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From: jdecarlo@mitre.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: FTL in SF
Message-ID: <2811@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 19-Jul-85 12:29:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2811
Posted: Fri Jul 19 12:29:58 1985
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: jdecarlo@mitre.ARPA


Peter Alfke says:
>
>Relativity prohibits any transfer
>of information at speeds greater than that of light.  It doesn't
>matter how the information got from one place to another, just the
>distance covered per time taken.  Upsetting, isn't it?
     
I might add that some assume that our universe is many-dimensioned and
the ships make use of that fact to *take short cuts* to their destinations.
The usual analogy is that of a line two feet long with it's end points
one inch apart.  A one dimensional creature travels two feet to
go from one end to another, while a two-dimensional creature (or a one
dimensional creature in a *spaceship* which can travel in two dimensions)
travels one inch.  Did the two-dimensional creature violate the speed-of-light
limit or not?  Creature one would say yes, creature two would say no.
(BTW, Macroscope, by Piers Anthony, has a particularly convoluted view
of the universe in it, as an example.)
     
 John DeCarlo  <jdecarlo@mitre>