The future is impossible
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Lately I am seeing articles from Futurist who say that this or that is impossible. A good example would be faster than light speed travel. I'm old. I've seen everything from floor model radios to 98 inch flat screen TVs with Netflix etc. I would be afraid to say any technological advance is impossible.
Leadership equals wrecked ship. If you think you are leading my look behind you. You are alone. If you think I am leading you, You are lost.
Arthur C. Clarke's Law: "When a distinguished, but elderly, scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly correct. When, however, he says that something is impossible, he is almost certainly mistaken." Clarke goes on to define "elderly": "In mathematics, physics, and chemistry, it means someone over 30. In the biological sciences, senile decay is sometimes postponed until the 40s." At present, there seems no economical way to travel faster than light (creating a wormhole with an energy budget greater than that of a star doesn't count). However, we already know that General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are incomplete; it could be that whatever unifies them will re-open the possibility for FTL. Even if the theory is advanced in the next few decades, I doubt that the hardware will be built fast enough for old farts like us to use. :sigh: :( :((
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
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Ygnaiih wrote:
I would be afraid to say any technological advance is impossible.
The speed of light is a known physical limit of the universe. It has little to do with what we can invent, and more with the limits that exisist in the universe.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^][](X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett)
Eddy Vluggen wrote:
The speed of light is a known physical limit of the universe.
Quote:
"based on current technology and science knowledge I have".
:-D
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data. There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Arthur C. Clarke's Law: "When a distinguished, but elderly, scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly correct. When, however, he says that something is impossible, he is almost certainly mistaken." Clarke goes on to define "elderly": "In mathematics, physics, and chemistry, it means someone over 30. In the biological sciences, senile decay is sometimes postponed until the 40s." At present, there seems no economical way to travel faster than light (creating a wormhole with an energy budget greater than that of a star doesn't count). However, we already know that General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are incomplete; it could be that whatever unifies them will re-open the possibility for FTL. Even if the theory is advanced in the next few decades, I doubt that the hardware will be built fast enough for old farts like us to use. :sigh: :( :((
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light - it may be exploitable, but for sending information and not any physical objects. It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass. As it approaches the speed of light its mass approached infinity - so acceleration becomes impossible. An interesting caveat to that could be that as anything with any mass approaches c, they all approach the same mass. Which causes all sorts of conflicts, logically - and one might as well accelerate an entire planet as accelerate a grain of sand as they'll take the same effort in the end. Special relativity does bend the brain, a bit.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Ygnaiih wrote:
I would be afraid to say any technological advance is impossible.
The speed of light is a known physical limit of the universe. It has little to do with what we can invent, and more with the limits that exisist in the universe.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^][](X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett)
The Earth was known to be flat. Bloodlettings were known to be healthy...
CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game. I'm a puny punmaker.
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The Earth was known to be flat. Bloodlettings were known to be healthy...
CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game. I'm a puny punmaker.
It isn't? :confused: They aren't? :omg:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time -
It isn't? :confused: They aren't? :omg:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the timeJohnny J. wrote:
It isn't?
Only in Alabama.
Johnny J. wrote:
They aren't?
See above.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Arthur C. Clarke's Law: "When a distinguished, but elderly, scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly correct. When, however, he says that something is impossible, he is almost certainly mistaken." Clarke goes on to define "elderly": "In mathematics, physics, and chemistry, it means someone over 30. In the biological sciences, senile decay is sometimes postponed until the 40s." At present, there seems no economical way to travel faster than light (creating a wormhole with an energy budget greater than that of a star doesn't count). However, we already know that General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are incomplete; it could be that whatever unifies them will re-open the possibility for FTL. Even if the theory is advanced in the next few decades, I doubt that the hardware will be built fast enough for old farts like us to use. :sigh: :( :((
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
Yes, but Clarke admitted that those statements were completely erroneous, a few weeks after his 30th birthday.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Ygnaiih wrote:
I would be afraid to say any technological advance is impossible.
The speed of light is a known physical limit of the universe. It has little to do with what we can invent, and more with the limits that exisist in the universe.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^][](X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett)
But light does not travel at a constant speed, so the number assigned to it is all but arbitrary. Who knows if it can go a lot faster, under the right conditions?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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The Earth was known to be flat. Bloodlettings were known to be healthy...
CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game. I'm a puny punmaker.
No. It was known that people used to think the Earth was flat. Indeed Eratosthenes calculated the Earth's circumference more than 2000 years ago. At least the Greeks had drawn their conclusions from ships apparently disappearing behind the horizon and trying to measure and calculate the circumference would have been kindof pointless if they still had thought the Earth to be flat.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns. -
Yes, but Clarke admitted that those statements were completely erroneous, a few weeks after his 30th birthday.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
:laugh:
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
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Johnny J. wrote:
It isn't?
Only in Alabama.
Johnny J. wrote:
They aren't?
See above.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
OriginalGriff wrote:
Only in Alabama.
By my experience, the heads are totally flat in Alabama, not the Earth.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns. -
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light - it may be exploitable, but for sending information and not any physical objects. It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass. As it approaches the speed of light its mass approached infinity - so acceleration becomes impossible. An interesting caveat to that could be that as anything with any mass approaches c, they all approach the same mass. Which causes all sorts of conflicts, logically - and one might as well accelerate an entire planet as accelerate a grain of sand as they'll take the same effort in the end. Special relativity does bend the brain, a bit.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote:
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light
True, but it can't be used to transfer information. Many other things can also "travel" faster than light; for example, a laser dot shined onto the moon will, if the laser is moved at more than ~43 degrees of arc per second, "appear" to move faster than light. However, this dot cannot be used to transfer information.
W∴ Balboos wrote:
It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass.
I am well aware that Special Relativity does not allow travel at faster than the Speed of Light. I was speculating on the possibility that a marriage of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics would allow for FTL travel.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
-
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light - it may be exploitable, but for sending information and not any physical objects. It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass. As it approaches the speed of light its mass approached infinity - so acceleration becomes impossible. An interesting caveat to that could be that as anything with any mass approaches c, they all approach the same mass. Which causes all sorts of conflicts, logically - and one might as well accelerate an entire planet as accelerate a grain of sand as they'll take the same effort in the end. Special relativity does bend the brain, a bit.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
-
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light - it may be exploitable, but for sending information and not any physical objects. It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass. As it approaches the speed of light its mass approached infinity - so acceleration becomes impossible. An interesting caveat to that could be that as anything with any mass approaches c, they all approach the same mass. Which causes all sorts of conflicts, logically - and one might as well accelerate an entire planet as accelerate a grain of sand as they'll take the same effort in the end. Special relativity does bend the brain, a bit.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Two objects pass each other with 0,6*c (like trains that go in different direction) and from either of the object it would "look" like you pass each other with 1,2*c ? Now the question is would you see the other object passing?
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
} -
But light does not travel at a constant speed, so the number assigned to it is all but arbitrary. Who knows if it can go a lot faster, under the right conditions?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Two objects pass each other with 0,6*c (like trains that go in different direction) and from either of the object it would "look" like you pass each other with 1,2*c ? Now the question is would you see the other object passing?
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}Nope. Adding relativistic velocities is not simple addition. See [Special Relativity - composition of velocities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special\_relativity#Composition\_of\_velocities)
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
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W∴ Balboos wrote:
Phase velocity can exceed the speed of light
True, but it can't be used to transfer information. Many other things can also "travel" faster than light; for example, a laser dot shined onto the moon will, if the laser is moved at more than ~43 degrees of arc per second, "appear" to move faster than light. However, this dot cannot be used to transfer information.
W∴ Balboos wrote:
It all comes down to the relativistic mass of any object with mass.
I am well aware that Special Relativity does not allow travel at faster than the Speed of Light. I was speculating on the possibility that a marriage of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics would allow for FTL travel.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
Not sending information via phase velocity at greater than c: I had that explained to me ca. 30 years ago. I had suggested a physical device, essentially a giant scissor, which could open and close and non-relativistic velocities with respect to it's physical form, but the point at which the two parts of the scissor meet (a phase) moves faster than the scissor if the scissor is long enough. So - make the scissor long enough so that the intersection exceeds c whilst no actual parts do - but the signal is sent from end-to-end by observing the motion of the tips of the scissor. The physicist said what would happen is that the scissor would actually bend (relativisticly) to prevent the signal from exceeding c. This would, I suggest, connect with your wording "appear" to exceed see with your laser-spot-to-the-moon concept. But wait! Stuff does exceed c under certain circumstance: if moving at c to begin with, a photon entering a new medium with a higher index of refraction will, momentarily, exceed see. This is observed as the bluish glow observed in the cooling water around a nuclear reactor (Cherenkov radiation). So - their is ever so small a chink in the armor of no-way, albeit admittedly it wouldn't help out much if traveling in a vacuum.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Two objects pass each other with 0,6*c (like trains that go in different direction) and from either of the object it would "look" like you pass each other with 1,2*c ? Now the question is would you see the other object passing?
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}HobbyProggy wrote:
from either of the object it would "look" like you pass each other with 1,2*c ?
No. That's actually from a gedanken experiment written up by Einstein with respect to light on a moving train, etc.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
-
Not sending information via phase velocity at greater than c: I had that explained to me ca. 30 years ago. I had suggested a physical device, essentially a giant scissor, which could open and close and non-relativistic velocities with respect to it's physical form, but the point at which the two parts of the scissor meet (a phase) moves faster than the scissor if the scissor is long enough. So - make the scissor long enough so that the intersection exceeds c whilst no actual parts do - but the signal is sent from end-to-end by observing the motion of the tips of the scissor. The physicist said what would happen is that the scissor would actually bend (relativisticly) to prevent the signal from exceeding c. This would, I suggest, connect with your wording "appear" to exceed see with your laser-spot-to-the-moon concept. But wait! Stuff does exceed c under certain circumstance: if moving at c to begin with, a photon entering a new medium with a higher index of refraction will, momentarily, exceed see. This is observed as the bluish glow observed in the cooling water around a nuclear reactor (Cherenkov radiation). So - their is ever so small a chink in the armor of no-way, albeit admittedly it wouldn't help out much if traveling in a vacuum.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote:
if moving at c to begin with, a photon entering a new medium with a higher index of refraction will, momentarily, exceed see.
Special Relativity does not forbid a photon (or other particle) moving at higher than the Speed of Light in a medium. It only forbid moving faster than the Speed of Light in vacuum. EDIT: As for the scissors' blades, the question is - what started them moving? The signal that the part of the blade closer to the join is rotating cannot move faster than the Speed of Light, so at any time - the blade will not be moving faster than light. Note that this problem involves acceleration (any point on the blade is moving in a circle), so it can't be solved by using Special Relativity.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
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HobbyProggy wrote:
from either of the object it would "look" like you pass each other with 1,2*c ?
No. That's actually from a gedanken experiment written up by Einstein with respect to light on a moving train, etc.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
