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Originally Posted by Zaps
There have been many attempts at a workaround by science fiction authors. Warping space, etc. Nice fiction, but still fiction.
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I agree, it is fiction. But it's where ideas start.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaps
It's not simply that we haven't found a way to do such things yet; It's that everything we currently know says it isn't possible, and everything we currently know has been tested and confirmed. That's how and why we can say we "know" it.
The stars are too far away. The energy requirements are too great. And the speed of light is what it is, which is an almost certainly insurmountable barrier.
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They also once said that man would never fly, or leave the bounds of the planet's gravity. It would take too much energy, it's too far, there is an insurmountable barrier blocking our way, the present state of knowledge tells us so therefore we "know". What did Lord Rutherford say about atomic fission, when they discovered the process behind it..." I cannot ever foresee any practical application for this. It will never happen". What was said about traveling into space during the early to middle 1900's, and by very knowledgeable scientists and engineers..."it will never happen". What was said about nuclear weapons before they were finally developed and tested...."either it won't work or it will consume the planet in a conflagration". Plenty of times in the past there has been instance where scientists and the present day thinking decreed inviolate that something was impossible and would never happen. That it wasn't a matter of not finding a way to do it, yet etc etc etc.
Even in your own lifetime as a scientist, you have seen some amazing stuff come up. But your own level of knowledge is limited to what you've been taught and what you believe to be the case through your own experiences as a scientist. It's the same with any scientist. But because you believe the prevailing paradigm is where it's at and is the cutting edge, you then begrudge future generations of scientists from looking outside that paradigm. You have no idea what they'll know, and as I said neither do I. So, regardless of whatever is thought of at present, we cannot know whether anything will occur in the future that will enable us to travel interstellar distances. It may or may not occur, but given time the likelihood of it occurring is the same as it not occurring.
It doesn't matter if everyone today is wrong about what will occur to enable us to travel the stars. One day, someone
might be right.