Real Starships? Maybe...

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Sector 7, Jun 20, 2013.

  1. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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  2. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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  3. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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  4. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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  5. StarMan

    StarMan Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^colon, slash slash. ;)

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this new model still reliant on yet-to-be-proven negative energy?
     
  6. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^I'm no rocket scientist, so I'm not sure. I know they are talking about FTL capability, though.

    I looked at it many times & could not figure it out. Thanks!
     
  7. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Don't think we will ever see FTL. I'm pushing for Nuclear Salt Water Rockets myself.
     
  8. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Never say "never". When I was a kid, if you told me that a small box in my kitchen would cook food in minutes, I'd have called you crazy. Now almost every home and dorm room has a microwave! :techman:
     
  9. StarMan

    StarMan Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I hold out hope given there are still some sizable chunks (see dark matter and dark energy) of reality we haven't been able to place in a satisfactory framework. I am absolutely not an expert in this, so if someone more qualified can say otherwise I'll defer to their better judgement.

    The idea that we would be absolutely restricted for all time to slower-than-light speeds is a dismal one; the answer to this question will undoubtedly have an enormous impact on the shape of our civilization.
     
  10. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    You must be very old -- the first commercially available microwave oven was put on the market in 1947 and the first small, domestic version was produced in 1967.

    Adapting radar technology to excite water molecules to cook food is probably many orders of magnitude more simple than manipulating the space-time metric by harnessing negative mass-energy. I'm not expecting the latter in my lifetime although I'd love to be proved wrong.
     
  11. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    ^They didn't become popular until the mid to late 70's in my area of the country.
     
  12. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    You raise an interesting question. You say that you wouldn't have believed microwave ovens would exist when you were younger. So now that microwaves are commonplace, you're prepared to believe anything is possible?
     
  13. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Same here. My dad, brothers and I pooled the $500.00 to get my mom her first microwave in 1982, a Mother's Day present.
    Such is the mindset of the Optimist, my friend. It is also the mindset of many of us who grew up watching TOS and science-fiction... that there is hope for the future.

    Remember, Kirk's TOS communicator seemed like fantasy. Now, almost everyone has a cellphone.
     
  14. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    Even optimism should be tempered by reality, otherwise it is too easily lost. Microwave ovens and starships are a long way apart, science- and engineering-wise.
     
  15. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    ^Would be so funny if a news report came out tomorrow saying scientists had found a way to make an ftl drive using microwave radiation.
     
  16. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You assume way too much about someone you do not know. I am an optimist, yet I am a very realistic person. The two are not incompatible to most people.

    I also know that human capability is unlimited. Time and resources are the only limitations... that and the restraints put upon them by other people.

    While microwave ovens and starships are a long way apart, the ingenuity and process of discovery of new ideas are the same.
     
  17. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    How can someone claim to be a "realist" if they're going to handwave away reality? More important than time and resources are the laws of physics that dictate the limitations on what humans can achieve. You can't ignore physics.
     
  18. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    ^Because you can be a realist but still realize that we don't know everything when it comes to physics yet. The door hasn't shut on all the possibilities yet.
     
  19. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    So we should ignore what we do know just because non-physicists think the laws of physics can be broken if someone believes hard enough?
     
  20. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thank you, sojourner. I am glad you understand it.
    Until Copernicus, everyone knew the universe revolved around the Earth.
    Until Einstein, physicists did not know about e=mc squared.
    Until the Hadron Collider was built, physicists did not know many of the things they now know atoms.
    Who is to say that what physicists "know" today won't be challenged tomorrow? :techman: