Star Trek's Warp Drive Not Impossible 541
Trunks writes "No doubt trying to ride the hype train that's currently going for the new Star Trek film, Space.com has a new article detailing how warp drive may not be impossible to acheive. From the article: '"The idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it," said Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. "The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it's not moving at all. It's the space-time that's moving." One reason this idea seems credible is that scientists think it may already have happened. Some models suggest that space-time expanded at a rate faster than light speed during a period of rapid inflation shortly after the Big Bang. "If it could do it for the Big Bang, why not for our space drives?" Millis said.' Simple, right?"
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LHC (Score:4, Funny)
You can take a superconducting magnet from the LHC to build your own warp drive [wikipedia.org]. Just be careful not to fail the test after the aliens notice us.
The really important question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Geeks don't build shit, Nerds do.
Simple (Score:3, Funny)
I'll believe Faster Than Light travel when I actually see it...
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
Of course he did. He's posting from the past about how warp drives are impossible only to hide the fact that HE has a time masheen.
Re:LHC (Score:4, Funny)
And if you live in Finland, don't nuke yourselves just to make the rest of us look guilty.
Who put the military in charge anyway? (Score:5, Funny)
Who put the military in charge anyway?
Who is the General Relativity, and why does he think he can order us around; we're civilians, right?
-- Terry
Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
The LHC hurls particles with about as much kinetic energy as a flying fruit fly around. Earth is constantly bombarded with particles having orders of magnitude more energy, so if LHC could cause a black hole, we wouldn't be here to build it!
The point isn't the amount of energy (Earth is bombarded with higher energy particles constantly) but that it's finely controlled and we can observe exactly what happens when two sub-atomic particles collide with a respectable amount of energy to let us know what's really going on down at that level. And that's fascinating.
Could LHC cause the earth to implode? Perhaps with the same likelihood that Universe was created by a 7 foot tall bunny made out of spaghetti, used VHS video tape and lug nuts, or that all the subatomic particles in your body will suddenly decide to move together through the wall behind you into the ladies room on the other side and you end up convicted of a sexual crime, even though you are innocent. Possible? Yes, but don't think that "possible" means anything other than "all but infinitely unlikely except that it's near impossible to prove a negative".
And don't forget: there is a non-zero chance that the universe WAS created by a 7-foot tall bunny made of spaghetti, used video tape, and lug nuts! Everybody panic!!!
Re:Simple, right? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't see why you are being such a negative Nancy, all you have to do is create a universe and suck the energy you need out of it.
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
There is nothing dorkier than geeks and nerds arguing over the correct name to use for wonks.
Re:So which is it (Score:2, Funny)
Big Bang post (Score:2, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, space-time warps you.
Is this how Natalie Portman got here?
Moving blobs of space-time: What could possibly go wrong?
TFA explains why I read this /. post yesterday.
How to leave Mom's basement.
It's working in the next Linux kernel.
If it already happened isn't that prior art?
Samzenpus can't spell "achieve". Editors must have beamed up.
and last but not least ... IANAL but isn't traveling faster than light illegal?
Re:So which is it (Score:2, Funny)
I have a time machine, of course it only goes forwards (to avoid paradoxes) and sadly it only goes at regular speed.
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Reverse the polarity of the phase inverters for best results.
Re:Big Bang post (Score:3, Funny)
Not Impossible (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
I made a time machine that goes back in time, but unfortunately it's caused an infinite loop. It was suppose to make a small field go back. Instead, it encompassed the entire planet. I can't do anything to stop it. I found it's physically impossible to get near myself, and the first incarnation of me didn't leave the machine for many days before the experiment started.
I've tried to explain what's happened to people, but it's a severe case of Cassandra syndrome. I know the future, but no one will believe me. No one else remembers that they've already experienced this but me, probably because of my initial proximity to the machine.
But, this isn't the first time I tried to explain. None of you will believe me. And the machine will again loop us at 22:05 Eastern.
So, it will happen again. and again. and there's nothing I can do about it. If only I could adjust the parameters just a little. Maybe widen the window so I had more time to explain. Maybe induce a fault so it doesn't happen at all. I've tried everything to make this stop. Damn my security. I can't even hack into my servers remotely to change anything.
You won't ever notice, and you won't ever age, but I continue to age. I'm an old man now. I would leave a note, but it will be gone when our next event happens. When I die, if I can die, it will be my only salvation. I've tried to die before, but I always wake up in the same place after the event happens again.
I would like to apologize again, like I have countless times before, but it will fall on deaf ears.
Oblig. Spaceballs reference (Score:2, Funny)
Dark Helmet: No, no, no, light speed is too slow.
Colonel Sandurz: Light speed, too slow?
Dark Helmet: Yes, we're gonna have to go right to ludicrous speed.
Colonel Sandurz: Ludicrous speed?! Sir, we've never gone that fast before. I don't know if this ship can take it!
Dark Helmet: What's the matter Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:To the casually ignorant (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
If I revers the polarity of my laptop's power connectors, will that give my laptop warp capability? I gotta try that!
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple, right? (Score:4, Funny)
Yo dawg, we heard you like to suck energy from universes so we put an universe inside your universe so you can suck while you suck
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
Like I've said thousands of times over, I'm sorry.
Oh, you won't remember, and you'll say it again.
I should just give up, and use the next few events to cheat in Vegas and spend the rest of that cycle blowing my winnings on really great hookers and booze. I won't have a hangover, and I won't catch anything. I guess there are advantages to this. :)
Re:That's not WARP technology.... (Score:4, Funny)
Dude, he's got a 4-digit ID on Slashdot and a user name with a reference to Dune ... he already knows he's a geek. :-P
Cheers
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So which is it (Score:3, Funny)
Yes but... (Score:4, Funny)
Yes but does it go to ELEVEN?
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
Even my voltmeter works better when I reverse the polarity; instead of -1.5V for a battery it becomes 1.5V.
Re:So which is it (Score:2, Funny)
I thought it broke because the God particle has to exist solely on faith, and would cease to exist if proof of it were found, so it keeps going back in time and screwing up the LHC....
Silly me....
Re:So which is it (Score:5, Funny)
The only warp capability you might possibly get with your laptop would be of the OS2 variety.
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
Bill Murray, is that you?
Re:So which is it (Score:3, Funny)
Shut up, dweeb.
Re:Simple, right? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Simple, right? (Score:5, Funny)
I have a running joke with my sister. My mom didn't seem quite so entertained when we were all together for Thanksgiving one year, but it goes like this...
Q: What do you if a hooker dies in your house.
A: Bury her in the back yard. It saves a lot of questions that you don't want to answer.
Q: What do you do with a dead hooker in your back yard?
A: Leave her alone. She's quiet, so she's obviously happy.
It started when there was a news story a couple years ago, where a guy had a prostitute over to his house. She asked if she could go take a bath. The John obliged her, and let her. After about an hour, he knocked on the door, and there was no answer. He forced his way in, and found her dead in the bathtub. She OD'd on something.
Panicked, he didn't know what to do. He filled the tub with ice, to keep her from decomposing. That obviously wasn't a good solution. The next day, he dug a hole in the back yard and buried her. A day later, knowing that he'd get caught with a corpse buried in his back yard, he dug her back up, and put her back in the bath. He called the police, and confessed to everything.
The physical evidence showed that she OD'd, and that by the position from rigor, she had been in the tub. It also (obviously) showed that the body had been moved, got dirty, and was put back in the tub.
Since he was honest, and the physical evidence showed that he very likely had nothing to do with the death, they let him off. I guess they could have charged him with solicitation of prostitution, but the guy was extremely freaked out about the whole thing, and was honest with them. They decided he had been through enough, and didn't press any charges.
I like the easier answer. Don't have a hooker come over to your house. :)
Re:Simple, right? (Score:3, Funny)
we never should have left the caves for the trees...
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
I would like to apologize again, like I have countless times before, but it will fall on deaf ears.
Are you married?
Re:Two Words: Dark Flow (Score:4, Funny)
I know it says Anonymous Coward, but admit it... You're Whil Wheaton, aren't you?
Re:So which is it (Score:4, Funny)
USS Make Some Shit Up
by Voltaire (no, not that Voltaire, the singer)
I was stranded on a planet, Just me and Spock
We met a nasty nazi alien who locked our asses up
We found a hunk of crystal and a metal piece of bed
We made a laser phaser gun and shot him in the head
Bust a move, Tog
I was standing on the bridge when Sulu came to me
His eyes were full of tears he said "Captain, can't you see
the ship is gonna blow do something I beseech"
I grabbed a tribble and some chewing gum and stopped the warp core breach
And I say,
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things, lad, we're making shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some shit up
And though he's just a child, and some think him a twit
Wesley is the master when it comes to making up some shit
He's the guy you want with you when you go out in space
Now if only he could beam those pimples off his face
And if you're at a party on the starship Enterprise
And the karaoke player just plain old up and dies
Set up a neutrino field inside a can of peas
Hold on to Geordi's visor and sing into Data's knee
And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some shit up
Sisko's on a mission to go no bloody place
He loiters on a space station above Bajoran space
The wormhole's opened up and now they come from near and far
We'll keep the booze but please send back the fucking Jem-hadar
What is with the Klingons, remember in the day
They looked like Puerto Ricans and they dressed in gold lame
Now they look like heavy metal rockers from the dead
With leather pants and frizzy hair and lobsters on their heads
And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some shit up
Well, I was stuck on Voyager, pounding on the door
When suddenly it dawned on me I've seen this show before
Perhaps I'm in a warp bubble and slightly out of phase
'Cause it was way back in the sixties when they called it "Lost in Space"
We were looking for a way to make the ratings soar
So we orchestrated an encounter with the Borg
Normally you'd think that that would get us into shit
But this one has a smashing ass and a lovely set of tits
And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we're totally screwed but nevermind
We'll pull something out of our behinds, we just make some shit up