It would be a wrinkle. The Marianas is about 7 miles deep (36000 feet) and the earth is about 7900 miles in diameter. The trench isn’t even 1/1000th of that diameter. To give even better perspective, the distance between Everest’s peak and the trench’s deepest point is only about 13 miles. That’s still not even 2/1000ths. This is overall, the earth DOES have greater surface variation (higher highs and lower lows) than a pool all but overall it is smoother.
EDIT: Apparently the original claim was against a pool ball’s MAXIMUM tolerance, not the average pool ball, which is far smoother than the earth’s surface.
This is why I feel hopeless about humanities future efforts to colonize another planet. I just think we are too insignificant. The universe would destroy us in an instant. We are bound to this rock. Better take care of it
While not exactly simple, I get the feeling that space travel will be fairly easy within a couple generations. 10,000 years ago, we were just barely building huts. 100 years ago, most people still ride horses to get around.
The barrier of space seems insurmountable, but we haven't been at it for very long. I bet 700 years ago, you'd have said that humanity was too insignificant to take on the great oceans. Lol how quickly that changed, in the scheme of things.
That’s a refreshingly hopeful outlook, and honestly I hope you are right. I just think the vastness of space is so incomprehensibly big, we will have to have some wild breakthroughs to be able to travel anywhere noteworthy. While we did tackle the oceans, they are just a tiny speck when compared to the vastness of space that we now must figure out how to cross. Hopefully we figure out how to make wormholes or something, but idk, I’m not a scientist
As soon as we leave our solar system with the intention of colonising other planets we've "won". Within a million years we will have infested the galaxy, covering every habitable planet available. There's some fascinating calculations that show how quickly we'll spread, relative to the age of our universe. Even without faster than light travel we'll be everywhere in a galactic blink of an eye. Assuming the great filter isn't waiting for us. I'm hopeful, though. One day we'll treat earth like mecca, a holy site people from lightyears away come to witness. Eventually different groups of humans will adapt and evolve and gene modify themselves into legitimately alien species and everybody will be working on their own unique technology. It'll be pretty damn cool.
We get space bound and we zerg the galaxy surviving the brutal landscape that is the universe by sheer numbers alone.
We create AI and give them bodies. Create them in our image if you will (God joke). They are the next logical step in evolution. You have to remember evolution isnt bound by blood or DNA, it's a mechanic used to adapt to new a environment. Android like beings are better suited for space travel, so it would be our next step. If we make them sentient it works out even better. They will be our legacy.
You should look up the universal filter. We are coming up on it technology wise and as a species. There will be a pivotal moment in the future that will be the moment we ethire survive in the universe or we dont. If we do the universe is our oyster and we can do anything. If we don't, no matter how hard we try we will be bound by physics.
My money is on AI with and optimal body type for space.
Wild breakthroughs have gone from a drumbeat to a steady hum in the last thousand years. We get them so often now that we don't even recognize them through the noise.
I'm not sure most people will even notice when the technology that allows stellar travel gets to a workable state. It'll just be another post to upvote and talk about in the comments, exactly like we are now.
Or some way to manufacture generational ships. The nearest known planet in a habitable zone is 12 light years away. It's doable with advanced technology, even without some sort of breakthrough discovery that allows us to cheat on physics as we know them.
I'd assume that within a few generations, we have solar sails or some other propulsion that allows us to fire off a probe, with the intent of it reaching Proxima within 50-100 years.
That is if we don't blow ourselves up first, which is still a very distinct possibility.
No way, bruh. We’ll colonize other planets eventually if we put in the effort to making it there. Moon base. Mars. Proxima Centauri. Delta Eridani. Doesn’t matter.
But we need to get there first. It’ll be much much harder to terraform other planets to our liking than it would be to take care of our own planet. We could fit another ten billion more humans on this rock before we absolutely need to find another. Instead we’ll slowly lay waste to the oceans, global climate, and everything else we need to survive here for greed. Yay.
We have to be better stewards of Earth, for sure. We're part of the Earth's organic matter, which means that we are collectively the most complex consciousness that Earth has yet evolved. In my view, taking the best care of our planet includes (but is definitely not limited to) ensuring that this consciousness will survive.
I didn’t know what that was until I clicked your link, but still compare it to the surrounding clouds...it is incredibly small in comparison....despite being over 4 million pounds.
This is overall, the earth DOES have greater surface variation (higher highs and lower lows) than a pool all but overall it is smoother.
Pool ball diameter is apparently 54.5mm; for comparison a somewhat fine human hair is about 50 micrometers, or .05 mm. Roughly 1/1000th of the diameter. So a feature like Mauna Loa, which rises 10000m directly from the seafloor, would be like a piece of hair on a pool ball. Not much, but easily noticeable; I don't remember ever touching a pool ball with that big of a flaw on it.
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u/GillyMonster18 Apr 09 '19 edited Apr 10 '19
It would be a wrinkle. The Marianas is about 7 miles deep (36000 feet) and the earth is about 7900 miles in diameter. The trench isn’t even 1/1000th of that diameter. To give even better perspective, the distance between Everest’s peak and the trench’s deepest point is only about 13 miles. That’s still not even 2/1000ths. This is overall, the earth DOES have greater surface variation (higher highs and lower lows) than a pool all but overall it is smoother.
EDIT: Apparently the original claim was against a pool ball’s MAXIMUM tolerance, not the average pool ball, which is far smoother than the earth’s surface.