I love when people bring up the “speed of light.”
We’ve been going to space for about 50 years now. There’s alien races that probably have been going to space for as long as we’ve been around as a species. Who knows what kind of propulsion systems they have? It has to be much better than using chemical rockets to break free of atmosphere.
I’d guess aliens don’t consider us worth the effort to contact because we’re so primitive.
What evidence do you have that we aren't the most advanced intelligent species in this galaxy?
The scary part is that we could be the most advanced.
/johnny
I’d guess aliens don’t consider us worth the effort to contact because we’re so primitive.....
Primitive but tasty.
It’s not the technology or propulsion systems, it is the absolute limit of the speed of light. There is no getting around it.
The closer you accelerate towards light speed, the more energy it takes to accelerate. It would take infinite energy to actually reach the speed of light, making it impossible to ever reach or exceed that speed.
Then there is the issue with time. Let’s say we managed to achieve 50% of light speed. Then it would take 8 years to reach the nearest star, and another 8 to return. The traveler would not experience 16 years in the spaceship, the time would be less (by how much, I don’t know, since I don’t know that calculation off the top of my head). However much the passage of time would be affected by traveling at half light speed, it would probably still be enough time cooped up in a tiny space to drive one mad. Plus, by the time the round trip is complete, 16 years would have passed on earth. That is just the closest star... other stars are much further away. Who would want to go exploring and come back to find 20, 50, 1000 years have passed?