3 ms·

The sociology of this is fascinating. For my whole life I've heard that travelling faster than light is not only impossible, but so obviously absurdly impossibl

The sociology of this is fascinating. For my whole life I've heard that travelling faster than light is not only impossible, but so obviously absurdly impossible that only loons and sci-fi writers bother to think about it at all. Now I'm reading that "There are an infinitude of different approaches" to the problem! What exactly is the breakthrough that has led to this recent spurt of warp drive papers? As far as I can tell the results are all purely theoretical and just re-arranging equations. None of them appear to rely on any recently lab discovered physics. Why couldn't this have been done in 1950, I wonder?

Majromax 5y ago
> What exactly is the breakthrough that has led to this recent spurt of warp drive papers? As far as I can tell the results are all purely theoretical and just re-arranging equations. None of them appear to rely on any recently lab discovered physics. Why couldn't this have been done in 1950, I wonder? By "recent", you have to go back almost 30 years to the Aclubierre Drive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive) described in 1994. It forms part of the "we can come up with some interesting solutions to general relativity" literature. That literature is not just a recent phenomenon. Research into theoretical wormholes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole#Development) goes back decades further.
52-6F-62 5y ago
> The sociology of this is fascinating. It really is. It's not like these are entirely new questions, but they used to be relegated to much smaller circles. Hell, even recall any theoretical physics notions in other threads on HN and watch it burn. It definitely seems like a bit of a philosophical change is sweeping throughout society, and it's probably mainly do to the increased speed and spread of information. It's easy to ignore, but those who don't are sort of forced to revaluate their world view and even their understanding of reality. We have mainstream philosophers and neuroscientists giving talks on the limits of our perceptions in language "lay" people can understand. It's an interesting time to follow these developments. It's almost like a new-age open-mindedness without the woo-woo. It was probably never really true, but growing up it felt like the answers were all written, and the universe was sticks and stones and the suggestion of anything else was nonsense. It seems more open now, and more intellectually encouraging, isn't it?
canjobear 5y ago
Bear in mind that the "infinitude of different approaches" means an infinitude of purely mathematical solutions, all of which seem to involve physically impossible concepts like negative energy.

Majromax 5y ago

> What exactly is the breakthrough that has led to this recent spurt of warp drive papers? As far as I can tell the results are all purely theoretical and just re-arranging equations. None of them appear to rely on any recently lab discovered physics. Why couldn't this have been done in 1950, I wonder? By "recent", you have to go back almost 30 years to the Aclubierre Drive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive) described in 1994. It forms part of the "we can come up with some interesting solutions to general relativity" literature. That literature is not just a recent phenomenon. Research into theoretical wormholes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole#Development) goes back decades further.

52-6F-62 5y ago

> The sociology of this is fascinating. It really is. It's not like these are entirely new questions, but they used to be relegated to much smaller circles. Hell, even recall any theoretical physics notions in other threads on HN and watch it burn. It definitely seems like a bit of a philosophical change is sweeping throughout society, and it's probably mainly do to the increased speed and spread of information. It's easy to ignore, but those who don't are sort of forced to revaluate their world view and even their understanding of reality. We have mainstream philosophers and neuroscientists giving talks on the limits of our perceptions in language "lay" people can understand. It's an interesting time to follow these developments. It's almost like a new-age open-mindedness without the woo-woo. It was probably never really true, but growing up it felt like the answers were all written, and the universe was sticks and stones and the suggestion of anything else was nonsense. It seems more open now, and more intellectually encouraging, isn't it?

canjobear 5y ago

Bear in mind that the "infinitude of different approaches" means an infinitude of purely mathematical solutions, all of which seem to involve physically impossible concepts like negative energy.