[Star Trek]

Originally Posted by ash_scotland88

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23292/

William Shatner, Saturday Night Live, 1986:

"It's just a TV Show - it's just a TV Show"!!!

[masterchief1001]

Originally Posted by omegaman

What if humankind is a one in a billion freak of nature?

Even if its one in a trillion... with the vastness of space and the huge lengths of time it is likely that life has developed elsewhere. Now it may not be intelligent or it may blow itself up. We still have to remember though, that even if the universe is packed with intelligent life... there is still only one earth and only one human race. We are unique and very special.

[ThePhaige]

Originally Posted by masterchief1001

Well, actually the Star Trek warp drive does exist. And Patrick Stewart explained exactly how to make it work: "Well, you just say, ENGAGE, and the ship goes." The warp drive is an excellent plot device! lol

Well said, I sometimes have to remind myself that Trek is not a looking glass into our future, but a looking glass into our imagination. If we are to solve the problems associated with quantum physics in this or the next century (which I highly doubt) we may discover we don't need ships to travel where we want to go. There may not be all these lifeforms out there and we may find our theories just as ridiculous as how we once thought earth was flat.

[TJJones]

Originally Posted by masterchief1001

We still have to remember though, that even if the universe is packed with intelligent life... there is still only one earth and only one human race. We are unique and very special.

"In this galaxy there's a mathematical probability of three million Earth type planets, and in all the universe three million million galaxies like this, and in all of that, and perhaps more, only one of each of us. Don't destroy the one named Kirk."

- Lt. Cmdr. Leonard H. McCoy, MD
"Balance of Terror"

[only1jamest]

Originally Posted by Captain_Archer

But Vulcans arent real

The memos people, the memos, How come I'm not getting the memos?

[gornski]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

there is also #3, that by the time a civilization is advanced enough to develop FTL, that they either are able to study a civililazation like ours without being detected, or that they are so far beyond us that we don't interest them in the slightest.

Yeah, I tend to overlook that one on the grounds that as our civilization has advanced, we have tended to become more and more curious. This is pure speculation on my part, but I have to think that mentalities capable of solving interstellar engineering problems could only get that way by being intensely inquisitive. Therefore inquisitiveness and interstellar flight capability are likely to be correlated.

Therefore it is logical that I go camp out in my lawn tonight, 'cause they are gonna be here any minute now...