From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 08:52:03 MST
"Dickey, Michael F" wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Lorrey [mailto:mlorrey@datamann.com]
> Richard Steven Hack wrote:
> >>
> > Once again, we're assuming the speed of light is an absolute limit. That
> > may be true given current scientific knowledge, but that is not the same
> as
> > being an absolute.
>
> "Actually, it is an absolute, since scientific progress shows no sign of
> exceeding it outside of using loopholes like wormholes, etc. Experiments
> in FTL all demonstrate that wavefront speeds are always restrained to
> light speed."
>
> I was under the distinct impression that it is a limitation imposed on
> classical physics by general relativity. That is, one can not classically
> accelerate to the speed of light, because this would require infinite
> energy, and the subsequent temporal dialition and lorentz transformation
> would also be infinite.
snip
>
> So, classically accelerating to OR past the speed of light is impossible,
> however one could classically accelerate to 99.999999% the speed of light,
> and then quantum tunnel to 100.000000000000001% the speed of light, and thus
> travel faster then light. (Of course you would have to control the quantum
> tunneleing of every particle that comprises your vehicle) There are other
> possible methods of superluminal travel.
>
> The Alcubierre Warp Drive - http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw81.html
>
> The Alcubierre Micro-Warp Drive -
> http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw99.html
>
> John Cramers Archive is a good source for information as well...
> http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/av_index_sub.html
Fully aware of these already. The Alcubierre warp drive is not a local
violation of light speed (that is why it has to warp space around it),
but even then, there are distinct limitations on the real potential of
the warp drive. Current thinking is that you won't be able to warp much
more than a few atoms worth of space using this method.
However, a point I left out is that one need not meet or exceed light
speed for the universe to become one's oyster. One only needs to be able
to accelerate to 90%+ of light speed at some significant fraction of a G
(say, 0.1 G or more) in order to be able to travel to any point within a
good section of our local region of the universe (Milky Way and it's
satellite galaxies) within a human life span. There is no real need for
exotic physics beyond this need for relatively high acceleration rates
(i.e. where ion drives accelerate at thousanths of G's). With cryonic
suspension, nanotech, and practical immortality, the entire universe is
our oyster, and with such technologies, even ion propulsion and other
low G technologies for propulsion are useful for interstellar travel.
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