Faster Than Light Travel
From Future
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The following article describes the beliefs of StylusEpix.
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[edit] What is Faster Than Light Travel (FTLT)?
Faster than light travel is (locally) impossible, as it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light, and at even faster speeds, causality would be violated.
Faster than light travel and communications: the foundation of popular sci-fi, the enabler of galactic empires, the basis of space exploration and colonization. Without FTLT, fantasy sci-fi universes collapse utterly. Humans can no longer be bold explorers of star systems, hopping across the galaxy in search of new life and grand civilizations. Intergalactic commerce and war can no longer occur within a human lifespan.
[edit] What FTLT Would Mean
He who dreams of the promises of sci-fi is comforted by a cute belief: we are but an inevitable breakthrough away from a warp motor or a wormhole tunneling machine; soon, a magical technology will let us jump from star to star, and let us expand a dominion spanning from the confines of our home solar system to the outer reaches of the galaxy.
Indeed, if it were possible to travel or to send information at speeds faster than light, life surely would come to permeate the universe, spreading to every star, every galaxy, every galactic cluster, engineering structures in which the greatest of Dyson spheres would be but a tiny grain of power generating dust.
- Challenge: Very few planets are suitable for life. Also, not all life evolved the same way. Also, life that has evolved similar to our own may not necessarily progress in the direction of manipulative, rational, theoretical ability. Indeed, life must not only progress to the point that beings can manipulate their world and develop complex fields of knowledge, but they must also be willing to explore space. In summary, very few races would meet this requirement, if any. This is similar to the chances of getting the first life form: it's exceptionally rare, but it occurs once.
[edit] Why I Don't Believe in FTLT
But with all our knowledge of the universe, we see no indication of such galactic-scale engineering. We see no galaxy torn in half by the ravages of war. And yet, in a universe in which FTLT was possible, we would be surely be able to see the extropian workings of life that define the universe; what we observe is nothing but entropy. And I believe that the universe is full of life; I believe that billions of exceptional worlds have moved away from purely entropic function. Some of the life forms on them should at least have the technology to travel at faster-than-light speeds, unless, of course, FTLT is simply impossible.
I wish I could believe in FTLT and the wonders it promises, but that would contradict the foundation of my beliefs: science tells me that light speed is the limit, and I'm convinced that we're not alone in the universe. So, I deduce that life is like the stars, isolated, capable of interaction on enormous timescales alone. There is no exception for the transmission of information (the very definition of communication), for that life and mind and control and matter can all be serialized as information, making communication no different than travel.
[edit] Without FTLT
A single life form may not be truly incapable of gaining dominion over the resources of a single galaxy; it could do so through sleeper or generation ships, or perhaps post-human consciousnesses carried in artificial vessels, over the course of thousands of centuries, it may cross the 100,000 light year span of our own Milky Way. However, even with such advanced technology, should the life form not master faster than light travel, each star system would remain cut off from the others, the simplest of messages taking countless millenia to transmit from one planet to another.
[edit] With FTLT
One by one, the stars could find themselves surrounded by Dyson spheres or comparable structures. Though I can hardly conceive it, there may yet be wars on a scale far beyond spaceships, involving the energies of entire suns, playing out over millions of years. But I believe, perhaps optimistically, that civilizations with such incredible powers are sure to be beyond petty violence and wanton destruction.
[edit] Why We Ponder FTLT
Earthlings are drawn to supernatural mythologies that provide easy and comforting answers to their unanswerable questions. Even those who reject conventional religions seek spiritual guidance - some find it in sci-fi. Transhumanism provides me with hopes of a nearly eternal life. As for science, it provides me with a cosmology that explains our origins and our future. It is faith that makes those beliefs real to me. When distorted ever so slightly by fiction, those beliefs can easily become as silly as those of gnostic religions. Look at your own cosmological beliefs: where do they come from? Are they realistic?
