Sweet Willie Loc: Texas

There once was a lady named Wright,
who traveled much faster than light.
She left one day,
In a relative way,
And returned the previous night!
Sweet Willie

BW326 Loc: Boynton Beach, Florida

I totally agree. I have read recently that scientists now have the ability to send messages (at the speed of light) to orbiting space stations with "data" that will be translated by 3D printers to create "tools" necessary for maintenance. Who'd have thought ... sending tools at the speed of light by converting their structure to a mathematical pattern. Somewhat reminiscent of the "sci-fi" replicators in Star Trek.
Now, scientists are starting to learn more about phenomena like quantum entanglement, a process that does defy the speed of light limitation. It's demonstrated effects seem to happen instantaneously no matter how great the distance. Of course, this is all very new and we are only able to manipulate certain properties such as 'spin' but in another hundred years ... who knows.

Of course, in order to send a data pattern to a printer in space, or to manipulate "entangled particles" we still need to send the printer or the replicator there. The difference would be a 3D printer would still have to wait for a signal traveling at the speed of light but a quantum-entanglement replicator would receive the signal instantaneously.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

Often called the "comfort zone", that area where we are relative to our parent star, there certainly could be lots of other civilizations out there looking back at us.

But the question also becomes, if those stars are 3,000 light years from here, we're seeing planets that were in the position for the telescope to see them a thousand years before Christ.

So, one has to ask, what are they like now? Can any living being travel 3,000 light years in a short enough time to make it to our planet to be then seen as UFO's? difficult to say isn't it.

Nice and very interesting web page, thanks for posting.

raferrelljr Loc: CHARLOTTE, NC

It's all dimensional. If you are out of space/time then traveling dimensionally should be easy. I think that relativavistic physics thinks that there are as many as 13 dimensions.

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

We are stuck here (where we belong )for as long as we persist in using rocket type propulsion to get anywhere else.We have to stop using old fashioned engines and stop thinking that the speed of light is the fastest that things can move and then and only then will we get anywhere else that can support our life type. I firmly believe that we will never be allowed to go to any place else in the universe that has civilised beings as we are really not very nice !!! Of course I am a nice person but just dont annoy me too much.

James Shaw

Good one!!

James Shaw

James Shaw

Actually, I kind of like it right here.

We are civilized, you say? LOL

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

You like it (in Hiding)James?. I like it here too although my "Here" is a lot nicer than some folks "Here".
I didnt say that we were civilised.

James Shaw

Indeed, you did not say we were civilized.

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

I think that some of us think we are though James but it just takes a Rugby match to dispense with that idea, haha

tradergeorge Loc: Newport, Kentucky

Despite all the amazing technological advances we have made, we still have not figured out how to void those pesky Laws of Physics. Even if we progress and keep learning for thousands of years, we are still not likely to defeat them. So, it is NOT a matter of figuring out how to exceed light speed, or negate gravity, etc. These laws will remain the same until eternity. No amount of watching SCI-FI videos will change that...All the things that have been realized that were fantasy on shows such as Star Trek, etc, still did not require reversing any basic law of physics.

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

Well that's maybe the trouble and we have to stop being constrained by them there laws .

tradergeorge Loc: Newport, Kentucky

Yeah, well....therein lies the problem....Unlike human made laws, there are very strong consequences for trying to violate the laws of physics. The penalty is usually death and in all the times it has been tried, it has never been successful....Good luck with that!!!!

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

You are correct and you cant mess too much with thermodynamics I just believe that there must be another way without exploding stuff in confined places and our reliance upon the wheel and things that cycle. This is the way our brains work and we need to think differently if we want to explore outer space.Just mt two pennyworth.