Current Events > The pessimist in me says that humans will never venture beyond the Solar System.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Assuming that we don't destroy ourselves due to nuclear war or just destroying the planet, everything of note is just too far away for us to reach without using generation ships or something, and even though have their own share of problems. The nearest star is only 4.3 lightyears away, and it would still take tens of thousands or even hundred of thousands of years for us to reach it with current technology (and if that generation spacecraft breaks down at any point during the journey, which in that timeframe is almost guaranteed, you're screwed).

Even if we were to develop light-speed travel, that's still 4.3 years from Earth to there; and then you have to consider how big the galaxy is (estimated to be up to 200,000 lightyears across), that's a lot of time of traveling. And then the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest major galaxy, is 2.5 million lightyears away from us, so you can forget about exploring that anytime soon (maybe wait until it's closer? After all, both our galaxy and it are on a collision course 4 billion years in the making). ...But of course, that all assumes that light-speed travel is even possible for us to achieve, and since we and what we build have mass, that may be a lost cause.

That's just a waterdrop in the vast cosmic ocean. It's a bit sad knowing that we have this vast cosmic playground, but we can never ever explore even 1% of it.
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