/t

[MrScorpio]

51. Do I get a warp drive starship, loaded to the gills?

Does it have holodecks?

Can I go to Risa?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

56. Does it have a replicator that can make Saurian Brandy? nt

[yuiyoshida]

66. Assuming this was REAL

but who knows maybe Holodecks will be invented. Not so yet. Nor Phasers and Photon torpedoes, but if the ship came to us, driven by friendly Aliens, and they wanted to take us
places, who knows what kind of advancements they might have...?

As for Risa, if there were such a place in our vast universe, who knows how it will be..but it could very well be like Risa, considering the odds. Odds also say it will probably be located clear across the other side of our galaxy.

[Jim Lane]

67. Are we SURE these are friendly aliens?

I don't want to end up as the one shouting "It's a trap!"

Perhaps, with so much Star Trek in this thread, I wouldn't have to worry about emulating a Star Wars meme. Or maybe the aliens just don't like hydrogen in their diet.

If it's not aliens, and just us, I'd have some hesitation about going. My guess is that, popular entertainment notwithstanding, a lot of the trip would be pretty dull.
* Week One. "This is the Captain speaking. We've entered another new star system. It has no planets. We're moving on."
* Week Two. ""This is the Captain speaking. We've entered another new star system. It has no habitable planets. We're moving on."
* Week Three. "This is the Captain speaking. We've entered another new star system. It has a planet that's mostly way too hot for us but there's a patch at each pole that's sort of like the Sahara. Anyone want shore leave before we move on?"

The really interesting stuff would be to encounter new life and new civilizations, and I suspect we'd find few or none of them. Goddam Fermi.

[yuiyoshida]

68. all of this is hypothetical

but lets just assume for once there are friendly aliens, maybe they needed our help, and once we did, they returned the favor of taking us out into deep space...we could go anywhere and just explore.

If we had the ability to fold space, than going some where would probably be exciting. In the meantime, (Like 2000 Space Odyssey), there are video games to free to play to take your time on, or perhaps if you were assigned to a section, they would have work for you to do to take up the time, until we get to the next destination.

[Jim Lane]

80. The video games don't tempt me. I've never been much into them.

Communicating with the friendly aliens is a bigger attraction. I'd be happy just to ride along in their ship in Earth orbit and learn about them. To me, that would be more interesting than a close-up view of Saturn's rings or of whatever similar phenomena might be in other star systems.

[Rollo]

54. I'd do it if I were in my 20's again, fresh out of college with a science degree...

... and relatively unattached ...

Even so, the chances of such an opportunity happening in the next 200 years seem rather slim to me.

[The River]

57. Inner Space is More Interesting

and much closer to home.
There are about 100 billion neurons in the brain.
Way more than stars in our galaxy.
Besides, at my age I wouldn't survive the blast off.

[Codeine]

59. If they want my bald, scrawny,

near-sighted ass I’m ready and willing!

[longship]

60. No transporters, please.

There's the continuity problem. You stand on the transporter pad. Your body is analyzed, dissolved, and all its quantum data is transmitted to the destination where a duplicate of you is reconstructed.

You are dead, but a doppelgänger materializes at the destination. Nobody knows the difference, but like everybody else who transports, their original persons are all dead, too. They are all doppelgängers.

There is no continuity. Bones McCoy was correct. His various instances died every time he stepped into a transporter beam.

[longship]

61. Also, there's no such thing as warp drive.

That means one of two scenarios:

1. The colony star ship ends up in a cannibalistic end, or everybody suffocating. Or both.

2. The Earth would be rid of its most useless, redundant people. You know where this is going. The telephone sanitisers, account executives, hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives and management consultants. Thank you Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet B.

[denbot]

69. Even if there was there was only a 1% chance of survival

Sign me up!

[jmowreader]

70. No Republicans, right?

[yuiyoshida]

73. None what so ever...

This is our ship, let them build their own ships.

[ProudLib72]

71. YES YES YES YES!!!!! PLEASE!!! NOW!!!!

I don't care if I have to go alone. I don't care if I can never return. NOW NOW NOW!!!

[yuiyoshida]

74. Absolutely!!

[Solly Mack]

72. Yes, please.

[yuiyoshida]

75. looks like you are on the first shuttle...

[Skittles]

77. in a heartbeat

[yuiyoshida]

78. Your uniforms are ready....

[Skittles]

79. HAR

when I was 18 in the military, the skirts were mid-knee - I had a tailor put 'em a couple of inches above

[LanternWaste]

84. As recently as 15 years ago I would have jumped at the chance.

As recently as 15 years ago I would have jumped at the chance.

These days though, the most excitement I want is the morning surprise of whether the coffee creamer in the office is really half-and-half, or one of those weird, flavors that tastes like bubblegum lip gloss (it was half-and-half today, so woohoo!).