Your warp drive info is pretty out dated. The current thinking is we need to expand space behind a craft and shrink it in front of a craft. Moving space instead of the ship, which is pretty close to what warp drive is supposed to do. This has shown some promise in various lab tests and is as theoretically sound as the next idea... I'd say a lot more so than wormhole travel. Yahoo seems to have done more research on there star trek tech post than this specialty site. hmmm..

Thanks for commenting, Derf! I assume you're referring to this Yahoo article? http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090506/sc_space/startrekswarpdrivenotimpossible

In short, we found the assertions there a bit unfounded. Creating negative energy or matter on the scale that would be needed to warp space would take unimaginable energies, if it could be created at all. In looking at the research, we agree with Dr. Davis — spacewarping physics would probably many more technical issues than creating traversable wormholes (though that tech certainly has its own, which is why we said don't hold your breath).

THE MAIN(JUST ONE OF MANY )PROBLEMS WITH "FTL" DRIVE IS THE EFFECTS ON SPACETIME BY THE MATTER MOVING THROUGH IT /ISOLATE SPACE TIME FROM THIS AND YOU HAVE SOVLED THE TEMPORAL /SPEED LIMIT PROBLEMS EINSTEIN DISCOVERD.BUT THEN YOU HAVE ONLY SOLVED 1/4 OF THE HURDELS ACCOCIATED WITH "WARP DRIVE",

I thought all technology ended with chia pets?

The energy costs of FTL travel still look prohibitive, but the special theory of relativity does not state that FTL travel is impossible - merely that lightspeed is a barrier. Physcial objects can mover slower than light, or faster than light, but not at lightspeed. This, of course, posits the "how do we get around that" question, but achieving a reasonable fraction of lightspeed within a reasonable time (e.g., getting to another star system within a human lifetime) is still the biggest problem

To 'transport,' wouldn't one need to know both the position and momentum of every particle in the object being transported? Current theory says that is impossible ...

The transporter would be the greatest invention ever. Dan Simmons created some really far-out scenarios for teleportation in the Hyperion books.

Quantum physics/computing could produce enough computing power to jump the computational hurdle for teleportation. However, that still leaves a number of other problems.

I'm just trying to figure out how "6 Star Trek technologies that are almost here" turned into 4.

In regards to Replicators, creating inanimate objects using 3D Lithography techniques already exist. It's not reassembling molecules, but the technology is moving along fast enough that we'll be able to create to order basic tools by "printing" them at home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

There used to be a "barrier" that lived in the air, they called it the "sound barrier," and anybody that tried to fly faster than that...died.

Einstein was a smart man, I won't question that, but his theories are only 100 years old. Stephen Hawking is a smart man, too, and he smiles when people talk about FTL travel, and from what I've read in his books, he's never said "never."

The human race is still young, and we don't know as much as we think we do yet...

I'll accept that current cellphones "blow away the capabilities of the communicators of Kirk, Picard, Janeway and Archer" when I can talk with someone across the solar system with no delay in transmission.

@9toes: Hey, you're right, I counted the number of items wrong, and I've corrected the headline. Thanks for pointing that out. Obviously, my counting technology has a ways to go before it rises to the Star Trek level.

I totally agree with Captain Jack. The one thing that is completely astronomical is the hubris of the human race.
To say that certain barriers cannot be broken or circumvented is very, very shortsighted. The one thing about Science Fiction is that it gives the mind vast depths to dream.
Lets just ask how many of Jules Verne's musings have come to fruition, hmm?

Instead of trying to transport, or copy/destroy atoms - it would make more sense to try and move a complete object - either by something similar to the expand/contract space principles being theorized for warp drive (sometimes referred to as folding - I think), or by use of a worm hole. Obviously - it's all trivial from there on...

Several other technologies which could have been mentioned and are/or nearly are available now include touch screen computing (TNG+), voice activated computing (TOS+), hypersprays (TOS+), holograms for communication (not holodeck - shown in DS9) - aka CNN during the election, energy weapons (TOS+). Not sure how 'shield' tech is progressing - but someone must be working on it.

Hey Zarl about the shielding tech i've heard some physicist are trying to make cold plasma in thoery it would reflect or endure inmense amounts of force. Dont know ecxactly how they gonna make plasma cold , if plasma is hot. 1 question wouln't the plasma evaporate if some 1 try to make it cold???

I think everyone's gunning for the transporter!

Google

C-domain Communicator(tm)
CTP Gravity Control System(tm)
C-energy Frequency Modulator(tm)

FTL communication
First Contact
Modulation of Gravity
Something else Warp Drive, never considered possible. Inter-reality space travel via change/shift of C-energy Frequencies using CeFM(tm).

Not forgetting the space elevator - that was featured in a couple of star trek episodes. And as far as ftl goes.. think about this..

We are travelling through TIME at c

if speed through space = x

then c=c-x

as x (speed through space) increases, then c (speed through time) decreases.

so whatever speed c happens to be.. if x matches it, then there is a barrier - motion through time stops.

c just happens to be lightspeed - so this means we are travelling through TIME at the speed of light right now!

space = time... Thankyou Einstein

I second Cpt. Jack. There's still plenty of room for surprise.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/06/hyperdrive/

@Zarl

I've read that certain companies in cooperation with NASA are developing a "portable" electromagnetc shield generator for use in space. In theory it would generate a magnetic field large and strong enough to negate a large portion of the solar wind so astronauts could be protected on thier journey to mars and beyond. I think this is one of the first steps in shield tech.

Keep in mind also gentlemen that on a person or companies quest to replicate scifi technologies they inevitably discover other useful things along the way, so in failure or success we will always benefit.

For further reading on the possibilities of virtual reality and neurocannula (direct-brain neural stimulation) read the Otherland Series by Tad Williams. Excellent books.

Ok, here's the problem for all those people trying to compare the sound barrier with the light speed issue:

the sound barrier was a problem of aerodynamics, and even when people were saying it was impossible to make an airplane that would go past it, we knew that bullets and such did, and that objects in outerspace were going a lot faster.

FTL is an entirely different sort of issue. There's lots of ideas of how to go around it, but there is no way to get through it by adding more thrust, due to basic physics. The faster you go, the more you weigh, so the more energy you need to go faster. Even the tiniest speck of dust could be made to weigh more than the entire universe itself if you make it go fast enough.

*That* is why you can not directly go faster than the speed of light. Any and all FTL drives have to find a way to cheat and go around the speed of light, and all the methods we can think of so far either involving warping the shape of space around us, or pushing the ship into another physical space where laws are different.

Or worm holes of course. But that's not FTL drive, that a jump from point A to point B, you don't traverse the space in between.

@quanta - actually, I believe transporter tech is built around the idea that the atomic structure is being encoded and then *replicated* at the destination, so the source atoms, etc. don't travel to the destination - the source is duplicated at the destination from "local" atomic material.

Adam: Like most of this message board: YOU ARE ALL STUCK in P-Energy Sciences' understandings ONLY!

Thank you Adam, there is no comparison between light speed as a limit and the sound barrier.

Further, it seems from my reading that FTL travel is for the purposes of physics the same problem as traveling backwards in time. That is that the rate at which we move in time and the rate at which we move through space are related.

Further, if you read Einstein's paper on special and general relativity, long before it gets difficult to read, it should be made apparent that light does not travel, so much as it links a cause at origin with an effect at a distance that occurs from the perspective of light simultaneously.

It is this relationship which is the grounds for most of the rest of the the FTL problem.

Further reading should clarify that though it is impossible to accelerate up to the speed of light for simple physical reasons, traveling at the speed of light is impossible for the simple reason that calling it "travel" is an inappropriate term.

But don't take my word for it...
http://www.bartleby.com/173/

Einstein is far easier to read then any textbook on the subject, so read his paper yourself. Then decide.

Hey, do you feel that? You do, but tend to not think about it much... however, the answers to FTL travel and most of the other Trek stuff is pulling on you right now... it is the force of gravity. This should make us all warm-and-fuzzy inside because knowing gravity exists, means FTL travel must already exist as well. However, understanding the force gravity and how to harness such forces involve a paradigm shift in scientific thinking. You want FTL travel? Fix the school system! Our current 50% drop-out rate doesn't bode well for creating a mind like Dr. Zefram Cochrane.

I think the whole warp drive idea should be tossed in the recycle bin anyway. Instead, scientist should be working on a much more imaginative and fun way of travel...the Improbability Drive...but until that happens, always remember, 42.

From the news today we may be close to a Romulan cloaking device (close as in 2 -3 decades)

@ motleysalty:

Why even bother with all that mucking about in Improbability Physics when you could be developing the Bistromath Drive?

I believe that one day there will be a (real)book titled 'Starship Warp Drives for Dummies'.

Your dead wrong about the holodeck technology not being close, it is already very close to being here, see http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1383

>THE MAIN(JUST ONE OF MANY )

yeah but we first have to learn to turn off the caps lock.

On the contrary, I believe the sound and light speed barrier is a good analogy. One was and the second will eventually be solved by scientists and engineers on this planet, though it might take a few thousand years.

See, some of y'all are taking the writings of one man, Einstein, and putting him on a high pedestal, that from where I'm standing is looking mighty shaky. He said the speed of light is an absolute, and the photon, both a wave and a particle (only one of it's kind like that in nature) is all-powerful - all hail the photon.

But then other folk came along and discovered black holes, and proved their existence, and showed that nothing, not even the all powerful photons of light could escape their clutches, which must mean there's something at work inside the black hole -- let’s postulate a new word for the sake of argument, a graviton, say, and say the graviton is more powerful, faster than the photon, eats photons for breakfast, and occasionally spits out photons as a waste product which we now call "Hawking Radiation" in tribute to my hero from Cambridge.

See, times change. New things are learned. If we were to discover how to harness the power of these "gravitons" then maybe, just maybe, we'd have us an FTL drive someday...

It's not that it would be impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, it will take almost an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light because of the increase in mass. That being said, it would be possible to travel faster than the speed of light by bending space time, worm hole, is completely compliant with the theory of relativity

"today's speech recognition could easily hold its own against the Enterprise computer's."

Not even close. Perhaps indvidual words but not the syntax.

The problem with modern science is the driving force behind some of the top thoeretical physicists in the world and the justification for the LHC in Europe. There are two seperate theories and sets of rules depending on the scale of physics you are dealing with. As a race that has advanced at as astronomical rate techonologically over the past 75 years we cannot EVER say anything is impossible or impassible. Einstein was right, so was Newton, for the information they had utilizing the technology and knowledge of their times. Until we find a single unifiying theory (and probably not even then) we do not have a firm grasp on what is and is not possible. Even then the impossible becomes possible when someone steps up and says "Why is this impossible, I know how to make it so," and then does. Science is about learning and discovery, so why do any scientists ever claim they know that something is impossible when instead they should be attempting to do the "impossible." Think on it!

The article missed the point of the universal translator. It wasn't just a database of phrases in various languages. It was able to analyze the syntax of newly-encountered languages on the fly and somehow extrapolate the grammar and the remainder of the vocabulary. I think it's pretty clear that would, and could, never exist. Even after FTL travel is just part of everyone's daily commute.

It used to be common knowledge that man could not travel faster than 32 miles per hour. He would explode.

Think Fridge magnet. Hold them together so they push apart and let one go. Now. Make one say, 40,000 sq ft in surface area and one, oh just pick a number and start adding zeros. Now put Magawatts of power to the 40,000 sq foot unit and let it go. Once you understand this concept you will begin to see FTL in a more practical light. You have to start here though before you can move to other mechanics involved.

Just wanted to say for all the FTL, Sound Barrier, Light Barrier, Pros, Cons & quotes etc in these comments the one that stands out for me is WHITEKNIGHTS!

Bravo, well said & well thought out!

Einstein was undoubtedly a clever fella but there have been clever fellas for centuries building on previous theories & concepts. Pythagoras springs to mind!

I have no clue about the physics etc involved with any of this BUT I do know unless we start saving the planet (& no I'm not a greenie!) & looking at renewable energy sources we can kiss any thoughts of FTL drives away coz we won't be around to crack the uncrackable!!!

Before we pollute space with our presence shouldn't we try & clean up our act here ?

If ya get that transporter thingy workin, beam me a case of Bud Light and a pizza!

We just need to fold space to travel between star systems. Traveling without moving. Add one Highliner, one Navigator, and a shedload of spice and you've got your trip. It's that easy. Timothy Leary knew the deal.

Buy an iMac, The best is available today.

The article states, "The ability to translate languages not in a translator's databases would require some sort of telepathy, and whether that is feasible is a more a matter of faith than science."

Miguel says, "The article missed the point of the universal translator. It wasn't just a database of phrases in various languages. It was able to analyze the syntax of newly-encountered languages on the fly and somehow extrapolate the grammar and the remainder of the vocabulary. I think it's pretty clear that would, and could, never exist."

I am not sure why these authors seem to think that a translator is such an impossibility. This is the very way humans learn language as children. Conceivably, the translator would take far less time than humans do, but the principles are the same. We hear language in its context and start to figure out how it all goes together. We extrapolate from there -- adding an S to words to make them plural without being told for each individual word, etc.. (No, natural language isn't perfectly organized, which is why many children and ESL people start saying "foots" or "feets" instead of simply "feet".) An advanced translating computer gathering data on the context of the conversation and having thousands and thousands of languages to draw patterns from could probably make a pretty fast and accurate job of things in the future. Just look what we did with the Rosetta Stone information, and that was long before computers, even.

Side note: Please excuse me if this double-posts. There seem to be problems with the Captcha.

Replicator:-
Not matter to energy to matter.
But simple nanotechnology, reducing waste to atoms then rebuilding those atoms into molecules. This is old technology.

FTL...Don’t make me laugh, just because we can’t detect all those FTL objects we then state it's not possible. Most of our universe is moving around at FTL, we just happen to live in the 10% that don’t. When we have finished building our FTL detectors then we will see a brave new universe, ready for us to mess up, and we will be very surprised at how easy it is to move at these speeds. Just as our vibrationary frequencies are Absolute zero to light speed, FTL is lightspeed up, Any object whose internal vibratonary frequency is high enough is able to move in the FTL spectrum.

Einstein, you mean the man who changed his (valid) theories about gravity having a repulsive element because his peers derided him? His judgment was flawed then, and his idiotic FTL theorizing has presented us with a false barrier.

Transporter: - Nano technology again; scan, e-mail the parameters and build a new one (using nano tech). Transporter and replicater technologies are very closely linked. A handy by product is that once 'scanned' a new object can be built at any time, so we become theoretically immortal. The big problem is how to animate living things. I am still working on this, no one dies but I have a lot of bodies to dispose of……… (God had this problem big time before he cracked how to animate Adam)

Universal translator…..Wetware in the system, artificial vocal chords. Ethically unsound but workable.

Now back to my mushrooms.

Interesting conceptualizing of the use of gravitons to provide the necessary power needed to achieve FTL. You imply this to be the force within a black hole that "eats photons for breakfast." If it is given that this is true, you probably could achieve FTL by taking advantage of gravatons which I assume would be some type of harnessing a black hole. But I'm not sure how you resolve the spaghettification effect on me, my ship and crew. Our bodies have a great deal of elastisity but I don't think I would like to go where noone has gone before in the form of a molecular string.

Sorry, my previous comment was to Captain Jack for anyone who has just skimmed these.

Hi, Rick, yep, your "spaghettification effect" would definitely occur inside the singularity boundary of the black hole, but I'm hoping for smarter minds than mine figuring out how to duplicate the power of "gravitons" here on Earth (possibly bad), or the moon (maybe better), or some other body in the solar system (best!) someday, using something like the Large Hadron Collider, without having to actually go into a black hole and become "silly string" themselves.

Ok so I have a question about FTL drives for everyone here who has been discussing this. First lets restate some things we have learned. The sound barrier was impossible but things did go faster, then we figured it out. FTL is impossible but things go faster then light now... we will figure it out. Everything in this universe exists in balance. E=MC² right? All matter is energy and everything is always here. We have also discovered how to take naturally occurring Magnetism and shape and bend it to our will thru Elctromagnetism. So here we go...

If Gravity exists as an attractive force of nature in the universe then wouldn't it also be possible to have Anti-gravity, a repulsive force? Just as in Magnetism? hopefully we can figure out how to create an Electrogravitational field that can be bent and shaped to our will. I think this would solve many of the FTL problems. We would be able to use the gravity from our planet, our moon, our sun, and then our solar system to push and pull us around. Changing the field to be repulsive and attractive as necessary. Also if we completely surround a ship in a gravity field wouldn't that cut the space inside off from the rest of space and time? Effectively creating a bubble where gravity, and thus time, would have no effect? Then like a one of those water worm toys, no matter how hard you squeeze we would just slip thru gravity fields faster and faster with no regard for mass or weight inside. There would be no time dilation as you approach lightspeed and we have no idea if an artificial gravity field could pass the FTL barrier? Would it just slip by without notice or would we have to break the barrier by popping the bubble at the point of lightspeed and using our new found mass and energy to push thru and past it? What does everyone think about this idea?

There is nothing in physics that prevents moving FASTER than the speed of light. You can't move AT the speed of light, and it takes more energy to accelate closer to the speed of light. OTOH, if you are moving faster than the speed of light, it takes LESS energy to move faster.

Time is relative. even if you are traveling faster than the speed of light, it would seem normal to you. So who says we are not already traveling at warp 9?

Time is relative. even if you are traveling faster than the speed of light, it would seem normal to you. So who says we are not already traveling at warp 9?

Communications technologies are the only thing remotely close to reality in Star Trek. I cover this reality in a short and funny article you may want to read:

http://beatthat.com/blog/star-trek-in-our-generation

Don't forget the ebook readers like Amazon's Kindle. This is true Star Trek technology in our hands today.

I just think it's cool that Science Fiction comes up with the idea, and eventually, it comes to be.

Shielding technology is one of the top things we as humans need to research. Not only is there radiation but little bits of rocks and sand.

All this talk bout travelling faster then light is great and all, but at those speeds rocks and sand who else knows would go right through the ship and the life forms inside.

There is something that currently travels beyond the speed of light--thought is that "traveler." We can think a thought of being on a planet in a distant galaxy, and we are transported there instantly, though admittedly not in a physical way. When I can today dial in a web camera on a web site located in a distant place on our planet and be instantly transported there in a very real sense, is it too much to imagine that future generations might send incredibly more sophisticated remote sensory devices through wormholes to any point in the universe they wish? If the mind can sense it with one of the devices, then perhaps our experience of it is as real as being there, and therefore physical travel to these other areas of the universe becomes unnecessary. Ahhh! But you say, that the sensory information cannot be transmitted beyond the barrier of the speed of light? There are many indications that there is a communication of sorts already going on between various areas of the universe. While it may not be a "travel of photons" which requires high energy consumption, there is evidence that something basic to the fabric of the universe does communicate "extragalactically." With regards to the movement of a "remote sensing device" through a wormhole, perhaps the mind itself is capable of creating a remote "sensor" capable of going anywhere in the universe where we put our attention. Development of mind may be the key to "traveling" in the universe. There are those who claim all this is possible today. Some live in caves and spend much of their time on earth in "inner space" in their pursuit of the development of the mind's full potential. Some of these "inner space cowboys" are also scientists and physicists plugged into string theory, high math, and all manner of science. Increasingly, for many scientific minds, it seems more likely that "Boldly going where no man has gone before" will be less like Star Trek's travel on ships to the stars, and more like the mind games of the Talosian race (one of Star Trek's first alien races with the unique ability to manipulate perceived reality with their minds.)

I am convinced that darkness rules the Universe. Simply because black holes are the most powerful forces in the Universe, sucking in light. So not even light can overcome a blackhole making darkness the ruler over everything.

Technology that re-arranges atoms, rather than supposedly building the atoms from sub-atomic particles and then arranging them into any shape/configuration (item) will be possible through molecular nanotechnology within 20 years. This is almost exactly the technology depicted by the Star-Trek replicator.

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