Humodour

Hell, I make $200 a day, why not. I'll also chip in $100. How much does it cost to fly there anyway? I imagine it'd be pretty expensive since you'd probably need to hire a private jet and a pilot good enough to avoid being shot down.

Good **** mate.

Why would rapid scientific progress need to be the case? The technology required to move humans to another planet already exists. That would be the simplest form of space colony. Also, such issues have far less to do with scientific progress then they do with technological progress - you seem to repeatedly conflate the two. Such as? "The laws of physics might prevent it" is a pretty damn tenuous argument, especially in light of the fact that we already know manned space travel is perfectly possible. As I see it the single biggest barrier to an off-world colony would be radiation shielding - something we've grown accustomed to dealing with due to things like the ISS and nuclear power. Well, your arguments with respect to technological barriers stink, but I have little quarrel with your implications of social barriers to surviving the death of a sun (except the sheer magnitude of time-scale we're dealing with).

What do you mean 'if'? Physical demonstrations of memristor memory already exist. HP has built some. They have massive storage density and high speeds (one tenth the speed of DRAM for the HP prototypes). You should see them replace flash memory within 10 years I'd say, since they can be produced on current chip fabrication facilities with few modifications. But if you ask me, the real benefits of memristors extend far beyond mere storage - you might've noticed they have some powerful synergy with neural networks. I don't see how that relates to space colonies though. The fundamental requirements for a space colony are not difficult: space travel, radiation shielding, and sustainable systems. While supercomputing power would certainly help, I doubt it'd be vital, and it's certainly already available via current technology. Edit: If your interested mainly in the solid state storage side of things, Ariste, here's a decent rundown of current competitors vying for the crown: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Futu...r-Cases-137482/

The bolded bit is the only argument of yours I think is worth taking seriously. The rest sounds like you playing devil's advocate while disagreeing with yourself in the process. But the thing is, even the bolded bit is questionable. If enough sentient Earthlings pooled resources together for a brief period of time (say, 50 years, depending on basic technological level), they'd be able to produce a self-sufficient space colony. Now, due to the time-frame we're talking about, it's probable that this would happen many thousands of times of over before our sun died - even if one accepts the bizarre notion that war is humanity's natural state and our current era of democratic peace will end soon (heck the main reason we went into space to begin with was because of a war). Am I saying it's absolutely inevitable humanity will survive? No. But the alternative is as unlikely as me picking 5 cards randomly from my deck right now and getting a royal flush in diamonds (about 3.84769292 * 10^-7 for reference).

Pffft. 500 million years. You can go as slow as you damn-well like (both literally in terms of space ship speed, and in terms of technological progress), you'll still survive death of your star with that time frame on your side. All you need is a) some form of space travel (check) and b) some semblance of terraforming or the like. NASA and co are working on b now, with the aim of setting up a space colony on the Moon by 2020... but we've already got a space station - it's not hard to imagine these efforts being expanded to suit some sort of Noah's Ark in space. Can you imagine it taking any more than 1000 years for Earth to get a self-sufficient space colony set up if it put it's collective mind to it? I can't imagine it taking even 50 years, personally. Calax: The immediate goal for the world's space agencies is a Lunar Colony. America's on track to have one by 2020 or so. China claims it's on track for 2020 (doubtful). Japan and India are eyeing 2030. Many people want to go after Mars once that's done. Buzz Aldrin has been writing seriously about Mars colonies for a while now if you want to google his stuff. He reckons America's best bet is to send people to Mars permanently once they've got the tech (which they do now, just not the will). He thinks America should leave the moon to other countries. But in regards to a Lunar Colony, at the moment NASA is working on things like lunar robots, lunar plants (peas survive fine on the moon apparently), and lunar power sources (solar and nuclear are the most promising).

Would you bet any money on us getting to another planet before the year 500,000,000 though? I would. I'd bet lots. Not least of all because I'd never have to pay up.

It's an act of cruelty that serves to divert some attention away from China itself. For the same reason, the Chinese are supporting the brutal military dictatorship in Burma.

Hopefully they use the commonsense system Deus Ex used - big crosshair when it's unlikely you'll hit, small when it is, and a big crosshair getting smaller when you stop moving, Well, I dunno about the assault rifle, but I've got no problem with enemies dying easily - e.g. headshots taking down any enemy in one hit (e.g. Deus Ex). There are other ways to make the game challenging. Surely that's not enabled by default? I hope. Explain? And? That's a purely aesthetic thing which I doubt most people will even notice. Uhg. I absolutely hate that. What do you mean?

I handled it myself. I am a bard so my chance to hit is the same as that of a fighter due to inspirations and dexterity (weapon finesse) and such, and I had haste, mirror image, and 4 attacks per round from dual-wielding. Also my AC was about 30 due to my dexterity. Sand didn't offer, but Qara, Casavir, and Khelgar did. I think Casavir and Khelgar would've died quickly. Qara would've beaten it easily as long as you picked haste or expeditious retreat as one of her spells. Right now I'm a bit bored with the game because the combat is way too easy and this is on Hthe hardest difficulty. I hope MotB is harder. Edit: Also, I suspect I get to kill Bishop eventually, but I hope it's soon. I'll let Qara roast him slowly. Although I'm concerned about her loyalty as well.

The sun will incinerate the atmosphere and boil the oceans in about 500 million years. At 1 billion years, life on Earth will cease to exist (except possibly for extremophile bacteria and archaea). At 5 billion years, the sun will have engulfed the earth completely - normally the Earth would be thrown farther out into the solar system as the sun loses mass, but tidal interactions will actually pull it in. The thing is, the dinosaurs didn't exist 250 million years ago. Humans have only existed really for about 0.1 million years. Civilisation has only existed for about 0.01 million years. Artificial electricity and the accompanying technological age has only existed for about 0.0001 million years. 6 millions years ago, Humans, Chimps and Bonobos were one species. 4 million years ago humans and chimps were still ****ing each-other. 100 million years ago, birds were still maniraptora dinosaurs. Humans won't be around in 500 million years, whether we wipe ourselves out (doubtful) or thrive (probable). Whatever sentient being is around, though, human ancestry or not, it will undoubtedly have developed the capability to outlive the death of its star.

The leaders of our states are called premiers here. They are like mini prime ministers and often act like it.

Are you Volourn's alt or something? There is nothing enthralling in any of the characters in either JE or ME, and KotOR's, six years on, seem pretty thin too. Counter-example: Jolee. And Assassin Droid.

This from someone who's played through BG. I recall taking down legions of kobolds, orcs, orges, gibberlings, wolves, bears, and skeletons with 1) shoot arrows, 2) pause every five seconds as you select a different target for your archers, 3) continue until the enemy gets near, 4) run off until they stop chasing you, 5) come back and shoot more arrows. That's 75% of the fights right there. Though when I was really feeling saucy, I had Minsc stand in the middle of a crowd while my archers picked the opponents off one by one. Wow, you were pretty **** at the game.

Oh god dammit I thought I managed to avoid the Internet last night. Obviously not. Now to figure out where else I posted and who I abused.

It's interesting how Obsidian managed to take this path and Bioware will go great lenghts to make most of the characters immortal. Writers, like David Gaider, probably want to keep most of the characters alive as killing 'em would make his job harder. I liked how BG2 allowed most of the characters to be killed but Mr.Gaider thinks it's not worth the extra work. This issue would probably make a great discussion panel at the Game Developers Conference. Kudos for taking the different path Obsidian! **** yes it's worth the extra work. Glad Obsidian didn't cop out on this like Bioware often does.

Sounds fun!

No, Windows 7 has not been released yet. Support teams generally don't support beta versions and the like.

Well, Baldur's Gate 1 was good even if it was downhill from there. Also, Bethesda is not the worst company in the game industry.

Always an interesting piece of technology, but I've not really got anything new to add since the last thread you made on this. Good to see people attempting to actually use it for a realworld purpose though instead of yet another prototype.

merrytg chridstmas

Ir's possible thart ti AM drunk toy ascunt. the end of thw world is nigh,. s

fycking i hate ny oaswird. an y login that requires a phishing attkack an d **** is almost ntto worthh the efftrt.,s stfu your mum

0% You would give up at the start due to the flagrantly oppressive atmosphere of Western colonial imperialist Capitalism.

Damn straight. Edit: That is, I don't mind soaking up some bullets. It'd suck if it was too realistic. Deus Ex hit on a good level for the harder difficulties.