Comments by "Digital Footballer" (@digitalfootballer9032) on "Science Time"
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It's all about thinking outside the box. If there are indeed certain limitations and unbreakable laws of physics that prevent us from travel away from earth of any significant distance, then ways to "bend" the rules need to be discovered. The Alcubierre drive is an example of this, though of course it is purely theoretical.
This is a very simplistic example when compared to space travel, but relevant in terms of making the impossible, possible through bending the rules. A Volkswagen beetle simply is not going to beat a Porsche GT3 in a quarter mile drag race, it is impossible assuming of course there are no modifications allowed, both vehicles are driven by skilled drivers, and both vehicles function properly and do not break down or crash. However, this was achieved when the rules were bent and the playing field was changed from 2 dimensions to 3. A beetle when dropped a quarter mile in the air from a helicopter will cover a quarter mile of vertical space quicker than a Porsche GT3 can cover a quarter mile of horizontal space under its own power. This was done by our friends at Top Gear. Again very simple, but completely changed the result when an extra dimension was added to the equation. Could the same be true in space if and/or when a higher dimension were to be discovered and possibly manipulated? A rocket powered ship is only going to go so fast, but if there were to be a "way around" through a higher spacial dimension could this be exploited?
What's impossible in one dimension is not only possible, but practical in a higher one. On a 2D plane you can only go back and forth and side to side...up and down is not only impossible, but can't even be conceptualized by an entity living within that 2D plane. What impossible movements might we discover in a 4th spacial dimension, or higher? Traveling to another star system might be like walking from your living room to your kitchen. We would never know if higher dimensions are not unlocked. The problem is unlocking them, can it be done, and do they even exist? Some scientists think so, but again it is purely theoretical.
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So in other words, will time dilate if such a method is used? It is believed that no, it would not, because by using such a method of travel (warping the plane of space, wormholes, etc) there would be no effect on time because you are not reaching relativistic speeds, you are simply taking a "shortcut" at slower speeds. Time is only effected when high speeds come into play, or you get into close proximity to a large gravitational force (e.g. a black hole). A wormhole or other "bend" in space is essentially like folding a piece of paper and coming out the other side instantaneously, you don't necessarily need to go fast to get there, you just drastically shorten the distance of the journey. It is theorized that we can produce man made wormholes, but the technology needed is well beyond our current capabilities.
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If climate change is actually anywhere near as big an issue as some believe (I don't believe this but that's beside the point), and whether or not it is man made or natural, I do not think it will completely wipe out all of humanity. Even large swings in global temperatures, as this is not unprecedented and other species have adapted and survived it, and we will as well. Yes, many will perish, be displaced, have a much tougher go of things, but it will not cause complete annihilation. If it is a direct cause of human activity, the very changes themselves will quell the activities causing the changes, therefore unlikely reaching a "runaway" scenario. We aren't going to see earth turn into Venus from human activity, such a scale would require large scale natural events.
As for the notion of being buried under our own waste, I actually used to ponder this idea myself. However, any kind of long lasting dangerous waste, such as radioactive waste with half lives in the millions or billions of years, is but a small drop, current estimates are that all nuclear waste ever produced in all facilities in the world would basically only fill a football pitch a few inches deep. It would take many millions of years for this to become a serious problem, which hopefully in that time we will come up with more efficient methods of energy production. As for other long term wastes like plastics and such, yes this is a big problem currently but again if we are to continue on as a species I believe we must and will find better alternatives and eliminate this problem before it gets out of hand.
While I don't doubt there are many problems we face that are potential species-enders, I don't believe any of them at this time are insurmountable issues. Even when this planet faced an ice age, a small number of humans survived and kept the species going, a very small number like 6,000, but enough to avoid extinction.
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