What if it’s possible in the future to build space ships that can travel faster than light ? Would we actually visit the aliens and the galaxy, or will it be like the whole pre-industrial era colonisation scene again ? that’s for the future to decide. Wait, Star trek and star wars already exist… and we know how that ended up…
Aside from tv shows and movies, If it turns out that we can construct vessels and signals that can travel faster than light speed, that would turn out to be the greatest discovery-invention in modern science! Imagine the simplicity of visiting mars or any other planet within minutes, or calling your friend from the neighbouring solar system without that light-year delays, or playing games in near real-time! (Reminds me of that mission in ASTRO-7N course I took this semester. Its a fun course, do try it out!)
In terms of visiting extra-terrestrial systems, it could clear some doubts on the fermi paradox by travelling faster than the universe’s expansion rate, therefore eventually will visit many great alien civilizations (more info in my previous post link: Paradox of Alien Life). Maybe then utopia could be achieved with extreme advanced tech, literature and arts, life style, and games…
Here’s the paradox, If it turns out that warp drives are possible, then the whole “The Great Filter” Theory would become more concerning since there’s a chance that other civilizations out there might have built it in the past, and couldn’t visit us due to ignorance (unlikely) or some roadblock out there that all peak civilizations fail to pass. Like how one just completes a midterm… only to realize that the finals are still left.
Although, I would very much like to own one lightsaber!
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Nerd Level Stuff Ahead: Proceed with caution!
Realistically, Einstein era Physics says that no object can travel faster than light (Special Relativity) Because apparently instead of linear-increase of energy requirement, its actually exponential! For example, if you pick up a rock that weighs 1 pound, you would do an effort of 1x so for a 2 pound object, 2x effort, and so on for 50 pound objects too (50x effort) but with Einstein's Weird theory and equations link: Mass in special relativity - Wikipedia The Faster you move the more heavier you become (so don't go to gym). Which would mean, more energy is required to even push/ increase the speed by 1m/s at 20% light speed and beyond. And at light speed, mass is infinite, and so energy required will be infinite,(and so would time-stretch) which is absurd in reality. The only way to counteract this is to well, Warp the space around the vessel so that the vessel can travel at normal speed, but space around it is "bending" Or just pierce through the space itself That's one way to break the universe... anyway a lot has happened in the past 100 years, including the recent successful landing of the perseverance rover on mars, and the return to moon launch this decade, lets see what new discoveries and inventions will happen in 100 more years! ________________________________________________
Hi Samarth!
This was a super interesting post on light speed. After watching the Star Wars movies, I always wondered whether or not it would be possible to travel at light speed. It looks so easy in the movies! But it is definitely more complicated in the real world as evidenced by your blog post. I myself am not counting out the possibility that light speed travel could be happen just because of all the innovation that has happened in the space field in the past several decades. I’m sure many people 100 years ago said it just would not be possible to put a person on the moon, but look where we are today. Great post, I look forward to your next!
Thank you for the explanation at the end of the post! That really helped me grasp what you were talking about. The fast you move, the heavier you get. That’s crazy. Would the “object in motion tends to stay in motion” not apply here? It would have been my impression that if you keep moving, eventually your inertia will just keep you moving and at some point, not as much energy would be needed to move the you/the object. I’m with you on the lightsaber thing. It would be so cool to try a real one out! I am very excited for the next moon landing and eventually humans landing on Mars! I hope it’s as exciting as the space race was in the 60s! Can’t wait to read next week’s post!
I have always enjoyed watching space movies and seeing their different takes on space travel. Some movies don’t touch light speed and just have the passengers cryosleep to avoid aging; while Star Wars has ships travel across the galaxy. Of all the theories the ones involving Balck holes make the most sense to me because of their density gravitational pull. However, I had never heard of the Great Filter theory and am now rethinking what I thought I knew. Great post!