Survey finds a majority of physicists do not think we will have a mars colony within 5000 years.

Interesting survey was done by physicist Tim Murphy in response to one of his students who made the bold statement "if it can be imagined, it can be done" to gauge the technological optimism of physicists, physics graduate students, and undergraduate students. The study included 214 physics professors, but the number of graduate students and undergraduate students is not given.

According to the study, a vast majority of physicists believed we won't have a Mars colony in 5000 years, a lunar colony "likely within 5000 years", fusion power "likely within 500 years", while absurdities such as warp drives, wormholes, and time travel drew overwhelming consensus as simply impossible amongst physicists, graduate students, and undergraduate physics students.

I think this is quite telling with regards to things that seem as if we can do in this century and do not break the laws of physics, like fusion power, Mars colonoy, Moon colony, flying cars, intelligent robots, etc while the overwhelming majority of physicists surveyed doubt we can even accomplish these in 300 years.

It definitely seems that we are coming to an end to modern physics, and even in computing power, If they don't discover something eventually, I think we'll stop, or slow down progression substantially.

Those physicists don't seem to be too optimistic. But again, they are just the product of many years of indoctrination of the school system.

reply to post by Diablos


These Physicists aren't the policy controllers. If they were we'd have it tommorow

The Earth will be uninhabitable in 300 years so they better pull their fingers out and come up with something.
We have already past the point of no return threshold as far as the Earth's environment goes, it's all down hill from here. In 5000 years Earth will look just like Mars.

reply to post by Diablos


I and others like me have been made to know that the U.S. Military Ultra-Top Secret Energy Generation Tech. Research Division which has it's funding hidden in the Black Program arens of the Department of Energy...which is rsponsible for the management and operation of some of the Nations most secret and highly guarded research centers and facilities...such as the one at Oak Ridge Tennesse.

The Oak Ridge Facility is the U.S. DOE plant responsible for the development of Nuclear Fuel for U.S. Nuclear Forces. This is one of the most sensitive facilities in the United States and is one that is OVERT unlike the many COVERT Facilities under the Black DOE Budget.

What has been leaked out and I felel it was done purposely...is the knowledge of the existence of Highly Advanced Low Temp. Micrao-Fusion Reactors designed for use in U.S. Military Direct Energy Weapons Tech. This Tech. of which the FEL or Free Electron Laser which has now been made public as it will be installed standard issue on the New Ford Class Carriers the first two of which will be put to sea in 2013 as the Gerald R. Ford CVN-78...and the CVN-79 J.F.K. will be put to sea in 2015.

These two Ford Class Carriers have new A1B Fission Reactors designed for them but since the carriers power consumption will be greater than expected...these carriers use a Mag-Lev Catapult system rather than a steam one and the FEL will need a massive amount of power for it's proper use...it has been suggested that a THIRD REACTOR which will need to be small since the Carriers were designed for only two...will be required.

The solution for both lack of space as well as the huge amount of power required for the proper use of the FEL...is to install the Low Temp. Micro-Fusion Reactor which has been whispered to have 7 times the energy output of a single A1B Fission Reactor.

Given the possible Public Outrage over the U.S. Military having developed a Fusion Reactor which by it's nature is a Green source of a massive amount of outputted energy as there is no radioactive waste left over in a Fusion Reaction only Helium that has been created from fusing Hydrogen....as well as the current high costs of Fossil Fuels...as well as the U.S. Military's reluctance to disclose of the existence of such High Tech....this has become a VERY touchy subject.

But the fact that it's very existence has obviously been purposely leaked out...I think it Highly Possible this Tech. will see the light of day.

Split Infinity

Originally posted by eXia7
It definitely seems that we are coming to an end to modern physics, and even in computing power, If they don't discover something eventually, I think we'll stop, or slow down progression substantially.

Complete nonsense. Science & technology is being reinvigorated not only on current fronts, but in completely new ones. Computing power is NOT slowing down; in-fact the emergence of completely new types such and quantum & cognitive computing will augment it by magnitudes.

Fusion power in 500 years?? Cold fusion & dense plasma fusion technology is pretty much right around the bend. Anyone who's been paying attention would know this.

The only thing that's probably true is that modern physics has not been reinvented or compounded much in the past decades. Although there's still much research being done, I have heard that there are aspects of our understanding of the universe that are outdated, or need filling in.

i dont understand this sensless drive for technology, so we dont have flying cars, so what.
look at what mobile phones have done, no one talks anymore, everyone texts.

the more advanced we become the further we are from being human beings

reply to post by Diablos


This all comes down to Imagination Failure...


The people involved with this survey have apparently had a majority of their creativity swept away as Objectivity has overtaken their senses.


What a sad existence...

reply to post by Diablos

According to the study, a vast majority of physicists believed we won't have a Mars colony in 5000 years, a lunar colony "likely within 5000 years", fusion power "likely within 500 years", while absurdities such as warp drives, wormholes, and time travel drew overwhelming consensus as simply impossible amongst physicists, graduate students, and undergraduate physics students.

Well, we won't be seeing the next Galileo's or Da Vinci's coming out of that bunch.

Of course, to be realistic, NASA is doing quite a lot when one looks at it. Imagine what they could do with a real budget. Everything they do and all their various missions operate out of less than 20 Billion by the last numbers I saw and cuts are still the order of the day there. Perhaps the study is right if it doesn't return to being a priority soon. Experience core gets lost and institutional memory becomes fuzzy.

NASA budget summary

Originally posted by Raelsatu

Originally posted by eXia7
It definitely seems that we are coming to an end to modern physics, and even in computing power, If they don't discover something eventually, I think we'll stop, or slow down progression substantially.

Complete nonsense. Science & technology is being reinvigorated not only on current fronts, but in completely new ones. Computing power is NOT slowing down; in-fact the emergence of completely new types such and quantum & cognitive computing will augment it by magnitudes.

Fusion power in 500 years?? Cold fusion & dense plasma fusion technology is pretty much right around the bend. Anyone who's been paying attention would know this.

The only thing that's probably true is that modern physics has not been reinvented or compounded much in the past decades. Although there's still much research being done, I have heard that there are aspects of our understanding of the universe that are outdated, or need filling in.

edit on 20-1-2013 by Raelsatu because: (no reason given)

What I was talking about was the size of chips can only get so small, until they figure out a new way to make small processors that are double the speed we have now.

And I know about the quantum computer thing, but they have a long way to go to make it practical.

Originally posted by Raelsatu
Fusion power in 500 years?? Cold fusion & dense plasma fusion technology is pretty much right around the bend. Anyone who's been paying attention would know this.

They've been saying that since the 1960s when the physics of fusion was all sorted out and it officially became an "engineering problem". There are many serious issues with fusion that make it impractical at best compared to other alternative energy sources, such as solar and geothermal, and these problems will likely not be solved in the next 100-200 years assuming there aren't any unpredictable discoveries which could make fusion containment over very long periods practical.

Originally posted by RaelsatuThe only thing that's probably true is that modern physics has not been reinvented or compounded much in the past decades. Although there's still much research being done, I have heard that there are aspects of our understanding of the universe that are outdated, or need filling in.

edit on 20-1-2013 by Raelsatu because: (no reason given)

Some people tend to extrapolate the past 200 years as evidence of some sort of "endless technological progression". The problem these people don't realize is that we didn't know the fundamental physics we do today back then. While there are things to be solved such as quantization of gravity and other phenomenon such as dark energy, the physics of everyday interactions is fully understood and thus any future technology won't be based on physics of future high energy particle accelerators, but rather the physics that governs everyday interactions.

Where there's a will..............................................................

Originally posted by eXia7
What I was talking about was the size of chips can only get so small, until they figure out a new way to make small processors that are double the speed we have now.

There are many more aspects to high-performance computing than just size. However, yes it's one of the core factors; and it's already being addressed by different researchers. Transistor size for example: Single-atom Transistor
There's an enormous amount of R&D being done to develop chips with: higher clock rates, more cores, shifting from electrical to optical (IBM First Nanophotonic Integrated Chip), changing the material/substrates, etc. We're making the move from silicon, which has dominated the semiconductor industry for decades, to novel materials such as graphene/graphayne, carbon nano-tubes, molybdenum oxide, & other alternatives such as Phz Speeds Using femtosecond lasers & dielectrics.

These are only a fraction of the examples. Articles are released daily in the field of future computing, patents are approved, & a lot more. So no, I have no reason to think that computing is slowing down.

And I know about the quantum computer thing, but they have a long way to go to make it practical.

Again, research & development is surging ahead here. Advances are being made constantly; and I want to point out that even if personal quantum computers may not be viable for decades, everyone doesn't need one. Instead you can have a small number of very powerful quantum computers that connect to consumers via the cloud; so everyone can benefit directly without having to physically own one.

Whatever your perception is, you can't come to a conclusion without having done an extensive amount of research on what's happening in the field.

Originally posted by Diablos
They've been saying that since the 1960s when the physics of fusion was all sorted out and it officially became an "engineering problem". There are many serious issues with fusion that make it impractical at best compared to other alternative energy sources, such as solar and geothermal, and these problems will likely not be solved in the next 100-200 years assuming there aren't any unpredictable discoveries which could make fusion containment over very long periods practical.

Tell me, have you done any research into LENR/LANR or focus fusion? If you really think this technology won't be solved in the next 100-200 years then you simply haven't been paying attention. The technology is already here, LENR has been proven & verified. Many patents have been filed, and one recent one in particular European Patent Granted for Francesco Piantelli’s LENR Process.

As for focus fusion, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc. is making great progress. Only a matter of time for them I believe.

So unless there's direct sabotage to the commercialization & disclosure of these technologies, it's right around the corner. NOT 100-200 years.

What happened to their creativity? All washed up? Lunar colony in less than 5k years? So have we all just given up, because I'm also kind of ready to throw in the towel.

Originally posted by Raelsatu
Tell me, have you done any research into LENR/LANR or focus fusion? If you really think this technology won't be solved in the next 100-200 years then you simply haven't been paying attention. The technology is already here, LENR has been proven & verified. Many patents have been filed, and one recent one in particular European Patent Granted for Francesco Piantelli’s LENR Process

I'll admit that I have not and will look into it, but I am skeptical they have really solved all of the practical problems involved with fusion energy. Simply filing a patent is not evidence of anything, as there have been many patents filed for supposed antigravity. I would be more interested if you could cite any of their work published in respected journals like Physics of Plasma. Unless they have solved all of the problems of power density, containment, limited reactor lifespans (must be replaced continuously and powered down to be cleaned every few hours), etc then they aren't really making any groundbreaking progress here unless they discovered room temperature superconductors or something, then they'd the Nobel Prize.

As I said, until they can solve all these problems, and there's no good reason to believe they can all be solved soon without some incredible discoveries and engineering prowess to go along with it, practical fusion reactors any time this century will remain a fantasy.

Modern physicists are some of the most closed minded, status quo types, who fiercely guard their religion, scientific atheism, more vociferously than any catholic church father. They are stewards of a religious paradigm that has already been falsified. General relativity contradicts quantum theory. So there can be no reconciliation without a new theory.

But the purported replacement, string theory, has so many free parameters, that it can not be proven right or wrong. Meanwhile, quietly behind the scenes, the military and the experimentalists have moved far beyond anything the priests of theoretical physics thought possible, with their flawed models and rigidly controlled paradigm. The paradigm is controlled by the gatekeepers of the 'respected' journals in physics. Nothing untoward will be allowed through. That's why they pulled E. Podkletnov's paper from Nature.

However we occasionally get to peak behind the veil:
www.ufo-blogger.com...

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by Diablos
I'll admit that I have not and will look into it, but I am skeptical they have really solved all of the practical problems involved with fusion energy. I would be more interested if you could cite any of their work published in respected journals like Physics of Plasma. Unless they have solved all of the problems of power density, containment, limited reactor lifespans (must be replaced continuously and powered down to be cleaned every few hours), etc then they aren't really making any groundbreaking progress

As I said, until they can solve all these problems, and there's no good reason to believe they can all be solved soon without some incredible discoveries and engineering prowess to go along with it, practical fusion reactors any time this century will remain a fantasy.

Well then, you should get to it. As for respectable journals or publications, they can be found all over; many well-respected universities are now researching & developing their own working LENR devices. MIT has been running a "NANOR" cold fusion cell that's been producing excess heat for months on end.

There's virtually no way fusion will be out of reach the century, let alone 200-500 years. Only thing that would halt it is an extinction event.... or a global totalitarian state. Even if somehow fusion doesn't go mainstream, there are other green alternatives coming into the spotlight; such as solar.

In any case, we need to say goodbye to fossil fuels.

A good site to start is Coldfusionnow

Humans are the reason humans haven't done these things already. We have no desire to work together as a species as a whole to achieve anything for the betterment of humanity. Hell we throw away millions of tons of food just to keep profits high rather than feeding starving people. As long as there is a money system in place humans will fail as a species in the long run.... I bet the Earth on it. We have destroyed over half of all rainforests worldwide. Some of them takes thousands of years to grow. Same with coral reefs. We don't care unless we can make a buck and by the time the technology gets to us to do these things mother earth won't have the resources left to provide the materials to do them. We have not even harnessed the earth and we are supposed to survive on another planet. Yeah #ing right. These scientists know that we are doomed and they are telling us the truth but no one will believe them because "we are the most intellegent beings on earth" when was the last time you seen chimps setting off nuclear bombs for the sake of trying to make a bigger one when 1/4 of the population is starving.

Oh and don't a damn person say solar is the future. Solar technology has been around so long there isn't a single reason why every house built In the last 10 years isn't 100% solar. The elite can't sell you sun light.... Yet so there is no way in hell they will let you get free energy. Sure if you have tons of money you can get off the grid but they know they are only letting you lick free energy they will never allow you to take a bite. Don't kid yourself.

I think the survey was whack, or the alleged physicists are from the 18th century.

Because 5,000 years from now, we should have a few baker dozens of them. On the moon too, because in the next 500 years, colonies will be an emerging trend.

Right now space travel is a new tourism trend, it is emerging.
In another 50 years, it should be like going to Disney world.

Technology is advancing too rapidly, to not be able to do so, in less than that time frame.

I am betting on we will be colonizing rocks, other than ours in less than 5K years. What is the spread on that?