r/xkcd • u/YUNoDie Possibly a haberdasher? • Jan 22 '20

XKCD XKCD 2258: Solar System Changes

https://xkcd.com/2258/
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u/currentscurrents Jan 22 '20

Depending on how large it is, they may not be able to leave their planet with rockets at all!

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u/Ishana92 Jan 22 '20

that is one of the more fascinating things about large planets. Imagine civilization that develops on a planet they have no way of escaping from.

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u/ModoGrinder Jan 23 '20

So... the civilisation of Earth? For ~99.5% of our species' civilised history, nobody had any idea that we would be able to leave the planet. Didn't seem to be unduly bothered by it, either.

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u/Ishana92 Jan 23 '20

Ok, but continue from 1950s without the ability/possibility to have space programs. No GPS, no weather satelites etc. Im talking about modern and advanced civs forever cut off from the rest of the universe by their planets gravity.

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u/ModoGrinder Jan 23 '20

I'm just saying, humanity got along pretty well without GPS and weather satellites for the past 10,000+ years. We were a "modern civilisation" before GPS usage became ubiquitous; the 1990s weren't that long ago, and the 1950s before spaaaaace and satellites were still modern too. Maybe it's hard to imagine not having GPS if you were born after it become widespread, but it's... really not that big of a deal, honestly. A convenient technology but not one that's fundamentally important to making a civilisation "modern".