Why the film Independence Day got it right

JTEM

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Jun 28, 2022, 3:56:42 PM6/28/22

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Noah's Arc.

If you want living beings to cross the vast, incomprehensible
distances of space, you need to build an arc.

A mere "Ship" won't do. There's no such thing as storage, not
for a trip that long. You need to something large enough for
a breeding population, something that can be maintained,
REBUILT, even as the population it hosts produces everything
it needs -- food, clothing, medicine, entertainment...

We can't build a machine that would last long enough to
cross our galaxy. We could send a chunk of metal there,
ballistically. We could work out direction, speed, how much of
a push we'd need to give it... maybe we could even work where
to point it in order to slow it down once it arrived. But we can't
built a computer that would last the trip. We can't build
transmitters, receivers, cameras...

At 10% the speed of light, it would take over 1 million years to
cross the galaxy.

And, no, we can't just built a probe that 3D prints it's own
replacement parts. If that were possible we could just build
the computers out of the same materials as the 3D printers
and be done with it!

As if you want to send a machine across even our galaxy,
never mind that vast stretches between galaxies, you need
an arc. You need a viable breeding population. You need a
manufacturing base. You need agriculture. You need some
goddamn people (aliens) to keep the goddamn thing
running!

This would be less important with machines -- sending
robots, say -- but still important.

Now, what would the inhabitants of our ark do once they
got there? Well. That's a subject for a different day...

-- --

https://jtem.tumblr.com/post/686063009321336832

JWS

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Jun 28, 2022, 4:18:23 PM6/28/22

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I just thank the lord that we have minds such
as this to guide us through the human adventure.

Ted

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Jun 28, 2022, 4:38:45 PM6/28/22

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On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 12:56:38 -0700 (PDT), JTEM <jte...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Noah's Arc.

> If you want living beings to cross the vast, incomprehensible
> distances of space, you need to build an
> arc.

It's *ark*, you stupid illiterate bastard. An "ark" and an "arc" are
two completely different things. Gawd you're dumb.

JTEM

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Jun 28, 2022, 5:16:18 PM6/28/22

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You met expectations, if you were worried. I've got to post these
things, now & then, incase any lurkers wander in and mistaken
the collective for normal, or at least under competent treatment.

It's amazing how you suffer a meltdown over anything, literally
anything, and by amazing I mean not at all.

-- --

https://jtem.tumblr.com/post/686063009321336832

JWS

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Jun 28, 2022, 6:49:41 PM6/28/22

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And he is so modest about the praise he receives.

JTEM

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Jun 28, 2022, 6:53:58 PM6/28/22

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JWS wrote:

> > It's amazing how you suffer a meltdown over anything, literally
> > anything, and by amazing I mean not at all.

> And he is

I am your god. You worship me. You are so dizzy with affection for JTEM
that you can't even think, as you constantly demonstrate.

-- --

https://jtem.tumblr.com/post/688340604117204992

Ted

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Jun 28, 2022, 7:01:50 PM6/28/22

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On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 14:16:13 -0700 (PDT), JTEM <jte...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm a contemptible coward.

Obviously.

Ted

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Jun 28, 2022, 7:13:42 PM6/28/22

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On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 15:53:53 -0700 (PDT), JTEM <jte...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> They call me a snivelling little rat-faced git.
> Know why?

Yes.

hhya...@gmail.com

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Jun 28, 2022, 8:36:21 PM6/28/22

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On Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 3:56:42 AM UTC+8, JTEM wrote:
> Noah's Arc.

Noah Arc?
You have damaged your head by doing too much tumbling...

%

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Jun 28, 2022, 8:38:05 PM6/28/22

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you lie

JWS

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Jun 28, 2022, 9:20:04 PM6/28/22

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Noah was an ark welder.

%

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Jun 28, 2022, 11:29:08 PM6/28/22

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under water

Ted

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Jun 29, 2022, 6:36:48 PM6/29/22

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On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 18:20:00 -0700 (PDT), JWS <jld...@skybeam.com>
wrote:

Haha. Yeah, pretty much.