Originally posted by dadudemon
[B]They didn't put the base IN the blackhole. Destroying solar systems may never be possible beyond using super novas (there are some people that think we could cause supernovas...which is possible). It is just not a logistical undertaking so humans will never work towards it.
The Collector base was still a formidable distance from the SMBH, but it was caught in a gravitational well, a Lagrangian Point around the SMBH which means it's stable and doesn't get affected by the gravity.
Yes, the near future. Ray Kurzweil's estimates put this at about 2-3 decades off with nanbots. The conservative estimates put this off at a bit before 2050 (unrelated to the technological singularity, by the way).
not hanging so so much on the nanobots, scientists are finding out - from birds - the genome that can tell how long an animal is going to live naturally - that's excluding any diseases or conditions that may develop later in life. With DNA altering, in theory this time span can be lengthened.
The Reapers' powers are described only partially in the games. I'm taking to believe that ME EU is canonical as Drew Karpyshyn is the author of the games and books. One thing you have to remember is that a "Reaper" is not just an AI, but a mass of AIs working in unison to create a single entity.
If we're talking about feasible technical advancements that the Reapers possess, few of them are viable. AI is a concept that many believe to be achievable, but AI to the philosophical level - which is what Reapers possess - is (in my opinion) impossible. I believe it isn't going to be possible for a Computer to become self-aware.
FTL travel is a theory that has been pulled apart to the best of our understanding, but there's nowhere near enough time or energy for the Human race to achieve it.
Remote viewing is technically possible with miniature-cameras and wireless data-transfer technologies (infra-red, bluetooth, WiFi), though not to the level that the Reapers demonstrate in both ME1 and Retribution. In ME1 it is demonstrated in the final boss battle (somewhat) when Saren is defeated and Sovereign then takes over the cybernetic implants in Saren, and in Retribution it is shown in Grayson being the "guinea pig" for The Illusive Mans experiments and physically becoming a vessel for Reaper Nano-bots to take over. But the remove viewing there is shown across hundreds of light years as the Reapers are still outside of the Milkyway.
The telepathy is arguable, as it is machines interacting on the subconscious level with organic matter, with the indoctrination and post-hypnotic suggestion. The closest we've come to this is in that computer chip some scientist fused to his nerves and tendons where he was able to control his arms movement over a network with computer controls - and similarly with the computer chip that other scientist put in his brain and used it to control a robotic arm half-way around the world.
