DC,
It’s true that, as we get older, we develop a capacity to tolerate boredom (or develop means to avoid it), and also that our perception of the passage of time slows down a tad — but when faced with a span of tens of thousands of years, I truly doubt that applies.

As for either sleeping through the passage of time or avoiding it through time dilation, that is not likely to be attractive to even a very long-lived species — at least, not for the purpose of simply traveling.   You would arrive at your destination to find out that bell-bottoms were in fashion again, and all you have brought with you are boot-cut jeans.

Thanks, DC… that’s exactly what I mean.

We need to step outside our own perceptions of time, gravity, speed, etc… all based on our experience here on earth, within our own tiny solar system.

Even here within this very limited scrap of matter that we live on, tucked way off on the edge of an insignificant little galaxy, we see enormous variety… species with a lifespan of hours, like some insects, and others that live thousands of years like redwood trees and certain fungi. We have species that only live in water, and others that can fly. We have every kind of reproduction from simple cell division to complex bi-sexual reproduction.

Imagine what mind-bending variations on those themes must exist throughout a vast universe (one that is, we now find, just a small part of an even-vaster multiverse!)

I don’t believe in a God that in any way resembles the Christian anthropomorphic trinity… but I believe in a Something. And I think the Something has gifted us with an eternal soul for a reason. I think we are on a cosmic journey through time and space, and in the course of it we will travel everywhere and see everything there is to see… and in some Cloud-like memory bank, somewhere, all these experiences are being stored and cataloged for our personal entertainment when eventually we are in a form and state that is able to access them.

This life here on the Little Blue Planet is fun and interesting… but I’m already  excited to see what my next destination will be.

shortchain,

I don’t want to put words into filistro’s mouth (or fingers), but my perception of her suggestion was a bit different.

As we age and mature as individual humans, our perception of what a given span of time means tends to alter, because we have more time behind us to compare it to. I know I view “a year” very differently now than I did when I was, say, ten or fifteen or even thirty. If I’d gone on a year-long trip as a ten-year-old, it would have seemed a lifetime. Today, would be a longish vacation.

A five-year car loan when I was twenty seemed like forever, as if I was committing myself to forever being under the crushing weight of a life sentence. When I take out a five-year loan today, I’m already planning what I’ll do with all that extra cash in a mere 60 months when the car is paid off. Hell, I can nearly hold my breath for that long.

Similarly, I’d expect that for a species with lifespans in the thousands or millions of years, their view of what a century or a millennium means to them would be very different from what it means to us. It’s not that their perception of the passage of time has changed. It is that the meaning of the passage of time has changed.

As far as tolerance for acceleration, it’s all in waiting for it. A gentle acceleration of 1 g will bring you to 10% of the speed of light in only a year. Relativistic effects begin to kick in, and you can’t maintain that, but after only ten years at this gentle acceleration, you’re going to be moving as close to the speed of light as a creature needs, if that creature lives for a million years or so. It can travel anywhere in the galaxy.

filistro,
I’m pretty good at willingly suspending my disbelief, but a theorized alien race with a perception of time so slow that thousands of years to us seems like a few days to them is a problem.

The theory of evolution would indicate that faster individuals will survive more readily.  All things being equal, the slower creature gets eaten by the bear (or alien analog).  So what evolutionary pressure would make a slower time perception a benefit?

I suggest that the only environment in which a species with such a slow perception of the passage of time could evolve is one where the rate of change is equally slow.  That suggests, in turn, that the species would have to evolve somewhere outside the solar system (even Pluto has a year “only” 250 times that of Earth).

This would mean that their tolerance for acceleration would be minimal (independently from that, consider what a species with such a perception of time would perceive in an acceleration of, say, 1 gravity: it would be like us receiving a jolt of, say, 2500 G’s — instantly fatal.)  That means that, if they were to travel interstellar distances, they would be restricted to small accelerations.  And that, in turn, would mean that, even with their perception of time, trips would take the equivalent of very long times.

It would also mean that the species would find little of interest — and less in common — with the mayflies in the gravity wells.  Possibly, the equivalent of our entomologists might study humanity for the few days our civilizations last.

Of course, you can, as Lessing did, simply posit such a species as a plot device.  But you cannot, IMHO, then call such fiction “science” fiction.  It’s fantasy.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but let’s not confuse the two.
(*NOTE: I’m relying on your description of Lessing’s thesis — I haven’t been able to get into them at all, and what little I read didn’t make an impression.)

Putting the new Mars rover in perspective is one of America’s best sources for fake news, Andy Borowitz:

Mars Rover Should Not Get So Much Attention, Say Higgs Boson Scientists

Once again, America dares mighty things.

The news conference has started http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL

The descent phase of this mission was perhaps the most ambitious thing NASA has ever attempted, and it appears to have gone off flawlessly. The first two pictures from Curiosity were alone the price of admission.

Now, we get a few years of incredible science, and maybe we discover life on another world.

Was always a tad more fascinated that the 1st moon landing was live on tv in 1969, than the actual landing.

Venus and Mars are alright tonight …

>

btw, what’s the difference between eternity and infinity? Religion and Math?

Will you love me forever!!!!

I couldn’t take it any longer
God I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me
Like a tidal wave
I started swearing to my god and on my mother’s grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
’Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I’m praying for the end of time
It’s all that I can do
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you!!

shiloh, I’m going to send a probe up Uranus.