"Some people really seem to have an emotional horse in this game, I'm not sure why."
I think it's because no one likes being told what their limits are. And when faced with certain inevitable death humans will fantasize their way out of it to make themselves feel better. Even if it's illogical or obviously impossible. (ex: "When I die, I'm going to go to a magical place in the sky where there is no suffering, no pain, no death, no bad things, and I will have everything I want, and I will be happy and live there with all my friends and family forever." - Human fantasizing about "heaven"). And there's nothing wrong with that. We're only alive for so long, might as well spend that time being happy. It just sucks when people bring fantasy desires into scientific reality.
A MAJOR point I forgot to mention in my original post. If planets and suns existed forever then yes we might be able to work something out, even if we're not traveling at light speed. But the delays, distances, and time limits involved are what make all of this near impossible. We only have a few billion years before our sun starts entering into its red giant phase and burns away our home. A few thousand before another extinction event, and possibly few thousand before getting hit by a massive meteor. Whatever planet we find looking through a telescope will have its own time limits, it's own problems that we won't know about until its delayed and outdated light finally hits us. It's the delays, it's the distance, it's the time limits. Everything has to fall into place so well. And with no planet known 100% to sustain life, everything is a gamble with insanely impossible chances to win.
The distances are so massive in space, the time delay between sending a message just light years away and getting it back makes the gamble worse. Imagine starting a voyage and midway finding out the planet has been destroyed or has entered a massive extinction phase that will escalate when we get there. Or finding out the planet is no longer inhabitable. Lets not forget our own Earth has entered periods where it was one massive boiling ocean, one big icicle, a bunch of lava. Granted we've moved away from those periods towards stability. But what if the planet we're heading towards destabilizes while we're on our way there?
Most people are visualizing space by what they've seen in star trek or star wars. With percentages of failure and death completely missing from their mental image of what it truly means to travel in space. People see it as a game of patience. When it's really a game of 'ALL of the odds are stacked against you and continue to stack against you the longer you stay out there'.
The more I think about this the more I realize how really lucky we are being on Earth. Really really lucky.
I think it's because no one likes being told what their limits are. And when faced with certain inevitable death humans will fantasize their way out of it to make themselves feel better. Even if it's illogical or obviously impossible. (ex: "When I die, I'm going to go to a magical place in the sky where there is no suffering, no pain, no death, no bad things, and I will have everything I want, and I will be happy and live there with all my friends and family forever." - Human fantasizing about "heaven"). And there's nothing wrong with that. We're only alive for so long, might as well spend that time being happy. It just sucks when people bring fantasy desires into scientific reality.
A MAJOR point I forgot to mention in my original post. If planets and suns existed forever then yes we might be able to work something out, even if we're not traveling at light speed. But the delays, distances, and time limits involved are what make all of this near impossible. We only have a few billion years before our sun starts entering into its red giant phase and burns away our home. A few thousand before another extinction event, and possibly few thousand before getting hit by a massive meteor. Whatever planet we find looking through a telescope will have its own time limits, it's own problems that we won't know about until its delayed and outdated light finally hits us. It's the delays, it's the distance, it's the time limits. Everything has to fall into place so well. And with no planet known 100% to sustain life, everything is a gamble with insanely impossible chances to win.
The distances are so massive in space, the time delay between sending a message just light years away and getting it back makes the gamble worse. Imagine starting a voyage and midway finding out the planet has been destroyed or has entered a massive extinction phase that will escalate when we get there. Or finding out the planet is no longer inhabitable. Lets not forget our own Earth has entered periods where it was one massive boiling ocean, one big icicle, a bunch of lava. Granted we've moved away from those periods towards stability. But what if the planet we're heading towards destabilizes while we're on our way there?
Most people are visualizing space by what they've seen in star trek or star wars. With percentages of failure and death completely missing from their mental image of what it truly means to travel in space. People see it as a game of patience. When it's really a game of 'ALL of the odds are stacked against you and continue to stack against you the longer you stay out there'.
The more I think about this the more I realize how really lucky we are being on Earth. Really really lucky.