Is our technology advanced except in one or two areas?

I believe that the one key piece of technology that we are missing to overcome our energy problems, and to be able to travel easily and cheaply in interstellar space, is control of gravity. I think this will be accomplished through understanding the interactions between electromagnetism, gravity, and inertia.

What if this is something that we should hqave figured out 50 or 100 years ago? maybe there is one tiny but crucial discovery that we are missing that most other spacefaring races discover before making nukes?

Perhaps our technology is on par with most alien species, except in this crucial area. In that case, we are horribly backward in one sense and relatively advanced in others.

Just a rambling thought.

ive often thought about that. was there something we missed or somthing we didnt miss but thought developing nuclear technology was the way to go instead?

I don't know what we could have missed about controling gravity, but I do know that antimatter is the key to energy solutions of the future. It is proven to be MUCH more powerful than nuclear power, and it is only a matter (no pun intended) of time before we develope ways to control it so that it can be used. Remember, we used to think that nuclear energy would never be able to be harnessed into a useable energy source, and look at how many nuclear plants we have now.

[edit on 8-3-2005 by mpeake]

Originally posted by MrMorden
What if this is something that we should hqave figured out 50 or 100 years ago? maybe there is one tiny but crucial discovery that we are missing that most other spacefaring races discover before making nukes?

Perhaps our technology is on par with most alien species, except in this crucial area. In that case, we are horribly backward in one sense and relatively advanced in others.

That would be very difficult to judge... Probably impossible
There are lots of things that have to work together. You cant just slap rockets under a chair and hope to be launched into space even if the rockets technically work (yes that HAVE been tried in the past... It didnt work very well )

The most important thing is that we dont know the alien tech BEFORE they discovered space travel. What if they had already a material that is 1000x stronger than steel, can stand being inside a sun without a scratch, is very lightweight and is virtually free to produce? That would undoubtedly make it easier to build a spaceship. This is probably an extreme example, but you get the point.

[edit on 8-3-2005 by merka]

interesting ideas, especially that humans might just be 'backwards' in one or two 'space faring' techs, but nothing else. Unlikely, but an interesting thing nonethless

As far as gravity, I don't see how man can be much more advanced. Man hasn't even yet detected gravity waves. Apparently its a difficult challenge.

Originally posted by mpeake
I don't know what we could have missed about controling gravity, but I do know that antimatter is the key to energy solutions of the future. It is proven to be MUCH more powerful than nuclear power, and it is only a matter (no pun intended) of time before we develope ways to control it so that it can be used.

I think the greater difficulty is producign anti-matter. its fabulously expensive to produce, and doesn't give much net energy.

Anti-matter plants would be nice, they wouldn't produce waste outside of some radiation and particles no? No real waste storage issues I'd think eh?

[edit to add:]
On a related note, in the vein of having missed an important tech, I recall the idea that there is only enough of some material on earth, say uranium and nuclear fuel, for one massive project, (this idea posits that the planets are designed in one way or another). The idea is that a civil and non war like society will discover the tech while there is still enough nuke fuel, to say, develop a device that lets them travel to other planets or use it all up for traveling to another 'higher' dimension, or whatever, while barbaric peoples that evolve on a planet will waste it all in plants and weapons and thus the 'idiots' are eliminated frmo that 'higher dimesnion' / intergalactic community


[edit on 8-3-2005 by Nygdan]

At the moment we are currenly exploring anti-gravity check out this site:

www.americanantigravity.com...

Some really cool stuff here, especially the lifters!!

i would guess that anti-gravity is being used right now by the military and has been for many years. its all classified top secreat and probably wont be decasiffied for many many years. right now the US depends completely on burning oil and fossil fuels for energy. and they wont change that becouse the Us leaders like the president own huge oil companies.

I have to agree, I believe the US government is already in posession of technology that can access the 'ambient' energy surrounding all matter, I believe this method of harnessing energy was called the zero point energy method. I truly do believe this technology was recovered from downed ET craft and the US govt wil probably see the whole world run intself into the ground with pollution and wars over oil before they ever release this technology.

Originally posted by owner
I have to agree, I believe the US government is already in posession of technology that can access the 'ambient' energy surrounding all matter, I believe this method of harnessing energy was called the zero point energy method. I truly do believe this technology was recovered from downed ET craft and the US govt wil probably see the whole world run intself into the ground with pollution and wars over oil before they ever release this technology.

I could not agree more. I would like to add that it is possible that our corner of space does not have certain elements in sufficient amounts on the periodic table that others might. Refer the Bob Lazar thread for further reading.

Perhaps we did not miss anything at all in our interpretations of the way things work. Maybe we just havent discovered a viable source of supply.

Just some more stuff to ponder. Cheers!

Originally posted by mpeake
I don't know what we could have missed about controling gravity, but I do know that antimatter is the key to energy solutions of the future. It is proven to be MUCH more powerful than nuclear power, and it is only a matter (no pun intended) of time before we develope ways to control it so that it can be used. Remember, we used to think that nuclear energy would never be able to be harnessed into a useable energy source, and look at how many nuclear plants we have now.

I'm not sure about that. Sure, antimatter produces enormous energy, but it's a finicky thing to make work. A small malfunction in the system could annihilate a huge area surrounding it.

I just don't see something that potentially destructive as becoming anything other than a niche technology. Maybe a large, well-monitored power plant could run such a system, but you'll never find it running a private vehicle. Talk about a car bomb...

Originally posted by merka
That would be very difficult to judge... Probably impossible

There are lots of things that have to work together. You cant just slap rockets under a chair and hope to be launched into space even if the rockets technically work (yes that HAVE been tried in the past... It didnt work very well

)

The most important thing is that we dont know the alien tech BEFORE they discovered space travel. What if they had already a material that is 1000x stronger than steel, can stand being inside a sun without a scratch, is very lightweight and is virtually free to produce? That would undoubtedly make it easier to build a spaceship. This is probably an extreme example, but you get the point.

Of course, space technology relies on a lot of advances in materials, avionics and guidance, and a host of others. But we've had all those ducks in a row since the early 1960s.

I just wonder if there is a key propulsion breakthrough out there, for which we have all the pieces, but just haven't quite been able to assemble the puzzle.

They used to say the same about combustion engines...but now look at us. Each day we casually sit in a device that is basically rolling as a result of controlled explosions....

I've said it many times on this forum, that it amazes me that people treat aliens as all godlike, when really we could be only a few inventions away from their tech.....

Originally posted by MrMorden

Originally posted by mpeake
I don't know what we could have missed about controling gravity, but I do know that antimatter is the key to energy solutions of the future. It is proven to be MUCH more powerful than nuclear power, and it is only a matter (no pun intended) of time before we develope ways to control it so that it can be used. Remember, we used to think that nuclear energy would never be able to be harnessed into a useable energy source, and look at how many nuclear plants we have now.

I'm not sure about that. Sure, antimatter produces enormous energy, but it's a finicky thing to make work. A small malfunction in the system could annihilate a huge area surrounding it.

I just don't see something that potentially destructive as becoming anything other than a niche technology. Maybe a large, well-monitored power plant could run such a system, but you'll never find it running a private vehicle. Talk about a car bomb...

They use to say the same thing about nuclear energy too.

Originally posted by Nygdan
interesting ideas, especially that humans might just be 'backwards' in one or two 'space faring' techs, but nothing else. Unlikely, but an interesting thing nonethless

As far as gravity, I don't see how man can be much more advanced. Man hasn't even yet detected gravity waves. Apparently its a difficult challenge.

Well, we don't even know that gravity *produces* waves. It very well might not, if it's more a spacial distortion than an actual "effect."

I'm no physicist, but based on my reading my feeling is that gravity is a secondary effect of electromagnetism, as is inertia. There are reasearchers like Podkletnov and Ning that are on the way to demonstrating this using rotating magnetic fields.

Originally posted by Hunting Veritas
At the moment we are currenly exploring anti-gravity check out this site:

www.americanantigravity.com...

Some really cool stuff here, especially the lifters!!

That's a good site, I visit there periodically to see what's up.

I have to admit I'm not all that thrilled with lifters, espeically since they have not been successfully used in a vacuum. This indicates that a magnetohydodynamic effect is occuring, rather than any actual gravity effect.

I'm more interested in the systems that claim to produce gravity-like effects through magnetic effects, such as the Searle device and the Biefield-Brown effect. It's ALL fascinating stuff though, and the kind of alternate approaches that make me wonder if somehow humanity has "missed" an important technology along the way.

Originally posted by jaso109
i would guess that anti-gravity is being used right now by the military and has been for many years. its all classified top secreat and probably wont be decasiffied for many many years. right now the US depends completely on burning oil and fossil fuels for energy. and they wont change that becouse the Us leaders like the president own huge oil companies.

Sigh...I am not a subscriber to the "oil companies own the government" conspiracy theories. It just doesn't hold up to any reasonable economic analysis.

It would be far smarter (and easier, and cheaper) for energy companies to aquire rights to new technologies and make them available at a profit than to completely suppress them, buy off the people they can and kill the rest, all the while pumping enough money into Washington to completely overshadow all other interests and run the whole show.

The oil companies are like any other industry; they exist to make a profit by offering a product to consumers. If they are "evil" in some way, it is no more so than Coca-Cola, Disney, IBM, or MGM.

Originally posted by MrMorden

Originally posted by Hunting Veritas
At the moment we are currenly exploring anti-gravity check out this site:

www.americanantigravity.com...

Some really cool stuff here, especially the lifters!!

That's a good site, I visit there periodically to see what's up.

I have to admit I'm not all that thrilled with lifters, espeically since they have not been successfully used in a vacuum. This indicates that a magnetohydodynamic effect is occuring, rather than any actual gravity effect.

I'm more interested in the systems that claim to produce gravity-like effects through magnetic effects, such as the Searle device and the Biefield-Brown effect. It's ALL fascinating stuff though, and the kind of alternate approaches that make me wonder if somehow humanity has "missed" an important technology along the way.

Cool, I seen alot of experiment's but I cannot tell if this is real check out the copter www.laserway.com.... I would like to think its real, but my friend who has had alot of training with rolls royce helicopter engines seems to think it's fake, Can I have some other (intelligent) opinions please.

[edit on 9/3/05 by Hunting Veritas]

Originally posted by MrMorden
I just wonder if there is a key propulsion breakthrough out there, for which we have all the pieces, but just haven't quite been able to assemble the puzzle.

Maybe its sitting in some Russian warehouse

Not to long ago they found those rocket engines that was WAY more efficient than anything in the american space arsenal. When they tested the engine it was almost as if it was going to break apart the platform it was attached to and fly away, lol.

[edit on 9-3-2005 by merka]

I think one tech we are really falling behind on is batteries.
Batteries havent improved alot in the last 20-10 years, there has been slow advancements but nothing ground breaking. I was reading a article in a paper a few years ago (the herald sun for any in melbourne) and they have a tech section, in the article they explained how if batteries advanced as much as processors have, that they could fit in a aa battery the power of a nuke battery cell.
Whats the use of having a propulsion system that you cant provide enough energy for? This is why a new propulsion system hasnt came yet, why make one that you cant possible run?