Generally, a civilization needs a certain level of refinement and engineering capabilities before they can take advantage of theoretical breakthroughs or mathematical proofs. It takes awhile to figure out how to build things that work, based on scientific experiments.

It would help to get near room temperature superconductors, since losing energy is a big problem in a civilization that still refuses to use nuclear energy for much of anything.

Why would a civilization that can use a higher output of energy, not do it? Why would people who can FTL travel to Earth, not do so? Obviously it’s either an external or internal motivation problem.

However, until humans solve our own “communications” problem concerning, say American life and culture, there’s little hope of the species advancing any time this century.

No need to apologize. Sounds interesting.

…I recommend you start with Niven, Pournelle, and Niven & Pournelle collaborations.

Specifically Ringworld. And then the Mote in God’s Eye.

I haven’t posted to my [private] blog in a couple of years – which is mostly online notes to myself about stuff-that-matters-to-me-that-I-might-need-to-refer-to-someday-but-would-probably-be-too-lazy-to-look-up-when-I-needed-it lol – but the first two posts on the site cover SETI stuff (which links to articles that are still current …not much is happening in SETI btw), and warp drives.

Link to fairwhether.mee.nu for click-through.

…they’re a basic consolidation of the subject matter, and might help bring some of you up-to-speed.

(Sorry neo, I don’t ever recall pointing to “me”, because I’m a dull boy, and a seldom blogger, and think self-linking in comments is impolite-bordering-on-outright-rude …but I’m just-this-once breaking protocol.)

I think we’re going to get the Alcubierre drive (which does NOT break General Relativity, a very big deal …and which is why it makes a “kind of” FTL a possibility) btw. There’s been recent papers – out of Denmark, if I recall correctly (I need to update that post with links) – that suggest the energy required for the warp bubble is MUCH less than Miguel Alcubierre (and others) originally postulated.

…and that’s certainly my Star Trek half speaking, heh.

For the creation vs. big bang philosophical/theological arg’s, you should definitely read CS Lewis’s “Miracles” …which is less about “miracles”, and more about a kind of philosophy of a “science of the supernatural” (spoiler alert: he’s for it LOL) …which isn’t theosophy lol.

(Sorry, but it’s been decades since I last thought much about this …my mind’s been made up for a long time lol …so no snap quizzes!)

…sorry for coming off all pedantic & snooty. But this was one of those “too much misinfo'” threads.

As Yogi Berra said: “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”

Which is why DC thinks he knows better than the rest of us, where the motor controls of the human brain are located, obviously.

That’s not being presumptuous of course. That’s just being Damn Crazy.

Dropping bombs on people from automated drones is easier, but without ground forces to confirm who died, the target may still be living. So in order to get guarantees, one must saturate the system, which costs time and money. Whereas if they had an observer in the system, they can see the damage and then stop operations.

The reality of actually “engineering” things is beyond some people, I presume. What you read off your books, Art, may look good on paper, but somebody always has to do the actual job. And the actual job is different than what they wrote on the paper.

…Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

–William Wordsworth, “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1802)

Apparently even that doesn’t cut it anymore.