will we ever go beyond our own galaxy?

[Curiosityness]

As we all know it is completely impossible right now but what about in the future? Our technology has drastically improved in the past 100 years alone. We have come from having to go outside and walk into town to see someone, to sending a message to someone on the other side of the world with the click of a button. But to get to the nearest star (besides our sun) would take 17,000 years to get their traveling at the speed of light.
So my question is, will our technology ever be great enough to send man past our galaxy and reach another, or possibly live on another planet similar to ours?

[Ceannairceach]

Unlikely. It's horribly improbable that we'll seriously leave the solar system at this point, let alone the galaxy.

[Wigwammia]

In the distant, distant, distant future.

[Divair]

Given our current understanding of science, no. But who knows what we'll discover in the future regarding physics.

[Volnotova]

But to get to the nearest star (besides our sun) would take 17,000 years to get their traveling at the speed of light.

...

I am pretty sure it is less than that.

[Diopolis]

But to get to the nearest star (besides our sun) would take 17,000 years to get their traveling at the speed of light.

...

I am pretty sure it is less than that.

And you're right- it would take 17,000 years with current technology. At the speed of light it's about 4 years.

[Wigwammia]

...

I am pretty sure it is less than that.

And you're right- it would take 17,000 years with current technology. At the speed of light it's about 4 years.

At the speed of light it would take 7 minutes.

[Lunas Legion]

No, we'll have destroyed ourselves long before that.

[Of the Free Socialist Territories]

And you're right- it would take 17,000 years with current technology. At the speed of light it's about 4 years.

At the speed of light it would take 7 minutes.

To get to the nearest star besides our Sun? No, it wouldn't. It would take, as has been stated, 4 years.

[Wigwammia]

At the speed of light it would take 7 minutes.

To get to the nearest star besides our Sun? No, it wouldn't.

Wait, I thought we said our sun. Silly me.

[Zottistan]

Not in my lifetime, or my grandkids'.

[Norstal]

Unlikely. It's horribly improbable that we'll seriously leave the solar system at this point, let alone the galaxy.

So pessimistic.

[Diopolis]

And you're right- it would take 17,000 years with current technology. At the speed of light it's about 4 years.

At the speed of light it would take 7 minutes.

The nearest star besides our sun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars

[Dremono]

Perhaps. War or natural disaster will most likely ravage us, but there is always a chance. The farthest we will ever go, if we do go at all, will be a little out of our solar system.

[Ceannairceach]

Unlikely. It's horribly improbable that we'll seriously leave the solar system at this point, let alone the galaxy.

So pessimistic.

If I were optimistic, I'd never be pleasantly surprised.

[Chinese Regions]

Yes, in the year 2199.

[Dakini]

I'm honestly not sure we'd want to go beyond our own galaxy. Unless we had some sort of nearly instantaneous travel, it would mean a really long trip through a whole lot of nothing before we'd get there.

Even if we look at our local group, the distance to the LMC is about the same as the diameter of our galaxy. Andromeda is the closest spiral galaxy to our own and it's something like 2.5 million light years away.

[L Ron Cupboard]

Yes, in the year 2199.

Are you sure it isn't 2525, if man is still alive?

[Chinese Regions]

And you're right- it would take 17,000 years with current technology. At the speed of light it's about 4 years.

At the speed of light it would take 7 minutes.

It takes 8 minutes to get to the sun at light speed.
Proxima Centauri is about 4 light years from Earth, so 4 years at the speed of light.

[New Ontogeny]

Progress is not defined by a linear or arbitrary amount of increase of "wealth" or capability. As nature has shown us, all human activity must be driven by challenges to the frontiers of human knowledge, and must always aim toward achieving higher energy-flux density platforms. So the short answer is yes, Extraterrestrial Imperative.

[Pdiiek]

Yes, in our minds we'll go anywhere and everywhere.

[Arkiasis]

In a few thousand years, granted if we don't manage to blow ourselves up in that period of time. I'm sure in a few hundred years there will be a huge push for the colonization of another planet before we completely fuck this one up. But first we need to find the technology that allows up to travel at speeds faster than light, if that's even possible. Maybe man-made wormholes.

[Disserbia]

In the far future over the course of many generations it is a possibility.

[Cygninia]

By the time we've invented or got blueprints to make technology to do so we'd have run out of natural resources. They say in about 4 years time we'll run out of oil/fossil fuels.

So it's very unlikely, unless Stephen Hawking and a other-load of egg-heads come together and think of something.

[San Monteriano]

We're probably more likely to wipe ourselves out first because we even seriously contemplate extra-galactic travel, unfortunately.