Subject:
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Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Jan 2003 20:57:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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898 times
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James Brown wrote:
>
> In lugnet.space, Frank Filz writes:
> > Brandon Harris wrote:
> > > There was some physics geek who wrote this great little thing
> > > about the effects of firing a can of ravioli at a star
> > > destroyer at varying speeds. It's been circulating the net
> > > for years and years - I first saw it in college. Anyways,
> > > the sheer amount of devastation that a can of ravioli would be
> > > able to do at even Mach 4 is pretty impressive.
> >
> > At an SF convention when I was in college, one fellow gave his theory of
> > what first contact would be like:
> >
> > A large rock hurtling towards Earth at relativistic speeds. Boom! Flash!
>
> One of my favorite products from Ad Astra games (who make games that
> actually use science) is a T-Shirt, with the front showing:
>
> "Give a person a relativistic rock, and they will shatter a planet today.
> Teach them to do the math, and they will shatter planets for the rest of
> their lives."
>
> The back, in much smaller print, has the math. :)
>
> > His theory was that once you develop the capability to easily visit
> > other star systems, that you also easily have the capability of
> > accelerating rocks to relativistic speeds. Since there's not much one
> > can do to defend against such a tactic, should you find any
> > technological society on another planet, you must pre-emptively strike.
>
> You can defend against it though; all you need to do is shoot a rock of your
> own, and meet it halfway.
Ahh, but that assumes you have the technology. His theory is that you
will get blasted to oblivion before you get the technology. There's also
the time factor. You don't have all that blasted much time to react to
something approaching at relativistic speeds (remember, if it's
approaching at 90% the speed of light, you only have 10% of the time it
takes for the object to reach you). Another part of his idea was that
perhaps SETI isn't such a good idea: "Hey fellas, we're a nascent
technological civilization, come blast us to oblivion before we learn
anything dangerous."
Frank
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| (...) True. I always find it unsettling that when I see a documentary on SETI and there is invariably an interview with some scientist who says something like, "Surely if there are advanced alien societies, then they will want to communicate with us (...) (22 years ago, 16-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
| | | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| (...) Yeah, I understand his premise, I just don't buy it. :) Even stipulating 1 possibility for a technological culture per say 10,000 stars that's still 50 million sites (half a trillion stars in our galaxy alone) you need to check. Further (...) (22 years ago, 17-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
| | | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| Ahh, but that assumes you have the technology. His theory is that you (...) also (...) Unless acceleration is almost instantaneous, the waste energy of whatever accelerates the rock to light speed will reach you long before the rock does. Assuming (...) (22 years ago, 21-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| (...) One of my favorite products from Ad Astra games (who make games that actually use science) is a T-Shirt, with the front showing: "Give a person a relativistic rock, and they will shatter a planet today. Teach them to do the math, and they will (...) (22 years ago, 16-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
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