Re: [OFFICIAL] Some FT background stuff (guidelines for writers)

>But traveller did have FTL comms. If it only took you a week to jump 
<snip>
>hyperspace) in a neat way. Hence they had FTL comms, but it pretty 
>much still boiled down to a pony express delivery system. 
Sorry, not making myself clear. By FTL comms I mean instantaneous
commmunication over interstellar distances that allow face to face
discussion like BabCom or Star Trek.

The point is we aren't far off that NOW. Think of a videocam
transmission
over the internet. When you resolve that down what it is is a sequence
of 1
0 pulses down a wire. Now look at the phenomenon that we have seen where
paired electrons(I think they were) will modify their spin apparently
instantly when separated. Now, if you have two of those, the phenomenon
works at interstellar distances  AND you can control and monitor the
spin
you have a way to transmit digital information instantly over
interstellar
distances. One 'spinshifts' at a constant rate to provide a time
sequence
and the other is used to transmit the data - clockwise is a '1' anti is
a
'0'. Some of that is doable *now* in a lab situation and the other parts
of
it are certainly possible. Yet no-one would even vaguely say we are
close
to attaining a means of moving even a subatomic particle at FTL
velocities
by any means.

Strange as it may appear, it seems a lot easier to transmit
*information*
than it is to transmit *matter*. Afterall , we've had sonic speed
information transmission since the first drum was thumped and light
speed
info transmission since the first semaphore lamp was used. Yet we've had
supersonic mass transmission for 100-200 years at most (if you include
cannon shells) and only 50 years if you mean people and we're nowhere
near
light speed mass or people transportation.

I'm willing to accept anyone who might say 'it's fiction, it's my story
and
this is how I want it' but I'll be grumbling under my breath while doing
so..

			TTFN
				Jon
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"Reality never lives up to all that it used to be.."
	Beth Orton 'Best bit'
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