[net.sf-lovers] FTL in SF

jdecarlo@mitre.ARPA (07/19/85)

From: jdecarlo@mitre.ARPA


Peter Alfke says:
>
>Relativity prohibits any transfer
>of information at speeds greater than that of light.  It doesn't
>matter how the information got from one place to another, just the
>distance covered per time taken.  Upsetting, isn't it?
     
I might add that some assume that our universe is many-dimensioned and
the ships make use of that fact to *take short cuts* to their destinations.
The usual analogy is that of a line two feet long with it's end points
one inch apart.  A one dimensional creature travels two feet to
go from one end to another, while a two-dimensional creature (or a one
dimensional creature in a *spaceship* which can travel in two dimensions)
travels one inch.  Did the two-dimensional creature violate the speed-of-light
limit or not?  Creature one would say yes, creature two would say no.
(BTW, Macroscope, by Piers Anthony, has a particularly convoluted view
of the universe in it, as an example.)
     
 John DeCarlo  <jdecarlo@mitre>