Dear Mr. Segal,

With 132,000 followers, it seems unlikely that you have ever read any of the posts I have left on your prolific articles. So, even if you did happen to read any comments I left, it also seems very unlikely that you would remember my commentary. All of that said, I do feel compelled to respond from time to time… as I am now.

On the off chance that you do remember my ranting comment on an article you wrote which had a title something like (paraphrase), “Only 5% of galaxies are within reach of human exploration.” I want to offer another comment on your more recent article titled, “Should Alpha Centauri be our first interstellar target?”

While I don’t believe it makes any sense to hold interstellar travel aspirations, I found the Alpha Centauri article much more realistic from my perspective. Given the nature of my temper tantrum response to your article proposing intergalactic travel, I feel it only fair to acknowledge the much more “down to Earth” nature of this newer article.

For the record, I suspect the ideas I express in some of my articles would be viewed by most people (if anybody ever read them) with even more skepticism than I expressed about your intergalactic article.

Respectfully,

Mal, AKA Steve Ford