Actually, doesn't time slow as you approach light speed?

So it would be like they were gone for 50 years, but come back only a few months older.

 

Sure. And according to Einstein's theory, while you edge towards light speed, your mass is reaching towards infinity....and you never quuuuiiiiiiittttte get there (light speed). And the travelers in the 'light' ship might actually see the passage of 1 year (to them) while those on Earth might see the passage of 100 years.

(I'm not a physicist, clux....so if I explained that badly.....be patient)

Workarounds, clux......Workarounds. Look for the 'back' door. That's the premise of the article........and theories like the Alcubierre Drive.

Be that as it may....even with conventional knowledge and with enough fuel and power.....we could build a ship right now which could maintain constant acceleration and creep towards 186,000 miles/second. Might take a year or two to get close.....So conceivably (again...engineering with enough power, fuel and life support) a mission to Alpha Centauri and back would take about 10 years (to us Earthlings) if it was a brute force mission head on to the star system.......and heading straight-on against the relativity limits. The passage of time on the ship would be about 2 or 3 years (accelerating and decelerating to and from light speed....or thereabouts)

But that's using the 'brute force' method....

Theoretically, a 'space-folding' drive could leap the distance almost instantaneously. No matter how far away. If you can see it....you can get there.

 

But now you're talking about shortening space or time (which is theoretically possible) not faster than light.

 

What is typically referred to as subspace in sci-fi shows is a possibility. In the show Farscape, aside from the wormholes the ship was able to enter this dimension in a maneuver called "starburst". In this, the ship would ride the boundary with the other dimension and be popped out somewhere else. It wasn't exact, but generally the ship didn't go too far.
From the very brief research I have done, it would seem that the best chance of traveling faster than light would be to skirt or completely enter another dimension and then figure out how to control re-entry into this one to give the effect of travel.

 

In that theory....sure. But that's just one theory.

Don't ask me how too step on the accelerator and just zoom past 186,000 miles/sec......

 

If traveling faster than the speed of light were possible, then think about this;
If a car was traveling toward you, the image would reach you before the actual car because the image would be traveling at the speed of light plus the speed of the car. Therefore nothing can co faster than the speed of light.

 

1) If the image only travels at the speed of light, then the image arrives regardless of the speed of the car.

2) If the car were traveling at the speed of light the image would reach you just in time for the car to run you over.

3) If the car were traveling AWAY from you at the speed of light - now that is a notion that becomes interesting. Would you see any images at all?

 

All you have to do to test that one is look up at the night sky.

 

I prefer to take the stance anything is possible given enough time.. Einstein has been dis-proven before in his theory's.. there were even times when Einstein wouldnt accept the results of his own theory's because they were in conflict with his own beliefs.. Sometimes his own stubbornness got in his way as a result of this. Theres been many occasions where his theory's were proven right but also times hes been proven wrong too.. As we become more and more advanced in science we'll start seeing that we'll be doing things once thought impossible because of our technology improvements.

One thing to keep in mind.. Every advancement the human race has made was as one time believed to be impossible. All you have to do is look at history to see that is true. We were TOLD People could never fly. We have air planes, gliders, hot air balloons. Then we were TOLD we could never get a vehicle into space. We made it. Landing on the moon, impossible.. Weve done it.. Studying other planets.. Hey done that too..

Medical science.. We were TOLD people humans average life span was not longer than the age of 45 (some cases even back then had people living to their 50's).. We've managed to push that barrier further into 80's 90's.. some rare cases people are making it to 100's. Was told polio could not be cured... Cured it.. Heart Failure was unsolvable... Now we can replace them, repair them.. Hell we can even grow new body parts in a lab if need too.. Or even just build a mechanical new one.

Point is.. just because technology doesnt allow us to do something NOW.. doesnt mean we never will. Hell you already have one star trek device that was once thought impossible... Communicator?? Cell phone?? Computers that could fit in a single room.. computers are doubling speed and storage every couple years now... Want a Star Wars exampl?? TIE fighter.. granted science fiction pushed this one for entertainment value.. but the Definition TIE - Twin Ion Engine.. Is not scifi... We use ION engines on our deep space probes.. which has allowed us to probe deeper and deeper into space than once believed possible...Just because someone says its impossible doesnt mean it actually is. We just havent figured out how to do it yet..

 

Kinda how I look at it, Sparky.......

 

The truth of the matter is:

What is Science Fiction and Fantasy today, rapidly becomes an everyday accepted fact tomorrow


~ and that happens more and more often

"Dammit Orville - AND YOU TOO WILBUR! That thing is against the laws of God and man. It will NEVER FLY!"

 

We must be of similar age---I see nothing but doom and gloom on the horizon myself!

We do seem to be heading in opposite directions of the civilization scale at breakneck speed though. Advances in all of technology is amazing, man's inhumane treatment of one another---both traveling fast!

 

Engineered super-viruses, natural disasters, terrorism, famine/pandemic, relations between the US and Russia set back to Cold war status............."The bright light of the future" is likely to be blinding detonation of thousands of thermo-nuclear weapons.

 

The speed at which technology improves is amazing. Things are being improved upon at an exponential rate, so maybe it will be in your lifetime.

Steve, you've mentioned several interesting books on these subject over the years, some fiction, some perhaps not. I've wanted to read some of the ones you talked about and now I have the time. What were some of those titles (I now have a Kindle and I'm NOT afraid to use it)?

 

I don't think I recommended 'FTL' specific books as a subject......although several Sci-Fi books I've read had them as a backdrop. I could certainly recommend some good ones, though....

For a fast, easy read pick up a Robert A. Heinlein. I'd go with 'Time For The Stars'. In the book, telepathy travels instantaneously, isn't physical, and 'ignores' the normal limits placed on the physical world by Relativity. In the book, they use the innate ability of some twins (and triplets) to read each others' minds.......keep one twin on Earth, while the others on on board the 12 survey ships sent out to find new planets........and act as realtime communicators for the colony ships Earth-side. The ships can only approach light speed.......so the trips are taking years.....and even decades.....so while the 'telepair' partners on the ships are seeing only weeks and months go by....the pair on Earth sees years and decades.

By the end of the book, research into this paradox leads Earth to be able to create starships which can travel........

(oh.....read it yourself........lol)

David Weber's book 'The Apocalypse Troll' is another good read. More explanation on how the starships actually jump light speed in multiples........(from X5 to X30, 50, and more). The ships travel on 'bands'......from the 'alpha' band (the lowest and slowest) to the higher bands ('beta', 'delta', and so on.......). The higher the band, the steeper and faster the 'jumps'.......and the more dangerous, of course. The bands are layered, like sedimentary rock.

Great read, though. A human from the future, where Mankind is locked in a death grapple with a xenophobic alien race, travels back in time (I'll not go into too much detail here) when the aliens travel back in time to wipe out Earth before Earth has the technology to actually fight back effectively) most of the book takes place in the present.

Both are great beach reads, Stu. Have fun.