Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!silver!sl161022
From: sl161022@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: approaching "C"
Message-ID: <3200004@silver>
Date: 11 Feb 89 21:32:00 GMT
References: <3316@xyzzy.UUCP>
Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington
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Nf-ID: #R:xyzzy.UUCP:-331600:silver:3200004:000:2043
Nf-From: silver.bacs.indiana.edu!sl161022    Feb 11 16:32:00 1989


>Second, FTL in any form either provides time travel or violates
>conventional causality. I'm not sure how strong this second point is.
>Physicists are very attached to causality, and so assume FTL impossible.But
>there are known effects that call conventional causality into question.

Like the entire discipline of Quantum Mechanics, for example, some followers
of which would tell you that we can never know everything about an
electron, not just because our instruments interfere with it, but
because the electron ITSELF doesn't even know precisely where it is
or where it is going.  How the electron knows what the hell to do next
is an unresolved question.

The complaint about breaking the speed of light barrier is usually that
it would violate our notion of causality, that it would require overthrowing
modern-day physics.  I would propose that our notion of causality is a
fuzzy one at best, and for physicists to chain themselves to the word
"causality" while embracing Heisenberg's view of QM is the pinnacle of
Orwell's double-think, intentional or not.  (I, by the way, am in
astrophysics, of which physics is just a special case :-)

This does not mean I think breaking C is possible, or even probable.
I do believe, however, that if we are unable to break the speed of
light barrier, then we are forever confined to this solar system.
It would be a tragic limitation on our travels, but it is there
nonetheless.  I would even go further and say that given the nature
of humans and the governments they create, we are probably also
condemned to this planet for the rest of our species' existence,
despite the occasional Mars or lunar expedition.

But I hope I'm wrong on both counts.
__________________________________________________________________

"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house."

Sincerely,                                        -- George Carlin
           Phaedrus
           (aka Colin Klipsch)
           sl161022@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
           Indiana University at Bloomington