Do you accept that the speed of light is the...

[Tilted]

Universe's speed limit?

Or, do you believe - whether you can prove it or conceive how it might be possible - that, at the very least, information can travel faster than the speed of light?

One clarification: When I say travel faster than the speed of light, I don't mean find a shortcut (e.g. a proverbial wormhole) which would allow travel from one point in 3-dimensionally perceived space to another point in 3-dimensionally perceived space faster than light could travel between those points assuming it was limited to traveling in those 3 perceived dimensions. Conceptually, traveling through a wormhole wouldn't necessarily mean traveling faster. It would mean traveling a shorter distance - a distance in an additional dimensional which we don't readily perceive.

 

[slotpuppy]

So would you consider "folding space" as a short cut also?

 

[bcp]

something has to move faster than light in order for light to move.

 

[Tilted]

So would you consider "folding space" as a short cut also?

Yes, for the purpose of this question.

 

[slotpuppy]

Yes, for the purpose of this question.

As to breaking the speed of light barrier, eventually I would have to say yes it can be done. As for how its done, I have no idea yet. I'll get back to you on that.

 

[GWguy]

I've always felt that the speed of light was not a finite unbreakable speed. I do believe you won't be able to see much at that speed (if it were possible to be conscious at that point) because if you travel faster than light the light hitting your retina will be out of sync, out of phase, to the actual event.

Kinda of like not too many years ago when everyone was positive your blood would boil if you went faster than 30 mph. And don't even consider breaking the sound barrier....

 

[glhs837]

Hmmm, I am sure we will find a way to get places faster than it would take travelling at the speed of light. But you mean exceeding the speed which light travels through space as we perceive it? Only if it's a more cost effective way to get there than "folding space", which looks to be the best bet right now. And that generic terms encompasses a bunch of stuff, from artificial or natural wormholes, undiscovered shortcut dimensions, or straight manipulations like an Alcubierre drive.

Maybe someone will do it as a novelty, but I think manipulating spacetime will end up being a less expensive way to do it. Trying to go relativistic in normal space seems sort of like tunneling down into the earths mantle to leave some raw carbon and come back for the diamonds later.

So, cliff notes, I think it can be beaten, but will only be like human powered helicopters, only useful as a learning experience, with no application in the real world. Hmm, forgot about comms, it might very well be useful as an FTL comm system, on something like a quantum entanglement basis.

 

[Baja28]

Geez Tilted, what a lame question from you of all people.

Everyone knows that Zefram Cochrane will break the warp barrier in In 2063 when his ship the "Phoenix" will reach the warp threshold.

 

[NextJen]

Universe's speed limit?

Or, do you believe - whether you can prove it or conceive how it might be possible - that, at the very least, information can travel faster than the speed of light?

Have you seen how fast rumors spread on FB?

 

[Tilted]

Geez Tilted, what a lame question from you of all people.

Everyone knows that Zefram Cochrane will break the warp barrier in In 2063 when his ship the "Phoenix" will reach the warp threshold.

If my understanding of the the tech behind Star Trek is better than not very good, that advance would represent one of those short cuts that I referred to.

Have you seen how fast rumors spread on FB?

Believe it or not, that's what got me thinking about the question and wondering about the impenetrability of the speed of light barrier.

 

[ItalianScallion]

Universe's speed limit?
Or, do you believe - whether you can prove it or conceive how it might be possible - that, at the very least, information can travel faster than the speed of light?

What do you mean by "Information" traveling? Did you mean over the different mediums that they travel along today or what? The mediums are what affect the speed of things.

Copper wire=fairly quick (DSL)
Coax=very quick
Fiber Optic cable=extremely quick
Wireless=super quick
Outer space=no limit because of the lack of air to restrict the speed.

Bandwidth is also a big factor when dealing with speed or the "Velocity Factor" of a medium. Copper & coax have limits. Fiber claims unlimited bandwidth but it isn't. It's extremely high but there is a limit that only wireless & space don't have...

 

[Tilted]

What do you mean by "Information" traveling? Did you mean over the different mediums that they travel along today or what? The mediums are what affect the speed of things.

Copper wire=fairly quick (DSL)
Coax=very quick
Fiber Optic cable=extremely quick
Wireless=super quick
Outer space=no limit because of the lack of air to restrict the speed.

Bandwidth is also a big factor when dealing with speed or the "Velocity Factor" of a medium. Copper & coax have limits. Fiber claims unlimited bandwidth but it isn't. It's extremely high but there is a limit that only wireless & space don't have...

By referring to information I mean to ask if anything - anything at all - can travel faster than the speed of light. 'Information', conceived in its most abstract sense, represents the bare minimum of 'stuff' that could possibly move - that could, for that matter, even exist. If anything exists, that necessarily means that information exists. If anything moves then, at the minimum, information on some level has moved. Information represents the convergence of matter and energy (and whatever else may exist) into the one referable 'thing' that must, essentially definitionally, exist for anything to exist.

 

[Baz]

I don't believe mankind will produce a way of actually travelling faster than light, but do believe we'll figure out one of the workarounds, eventually. (Provided we don't make ourselves extinct before such time, or nuke ourselves backwards, technologically speaking.)

 

[Merlin99]

Universe's speed limit?

Or, do you believe - whether you can prove it or conceive how it might be possible - that, at the very least, information can travel faster than the speed of light?

One clarification: When I say travel faster than the speed of light, I don't mean find a shortcut (e.g. a proverbial wormhole) which would allow travel from one point in 3-dimensionally perceived space to another point in 3-dimensionally perceived space faster than light could travel between those points assuming it was limited to traveling in those 3 perceived dimensions. Conceptually, traveling through a wormhole wouldn't necessarily mean traveling faster. It would mean traveling a shorter distance - a distance in an additional dimensional which we don't readily perceive.

I've never quite understood why one this one small section of the EM spectrum was selected, do all radio waves travel at the same speed? Does an RF signal with a frequency of 100 PHz travel at the same speed as a 1 MHz signal?

 

[Tilted]

I've never quite understood why one this one small section of the EM spectrum was selected, do all radio waves travel at the same speed? Does an RF signal with a frequency of 100 PHz travel at the same speed as a 1 MHz signal?

In theory, in a vacuum, yes. All EM radiation travels at the same speed. Frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional with their product being the speed of light. The speed of light really refers to the speed at which EM radiation travels in a vacuum.

I don't believe mankind will produce a way of actually travelling faster than light, but do believe we'll figure out one of the workarounds, eventually. (Provided we don't make ourselves extinct before such time, or nuke ourselves backwards, technologically speaking.)

Just to be clear, I don't mean to ask whether people think that humans might eventually accomplish the feat of physically traveling faster than the speed of light. I mean to ask whether people think that traveling faster than the speed of light is theoretically possible... by anything... even if just by information itself.

 

[Baz]

.....
Just to be clear, I don't mean to ask whether people think that humans might eventually accomplish the feat of physically traveling faster than the speed of light. I mean to ask whether people think that traveling faster than the speed of light is theoretically possible... by anything... even if just by information itself.

Gotcha. I'm kind of divided on that, as I don't believe anything can travel faster than light, but think near-instant/instant teleportation is a possibility at some point. I'm not sure if teleportation is officially considered a method of "travel", since no physical space is crossed.

 

[chaotic]

The math strongly suggests that it would take an infinite amount of energy for a particle with mass to move from a speed below light speed, to light speed (or faster). It doesn't necessarily forbid particles that are already travelling faster than light speed, which is what tachyons may be, if they exist.

 

[chaotic]

As for information travelling faster than light speed, look up the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or Bell's theorem. These suggest that quantum mechanics can transmit information instantaneously. If you take two photons who are connected in the same quantum state, and separate them by a distance, when you measure the state of one of the photons, you instantaneously know what the other photon's state is, even when separated by a few feet, a few miles, or light years.

 

[FireBrand]

 

[bcp]

Supposedly light is made up of photons, particles, but particles that lack mass.
My first theory would be to say devise a way to push against light particles and you start to move faster.
But, without mass, it would be hard to push against.
So, we figure that photons would have to be pure energy, energy that could be absorbed or transformed in an excited atom.
once science learns to control that transformation, then photons could be converted to phonon which would have mass, and give something to push against.