©2018
Garrison Clifford Gibson
"I
want the FTL tech facility brought to Coronation in my personal
quarters on this planet.”
Aristarch
Conn spoke into his zip link; “Zillary, tell me, who is the most
wise man besides myself on Coronation.”
“That
would be the Metaphysician of Riga Misaul Tal.”
“And
where is he now?”
“A
the dungeon in Coronation’s South Pole. You aren’t thinking of
conferring with that poop are you? He has delusions of glory being an
astronomer. Some astronomers still are insufferably conceited
because of their belief that they discovered or made the Universe.
Automated electro-magnetic spectral analysis of the Universe with
computers far surpassed human observations. Astronomers became
fundamentally superfluous thousands of years ago. He can’t possibly
have anything useful to say. “
“Entire
occupations have ridden the coattails of a single inventor Zillary.
Few people are geniuses as am I and other Aristarchs. I will dispose
of Astronomer Tal after I extract useful data from it. Thanks twit.”
“Jolly
Rodgin”, Hillary said before she about faced and sauntered away.
Conn
ordered the metaphysician to appear. In several minutes a tall,
emaciated fellow wearing an orange turn-to-glue and sprout feathers
prison jump suit stood before him.
“Tell
me metaphysician wise man of faster than light technologies. I have
secured a second generation faster than light tech unit and wish to
know its principles of operation.”
“Honorable
Aristarch, may I review the four fundamental types of known faster
than light technologies?”
“You
may, proceed.”
“Aristarch
Conn, FTL 1 tech is what you have used so far as I know, already.
Vast quantities of mass and energy of space-time are forced together
with tremendous concatenated power such that fault lines across space
time are made to exist, acting as vast one-dimensional strings. With
right design the vacant sections of space time are bent and warped
along the string lines permitting a space-time disequilibrium that
allows a snap-back into place with a slingshot like whipsaw of an
acute object placed correctly, to another sector of space time.
Theorists have regarded it as extremely materially wasteful and
costly.”
“Yes
metaphysican. Zillary called it very dirty and loved it.”
“Ummhumm;
FTL 2 tech that you say you have acquired may be explained with the
idea of Einstein’s two-dimensional rubber sheet of space-time with
mass set upon it forcing it to sink a little wherever mass is
concentrated under gravity. If the space-time sheet is considered to
have infinite elastic properties, or at least elastic until light
speed, then it is possible to consider stretching space-time with a
focal point of pressure such as a blunt-ended knitting needle. Given
sufficient focused pressure the rubber sheet may allow itself to be
stretched away perpendicularly from the basic flat rubber sheet. And
if the force is made to curve, the extruding cylinder of rubber could
be forced to stretch so far as to bend around to touch a far end of
the sheet. At that point where the extruded sheet reaches and touches
the rubber sheet at a distant location the traveler is allowed to
rupture and reenter space-time in some distant place and time while
the extruding rubber cylinder instantly returns to its original
position and place. The traveler in an FTL 2 tech unit would not seem
to himself to have moved anywhere at all, he would just be in a new
space-time local.”
“What
about the properties Einstein described in general relativity about
mass increasing infinitely as a traveler approaches the speed of
light, and that time slows as one nears light speed?”
“Consider
again the rubber sheet if you will Aristarch Conn. An ordinary mass
vehicle pressing upon it encounters resistance. As it increases speed
Newton’s principle of an equal and opposite force in opposition to
any action applies. The more the speed increase the more resistance
and apparent mass increases on the accelerating vehicle. Even so,
while the vehicle is pressing toward the speed of light, space is
stretched and the vehicle embedded within it too, while the overall
quantity of space-time remains the same. One inch unit time is
stretched to the length of ten units while remaining one unit.
Existing within that accelerated unit allows more subjectively to be
done than for someone living in an unaccelerated, stationary unit of
unstretched space-time.”
“Oh,
then pushing space-time itself to expand rather than a vessel
pressing against it is the way to avoid increasing mass infinitely?”
“Yes
Aristarch. FTL 3 is simple enough too. One in theory exploits hidden
smaller dimensions that traverse the larger dimensions to shortcut
the space-time between the three large space dimensions and one of
time. I don’t know of anyone that has an FTL 3 technology.”
“What
is a level 4 FTL technology metaphysician?”
“Aristarch,
it is only understood partly in theory to me. It is said to involve
cutting out a section of space-time from the Higgs field, including a
sector of the Higgs field, creating a null space devoid of any tie to
normal space-time and its dimensions and mass and energy, bypassing
and short-circuiting gravity flowing through it to make every force
go around it, then floating the detached mass and energy to another
place in space-time before reattaching it.”
“What
becomes of the displaced mass in the receiving space-time when the
ghost field contents of null space return to the misty?”
“Your
guess would be as good as mine Aristarch, it could be quite a
dangerous experiment to discover what the answer is.”
“For
your responses I shall have Guccibald vaporize you without torture on
your return to the dungeon.”
