What needs to be done for faster than light travel?

a reply to: framedragged

ehhh, mb's been forgiving of me in the past when I've proven myself an idiot. he's good natured in my opinion.

They say that mercury helps, Bismuth helps too. Wonder what happens if graphene is in the mix? Who knows, sci-fi is cool.
Specially when you spin it.

originally posted by: Tajlakz

Oooooooh juicy...give us a hint when you get back

(standing bare assed and wet by the computer...)

It's a military thing. I've limited myself to one macguffin. However, it's a macguffin that's both simple and profound. Once the protagonist #s up and reveals that he can do this thing (although he's kept it 'in his pants' as it were for 20+ years) every political and intelligence agency starts projecting their fears onto it.

Both the guy and various groups start spinning each other up, because all the intel agencies are doing their own thing in secret and #ing each other up in their panicky haste to off the guy, who has no idea who or why he's being chased around, so he occasionally lets the dog out, so to speak, in self defense. Which just convinces them that he's Satan in disguise who must be planning to (), whatever () each agency fears the most.

I hereby decree that the word macguffinable be used henceforth as an adjective pertaining but not limited to: A person who demonstrates the characteristic of belief in any guff, shysterism, shoddery or bagelism, regardless of provenance or proof.

originally posted by: Jonjonj
I hereby decree that the word macguffinable be used henceforth as an adjective pertaining but not limited to: A person who demonstrates the characteristic of belief in any guff, shysterism, shoddery or bagelism, regardless of provenance or proof.

Except a macguffin is the thing in a story that drives the plot. It's not related to "guff". It causes the conflict. The Maltese Falcon was the macguffin, for example.

oooooh oooh bedlam can I be in the
movie? I'm thinking like a 20 second cameo where I come in all brash do something stupid and immediately get dispatched. that would be sweet!

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
oooooh oooh bedlam can I be in the
movie? I'm thinking like a 20 second cameo where I come in all brash do something stupid and immediately get dispatched. that would be sweet!

I might add that the guy has JUST gotten out of the military after spending his adult life there up to this point. And it was a really stressful assignment. He's getting creaky and banged up, gets B teamed for the last few years but still ends up being sent in to direct action gigs because he's REALLY GOOD at his specialty. Only he's not...he's using the macguffin.

So he finally ETS's, goes charging into the civilian life he has been fantasizing about (although since he hasn't been one since he was 17 and now he's 38...) and discovers that he's got major major problems re-integrating into civilian life. And he's not doing really well. He's having sleep disorder, and starts having issues with minor psych problems, like inappropriate situational awareness and some odd habits he knows he's doing but can't figure out why, and that's worrying him because he thinks he's going crazy, maybe. So in the middle of this guy getting counseling that's not working, and being given meds by the VA that he isn't taking, and trying to come to grips with why he is depressed, bored, unable to relate to the people around him, having issues controlling aggression and the like, he's sort of having minor hallucinations that are creeping him out, mainly seeing people he knows at a distance in crowds. Only when he runs to find them, they weren't there, or the person he thought was an old friend is someone else. It's mostly loneliness and separation anxiety since he's been in a position where all the people he worked with were really tightly knit and now he's on his own and doesn't know anyone, but he doesn't understand that yet.

So when he finally does his thing in a stressful situation in civilian life, and they finally realize what happened, and trace it back to him, then on top of everything else, he's got all these downchecks by the VA which seem to indicate he's mentally unstable.

And from the other side, he's not sure if all the weirdness in his life that begins is more PTSD crap or if it's really happening.

A sort of ongoing theme here is that no one knows what's going on but everyone is acting on their fears.

eta: and he could travel faster than light if he had a working FTL drive. Maybe the macguffin goes faster than light. It's certainly pretty flexible in its use.

a reply to: LSU0408

I agree 100%. My doubts begin to arise because of that. I'm not sure what to think.

a reply to: LSU0408

It would take an infinite amount of energy to propel any mass to the speed of light. Unless of course it's mass canceled. But even if it is cancelled, it has to be completely, 100%. That's why I think warping space is the only way.

In addition to the issues of mass and space-time, you'll also have to deal with the fact that, at faster-than-light speed, the traveller's time becomes imaginary. Let me explain.

A traveller's time slows down the more the closer to light speed he gets, stopping completely (relative to a stationary observer) at light speed. Some people believe that time will start running backwards when achieving faster-than-light speed, but let's take a look at the equation used to determine the rate of time dilation (the so-called "Lorentz transformation"):


where "γ" symbol is the rate of time dilation, and "v" is the relative velocity.

Note that the equation contains square root of 1, minus that bit with velocity and c. When v = c, γ becomes infinite (the local time stops). But at v > c, you have a square root of a negative number, which makes γ a complex number and makes the traveller's time imaginary.

What this means, in my perception, is that while to a stationary observer the traveller will seem frozen in time (and, in effect, redshifted out of view completely), the traveller will find himself existing in an alternate timeline that extends at a right "angle" to our own timeline.

Mind blown yet?

a reply to: wildespace

Only if they're actually traveling. No one said anything about warping the space and pulling it to you. Hopping on for a quick ride to your destination. If I understand it correctly, you also dodge this issue.

The speed of thought is faster than light. Projecting and focusing that thought is where we will continue to make gains.

IAmTheRumble answered his own question just by simply thinking about starting this thread.

a reply to: Signals

I've heard that, but i would think it can only apply to something you've experienced. For instance, I can think of the sun and visualize it instantly, faster than it takes light to get from it to my eyes. My visualization isn't as accurate as what is actually happening. What happens when I apply this to something I haven't experienced? I can't visualize it unless I've seen it. Idk just a few of my thoughts for you. All components in the brain move roughly the speed of light, not sure what to think.

a reply to: Bedlam

Secret agent /special person with extraordinary abilities on the run from 3 letter agencies has been done to death.

I'm sure you could make it interesting with the treatment you give the macguffin but "general audiences" dont tend to fixate on the hows and whys of the technology unless it has some sort of personal impact or is really cool like a lightsabre.

Stick me on the Planet Dirt preorder list as well though....the practicalities and logistics of realistic space travel you've eluded to are head and shoulders above other similar stuff...

I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that some of the best "tell us a story" narrators of advanced black triangle technology decide to post on ATS.

As we've seen already, the tech explanation angle can get attention but you really need a paradigm flipping revelation along the way ( they use sleeping humans as the navigation system for e.g) - which ultimately makes it many times more dumberer, but has the mass appeal factor that publishers and producers ultimately desire.

I dont think you've commented on ATS about that other now infamous BBT narrative but I wondered whether you thought Astr0 had borrowed certain key elements from your "tale"?

a reply to: IAmTheRumble

No, not only things you have experienced. Have you no imagination?

You can imagine anything, anywhere, anytime. Based on "infinite universe" theories, any and all things you can imagine are already happening somewhere in the universe, have happened, or will happen. "Nothing is new under the Sun."

Therefore, your thoughts are FTL...They resonate through the entire universe.

Star Wars is a true story, as well as Star Trek, even The Wizard Of Oz, all of it happened or will happen, given enough "time"..

originally posted by: Jukiodone
a reply to: Bedlam

Secret agent /special person with extraordinary abilities on the run from 3 letter agencies has been done to death.

True, but it's more the 'blind men and elephant' thing that is different. Because in my experience, that's a lot of it in most any circumstance where the agency is involved. The usual treatment is that it's the NSA (geez..) and that they're nearly omnipotent (also geez...). Also, I know a lot more about the inner process than, say, David Marconi.

I suppose if the reader wants it to be typical NSA as bad guy it might be a letdown, welcome to 'The Activity'.

I'm sure you could make it interesting with the treatment you give the macguffin but "general audiences" dont tend to fixate on the hows and whys of the technology unless it has some sort of personal impact or is really cool like a lightsabre.

It's not technological. More like an innate talent, which of course, the reader *might* also have...

I dont think you've commented on ATS about that other now infamous BBT narrative but I wondered whether you thought Astr0 had borrowed certain key elements from your "tale"?

Astr0 happened while I was away. I'd say more like he'd heard something and got it right a few times, messed up a few, made up some.

There is an idea that if one could generate enough negative energy it could theoretically be used to hold a wormhole open. That is if a wormhole actually led to other parts of the universe.

Also if one could flag down one of those black triangles they seem to be able to do hyper-acceleration that would normally crush everything in the ship. Plus no sonic boom? They are on to something......
But do they respond to the pedestrian "flag down" signal? Or the "hitchhike thumb"?

originally posted by: joelr
There is an idea that if one could generate enough negative energy it could theoretically be used to hold a wormhole open. That is if a wormhole actually led to other parts of the universe.

If you could harness it, then you could also have the main tool needed to create a 'warp drive' as well since the same stuff would be needed.

The problem is that we needed to understand the fundamental nature of Dark Energy & that's a long way away given the miniscule resources that are currently dedicated to this pursuit.

a reply to: joelr

Negative energy is still theoretical. Lazar's description imo, is the most probable method upon inspection.

I mean, creating a gravitational field seems a lot less far-fetched than some form of energy that hasn't even been proven yet.

Nevermind, this wasn't worth the effort to post.