Would faster than light travel have the greatest impact on human civilization?

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: BoberFett
How would travelling end wars and resource problems?

Resources exist elsewhere. Even the Moon has minable Resources.

So people will fight about who gets to use those resources. Or who profits from their extraction. Wars are fought because people want to fight, plain and simple. Travelling away from Earth will not suddenly change humanity.

True enough.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: torpid
It can't just be merely faster than light, it needs to be a LOT faster than light. If it's just slightly faster, it will still take wayy too long to get anywhere. Alpha centauri would take 4 years to get to. Hardly the amount of time acceptable to include it in a supply chain.

Not true. You forgot about time dialation. It should only take a few months going by einstein's theory of relativity, and you wouldn't even need to go the speed of light too.

 

[BoomerD]

Ignoring the physics of the concept completely, IF FTL travel IS possible, IMO, all we humans will do, is spread our destruction throughout the galaxy. What makes you think that being able to travel faster would change the greediness of mankind? Remember, it's $$$ that makes the world go round. No one does anything for free...not usually anyway. There's almost always some kind of benefit, profit, accolade, taqx deduction, that has to accompany human philanthropy. :roll:

IF we could indeed travel to distant planets...we'd just do the same ****** to those planets that we are doing to this one...

 

[Beige]

Originally posted by: Braznor

Originally posted by: jagec
I think you're underestimating humanity, and the resilience of this planet.

Yes, we do stupid stuff, yes, a lot of it is self-destructive. But we're not going to wipe out our entire SPECIES anytime soon.

Remember even with FTL travel, we still have to find habitable planets...which isn't easy. "Needle in a haystack" doesn't even BEGIN to describe it.

Frankly, I would LOVE to have FTL travel, but it's not going to happen in my lifetime, and considering we have no idea where to start, it doesn't make sense to put a whole lot of effort into researching it now. Technology and manufacturing, as well as basic science (especially physics) have to advance before FTL will make any sense.

Remember the better the tech, the greater the potential for causing damage. sticks < swords < arrows < guns < bombs < nukes < ?

I hate to think what weapons mankind would have invented by the turn of this century.

And you can never go wrong overestimating humanity's appetite for self destruction. FTL travel would be our only saviour.

sticks < swords < arrows < guns < bombs < nukes < GUNDAM?
....couldnt resist.

 

[sunase]

Since FTL is time travel, whoever invented it would just use it to take whatever they want here on Earth, wouldn't they?

Seems pointless re resources regardless since the amount of energy that would be required would exceed the worth of the resource. That includes habitable planets, which could be constructed from the Oort cloud here at home using non-imaginary physics. ;p

 

[fitzov]

Let's put all this "not-physically-possible" talk to rest:

Show me the proof. Either link it or do something informal.

 

[zugzoog]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: fitzov

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Wow, I'm surprised so many people think FTL travel is possible. Personally, I don't think it will ever happen. Einsteins relativity forbids it.

You're referring to a popular misconception, apparently:

"Einstein said information can't travel faster than light, and in this case, as with all fast-light experiments, no information is truly moving faster than light,"...

Link to cited experiment

That has nothing to do with massive objects attempting to move at the speed of light. As you accelerate toward v = c, the force required approaches infinity.

"Information" is related to retarded potentials, since certain particles must travel at the speed of light. Using optical tricks like in that article does not change the speed limit of light in a vacuum.

:thumbsup:

Yes fitzov is referring to a commonly held misconception that the Lorentz transformation equations that Einstein used in Special relativity use the speed of light in a medium. This is incorrect. The equations use the constant "c" which is "the speed of light in a VACUUM.

The cited experiment was running light through a medium

"We sent a pulse through an optical fiber...

This is a very different proposition than what the OP was asking about i.e. FTL travel in a vacuum (space) to get to other parts of the Galaxy quickly.

 

[zugzoog]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
I don't think FTL is possible. I think the way to quickly move across space will be by the way of Battle Star Galactica does it. You create a wormhole and go through the opening. Travel like this would be almost instantaneous.

Though the way Star Trek does it is within the realms of possiblity. The ship doesn't go faster than light. The warp engines "warp" space. The warp field moves the space in front of the ship to behind it, it just does it really fast, thus making the ship move "faster than light". I actually read an article about this and scientists have figured out how it would theroretically work, we just can't harness the energy required to do it.

IIRC it has been demonstrated that this is theoretically possible, but the energy involved to warp spacetime the size smaller than an atom will require the energy equivalence of 10 billion times the mass of our universe. This ain't happening in my lifetime.

Great moments in science 3

 

[dighn]

Of course, it would mean pretty much unlimited habitat, unlimited resources and energy, greatly reduced risk of extinction, excluding the possibility of genocidal aliens 😉, but it appears that intelligent aliens aren't that common at least around here. There's no question in my mind that it would completely change our civilization for the better. Whether or not it's possible though is another question, but our physics is still far from complete, who really knows?

 

[zanieladie]

1) Never
2) No
3) No
4) No

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: dighn
Of course, it would mean pretty much unlimited habitat, unlimited resources and energy, greatly reduced risk of extinction, excluding the possibility of genocidal aliens 😉, but it appears that intelligent aliens aren't that common at least around here. There's no question in my mind that it would completely change our civilization for the better. Whether or not it's possible though is another question, but our physics is still far from complete, who really knows?

Read, "The Last Question", by Asimov. Just google the title, second or third link down.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: everman

Originally posted by: dighn
Of course, it would mean pretty much unlimited habitat, unlimited resources and energy, greatly reduced risk of extinction, excluding the possibility of genocidal aliens 😉, but it appears that intelligent aliens aren't that common at least around here. There's no question in my mind that it would completely change our civilization for the better. Whether or not it's possible though is another question, but our physics is still far from complete, who really knows?

Read, "The Last Question", by Asimov. Just google the title, second or third link down.

Looks like a very interesting story, I'll have to read it some time. Just curious why did you point that one out? heat death is a rather different topic.

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: everman

Originally posted by: dighn
Of course, it would mean pretty much unlimited habitat, unlimited resources and energy, greatly reduced risk of extinction, excluding the possibility of genocidal aliens 😉, but it appears that intelligent aliens aren't that common at least around here. There's no question in my mind that it would completely change our civilization for the better. Whether or not it's possible though is another question, but our physics is still far from complete, who really knows?

Read, "The Last Question", by Asimov. Just google the title, second or third link down.

Looks like a very interesting story, I'll have to read it some time. Just curious why did you point that one out? heat death is a rather different topic.

You mentioned unlimited habitat, resources, energy. It doesn't really have anything to do with "heat death" as you put it. Great short story 😀

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: everman

You mentioned unlimited habitat, resources, energy. It doesn't really have anything to do with "heat death" as you put it. Great short story 😀

Ahh I thought it might have been that. I did say "pretty much" though 😉 it does sound like a great story, thanks for the recommendatin 🙂

 

[CalvinHobbs]

Originally posted by: thebigdude

Originally posted by: Braznor
I believe only FTL travel can save mankind from itself. As technology progresses, the odds of exterminating ourselves increases if we do not escape from this planet.

Imagine having the infinite resouces of this universe for ourselves, imagine no want anymore, no wars with infinite land over worlds scattered throughout the universe.

FTL travel shall be greatest invention of mankind since the wheel. I strongly believe the goverments of today should cut the crap, stop wasting money on wars and invest it into reseach for FTL travel.

One cannot fathom the impact this shall have on mankind, no wars, the riches of the universe would be ours for free, freedom for the whole of mankind.

Until we run into hostile aliens of course

Remember when the Europeans landed on the American continent it did not lead to peace. It instead gave birth to George W. BUSH and the rest is history

what's wrong with that 😕

:laugh:

ok then who decides who gets which planet, we vote and if we still disagree on the results then we start bombing each other, and if those planets are already inhabited then do you kick them out of their planet?

 

[thebigdude]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbs

Originally posted by: thebigdude

Originally posted by: Braznor
I believe only FTL travel can save mankind from itself. As technology progresses, the odds of exterminating ourselves increases if we do not escape from this planet.

Imagine having the infinite resouces of this universe for ourselves, imagine no want anymore, no wars with infinite land over worlds scattered throughout the universe.

FTL travel shall be greatest invention of mankind since the wheel. I strongly believe the goverments of today should cut the crap, stop wasting money on wars and invest it into reseach for FTL travel.

One cannot fathom the impact this shall have on mankind, no wars, the riches of the universe would be ours for free, freedom for the whole of mankind.

Until we run into hostile aliens of course

Remember when the Europeans landed on the American continent it did not lead to peace. It instead gave birth to George W. BUSH and the rest is history

what's wrong with that 😕

:laugh:

ok then who decides who gets which planet, we vote and if we still disagree on the results then we start bombing each other, and if those planets are already inhabited then do you kick them out of their planet?

For changing what I said

 

[kyparrish]

I think a truly unlimited source of renewable energy with no negative environmental impact would have the greatest impact on human civilization.

 

[thehstrybean]

FTL FTW

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: kyparrish
I think a truly unlimited source of renewable energy with no negative environmental impact would have the greatest impact on human civilization.

See my posts above.

hint: er wait, that would spoil the story, sort of...not exactly :Q

 

[Taggart]

I think we should focus on creating a 100 ft robot Hitler out of meat before we take on FTL travel

 

[The Batt?sai]

Originally posted by: Braznor
I believe only FTL travel can save mankind from itself. As technology progresses, the odds of exterminating ourselves increases if we do not escape from this planet.

Imagine having the infinite resouces of this universe for ourselves, imagine no want anymore, no wars with infinite land over worlds scattered throughout the universe.

FTL travel shall be greatest invention of mankind since the wheel. I strongly believe the goverments of today should cut the crap, stop wasting money on wars and invest it into reseach for FTL travel.

One cannot fathom the impact this shall have on mankind, no wars, the riches of the universe would be ours for free, freedom for the whole of mankind.

Until we run into hostile aliens of course

all the sci fi battles? please. people will always be warring. its nothing new. outer space is nothing more than a huge battlefield 😛 lol

 

[preslove]

I think we have a chance of sending seeds out into the galaxy, but not with ftl travel. Carl Sagan gives an interesting hypothetical future where humans inhabit the insides of the planetesimals (sp?) in the oort cloud and riding them around the outside of the solar system as the moves through the galaxy, coming close the oort clouds of other stars. We'll hop onto (or into) other big rocks orbiting other stars and move throughout our region of the galaxy. In thousands of years we might come close enough to another inhabitable planet to colonize. Of course, by this time this "WE" will have been genetically engineered to the point that it is considerably different than us "humans."

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: fitzov

Light does not have mass. The physicist at Rochester has nothing to do with what he just said

The physicist was responding to the very criticism that you are using. Read the article.

No, he really wasn't. I read the article, but unlike you, I understood it.

Massive objects moving in a vacuum do not travel faster than the speed of light. This is what we're talking about. Using optical tricks in a medium is a completely different subject

Light travel in vacuum != light travel in water != light travel in specially designed optical fiber. These are all separate scenarios.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: fitzov
Let's put all this "not-physically-possible" talk to rest:

Show me the proof. Either link it or do something informal.

The equation for force is F = dp/dt (force is equal to the time derivative of momentum)

Momentum is equal to gamma*m*v, where gamma = 1/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2))

A simple calculation leads you to observing that F = C*m*a, where C is function dependent on gamma (off the top of my head I think it is supposed to be gamma^3 - gamma, but don't quote me on that, you can do the calculation yourself and will probably come up with that solution if not something else that is proportional to gamma, gamma^2, or gamma^3). Now you can understand that the force required to accelerate yourself to the speed of light is infinite because the limit of 1/0 is infinity. This is equivelant to saying that you gain infinite mass as you try to reach the speed of light.

Only a particle with zero mass can overcome this problem for reasons that should be obvious.

 

[Jadow]

Wow, I'm surprised so many people think FTL travel is possible. Personally, I don't think it will ever happen. Einsteins relativity forbids it.


since when were Jews good at science? j/k