We Might Want to Consider Moving to Alpha Centauri B

@Paladin, With the exception of the wormholes and Andromeda being impossible to contact, agreed on all points.

I don't think they will come any time soon. In fact we could be a few thousand years away from solving the power issues required to create them. But if it is possible, barring us self-destructing or us meeting some catastrophic end (meteor, sun unexpectedly burning out early, going nova early), we will eventually figure out how to do it.

If we develop the wormhole technology then reaching Andromeda is no longer impossible. And when creating the wormholes becomes not only possible but resource cheap and easy to replicate on a mass scale then we can send out millions of probes all over the place, have them collect data, send out various types of transmissions, and then send the data and any responses back through the wormhole and jump to their next point, and repeat.

Of course that is assuming so many variables that it seems absurd right now. But a few thousand years ago the things we are capable of doing now would have had the people thinking we were Gods.

The real barrier is the immense times. Other intelligent life that has 100 million years of advancement on us would probably not care to interact with us even if they do still exist. And in 100 million years if we've survived we'll likely not care to interact with civilizations who are anywhere on the technological scale of human existence at any point to date. There simply would be nothing remotely in common. I imagine it would be like trying to have a meaningful interaction with an insect.

Forget intelligent civilizations 100 million years different from us. Or 10 million, one million or even 100,000 years.

How different would we be from a civilization 10,000 years more advanced? Or 10,000 less advanced? Even given radically different rates of advancement, in all likelihood we would be mere curiousities to each other at most.

Some have said that the most unbelievable aspect of Star Trek is that you have more than a dozen or so major races all within a few light years of each other....that are no more than 20 years or so different in technological development.

There are probably a couple of reasons why Star Trek has alien races at so nearly the same level as human beings...

The first is to have believable conflict, which is the essence of drama. If you go up against a technological power that is 1,000 or 10,000 or 1,000,000 or more years ahead of you, you are going to lose and lose very, very badly. You may lose before you even realize you're in a fight. That's why the Romulans and the Klingons MUST be at or near the Federation's level, otherwise any conflict is a cakewalk for one side or the other.

The second is that beings and technology very far in advance of humans are difficult to visualize. What do you get a million years AFTER warp drive and transporters? Maybe Q is what comes closest...

It would be interesting seeing our Sun from an Earth-like planet's night sky in the Alpha Centauri system. I wonder how bright a star it would be?

Not terribly bright. Sol is a G-type yellow dwarf. Not a big player as far as stars go. I think I read somewhere that from Alpha Centauri, our sun wouldn't even be the brightest star visible.

^ That's what I'd figure(d), but it would be so cool & weird to look at a star in a night sky from another solar system KNOWING it's our Sun.

From Alpha Centauri, IIRC Sol would be the fifth or sixth brightest star in the sky, and would form an extension of Cassiopeia, turning the W shape into a zigzag that doesn't resemble any letter.

Sol would be visible to the unaided human eye to a distance of approximately 57 light years. Beyond this it would be too faint to see without the aid of magnifying optics.

Many of the stars we see from earth are much further than this. The three stars making up Orion's belt are (from left to right as seen from the northern hemisphere) 800, 1,340 and 915 light years away. Obviously all of them are much larger and vastly brighter than our own sun.