Millions of people are committed to MMORPGs, or massive multiple online role-playing games, like World of Warcraft or EVE Online, in which they interact online with one another to slay dragons or shoot spaceships.

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With its space shuttles now museum pieces, NASA is paying Russia to launch U.S. astronauts until SpaceX or another American company comes up with spaceships than can safely fly crews.

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You can read the interview here, but among other points, Chris notes how often SF fleet battles mimic some historical period on Earth, with spaceships resembling Napoleonic frigates, WWII submarines or modern American aircraft carriers.

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This consequence as led to speculation by science fiction authors Joe Haldeman and Orson Scott Card that people could travel in spaceships at near-light speed for what to them would be only days or weeks, but would be centuries back on Earth.

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