Greetings From Connecticut!

[Daniel S]

Thank You, I love the hardness of the universe and the devotion to scientific realism without ruining the fun. For the last year I've been becoming increasingly addicted to Hard Science Fiction; of course I don't hate softer franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc, but I can't watch A New Hope without thinking to myself about how unrealistic it all is. And don't get me started on the "Parsecs" quote, dear god!  I love the aliens, original and not just Humans with prosthetics (even genuine hard sci-fi series do that).

I find them enjoyable for different reasons, mostly I find franchises without good worldbuilding to be a pain and hard SF tends to be better at that.

The Encyclopedia Galactica is very informative, though I'm not really a fan of the Bernd Helfert artwork, it doesn't really fit. I would like to see more original artwork in the Encyclopedia. The History is not bad, I like the basic set up; The Singularity > Nanodisaster > Technocalypse > Great Expulsion > Dark Age. I don't agree with some of the Transhumanist elements in the universe, I think sentient AI will exist but I don't know if they'll become godlike entities within the next several millennia. Definitely not within the next 15 years as Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk propose. Clarktech/Godtech seem like a stretch, though the Wormholes are cool. 

I'm also not a Kurzweil fan (IMO he's a bit of a hack) but it's worth keeping in mind that OA isn't a futurology project, it's a fictional worldbuilding site. We don't purport to predict the future so much as have tried to take the ideas of transhumanist fiction and run with it for entertainment and interest "Godlike" is in the eye of the beholder imo. If it's mentally as beyond you as you are a worm, can do things you can barely understand and output as much economic activity in one thought as your entire civilisation does then why not use the term godlike?

I know that Orion's Arm is a worldbuilding project, I just wanted to state my views on Transhumanism.

I expect that Provolved Tree Kangaroos exist in Y11k.  

If there's something in the EG that you think should be there then go forth and conquer anyone's free to write an article.

Look them up, there the cutest things in the universe.

Thanks for the equations, I've used these before. I just wanted to find an easily way to calculate travel time of a spacecraft without getting into the complicated equations. I've been looking up equations from Atomic Rockets and translating them into Wolfram Alpha with mixed results. I like the calculator you sent me, wish it was more interactive it seems very limited. 

As far as I'm aware that's the quickest and easiest equation to figure out non-relativistic journey times using continuous acceleration. Relativistic journeys, anything involving orbital transfers and working through the rocket equation to figure out fine details are all much more of an effort.

Well I know a few Constant Acceleration calculators, both are good but don't good into the specific details I prefer

I other news, did you watch the Falcon Heavy launch yesterday. Absolutely beautiful!  The Tesla Roadster sent into orbit, (the dummy driving it has gotten the nickname Starman) I've been seeing it reference all over Reddit and 4chan. What did you think of the launch?

I did watch, it was very impressive. Tbh I hated putting the car in their, I don't think it says something great about our species that we turn momentus rocket launches into marketing, but the reusability of the rocket is very cool. The footage of the two boosters landing side-by-side within a second of each other was a thing of beauty.

I agree it was beautiful, I couldn't catch it live by it did watch it after and I was impressed. Its even more epic if you play some epic music in the background. As more the Tesla Roadster, it was supposed to be the Falcon Heavy's boilerplate, a dummy payload used for test flights. Musk made it a publicity stunt. The car has become a meme across the Internet.