# FTL transport?



## star.torturer (Jul 16, 2006)

its always good to know the science behind them, and i fully understand how to make a wormhole/blackhole/singularity, and wolud like to discuss ways of Faster than light transport using singularity based forms.

thers always the basic one of:

ship> }-----------worm hole----------{

but what about constant travel using wormholes, i will desighn some drawings explaining what i mean.


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## thenegative-one (Jul 17, 2006)

what about jumping into a hyperspace/paralel universe style place, where >lightspeed is posible


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## star.torturer (Jul 17, 2006)

this was inspired by Peter F Hamiltons duology


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## dreamwalker (Jul 19, 2006)

star.torturer said:
			
		

> thers always the basic one of:
> 
> ship> }-----------worm hole----------{


Basic?

I prefer my warp idea, worm holes rely on there being alternate universives, or "subspace" which according to Hawkin, is extremely likely, but real development will come from a firmer understanding of how our current reality works...

That being said i'm all up for talking about could be and iwhat ifs


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## manephelien (Oct 19, 2006)

I don't think faster than light communication's necessarily impossible, even over long distances. They have sent information FTL in some experiments, using quantum mechanics. However, I have my doubts about sending complex systems that way. Even if we could somehow transport ships down a wormhole, who's to say we could control where (and when) in spacetime it emerges?


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## Michael01 (Feb 6, 2007)

Or even if it emerges in the same universe?

(Major Thom enters the wormhole. Minutes later he arrives in an antimatter universe . . . oh, noooooo!)

Personally, I like Hawking's idea of quantizing the universe and treating it like any other particle with its own probability wave. It's at least an interesting concept to think about.

Okay, I can't remember exactly, but weren't there other ideas besides warp drive, hyperspace, and wormholes?


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## Pyan (Feb 6, 2007)

Or even find out it's _slower_ than normal flight?


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## TiwazTyrsfist (May 23, 2007)

Improbability Drive.

I don't think we will ever develop actual FTL travel, but that we will discover a side step to the issue.  

Much like worm holes, where in we move from one point to another without covering the intervining distance.

One of my personal favorite ideas is the concept that there are several more physical dimensions (beyond length width and depth) that we aren't aware of, and that because everything in our universe only has three physical dimensions, in these higher dimensions that they have a nul value it, all points in 3-space are coterminous.  Or, in other words, if you add a forth physical axis to the X/Y/Z arangement so you have X/Y/Z/AA, then all 3-dimensional items share the same infinately small space on the AA axis, and an infinitesimal force along that axis could be used to move to any point on the X/Y/Z axises instantly, or even off the known grid entirely.

This relies on there being more physical dimensions of coarse, which is a theory currently out of vogue, but it's an idea.


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## j d worthington (May 23, 2007)

It depends on what you mean by more physical dimensions to the universe. According to the things I've been seeing, that idea is very much in vogue -- check out Lisa Randall's *Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions*, for a recent view on the topic.

Warped Passages by Lisa Randall


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## The DeadMan (May 30, 2007)

I read a book many years ago (I can't remember the name) where they had a Time Warp Drive. They, in essence, ran a time machine in reverse at about 90% while using a unspecified propulsion system to move through space. This had the effect of crossing vast distances but having very little actual time to pass.


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## Somni (May 30, 2007)

I've read several books where FTL comms. work by quantum entanglement (something like fiddling with this electron influences another atom miles away at the same time).  Not sure if current physics lets it happen over massive distances or not.  Several books have also used parallel dimensions/universes etc to bypass the speed of light limit in this universe, either because FTL travel is possible there, light travels faster there so the ship can travel FTL respective to our universe, or the distanc between points is closer in the other universe.  Hope that helps.


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## Spartan27 (Jun 20, 2007)

FTL.....yes this will happen one day, not in my lifetime, perhaps not in my childrens either, but it will happen.

When it does, it will forever change our species, since this will most probably be when we encounter other civilizations. And of course there are positives and negatives to that as well (i.e. first Spaniards to encounter the Aztecs looked at what happened)......it's just a matter of time.


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## Parson (Jun 21, 2007)

Spartan27 said:


> FTL.....yes this will happen one day, not in my lifetime, perhaps not in my childrens either, but it will happen.
> 
> When it does, it will forever change our species, since this will most probably be when we encounter other civilizations. And of course there are positives and negatives to that as well (i.e. first Spaniards to encounter the Aztecs looked at what happened)......it's just a matter of time.


 
FTL is dubious in the extreme, but it doesn't hurt to dream.


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## Spartan27 (Jun 21, 2007)

Parson said:


> FTL is dubious in the extreme, but it doesn't hurt to dream.


 
Dubious? How about these dubious items:

1. Airplanes (flight)
2. Space travel to the moon.
3. Crossing the great ocean.

All were dreams.....but turned to reality, like I said it's only a matter of time.


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## mosaix (Jun 21, 2007)

Spartan27 said:


> Dubious? How about these dubious items:
> 
> 1. Airplanes (flight)
> 2. Space travel to the moon.
> ...



Hi Spartan, I know what you mean about dreams but there was no reason why these things shouldn't happen it was just that the method hadn't been discovered.

With FTL there is a definite reason why it is not possible. If I remember correctly as an object (such as a spaceship) speeds up, it gains mass as it gets closer to the speed of light its mass increases infinitely.

I think that is correct. Anyone out there with more in-depth knowledge?


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## chrispenycate (Jun 21, 2007)

Oh yes. with conventional, Einstinian physics it impossible for anything to faster than light. I used to be able to do the mathematical proof, but I don't think I could dredge it up any more. That means fun things like infinite quantities of energy and the like, which in turn means that even 95% of the speed of light is impractical – for conventional techniques, with the physics accepted now.
But that just means rewriting physics. It's not impossible, it's already been done several times, but what you'll get, and how long it will it take? Totally unpredictable. 
One thing's for certain; if mankind survives, it'll be unsatisfied with a speed limit, and will be trying to find ways round it. Any physical theory which offers a ghost of a chance will be investigated, any that shows us locked into a solar-system sized playpen will be less popular. 

And maybe speed is not the answer; if you can get from here to there without passing through all the intermediate points, passing go, nor collecting £200, then speed limits don't bother you. 
There is  a huge selection of cheats and workarounds in science fiction novels (quite a few of which I can demonstrate impossible) but, as things stand, FTL is totally impossible in the universe described by present-day physics.


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## Pyan (Jun 22, 2007)

There's a (reasonably) accessible article on Wiki:

Massâ€“energy equivalence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But basically, mosaix is quite right - you can get close, but the closer you get, the harder it is to increase your velocity any more.


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## Delvo (Jun 24, 2007)

chrispenycate said:


> But that just means rewriting physics. It's not impossible, it's already been done several times, but what you'll get, and how long it will it take? Totally unpredictable.


If it's unpredictable, then making the prediction that it will happen, and that the new principles that haven't been found yet will allow FTL transportation, makes no sense.


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## thecommabandit (Jun 26, 2007)

I think for communication, quantum entanglement sounds like it may work. A stylized version of this occured in His Dark Materials. Someone just played an instrument (a fiddle I believe, I seem to recall it being made of lodestone...) which was entangled with another one, which they could use to communicate between universes without opening another door with the knife. This is probably a rather decorated and beefed up version of the real quantum entanglement, but it's an interesting idea and may inspire some interesting technologies once we actually need FTL communication.

Also, tachyons are an interesting concept for all this FTL stuff. I've run through a concept (for a novel of two of mine) of a FTL drive that uses tachyon collisions to propel an object faster than the speed of light (the stupidly efficient military versions manage to travel at about 99.5% of the speed of light squared when using a reaction mass equal to the object's mass). Of course, this only works because of the laws of baryon-tachyon matter interaction are ones I've totally made up. It also needs to be activated a number of times to get anywhere, since even the stupidly efficient ones (99.5% of c²) only travel about 95ly before the tachyons outrun the ship and cease to exist in this universe. On the other hand, its very good for communication, since you can just deposit deep space relay stations every 8 tachy-seconds (that's a distance, like lightyears ) to create a galactic communication network that works almost as instantaneously as the networks we have now.

But none if that is really plausible anyway. So for the time being, we're stuck in this system unless we want to send out a generation ship or something


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