Re: Fermi's Paradox and FTL drives

"Gene Ward Smith" <gene@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:Xns9A396A7344A5Fgenewardsmithsbcglob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> GSV Three Minds in a Can <GSV@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
> news:AvCgZZAYbgpHFA80@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>>Why limit it to this galaxy?
>>
>> Couple of reasons .. 1) The visible signs of our existence
> won't have
>> made it to any other galaxy yet (if ever), so they'd not
> have come
>> specifically looking, and 2) (most) Galaxies are far enough
> away that
>> feeble-grade FTL probably isn't good enough to go exploring
> between
>> them, you'd want VMFTL (tm).
>>
>
> What the hell is feeble-grade FTL? Why, if it can't handle
> other galaxies, can it handle ours--or is that out also?

At one thousand times the speed of light it would still take 25 YEARS to 
reach just the nearest galaxy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies

Thus the need for Very Much Faster Than Light speed.

The Enterprise-D would have to be maxing its engines at over warp 9 to get

1,000 times c and only maintain that for minutes.

Stargates could make the trip in seconds but you need to plant them in the

first place. Tauri star****ps could travel the distance, but it takes 2 
weeks. Then again using Goauld / Asgard / Ancient technology they are 
capable of VMFTL speeds.

-- Ken from Chicago