From: sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us (Jack Sarfatti)
Subject: Star Fleet Command Physics Notes 1
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 06:53:14 GMT


From Star Fleet Command 21st Century
Memorandum for the record to physicists in 1993.

On the Super-Physics of Sub-Space Communication, Warp-Drive and Matter-
Teleporters.

Comments by Sarfatti enclosed by *...* - fantasize them as "telepatypes"
received by Sarfatti's creative unconscious mind in 1993 from Star Fleet
Command at the Presidio in San Francisco from not too far in our future.

>From hinson@physics.purdue.edu Sat Jan 23 07:44:58 1993
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 10:46:37 -0500
From: Jason W. Hinson <hinson@physics.purdue.edu>
To: sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us
Subject: Re: Subspace communication for Star Fleet
Newsgroups: alt.sci.physics.new
theories,sci.skeptic,alt.paranormal,alt.conspira
cy,alt.alien.visitors
Organization: Purdue University Physics Department
Cc:

>You wrote about how subspace communications travel faster than light.

* Do you mean "subspace communications travel faster than light" or
"subspace communications, travel (faster than light)". That is, we must
distinguish between subspace communication faster than light and travel
faster than light.

I will take the terms "subspace communication" and "quantum connection
communication" as meaning the same. In subspace communication information
(bits) is transferred "pre-metrically" across arbitrary spacetime intervals
between sender and receiver with no corresponding "travel" in the sense of
intermediary mass-energy.

Faster than light transport of mass-energy, not to be confused with
subspace communication can be of two kinds.

One is globally faster than light but locally slower than light (e.g.,
"Warp-drive" passage of a star ship in real time through a traversable worm
hole supported by exotic matter in imaginary time). The warp drive of the
U.S.S. Enterprise works by amplifying a quantum wormhole that surrounds the
ship.

The other mode of superluminal matter-transport teleportation of the "Beam
me up, Scotty!" variety is both globally and locally faster than light
either in real time (Lorentzian metric) or imaginary time (Euclidean metric
in Hawking's models of quantum gravity - idea is that the shadow universe
is in imaginary time. At least 90 % of total universe's mass is shadow
matter in imaginary time left over from the quantum gravity era in the
first 10^-43 seconds.)

The trick of "transporter" supertechnology is a phase transition from the
subluminal in real time to the transluminal in imaginary time and back
again preserving the informational patterns of quantum connectivity that
control the organization and function of matter including that of living
conscious matter.*

>I thought you might want to read a full blown analysis of the problems
with faster than light travel.

Note: this was written for the alt.arts.startrek.tech newsgroup.

*I have not been able to access that conference. What is the exact title?*

This article:
What is it about, and who should read it:
This is a detailed explanation about how relativity and that
wonderful science fictional invention of faster than light travel do not
seem to get along with each other.

*What do you mean by relativity?  Relativity naturally divides into two
independent pieces: 1) the symmetry group structure (e.g. Lorentz ((local
light cones)) and translation groups for special relativity; Lorentz
tangent spacetime and diffeomorphism ((curved global spacetime)) groups for
classical general relativity) and 2) the retarded causality postulate that
causes are before effects in a frame-invariant sense. In field theory this
means that field operators across spacelike intervals (outside light cone)
commute leading to dispersion relations on scattering amplitudes - which
are violated in gamma-proton data according to Chas Bennett of Lawrence
Livermore in Phys. Rev A.).

The precise statement is that relativistic symmetry plus the principle of
retarded causality is incompatible with faster than light travel. I have no
argument with that. My claim is that relativistic symmetry is right for
classical spacetime geometry but retarded causality both mcro and macro is
wrong (incompatible with observations and experiments both present actual
and future). Indeed, the standard propagators of quantum electrodynamics
incolve both advanced and retarded causality although the propagator of a
massive subluminal particle decays exponentially on scale of Compton
wavelength outside the light cone while oscillating inside the light cone.
Note that in the limit of zero frame-invariant mass the Compton wavelength
is infinite - so what about the Feynman photon propagator in which virtual
spacelike photons of longitudinal and timelike polarization unite to create
the spacelike action of the electrical Coulomb force which is instantaneous
in the rest frame of the source charge and is spacelike in any frame in
which the charge is moving at uniform speed.*

>It begins with a simple introduction to the ideas of relativity.  This
section includes some important information on space-time diagrams, so if
you are not familiar with them, I suggest you read it.  Then I get into the
problems that relativity poses for faster than light travel.  If you think
that there are many science fictional ways that we can get around these
problems, then you probably do not understand the "second problem" (which I
discuss in the third section) and I strongly recommend that you read it to
educate yourself.  Finally, I introduce my idea (the only one I know of)
that, if nothing else, gets around this second problem in an interesting
way.

*You greatly under-estimate me. I feel like Cyrano De Bergerac in the duel
with the upstart who told him that his nose was too big!*

>The best way to read the article may be to make a hard copy.  I
refer back a few times to a Diagram in the first section, and to have it
readily available would be nice.

*How condescending of you! But you do it so politely and elegantly that I
am amused. You would be a good kindergarten teacher - such patience is to
be admired. I think your exposition is basically useful for trekkies and
other sci fi addicts. That is why I include it here to post to other places
where it may be of educational value to the under-educated masses yearning
to know the secrets of time and existence.*

>I hope you can learn a little something from reading this, or at
least strengthen your understanding of that which you already know.
Your comments and criticisms are welcome, especially if they indicate
improvements that can be made for future posts.
And now, without further delay, here it is.

*Thank you, I, too, hope you learn something from my comments.*

A summary of conventional 2Oth Century spacetime Physics before the
breaking of the light barrier by Star Fleet Command.


                       > Relativity and FTL Travel

>Outline:

I.      An Introduction to Special Relativity
        A.      Reasoning for its existence
        B.      Time dilation effects
        C.      Other effects on observers
        E.      Space-Time Diagrams
        D.      Experimental support for the theory
II.     The First Problem:  The Light Speed Barrier
        A.      Effects as one approaches the speed of light
        B.      Conceptual ideas around this problem
III.    The Second Problem:  FTL Implies The Violation of Causality
        A.      What is meant here by causality, and its importance
        B.      Why FTL travel of any kind implies violation of causality
        C.      A scenario as "proof"
IV.     A Way Around the Second Problem
        A.      Warped space as a special frame of reference
        B.      How this solves the causality problem
        C.      The relativity problem this produces
        D.      One way around that relativity problem
V.      Conclusion.

to be continued.