[no_wizard]

is Faster Than Light travel even possible? I'm asking in a serious way.

I have always read that its impossible, at least within our current knowledge.

the only semi-plausible theory I've ever heard is that Blackholes might one day yield some way of traveling quickly across the universe but nobody has shown anything substantiated around that or anything else.

[coldpie]

FTL travel being impossible is basically the one thing where I completely irrationally reject the science :) It's just too depressing for me to accept. There's gotta be a loophole. There's just gotta be...

[midoridensha]

The science clearly says FTL is possible: Einstein himself postulated wormholes (known now as Einstein-Rosen bridges), and warp drive has been proven to be possible (though not too practical yet) by Miguel Alcubierre and Sonny White.

[blackoil]

It's super easy, barely an inconvenience. Bend space time to create a wormhole.

[messe]

Wormholes are tight. So tight in fact, that it's not entirely clear that traversable wormholes can exist.

[svachalek]

There's no realistically plausible solution I've ever heard of, that is, ones that don't require millions of years of setup and entire stars worth of energy production. But that's with our current understanding of physics. While our current models seem nearly perfect and therefore nearly complete, there was a time they thought that about Newtonian physics. Perhaps some detail we need to understand dark matter or dark energy could spring the whole field wide open again.

[midoridensha]

>While our current models seem nearly perfect and therefore nearly complete

Huh? Where did you get this idea? Our physics is clearly nowhere near complete. Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity are at odds, which is why physicists have been looking for a unified theory for ages. Each one only works at certain scales, and not at the other end, so obviously something's wrong with them. The whole "dark matter" thing looks like BS too, and alternate theories like MOND don't require it. There's nothing complete at all about our understanding of physics.

[edgyquant]

> While our current models seem nearly perfect and therefore nearly complete

I’m not sure this is the case. Basically every physicist I’ve met thinks we’re in for another general relativity and that a unified theory will be a lot different than the multitude of theories we have now

[floxy]

Not a lot of help for interstellar travel, but I believe that most of the mass in the visible universe is traveling away from us at faster than the speed of light.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0011070v2.pdf

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

It's quite simple really. All we need is fast-as-light technology.

If you get in a ship and travel to Alpha Centauri at the speed of light, the travel seems instantaneous to you. But the people you leave behind think you've been gone 8 years when you return.

So instead, I propose that when the ship launches, we also propel the rest of the universe in the opposite direction also at the speed of light. Then, when the astronaut is scheduled to return, we propel the entire universe at the speed of light back to its original location.

All of reality undergoes time dilation. And the trip is basically instantaneous for all involved†.

† Note: This form of FTL is mildly costly in regards to energy expenditure.

[shepardrtc]

You can't go FTL through spacetime. But some math shows that it might be possible to warp spacetime around you and propel you to somewhere faster than it would take light going through spacetime.

[lofaszvanitt]

The ufos have to come from somewhere, right?

[coldpie]

Yeah, flawed lenses and windows, and unreliable witnesses. No need for FTL there.

[lofaszvanitt]

Yeah, that, or advanced technology is suppressed and only a select (controlled) few can research it. And these phenomena are glimpses of what is possible, but not ready for global introduction.

Since 1984 is becoming a reality, Aasimov's works also have terrifying parallels with our current society... Just look at what happens with atom reactors in real life and the same is outlined in aasimov's works. Plus everything is sugar coated with religious bullshit, that only few can see through.