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Actual speeds of Warp?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by targetemployee: [QB] The distance that ships travel is an ancient issue that dates to the second episode of the Trek franchise, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". I will not reiterate the facts from this episode, for I assume that you know them. Based on my limited understanding of ancient sea history, humans first learn how to navigate the oceans close to shore. As their abilities and confidence grew, they traveled further and made land on nearby islands. Sails were invented. Humans went even further to more distant islands. If we apply this pattern to space flight, humans in the 20th century are learning the basics of navigating the shores of a vast ocean. Overlapping the history of Star Trek onto real history in the early 21st century, humans engineered the warp drive. This drive, like the sail, gave humans the ability to travel to the nearest islands and, eventually, islands even further out. The problem that exists is that at the beginning of the warp drive age, humans were tens of thousands of light years away at the galactic rim. This would be equivalent to saying that our ancestors had traveled from Indonesia to Easter Island within a few years of the invention of the sail. The actual time is on the order of centuries. I don't discount the possibility of ships traveling the vastness of space to planets and stars. I just think that this will occur on the order of centuries or thousands of years. (The first mission to Mars will come after I am dead, perhaps in the mid to late 21st century. Not earlier. There are many challenges to be solved.) Looking at our history, I am not so disappointed in the space program. We are just beginning. I wonder if our earliest ancestors thought the explorations of the sea were expensive and not productive to society. This thought may have existed as far back as that. Knowing this, I am less anxious about us getting deeper into space. I know we will. Returning to Star Trek, I believe the writers should cut out as much science and technology as they can. In their place, they should write more character exposition. They only have 45 minutes to tell a story. These minutes should be used in the telling of a story about people with technology written into the background, as on Farscape. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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