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Andromeda’s collision course with the Milky Way

There won't be any oceans, so we'll have to evolve into a different kind of ghost. Does seem like the smart thing to do, though. Unless ghosts can melt.

There are probably lots of oceans in a galaxy, just not all of them will be water.
 
Here's the plan:

1. Figure out what dark matter is.

2. Make a humongous bomb out of it.

3. Hire Bruce Willis to set off dark matter explosion to deflect Andromeda harmlessly away from our galaxy.
 
Y'all crazy. Andromeda is a much better galaxy than the Milky Way, we'll be vastly improved by a merger! Andromeda's got nine Sex Planets, Milky Way only has two (and one of those is only open to Mormons). Andromeda has a waterpark with an awesome slide! And in Andromeda they've got french fries that stay hot and crispy no matter how much time passes! Andromeda's got it all: food, fashion, fun, ichthyology on demand, fine wines, exceptional lawns, and a vast array of cute animal stickers in thousands of different designs! It's all well worth the occasional star being crashed, odds are good it won't be ours so let's brace for impact in a positive attitude!
 
Y'all crazy. Andromeda is a much better galaxy than the Milky Way, we'll be vastly improved by a merger! Andromeda's got nine Sex Planets, Milky Way only has two (and one of those is only open to Mormons). Andromeda has a waterpark with an awesome slide! And in Andromeda they've got french fries that stay hot and crispy no matter how much time passes! Andromeda's got it all: food, fashion, fun, ichthyology on demand, fine wines, exceptional lawns, and a vast array of cute animal stickers in thousands of different designs! It's all well worth the occasional star being crashed, odds are good it won't be ours so let's brace for impact in a positive attitude!

That might all be true, but Manifest Destiny on the side of the Milky Way!
 
We are traveling back in time - it will certainly be a lark; one could call it a skylark.

As a complete derail aside. I once met Doc Smith and had a very few words with him ("Hello", was probably as much as I said) at a World Con in the early 1960s shortly before his death. He was a kind of unassuming guy and looked as old then as I feel now. Much like his Wikipedia picture. :cool:
 
As a complete derail aside. I once met Doc Smith and had a very few words with him ("Hello", was probably as much as I said) at a World Con in the early 1960s shortly before his death. He was a kind of unassuming guy and looked as old then as I feel now. Much like his Wikipedia picture. :cool:

Wow.

Sadly I think his influence on science fiction and even science fiction of today is often overlooked.

There is of course a "problem" with much of his work in that it embodies most of the "-isms" of the times, from sexism to racism but when I reread the Skylark series a few years back I was struck not only by the -isms but by what I can only describe as the progressive attitudes and ideas in his books.

I always like how he finished the Skylark series with a twist, the twist being it was the ruthless "evil" baddie that in the end saved the galaxy not the do-goodie-dashing hero.

And this is all on topic as EE "Doc" Smith's most famous series starts with galaxies colliding!
 
There is of course a "problem" with much of his work in that it embodies most of the "-isms" of the times, from sexism to racism but when I reread the Skylark series a few years back I was struck not only by the -isms but by what I can only describe as the progressive attitudes and ideas in his books.

The thing that struck me was the range and imagination he brought to exobiology; he had one of the richest and most diverse collections of alien species anywhere in science fiction. The Zabriskan Fontema, in particular, was an inspired invention, right down to the way its reproductive process avoided inbreeding.

Dave
 
Wow.

Sadly I think his influence on science fiction and even science fiction of today is often overlooked.

There is of course a "problem" with much of his work in that it embodies most of the "-isms" of the times, from sexism to racism but when I reread the Skylark series a few years back I was struck not only by the -isms but by what I can only describe as the progressive attitudes and ideas in his books.

I always like how he finished the Skylark series with a twist, the twist being it was the ruthless "evil" baddie that in the end saved the galaxy not the do-goodie-dashing hero.

And this is all on topic as EE "Doc" Smith's most famous series starts with galaxies colliding!
Indeed he was an interesting and influential writer in Ye Olde Days.
I'm pretty sure I read all his output in my teenage years, including the Tedric books (OK not exactly his), the Family D'Alembert (ditto) and the Subspace duology.

And you're quite right about colliding galxies, the catstrophic hypothesis was accepted science bck the (see Weinbaum).
 

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