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Originally Posted by zen_tom
Hold on - if interstellar travel is possible it is either
a) possible at speeds faster than light or
b) it is not
If b) is the case, then to travel from one star to the next would likely take generations, and no matter how exciting the scientific prospect, or lucrative the trade run, I can't see visitors coming over for any other reason than that they have nowhere else to go - which, considering the size of the universe is equally unlikely.
If a) if the case, it is still no small undertaking - and the energies involved would likely show up on our monitoring equipment - you can't just bend space without anyone noticing. If it is possible, then it can only be achieved by the most advanced of races, who would also have such an in-depth knowledge of the universe that they should be able to simply create anything imaginable making interstellar trade unnecessary.
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Maybe you're giving us too much credit here... We're talking about them being something like a billion years farther ahead than us. And not necessarily just one race. For all we know they could use energies and methods we haven't even concieved of. And who's to say they're bending space? There're theories out there that are saying it's theoretically possible to pop in and out of this universe in order to travel great distances essentially instantaneously. We jumped from our first powered flight to a moon landing in sixty-six years, god knows where we'll be in a billion years.
As for the trade issue, I don't know that I really buy that. However, why wouldn't they go out and expore the galaxy and universe as they wish? Should they, with whatever technology they have, just stay at home and stagnate? I should hope that a billion years from now the human race isn't reduced to something like that. I would hope that we're still out there, in whatever from we are by then, moving, changing, learning about, and researching the universe around us.