Achieving the impossible.

[Halogen Fisk]

I've just been reading a thread about quantum "teleportation,"

& it got me thinking:

 

People seem to assume that, as past achievements had been considered "impossible" but then achieved,

the same must be true for what is currently impossible.

 

Past "Impossibles:"

If man was meant to fly, god would've given him wings.

It is "impossible" to fly faster than sound.

Humans will never travel in space.

 

Some conclude that:

We will learn how to travel faster than light.

We will learn how to teleport matter.

We can master the art of becoming invisible.

We will discover how to travel through time.

 

The general idea is of you can write a Sci-Fi book about it, then it must be possible.

 

Anyone else got any thoughts on the matter?

 

Are there some things that truley cannot be done?

[aman]

On invisibility a phase shift would be needed. I'll start simple.

If you sit in a room and look out a window. It's night and the only illumination is a flourescent light. Due to AC current it strobes at 60 times/sec. A blade passes outside the window at 60Xsec and is syncronized to pass when the strobe is off. You would look out the window and have a clear view but if you stuck your hand out you'd lose it. The blade is out of phase with what you view.

Now if time is actually slices incrementally changing rather than a smooth flow then invisiblilty would be to move into the space between the slices or get out of phase. Just food for thought. Nice question though Halogen Fisk. Nice to meet you.

Just aman

[blike]

In theory, 3 of the 4 things you mentioned are possible, just beyond our technical capabilities. As our technology becomes more advanced, the more "impossible" things you will see beginning to happen.

 

--

 

A more simplified way of cloaking would be simply to have active cells on each side of the ship that display whats on the other side. I read about the US army researching into this thought.

[fafalone]

It's not out of phase, simply too fast for the human eye to see. We see at about 25fps. FOr invisibility to occur, all incident light would simply need to be redirected away so no light bounces back to the source. In sci-fi, this is accomplished by warping space-time, which certainly would work if we could do that.

[Memry]

re Teleportation -

 

I think the whole idea of 'movement' has to be challenged.

 

Everything already exists wherever you want it to be - just needs to be materialised.

 

That's my two cents worth - without scientific data.

[Radical Edward]

Originally posted by fafalone

For invisibility to occur, all incident light would simply need to be redirected away so no light bounces back to the source.

 

not to mention the blocked light would have to be put back along it's original path so you don't get a shadow....

[aman]

If you redirected any incident light back to an observer it would need to appear like the terrain behind it. Kinda difficult.

Just aman

[aman]

On time travel we can travel into the future easily just by moving. A bicyclist ages slower than a jogger by a very tiny quantum amount because he goes faster. He wen't into the future while he rode and when they both stopped the jogger met the bicyclist after he had jumped a little into the future and stopped. The faster you go, the farther you jump in the future.

Time travel backwards has a lot of arguments against it. Especially if it is no longer there.

This is a big can of worms:shrug: :scratch:

Just aman

[Guest Unregistered]

The whole idea of 'travel' needs to be challenged as well.

 

Every moment existing is a universe unto itself suspended in an electromagnetic field. Rather an moving, an attraction to you of the desired time/space universe.

 

Rather than focussing on how to time travel, more a focus on You, that can attract all manner of things.

 

 

 

 

Memry

[aman]

What is a "moment " in time? How big is it? Is there a pause in between them?

I was just curious? Thanks for your input and I want to here more.

Just aman

[chris]

A moment, most of the time, won't ever come up on the evolutionary scale. Something that happens, 1 second, 5 minutes, 2 days, even 4 ,months, means absolutly nothing on the time scale. A lifetime wouldn't be considered a impact. For the fact that earth is billions of years old. So think, everything we are doing now that we think is important, or other people think is important. means absolutly dick.

[fafalone]

What we do will be built upon by future generations.

[chris]

but even the next couple hundred years will me dick on the scale. i mean, even tho they know alot now. in 50,000 years (if humans haven't killed each other off) there gonna look back on this period and not remember every little thing that happened. there gonna say the major major things that are still effective in that date. invetntion of novacaine (if thats still required.) maybe the invention of the first computer.

 

I really can't even think of anything that has happened in the past 50 years, that people 50,000 years ahead of us now will care about...

[fafalone]

Have to start somewhere. Especially in science, while most of what is done now will be forgotten in the distant future, the near future will have t obuild upon that information. Scientific research is built upon past discoveries, and we wouldn't be where we are today if somewhere along the line people never started asking why and inventing things.

[chris]

Yes, i agree with you 100%. Everything builds from something else. But are we talking on the grand scale. From the big bang til now? or from recorded time to now? Even since the begining of recorded time. Many accomplishments wouldnt be on the grand scale. But there would be more from the big bang til now.

[aman]

Nothing done in the universe is insignifigant. I agree with most that we will accomplish seemingly impossible thing in the future that will overshadow the technology and people of today. I say "we" because we may not be there when it happens but we still helped. :) Lots of "we"

If we aren't eternal as individuals in some way then what we do is still "seemingly insignifigant". Maybe nobody will remember but it matters. I don't believe anything is insignifigant. If we are eternal entities then let's party.

Just aman

[aman]

Here's some amazing observations in the speed of light barrier.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/791205.asp?cp1=1#BODY

Physics is going to be fun if the observations are true.

maybe. :D

or maybe not:toilet:

Just aman

[Hogslayer]

I believe the great modern mind of Jose Cuervo came up with practicle solutions to achieving 3 of 4 of the postulates:

 

I have been invisible a few times (invisibility)

 

I have noticed that currency in my wallet simply disappears and instantly appears in some dancer's G-string (teleportation)

 

I have actually started off on a Friday and found myself at work on Monday, without experiencing saturday or sunday (time travel)

[Guest CelticSkyhawk]

Originally posted by Hogslayer

I believe the great modern mind of Jose Cuervo came up with practicle solutions to achieving 3 of 4 of the postulates:

 

I have been invisible a few times (invisibility)

 

I have noticed that currency in my wallet simply disappears and instantly appears in some dancer's G-string (teleportation)

 

I have actually started off on a Friday and found myself at work on Monday, without experiencing saturday or sunday (time travel)

 

I think most of us have experienced at least a few of these.

 

Seriously though... a group of scientists are claiming first rights on successful teleportation. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/teleport981022.html

 

Any thoughts?

[fafalone]

Quantum teleportation is a long way from transportation of matter... check out this thread.

[aman]

Wormhole theories seem to suggest we will be able to warp space and enter one place and arrive at another. Maybe small wormholes will work in the future.:scratch: :scratch:

Just aman

[Hogslayer]

Teleportation is way too far out there for my feeble mind.

 

I have a problem with one part. Lets say we have a widget, and we want to send it to aman. Now, when it disappears, the space it occupied is going to have nothing in it. And the space where it is going will have something in the way.

 

Now, I suppose you could have two sealed chambers, so that the contents are exchanged. We send aman the widget, along with the atmosphere in the chamber, and we get back fangerdoodle, and a new atmosphere.

 

That adds some difficulty, sending a gas.

 

But what about light traveling through the chamber? We could seal it, I suppose, and make it radiation-proof.

 

But what about neutrinos and the like?

 

And what about the surface of the chamber?

 

I do like the idea of a bend in space, kind of like a stargate device. That's probably going to be a competing technology, and the market will decide which one becomes commonplace

[aman]

A wormhole would be like stepping through a door.I imagind whatever surrounds you might pass through also and just push atmosphere out of the way when you exit.

Makes sense to me.

Just aman