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It's almost as if you've never read historical journals of scientists saying silly things like "This obviously if the height of human achievement, we'll never p

It's almost as if you've never read historical journals of scientists saying silly things like "This obviously if the height of human achievement, we'll never possibly find anything better", over and over and over throughout history.

akiselev 11y ago
That's a great cop out when you don't want to think critically about the history or current state of science. Besides, I didn't say that we are at the "height of human achievement" but that there are physical laws that remain practically unchallenged by centuries of observational or experimental evidence. the speed of light as a cosmic speed limit happens to be one of those.
- pheroden 11y ago
  No, it isn't. "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin The physics didn't change, just our understanding of how to manipulate them.
  - akiselev 11y ago
    Yes, it is. That argument is nonsense because it can never be falsified. No matter how much we learn, even if it's trillions of years into the future and we're short seconds away from the heat death of the universe, anyone who is too lazy to look at the state of science can just claim "We don't know everything! That magic anti-entropy perpetual motion machine is just around the corner!" and be done with it. It's the scientific equivalent of "God did it." One cherry picked quote demonstrating a famous scientist's lack of imagination does not represent the scientific consensus, especially since da Vinci's lift and thurst research (based on heavier than air flying birds) from centuries earlier was well known.
    - pheroden 11y ago
      No it's not. Two words, Em drive. Seriously, we are infants in our scientific understanding of the universe and physics. You speak as if we have a clue. If we had proven unified theory of everything, then your argument wouldn't be nearly as ignorant. But we don't. We don't even know what accounts for the majority of the universe. To assume we already have the answers is literally stupid.
      - gchokov 11y ago
        Back to the original question and your EM Drive. Using waves and radars, EM Drives will easily be detected by radars and technology we have today - as the magnetic forces are ultimately form of energy..
        pheroden 11y ago
        This is a point that we do not yet have all the answers. Besides, we could easily stealth that shit out of that.

akiselev 11y ago

That's a great cop out when you don't want to think critically about the history or current state of science. Besides, I didn't say that we are at the "height of human achievement" but that there are physical laws that remain practically unchallenged by centuries of observational or experimental evidence. the speed of light as a cosmic speed limit happens to be one of those.

pheroden 11y ago
No, it isn't. "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin The physics didn't change, just our understanding of how to manipulate them.
- akiselev 11y ago
  Yes, it is. That argument is nonsense because it can never be falsified. No matter how much we learn, even if it's trillions of years into the future and we're short seconds away from the heat death of the universe, anyone who is too lazy to look at the state of science can just claim "We don't know everything! That magic anti-entropy perpetual motion machine is just around the corner!" and be done with it. It's the scientific equivalent of "God did it." One cherry picked quote demonstrating a famous scientist's lack of imagination does not represent the scientific consensus, especially since da Vinci's lift and thurst research (based on heavier than air flying birds) from centuries earlier was well known.
  - pheroden 11y ago
    No it's not. Two words, Em drive. Seriously, we are infants in our scientific understanding of the universe and physics. You speak as if we have a clue. If we had proven unified theory of everything, then your argument wouldn't be nearly as ignorant. But we don't. We don't even know what accounts for the majority of the universe. To assume we already have the answers is literally stupid.
    - gchokov 11y ago
      Back to the original question and your EM Drive. Using waves and radars, EM Drives will easily be detected by radars and technology we have today - as the magnetic forces are ultimately form of energy..
      - pheroden 11y ago
        This is a point that we do not yet have all the answers. Besides, we could easily stealth that shit out of that.