User blog comment:PitaKang/Funday Monday 3: What would an interstellar civilization look like?/@comment-7431988-20130501232227/@comment-1375165-20130502042100

You're missing a fundamental facet of relativity theory. It's not true that time only dilates within the ship approaching light speed. From the perspective of people on Earth, relative to which the ship has a high subluminal velocity, time dilates (to put it loosely). An Earther looking into the ship would see things moving slower than they should. However, a pilot on the ship looking out at Earth sees the same effect of things moving slower than they should - the pilot sees time dilate for events outside his ship. This reflects the fact that it is relativity theory, time only dilates relative to an observer, it is wrong to say "time dilates here but not here". Always ask yourself, "But relative to what?"