Poll: Time Travel or FTL Travel?
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Yeah, the problem is getting to the nearest star would still take 14 years or so at that speed, whilst with FTL it could take minutes, or seconds.Aabglov said:
Personally I'd go with FTL. Time travel is... Iffy. Sure, it'd be cool to go back in time and see the dinosaurs or something, but even by being there you will have changed the past. Hopefully not enough to change anything, but potentially even if nobody saw you your machine could have landed and blown a stick away that someone had fallen over the next day previously, hit their head badly and been rushed to hospital and met the love of their life, whilst now they just go on their merry way. Sure, nothing major has changed - dependent on how far back you went; go back to stone age times and change one person's life and you'll change the lives of millions - and said scenario is a bit far fetched, but it is an example of how the slightest change can change people's lives. The possible outcomes of your actions are unknowable.
With FTL you provide a relatively safe boon for all of mankind, and, provided we survive that long, allow us to travel to stars and galaxies in a million years time that are moving away from us at faster than the speed of light that we'd never be able to reach conventionally.
I'd take time trave. All the most famous assassinations in history could have been me! Not to mention becoming a Warlord of a bronze age tribe that eventually comes to worship me as Zeus. So many possibilities.
FTL is pretty meh. There's nothing it can accomplish that can't simply be done by replacing our soft bits with tech and simply hibernating through hundred to thousand year long journeys through space.
FTL is pretty meh. There's nothing it can accomplish that can't simply be done by replacing our soft bits with tech and simply hibernating through hundred to thousand year long journeys through space.
FTL seems like a better bet. As much as I want to use time travel to undo my personal noodle incident [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoodleIncident], FTL seems like it would be so much more beneficial for humanity in the long run. I'm assuming when we say FTL that we've gotten around the whole time-dialation thing, right?
Time travel.
Go into the future and obtain immortality through genetics or cybernetics. Become Hivemind if genetics or Skynet if Cybernetic.
Then I will become a galactic super power and create an alliance with a race of furries or something. Maybe fight some 40k Orcs.
Go into the future and obtain immortality through genetics or cybernetics. Become Hivemind if genetics or Skynet if Cybernetic.
Then I will become a galactic super power and create an alliance with a race of furries or something. Maybe fight some 40k Orcs.
ftl, a lot more use if we can go to/mine/colonise other planets, this one will run out of room and resources eventually.
FTL easily. We have to get it eventually and has way less potential to fuck everything up then Time Travel.
FTL. I would then instantly give the ship to NASA to reverse-engineer. We can't stay on this rock forever.
A time travel device would be cool - it would be nice to sort out historical controversies, but as others have said, it would be too damn dangerous. A device which would allow us to VIEW (but not interact with) the past would be awesome, and I would honestly prefer that over a time-travel machine.
But at the end of the day, our species needs FTL. We need to get off this rock. We need to spread amongst the stars.
A time travel device would be cool - it would be nice to sort out historical controversies, but as others have said, it would be too damn dangerous. A device which would allow us to VIEW (but not interact with) the past would be awesome, and I would honestly prefer that over a time-travel machine.
But at the end of the day, our species needs FTL. We need to get off this rock. We need to spread amongst the stars.
I chose Time Machine for one reason, THERE ARE NO ALIENS IN THE PAST!!! Also how awesome would it be to high five Lincoln?!?!?!?
In my mind the way that this would work would be that the machine would be hand held of wrist mounted, be able to move through time in both directions, pause time for me, pause time for others, create spaces in time where time continued while the rest of the world is paused and generally turn me into the god of time.
In my mind the way that this would work would be that the machine would be hand held of wrist mounted, be able to move through time in both directions, pause time for me, pause time for others, create spaces in time where time continued while the rest of the world is paused and generally turn me into the god of time.
Time Travel.
As great as FTL drives would be. What is there to see, a ton of dead planets, space stuff in far away places up close. Maybe the start of a few colonies. It's not like I'm a 100000 years in the future where we'd stretch across the galaxy. There would just be so little out there for me to see, (aliens not withholding).
With time travel. I can fling into the past and witness history. Going far into the future could be very dangerous. The entire world could be a radioactive pit in 50 years for all I know.
It's the past I want though, and maybe I'll corrupt it for my own purposes of course. And if things don't work out, I can always go back and stop myself.
Captcha: saucy
Captcha, are you insinuating that I would abuse my time machine to meet saucy ladies. Because I won't lie, I would.
As great as FTL drives would be. What is there to see, a ton of dead planets, space stuff in far away places up close. Maybe the start of a few colonies. It's not like I'm a 100000 years in the future where we'd stretch across the galaxy. There would just be so little out there for me to see, (aliens not withholding).
With time travel. I can fling into the past and witness history. Going far into the future could be very dangerous. The entire world could be a radioactive pit in 50 years for all I know.
It's the past I want though, and maybe I'll corrupt it for my own purposes of course. And if things don't work out, I can always go back and stop myself.
Captcha: saucy
Captcha, are you insinuating that I would abuse my time machine to meet saucy ladies. Because I won't lie, I would.
Except that leads to the question of 'who decides what a proper application of time travel is'. Humanity has repeatedly shown that technology will be misused or outright abused almost as often as it's used correctly. At horrible as certain parts of human history are, I think most people would agree that we're in a good place right now, and history is too complicated to risk changing it just so we can go on 'tours' of important moments.Callate said:
Needless to say, I picked FTL travel.
To all those people saying we'll get FTL eventually, sorry to break it to you, but that's just impossible. You need an infinite amount of energy to just reach light speed, let alone surpass it. What is possible though, thanks to quantum physics, is distorting time-space, creating a "bubble" of sorts in which the points you which to travel between are much closer to each other. This means you won't actually travel faster than light (though it would seem like that for an observer outside this bubble), but you "merely" compress time-space and then traverse that distance at normal speeds.
Though at the moment we are incapable of producing enough energy to pull of such a feat. So we'd need to get nuclear fusion (or another power source with extremely high energy output) first, and then we can worry about warping.
Man, physics is weird.
Captcha: bless you
How did it know I sneezed during the writing of this post? *proceeds to put tape over webcam*
Though at the moment we are incapable of producing enough energy to pull of such a feat. So we'd need to get nuclear fusion (or another power source with extremely high energy output) first, and then we can worry about warping.
Man, physics is weird.
Captcha: bless you
How did it know I sneezed during the writing of this post? *proceeds to put tape over webcam*
Gather some of the most trusted, yet respectable and just, men of various religions around the world.
Go back in time to witness creation, alleged happenings in various religious texts, et cetera. Do not touch or interact with anything, only go back in time to witness.
Acquire knowledge of which religion, if any, is correct.
Come back to the "present".
End most/a good deal/a small fraction of religious conflict.
Go back in time to witness creation, alleged happenings in various religious texts, et cetera. Do not touch or interact with anything, only go back in time to witness.
Acquire knowledge of which religion, if any, is correct.
Come back to the "present".
End most/a good deal/a small fraction of religious conflict.
