I see your point, but that is a dangerous method. What would protect the people inside? What would that kind of discharge of energy do to the stratosphere? What kind of havoc might it wreak as the radiotion slowly goes down onto the populous below?

And that comic is quite disturbing, sure the U.N. is corrupt, but not more than anyother government.

not in the least! the radiation would be fully dispersed by the time it reached the thermosphere. it wouldnt be worse than any normal solar wind. and the people inside wont need any shielding, radiation decay becomes way too dispersed in space to become much of a threat beyond a few hundred yards.

And that comic is quite disturbing

oh come on, its one of those rare pieces of right-wing extremist propoganda, enjoy the rare sights when they come!

agh, sorry the forum double posted for me.

sure the U.N. is corrupt, but not more than anyother government

I think the idea is that the UN is super-liberal, enough even to shame even Hillary. I just think the point is that extreme leftists like to really kiss their European asses.

seriously. the UN is way too dominated by Euro countries. the only reason the EU doesnt formally allign into a real government is because then they will lose their stranglehold on the UN (and us, their lapdogs)

It is dominated by the Euro countries because most of the countries on the Security Council(the real power) are European (France, Russia, Britain). I think that the UN resents us, but treats us like a friend because we have power. We are arrogant we were one of the founders of it, and we have defied the rules we have made thousands of times. Yet we make others follow them and some of the countries are starting to feel left out. I mean the main legislature has no real power, and the Security Council bends to our will most of the time, and when they dont we just dont follow the order they decree. The UN was supposed to unite the world now it is just prolonging the inevitable, i mean how long will it take other countries to tear it appart. Already there are tensions, who knows where this will leads. Still, when it was made, it was made with the highest hope for union and peace, hopefully that will still happen.

I hate how we went from space back to the UN and Euro. We should start a thread just about those tho things   

agreed, but as a last point:
I never liked the idea of a high council that would unite unlike governments, it stinks of a really bad, bad idea. generally I'm happier when we aren't bowing down to a council dominated by OTHER countries.

We arent, the UN was poorly defined and constructed. Sure a small, less powerful country wont dare to violate its rules lest it be banned from world economy and trade. But, no one (besides Venezuela and the East) seems to chalange us when we defy the rules. Sure when we started war the UN was unhappy, did they embargo us as the rules state, nope they just set back and watched and then they sent in troops to keep us happy. But, how long will that really last, soon enough they will stop giving us what we want and then what? War? Nuclear War? The end of the World?(okay fine thats a bit dramatic)

As for space expansion as soon as the governments lossen the laws restricting it and as soon as they hand it over to corporations(no matter how much i will regret them doing so), we will see faster expansioin and better organized expansion. But thats open to debate, its just corporations sometimes have more free rule than governments.

They are desperately trying to hand it over to private business. Ever hear of the X-prize? Spaceship One? The thing with space exploration is that it is EXPENSIVE. It costs about $450 million dollars for a space shuttle mission. They are trying to encourage private research and development so that private businesses can take over that cost and try to turn a profit doing it. I think the plan with spaceship one (or its successors) is to charge passengers for a quick ride to space.

We really do need to find a new way to get things INTO space. The ways now are just too inneficient (and loud...)
Nukes wouldn't work that well to get it up in the first place, and we don't have quite enough nanotechnology for a space elevator yet.

well then, make a giant catapult! (no, seriously...)

you dont technically need nanotech to create a space elevator, but the current way of creating carbonstrings is highly inefficient.

Ever hear of the X-prize? Spaceship One?

the space hotel project? anyone heard of that?
privately funded space station meant for people who want to take a few days and live in space. its actually mechanical genius when it comes right down to it.

But, how long will that really last, soon enough they will stop giving us what we want

the UN will collapse soon after some extensive expansion into space, there isnt any doubt on that point.
but I seriously doubt that the UN will even last THAT long. and either way, they aren't really a threat to us.

The UN wont collapse from space exploration or expandedures, it pays for nothing. Its a very lose confederation its main goal right now is to keep tensions down and let people still have a voice so that the world economy could remain stable. I mean instead of going to war now you can just tell the country you hate how much you really hate them. But, i dont know there are many "radical" bills going in there now, some giving it power to take soldiers from each member country and form it into a Protection Agency. There also was

Something about a millitarized union just scares people.

I wonder why...

The UN wont collapse from space exploration or expandedures, it pays for nothing. Its a very lose confederation its main goal right now is to keep tensions down and let people still have a voice so that the world economy could remain stable

precisely why it'll collapse. Space exploration (unless done by multiple countries simultaneously and in nearly equal proportions, of which the INSS doesnt apply) will cause all the global power to fall into one countries hands, or at least a good ton of it. that country will become the trunk and roots supplying other nations, and become completely vital to global economy (not that we arent already...). at that point the UN will become completely pointless, they will be way overpowered by one country's existance.
of course, chances are that the space age will usher in a utopia of assembled nations, it wont be the "US" or the "EU" or the "USSR" but more of a Global confederation (ooh... shiny...)

this is why one country expanding into space is preferable, it will entail an organization of all other countries, and rally a new type of alliance into existance.

The UN has lost its usefulness already, all its doing now is prolonging the wait between either war or peace. All they do is debate and use underhanded tactics to overpower each other. And in the end they end up in the same place they began, in my opinion it just didnt have strict enough rules and regulations. I mean when it was first founded there was one really major law about nuclear power stating only the "Nine" or the "Victors" of World War II could have it, but at this point almost every major member does and no one cares anymore. This mindset has let other countries get away with a lot of stuff *cough US cough*.

Well hope for the best, if that country gets enough economic and political control it might just decide to screw its allies and take the world without union. I mean a lot of things can be done if you have space supperiority(orbital bombardment anyone?)

all its doing now is prolonging the wait between either war or peace

*laugh*
thats a bit too dramatic.

This mindset has let other countries get away with a lot of stuff *cough US cough*

like I said, I'd prefer Sadam with nukes than us kissing a bunch of European Asses.

d take the world without union

wow, way to overestimate space power.
Orbital Bombardment is perhaps the most expensive military endevor you could EVER have, and all it would take to counter is an ICBM with a normal high explosive warhead shot into the thermosphere and predetonated to ruin BILLIONS of dollars in OB investment.

if that country gets enough economic and political control it might just decide to screw its allies and take the world without union

which is why the US is the best bet. its just about the only country in hte world with the resources to do it, and no reason to take over the world.
seriously, it would take a real idiot president to ruin our economy by taking over the world.

O not just the president i see Republicans greatly favoring this kind of idea.

and whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy not?

Uniting the world forcefully is a bad idea. The government of the United States would not be able to handle that much land area, or that many people. Plus, i dont think anyone would go quitely, and because we understand very little about other cultures there is sure to be many rebellions. In the end it will just be pointless lifes lost and the collapse of world economy.

hahaha, you completely misunderstand. this would ruin the Republican party, they obviously DONT want to unite the rest of the world.
well, that finishes up that misunderstanding.

This got us nowhere, what tangent did we go off to end up here again.... *sigh*.

Lol, its time to turn the Guide for the answers it seems... *goes off to find my extensive collection of Douglas Adams' books*.

this became a debate post, your right. I think someone else should create a new one on space (gov free) and hope that we dont go off on a tangent again, we'll leave this one for the politik.

if I try to create it'll just become this part II.

Well, moving back to the original point of this thread (lets see if we can't save it eh?)

Yes, I would go into space...

If there are aliens out there we should definitely throw out all the games like "Space Invaders" where we massacre a bunch of aliens or risk them finding them.

How we should proceed is a tough one, it is unanimously agreed that weapons should be kept down here and not taken into space (so no Sins type future for us).

I think colonisation of the Solar System and extrasolar planets is a must, since we've screwed Earth up so badly. Plus if a major catastrophe were to happen on Earth (Supervolcano, asteroid etc etc) we wouldn't all be...to put it lightly...dead.

The real question is how? The knotty little problem of FTL travel is very nasty indeed. Many scientists reckon that if we could generate a localised singularity ( a titchy black hole) we would be able to warp space time and travel at the speed of light in a little bubble, while travelling at translight speeds in the normal universe...oh would you look at that, my nose has started to bleed. Its fair to say that that is waaaaaaay off. At the end of the day hauling our collective backsides off this rock is going to be the biggest challenge we've ever faced. Arthur C Clarke said that since he wrote 2001 to the present day, there has been far less space travel than he would have expected, because it relies on budgets, we must drop that philosophy if we are gonna get anywhere.

There, hopefully that got this thread back on track.

If there are aliens out there we should definitely throw out all the games like "Space Invaders" where we massacre a bunch of aliens or risk them finding them

ahahahaha!!!
I never thought of that, that is really funny...

The knotty little problem of FTL travel is very nasty indeed

I think that as long as we have a few people willing to annihilate all contact with their friends and family, FTL travel wont be nescessary.
the only problem with STL travel is that once you reach your destination 1) youve eaten up a whole star's worth of energy and 2) the place you left is long dead by now (even though you may only be what, 20 yrs older)

It matters, i think some weapons should be taken. Some of the worlds we land on might have primitive life forms that would try to kill us. Hopefully, we will be one of the first races in space so that we wont have to compete with the galactic community. But, as said that is far off and we still have a long way to go. Lets see how Mars goes, then we can truly get involved in space colonization.

wouldnt it be incredibally funny if we were the people to descend from awesome flying saucers down onto a primitive city of big-headed little green people?

We probably will be, there are some planets already in the late stage of developement, life might be happening soon enough(in a few thousand years) once again.