Unless you happen to be an arms dealer.
*ping* ?
Not sure what exactly we would be trading. We’ve got raw materials up the wazoo right here in our own solar system. If it’s some exotic technology, then the information to replicate that could just be transmitted at the speed of light.
We’ve already beamed out all our best culture via radio & TV, so I’m not sure what they’d want from us (besides a “To Serve Man” scenario)
Once null-space Transit technology is refined, travel time to the stars will be measured in days.
ping
Well, it is a science FICTION blog or site. But still an interesting read
The problem that never seems to be addressed, when discussing near light speed ‘craft’ is.... how do you slow down ? You can’t just fly along at .80c and then suddenly stop when you arrive at your target.
Did they figure in the cost of interstellar tariffs? Do we want a trade war with Proxima Centauri?
Utter nonsense discussed without having the foggiest nature of if it will ever be possible.
“Travel between stars is hard.”
Ya think?!
At first I expected this to be a bunch of crackpottery. Then I read the article. I have to admit, this guy has some novel and way out of the box thinking, whether it makes a lick of sense or not.
I was reading the history of the Hubble Space Telescope here on FR last week. The guy who conceived it did so in the 40s long before we launched our first orbital vehicle. He was certainly a BIG thinker and it came to fruition within about 40 years.
I think we would deplete all the mineral wealth of the moon first, then Mars, then the outer planets. I think we should concentrate on building big pipelines to bring the oceans of methane on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune back to earth before going interstellar. That would solve all of our energy problems for all eternity.
People do not invest in things that will not give them a good return in their lifetime.
Energy requred to accelerate to 10% of the speed of light and then decelerate is off the charts insane.
Modern humans are only about 50,000 years old. As such our science is primitive to civilizations that may be millions of years old. If those civilizations could traverse interstellar distances they would have already been here and left their calling cards.
However, James Carville may give lie to my suppostiion. Perhaps they are here now. :)
This quote at the end is interesting:
"Financial products can allow a company that invests in interstellar operations to produce a cash flow greater than just what is sold on the market, by selling intangibles such as rights, data, growth and investor confidence."
Sounds a lot like a description of bitcoin.
Bookmarked for later full read beyond the scanning.
One question though.
How the heck did you managed to all that text with html codes for images into the tiny FR posting text box?
Regarding “seeding” by micro elements. Skeptic asks would not alien civilizations perceive these swarms as a plague and cat walk back to our system and zap the crap out of us?
Picture another race dumping self replicating nanobots into our ocean, it would be an act of war.
One can not exceed the local speed of light; but one can exceed the overall speed of light. You do that by bending the “lines” of space towards you such that you only have to cover one yard to get ten yards. One of the key pieces of the puzzle is to “hide” the mass of the spaceship until it is accelerated and is needed to bend space.
Crackpottery, def: Any thing which does not fit the prevailing meme (academic or personal) or is simply declared ‘impossible’ by ‘authorities’. Use of the word warns the reader that new thinking or the art of the plausibly possible is highly discouraged or could be forthcoming with ridicule unleashed.
The article presupposes that travel must be done by objects pushing through space time. If that is the case, then the article might be substantially correct in its assumptions and possibilities.
However:
If an object can be made to rise above space time and then move by depressing space time in the direction of desired travel, then none of the currently limiting physics apply. The object is free to move at any speed, thus the faster it goes, the faster it can go.
This same system could be made so as to ‘trap’ a bit of space time from its original origin point, thus crew would experience only the forces prevalent in the captured segment, or. plainly. no effects of motion at all.
There would be no limiting size for the object, and no prolonged time spent traveling. In other words, mass-cancellation and inertial shielding permit these effects.
Oddly enough these physics have been described already years ago - Quantum Physicists: Harold E Puthoff, Bernard Haisch (also worked at Skunkworks), Alfonso Rueda, York Dobyns. cf: “Inertial Mass and the Quantum Vacuum Fields”; “Polarizable-Vacuum (PV) Approach to General Relativity: Zero-point Field and Hyperbolic Motion, Cyclic Power Extraction from Casimir Cavity Oscillations “ - HE Puthoff
There are options under general relativity that do not preclude surpassing the pubic conception of limitations on speed of travel. One is that it is possible to use the energy inherent in everything to move things - the energy contained within the so-called empty vacuum to propel objects
Also: The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast Travel Within General Relativity, Miguel Alcubierre. 1994. Uses exotic matter, not worm-holes.
There are many many others writing papers on zero-point energy and its uses.
I still want to sign on with the Firefly crew.