On Nov 3, 2009, at 3:34 PM, John Berry wrote:
I have heard that with time dilation and a 1G acceleration the galaxy opens up and going anywhere is feasible although by the time you get there the earth may be populated by Apes ;)
True, coming back to people you know here would be a bit tricky! Also, it is thought significant acceleration breaks quantum entanglement, so keeping in touch would require some technological breakthroughs. If that hurdle were crossed then we could all keep in touch, even though getting back together would not be possible. Sending robots and thus experiencing, by quantum entanglement communicated virtual reality, things far into the future and distant seems like it would be much more fun. You can then just disconnect your virtual reality device to visit home folks, or go to some other star system and time where the robots are. Unfortunately, I expect it would be pay per view and I might not be able to afford it.
Of course I don't believe that C is the speed limit but whatever...
I didn't mean to imply it was. I should have noted that at 1 g the time to twice light speed, 2 c, would be 23 months 10 days, etc.
Another problem with this scenario might be that light from the vicinity approached would become infinitely energetic, and have infinite momentum, and thus the hoped for acceleration would be thwarted as c is approached. Of course every particle of the space craft would have infinite momentum too! 8^)
Perhaps at some speed the wavelength would become so small that matter would be transparent to it - with interaction cross sections so small that essentially no interaction occurs. Perhaps the same could be said of matter itself, particles, which have their wave-like characteristics, their de Broglie wavelengths. Pass light speed relative to the universe and it is like being in another dimension. Steering by dead reckoning would be a problem! 8^)
Best regards, Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
