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I think you wooshed their point and instead told them what they already know. Imagine the GP starts off with "So assume FTL travel is easier than we think..."

I think you wooshed their point and instead told them what they already know. Imagine the GP starts off with "So assume FTL travel is easier than we think..." Then the rest of their post follows. Just like "Assume A Teleporter And a Warp Drive and A Post Money Society" -> All of Star Trek canon follows.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
There is literally no reason to assume that though. You may as well assume that time travel is possible, ghost are real, and Jesus was a reptilian. Star Trek has the virtue of being unabashed fiction, it doesn't need to have its science make sense, which is good because it doesn't make sense even if you do assume all those things.
- thu2111 6y ago
  The assumption that FTL is impossible is predicated on our understanding of physical laws being complete. But current physical theories are not complete, and in particular have large holes in them related to gravity. We don't actually know what's possible and what's not, only what we believe is possible given our current understanding of the universe. There are known unknowns, in other words, and we don't know what's hiding behind those doors. Anyway, whether FTL is or isn't possible isn't the point of my post. The point is that if you assume aliens are basically like us except with warp drives then it's easy to come up with reasonable explanations for their behaviour. It's actually the "FTL = flawless beings so far ahead of us we can't reason about them at all" viewpoint that leads to people being baffled, not that the behaviour is itself inherently impossible to explain.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    > The assumption that FTL is impossible is predicated on our understanding of physical laws being complete. No, the assumption that FTL is impossible is based on it being impossible according to the very best evidence we have. It does not require a complete understanding of physical law to confidently state that the sun will rise in the east and a dropped ball will fall to the ground. > We don't actually know what's possible and what's not, only what we believe is possible given our current understanding of the universe. This will always be true. And we cannot say for certain that I am not a Boltzmann brain imagining a conversation with you. It means nothing. We have to work with what we are given because the alternative is to pretend that fantasy is reality. > Anyway, whether FTL is or isn't possible isn't the point of my post. The point is that if you assume aliens are basically like us except with warp drives then it's easy to come up with reasonable explanations for their behaviour. Fair, but what I'm saying is that that's an assumption on the order of "assume world leaders are actually disguised reptiles".

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

There is literally no reason to assume that though. You may as well assume that time travel is possible, ghost are real, and Jesus was a reptilian. Star Trek has the virtue of being unabashed fiction, it doesn't need to have its science make sense, which is good because it doesn't make sense even if you do assume all those things.

thu2111 6y ago
The assumption that FTL is impossible is predicated on our understanding of physical laws being complete. But current physical theories are not complete, and in particular have large holes in them related to gravity. We don't actually know what's possible and what's not, only what we believe is possible given our current understanding of the universe. There are known unknowns, in other words, and we don't know what's hiding behind those doors. Anyway, whether FTL is or isn't possible isn't the point of my post. The point is that if you assume aliens are basically like us except with warp drives then it's easy to come up with reasonable explanations for their behaviour. It's actually the "FTL = flawless beings so far ahead of us we can't reason about them at all" viewpoint that leads to people being baffled, not that the behaviour is itself inherently impossible to explain.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  > The assumption that FTL is impossible is predicated on our understanding of physical laws being complete. No, the assumption that FTL is impossible is based on it being impossible according to the very best evidence we have. It does not require a complete understanding of physical law to confidently state that the sun will rise in the east and a dropped ball will fall to the ground. > We don't actually know what's possible and what's not, only what we believe is possible given our current understanding of the universe. This will always be true. And we cannot say for certain that I am not a Boltzmann brain imagining a conversation with you. It means nothing. We have to work with what we are given because the alternative is to pretend that fantasy is reality. > Anyway, whether FTL is or isn't possible isn't the point of my post. The point is that if you assume aliens are basically like us except with warp drives then it's easy to come up with reasonable explanations for their behaviour. Fair, but what I'm saying is that that's an assumption on the order of "assume world leaders are actually disguised reptiles".