Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow

Post by piker » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

eigenschwarz wrote: post #17

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #2

Can someone point out where the article says why it's slower? I'm having difficulty unpacking: "The new theory was inspired when Jafferis began thinking about two black holes that were entangled on a quantum level, as formulated in the ER=EPR correspondence by Juan Maldacena from the Institute for Advanced Study and Lenny Susskind from Stanford. Although this means the direct connection between the black holes is sho…

The Average Null Energy Condition (ANEC) makes it so there can not be a traversable wormhole joining two otherwise disconnected regions of spacetime. So by construction, any infinite null geodesic (a light ray) which makes it through the wormhole must be chronal (causally connected). This means there can be no traveling faster than light over long distances by going through one.

Post by Filligree » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 4:25 PM UTC

Thinkx220 wrote: post #39

chrxr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The philosophical implications of this are the subject of one of my favorite web-comics: The Machine, from Existential Comics http://existentialcomics.com/comic/1

I don't think you can equate the teleportation station with sleep since sleep isnt a break in consciousness but more like a transition into a lower level of consciousness.

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #54

philipov wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Special Relativity states that no two objects may pass each other faster than the speed of light. Space itself isn't bound by this restriction. To wit: no thing can move faster than the speed of light, but space is not a thing. Space is dynamical. It can stretch and expand and even break, but it doesn't move . The result of this is a cosmological horizon that prevents these objects from communicating, because the dis…

It kinda sounds like we're actually in a gigantic black hole...

Post by BartBoch » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

piker wrote: post #51

eigenschwarz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Average Null Energy Condition (ANEC) makes it so there can not be a traversable wormhole joining two otherwise disconnected regions of spacetime. So by construction, any infinite null geodesic (a light ray) which makes it through the wormhole must be chronal (causally connected). This means there can be no traveling faster than light over long distances by going through one.

So that's it, then? Some thing, say, a million light years away from another thing is in practice entirely inaccessible to civilizations existing on that other thing, requiring a minimum of a million years to reach?

Post by simias » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #50

ben_w wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the point of view of something falling in you are correct. From the point of view of something further away watching the thing falling in, it takes forever. I think. Time dilation is easy to lose track of.

It's a neat demonstration of the holographic principle. From the point of view of an outside observer, there's no difference between the surface of the black hole and its volume; they're two different ways to describe the same thing, of varying usefulness. Reaching the 'surface' of the event horizon is equivalent to reaching the infinite future of the hole. However, you'd still be spaghetti.