Consider how long 'modern' technology has been around.. not even a hundred years that we can say we know of.. and add the fact that we have been here for a barely a moment in the history of the universe. We are talking trillions of years.. in that time i would expect there have been species like us around the universe that have come and gone in the blink of a universal eye.
Imagine the universe as the total ocean area of the earth and add 10 million people individually into it across different areas. Now imagine trying to find someone else in it by only swimming. That is the equivalent of use finding other species around at the same time as us.. and use trying to reach them.
Imagine the universe as a family tree.. the Universe (family) is so old it has several thousands of years of ancestry. Modern humans are just a foetus of the last born daughter that hasn't even been born yet, or might not ever get born. In fact, it is so young it might not even be conceived yet.
We have the most enormous progress to make in an impossibly infinite timeline. I would seriously doubt that the human race would be around for another 1 million years, unless we suddenly become masters of the unknown at some astonishing rate of growth in the next 2,000 years as there are too many variables that could can affect our development that we are powerless to stop. Realistically, at our rate of progress maybe we could be around for another 50,000 years and that is being wildly optimistic unless we develop the technology to protect and save ourselves and our surroundings.
As Sir Speedy said, the speed of light, which would be impossibly fast for us and is certainly probably several hundred years away development wise.. is still actually extremely pedestrian.. like walking across america. This is where faster-than-light speed would have to come in for us to even make a dent in a journey. So rather like it'd take you an hour to walk across town, in a car it takes 20 minutes and in a plane, about 40 seconds.
Of course the faster we go the quicker we arrive. If you think sonic boom is bad, then try 9 times the speed of light. That is some serious G-force.. lol.. so much that you arrive as 'hot bones'.. not a cool look.
And also consider the fact that when you look at the night sky you are seeing light travelling to us that has been delayed by however many light-years it is away.
Imagine you are in a small room. If you turn on the light, the light appears instantly everywhere. But if the room was large enough, the light would not light the furthest distance away until it reached it, which would be noticeable. Then use that idea for the universe. If a star a million light years away generates light, lets say as a supernova, it would take a million light years for that supernova blast to even be seen by us, and so what we are seeing is actually delayed by a million light years. So you have the idea that when we look at the stars, most of them that can be seen are probably long gone .
Besides, we all know when the All Blacks do win the RWC again, the gates to hell will open up and swallow us all as this is just an impossible scenario and will tilt the universe into some kind of unbalance.
