[quote=AlienBastard]I am proposing that there may well be technologies that enable people to alter their perception of time to make the trip seem like only a week or two even if it was really 45 years. Since it's all speculative it's pretty much open game of what technologies are and aren't possible, even with that "100% hard sci-fi" thing since hard sci-fi is limited to current knowledge. [/quote]

Yeah, and current knowledge of what's possible doesn't include a way to alter human perception to make 45 years seem like only a week or two. Then there is the whole biological aging issue etc.

[quote=AlienBastard]So trade of the arts and ideas or stories is a joke? I don't see why everyone would isolate themselves just because of huge distances when even today we can send information using signals in distance of light years.[/quote]

See the digital transmissions section :p

[quote=AlienBastard]Biological resources as in exotics- trade of alien critters and all. Each world is unique, no?[/quote]

And if each alien critter or plant cost enough to buy a country you'd get no buyers. And considering the cost of transporting them, you better have a country's budget.

[quote=AlienBastard]O come on man, that sort of technology already exists today. SETI sends signals like that out all the time. A more advanced civ would have little trouble maintaining a information network between worlds regardless of the lag. Assuming humans, I don't see it as a far stretch that humans could modify themselves to tolerate times we see as insanely long as lengthy as a few days. 

The time scale we currently operate on is not necessarily the timescale the future may.[/quote]

And Seti's signals don't go nearly as far as most people seem to think. In fact, there are many who have given plenty of reason to suggest that Seti's broadcasts literally degrade beyond legibility not even half a lightyear from earth. And yes, the timescale we currently operation on IS necessarily the timescale the future may. That is how time works. You cannot modify something to perceive time differently.

[quote=AlienBastard]That problem does not sound like it is impossible to remedy at all. Regenerating hull, energy barrier or some other thing we, 21st century dwellers can barely grasp they may use. There is no reason why a barrier like "micrometeorites" would be impossible to deal with to the point where exceeding 10% the speed of light is unthinkable.[/quote]

You're travelling at .2c for example (my constant example) at that velocity if you impact micrometeorite weight 100 grams it will release forty kilotons of energy (Actually your ship would since it's the one travelling at that speed.) Make it a kilogram and it'll be a 430 kiloton impact.

[quote=AlienBastard]Those spaceship travel times are just plain pessimistic given there's already rocket concepts out there that reach .1c and faster. No one would send a spaceship going at "slow" speeds interstellar. They'd make a ship that can go the speeds necessary to take a several decades; which is nothing in the grand scale of time. Human civilization as we know it is a smote of dust in the grand scheme of things, it's so short that the vast majority humans have existed [only 1/500th a billion years] was spent being hunter gatherers.[/QUOTE]

A: There is not one single realistic rocket concept that is capable of accelerating to .1c or faster. Anyone that told you so should be shot for the betterment of the race.
B: Decades of travel is a "vast" amount of time for a modern society. In mere decades we've gone from computers that required an entire building to computers in our pocket so powerful they could have run every single calculation those ancient computers did, simultaneously, without effort.

The "Human Civilization" being a mote of dust in the grand scheme of things is beyond irrelevant.

[QUOTE]Even those "long times" you depict as still nothing in the galactic scale of time. 1.5 thousand years? What's that? A black hole's wet fart? Light not even crossing a forth of a galactic arm?[/quote]

Beyond irrelevant. We're humans, we don't compare our travel times to universe-scale movements. We compare them to our relative point of view. Even some of our more macro-scale measurements are purely subject to human PoV. Light-Second, Light-Year. Year. Month. Day. Hour. etc are all based on human perspective.

[quote=AlienBastard]Assuming of course, the future peoples never try to innovate to make interstellar travel quicker. Not impossible of a idea, but time as a resource is more plentiful as well since "half your life" in the 21st century isn't "half your life" in the future, presumably. Of course in the far future everyone could only live ten years as well, but perceive infinity of life. There are quadrillions of possible futures.[/quote]

And you're back into the realm of pure soft scifi. The point of hard Scifi is to discuss realistic knowns. Not postulate alternative theorems without any scientific basis in fact. If you want to go with that type of discussion I can simply declare my Interstellar Space Empire of 10 foot autonomous dicks and star-vaginas annihilates your empire instantly with a teleporting antimatter cat assault.

[quote=AlienBastard]"100% hard sci-fi" seems like a misnomer since everyone's idea of 100% hard sci-fi is different. I won't lie; I know with certainty I am likely wrong about things, but at the same time I can't imagine anyone being actually right about future civilization since it's all speculation regardless.

And as for saying hard sci-fi is boring... Well I guess it is since it is hard to make a 100% hard sci-fi without actually going to the far future to see what it's like. And as a result I personally just do soft sci-fi since I don't want to worry about technological realism much, even if I do attempt researching it since you can get some fun modifiers like "no hiding in space".[/quote]

It isn't a misnomer. 100% Hard Science fiction is "Science Fiction possible within the known realm of science and physics without excessive speculation into other fields." 

Eg: A novel written to be a realistic manned mission to mars is 100% hard Scifi.
A novel written to be a realistic manned mission to mars, but with telepathic microscopic life already there, is 100% soft scifi.

[quote=AlienBastard]A manned RKV capable of intercepting, attacking and shooting more missiles.

I'd say it's a pretty good deal.[/quote]

And you'd be wrong. If you could do that you'd just strip people out entirely, get a ship that is lighter, can accelerate faster, do things it could not with a manned crew... in short, a drone.