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View Poll Results: Lifetime plane ticket or trip into space???

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  • Free plane tickets anywhere in the world for life

    8 66.67%
  • A one week "out of this world" experience in space

    4 33.33%
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  1. #1 What would you choose??? 
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    Was watching a video with my wife a few days ago and an interesting but silly question surfaced...

    If someone offered you two free options...

    A) A magic plane ticket to travel anywhere in the world for the rest of your life or...

    B) A one week trip into space (maybe orbiting the earth)...

    Which one would you choose?

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  2. #2  
    I'm sick of flying................and all the extra "security". Bags are now being checked going on the metro here in Shanghai. I'm ready to move.

    Probably take the space trip...........bummer would be coming back to earth.
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  3. #3  
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    Because there are still lots of places I haven't been to, I'd like to see our planet more. It'll be even nicer if I can just go without all the 'security' checks!

    L
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  4. #4  
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    Exploding into space is where it's at!

    The earth can be out of this world too but I'd rather be riding my motorcycle when I see it.

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  5. #5  
    C-Moto Regular volksjagger's Avatar
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    gotta be the free ticket to fly anywhere. i want to orbit the earth but that will be available around 2020 or so for regular travel. as the new planes are going to be flying just inside the earths atmosphere kinda like the u2, blackbird and this mig-25!



    looks like in outer space. but still has air to run the engines.

    in addition to the private space travel industry trying to improve on an inefficient government model.

    looks to be sooner rather than later.

    http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2...l_vehicle.html

    i want to float around in 0 gravity though. that’s where it's at!
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  6. #6  
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob Just Charlie's Avatar
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    I'd go for the life long plane ticket.

    For me a life long exploration of human culture and civilization would be more fulfilling than a week long trip isolated in space in either a space suit or shuttle with nothing to really interact with. Although a trip orbiting the earth would be incredible, the only sense aside from anti gravity (which would be great fun even confined in a tiny ship) would be visual. You don't find fruits you can't identify or hear languages you can't speak in space and the innumberable forms of life and activity on earth make it more interesting to me. Earth is an explosion of life and organic activity whereas space is defined by its lack of these phenomena.
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  7. #7  
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    I'd go for the life long plane ticket.
    ... Earth is an explosion of life and organic activity whereas space is defined by its lack of these phenomena.
    No doubt the Earth is beautiful but the universe is probably the largest single living organic thing there is - it IS the phenomena.

    I hear the Aurora Borrealis is nice this time of year.

    - Photo taken from the Int'l Space Station -




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  8. #8  
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob Just Charlie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    No doubt the Earth is beautiful but the universe is probably the largest single living organic thing there is - it IS the phenomena.
    As far as we can see (very close to the ends of the universe), earth is the only planet with life. Using special equipment on the Hubble cosmologists have detected organic molecules in comets which are made of carbon, building block of life on earth, but even the detection of these molecules doesn't mean that life exists there yet or ever will. Even if organic material exists on a molecular level it doesn't affect my point that there's nothing to interact with in space.

    Earth is the phenomena. Cosmologists predict that there could be other planets which have similar conditions to earth but the chance of intelligent life is 0.01 percent in each instance (we have found 100+ extra solar planets). Our orbit is in the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold, just right - plus naturally occurring liquid water. The combination of these elements is stunningly uncommon.

    We can observe conditions within the universe and discuss those celestial events with context, but no such context on how the universe fits into whatever larger pieces there are exists.
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  9. #9  
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    Sweet...the nitty gritty. Lets bust out some ontology!

    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    As far as we can see (very close to the ends of the universe), earth is the only planet with life.
    As far as we can see, or know? I don't think any serious cosmologist would ever say their knowledge of the universe (much less our own oceans) is anything near exhaustive.

    At the very "ends" of the universe the data people gather are not only billions of years old but fuzzy at best...usually analysing shifts in extremely faint radio signals and then magically extrapolating data out to wildly unsure, but interesting nonetheless, conclusions.

    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    Using special equipment on the Hubble cosmologists have detected organic molecules in comets which are made of carbon, building block of life on earth, but even the detection of these molecules doesn't mean that life exists there yet or ever will.
    So what you're saying is that even though our planet and even ourselves are made of much that same material, that we're still somehow different? This likely boils down to what an individual believes, values, and the circles they choose to draw...which is the whole point of the original question actually.

    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    Even if organic material exists on a molecular level it doesn't affect my point that there's nothing to interact with in space.
    ...except for space itself. Not sure what experienced astronauts would say to your remark and looking at the impact craters on the moon...I'm not sure it would agree with you either.



    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    Earth is the phenomena. Cosmologists predict that there could be other planets which have similar conditions to earth but the chance of intelligent life is 0.01 percent in each instance (we have found 100+ extra solar planets). Our orbit is in the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold, just right - plus naturally occurring liquid water. The combination of these elements is stunningly uncommon.
    It seems to me, the Earth is a phenomena which exits in relation to other greater and smaller phenomena...much like everything else we perceive. The idea of phenomena itself is a matter of perspective and consciousness, as is world and being.

    I'm not trying to belittle the magnificence and unlikelyness of our planet but am trying to stress it's (and our) interconnectedness to/with the perceived universe/world. Some people call it science while others call it religion...I call it riding a motorcycle.

    Quote Originally Posted by Just Charlie View Post
    We can observe conditions within the universe and discuss those celestial events with context, but no such context on how the universe fits into whatever larger pieces there are exists.
    Hahah...I think you been in China too long and it's effecting your grammar. Could you re-render that last statement with clearer context?

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  10. #10  
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob Just Charlie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    Sweet...the nitty gritty. Lets bust out some ontology!
    I'm not approaching this from an ontological perspective, but just trying to make some clear distinctions between earth and the observable universe which help me reach a conclusion to the question of the thread. Ontological questions like "what is existence" are really a lot to get caught up in.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    As far as we can see, or know? I don't think any serious cosmologist would ever say their knowledge of the universe (much less our own oceans) is anything near exhaustive.

    At the very "ends" of the universe the data people gather are not only billions of years old but fuzzy at best...usually analysing shifts in extremely faint radio signals and then magically extrapolating data out to wildly unsure, but interesting nonetheless, conclusions.
    Whether or not there's life on the far reaches of the universe (we don't know) is a matter outside of the scope of this topic, since I was establishing without doubt that you won't be encountering any life on an expedition into space - much less on a week long trip which wouldn't take you far at all speaking in universal terms.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    So what you're saying is that even though our planet and even ourselves are made of much that same material, that we're still somehow different? This likely boils down to what an individual believes, values, and the circles they choose to draw...which is the whole point of the original question actually.
    Absolutely - we are different from the rest of the observable universe. While unanswered questions remain, as they do in all fields of science, our knowledge of the composition of the universe is substantial as you know.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    ...except for space itself. Not sure what experienced astronauts would say to your remark and looking at the impact craters on the moon...I'm not sure it would agree with you either.
    Interact with space? How does that work? In space, you're either 1: confined to a tiny ship, 2: floating aimlessly, or 3: walking on the surface of the moon (if you're lucky). Don't get me wrong, it offers a beautiful view and a unique chance that very few people have. Even with these significant virtues, does that compare to the countless experiences there are to be had on earth to flood every sense that humans have?

    I don't understand what impact craters on the moon have to do with this. They were created billions of years ago - the moon is a large dead rock.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    It seems to me, the Earth is a phenomena which exits in relation to other greater and smaller phenomena...much like everything else we perceive. The idea of phenomena itself is a matter of perspective and consciousness, as is world and being.

    I'm not trying to belittle the magnificence and unlikelyness of our planet but am trying to stress it's (and our) interconnectedness to/with the perceived universe/world. Some people call it science while others call it religion...I call it riding a motorcycle.
    You're approaching this from a philosophical perspective and defining some of these ideas in abstract terms which I am not, so I think there is some misunderstanding.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    Hahah...I think you been in China too long and it's effecting your grammar. Could you re-render that last statement with clearer context?
    Since we're being grammar nazis I think you mean affecting my grammar! hahah what I meant is:

    We can observe conditions within the universe and discuss those celestial events with context, but no such context on how the universe fits into larger pieces exists. We can discuss events within our universe by observation, but a discussion on what happens outside the universe (which you alluded to by comparison) is without factual basis.

    Also the universe is not alive or organic. The idea that the universe has biological qualities (theoretical physicist Lee Smolin writes about this) is a fringe belief not accepted by cosmologists and Smolin himself says that the universe is not actually alive but might exhibit life-like qualities like heredity.
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