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This was a little background I wrote for the FTL travel prevalent in my story, the Logical World. Just thought I'd see what people thought of it.

Einstein’s Hidden Space and Akram Celsius’ Slipstream

Back in 1923, Einstein wrote a very long and frankly bizarre paper which he entitled ‘The Hidden Space’. It was not very widely regarded, nor very widely known. It is still considered one of the greatest scientific theories of all time.
Einstein postulated the existence of a part of reality where the laws of physics don’t truly apply, and Special Relativity went out the window. As many people today know it is possible to find charged particles exiting reality and entering Slipspace, and Einstein observed and tracked this. His observations of (and later experiments with) charged particles in high electromagnetic situations resolved itself into the Special Theory of Hidden Space.

Einstein wrote down his observations of charged particles and developed the following key statements:

1.Particles in this Hidden Space undergo massive instantaneous acceleration equivalent based upon their original acceleration.

2.The laws of physics are not the same in any inertial (that is, non-accelerated) frame of reference. This means that the laws of physics observed by a hypothetical observer traveling with the relativistic particle in the Hidden Space need not be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary in the laboratory.

This was vital stuff! Einstein put down on paper the first and only known method of faster than light travel, and also postulated the presence of electromagnetism and its effect upon particles. Through Einstein’s early experiments, we see that a specialised, focussed electromagnetic field can produce a significant curve in space/time, much like huge masses. Einstein theorised that these gravity metrical curves could literally bend space/time until it snapped, which is what he did. He even theorised that large objects such as planes or boats could be sent through his Hidden Space.

However, Einstein’s Theory of Hidden Space was not well received and more or less ignored. There never seemed to be any use for it all back in the twenties, and Einstein shelved the project.

In 2519, hypermathematician and high energy physicist Akram Celsius discovered the Special Theory of Hidden Space. After reading it through, Celsius determined that with the greater technological advancement and hugely superior power generation abilities of the 26th century, one could fulfil Einstein’s ideas of sending boats and planes through this Hidden Space.

Einstein’s notes on the electromagnetic control and particle disappearance made Celsius’ life much easier. Able to refine this technology, Celsius could create a snap in space/time large enough launch the moon through (if the moon had acceleration, that is). And there was no danger to the cartography of the universe, as the word snap implies. In space/times subtle way, all snaps are repaired in just about the instant the electromagnetic field dissipates.

The easy part out of the way, Celsius set about coming up with some way to navigate. It was obvious that his newly dubbed ‘Slipspace’ (after its ability to ‘slip pass relativity’) was just a world of mathematics, albeit twisting and bizarre mathematics. Celsius discovered that making accurate calculations regarding the Slipstream was, at the very best, practically impossible. While the advanced Sub-meson Brains could handle the maths, they couldn’t handle the abstract nature of that maths. A human could grasp that abstract nature, yet not manage the maths.

It was after years of gruelling work that Celsius discovered that one of his new interns on Mars could do both. His unnatural skill at being able to follow the mathematical eddies and currents of the Slipstream meant that navigation became not only possible, but eminently feasible. His newly dubbed Navigator could not only plot courses through Slipspace, considering entry and exit vectors, endless factors of danger, but also certain ‘shortcuts’ and had the ability to alter a course mid-transit, on the fly.

This resulted in the Pogrom, Celsius search for those who possessed the ability to navigate the Slipstream. Careful breeding and eugenics programs eventually resulted in the Navigator Families and the beginning of interstellar travel for humanity.

Via the Slipstream, a ship will have its impressive acceleration multiplied incredibly high, and can cross the galaxy in a few short days. Through this medium, humanity spread to the stars, always within reach of each other, and the galaxy trembled.

Alright, you've goit a start. Now where's it going?

It's just an article detailing something in his universe. It's very spiffy.

That's right. I just wanted to see what people thought of it, whether they liked it, disliked it or went into coughing fits of illness when they read. Whether they thought it was believable, unbelievable, badly written, out my league ect ect. That's all.

My only suggest, change the date of Einstein paper to post or during WWII. Sure he was doing things in the twenties but he's much more likley to be ignored later on in life when he was drivin to produce a unified theory.

Blame the sheveling on war concerens rather than ignorance.

Cheers, I'll do that. Plus it makes the scientific community not look stupid that way. Though who can blame them, as it wasn't exactly useful at the time.

Ford Prefect wrote:Cheers, I'll do that. Plus it makes the scientific community not look stupid that way. Though who can blame them, as it wasn't exactly useful at the time.

Yes it just looks better if it was not used because the US Goverment need Einstien for something else.

Sort of thats nice, its pretty, but we realy need the A-bomb NOW you work on that on your own time.

I made the date around 1942, which was the year in which the Manhattan Project took swing. How's that for a date?

Ford Prefect wrote:I made the date around 1942, which was the year in which the Manhattan Project took swing. How's that for a date?

Acutal I few dates you can use

1939: Einstein writes a famous letter to

President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility of

Germany's building an atomic bomb and urging nuclear research.

Setting the paper in late 1938 lets you set it as Einstein setting aside his Hidden Space work for Nuclear concernes

His second wife also died in 1949, you can set it earily to that letting to set it up on him abonding his work after her death.

And of course you have up till 1955 when he dies to set it.

Find a reason you like a stick with it, Stops because of Nuclear Concernes, gets to distracted by the Project, Distrat by his Wife's death, or simply not publicsed due to his earily death.

Any will work.

Even better. Thanks Mr Bean, you're my hero.

If you want, you can have it classified and lost during WWII because some bureaucrat thought it had "weapons potential". There's still stuff Tesla did that got classified, IIRC.

Ah, yet another useful suggestion, thanks Chewie. You're so cool you could store a side of meat in you for a month.

Any other comments, preferably on whether its stupid sounding or not?

Err. Just from my point of view, the Dune/40k 'Navigators' thing seems a bit of a ripoff. It seemed semi-plausable until then.

Ah, damn. I knew I was straying close to the line there. And it was kind of vital too.

Ford Prefect wrote:Ah, damn. I knew I was straying close to the line there. And it was kind of vital too.

Instead of strait up Navigators then why not mix in some Human/cyber AI sort of interface.

Sort of, The human mind was capable of holding all the nessary curves in slipspace and the nessary randomness but could not proccess it fast enough with computer proccesing speed.

Or in other words, the human rgrasps the objects in slipspace while a backup computer caculates range and distance and makes the nessary corrections.

Thus you still have human Navigators but instead of simply say, giant space rock... planet thatway, now he/she just thinks... rock and the computer calcuates the nessary deivation to chart around it.

Thus your computer is blind, its not doing any thinking except in the theoretical while the Human acts as its eyes, which would take a heck of the right kind of intellect.

Oddly enough, that sort of came into it - every Navigator is connected directly to the brain of the ship.

It's just that I'm going to have a lot of trouble rectifying this missing chapter of my story. You see, the Families have a complete monopoly on FTL travel and lend their talents to those who can afford it. This was a major part of the Logical World, but I'm sure I could do something about it.

Yeah, I was thinking a cyborg would be nifty.

Ford Prefect wrote:Oddly enough, that sort of came into it - every Navigator is connected directly to the brain of the ship.

It's just that I'm going to have a lot of trouble rectifying this missing chapter of my story. You see, the Families have a complete monopoly on FTL travel and lend their talents to those who can afford it. This was a major part of the Logical World, but I'm sure I could do something about it.

Make it a reccess trait on the mother side or some such, the ability to grasp non-random, random patterns within slip-space.

You could then confine it to some random precentage of the population, say a few thousands of a percent.

The ability to take the randomness of slipstream and proccess it into a structered ordered form, if only for a few miliseconds it takes for the computer to read it, act on it and then already start calcuating the next set.


Oh and to go into slip-stream further
By the way your writing it, a computer would shit itself trying to calcuate position when it does not have any kind of frame of refrence. The human mind can provided the frame of refrence if but for a few seconds.


Kind of the equvilant of running across a field with a stopwatch, a compass and a map with your eyes closed. Every ten seconds you can open your eyes for half a second and look at the map, the compass and the stopwatch. A normal human can't look at the stopwatch, the compass, the map and the surronding area at the same time and figure out were they are. Even worse by its described nature, every time you open your eyes the map and terrain is diffrent.

Meanwhile one of your super rare Navigators have the right Genes to look at all those things at the same time and provided a position to the computer which is keeping track of speed and direction and getting that "navigation"(The Current postion when he pops his eyes open adn what the new map looks like) infomation from the human pilot.

I really need to rewrite that it seems. It makes it seem like any human can follow the abstract nature of things, which they can't. It also makes it seem like they can do the maths, which they also can't. I'm going to have to be a little more clear on that point, it seems.

Mr Bean wrote: Make it a reccess trait on the mother side or some such, the ability to grasp non-random, random patterns within slip-space.

You could then confine it to some random precentage of the population, say a few thousands of a percent.

The ability to take the randomness of slipstream and proccess it into a structered ordered form, if only for a few miliseconds it takes for the computer to read it, act on it and then already start calcuating the next set.


Oh and to go into slip-stream further
By the way your writing it, a computer would shit itself trying to calcuate position when it does not have any kind of frame of refrence. The human mind can provided the frame of refrence if but for a few seconds.


Kind of the equvilant of running across a field with a stopwatch, a compass and a map with your eyes closed. Every ten seconds you can open your eyes for half a second and look at the map, the compass and the stopwatch. A normal human can't look at the stopwatch, the compass, the map and the surronding area at the same time and figure out were they are. Even worse by its described nature, every time you open your eyes the map and terrain is diffrent.

Meanwhile one of your super rare Navigators have the right Genes to look at all those things at the same time and provided a position to the computer which is keeping track of speed and direction and getting that "navigation"(The Current postion when he pops his eyes open adn what the new map looks like) infomation from the human pilot.

That's it! You genius! That's exactly what I was getting at. Mr Bean, you need a medal of some sort.

Ford Prefect wrote:
That's it! You genius! That's exactly what I was getting at. Mr Bean, you need a medal of some sort.

I'm a terrible writer but a great sounding board for ideas, thats always been my role as a few of the other fanfic writers here can attest(If they remeber, its been a few months)

[Petulant] It still seems like a Dune/40k rip-off, right down to the powerful Navigator Families. [/Petulant]

Pcm979 wrote:[Petulant] It still seems like a Dune/40k rip-off, right down to the powerful Navigator Families. [/Petulant]

What if the Navigators are also wild hedonists off duty? Would that make it seems like less of a rippoff?

Well, as long as they don't turn into wierd crustaceans and/or grow a third eye, I can live with it.

Pcm979 wrote:Well, as long as they don't turn into wierd crustaceans and/or grow a third eye, I can live with it.

So wild buxom nyphomanics would cleverly disgues the fact its a 40k/Dune ripoff?