Re: Fermi's Paradox and FTL drives

Gene Ward Smith wrote:
> Sea Wasp <seawaspObvious@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in 
> news:47A626F9.80800@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
>>And you're NOT limited in speed because...?
> 
> 
> Because any FTL speed is arbitrarily fast in the right frame 
> of reference.

	Only if you assume that's true. If you assume FTL, you can assume a 
UFOR, and then the characteristics of the UFOR dominate the perception.


> Hence, ceteris paribus, we would expect FTL 
> speeds to be unlimited. Cooking up a reason for them not to 
> be is the tricky part.
> 

	Not really. It may be the part that you don't have some numbers and 
equations to back up because we have no reason to believe FTL *is* 
really possible at this time. But the advantage of that is that all 
you need is an explanation which isn't completely impossible.

	The "chronoprotection" theory of time travel is one of these; we have 
no reason to believe time travel is actually possible in a practical 
sense, but if it is, the idea that spacetime does not PERMIT potential 
paradoxes to become actual paradoxes would explain why things remain 
as we see them. So you can go into the past, but you can't do anything 
that would directly affect whether you DID go into the past, like kill 
off your grandfather, etc.

	So with FTL you can postulate a UFOR which provides such protection, 
and which also thereby prevents unbounded effective velocities.




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                      Sea Wasp
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