How complicated will it get when our planet and another habitable planet are able to bring over each others' populace?
I think it will be just like taking a plane to another country, just that the trip is a lot longer and possibly more dangerous.
The better question is, what if they're already bringing themselves over? I like to think that any life beyond this planet, will be similar to us. At least able to communicate with one another, because the only other alternative is, everything is in such an early state. At least for me, if we exclude the possibility that Predators have been infiltrating Earth's jungles for centuries... When I think of other planets, I like to have fun with it, okay? LOL.
There's no other habitable planet in our solar system and it would take us tens of thousands of years to reach even the closest planets, never mind planets that we could potentially live on. Right now it takes us 50 years just to get unmanned probes to the edge of our solar system. To actually, realistically build starships that could take us to other systems, we'd have to get really really serious about devoting the resources toward it, and to stop wasting money, time and lives on war and, military spending and stuff like that. It would take trillions and trillions of dollars, and the world's smartest scientists, just to build ships that could reach a fraction of light speed. And even if we did that, it would take us hundreds of years to reach other systems! So yeah....space is REALLY big.
The biggest question I think is: Will we destroy ourselves before we can even get off planet. We got politicians who have said the Renaissance was a bad idea. We can do so much if we get over our petty squabbles about the correct God or the correct form of government.
Some scientists are really concerned about that. In the original "Cosmos" Carl Sagan said his biggest worry was that we'd wipe ourselves out with nuclear war.
I don't want to ruin the hypothetical but this is extremely likely. There is clearly no other intelligent life in the solar system which would imply that we'd have to travel to other systems. You'd have to go much faster than the speed of light to reach another solar system in one lifetime. And that technology is impossible.
Well, we have already started to destroy ourselves, i.e. global warming and the resulting climate change. In the next one hundred years, the coastlines of the continents are going to change - some of the current coastal cities such as Miami (and unless large seawalls or dikes are constructed), are predicted to be under water. Plus, the current ice sheets contain 100 billion tones of Carbon, which is slowly being released as the ice melts and thus changing the composition of the atmosphere. There are estimates that the human population could start to decline in the coming decades as food and fresh water sources, and the amount available, will decline. As for the main question, it will be impossible, I think. Even though we already have some of the technology in place that could serve as the building blocks for spacecrafts that could potentially get people to other planets, the vast distances will make it impossible to send someone to another habitable planet outside of our solar system. Even if the distances weren't such an issue, anything beyond our own solar system might very well not be that inviting to live on. Our solar system is located in a quiet neighbourhood of the Milky Way.
The closest system is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years; Alpha Centauri is 4.3 LY; Sirius is 8 LY. We could get to Proxima or Alpha in 5 or 6 years and Sirius in 10 years if we reach 95% light...that would be a dream for a lot of people. But to do that we would need to work together, stop fighting among ourselves, stop going to war, and use all that money to put the world's most brilliant scientists to work.
Space travel should be exactly like Galaxy Express 999. Literally build an interstellar railroad that makes stops at different planets.
All this talk about interstellar travel-- what's more likely is terraforming Mars and artificially living there until its environment is suitable. I don't think a solution for getting to other systems is possible in the foreseeable future. We will need another tech advance or two on the scale of the industrial revolution before the pesky need to physically send stuff through space ceases to be an issue.
Well, unless we can try NOT doing what the damn Krptonians did to their own planets and deciding to conquer other places they may have ruined because their such screw-ups, I say it sounds awesome, but complicated. Superman's heritage is a clear metaphor of where we are destined to be if we cannot learn to nurture our own home. We have adapted to the Earth and are ruining it. We may unsettle the Universe if we temper with things we are mostly clueless about, but that's adventure go figure lol. I still love the idea. We need better technology and more realistic approaches first though.
Well... There are other universes out there like when I see a UFO I always wonder gosh where do they live?
If we did colonize other planets after enough generations human beings may be completely unrecognizable from other human beings. We may need to actually re-classify ourselves. Interstellar did a good job of showing how interstellar transportation works with reference to time dilation. That first planet really messed with me. I kind of disturbed me frankly.
As things are right now, space travel is out of the question. The first habitable planet would be at least 10 light-years away, man couldn't reach it by space travel. I like to think about the M theory and what could be done if it happened to be true and if man could use it according to his will. I mean, teleportation guys, it would make one able to reach places that are way too far away. Still, I'm no scientist and don't know where this is going, you can consider it all speculation. About those extra terrestrial races... Well, I don't think we'd be able to communicate with them, let alone would we even be able to "see" (by that I mean recognize what's living) them. And it's possible that they wouldn't recognize humans as living being. They could even giants living on a Super Earth and could step on humans like on ants. So when it comes about cohabiting... I can't say.
So far, the idea of going somewhere else than Earth feels like a waste of resources and time. We already have a lot here in our planet. We're causing the near destruction and all, and the thought of living somewhere else feels like escaping the results of our own actions. Also, I don't think there's really intelligent life out there other than us. If there's any, it's possible that they're a different kind of intelligent, which may not be so much of a help in the idea of living with one other.
