Interstellar (And Intergalactic) Travel

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Imagine that you are living many years in the future when technology may have advanced to the point where it is possible to construct spaceships that can accelerate to nearly the speed of light. Then, because of time dialation that occurs at such relativistic speeds (and depending on how much acceleration your body is able to tolerate), you would have the ability to travel almost anywhere in the universe in a relatively short period of time. (However, what seems to you as a "short period of time" could be many many centuries of "Earth time".)

Such a futuristic civilization would probably split itself into two totally separate societies:

A - The "Terries" would be the society that never leaves good old "Terra Firma". They would choose to spend their entire lives remaining on (or near) the Earth.

B - The "Rellies" would be the society that chooses to live most of their lives travelling the universe at "relativistic speeds".

These two societies would probably snub each other completely. (After all, what good would it do to start a relationship with someone you will never see again in your lifetime?)

Now, we're all pretty familiar with the Terries' way of life. (We've been living it for many thousands of years. ) But what about the Rellies? How might they interact with each other?

I suspect that the Rellies would probably establish some kind of permanent "central message board" where they could post information about where and when they plan to be. For example, a typical message might be: "If anyone is interested in meeting me for lunch, I will be on the second planet in the Canopus star system at noon (GMT) on 2987 November 19 (Earth Time)*. I'll show some of the pictures that I took on my recent trip to Sirius. Hope you can make it!"

An interested Rellie who arrives at the message board might see the above posting and exclaim, "Yeah! I can just make it if I leave right now!" So he'd quickly accelerate to near-light speed and, after a few hours of his time, he'd arrive at Canopus just in time for the luncheon.

When he's finished eating, he says goodby and start his trip back to the message board. After a few more hours of his time have elapsed, he arrives back to the board to see if any new messages about where to go for supper have been posted since he last visited that message board 150 years ago!

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* (By "Earth Time" I mean the time at which a pulse of
light would reach the specified destination if it were to
be sent from the Earth at the specified date/time.)
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The previous discussion about the "Rellies" might seem a little far-fetched, because it required that their human bodies be able to withstand the tremendous acceleration forces that would have to be endured in order to quickly reach near-light speed. But even using "acceptable" accelerations (and consequently somewhat longer time intervals), the fundamental concepts discussed would still be valid. (And at the the risk of sounding like some kind of "UFO nut-case", how do we know that a scenario, similar to the one that was depicted, isn't alreading taking place somewhere in the universe? )

I am neither a believer nor a disbeliever in the idea that our small planet might be experiencing visitations by extraterrestrial entities. (I am an "open-minded agnostic" on that issue... with slight leanings toward the "nay" side of the fence.) But many UFO sightings tell of objects in the sky that can suddenly make sharp right-angle turns, or objects that hover motionless for a few seconds... and then quickly fly out of sight. If these observations are true, then those objects must certainly be capable of withstanding very high accelerations. And if that is the case....

(I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said something like "Either there is other life in the universe, or there is not. Either way, the implications are profound.")