tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post5504032212796412722..comments2024-03-29T02:47:44.652-05:00Comments on Future War Stories: FWS Topics: Ten Future Technologies that Will Not Exist (from io9.com)Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218428427067689631noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-64292373418172733342023-10-28T13:06:52.022-05:002023-10-28T13:06:52.022-05:00If there are infinite worldlines—*big* infinity, t...If there are infinite worldlines—*big* infinity, the biggest possible—then there could absolutely be time travelers running around on a regular basis, and we personally just didn't run into any yet. Or, let's say, enough to recognize and make sense of.<br /><br />This is not wild fantasy; it's just a by-the-numbers possibility. Science depends on the testable and repeatable. If something has happened only once in the modern era of instruments, it is assumed to be an error because it doesn't fit the existing framework. What would this make of events that are indeed real and would change our understanding, but are so rare they only occur once every 10,000 years or something? It would make nothing of them; no scientist would try to publish on such a thing because he'd be ridiculed when it wasn't testable and repeatable.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01955816276414582524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-90672423842951492982020-01-27T09:33:15.025-06:002020-01-27T09:33:15.025-06:00All of the above is based on our current understan...All of the above is based on our current understanding of physics and how the universe works. An intelligent species that has been evolving and progressing as a high tech civilization for millions of years might have knowledge and understanding of the universe that would make our understandings look as flawed and primitive as that of medieval alchemists. <br /><br />To say that Time Travel is impossible is probably a safe bet. But it seems really shortsighted to say that the other things will never happen. Then again, I've never liked io9 at all. The whole userbase at io9 just seems "off," like they are not really geeks but are instead something else pretending to be geeks for some unknown reason. It's like some kind of shallow superficial Cargo Cult geekdom over there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-50768220868793290982016-12-29T00:30:18.863-06:002016-12-29T00:30:18.863-06:00Re, FTL travel: read up on the Alcubierre/White dr...Re, FTL travel: read up on the Alcubierre/White drive. Absolutely works on paper. Still have to solve some issues though.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05257019441860891929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-18262465903538405302015-10-25T13:28:05.611-05:002015-10-25T13:28:05.611-05:00All of these are great. I think that 5 and 9, thou...All of these are great. I think that 5 and 9, though they are extremely unlikely, are not actually physically impossible. Future developments will never find a way to FTL, for example--unless causality and relativity are wrong. They certainly aren't wrong.<br /><br />However, we may or may not discover a tangible origin of consciousness. It is certainly a tangible thing; the only alternative is ghosts or souls or some other spooky nonsense. Whether or not it is discoverable or transferrable is yet to be known. Giving up on that possibility makes unreasonable assumptions with respect to our current knowledge.<br /><br />We also may or may not have a civilization in the future with orders of magnitude more resources than our current civilization. We do, after all, have orders of magnitude more resources today than civilizations only a few centuries ago. This would make generational ships buildable. Then it's only a matter of motivating the crew and their descendants. I think this would be possible; after all, isn't Earth itself similar to a generational starship? What's the great advantage of living here over a generational ship or colony if one has the resources to build a comfortable enough facsimile? I would think that being born, raised and dying aboard a nice enough ship would be just as fulfilling as being born, raised and dying in a small rural town, and plenty of people do just that. Still far-fetched, but not strictly impossible.<br /><br />A more dystopian route is social and genetic engineering, plus drugging and mind-conditioning of the colonists. Make them consent and be loyal to the mission whether they like it or not. Or simply don't teach them that they were supposed to be raised on Earth, or even what Earth is, and they will live and die to the best of their abilities in the generational ship because it's the only thing they know. There would be no choice. To them, it would be normal. They'd take good care of the ship simply for their own survival, and when their descendants arrive at the destination a computer system could reveal their true origins and purpose. Of course, eighty thousand years is still a long time to preserve social stability. There would need to be some kind of AI system to detect unrest and sterilize the ship if it occurs, then raise new embryos and raise them to be a good crew. To reset society. Truly a dark premise, but possible. Maybe these are the new atrocities of man's future.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16649163772390263496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-79658332024800793142014-08-22T13:36:55.245-05:002014-08-22T13:36:55.245-05:00travelling to the future is easy, give me a comfor...travelling to the future is easy, give me a comfortable space pod, a huge fusion engine and a fuelled/dry mass ratio of 10^6. remind me to have a healthy balance on a high interest bank account before leaving.<br />travelling back: well i'll have to say my final goodbyes to the earth i know. i'll take a few tonnes of current consumer products/tech so if i want it i've got it when i reach whatever distant future is aim for and so i can sell it as pristine condition antiques. i will sadly not be able to send any kind of thank you message to einstein for his discovery of the theory of special relativity which my coming trip will rely on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-91364721358018576772012-08-30T17:01:31.629-05:002012-08-30T17:01:31.629-05:00I bet that if they told students that high school ...I bet that if they told students that high school physics- especially the basic stuff like the laws of motion, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism- are invaluable for understanding SF space travel, weapons systems, and energy shielding, physics would a much more popular subject. Instead they write lame stuff like "The Physics of Superheroes"- I don't want freaking spiderman, I want force shields!!<br /><br />People often assume that applying a force requires an expenditure of energy, but that is only if you are applying a force over a distance to accelerate an object. Simply have a force field repel objects would require no energy input. The floor applies an equal and opposite force as the pull of gravity does to you, but the floor doesn't need a battery. Many SF fans assume that a shield must applies X amount of joules to stop an attack carry X amount of joules, with absolutely not explanation given- but why should it? Tank armor does not draw energy from the engine to counter enemy bullets, and Earth's gravitational field holds us to the ground without requiring an extension cord to the sun. <br /><br />Energy shielding usually deflects a material object, which requires no energy input, or absorbs and reradiates a laser blast, which again doesn't imply that the shield had to counter the laser with an equal amount of energy. If you stick a spoon in a hot cup of tea, it will conduct some of that heat away without requiring you to attach a battery to the spoon.<br /><br />Have you got any new books on your list, William? I am nearly finished with A.E. Van Vogt's "The Voyage of the Space Beagle", and I rather enjoyed it. The Space Beagle is a spaceship on a voyage to the great Andromeda Galaxy, and her crew encounter everything from a panther-like alien who sucks the potassium from human cells to a hypnotic attack that causes the crew to begin killing each other. The parasitic Ixtl, who lays his eggs in human stomach cavities, was the inspiration from the xenomorph from Alien- but was far worse to encounter because he could pass through solid walls and was intelligent enough to design advanced weapons.<br /><br />A.E. van Vogt's technological ideas are interesting. The spherical Space Beagle's interstellar drive is its "anti-accelerators", which nullify inertia so it can reach incredible speeds almost instantly. The ship's hull is composed of advanced "resistance metals", and it is equipped with a multi-layered energy screen for defense. As for weapons, the crew carry "vibration guns" that apparently project some sort of electromagnetic vibration that violently agitates molecular structures, stunning or killing an organism. The name is unfortunate, since having the crew "draw their vibrators" as they charge around a corner to confront an alien intruder, it brings to mind an altogether different sort of NSFW device. The larger guns include more powerful molecular vibrators, heat blasters, semi-portable heat projectors, and deadly atomic blasters that use a small, supercritical nuclear pile to project an intense, deadly beam of hard radiation- far to dangerous to use on the ship. Interestingly, most weapons come with a tracer beam since the actual deadly beam is invisible and silent. It is, in fact, possible to power a laser directly with a nuclear reactor, which is the closest us 21st century primitives have come to an "atomic blaster" as of yet.<br /><br />Christopher PhoenixAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-32901701240724130602012-08-30T09:42:20.908-05:002012-08-30T09:42:20.908-05:00I thought the original io9 article had a lot wrong...I thought the original io9 article had a lot wrong with it, for most the point you just made. I plan on writing an article on energy shielding for the blog at some point.<br />While writing my books and this blog, I wished I had paid more attention to my high school physics class! <br />io9.com posted another article on the ten space travel technology that couldn't exist...I'm working on it now. Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17218428427067689631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-726484495782035142.post-91172244125428463542012-08-28T18:27:34.055-05:002012-08-28T18:27:34.055-05:00Interesting post, William- although I don't ag...Interesting post, William- although I don't agree with all of io9's assumptions, particularly on those about generation ships, antigravity, and shields. <br /><br />I don't know if it will ever be possible to stabilize a wormhole for use as a time machine, but the article fails to note that if I had a time machine, I could use it for FTL travel. A hardy star traveller need only survive a long journey, than use his Tipler cylinder or whatever to jump into a long-past era and arrive whenever he chooses. If you can manipulate T in the equation D=V*T, the whole notion of travel time becomes meaningless. If time travel is possible, FTL travel is possible as well.<br /><br />The universe does not use C as a universal clock speed. Relativity simply says that the speed of light will measured to be the same by all viewers, no matter where they are or how fast they are traveling. The consequences of this are that other measurements, like the flow of time, mass, and length are relative. There is no universal clock speed. I can only assume the writer knows less about high school physics than my grandmother's pet chihuahua.<br /><br />Physicist Robert Forward considered several possible anti-gravity machines in one of his papers. It remains an open question whether electromagnetism could be used to manipulate gravity. It is, however, a question that NASA's late Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program was willing to ask, so I wouldn't rule out gravity control just yet.<br />http://www.xenology.info/Xeno/17.4.2.htm<br /><br />I think we could build a generation ship, if we had too. This topic comes up a lot in discussion of starflight, and there scientific papers written on these sort of ideas. Good luck getting the naysayers to read them, though...<br /><br />On force fields, the writer again betrays his ignorance of physics. Applying a force does not require energy input. Does a brick wall use to stop you from walking through it? Does a magnet require energy when it picks up a nail? No. A "deflector shield" would not have to counter incoming energy beams or shells with equal amounts of energy to deflect them. It isn't clear what a "shield" actually is, as it is clearly not a force field as we know it, but it is wrong to assume that a "shield" must use huge amounts of energy to stop attacks.<br />http://stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Shields/Nature.html<br /><br />The article got most of the biology issues correct, though. Freezing brains or mind uploading are impossible, as the biologist Athena Andreadis is quite happy to explain at her blog.<br />http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/?p=4761<br /><br />I have heard that it might be possible for a black hole to survive a big crunch, and that if an advanced civilization chose to live inside the event horizon of this black hole, they could survive the collapse and subsequent rebirth of the universe. This has obvious uses for a SF story, but I don't know if such eldritch black holes actually exist. You know how it is with physics stuff on the internet.<br /><br />Christopher PhoenixAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com