SciFi and Reality

While I'm sure that science fiction is about as realistic as those medieval tales about the weird creatures that live on other continents (which, come to think of it, were exactly that - science-fiction), the thing that amuses me the most is when people start seriously debating about things they couldn't possibly have any idea about, such as whether or not it's possible to go beyond the speed of light or travel in time (well, all right, in that particular case, "it's impossible" is a pretty safe bet). Remember, a hundred years ago, people not only didn't think it was possible to break the sound barrier, but they didn't even have any understanding of the technologies that would eventually make this possible - so, back then, the claim that it's impossible to travel faster than sound would have been perfectly reasonable. It didn't turn out that way, however - and it's pretty arrogant for people today to seriously think that we know enough about the universe to make claims about the speed of light.
 
I read a mid-19th century story recently about how trains in the future would go so fast that they would separate your body from your soul... and they would have to have special stopping points to allow you to catch up with yourself.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I read a mid-19th century story recently about how trains in the future would go so fast that they would separate your body from your soul... and they would have to have special stopping points to allow you to catch up with yourself.
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That was kind of what I was thinking of
 
QuailPilot said:
didn't we used to think that if we were moved over 100 mph, we would implode?
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Quite right, it's all theory until someone actually tests it a few times. To my knowledge, no one's made any attempt to launch a ship to light speed or beyond yet so all we have are a few pretty math equations that claim we can't. They had a lot of pretty ones to say we couldn't break the sound barrier, that anything aircraft that hit it would be crushed like the aluminium pop cans they are. When Yeager busted through it, they had to rewrite a few.
 
Well when we try to accelerate ions, the closer they get to light speed, the more inertia they have, and the increase in inertia fits very closely to the predicted values. So far even at the highest energy levels that we can currently reach, nothing has been observed to exceed "c".
 
Warp travel is possible in theory. It does, however, rely on the theory that making negative energy is possible (or that negative energy actually exists). Before thinking something is impossible, do your homework. There are actually many faster than light theories. Most of them wouldn't be practical but some of them just require more research and time to develop. Check out NASA's and JPL's websites. They should have interesting articles on the subject (If I remember correctly). Just remember not to trust only one source.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I read a mid-19th century story recently about how trains in the future would go so fast that they would separate your body from your soul... and they would have to have special stopping points to allow you to catch up with yourself.
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That's actually true, and it's the official explanation for the 1980's.
 
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