NEW New Warp Drive

[JPS35]

This one at least does not break the laws of physics as we know them:

https://www.zmescience.com/science/faster-than-ligh-travle-warp-drive/

 

[brianmanahan]

oh no

don't get my hopes up

 

[DigDog]

why do we want warp drives so much.
it's because we are subconsciously looking for a solution to a problem we have - we live only a few years compared to space travel time. And the idiotic idea that we need to bring our bodies "to the new earth" - we really should stop thinking like animals ..
That's why we fantasize about FTL. Once the problem at the root is solved, we'll stop fantasizing about warp drives as well.

just to be clear, a staggering number of people still think that "warping space" is the equivalent of the "folded paper" example you get in bad scifi films - it's not. Solid bodies warp space, and when they do, they generate the equivalent of MORE space, not less. If your goal is to travel SLOWER, then yeah, folding space is totally your thing.

There is only one way to travel faster than light - negative mass. We do not know if such thing can exist. We have zero idea if it can be made. We have no idea even if, we were to find out a way that negative mass could exist, once applied, the results would be as predicted, as no such thing exists in nature and god know what laws of physics would govern such a state.

 

[brianmanahan]

That's why we fantasize about FTL. Once the problem at the root is solved, we'll stop fantasizing about warp drives as well.

even if i could live forever, i wouldn't want to spend 18000 years in a row traveling to alpha centauri

then again maybe i would. everything is eventually going to get boring

 

[DigDog]

even if i could live forever, i wouldn't want to spend 18000 years in a row traveling to alpha centauri

then again maybe i would. everything is eventually going to get boring

dude if your lifespan was 1 million years, 5000 years to move to another planet would be totally ok.

think of people who went whaling in the 1800s; they would be at sea for 6 months, and those guys were looking to die at 60yo.


Anyway, back on track, the following assumptions are dumb:
1. that we need to colonize other planets.
2. that we will forever be organic entities.
3. that we need to take our bodies along for the trip.

both stem from our animal instincts, and both will disappear at some point in the near future.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

even if i could live forever, i wouldn't want to spend 18000 years in a row traveling to alpha centauri

then again maybe i would. everything is eventually going to get boring

dude if your lifespan was 1 million years, 5000 years to move to another planet would be totally ok.

think of people who went whaling in the 1800s; they would be at sea for 6 months, and those guys were looking to die at 60yo.


Anyway, back on track, the following assumptions are dumb:
1. that we need to colonize other planets.
2. that we will forever be organic entities.
3. that we need to take our bodies along for the trip.

both stem from our animal instincts, and both will disappear at some point in the near future.

Skip to 3 minutes in

 

[PowerEngineer]

oh no

don't get my hopes up

Oh god! What a blast from the past! 😜

 

[Captante]

why do we want warp drives so much.
it's because we are subconsciously looking for a solution to a problem we have - we live only a few years compared to space travel time. And the idiotic idea that we need to bring our bodies "to the new earth" - we really should stop thinking like animals ..
That's why we fantasize about FTL. Once the problem at the root is solved, we'll stop fantasizing about warp drives as well.

just to be clear, a staggering number of people still think that "warping space" is the equivalent of the "folded paper" example you get in bad scifi films - it's not. Solid bodies warp space, and when they do, they generate the equivalent of MORE space, not less. If your goal is to travel SLOWER, then yeah, folding space is totally your thing.

There is only one way to travel faster than light - negative mass. We do not know if such thing can exist. We have zero idea if it can be made. We have no idea even if, we were to find out a way that negative mass could exist, once applied, the results would be as predicted, as no such thing exists in nature and god know what laws of physics would govern such a state.

Every party has a pooper?

 

[JPS35]

oh no

don't get my hopes up

That's right, Mr. Manahan...it's all just a dream...lay back down and go back to sleep...sleepy dreamy sleep...

 

[PowerEngineer]

That's right, Mr. Manahan...it's all just a dream...lay back down and go back to sleep...sleepy dreamy sleep...

Well, feel free to wake all of us up when the first demonstration of this warp drive is scheduled -- or when the e-Cat goes on sale at Walmart. 😋

 

[DigDog]

Every party has a pooper?

you think that a vast space-faring civilization is cool, i think it's a primitive concept.
What we want is

 

[brianmanahan]

What we want is

i don't think we're ever going to come close to that, so i'll settle for a supreme hoodie

 

[SKORPI0]

One problem though: even if the theory is reliable, no one really knows how to actually do this yet. For the time being, warp drives remain in the realm of theory,
but this research provides new perspectives on how to achieve faster-than-light travel

 

[Spacehead]

This is all 5-10 years away, right?

 

[DigDog]

i think i wrote this before, but, since we're overstaffed and with nothing to do:

i think that the next major change in our society will happen when we achieve direct brain-computer/computer-brain data transfer.
I don't mean those silly guys moving sticks with their eyebrows or even through brainwaves - i mean proper transfer of data from an external source directly into your brain, the exact way that memorization happens.

once that happens, i predict that there will be a massive cognitive shift that will leave us unrecognizable to today's standards.

i reasonably expect this to happen within 50 to 100 years, unless some yet-unforeseen obstacle delays it.



this isn't directly related to space travel, but once those changes happen, our perspective on "what we need" - including space travel, offworld colonization, resource gathering, etc - will change completely.

 

[SKORPI0]

i think that the next major change in our society will happen when we achieve direct brain-computer/computer-brain data transfer.

 

[skyking]

What you don't like salad? That was a delicious word salad, a new pair of dimes. Nom nom nom.

 

[IronWing]

i think i wrote this before, but, since we're overstaffed and with nothing to do:

i think that the next major change in our society will happen when we achieve direct brain-computer/computer-brain data transfer.
I don't mean those silly guys moving sticks with their eyebrows or even through brainwaves - i mean proper transfer of data from an external source directly into your brain, the exact way that memorization happens.

once that happens, i predict that there will be a massive cognitive shift that will leave us unrecognizable to today's standards.

i reasonably expect this to happen within 50 to 100 years, unless some yet-unforeseen obstacle delays it.



this isn't directly related to space travel, but once those changes happen, our perspective on "what we need" - including space travel, offworld colonization, resource gathering, etc - will change completely.

It certainly would create new opportunities for direct-to-consumer marketing.

The brain doesn't have a simple memory buffer. Learning requires the creation of new neural pathways so I'm skeptical of a data-dump type brain-computer interface. I also think that the result would be a Butlerian jihad and I would like to think that I would side with the jihadis.

 

[WelshBloke]

i think that the next major change in our society will happen when we achieve direct brain-computer/computer-brain data transfer.
I don't mean those silly guys moving sticks with their eyebrows or even through brainwaves - i mean proper transfer of data from an external source directly into your brain, the exact way that memorization happens.

Why would we do that? By that point our technology would be "cleverer" than us.
We aren't anything special in the greater scheme of things. At some point we are going to be the bottleneck in the process. At that point we'll need to decide if we are willing to retard progress because we can't keep up with it or hand over oversight of it to our own creations.

 

[DigDog]

Why would we do that?

"i know Kung Fu"

surely you see the advantage in that.

Learning requires the creation of new neural pathways so I'm skeptical of a data-dump type brain-computer interface.

There's that, and also muscle memory. For example, you can't "learn" to be a footballer, however i am sure that tweaks in the system can accelerate the learning process. What would be colossal is the access to knowledge; without insult to any of these fine professions, you just need to "know how" to be a .. plumber? car mechanic? if a phone AI can diagnose skin diseases better than a trained doctor, surely you can too based on pure information.

Keep in mind that this is not comparable to watching a film. The technology which *does not exist yet* is centered around how the brain memorizes things.
Also, it's digital data, so it would be fairly easy to see which information package has better results and you wouldn't have to hope your community college teacher doesn't show up drunk.

Testing will likely be difficult; i predict that this technology will emerge from treating people with degenerative diseases, brain damage, etc. But it'll happen, i'm confident of that.


By the way, that's one of the two really cool things about it. The other is dumping brain info into a form that can be seen by an external observer. FACTUAL THOUGHT!

 

[JPS35]

Pretty cool update:

DARPA and NASA Scientists Accidentally Create Warp Bubble for Interstellar Travel

A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded research project at NASA’s Johnson Space Center may have accidentally discovered how to build a warp drive engine. The scientists published their findings in July.

coffeeordie.com