Do you think FTL travel will ever be possible?

[Deleted]

Actually they've come even further in the field of quantum ... string-field theory? I don't know, but they've found evidence of entanglement. If one particle interacts with another, they sort of bind together as one. One of those two particles can travel to the other side of the galaxy while the other remains in place. No matter the distance between them, they still interact with eachother in realtime. That's a connection that is faster than the speed of light by atleast a thousand times.
Something is connecting these two, if we find out how they do it, we could take advantage of it, and study it even further.

gizmag.com/quantum-entanglement-speed-10000-faster-light/26587/ * There are more sources from which you can read. Livescience for example.

"Quantum entanglement, one of the odder aspects of quantum theory, links the properties of particles even when they are separated by large distances. When a property of one of a pair of entangled particles is measured, the other "immediately" settles down into a state compatible with that measurement. So how fast is "immediately"? According to research by Prof. Juan Yin and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai, the lower limit to the speed associated with entanglement dynamics – or "spooky action at a distance" – is at least 10,000 times faster than light."

[Deleted]

Yes we can, when the laws of physics make something impossible, their usually is a way around it.

[Deleted]

If I'm not wrong Nasa is actually working on warping. the engines/part remain stationary is the universe around it that move not sure that this is the correct explanation tbh if I found the article I will link it

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/te.../ideachev.html

kind of

[Deleted]

If I'm not wrong Nasa is actually working on warping. the engines/part remain stationary is the universe around it that move not sure that this is the correct explanation tbh if I found the article I will link it

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/te.../ideachev.html

kind of

Like the professor from Futurama explained, the spaceship doesn't move, it moves the universe around it

[Biomega]

Actually they've come even further in the field of quantum ... string-field theory? I don't know, but they've found evidence of entanglement. If one particle interacts with another, they sort of bind together as one. One of those two particles can travel to the other side of the galaxy while the other remains in place. No matter the distance between them, they still interact with eachother in realtime. That's a connection that is faster than the speed of light by atleast a thousand times.
Something is connecting these two, if we find out how they do it, we could take advantage of it, and study it even further.

gizmag.com/quantum-entanglement-speed-10000-faster-light/26587/ * There are more sources from which you can read. Livescience for example.

"Quantum entanglement, one of the odder aspects of quantum theory, links the properties of particles even when they are separated by large distances. When a property of one of a pair of entangled particles is measured, the other "immediately" settles down into a state compatible with that measurement. So how fast is "immediately"? According to research by Prof. Juan Yin and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai, the lower limit to the speed associated with entanglement dynamics – or "spooky action at a distance" – is at least 10,000 times faster than light."

As was pointed out several times in this thread, quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation do not transmit classical information; as such, they cannot be used to transmit data at superluminal speeds. You can't use these effects to build a transmitter (or a teleporter) that works faster than the speed of light. There's several effects that seem to be propagating at faster than the speed of light - you just can't (ab)use these effects for anything. The speed of light remains the upper boundary for the speed of mass and classical information, according to all we know so far.

Indeed the most promising way is to "cheat" the speed limit by manipulating space/distance. Of course, this in itself is quite a fantastic feat requiring energies on a truly titanic scale. But there could very well be ways around that, too; way to manipulate space and/or gravity with much less energy, and bend them to our will.

Another possibility would be a naturally occurring phenomenon, such as the discovery of a stable, traversable wormhole somewhere. But science is still unsure whether such a thing can exist at all, and if it can, if it can form naturally on its own. Not to mention that it would not only have to be theoretically traversable, but practically so as well - no point in sending a ship through if all that comes out the other end is a pile of spaghettified goop.

[paralleluniverse]

No, FTL is not possible. It's a basic fact of physics that everyone knows.

But there are certain loopholes. For example, bending spacetime around the spaceship in a way that propels it forward seemingly faster than the speed of light (while objects in space can't move FTL, space can. E.g. the universe is expanding FTL). Or wormholes.

[Axelond]

On Futuretimeline (If you haven't heard about this website they have estimates for a ton of different stuff, From estimates on when the new console generation will be out to when The black hole era of the universe will start.) Their guess on FTL is that in the 2150 we will have close to light speed available (0.99c) but any higer then that will prove to be very hard to accomplish due the insane power a Alcubierre drive would require but however in the far future when humans are mostly just advanced machines and practicably immortal they predict that we will have the Alcubierre drive perfected and be able to use it in almost any spacecraft, Futuretimelines very rough estimate on this is the year 1,000,000 AD..And that is all counting on that we DO NOT blow our self up or go extinct. Its also based on that no newer much easier FTL method is found.


http://www.futuretimeline.net/beyond.htm#1000000 If anyone want to read the hole prediction

You should also check out http://www.futuretimeline.net/ if you haven't seen the site before, its a really great website for science.

[paralleluniverse]

On Futuretimeline (If you haven't heard about this website they have estimates for a ton of different stuff, From estimates on when the new console generation will be out to when The black hole era of the universe will start.) Their guess on FTL is that in the 2150 we will have close to light speed available (0.99c) but any higer then that will prove to be very hard to accomplish due the insane power a Alcubierre drive would require but however in the far future when humans are mostly just advanced machines and practicably immortal they predict that we will have the Alcubierre drive perfected and be able to use it in almost any spacecraft, Futuretimelines very rough estimate on this is the year 1,000,000 AD..And that is all counting on that we DO NOT blow our self up or go extinct. Its also based on that no newer much easier FTL method is found.


http://www.futuretimeline.net/beyond.htm#1000000 If anyone want to read the hole prediction

You should also check out http://www.futuretimeline.net/ if you haven't seen the site before, its a really great website for science.

"Futurists" have been pretty much overestimating human progress since the beginning of civilization.

[Biomega]

Until Hari Seldon shows us how to do it right, these sorts of "predictions" are nothing more than outright guesses. Given the enormous amount of variables involved, the further into the future you go the more chaotic the system becomes, and consequently the more variance creeps into your results. It's like meteorology - you simply can't make predictions about the weather with any sort of meaningful accuracy past a certain point, because even the smallest changes cause hugely different results the longer they have time to affect the system. That's where the old adage of the butterfly causing a hurricane comes from.
History has proven time and again that while you can make predictions to SOME degree (especially if the thing you are looking at evolves on a linear scale), that only really works on short time scales. To throw dates around like "2150" or even "1.000.000 AD" (lol? like seriously.. L O L) has no value outside of the comedic. Looking back, say, 100 years, many predictions made then have turned out to be ridiculously wrong. It isn't a big surprise either, as such "predictions" can never take into account leaps in innovation that completely change the game. Quantum mechanics, microcomputers, the internet... these are all changes that happened within the last few decades, but completely changed our way of life, and of doing science and research. And if anything, the rate at which such paradigm shifts occur has been speeding up over the course of history - 2150 is a date so far into the future we have literally no meaningful way of making ANY sort of prediction that will turn out to be true through anything but sheer luck.

[Komati]

Yes, without a doubt. Traveling faster than light is most likely impossible. However, we might be able to move space faster than light.
NASA is already conducting experiments to see if a warp drive might be possible.

http://www.space.com/21140-star-trek...-possible.html


FTL means moving from point A to B faster than light can, not moving faster than light trough the same space.

[Milmo]

I see a few people think that Einstein's equations are just abstract concepts about reality. They are not, we can observe his findings and most of us use a particular useful piece of technology EVERY day which requires these equations to be correct, the GPS (Global Positioning System). It would not work properly without relativity being correct, so there are no ifs or buts as to whether Einstein was right or wrong, his equations work in the real world solving real world problems. Both general and special relativity are being accounted for by the very GPS receiver in your car or on a plane, which gets you where you expect it to get you.

[Deleted]

2000 years ago people thought it would be impossible to travel faster than a horse. 1000 years ago people thought earth is a disc.
Now people think its impossible to travel faster than the light. So maybe in 1000 years people will look back and wonder in what stupid things we believed

Even if direct FTL traveling isnt possible im quite sure there are ways to avoid Einsteins rules by warping or traveling through other dimensions.

[Arcrin]

well light cant outrun blackholes but gravity can.

just gonna leave that here.

[Caribald]

My guess would be that actually moving at speeds faster than the speed of light is forever impossible, but there might be ways to "reduce" the distance to a destination, whether by wormhole, warping space or something entirely different, so that the end result would be as if you had been travelling FTL.

[Milmo]

well light cant outrun blackholes but gravity can.

just gonna leave that here.

It is not that gravity outruns it, but spacetime get so warped and concentrated that light gets trapped. When you hold your hand tightly over a flashlight it does not get dark because you slow down the photons, but because you block its path.

[galluk]

I don;t think that faster than light travel is possible in traditional speed terms. But it does not mean there will not be "work arounds", like wormholes, or even a hyperspace, where you travel outside of space to reach a destination quickly.

[paralleluniverse]

2000 years ago people thought it would be impossible to travel faster than a horse. 1000 years ago people thought earth is a disc.
Now people think its impossible to travel faster than the light. So maybe in 1000 years people will look back and wonder in what stupid things we believed

Even if direct FTL traveling isnt possible im quite sure there are ways to avoid Einsteins rules by warping or traveling through other dimensions.

It's pretty much an iron-clad law of physics that objects can't go FTL. But I agree that it should theoretically be possible to exploit some loopholes (e.g. warping spacetime) to *seemingly* go FTL.

[Dezerte]

2000 years ago people thought it would be impossible to travel faster than a horse. 1000 years ago people thought earth is a disc.
Now people think its impossible to travel faster than the light. So maybe in 1000 years people will look back and wonder in what stupid things we believed

Even if direct FTL traveling isnt possible im quite sure there are ways to avoid Einsteins rules by warping or traveling through other dimensions.

And in 2000 years gravity will reverse in on itself, pigs will fly, horses will talk and the sun will turn blue.

[Vernichtung]

And in 2000 years gravity will reverse in on itself, pigs will fly, horses will talk and the sun will turn blue.

Blue, no. Red, YES! Well maybe not 2000 years but maybe a few billion.

[Biomega]

1000 years ago people thought earth is a disc.

That is one stubborn myth right there! Scholars realized quite early that the earth was not in fact flat; there is ample sources from as early as 600 BC that assumed the earth to be spherical. Even in the middle ages (your "1000 years ago") virtually no educated man in Europe thought that the earth was flat. The idea that everyone back then assumed the earth to be flat is a myth that has been perpetuated chiefly at the end of the 19th century, in the course of a dispute about evolution.

Scientists then as now knew full well that it's often only a matter of time before a theory is replaced by a better one. Doesn't mean they accept it readily and quickly, of course, but when presented with enough conclusive evidence, they will. The same holds true for our "fundamental" idea that no object (with mass) can travel faster than the speed of light (tachyons are a bit of a special case; if they do exist, their mass is assumed to be imaginary). As far as we understand physics at the moment, the assertion holds true. But there may very well be some breakthrough in the future that casts doubt on all our assumptions, and completely changes our understanding of the universe. Of course, there's practically no way to know when, or if, such a breakthrough will occur. All we can do is wait and see! And become physicists that work on discovering that breakthrough, of course.