Theoretically possible inventions you would like to see?

[Bill3000]

You just used a logical fallacy. "I am right. These websites disagree with me, therefore they are wrong and I am right"

Well no, what I posted wasn't an argument, that was a statement. I was not using the fact that I disagreed with the site to prove that they were wrong, I was simply stating that they are incorrect and therefore dumb. In addition, as ParkCungHee stated, what you just portrayed me to post is not a fallacious argument.

The whole idea behind wormholes is that spacetime is something that you CAN move relative to.

You can't move relative to spacetime. There's no second dimension of time. You can speak of two objects moving relative to each other and being affected by the distorted spacetime, but you can't speak of something moving relative to spacetime; those paths are frozen, as it will. You cannot say that you are moving "15 kilometers per second" relative to spacetime like you would with the aether.

I'm just going to ignore both of you from now on since you fail so very hard.

Yeah, keep talking about failing when you're saying that relativity is false when pointing to a phenomenon of relativity at the same time.

Look, it's rather simple:

* The phenomenon of Wormholes are solutions of the Einstein field equations, the equations of general relativity which mathematically describe gravity.
* General relativity in the low gravity limit yields special relativity.
* Special relativity requires the two postulates, namely, physical systems undergo change are not affected in inertial reference frames, and the speed of light in vacuum is invariant. These are true in General relativity as well.

If special relativity is false, then general relativity is false as well, as a theory whose approximations are false is also false. In such a case, the theoretical phenomenon of wormholes would be false as well.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Efficient artificial photosynthesis, which could be solution to energy problem and would lead to hydrogen economy.

 

[Rashiminos]

Does anyone think #5 is possible?

It would turn humans into a superhuman species capable of knowing everything. Technology and progress would advance at an incredibly rapid pace.

It would change mankind forever... might be a bad thing though.

It would not necessarily work that way. For one thing, certain types of knowledge require the rest of your body, so beaming "info" to the brain is merely a set of instructions and things can go wrong at execution.

The other is the whole beaming information to begin with... there are things you should leave out, and therefore learning is best done as a conscious and somewhat "slower" process. Now if you want to be a mind-slave, this is not an issue.

Wormholes are based on general relativity, chief.

You want to try again Bill? The idea of a wormhole, while it can be theoretically connected to relativity, is still separate. It's not necessary for relativity (as publicly understood) to be factually true for wormholes to occur in some other manner, if they do at all. (Or you could start dispensing the research to continue making this argument )

I was thinking of the implications of a teleporter the other day. Imagine a perfectly safe human teleporter. Wouldn't property based on location immediately become basically worthless, assuming the device was affordable?

No. These devices would probably get some sort of handshaking and authentication protocol to prevent unauthorized teleportation.

 

[Hehehe]

The article you link to gives several reasons why such a drive is theoretically impossible.

No, the article gives several reason why the Alcubierre drive is practically impossible. It is theoretically possible (you can see the maths on the wiki page if you want to check them). I admit, it is going to take *insert arbitrarily big number here* years before we can actually build such a drive, and there is much technical difficulties associated with it. I suppose I am an optimist but I believe that the technical difficulties will be overcome in the distant future.

Even if it was theoretically possible, it would be more a manipulation of spacetime to put two locations closer together (similar to a wormhole) than actual faster-than-light travel.

Of course, it would not be going faster than light in its own frame of reference (that would be impossible). But the ship would be going faster than a beam of light assuming that the light is traveling outside the bubble.

 

[Rashiminos]

mind-machine interface with my computer. Due to carpal tunnel problems, I do have problem playing some first person perspective games. Moving around using the WASD keys sucks, and same with mmo's using the number keys for abilities. I have carpal tunnel problems in both hands because of this.

So what I want is a way to just think something in my mind, and my character will do what I think. No more using hands to interface with my PC.

edit: oh, and also a sexbot.

Extending the first paragraph further: Mind-operated devices. Will vehicle control at the speed of thought lead to more or less accidents?

 

[Bill3000]

IYou want to try again Bill? The idea of a wormhole, while it can be theoretically connected to relativity, is still separate. It's not necessary for relativity (as publicly understood) to be factually true for wormholes to occur in some other manner, if they do at all. (Or you could start dispensing the research to continue making this argument )

Sure there are theoretical alternatives to general relativity, but name me an alternative to general relativity which contains wormholes which does not reduce to special relativity in the low gravity limit. It would be rather weird, as spacetime, which wormholes are topological features of, is an inherently relativistic concept.

No, the article gives several reason why the Alcubierre drive is practically impossible. It is theoretically possible (you can see the maths on the wiki page if you want to check them). I admit, it is going to take *insert arbitrarily big number here* years before we can actually build such a drive, and there is much technical difficulties associated with it. I suppose I am an optimist but I believe that the technical difficulties will be overcome in the distant future.

What you don't understand is that one can derive solutions of general relativity without concerns to the physicality of the solution. There are two ways to derive a non-trivial solution in general relativity: Find a valid vacuum solution of the field equations and find what matter distribution causes that, or start with a matter distribution and find the solution from there. If you do the former, there is no guarantee that the matter required to create the solution is physical. This is true in the case of the Alcubierre drive, and thus it is theoretically impossible as there is no physical matter which can create it, as it violates energy conditions for physical matter. If it was merely practically impossible, it would mean that it would not violate these energy conditions, merely that it was difficult to engineer for other reasons.

 

[uppi]

No, the article gives several reason why the Alcubierre drive is practically impossible. It is theoretically possible (you can see the maths on the wiki page if you want to check them). I admit, it is going to take *insert arbitrarily big number here* years before we can actually build such a drive, and there is much technical difficulties associated with it. I suppose I am an optimist but I believe that the technical difficulties will be overcome in the distant future.

You might want to read that article again and pay attention this time:

A more recent paper by Carlos Barceló, Stefano Finazzi, and Stefano Liberati makes use of quantum theory to show that the Alcubierre Drive at FTL velocities is impossible; mostly due to extremely high temperatures caused by Hawking radiation destroying anything inside the bubble at superluminal velocities and leading to instability of the bubble itself. These problems do not arise if the bubble velocity is kept subluminal, but it is still necessary to provide exotic matter for the drive to work

No practical or technical concerns there, just a theoretic calculation showing it is not possible. So unless you find an error in their calculation (or in the underlying assumptions) it is theoretically impossible (for FTL travel, anyway).

And I fully agree with Bill3000: A derivation of a crazy metric does not automatically mean that this metric can be actually realized.

 

[Abaddon]

Something that would automatically zap people for posting something stupid on this forum internet.

 

[Narz]

Something to record your dreams

Are you from Essex county too?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Portable power supplies, then these things:

 

[G-Max]

Portable power supplies, then these things:

Overweight people dressed up like the guy from Crysis?

 

[The_J]

No, lame, that's already on the way:

 

[El_Machinae]

A portion of my savings portfolio is earmarked to purchase the functional equivalent of an Iron Man suit (though I don't know if they're theoretically possible). I currently plan on giving some engineering company many millions of dollars, someday.

 

[G-Max]

A portion of my savings portfolio is earmarked to purchase the functional equivalent of an Iron Man suit (though I don't know if they're theoretically possible). I currently plan on giving some engineering company many millions of dollars, someday.

Why not just buy one of those bearsuits from the complete nutjob who has dedicated his life to building suits capable of surviving a bear-mauling, but has never put any of them to the test against an actual bear?

 

[GamezRule]

Iron Man suits, but only for me.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Overweight people dressed up like the guy from Crysis?

With that suit they'll be able to see how well you can call them overweight that while they snap your windpipe like a twig using its Strength mode.

 

[G-Max]

With that suit they'll be able to see how well you can call them overweight that while they snap your windpipe like a twig using its Strength mode.

Not if I have my own such suit and just run away...

 

[Hehehe]

What you don't understand is that one can derive solutions of general relativity without concerns to the physicality of the solution. There are two ways to derive a non-trivial solution in general relativity: Find a valid vacuum solution of the field equations and find what matter distribution causes that, or start with a matter distribution and find the solution from there. If you do the former, there is no guarantee that the matter required to create the solution is physical. This is true in the case of the Alcubierre drive, and thus it is theoretically impossible as there is no physical matter which can create it, as it violates energy conditions for physical matter. If it was merely practically impossible, it would mean that it would not violate these energy conditions, merely that it was difficult to engineer for other reasons.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the drive would require either negative matter or negative energy. The former has never been proven to exist. The second, however, has (though only found in very small quantities).

You might want to read that article again and pay attention this time:


No practical or technical concerns there, just a theoretic calculation showing it is not possible. So unless you find an error in their calculation (or in the underlying assumptions) it is theoretically impossible (for FTL travel, anyway).

And I fully agree with Bill3000: A derivation of a crazy metric does not automatically mean that this metric can be actually realized.

Yes, I have read the article, thank you. Assuming the calculation is correct, and also assuming that one cannot protect against these extremely high temperatures, Hawking radiation would destroy everything inside the bubble and possibly destabilize the bubble itself once traveling at/over light speed. So far this remains a problem. The point, however, remains. Despite its problems (such as generating the warp bubble itself, or acquiring exotic matter), in theory, the Alcubierre drive could be used for FTL speeds.

 

[Rashiminos]

Something that would automatically zap people for posting something stupid on this forum internet.

Why do I feel that would run into the same issues as truth serum?

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Flying cars