Long considered a staple of science fiction, high speed space travel between galaxies — or warp speed — may actually be possible, according to astrophysicist Professor Geraint Lewis.
more…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-17/warp-speed-a-possibility-astrophysicist-says/6702034
I wonder what he is like in real life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
basically it is the engineers who are letting us down.
URL doesn’t work, tauto.
Bubblecar said:
URL doesn’t work, tauto.
works for me
Odd, it does now. It didn’t work in either IE or Chrome until I found the story via Google. Now tauto’s link works.
dv said:
I wonder what he is like in real life
Nice enough bloke, if you can stomach Welshmen.
I remember Cusp being a lot more conservative than that. He used to dismiss a lot of speculative stuff as “hand-waving”, now he’s talking about mining empty space.
sibeen said:
dv said:
I wonder what he is like in real life
Nice enough bloke, if you can stomach Welshmen.
First we need a fusion reactor, that’s only 20 years away then after that we can use the square root of minus one to develop the warp drive maths.
Then we can 3D print a rare-earth metal warp drive for working up trials.
We’ll probably lose the first one and it’s crew into some unknown quadrant due to teething problems but that’s to be expected.
Yeah all up probably ~60 years and well be out there hooning around.
First we need a fusion reactor, that’s only 20 years away then after that we can use the square root of minus one to develop the warp drive maths.
Then we can 3D print a rare-earth metal warp drive for working up trials.
We’ll probably lose the first one and it’s crew into some unknown quadrant due to teething problems but that’s to be expected.
Yeah all up probably ~60 years and well be out there hooning around.
…and you tell the kids of today that and they wont believe you!
I fully support this venture
While we’re handwaving, the Fermi paradox might suggest that such travel never proves feasible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
i’d go with this, but the building blocks for seeding life (fast replicating evolving DNA etc) were either transported directly to earth, or more broadly. Communicate this way. We are the aliens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
They are here undetected
It is possible that a civilization advanced enough to travel between the stars could visit or observe our world while remaining undetected.
Bubblecar said:
While we’re handwaving, the Fermi paradox might suggest that such travel never proves feasible.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
I don’t think so.
It can only lead to that conclusion if you start with quite high values for the probability for a) life and b) technological civilisations are high.
If we’re the only technological civilisation in the universe, for instance, then the fact that we have not heard from anyone doesn’t tell us anything about the feasibility of interstellar travel.
transition said:
i’d go with this, but the building blocks for seeding life (fast replicating evolving DNA etc) were either transported directly to earth, or more broadly. Communicate this way. We are the aliens.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
They are here undetected
It is possible that a civilization advanced enough to travel between the stars could visit or observe our world while remaining undetected.
I imagine if you are species hundreds/thousands/million of years more advanced than us you could easily replicate a human body and observe us as one of us.
>I imagine if you are species hundreds/thousands/million of years more advanced than us you could easily replicate a human body and observe us as one of us.
people think of long distance space travel, intelligent organisms doing the trip, but I think you send an advanced chemistry kit for evolving replicators
transition said:
>I imagine if you are species hundreds/thousands/million of years more advanced than us you could easily replicate a human body and observe us as one of us.people think of long distance space travel, intelligent organisms doing the trip, but I think you send an advanced chemistry kit for evolving replicators
I remember reading a novel were the aliens sent us the information to replicate one of themselves and the equipment necessary to do so.
Isn’t that the premise of “Species”?
furious said:
- I remember reading a novel were the aliens sent us the information to replicate one of themselves and the equipment necessary to do so.
Isn’t that the premise of “Species”?
Yes but in this novel the aliens were peaceful, it was in response to a returned SETI message we sent them years ago, they asked us not about our technology but more a psychological profile/morals of different humans.
i’m happy imagining ET, much less trouble.
transition said:
i’m happy imagining ET, much less trouble.
We usually worry about ET being hostile but I am not sure the human race is enlightened enough to not exploit them (try to) if they came here.
Cymek said:
transition said:
i’m happy imagining ET, much less trouble.We usually worry about ET being hostile but I am not sure the human race is enlightened enough to not exploit them (try to) if they came here.
was more hinting at something of imagination, it’s part in communication, ‘m tricks of anticipation and expectation, how they influence what is likely, unlikely. Startin’ with there maybe somethin’, the unknowns, that each of us is to some extent what we don’t know, that consciousness is somewhat derived from.
ChrispenEvan said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drivebasically it is the engineers who are letting us down.
If the engineers could make this then they would need a vacuum with lower energy density than the quantum vacuum. OK, it can be done is small spaces, such as the Casimir effect, but my fear is that it is the creation of exactly this type of vacuum that would cause the universe to switch from metastable to unstable – leading to the rapid destruction of the entire universe.
It’s not something I want engineers to attempt. There are strong similarities between the Alcubierre drive, antigravity, and time travel.
mollwollfumble said:
ChrispenEvan said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drivebasically it is the engineers who are letting us down.
If the engineers could make this then they would need a vacuum with lower energy density than the quantum vacuum. OK, it can be done is small spaces, such as the Casimir effect, but my fear is that it is the creation of exactly this type of vacuum that would cause the universe to switch from metastable to unstable – leading to the rapid destruction of the entire universe.
It’s not something I want engineers to attempt. There are strong similarities between the Alcubierre drive, antigravity, and time travel.
Blimey.
mollwollfumble said:
It’s not something I want engineers to attempt. There are strong similarities between the Alcubierre drive ….
That’s what Bugs uses.
It’s not something I want engineers to attempt.
why not? it isn’t as if (haha) they are all like sibeen!
>metastable
been there today, stuck dithering between the idea of doing something and getting it done.
Such meddlings could tear asunder the very fabric of time itself.
Bubblecar said:
Such meddlings could tear asunder the very fabric of time itself.
Hehehe, last night on Petra, living rock got a bit of a workout as well.
transition said:
>metastablebeen there today, stuck dithering between the idea of doing something and getting it done.
Able to be metasted