Infinite Improbability Drive, of course!
Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
11–20 of 76 posts
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#12It always seems to involve mastering gravity yet gravity is so incredibly weak compared to magnetism. Plus "alien spacecraft" aka UFOs always seem to output a huge amount of light so maybe gravity and light are linked in the process or mechanism for whatever makes the thing operate. I like the article how it mentions getting the science believable or at least not terrible wrong. But what I dislike as much as that is…
Perhaps it's because gravity is relatively less well understood than is magnetism?
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#13This is a duplicate of Wolfram's original blog post:
http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2016/11/quick-how-might-the-a...
The previous discussion (about two months ago):
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#14It always seems to involve mastering gravity yet gravity is so incredibly weak compared to magnetism. Plus "alien spacecraft" aka UFOs always seem to output a huge amount of light so maybe gravity and light are linked in the process or mechanism for whatever makes the thing operate. I like the article how it mentions getting the science believable or at least not terrible wrong. But what I dislike as much as that is…
Using gravity as a propulsive force may be silly given its relative strength, but having a way of blocking gravity would make a tremendous difference in getting out of our gravity well. It's not so much help for achieving orbit, but if you want to go beyond the Earth or even beyond the Solar System it would be a whole new game.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#15The problem with interstellar travel in general is that it is so expensive, in terms of energy usage. I speculate that even for Kardashev type 3 civilizations, shipping matter around will be impractical.
The future is software. For entities that live purely as software, and aren't so picky as us meatbags are about continuity of consciousness, "traveling" from place to place by sending data is the most practical method.
All that is needed is that the destination be prepared appropriately. So that means firing off a kilogram (or so) of self-replicating molecular nanotechnology which can build the infrastructure you'd want to live in (compute on) at the destination.
I haven't seen any indications yet with physics that something more practical is in the offing. There's still a lot we don't understand (GUFT, dark matter / energy), but there doesn't seem to be much hope for life as we know it to flit around the universe faster than light.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#16> Gauss suggested back around 1820 that one could carve a picture of the standard visual for the Pythagorean theorem out of the Siberian forest, for aliens to see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss's_Pythagorean_right_tria...
Radio waves? Golden discs? Nah son, colossal geometric wheatfields and a few big hedges is what you want!
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#17The problem with interstellar travel in general is that it is so expensive, in terms of energy usage. I speculate that even for Kardashev type 3 civilizations, shipping matter around will be impractical. The future is software. For entities that live purely as software, and aren't so picky as us meatbags are about continuity of consciousness, "traveling" from place to place by sending data is the most practical metho…
There is plenty of hope, even with standard physics. "Faster than light" has lots of wiggle room. Sleeper ships are certainly an option. So too are near-lighspeed ships that, from the perspective of those on board, could get between stars in reasonable times. Even then, what is "reasonable" is a function of human lifespan, a number that could easily grow exponentially without breaking any physical laws.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#18Asking someone with better understanding of physics. Wolfram talks about space as a network. But would not that mean that there is an absolute reference frame? Relativity theory does not need it (not sure if it disproves that there is no such thing), and from what I know no such frame was found. How does that reconcile?
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#19It always seems to involve mastering gravity yet gravity is so incredibly weak compared to magnetism. Plus "alien spacecraft" aka UFOs always seem to output a huge amount of light so maybe gravity and light are linked in the process or mechanism for whatever makes the thing operate. I like the article how it mentions getting the science believable or at least not terrible wrong. But what I dislike as much as that is…
The problem with magnetism is that we do not know how to make a magnetic monopole (if it is possible at all), let alone a powerful one.
Re: Quick, How Might the Alien Spacecraft Work?
#20The problem with interstellar travel in general is that it is so expensive, in terms of energy usage. I speculate that even for Kardashev type 3 civilizations, shipping matter around will be impractical. The future is software. For entities that live purely as software, and aren't so picky as us meatbags are about continuity of consciousness, "traveling" from place to place by sending data is the most practical metho…
I just recently learned the term "Bracewell probe" for this kind of device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe
Instead of sending radio signals or etching words or pictures in matter, you send a software agent that is reasonably intelligent in a hardware device into space seeking ETIs. The intelligence aboard the probe can have a conversation with the ETIs and communicate back to home the results.