Physicists:
find a hole in the quantum foam;
pump energy into it;
thus enlarge it;
stretch it.
"Both ends always remain fully congruent in spacetime. It's a closed timelike loop." (p. 14)
"Something sent through one end emerged from the other without subjective duration." (ibid.)
Instantaneous transport? Teleportation?
"...if one end were traveling at relativistic speeds, you got the time dilation effect reversibly." (ibid.)
How so? The text goes on to say that the mobile end would take 4.2 years to reach Alpha Centauri as observed from outside but only a few weeks as observed from the fixed end. I do not follow this.
Passing through the hole, you would move 4.2 light years and 4.2 years without subjective duration. Thus, intense time dilation. Returning through the hole, you would return 4.2 light years and 4.2 years. Thus, time travel. Also, FTL, if you can return from Alpha Centauri simultaneously with your departure. If the mobile end returns, then you have two time gates separated by 8.4 years.
Have the Samothracians got FTL? If they have a decisive military advantage over the Domination, then they should use it without delay. Surely this lesson has been learned from the Final War and earlier?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, if the Samothacians' wormhole technology has given them a possibly decisive edge over the Domination, they should immediately strike a crushing blow as soon as they gathered the means to do so. With some enemies it is not possible to be chivalrous or attempt coming to terms with!
Sean
Kaor Paul,
The length of time which a trip at relativistic speed takes depends on the reference frame. However, if instantaneous transport through wormholes is possible, we get paradoxes which would seem to require discarding eithe relTivity or causation, so it probably isn't possible.
As to what the Samothracians should do, it depends on what exactly their molehole technology is good for. Even if they can quickly reach the fringes of the Solar System, and the other Draka stellar systems, can they effectively fight the Draka who are there, with, ?I presume planet-based weapons and greater numbers of ships? Can they kill every Draka on Earth, Mars, and the asteroids? Can they take a rock in interstellar space, and accelerate it fast enough so that it will destroy the Earth, and the Draka won't be. Le to shoot it down in time? Can they do the same on a larger scale to target the Sun and make it go nova?
I agree with Sean that real peace with some people is impossible.
Best Regards,
Nicholas Rosen
Kaor ,Nicholas!
I would need to reread DRAKON to rediscover what the Samothracians could do with their molehole technology. But I do remember that their goal was NOT to destroy the Earth but to overthrow the Domination (altho that would probably necessitate the extermination of every single Drakensis). IOW, an invasion and conquest of Earth.
And fanatical Muslim jihadists are CURRENT examples of people it is not possible to have a true peace. They can only be crushingly defeated.
Sean
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