Jason Shankel's discussions

Now we're above my pay grade. This isn't a traditional wormhole...the ship in the bubble actually travels through every point in space between here and the destination. But I'm not sure what the implications of that are for observers outside. Read more

Thanks :) Read more

Hmm...could be. But then the entire mechanism had better be safely inside the bubble or nothing will stop it. Read more

Thanks for the laugh...this has been a head banger. Should have just said "bring the destination closer." But then i'd get a different set of people arguing that we're really making light faster :) Read more

I think the idea here is that the light cones are warped along with everything else. I made the dire error of characterizing that as "speeding up light" and have been paying for it ever since with semantic arguments around whether traveling four light years in one year constitutes moving faster than light :) Read more

I concede the point. Read more

I am not confused. Seriously, I'm not. What you described right there is precisely, exactly, completely my understanding of this phenomenon. I said REPEATEDLY that at no time...AT NO TIME...does light locally speed up. Read more

I fully understand how it operates. I've gone over this quite extensively below, so I'll summarize my argument: Read more

I mentioned it because the speed of light is the boundary. At the boundary, the trip appears to take an instant. The boundary is not achievable, but you can get arbitrarily close to it. As you approach the speed of light, your perceived travel time approaches zero. It never reaches zero. I spoke of it for the same… Read more

I believe you because you said the same thing I did. I am very familiar with the theory of relativity.

I said you'd arrive "in an instant" if you were traveling at the speed of light. Not 99.99%. And yes, I know, nothing can be accelerated to the speed of light. It is the upper limit. As you approach the speed of… Read more

As a practical matter, going fast wouldn't screw things up too badly for short trips.

If we're colonizing proxima centauri and we send a ship out at near the speed of light along with a high powered communication beam sending updates from Earth, the experience of the travelers will be that only a short period of time… Read more

I have no idea. I just make the sandwiches around here. Read more

If the ship turns on its headlights, the beam arrives at the destination before the ship does. Regarding the beam leaving the bubble: If the bubble catches up to the beam, the beam will re-enter it and be carried along faster. If the bubble doesn't catch up to the beam, then the bubble isn't moving faster than light. Read more

I concede the point. Read more

The difference is that presumably in Starflight you can't be ordered to report for investigatory vivisection. Read more

It was thin, but still a good episode. I get it about someone within Starfleet bringing the case. As they say, you can indict a ham sandwich. Read more

Yeah, but just because the trial ended well doesn't mean it was valid. Read more

Yeah, who determined that was Star Fleet. It's not a philosophical determination. Read more

So, when they say that Lucas had the whole series figured out from the beginning, they mean except for plot, location, character and theme? Read more

A great book and a great movie, loosely connected by title, character names and location. Read more