Semi-OT: A General Tech Question Thread for me :)

[El_Phil]

Hunpecked said:
In other words it's still sci fi, though with a possible but not solid theoretical basis.

Personally I doubt that wormholes, if they even exist, are usable for FTL travel, for the simple reason that no ET species has to our knowledge taken over the entire universe. Yeah, yeah, we could be alone, we could be in an interstellar "wildlife preserve," etc. But I get the distinct impression that our universe is just not very friendly to many of our cherished sci fi concepts.

There is nothing against wormholes, which is better than any other form of FTL travel. There is no physical evidence of them, but theoretically they are fairly solid as the conclusions/solutions to various Einstienian equations. If you can actually find them, if they go the right place and if you can even enter them are the questions and the answers will probably be No, No and Not a chance.

The big advantage of wormholes is that you don't actually travel faster than light. Yes you travel great distances in less time than you would, but you don't bugger around with causality and relativity while doing so. Not that there aren't seperate possible problems, but none in that league.

The universe is somewhat large, you do know this right? This is just one of several problems with your 'Nothing rules the entire universe, so there is no way to travel quickly.' That is possibly the worst argument against FTL travel I have ever, ever heard. So hopefully its a joke.

[Starhawk]

LOL hey remember buck rogers the Draconians conquered 3/4ths of the universe lol my question why stop there? I mean come on an extra 1/4 of the universe can't really make that big a difference can it?

For that matter the Draconians had battleships the Earthers had fighters if they were so bent on conquering us why didn't they?

And they never showed hyperspace so anyway lol.

Ah it was a stupid show though Erin Grey was mmmmmmm hubba hubba


Anyway I want to know what PROVES time slows down for something going faster then light, considering we never get anything to go faster then light how can we ask it?

[douglas]

Starhawk said:
Anyway I want to know what PROVES time slows down for something going faster then light, considering we never get anything to go faster then light how can we ask it?

Theoretically, time would actually go backwards for something travelling faster than light. As far as I know, current mainstream science considers actually testing such a hypothesis to be theoretically impossible.

Time slowing down as things approach the speed of light has been tested quite thoroughly, however. Just one result from a very quick google search is right here.

GPS systems have to take at least one, maybe both, branches of relativity into account to give accurate positioning data. If they didn't, all GPS systems would be at least several meters off and might not be very confident about your precise position.

[Starhawk]

Well with all respect and I know this will probobly make me sound a bit uninformed but I mean for all we know the Muons are not in fact having any sort of time dialation there could be other things we are not aware of yet affecting them.

However that is just one theory of mine and maybe others but I digress there are any number of "loopholes" folks can think of to actually going FTL anyway.

[douglas]

Yes, the delayed decay could be caused by some unknown factor, but why postulate a new mystery when the current theory predicts not only the qualitative effect observed but also the exact quantitative effect to well within experimental measurement error? Both general and special relativity have been tested extensively many times, and the experimental results have never disagreed with the theoretical predictions without a flaw being discovered in the experiment's procedure, despite scientists striving for the smallest margins of error possible.

[Suicide Junkie]

Theoretically, time would actually go backwards for something travelling faster than light.

Actually, the square root of a negative number is not negative, but rather *imaginary*.

Presuming it makes any sense at all; instead of going backwards in time, you'd go perpendicular, or "sideways" in time.

[Renegade 13]

Considering that some scientists belive we live in a "multiverse", perhaps going sideways in time would work. Travel into one of those infinitely "other" universes.

[Starhawk]

Or it would not have any time dialation effects at all and you would just happen to get someplace else at the same time you left which is an interesting theory

Imagine that "Ladies and gentlemen we are leaving at 12:01pm September 24 and proceeding 50 light years the trip will take x amount of time)

Say a week later "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to destination B 50 light years away, the time is 12:01 september 24th thank you for flying paradox air."

Possible

[Suicide Junkie]

I like the Fedex suborbital option.
Pickup by 8am in New York, Delivery in Japan by 5pm the Previous Day.

[Starhawk]

Well as a wise man once said "Time is Relative"