Warp Drive may be possible!

[classylady]

I find it very exciting to think Warp Drive may be possible in the future. Warp drive may actually be possible, NASA scientist says | ksl.com I can't say that I understand all the particulars, but this is truly exciting!

[Anddenex]

I find it very exciting to think Warp Drive may be possible in the future. Warp drive may actually be possible, NASA scientist says | ksl.com I can't say that I understand all the particulars, but this is truly exciting!

I read this article, announcement, this morning. Very intriguing! Yet, we will see what they think they can come up with.

This would be pretty cool if it was in our time. Kinda makes me wish I was my children's ages, with all the new developments within our time.

:)

[applepansy]

I'm envisioning a conversation with my grandson similar to the one I had with my grandmother when she was in her nineties. I'll be on the opposite side of the conversation and I anticipate there well me more changes during my lifetime than there were in hers.

[pam]

Don't we live in a fast paced life enough as it is? Now I may have to do it in warp drive?

[bcguy]

All I can say is WOW if that was ever possible. Just like what was written in the article, the energy used would have to be the same as the energy in the gasses of Jupiter.

BTW, the top Physicist were to confirm this discovery and build a ship to travel to another habitable planet, the aliens may ask...what took you so long to travel here?? We visited your planet 5 thousand years ago!

[Vort]

It does not resolve the fundamental causality paradox. Faster-than-light travel, by whatever means you propose, inevitably leads to the ability to in effect go backward in time and violate causality.

[skippy740]

Let me know when a particle synthesis replicator - to replicate genuine gold bars to repay the national debt and feed the world. The economy will go in a tailspin when it happens...

[Dravin]

Let me know when a particle synthesis replicator - to replicate genuine gold bars to repay the national debt and feed the world. The economy will go in a tailspin when it happens...

Energy would become the 'currency' in such an economy. Such a machine will take energy (M=E/C^2) and it would become the limiting factor on replication. 1 kg of mass is equivalent to ~9 × 10^13 kilojoules. Simply replicating a fuel source runs into inefficiency issues, both in the replicator itself and in the methods you may use to convert your fuel into energy. Plus even if you could convert it with 100% efficiency you can't get out more than you put in. So you'll need energy and if you don't want it to become your currency you'll need so much energy it's effectively free, or the ability to convert random mass into energy, which if you've got a sufficiently high efficiency gives you effectively free energy.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Dravin

[Blackmarch]

I find it very exciting to think Warp Drive may be possible in the future. Warp drive may actually be possible, NASA scientist says | ksl.com I can't say that I understand all the particulars, but this is truly exciting!

Now we just need to figger out how to warp space enough without having to use a black hole or even a neutron star.

Actually theory of warp drive has been around for a bit... the biggy about this announcement is the energy reqs have gone from needing almost all the energy in the universe down to something a little closer to plausible.

also you may want to check out BuildTheEnterprise as well

Edited September 20, 2012 by Blackmarch

[Vort]

Energy would become the 'currency' in such an economy. Such a machine will take energy (M=E/C^2) and it would become the limiting factor on replication. 1 kg of mass is equivalent to ~9 × 10^13 kilojoules. Simply replicating a fuel source runs into inefficiency issues, both in the replicator itself and in the methods you may use to convert your fuel into energy. Plus even if you could convert it with 100% efficiency you can't get out more than you put in. So you'll need energy and if you don't want it to become your currency you'll need so much energy it's effectively free, or the ability to convert random mass into energy, which if you've got a sufficiently high efficiency gives you effectively free energy.

In fact, such technology would not be used to create gold bricks from photons. Far more likely would be the realization of the alchemist's dream of transmuting lead (or some other substance) into gold (or some other substance).

At that point, gold itself becomes largely worthless, since it's soft and heavy and doesn't have a whole lot of known uses beyond making jewelry and wrapping remote sensing spaceships.

[NightSG]

BTW, the top Physicist were to confirm this discovery and build a ship to travel to another habitable planet, the aliens may ask...what took you so long to travel here?? We visited your planet 5 thousand years ago!

Or...

[Finrock]

Good morning Vort! :)

It does not resolve the fundamental causality paradox. Faster-than-light travel, by whatever means you propose, inevitably leads to the ability to in effect go backward in time and violate causality.

How do you know that this is an inevitable consequence?

Regards,

Finrock

[Blackmarch]

In fact, such technology would not be used to create gold bricks from photons. Far more likely would be the realization of the alchemist's dream of transmuting lead (or some other substance) into gold (or some other substance).

At that point, gold itself becomes largely worthless, since it's soft and heavy and doesn't have a whole lot of known uses beyond making jewelry and wrapping remote sensing spaceships.

electronics?

[Finrock]

In At that point, gold itself becomes largely worthless, since it's soft and heavy and doesn't have a whole lot of known uses beyond making jewelry and wrapping remote sensing spaceships.

Among other uses, gold is used extensively in the creation of circuit boards and other electronics. Gold makes modern technology and electronics possible.

Regards,

Finrock

[Guest]

What is this?

A geek convention thread?

Come, come, ye Geeks?

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

:D :D

[NightSG]

At that point, gold itself becomes largely worthless, since it's soft and heavy and doesn't have a whole lot of known uses beyond making jewelry and wrapping remote sensing spaceships.

The low toxicity and high density and corrosion resistance would make it useful for fishing weights and lots of other things.

[Guest]

P.S.

Just saw Galaxy Quest again last night. If it wasn't Tim Allen that movie would have been epic.

[applepansy]

Let me know when a particle synthesis replicator - to replicate genuine gold bars to repay the national debt and feed the world. The economy will go in a tailspin when it happens...

And, of course, to make dinner.

[beefche]

P.S.

Just saw Galaxy Quest again last night. If it wasn't Tim Allen that movie would have been epic.

We just watched that the other night, too. That movie is so funny and a great parody of sci-fi movies. And I think it is hilarious that Sigourney Weaver was cast in the movie. That casting alone was brilliant and so spoofy.

[jerome1232]

At that point, gold itself becomes largely worthless, since it's soft and heavy and doesn't have a whole lot of known uses beyond making jewelry and wrapping remote sensing spaceships.

You mean that great conductor that doesn't corrode is worthless? It's used to plate silver connections in computers, to prevent corrosion. I'm sure it has other practical uses.

[Vort]

Finrock said:

Good morning Vort!

How do you know that this is an inevitable consequence?

If two events occur at two different point separated by less than the light-time between them -- for example, if an explosion occurs on the surface of the Earth and of Mars thirty seconds apart -- then by choosing your reference frame, you can make them occur simultaneously, or you can make one occur before the other.

If you have a method of faster-than-light travel, you can then not only choose your reference frame, but arrive before the event occurs. Thus, you can go kill your parents before you are born, meaning that you never existed. So who killed your parents?

Any FTL travel scheme must resolve this paradox. Creating a spatiotemporal "warp bubble" doesn't resolve the paradox.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Vort

[Backroads]

My fear is that the Second Coming will occur before then.

But I like to think scientific advances will only increased tenfold after than, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

[classylady]

If two events occur at two different point separated by more than the light-time between them -- for example, if an explosion occurs on the surface of the Earth and of Mars thirty seconds apart -- then by choosing your reference frame, you can make them occur simultaneously, or you can make one occur before the other.

If you have a method of faster-than-light travel, you can then not only choose your reference frame, but arrive before the event occurs. Thus, you can go kill your parents before you are born, meaning that you never existed. So who killed your parents?

Any FTL travel scheme must resolve this paradox. Creating a spatiotemporal "warp bubble" doesn't resolve the paradox.

I like to ignore this possibility.

[Vort]

I like to ignore this possibility.

Always the safer course. What you don't know can't hurt you.

[NightSG]

Always the safer course. What you don't know can't hurt you.

Spoken as one who has never been in the position of not knowing the soldering iron is plugged in.