[jonmrodriguez]

On the contrary, we could get to about 30% of the speed of light with a Bussard Ramjet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

Combine that with life extension and you can travel the stars within one lifetime. Lots of nearby planetary systems would be within only a few decades of travel.

Read Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" for a great sci-fi exploration of the culture that would arise around this form of travel.

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Also, if you believe your "soul" / "mind" is represented by a pattern of matter rather than the particular matter itself, you could travel at 100% of the speed of light by 3D scanning yourself to cell-level resolution, destroying the original body, and beaming the data to a biological 3D printer on the destination planet.

[deletes]

May I inquire where did you get information on 30% c? Wikipedia states 70% but provides no reference. I'm honestly curious.

[jonmrodriguez]

Hm, it was just a memory, probably either misremembered Wikipedia or maybe it's in "A Deepness in the Sky". Sorry

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EDIT: Found it. It was indeed from "A Deepness in the Sky", which is fiction. There's a sentence in chapter 17 that says "The Reprise reached ramcruise, 0.3 lightspeed, and sailed endlessly across the depths."

[deletes]

I prefer the Tau Zero ramjet version where they almost reach lightspeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero