Speed of Light
So, the question is: do you think in the future we will be able to travel at speed of light or even faster?
Speed of Light
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Summary:
There are scientists (or visionaries) who say that in the future we will be able to travel at the speed of light.
However, some people think we actually can't. What is your opinion?
not without some fundamental change in our understanding of physics.
I fear that most science-fiction scenarios will remain science-fiction.
"Do you ever think about things you do think about?" - Henry Drummond to Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind
This is a subject that I've given quite some thought during the last years (much thanks to LHC) and even though I suppose it might be possible in a very distant future, I'm having a hard time seeing how exactly such a thing would be done. Granted, some of the laws of physics (or at least our understanding) might look entirely different in the future, but I think that the fundaments of physics in general is quite well understood and as far as I can tell lightspeed travels is well out of reach according to that.
But I hope, naive like a child, that we actually might be able to travel at the speed of light in the future. If not, then I guess we are more or less stuck on this rock for eternity=)
Facts are stubborn things.
- Ronald Reagan
I don't think we'll ever travel faster than light directly. I hold out a small bit of possibility for some twist that does an end run on that limit while not violating it directly. (Sci-fi example: "hyperspace") However, there is no way of predicting such a breakthrough, it is merely my hope.
If not possible at all, it turns to be something against the claims of aliens on Earth. How could they travel from another galaxy to the Earth if they are simple beings that have limited lifespan? Unless they are like the Giant Turtles in Galápagos Islands… no, not even that.
Because you age slower when you go faster, so if aliens were 'nearby' and traveling 'rather fast', they could easily get here within their lifetime.
The problem is when they want to go back, as everyone back home would age at their normal rate. Perhaps 20 years have passed back home for every one year of traveling, perhaps 20,000 years have passed. If you want to go as fast as you can, you need to sacrifice something.
Regarding the original question then, no, you won't be traveling faster than light anytime soon. See if you can travel faster than time instead, that'll be something to bake your noodle about.
But if we actually travel at the speed of light, wouldn't our molecules get ripped apart? …Just asking. Wait, wait… when something reaches the speed of light time becomes zero and mass becomes infinite, right?
Our fears are more numerous than our dangers, and we suffer more in our imagination than in reality.
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