>>>>(how would we get to other stars without warp drive, eh?)
>>>
>>>Alpha Centauri is only 4.3 light-years away. We could get there using "conventional" propulsion systems. It would simply take awhile. ;-)
>>
>>Well, assuming the velocity of the fastest man made object yet, 75K mi/hr, it would only take about 38,99 years. A solar sail would drop it down to about 3,000 yrs.
>>JLK
>
>So the question is, will something that much faster come along in the next 3000 years? It would suck to be part of a colonization effort deployed now only to be passed be the equivelant of a pinto in 1000 years.

I read a sci-fi story along those lines a couple of decades ago. A colonly of humans leaves earth for Alpha Centuri, traveling in a huge cylinder of a craft that contains a sustainable biosphere, etc... They arrived 400 years later and discover that a colony of terrans has been there for 300 years, having left 100 years after the first colony, but using newly discovered warp drive. Commercialization with earth had been going on for over 100 years. Lots of culture and knowlege conflicts, even amoung the same races-cultures. Interesting read. I just can't remember its title.
JLK