/sci/ - Science & Math

>I seriously hope you guys don't think this

The age of great discovery is over. Most of the obvious shit has been already discovered. Anything new will be in the quantum world--or simply novel applications using science we already know.

>>3243908
The 19th century called. They want their "science is complete" delusion back.

>>3243908
Of course, that's what physicists thought back in the day. Physics was over, they just needed to squeeze that photoelectric effect into the model. I'm willing to admit I don't know what will seem obvious in a hundred years, but I'm not going to go down in history saying out ancestors will never jump far beyond us. Certainly in the biosciences, I would be shocked if there's not lots of stuff to come.

You will live to see human spaceflight become more commonplace and the average number of human beings in space at any time surpass 500.

>>3243908
>Most of the obvious shit has been already discovered.

This always makes me sad, since all the easy shit has been discovered now we have to spend a lifetime doing research into a specific area hoping that we figure something out, when its more likely we will die forever alone. The human life span just isnt long enouph to make substantial progress anymore.

Continuing advancements in medical science will extend the human lifespan well into the triple digits within this century... you will probably live to see the next.

:)

>>3243922
pffft orbital hotels will be a short lived, failed venture. Too expensive and not enough people willing to pay. First accident and the industry will be dead.

>>3243908
>Most of the obvious shit has been already discovered.

Hey Newton, all of the obvious shit in mathematics has already been discovered, what are you wasting your time with all this 'calculus' crap for?

There still a lot more discoveries to be made.
In almost every aspect...
our race is still cosmologically very very young.. WE are basically new born..
-Carl Sagan

>>3243944
>implying commercial spaceflight's main focus will be on retarded throwaway concepts like 'space hotels' as opposed to offering businesses and universities access to cheap orbital research facilities

Scientists will probably confirm the existence of life on an extrasolar planet within the next twenty years.

I long for the day the first asteroid is mined successfully. Whoever does that will become disgustingly rich, and then everyone will want to do it. Space will be full of probes and astronauts within five years.

And we've just hit the peak of the computer revolution. It will probably slow down or consolidate for a while, and it will be impossible to predict the next crest of this thing. I'm thinking mind-machine interfaces and 'soft' artificial intelligence everywhere.

>>3243945
fuck I wish calculus wasn't invented, have to take it in a few years when I'm a senior in HS

>>3243968
I want to believe.

>>3243978
underageb&

>>3243978
trust me its mad easy, got a 5 on the AP, junior in college with a 2.9 GPA, just to show that I am not smart.

>>3243975
The cost of transporting materials to and from the asteroid will far outweigh the profit from mining it.

>>3243978

It's not too bad. Basically just algebra on steroids, and algebra is easy.

>>3243993

Iridium is very important for the computing industry. It is rare on Earth, more common in asteroids.

Plus we have Cruithne quite close to Earth. It's easily an Apollo mission away.

It will be very expensive up front, with a long return on investment, but whoever does it first will dominate the market in rare elements until someone else tries it.

>>3243927

All the obvious shit has never been discovered. Its obvious now that we know it in hindsight. It take incremental steps to reach a new discovery.

All this negative shit pisses me off. There are always new inventions to be made, new ideas to develop. We are multiple times wealthier than we were in the past, and in the future it will follow this pattern. Humans are the the only species that grow more productive as they grow in numbers. And as such we have more capabilities, and we WILL experience more scientific and technological breakthroughs than any other preceding generation in human history.

And people like myself will be leading the wave. Fuck all you naysayers.

You have plenty more free opportunities for educating yourself (ebook piracy, OCW, khanacademy, cheap computers and electronics) than at any earlier point in human history.

>>3243893
And they'll be the most useless ones ever.

unless you're talking about biotechnology or maybe computer science then you're wrong OP.

Physics has pretty much shot its wad.

This is due to;

1. to much focus on theory not enough on experimentation (analyzing know physical laws for patterns instead of looking for unique properties(to much analysis not enough synthesis))

2. the modern university environment(churning out "graduates" but not necessarily scientists)

3. problem space has became slightly more complex(low hanging fruit has been picked, reward to expense ratio not ideal or in time frames ideal to be profitable)

4. Other emerging fields likely to have a brain drain effect(cultural, the physics and engineering student of yesterday is exposed an environment the promotes computer science/biotechnology more)

5. myopic focus and lack of creativity of thought in science and academics and
general. (I'M GONNA FIGURE OUT FUSION!!!! *spend next 20 years of life studying plasma physics exclusively in hopes it will help tokamak research*)

>>3243922
>You will live to see human spaceflight become more commonplace

Nothing in space is valuable enough to justify it

>>3244109
You are incredibly wrong.

A single iron nickel asteroid could supply decades worth of metals for the entirety of Earth's factories.

The amount of energy and resources available in space are absolutely staggeringly tremendous compared to what is solely on Earth.

>>3244130
That's the point, there are trillions of dollars worth of minerals in space and NONE OF IT can be profitably mined

>>3244223

until we figure out planet-cracking...

>>3244223
True, but thats assuming that you just go from earth, point a, to a given asteroid, point b. Besides you have to spend money to make money, select an asteroid, land on it, mine it, hollow it out and turn it into a colony, and then use the resources that the first asteroid provided to branch out to other asteroids... Or you could just strap a mass driver to it and drive it closer, then the cost of getting more equipment up and sending ore down wouldn't be as much...

>>3244384
And colonizing the moon, mining titanium would be a good idea to. It's close, we've already got the technology to get there and even stay there and launching anything from there is alot cheaper than from earth...

What if we developed a system to just bring the asteroids to Earth. Slow their descent and gently glide them to the surface where we can pick them up and carry them off for mining.

We're long overdue for a Dark Age.

>>3244401
You better break them up first, anything large enough to be worth the expenses won't be softly landing anywhere.

>>3244410
Have you seen the past decade and the rise of the apple cult?

How come no one ever considers the environment here? Am I the only one who's worried about the state of the environment and the consequences of climate change and over-population?
I just think "we'll have great technologies, but we won't even have sustainable/fertile soil for food". I mean soils are degrading all around the world... aren't they?
What are you seeing /sci/ that I'm not?

>>3244596
Yes the climate is changing, whether it's natural or man made I can't, and therefore won't, say. As for overpopulation, believe me to a single person ~7,000,000,000 is a huge number, but to quote a hitchikers guide to the galaxy "that's just peanuts to space." As large as it sounds we have barely left a mark on how huge a population we could have just here on earth. And as for soil, I don' know anything about that, but hydroponics and vertical farming towers are surprisingly viable solutions, the problem is that like all new ideas creating the first one takes alot of time and alot of money, two things we have plenty of, but everyone thinks there's never enough of, and don't get me started on the political opposition to such a project being created...

>optimism thread
>three or four optimists versus two dozen whiny cunts bitching about how 'science is dead and we should all just give up'

And you guys actually wonder why the world's going down the shitter. It's your own apathy that's to blame, your self-defeatism.

We're scientists dammit! We're engineers! We're mathematicians! We figure out how the Universe works and how we can manipulate its fucking laws to suit our needs!

Our greatest asset is our imagination and our greatest enemy is our own apathy. So grow a fucking pair, pull your heads out of your asses and stop being so fucking pessimistic! No one's ever discovered anything great or done anything meaningful by starting with, "why bother, what's the point?", so cut the crap /sci/!

>>3244713
>the world's going down the shitter
I thought you said you were an optimist.

The world isn't going down the shitter, we're in a period of prosperity and freedom unseen in history.

science is returning to the hands of the amateurs. The days of the diy scientist experimenting with the first radios is making a comeback in the fields of biology and particle physics (bitches don't know bout my garage genetics lab and DIY particle accelerator)

>>3244728
care to share details about the genetics lab?
potential jellyness coming your way if it turns out to be awesome

>>3244727
He's an optimist only so long as his pain medication and nootropics hold out.

>>3244713
He's got a point. This is supposed to be an optimistic thread and so far like three quarters of the posts have been doomsayer rants.

Yes, the information age is great.

When you've picked all the low hanging fruit... time to get a ladder.

I'm thinking the next wisest thing to work on is increasing the amount of intelligence we have to work with. Strong AI would be nice, but lets not discount soft AI, intelligence enhancement, or just plain better education for baseline humans. Hell, lets work on cloning that one 12 year old math savant to see if lightning will strike twice.

I'm typing this from a machine with more digital processing power than existed on the entire earth the year we set foot on the moon.

We have only begun to see what we're capable of.

"There's a reason for the 21st century
I'm not to sure, but I know that it's meant to be..."
-Red Hot Chili Peppers

>>3243908
>he thinks we fully understand the physics of our universe
we've barely scratched the surface anon

Humans will die out before they can discover anything to save their ass from inevitable death.

>>3243908
this is why you arent a scientist
its because you are too busy being a faggot

>>3245995

>>3246000

>>3246002

>>3244109
nothing in space is valuable?
what about all the other fucking matter thats out there
what the fuck is that shit?

>>3246004

>>3246008

>>3246012

>>3246010

>>3246014

>>3246017

>>3246020

>>3246006
There is nothing in space that is valuable enough to justify going there today or in this decade. This is counting out the orbits near earth, those are profitable.

Currently space is good only for two things,
1) Science
2) Dick waving
This means that only goverment that are willing to hand out massive amounts of money can buy stuff like science probes. This is either done for science or for showing of to others, usually for both.

Dealwithit.gif

>>3243975
>spend 1 trillion to make 1 trillion.

Sounds like a complete pain in the ass to get minerals readily found on Earth. Why would anyone do this again?

>>3243893
Only for those who can $afford$ it. Because shits gonna cost you a arm and a leg. And if you can't afford it you'll just cry and whine and say how retarded it is until you can get it that is.

>>3244130
every time you mine from an asteroid you'd be flooding the market with that mineral thus making it's price plummet.

>Hurr i'm gonna be a billionaire with my space rock

Good luck when you destroy the very market you wish to break into. You'll end up paying people to take it away.

>>3244401
>What if we developed a system to just bring the asteroids to Earth. Slow their descent and gently glide them to the surface where we can pick them up and carry them off for mining.

And with the margin for error, you'll bring on the apocalypse. How about a big "Fuck you" from the collective human race and all life on Earth? We don't need dickheads like you to be rich in order for us to exist.

There will always be something left to discover, something left to explore, something to strive for.

bump

>>3246104
Only if there's no demand in the market. Your right if you mine stress balls or some shit that no one needs or wants and that can't be made into something useful. Last time I checked, metals from space are pretty useful

Honestly all I want:

All stds cured.

Full control over size and make of genitals and other sexual goodies.


I'm gonna marry the first girl I meet with a horse cock.
On the spot:
Ring.
Dress.
Chapel.
The works.
Take her home.
Whatever it takes.


Everything else I can wait for.

I don't mind if we never get into space.

So long as I can remain handsome and have large genitals.

>>3244401
I support geoengineering and even I can tell that's a horrible idea.

>>3249174
As nice as that sounds I still have to ask, how concieted are you? Honestly I hate people but at the same time the thing that scares me the most is that one day there may be no more people, at all. Nothing left even to say "we were here"

>>3243893
>And they will be the most useless