Warp Speed? Is this really posssible? Your thoughts?

This is exciting! As a Trekkie, I always enjoy it when a step towards warp speed has been made. On the other hand, the amount of energy that would be require is, at this point, unattainable.

Ah Michio Kaku, my favorite physicist! You should read some of his books, they’re very helpful and very easy to understand! Its actually from the book that this programme is based on (Physics of the Impossible) that I first learned about warping spacetime. From what I understand the only things stopping us from acheiving it our lack of understanding of spacetime and gravity, and the lack of energy and money to be able to pull it off. There is nothing in physics that says that warp speed shouldnt be possible.

The thing is, according to current measurements faster-than-light “travel” (i.e., “warp speed”) is already occurring naturally. We have observed that the speed some galaxies are moving away from each other at a speed measurably faster than that of light. Theoretically this is due to just the kind of thing discussed in the video – the rapid expansion of the fabric of space time between those galaxies.

Of course, this is the theory based on our current understandings of the physical nature of the universe and our present abilities to observe it. But at present, the idea of being able to artificially recreate a phenomenon we already observe to be happening naturally is not far-fetched in any way. The practical ability to do so, however, may be well outside the realm of possibility – that we have no idea about.

Thanks, guys. It just sounded almost too good to be true.

another thing to research if you are interested is wormholes, which many physicists believe to be naturally occuring also

In The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss (which I read a long time ago), the author argues that general relativity doesn’t actually forbid such a thing if you can generate suitably strong local gravitational fields—I don’t remember the details. Krauss thought the least plausible technology in the series was the transporter beam.

i’m not much of a trekkie, is the transportation beam a teleportation device? in which case is, apparently, physically possible (see physics of the impossible by michio kaku)

To quote my favorite Vulcan, “Fascinating!” : D

@Seraphim Of course you can beam individual atoms or particles around, or even just the identities and coordinates of each particle (it’s not clear which method gets Captain Kirk back to the ship). Either way, when you calculate the inconceivably large amount of information necessary to reconstruct a macroscopic object at the other end—so perfectly that living bodies & minds continue without losing a beat—you see the folly. Not saying impossible, just implausible.

there is another way using quantum mechanics but i cant remember the exact details. its in michio kakus book (i sound like a damn advertisement for him lol)

@Seraphim – I think you might be talking about quantum entaglement based in string theory?

Electrons separated at greater and greater distances are able to transfer information to each other at faster than light speeds. When you vibrate one particle it’s twin vibrates across huge distances. So information about one particle can be transferred to another regardless of the difference.

I sort of conceptualize it like this – string theory and quantum mechanics suggest multiple additional dimensions of spacetime (from memory, I think there are over a dozen). It’s impossible to really think about what that looks like. In this case, I think of a two dimensional piece of paper. On that paper, you have two dots (the particles). If you drew those dots from, say, close to each other to opposite ends of the paper, then it would take longer for something to reach one dot from the other.

But if you crumple the piece of paper into a ball, those two dots are closer and closer in three dimensional space. Anything recognizing and existing perceptually in the two-dimensional space still has to travel through all the two dimensional space. But something that could travel through three-dimensional space could skip all that extra travel.

Here’s a Michio Kaku article (since he’s the focus of the day ;-)) that covers a lot of it.

It’s SUCH a pleasure to find people who, even if they can’t understand everything involving a theory like this one, at least make the effort to do so. : ))

i have heard of this theory before, but from what i remember, it was actually directly talking about teleportation i.e. actually moving an object from A to B. i’ll dig out the book and try and explain it when i get the chance!

@Seraphim

Kewl! I’d like that. : )

heres the passage from the book:
“In order to distinguish this new method from quantum teleportation,
Dr. Bradley has called his method “classical teleportation.” (This
is a bit misleading, since his method also depends heavily on the quantum
theory, but not on entanglement.)
The key to this novel type of teleportation is a new state of matter
called a “Bose Einstein condensate,” or BEC, which is one of the coldest
substances in the entire universe. In nature the coldest temperature
is found in outer space; it is 3 K above absolute zero. (This is due to
residual heat left over from the big bang, which still fills up the universe.)
But a BEC is a millionth to a billionth of a degree above absolute
zero, a temperature that can be found only in the laboratory.
When certain forms of matter are cooled down to near absolute
zero, their atoms all tumble down to the lowest energy state, so that all
their atoms vibrate in unison, becoming coherent. The wave functions
of all the atoms overlap, so that, in some sense, a BEC is like a gigantic
“super atom,” with all the individual atoms vibrating in unison.
This bizarre state of matter was predicted by Einstein and Satyendranath
Bose in 1925, but it would be another seventy years, not until
1995, before a BEC was finally created in the lab at MIT and the University
of Colorado.
Here’s how Bradley and company’s teleportation device works.
First they start with a collection of supercold rubidium atoms in a BEC
state. They then apply a beam of matter to the BEC (also made of rubidium
atoms). These atoms in the beam also want to tumble down to
the lowest energy state, so they shed their excess energy in the form of
a pulse of light. This light beam is then sent down a fiber-optic cable.
Remarkably the light beam contains all the quantum information necessary
to describe the original matter beam (e.g., the location and velocity
of all its atoms). Then the light beam hits another BEC, which
then converts the light beam into the original matter beam.
This new teleportation method has tremendous promise, since it
doesn’t involve the entanglement of atoms. But this method also has its
problems. It depends crucially on the properties of BECs, which are
difficult to create in the laboratory. Furthermore, the properties of
BECs are quite peculiar, because they behave as if they were one
gigantic atom. In principle, bizarre quantum effects that we see only at
the atomic level can be seen with the naked eye with a BEC. This was
once thought to be impossible.” – From the book: Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku ISBN-9780385520690