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Re: Regard of FTL technology...

From: Samuel Penn <sam@b...>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 14:24:28 -0400
Subject: Re: Regard of FTL technology...

In message <34215ECB.1FC0@acd.net>
	  Donald Hosford <Hosford.donald@acd.net> wrote:
> I don't mind the FTL/relitivity discussion, but I think someone should
> point out that FTL is impossible as we understand things NOW.  Who
knows
> what we may come up with in a few hundred years.  The solution could
be
> something so simple that we are just too obtuse to see it...
> 
> Nobody can tell me that something is impossible.  We only need to
spend
> enough time, and figure out how to do it.  And keep an open mind. 
Some
> of todays scienctists have closed there minds to any possiblities.

The problem is tat lots of people have spent most of
this century trying their utmost to test relativity
to the limits, in the attempt to disprove it.

So far, it has withstood all tests. Anything which
'supersedes' it has got to still obey relativity,
under all situations in which relativity has been
tested and found to work.

This means that whatever the new theories, mass will
approach infinity as you near light speed. It also
means that damn wierd things start happening with
causality if you find another way to go FTL.

According to relativity, FTL implies time travel. If you
have FTL, then you can set up a situation where you
can go back in time and cause a paradox. Paradoxes
are A BAD THING.

I don't know how much the FTL/time travel link has
been tested (theoretically), but if it holds, then
it's a good enough reason for FTL to be forbiddon.

-- 
Be seeing you,
Sam.


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