Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

So tired of hearing about “habitable” planets that would take millennia to get to. Call me when the space elevator has been commissioned.


If it makes you feel any better, virtually all of them are uninhabitable to humans. The excitement comes from the idea that they could be locations of alien life that we would easily recognize. In other words, we need better communications tools, not better space travel.


Or even just better observation tools, that would be amazing already. Sadly, at the scales we are talking here, even "just" getting those tools seems very improbable, at least...


Imagine if we could somehow have optical closeups of these planets and all we found were trillions of dinosaurs incapable of all but crow-like tool-making. We’d be so buzzed and bummed at the same time.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: