Archive for the ‘Time Travel’ tag
Oct 21, 2012
The Kline Directive: Theoretical-Empirical Relationship (Part 4)
Posted by Benjamin T. Solomon in categories: business, cosmology, defense, economics, education, engineering, nuclear weapons, particle physics, philosophy, physics, policy, scientific freedom, space
To achieve interstellar travel, the Kline Directive instructs us to be bold, to explore what others have not, to seek what others will not, to change what others dare not. To extend the boundaries of our knowledge, to advocate new methods, techniques and research, to sponsor change not status quo, on 5 fronts, Legal Standing, Safety Awareness, Economic Viability, Theoretical-Empirical Relationship, & Technological Feasibility.
In this post I have updated the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM) to guide us through the issues so that we can arrive at interstellar travel sooner, rather than later:
Interstellar Challenge Matrix (Partial Matrix)
| Propulsion Mechanism | Relatively Safe? | Theoretical-Empirical Relationship? |
| Conventional Fuel Rockets: | Yes, but susceptible to human error. | Known. Theoretical foundations are based on Engineering Feasible Theories, and have been evolving since Robert Goddard invented the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. |
| Antimatter Propulsion: | No. Extensive gamma ray production (Carl Sagan). Issue is how does one protect the Earth? Capable of an End of Humanity (EOH) event. | Dependent on Millennium Theories. John Eades states in no uncertain terms that antimatter is impossible to handle and create. |
| Atomic Bomb Pulse Detonation: | No, because (Project Orion) one needs to be able to manage between 300,000 and 30,000,000 atomic bombs per trip. | Known and based on Engineering Feasible Theories. |
| Time Travel: | Do Not Know. Depends on how safely exotic matter can be contained. | Dependent on a Millennium Theory. Exotic matter hypotheses are untested. No experimental evidence to show that Nature allows for a breakdown in causality. |
| String / Quantum Foam Based Propulsion: | Do Not Know. Depends on how safely exotic matter can be contained. | Dependent on a Millennium Theory. String theories have not been experimentally verified. Exotic matter hypotheses are untested. Existence of Quantum Foam now suspect (Robert Nemiroff). |
| Small Black Hole Propulsion: | No. Capable of an End Of Humanity (EOH) event | Don’t know if small black holes really do exist in Nature. Their theoretical basis should be considered a Millennium Theory. |
It is quite obvious that the major impediments to interstellar travel are the Millennium Theories. Let us review. Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize 1965) & Sheldon Lee Glashow (Nobel Prize 1979) have criticized string theory for not providing novel experimental predictions at accessible energy scales, but other theoretical physicists (Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten, Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. The Wikipedia article String Theory gives a good overview, and notes other critics and criticisms of string theories. In What is String Theory? Alberto Güijosa explains why string theories have come to dominate theoretical physics. It is about forces, and especially about unifying gravity with the other three forces.
Continue reading “The Kline Directive: Theoretical-Empirical Relationship (Part 4)” »
Oct 14, 2012
The Kline Directive: Economic Viability
Posted by Benjamin T. Solomon in categories: business, complex systems, defense, economics, education, engineering, finance, military, nuclear weapons, philosophy, physics, policy, scientific freedom, space, sustainability
To achieve interstellar travel, the Kline Directive instructs us to be bold, to explore what others have not, to seek what others will not, to change what others dare not. To extend the boundaries of our knowledge, to advocate new methods, techniques and research, to sponsor change not status quo, on 5 fronts:
1. Legal Standing. 2. Safety Awareness. 3. Economic Viability. 4. Theoretical-Empirical Relationship. 5. Technological Feasibility.
In this post I will explore Economic Viability. I have proposed the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM) to guide us through the issues so that we can arrive at interstellar travel sooner, rather than later. Let us review the costs estimates of the various star drives just to reach the velocity of 0.1c, as detailed in previous blog posts:
Interstellar Challenge Matrix (Partial Matrix)
| Propulsion Mechanism | Legal? | Costs Estimates |
| Conventional Fuel Rockets: | Yes | Greater than US$1.19E+14 |
| Antimatter Propulsion: | Do Not Know. | Between US$1.25E+20 and US$6.25E+21 |
| Atomic Bomb Pulse Detonation: | Illegal. This technology was illegal as of 1963 per Partial Test Ban Treaty | Between $2.6E12 and $25.6E12 . These are Project Orion original costs converted back to 2012 dollar. Requires anywhere between 300,000 and 30,000,000 bombs!! |
| Time Travel: | Do Not Know. | Requires Exotic Matter, therefore greater than antimatter propulsion costs of US$1.25E+20 |
| Quantum Foam Based Propulsion: | Do Not Know. | Requires Exotic Matter, therefore greater than antimatter propulsion costs of US$1.25E+20 |
| Small Black Hole Propulsion: | Most Probably Illegal in the Future | Using CERN to estimate. At least US$9E+9 per annual budget. CERN was founded 58 years ago in 1954. Therefore a guestimate of the total expenditure required to reach its current technological standing is US$1.4E11. |
Note Atomic Bomb numbers were updated on 10/18/2012 after Robert Steinhaus commented that costs estimates “are excessively high and unrealistic”. I researched the topic and found Project Orion details the costs, of $2.6E12 to $25.6E12, which are worse than my estimates.
Continue reading “The Kline Directive: Economic Viability” »
Sep 29, 2012
Debunking Time Travel (Looper)
Posted by Benjamin T. Solomon in categories: media & arts, physics, policy, space
Previous Post in this Debunking Series.
I just watched Looper the movie. It is such a good movie and a great story. But then I’m biased. Anything with Bruce Willis is a great movie. Bruce Willis is getting older, which reminds me so am I!
For those who have not watched Looper I won’t give the story away … Looper is a must watch for science fiction fans. And there were other great movies and episodes about time travel. The three Back to the Future, and the Star Trek episodes, for starters.
That was the good news, and now for the bad news. Time travel is impossible. The mathematics behind time travel is excellent, but the physics is not. In contemporary physics, the mechanism of time travel requires wormholes. You get into a wormhole on one side and you pop out the other side either in the future or in the past, depending on what the wormhole was designed to do.
