General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: UFOs exist and everyone needs to adjust to that fact [View all]PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,862 posts)is doing exoplanet research. It looks like almost every single star has planets. To what extent any of them have the right kind of conditions to result in life as we know it is at this point the big unknown.
He's actually working on one method of finding exoplanets, called radial velocity. He attended on conference on that very topic in Grindelwald, Switzerland in March.
Astrophysicists are pretty certain dark matter and dark energy are real. Whether or not either of those is a way to circumvent the speed of light, well who knows? But any astronomers I've ever talked to are unanimous in their agreement that the speed of light is the absolute limiting factor on how fast we can possibly travel.
Here's another thing. No species is immortal. On this planet a tiny handful have hung around for several hundred million years, not only are they rare exceptions, but more to the point none of them show any potential for evolving meaningful intelligence. We homo sapiens are about 200,000 years, but only in the past five thousand or so have we developed technology. How long we will last is the question. Will we destroy ourselves by war? By making the planet uninhabitable? Will we be wiped out by some future asteroid impact? Will it really be possible to establish self-sufficient colonies on the Moon or Mars? As for that last, I don't think anyone has ever looked at what the much lower gravity will do to the human body, especially gestation and physical development after birth.
Also, My Son the Astronomer has told me that one line of thought in his field is that the Universe is actually so young that we may be the first technologically advanced species so far, at least in our galaxy. Other galaxies are so far away that travel between them will probably never happen, despite your optimism on the topic.