A thought about latency
Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. If the Sun disappeared right now, we’d have 8 minutes of warmth and light before we knew.
A signal from Mars takes between 3 and 22 minutes, depending on where the planets are in their orbits. You say “hello.” You wait. Up to 44 minutes for the round trip. A conversation with pauses longer than most dinners.
Imagine loving someone on Mars. You send a message. You wait. Twenty-two minutes of silence. Their response comes. By the time you hear it, they’ve already moved on to the next thought, the next hour, the next meal.
Every relationship across that distance would be made of monologues arriving late.
I find this beautiful and unbearable in equal measure.
Related thinking:
astro
Thinking about AI, robots, space, and the future. Writing it down so I don't forget.