Oatmeal
(from 2001.07.07, updated 2001.09.29)
Sometimes I wonder what we are all doing here, what is the point, spinning around nothing around nothing we go, out there, billions of billions of other things whizzing along with us, yet so much nothing between us at the same time. Why is it the chemical reactions taking place in me are so ordered as to allow the electrons in my head firing away that create my thoughts and the movement of my fingers hitting the keys in order to produce characters one after the other that form words that are 0's and 1's in a file on my computer, then from that, to being transported in order from my computer to another computer that is part of the Internet, to end up being sent to your computer and converted into a little wave of electricity somewhere between 0 & +1 volts at the right time as to hit your monitor screen to excite the phosphorus which then emits light which travels to your eyes which covey the information to your brain to be decoded that enables you to read and make sense of it. Talk about defying entropy. I cannot comprehend the probabilities of all these billions upon billions of events happening each in step of the way, each working with the other, each in the correct and specific order to allow what is happening to happen. Truly a universe in it's own right. So. If we ever plan on visiting other planets, or solar systems, and plan to do it through normal space, we are inevitably stuck to a constant accelerating until we reach a mid way, at which point we would have to start applying the breaks to stop us. Both this acceleration and deceleration would be limited by the fact that as humans, we become piles of mush when subjected to a certain amount of force. So, let us choose 9.8 meters per second square, which approximately the acceleration due to gravity on earth, as our acceleration, which would solve the problem of our shit floating away and hitting bob in the face while he is eating his oatmeal. There we would be, flying head first towards our destination, while all around us, it would seem as if we are back at home, sipping tea at grandmas. Midway would be interesting, I'm sure lots of people could think of nifty ways in which the ship could transform to allow it to decelerate, but I think it would be much closer to the Arcade game Asteroids. We would just spin the ship around, and make like we are heading for home. Beside the brief period when we are spinning the ship around to moon our new home, everything would still be pulled in the same direction at the same force. In a way, its pretty easy and simple, compared to mad twirling donuts keeping us pinned to the inside rim like a cheap fair ride. I am sure someone must have figured this out by now; I just haven't read it about yet. Then again, I don't read much either. This limit of 9.8 m/s^2 would also mean a set limitation on the max speed we could travel even it we could break e=mc2, because to get at any speed, we need accelerate to it, and decelerate to it, and this would take a long time. It might also be interesting, because the farther our destination is, the faster we can travel to it, because we would have more time, or distance rather, to accelerated and decelerate. Someone needs to workout these equations for me.
Well, its early, I am going to bed. Enjoy, and I hope billions upon billions upon billions of things have gone right for you to have read up to this point.
- davisj