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You're familiar with the fact that there is no proper, substantial, accepted model or principle of both gravity and EM that unify them, correct? And we don't kn

You're familiar with the fact that there is no proper, substantial, accepted model or principle of both gravity and EM that unify them, correct? And we don't knowingly have the ability to build technology that manipulates gravity (trivial interpretations aside). And we also don't know how our actions actually affect the dynamic field that is gravity. Cause the stress-energy tensor says it is dynamic. Or perhaps I'm just completely bonkers. Life certainly would be a lot easier if I were.

Arizhel 10y ago
What exactly are you saying? That once we really figure out gravity, faster-than-light travel will become possible? I've been saying that for years, and I'm no physicist. It's fairly obvious that gravity is not well understood by our physics. All we really know is that it correlates to the presence of mass: lots of mass (like a planet) equals a noticeable amount of gravity. Unlike electromagnetism, where we have the ability to actually create it and manipulate it at will, we have no such ability with gravity (aside from just moving mass around, which has little effect since gravitational force is so weak). So yeah, I've thought for a long time that understanding gravity is the key to warp drive, just because it's such an obvious blind spot. But I'm not sure how this is helpful; merely noticing that our understanding of gravity is poor doesn't actually help us understand it any better. What we need is to discover a physical effect whereby we can significantly manipulate gravity at will. Figure that out and you'll change everything.
- blueprint 10y ago
  FTL etc is a conversation for the future, like a few related topics; but no, the important thing right now I'm saying is that global warming is the first step of a process that we believe has got to be mediated by gravity, and that academia in general doesn't realize what's going on. This needs to be investigated in depth, and this is probably not the venue. You're welcome to contact me.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    What the heck are you talking about? Global warming is simple and easily explained by the available evidence: too much carbon in the atmosphere increases the greenhouse effect. All the arguing is how much is "too much" and exactly how much of an effect it'll have. The gravitation of the planet hasn't changed significantly in eons; the atmosphere has because of all the pollution we dump into it.
- maverick_iceman 10y ago
  General relativity gives a very solid and accurate understanding of gravity.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    It does? Great; please point me to some instructions on how to build an anti-gravity device. I can easily build myself an electromagnet with some wire and a battery, so if our understanding of gravity is so great, I should be able to do the same with gravity, right?
    - certifiedloud 10y ago
      Understanding something doesn't mean you can manipulate it in any way you want.
      - blueprint 10y ago
        When it comes to physics, it does in fact mean you can use the principle you discovered in engineering technology. That's kind of the whole point.
        misnome 10y ago
        By the same 'argument', understanding the laws of thermodynamics (which prohibit perpetual motion) allows us to exploit perpetual motion?
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        Arizhel 10y ago
        No one's talking about perpetual motion here. Understanding the laws of thermodynamics allows us to build heat engines, which is how many of us got to work this morning. It also allows us to build nuclear reactors (or at least the steam-cycle part of it), which is how many of us get the power to write messages here. What does our "understanding" of gravity allow us to do technologically? Nothing, because we have zero idea of how to manipulate it. The only thing we can do is understand how it works in the natural world so we can, for instance, navigate space probes accurately and get our GPS satellites to work. That's great and all, but it falls far short of the level of understanding that we have with thermodynamics and electromagnetism.
lutorm 10y ago
It's not like there aren't people working on figuring out how gravity works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity
maverick_iceman 10y ago
One sentence in your comment is accurate. I'll let you figure out which one.

Arizhel 10y ago

What exactly are you saying? That once we really figure out gravity, faster-than-light travel will become possible? I've been saying that for years, and I'm no physicist. It's fairly obvious that gravity is not well understood by our physics. All we really know is that it correlates to the presence of mass: lots of mass (like a planet) equals a noticeable amount of gravity. Unlike electromagnetism, where we have the ability to actually create it and manipulate it at will, we have no such ability with gravity (aside from just moving mass around, which has little effect since gravitational force is so weak). So yeah, I've thought for a long time that understanding gravity is the key to warp drive, just because it's such an obvious blind spot. But I'm not sure how this is helpful; merely noticing that our understanding of gravity is poor doesn't actually help us understand it any better. What we need is to discover a physical effect whereby we can significantly manipulate gravity at will. Figure that out and you'll change everything.

blueprint 10y ago
FTL etc is a conversation for the future, like a few related topics; but no, the important thing right now I'm saying is that global warming is the first step of a process that we believe has got to be mediated by gravity, and that academia in general doesn't realize what's going on. This needs to be investigated in depth, and this is probably not the venue. You're welcome to contact me.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  What the heck are you talking about? Global warming is simple and easily explained by the available evidence: too much carbon in the atmosphere increases the greenhouse effect. All the arguing is how much is "too much" and exactly how much of an effect it'll have. The gravitation of the planet hasn't changed significantly in eons; the atmosphere has because of all the pollution we dump into it.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
General relativity gives a very solid and accurate understanding of gravity.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  It does? Great; please point me to some instructions on how to build an anti-gravity device. I can easily build myself an electromagnet with some wire and a battery, so if our understanding of gravity is so great, I should be able to do the same with gravity, right?
  - certifiedloud 10y ago
    Understanding something doesn't mean you can manipulate it in any way you want.
    - blueprint 10y ago
      When it comes to physics, it does in fact mean you can use the principle you discovered in engineering technology. That's kind of the whole point.
      - misnome 10y ago
        By the same 'argument', understanding the laws of thermodynamics (which prohibit perpetual motion) allows us to exploit perpetual motion?
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        Arizhel 10y ago
        No one's talking about perpetual motion here. Understanding the laws of thermodynamics allows us to build heat engines, which is how many of us got to work this morning. It also allows us to build nuclear reactors (or at least the steam-cycle part of it), which is how many of us get the power to write messages here. What does our "understanding" of gravity allow us to do technologically? Nothing, because we have zero idea of how to manipulate it. The only thing we can do is understand how it works in the natural world so we can, for instance, navigate space probes accurately and get our GPS satellites to work. That's great and all, but it falls far short of the level of understanding that we have with thermodynamics and electromagnetism.

lutorm 10y ago

It's not like there aren't people working on figuring out how gravity works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity

maverick_iceman 10y ago

One sentence in your comment is accurate. I'll let you figure out which one.