[whiskeytown]

I almost posted on this - glad I caught it.

It comes down to this....plain and simple...

IF an alien Civilization comes to our planet....they have developed some EXCEPTIONALLY powerful energy sources which no doubt could be turned into exceptional weapons.

If they can cross light years of space, a task that theoretically speaking, is impossible as we understand it without approaching light speed, which requires an infinate amount of energy to do, then I feel they could make us their bitch anytime they want.

Spending money on this is like spending military budget on fighting tidal waves of the "Deep Imapct" magnitude - if it's not futile because of it's scarcity, it's futile in the effort.

But many philosophers (and myself, for that matter) believe we'll never have face to face contact with alien races. For a society to get that sort of technology to cross interstellar distances means a lot of advances have to be made which will have military applications. They generally believe that a society will destroy itself before it gets that far.

There was a great Outer Limits where a guy discovered cold fusion and went insane cause he realized the oceans could be harnessed into a bomb that could vaporize earth - If I discovered a technology that provided unlimited energy and turned tap water into an immense destructive Bomb, I'd say [censored] it and bury it for another 50 years.

And sooner or later a nutjob would use that technology to do it - (like a terrorist) -

History tells us that anything we use as an energy source we usually turn into weapons (that is, if it didn't START as a weapon in the first place, like Atomic Weapons) - so unless they're really [censored] enlightened, I don't believe it will happen - I think we'll have to settle with radio signals.

RB