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The Mechanics of Faster Than Light Travel

This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.

Post Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:35 pm

The Mechanics of Faster Than Light Travel

Dont flame me for starting a topic thats been discussed before, but I need some new insight. (besides, I started the last one, and had it locked.)

Now, as part of a story I'm writing in my spare time (I have a lot now that school's over) I've got to a point where i'm stuck. I want to do something interesting in sci-fi, but not just use the traditional warp drive/hyperspace thing, or the jumpgate style either.

Can the mighty brains at TLR devise a way to travel faster than light? or at least provide a really cool intelectual conversation in the process?

well, thats it.

-Shark

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:51 am

Can't advise you about ships transfer (or trance-far ? ) from one "system" to another "system". But personnally I think this concept is just putting the 'topoi' from good old Western or good old fairy tales into space. I mean Star Wars and other Space Novels just work in the matter of "Good Guy meets bad Guys - adventure/battle - victory of Good Guy". Of course this is fun (eehrm: mostly) - but not innovative.

On the other hand the American award winning Sci-Fi writer Ursula Le Guin published the concept of the "Ansible". This "phone" allows instant communication between beings (not neccesseraly human-beings) even from the most remote places. Only thoughts are "transported", not machines or persons. Of course the Ansible itself must exist on both places.
More here or here . Le Guins homepage .

(Off topic: IMPO Le Guin, Lem (and Verne) are the best Sci-Fi writers.)

Remember communication in "A Space Odyssey" ? Even a "phone call" within the earth system to Jupiter takes about 15 min one way. So a traditional conversation is not possible.

If you accept the principle of instant direct communication with "persons" far away, you might think about new forms of interaction without the traditional patterns of dominating, trading or shooting.

I am curious how you will reflect these points.



I don't care a beep beep about my rank

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:59 am

I can give you the basal theory of my Bubble drive if you want...
Or the Aranic bubble-space Jump Drive as it is called in full

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:34 am

im sure you can crap about the theory presented in timeline. or, there's this er, particle thingomagic that the uberphysics gods are looking into. i forgot the exact name (something for you to come up with )

but what it is, is that its a pair of particles. they behave in relation to each other - instantaneously. no matter how far apart they are. so, if you spin one of them clockwise 60 degrees, the other one spins on its own accord clockwise 60 degrees. so technically, instantaneousity is as far as you can go. be there when you leave. you can couple that with the timeline stuff.

the timeline stuff is basically where they manage to construct a quantum computer. we crunch and save data, like pictures, by grouping pixels. eg, red for 50x50 pixel at so and so coord to so and so coord. blue for so and so. and so on. but those are 2D. to save a 3D takes alot more computing power. with the quantum computer, (32 quantum states instead of the 2 electron states) the breakdown and crunching of 3D objects becomes very fast. so you can stick anything in there. provided there's a 'receiver' (in timeline, the 'receiver' and 'transmitter' are one, where it teleports itself into different universes) the 3D object can literally by cut & pasted.

you can only cut and paste because you need to conserve the net amount of energy in the universe, which is constant. to copy and paste, you'd need to provide enough energy to be concentrated into the creation of that matter (which is astronomical)

by integrating that pair particle thingy i mentioned earlier with the timeline theory, what you have is, two computers on either side, each containing particles of one of the pair of particles on two ends of the universe. insert something into the capsule, data breakdown occurs, gets transmitted instantaneously to the other receiving side, and is regenerated instantaneously on the receiving side. mind, if you heat up one of the pair of particles (give energy to it) the other one gets energised as well. thats where the transmission of the matter converted to energy occurs.

this is all very fictional of course

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:56 am

I like the Idea layed out by Orson Scott Card in Xenocide, you take a ship out of normal space (lets say subspace for the hell of it) then pop out in a nother location. Doing it however, well...

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 6:04 am

Yea, an all powerfull computer intelligence like, Card's Jane is kind of a longshot, and that whole explaination of instantaneous travel was based on some kind of super small particle, that.... well anyways that seems way unlikely lol. If faster than light travel is indeed possible, I doubt the solution will come form any tale of fiction, however science based they are. I think it's pretty much safe to say that we will not live to see it, however I would love to. People may have theories on the subject, but having a theory on how to go faster then light, and then implimenting that to actually GO faster then light are very different things. Im no Physics expert, but from what I can tell from what we know of physics today, it is not very likely to occur. I guess this is why the movies and books have created "hyperspace" and jumping to other dimensions and back. Im not trying to spoil anyone's fun here, I like stuff liek this as much as the next guy. So I say if you need a way to have your characters travel faster then light, I like the idea of a kind of cosmic transporter, that would somehow(like transporters on star trek etc.) de assemble you on the molecular level, and then somehow have those molecules piggy-back on a laser or something to a reciever at your destination, I guess this could work for supplies and materials as well.

You can run, but run fast.... 1 shot is all I need.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:27 am

then there's the hyperspace drives in homeworld. those are neat.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:49 am

You might want to play around with Strings, use other Strings(universe) as an instantaneous interconnect between various part of your own String. Of course,
you'd have to come up with a new dimension that makes time a minor if barely relevant factor in String-travel.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:12 am

oh yes, i nearly forgot. there's another theory, that all existence is determined by a set of strings... these uber-strings. its their vibration which dictates how matter and energy interact, or so the theory says. it still has to be proved. but if it true, whole of science would have to be re-written.

also, it is theorised that you can latch onto these strings and travel at super-luminal speeds.

the theory of hyperspace is relatively simple. picture the 4D (3D + time) world, now picture it as a flat piece of paper. fold it. then cut a hole though the folded sides. what you have is a path from one point in the paper, to another point, which is actually much farther away if the paper were not folded. thats how a wormhole works. provide a .. 5-dimensional path across the universe that is actually a much shorter path. we can use conventional drives to travel that distance. depending on how 'rigidly' (is that how you describe folding?) you fold, the distance between the two holes vary. so it is possible to travel billion light years in matter of seconds or years depending on how the wormhole is oriented.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:28 am

@ kimk, that made my head hurt

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 1:08 pm

@kimk- Sounds simple in theory, but how would we go about folding and cutting space and time? Just a question for people to think about, not meant to scrutinize your ideas in any way

You can run, but run fast.... 1 shot is all I need.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:17 pm

Hmm, I'm thinking (OMG no!): If you go faster then light, would anyone be able to see you?

There's nothing wrong with missiles

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:39 pm

they could see you leave your for your destination by the time you're there probably

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:04 pm

Well, that depends how far away you were going, are we going to get into the whole relativity thing?

You can run, but run fast.... 1 shot is all I need.

Post Mon Nov 08, 2004 6:43 pm

Brian Green presents some theories on quantum teleportation in his book "The Fabric of the Cosmos" ( I would quote them, but i don't have the book in front of me.) Particles have been teleported in a laboratory already. It has something to do with finding two quantum-entangled particles and measuring one indirectly (since direct measurement will change its characteristics, even though you don't physically interact with it.) You then transmit your measuring data to the other end where something is done to make the other particle spin in the same direction and thus have the same characteristics. Flame me if i'm wrong, sorry I don't have the specifics. I'll look them up if I have time later.

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