Okay, from this quote we gather the main thrust of the site: the NEW EMPIRE discovers the Federation and our galaxy and wants to conquer it. All of the documents written from the Imperial point of view (intelligence assessments, industrial comparisons, etc.) back up this point, if him having it on the front page of his site wasn't enough.The ranks of the resurgent Empire continue to swell. What say you, citizen? Are you ready to join the Empire? Are you ready to fight for the glory of Coruscant? If you are, then join now. Fight for your people. Fight for your Emperor!
Decades after the disastrous Battle of Endor, our saviour finally arose from the ashes of the Empire. He bore the noble bloodline of Vader and the dark power of the Sith. It was under his leadership that the Empire was reborn. It is under his leadership that we shall accomplish the unprecedented: the conquest of a new galaxy. A galaxy bereft of strong leadership. The galaxy of Star Trek!
Young cadet, it is time for you to prove your mettle. It is time for you to bring civilization to the uncivilized, backward savages who live in this "Federation". Let the slaughter begin!
Next point, words in caps are my own emphasis...
I know next to nothing about physics and science, but I do know something about logic and consistency. In refuting the 50,000 years argument, this site makes the correct point that you can't automatically make them equal out of some mystical vague sense of fairness. The second quote also makes the point that you must pit the Empire against the Federation, AS THEY ARE.Give us Fifty Thousand Years
I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard this argument:
"The Empire may be more powerful than the Federation, but they've been exploring space for tens of thousands of years. The Federation has only been exploring for a few hundred years, so it's not a fair fight. Give the Federation tens of thousands of years, and then we'll talk."
This argument basically claims that because the Empire has numerous built-in advantages over the Federation, it's not a fair fight. But this is a pretty strange definition of "fair fight." If we decide that a fight is only fair when the two contestants are evenly matched, then all fair fights will end in a draw. Does this make sense? I don't know about everyone else, but my definition of a fair fight is one in which the two contestants have to play by the same rules. The two contestants don't have to be evenly matched. If Lennox Lewis fights Pee Wee Herman, I consider it a fair fight as long as both fighters wear the same gloves and obey the same rules. It would be an incredible mismatch, but it would still be a fair fight.
Our Trekkie friend is trying to take a fair fight and turn it into an unfair fight. Instead of taking the Empire and the Federation and simply pitting them against one another AS THEY ARE, he wants to give the Federation tens of thousands of years to prepare. This is ridiculous. If I asked whether the 21st century American armed forces could crush Julius Caesar's Roman army, would you answer that the Americans have an unfair advantage? If you do, you would be evading the question. Of course they have an advantage; that's why they would win!
This also seems reasonable, until you remember that the entire premise of a reborn Empire (with the tacit assumption that it holds all the resources and capabilities of the old Empire) is something that whoever made this site pulled directly from his ass. At the most lattermost stage chronologically of the SW universe that we know of, the Empire exists as the Imperial Remnant. It held (in Pellaeon's own words in one of the Thrawn EU books) a thousand star systems where it once held a million. Under 200 Star Destroyers where it once held 25,000. Severely limited industrial capabilities. And remember, this was at the time of the Thrawn books. Subsequent EU events and the Vong incursion (even given the Remnant's attempt at isolationism in that conflict) can reasonably be inferred to have whittled down those numbers even more. NOWHERE is there a mention of a reborn Empire that holds everything the Old Empire held.
In summary, this entire site compares Star Trek at its latest point chronologically (with all its up to date technology) with a magic fairyland reborn Empire that exists nowhere else but this site. After setting the stage this way, it is then arrogantly proclaimed that you cannot advance ST technology 50,000 years, because the two must be pitted against each other "as they are".
This is no different than if I started a site called www.starshipenterprise.net, and then on the front page revealed that Riker regained the powers of the Q and decided to rule the galaxy through replicating Lore trillions of time to act as his enforcer thugs. I then pit Riker against the Imperial Remnant and declare VICTORY!!1!
You simply can't have it both ways. You need to exercise one of a few options:
1. Actually pit the Federation as it is now against the "Empire" (the Remnant) as it is now, and redo all your calculations from that standpoint. Could the current Remnant beat the Federation?
2. Let Trekkies design their own ludicrous, totally unsupported alternate history of ST in some sort of vein like my starshipenterprise.net idea so that they are on even standing with your magical fairyland.
3. Just admit that you are comparing "The old Empire at its known height" to "the Federation at its known height" and lose all the reborn Empire BS on this site.
If you won't do any of these things, you have to admit that the 50,000 year argument is valid. If you can make up false crap about what the Empire currently is, they can make up false crap about where the Federation would be in 50k too.
Nothing I've said makes your actual math or scientific analyses less valid, but it is totally illogical to compare the current ST universe to your madeup SW universe that totally contradicts you. Either admit that you are not pitting ST v. SW "as they are", or change the site to Federation v. Remnant. Otherwise, you just look stupid.