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Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
10^45 joules and dependent on m-theory. Better to just suggest magic wands and latin.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Isn't string theory somewhat out of fashion these days? I've read it described as "not even wrong". Since I lack the knowledge and intellect to argue with the guy, I'll just fall back to the easily defended Skeptic's Redoubt.
♫And the man at the back
said everyone attack
and it turned into a ballroom blitz♫
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Well, the Bose-Einstein condensate form of matter was hypothetical until 70 years or so after it was predicted to exist because the technology for achieving the prescribed conditions hadn't yet been developed.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Ah, it's based on the Alcubierre warp drive! I have heard that described as one of the more plausible ideas for FTL travel; the problem is just that nobody has the faintest idea of how you would actually do it. This looks like an attempt to put together a faint idea.
Of course all this is far beyond our current capacities. I'm just picturing two Bronze Age guys sitting around...
"Hey, you know how the wheels on this cart move because the ox is pulling it?"
"Sure..."
"Well, what if something made the wheels turn by themselves? Then the cart could move the ox!"
"Don't be stupid. What the hell would make the wheels turn without something pulling or pushing the cart?"
"OK, true, I have no idea. But if we did have something like that, it would work."
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Just like Planet Express ship! Now, they just need a Nibblonian to produce dark matter.
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind... I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.."-Emerson
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Oh, so all we need is lots of energy, and for a particular version of string theory to be correct, and then we need some unspecified tool for manipulating an extra dimension of space.
And here I thought this was going to be complicated!
"the only thing worse than a freeper is a blue state freeper that doesn't realize they're a freeper." -dhex
hoisted by their own waterboard!
-dhex
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
I've always been pretty skeptical about that particular redoubt.
All the world loves a clown.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
This is preposterous. I am the center of the universe and everything moves relative to me. Okay, so the math is a bit messy, but it's otherwise just as good a frame of reference as any other.
All the world loves a clown.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Thank you, Dave W, that will be all.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions may call for extraordinary remedies. But the argument necessarily stops short of an attempt to justify action which lies outside the sphere of constitutional authority. Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers." - Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
1045 joules is approximately equivalent to the conversion of the entire mass of Jupiter to energy.
Do you mind if I stand back a couple of hundred light years before you turn it on?
All I ask is a good horse and a fair day.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Now, I read that in another article, and there's something that isn't clear for me; is that one Jupiter for the entire ride, one Jupiter per parsec, one Jupiter every minute, one Jupiter to get the universe moving, what?
And also, what happens if the dimension that we bend winds up having sentient beings living there, and we essentially turn their universe into one big tsunami so that we can move around? Wouldn't that make us dicks? Would there be legal repercussions? How exactly would be repay any debt to them? And, perhaps most importantly, can an 11-dimensional being get a fair trial in a 3-dimensional world?
Ooh, I smell a courtroom procedural. Nobody steal my idea.
I CAUTION YOU / IN DEFEATING ORCS WE MAY FIND THE ONLY VILLAIN LEFT TO FACE IS OUR OWN PREJUDICE--qwantz.com
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Don't bother. Scalia would rule that the extra-dimensional beings have no standing in US courts.
All I ask is a good horse and a fair day.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Most sentient races would be horrified by the discovery, and stop using the propulsion source. Unfortunately, that would leave us at a severe disadvantage relative to those races that didn't care and didn't stop using it. Come on, didn't you ever play Starflight? (LOVED that game.)
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
I'm pretty sure most Americans would want to pre-emptively kill those 11-dimensional beings just on general principles. Because, like, what if they are dangerous? We'd better not take that chance.
"the only thing worse than a freeper is a blue state freeper that doesn't realize they're a freeper." -dhex
hoisted by their own waterboard!
-dhex
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Sorry, thoreau. Sadly most Americans are compassionate and reasonable and do care about others.
This does not apply to REAL AMERICANS like Bolton, Kristol and Limbaugh, of course, who aren't lily-livered liberals.
All I ask is a good horse and a fair day.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Well, Ken would argue that as long as we have another, set-aside universe, it doesn't matter that we're messing up their universe...
;)
This is a personal problem. There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable use of high explosives. This is not one of those exceptions.
Re: foundational theory for faster than light engines explained
Surely there must be the possibility of compromise here. I say we only kill them in the three dimensions they share with us just to be on the safe side. After all, that leaves them eight more dimensions scott free. (Until we find a way to get there. Where is Buckaroo Banzai when we need him!)
All the world loves a clown.