From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Aug 29 1999 - 19:29:53 MDT
On Sun, 29 Aug 1999 Evolver16@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 8/29/99 7:02:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> bradbury@www.aeiveos.com writes:
-- essentially believing transporters are "impossible" --
>
> On the subject of the transporter, it is indeed possible, and, even more
> remarkable, being done often, albeit on a small scale. Photons have been
> destructured and restructured meters away. And if photons are, then they must
> have substance. And if matter can be moved, the large matter may be as well.
Perhaps I should have said difficult, unlikely or expensive. To
talk about moving photons around is one thing (and I agree is readily
done). To talk about moving mass around (via E=mc^2) is entirely
another thing.
Quoting the Physics of Star Trek, Chapter 5, pg 83:
"Or, to put it *less* negatively, building a transporter would require
us to heat matter to a temperature a million times the temperature at
the center of the sun, expend more energy in a single machine than all
of humanity presently uses, build telescopes larger than the size of
the Earth, improve present computers by a factor of 1000 billion billion,
and avoid the laws of quantum mechanics".
>
> While unmentioned, the subject of warp speed (faster-then-light travel) is
> seriously being studied, most notably by the esteemed Dr. Stephen Hawking.
>
While I appreciate the stories, I believe warp drive leads to time
paradoxes. Recent work in time paradoxes I believe has shown them
to be impossible. [I don't claim to understand this, since to me
it is *all* magic physics.] At any rate, if Hawking is to solve
the problem of warp drive he may very well face the problem of
solving time paradoxes as well. I would not spend a lot of time
considering this reality for one simple reason --
If FTL travel is "effectively" possible, and other life forms
can evolve, then there is no reason we should still see stars.
[Other species would have colonized/consumed all energy resources.]
So either -- (a) FTL travel is not possible; (b) the evolution of
technological extraterrestrial civilizations is not possible.
I would place my bets on (a).
Robert
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