Real FTL?

[kojikun]

What are some methods of (real/plausible) FTL you think might work?

I recently read, in Discover magazine, that certain cosmic strings might affect the space arround them and change the speed of light so its extremely high similar to conditions during the early universe, and that if you were to skim over them you could go very fast, FTL compared to the rest of the universe, without breaking any rules.

Might it not then also be possible maybe for there to be a way to project some kind of localised FTL region around a ship using perhaps a small piece of a cosmic string? If the region is large enough it might work, but the string is incredibly massive (1 earths mass per metre length of string).

If its possible to create the region without such mass however.. (the article never said it was mass dependent, mind you)

[Darth Wong]

Since you can't project the effect forward through space at greater than c, what difference would it make if you can create a localized region where you can briefly exceed c? This sounds like the same problem which affects the Alcubierre idea (apart from the insane mass/energy problems and feasibility issues).

[Shinova]

Slight tangent: Don't know about FTL, but I've read that if you "tune" yourself to a local superstring (if those things do exist), then you could travel through time. Interesting, no?

[Darth Wong]

Slight tangent: Don't know about FTL, but I've read that if you "tune" yourself to a local superstring (if those things do exist), then you could travel through time. Interesting, no?

With the minor caveat that your subatomic particles might make the trip, but not in the same arrangement that they went in

[SyntaxVorlon]

True but that would make mining asteroids a whole lot simpler wouldn't it?

[Tom_Aurum]

Well, there is always the brute force method of trying to get into hyperspace which is about as likely to start a nuclear explosion. Simply put, focus a massive amount of energy into one infiitesimal point, ripping open a rift in space-time, opening the door... to hyperspace. Granted, the amount of energy needed for that sort of thing is... well... stellar. Literally.

[kojikun]

well, mike, i dont know if the effect travels at C or not. it might be like space-time in that its not limited to C. however, that doesnt rule out using cosmic string superhighways.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

What are some methods of (real/plausible) FTL you think might work?

I recently read, in Discover magazine, that certain cosmic strings might affect the space arround them and change the speed of light so its extremely high similar to conditions during the early universe, and that if you were to skim over them you could go very fast, FTL compared to the rest of the universe, without breaking any rules.

Might it not then also be possible maybe for there to be a way to project some kind of localised FTL region around a ship using perhaps a small piece of a cosmic string? If the region is large enough it might work, but the string is incredibly massive (1 earths mass per metre length of string).

If its possible to create the region without such mass however.. (the article never said it was mass dependent, mind you)

Yes, I just read the same article. Around the locality of cosmic strings, it is theorized that the speed of light is much faster. Yet, using it for transportation is no more than a purely mental exercise. First you'd have to locate this cosmic string. The problem with this is that a string is a space-time construct with an enormous apparent mass, rather than a real physical object. Second, a string, if I remember right, is something that has more of an effect in higher dimensions (The microscopic imploded variety, mind you.) So to effectively exploit this, you'd have to be able to pass through a dimension that is about a Planck length in size (and that's really fucking small.) Though it could explain how gravity might seem to be superluminal (recent criticism regarding experiments that appear to demonstrate that gravity travels at c point out that the experimenters may have just found another interesting way to measure the speed of light. Except here, one could claim that gravity really is travelling at lightspeed, just the lighspeed of cosmic strings by way of hyperdimensions.) And third, if the speed of light is higher around cosmic strings, one then has to contend with E = mc^2, which says that if the speed of light increases linearly, say, then the energy to get closer to it increases quadratically.

So once again, feasible FTL travel is merely a thought exercise.

[Tom_Aurum]

Local crime is keeping me awake. (Aka psychotic frat boys and their explosive antics. If I payed the rent here I'd call the police for a noise disturbance. ) So my mind is, having nothing better to do, coming around to the concept of the "brute force" hyperspace rift creation at a new angle.
Wondering how one would go about it, my mind hovers around a really oddball concept that probably wouldn't work, but seems like fun anyways. What if someone successfully made Bose-Einstein Condensates out of fusionable materials? Then, somehow (I think i'm stretching my own beleif, but brainstorming here) managed to cause fusion between the two of them. It's a large amount of energy focused on a <really> small space if you could successfully do it.

[SirNitram]

Feasible FTL, feasible FTL..

I don't know. The best I can think of is the current prevailing theory of SW Hyperdrive(IE, altering your Real Mass and maintaining your Complex Mass), but this is dependent on 1) Being able to do such an absurd and anti-common sense thing, and 2) Light Cones being disproven.

[Tom_Aurum]

I'm still up for someone's idea of building a really powerful steamboat that flies out of the water and up into space.

Yes, I'd like to turn the Bebop into my house as well. And I'd actually go fishing in it instead of roving the universe searching for cons and eating Ramen noodles.

[kojikun]

lightcones are nonsensical and have been disproven already. they only have relevance for STL incidences not FTL incidences. when an electron tunnels from one part of an atom to the other and affects he other side of the atom accordingly, yet dos so instantly because it travelled at infinite speed, its disproving the lightcone idea. its been done. and its even been used to transmit not just data but actual songs as the test signal.

[SirNitram]

lightcones are nonsensical and have been disproven already. they only have relevance for STL incidences not FTL incidences. when an electron tunnels from one part of an atom to the other and affects he other side of the atom accordingly, yet dos so instantly because it travelled at infinite speed, its disproving the lightcone idea. its been done. and its even been used to transmit not just data but actual songs as the test signal.

I don't suppose you have links to any, I don't know, proof?

[Zoink]

Reading an article in the current "special edition" of Scientific American, the author of an article on negative energy and FTL comments:

-there is a solution to Einstein’s equations in which a warp bubble *could* theoretically travel at FTL speeds. The bubble would have to be externally setup, so the ship inside is cut-off from the outside, and couldn't steer or stop the bubble. He also describes another solution where you could create a warp tunnel allowing one-way FTL travel, after setting up the tunnel via conventional sub-light speeds

-that its been shown that any FTL travel requires the use of negative energy.

-creating a microscopic wormhole big enough for a proton would require something like the total output of 10 billion stars

-that creating a warp bubble 200m across would require as much energy as 10x the observable mass of the universe.

-that negative energy behaves like the uncertainty principle. Any value higher than the Casmir value can only exist for a short time (ie big energy for really short timeframe, small energy for longer).

-any negative energy pulse *must* be followed by a slightly larger positive energy pulse. So cooling liquid via a negative energy would result in a second pulse of positive energy heating it back up. This temp fluctuation would equal the amount of fluctuation you would expect to see from the uncertainty principle.

-that because of these reasons FTL travel is not possible.

----

The impression I got from reading the article, was that for FTL travel, you would have equal success simply praying for the uncertainty principle to suddenly move you 1 light year instantaneously.