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crepesballsoffire t1_jcvinwz wrote

The great filter is a possibility, but an interstellar civilization would have not only solved FTL, but FTL communication as well. Using current techniques and technology would be effectively like trying to use smoke signals in places of satellite communication.

My bet is we can't find them because we're too technologically primitive to even notice them, let alone communicate.

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NotAHamsterAtAll t1_jcvjp3g wrote

Why do you think FTL is solvable?

There is nothing indicating FTL is solvable, except fiction.

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crepesballsoffire t1_jcvjwln wrote

Harold White and Sonny Judy, plus Miguel Alcubierre would all like words about that.

You sound like the doubters on the beach at Kitty Hawk.

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NotAHamsterAtAll t1_jcvkvfo wrote

You must be confusing science fiction with reality.
There is no FTL device, even theoretically conceived, that does not require magic.

We knew flight was possible, because birds fly.

FTL has never been shown to exist in nature, and our best scientific theories also prohibit them (unless you add magic).

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crepesballsoffire t1_jcvl4bx wrote

"Heavier than air flight is impossible..."

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NotAHamsterAtAll t1_jcvltm8 wrote

"said local village idiot" - while all intelligent people before even the pyramids of Egypt knew that "heaver than air flight is doable, because birds do it all the time".

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crepesballsoffire t1_jcvm24o wrote

Ah... resorting to insults because you're too closed minded. Got it.

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NotAHamsterAtAll t1_jcvmqyh wrote

Do you think heavier than air flight is impossible?

In any case your logic is flawed:
X stating incorrectly Y is impossible, does not mean Z is possible, even if Z is though to be impossible.

FTL is just pure fantasy at the moment, sorry to say. Keep dreaming though.

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crepesballsoffire t1_jcvnere wrote

Outright ignoring the very real scientific results of the White-Juday Laser Interferometer study. Nice. Yeah, you're real intelligent.

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NotAHamsterAtAll t1_jcvp5r5 wrote

As I said, keep dreaming and hoping.

People doing simple experiments claiming X, Y, Z of impossible things happens fairly often, and they all fail to be reproducible or conclusive.

Nobel Price for anyone out there showing anything even close to FTL being a thing.

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Adeldor t1_jcvv9kj wrote

Unlike heavier-than-air flight, this isn't in the category of a technical problem yet to be solved. It's more along the lines of not being able to reach temperatures below absolute zero.

By all understanding, FTL travel between two points in space appears to be impossible even when attempting to bypass direct FTL travel through that space via wormholes or Alcubierre drives. Alcubierre himself has doubts regarding his drive, indicating it has the potential to violate causality, a point supported by Prof. Allen Everett. Such violation is anathema to most cosmologists and physicists.

In other words, the speed of light is set not by light itself, but by causality. It is deeply fundamental to the nature of the universe. Even were FTL travel possible, it'd only be through phenomena such as multiple forking universal timelines, that is, one way trips out of "our" universe.

Meanwhile, beyond this somewhat dated paper (PDF) refuting White and Juday's claims, I couldn't find any refereed papers or sources for their interferometer. Have you one to provide?

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