What's Stopping Us From Building a Warp Drive?

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A faster-than-light (FTL) warp drive would arguably represent the most important invention of all time. In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre gave all of us hope as he found a solution within general relativity that would cause the necessary warping of space. But after nearly 30 years of further study, what does our current understanding of physics say about the feasibility of a warp drive?
Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Thanks to Bobrick Martire for clarifications and to John Michael Godier and team for audio from their interview with Alcubierre ( • Can We Travel Faster T... ). Thumbnail image by Zamanday Yolculugunu (www.zamandayolculuk.com)
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THANK-YOU to D. Smith, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman, A. Phan Le, R. Lovely, M. Spoto, A. Steele, M. Varenka, K. Yarbrough, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, B. Pearson, S. Thayer, T. Edris, A. Harrison, B. Seeley, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, P. Muzyka, E. Loomans, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams & J. Sattler.
REFERENCES
► Alcubierre 1994, Class. Quant. Grav. 11, L73 arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0009013
► Everett 1996, Phys. Rev. D 53, 7365 journals.aps.org/prd/abstract...
► Krasnikov 1998, Phys. Rev. D 57, 4760 arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9511068
► Pfenning & Ford 1998, Phys. Rev. D 57, 3489 arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9710055
► Van Den Broeck 1999, Class. Quant. Grav. 16, 3973 arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9905084
► Bobrick & Martire 2021, Class. Quant. Grav. 38, 22 arxiv.org/abs/2102.06824
► Fell & Heisenberg 2021, Class. Quant. Grav. 38, 16 arxiv.org/abs/2104.06488
► Lentz 2021, Class. Quant. Grav. 38, 14 iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
► Santiago et al. 2022, Phys. Rev. D 105, 064038 arxiv.org/abs/2105.03079
► McMonigal et al. 2012, Phys. Rev. D 85, 064024 arxiv.org/abs/1202.5708
► Finazzi et al. 2009, Phys. Rev. D 79, 124017 arxiv.org/abs/0904.0141
► Coule 1998, Class. Quant. Grav. 15, 2523 iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
► Van Den Broeck 1999, arXiv arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9906050
► Gast 2021, Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-treks-warp-drive-leads-to-new-physics/
► Hawking 1992, Phys. Rev. D 46, 603 journals.aps.org/prd/abstract...
► Alcubierre & Lobo 2017, Wormholes, Warp Drives and Energy Conditions, Fundam. Theor. Phys. 189, 257 arxiv.org/abs/2103.05610
MUSIC
Licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (creativecommons.org/licenses/...) or with permission from the artist.
► 0:00 Sid Acharya - Searching for Answers
► 3:18 Falls - Life in Binary
► 5:01 Hill - There is but One Good [open.spotify.com/track/1vlxAs...]
► 9:49 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four
► 11:42 Falls - Ripley
► 14:00 Chris Zabriskie - We Were Never Meant to Live Here
► 17:06 Caleb Etheridge - Always Dreaming
► 18:52 Hill - The Promise of You [open.spotify.com/track/4VDKid...]
► 21:11 Joachim Heinrich - Y
► 23:34 Indive - Trace Correction
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
3:18 Energy
5:01 Exotica
8:26 Blinkist
9:49 Horizons
11:42 Radiation
14:00 Catch-22
17:06 Causality
21:11 Conclusions
23:24 Outro
#astrophysics #warpdrive #ftlfasterthanlight

Пікірлер: 3 700

@CoolWorldsLab 9 ай бұрын

Thank-you for watching and let me know whether you think a warp drive will ever happen? Thanks to Blinkist for sponsoring - Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: www.blinkist.com/coolworldslab

@parttimehuman 9 ай бұрын

If we were able to warp space-time to create a warp bubble around the ship, wouldn't it make sense to also warp the space inside the bubble to create a gravity well for the travelers? If you could mimic the exact distortion that Earth creates, then wouldn't time "tick" at the same rate as back home regardless of where you go?

@garymugford3273 9 ай бұрын

I don’t think so especially not after watching riddle channel about the pole shift 😮😂

@tonywells6990 9 ай бұрын

Not likely. It's just pure science fiction.

@parttimehuman 9 ай бұрын

@@tonywells6990 Certainly couldn't have occurred to me that that something so speculative might be squarely in the realm of science fiction and unlikely. Thanks. Very enlightening feedback.

@damienkilcannonvryce 9 ай бұрын

I won’t put much past human ingenuity. We went from stone tools to now in 2.6 million+-. The advancements we’ve made in the last 6-7,000 yrs has been exponential by comparison. Who knows what we will achieve! Thank you Dr. Kipping!!!

@jrfish007 9 ай бұрын

As an engineer, love engineering challenges. Usually I just say it’s a money problem, but plank length metal isn’t really a money problem lol.

@VeganSemihCyprus33 9 ай бұрын

This is the true story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

@joshwoodward2874 9 ай бұрын

Any sufficiently advanced tech seems impossible ❤

@jedaaa 9 ай бұрын

@@dienvidbriedis1184No it's an Engineering problem .

@jedaaa 9 ай бұрын

@@dienvidbriedis1184No it's an Engineering problem .

@benyseus6325 9 ай бұрын

@@jedaaa⁠it’s really more of a physics problem still, or a mathematical problem. There are so many physics related issues with warp drives like causality issues, whether or not the bubble is affected by time dilation, hawking radiation destroying the bubble, etc…..

@asialsky 7 ай бұрын

"The problem with space travel isn't reaching your destination: the problem is having the crew survive." --NASA engineers

@climbam6714 4 ай бұрын

Thats true but brother just simply send some robots to investigate

@larryvanbarriger6670 4 ай бұрын

Right, I agree NASA engineers are stupid

@arthurzettel6618 4 ай бұрын

@@climbam6714 With all due respect, Robots are not always the answer. Space is the new frontier to be explored by the representation of humanity.

@carlrood4457 3 ай бұрын

@@climbam6714 Outside of the solar system, without FTL travel and/or communication, there's really no point. The amount of time it would take to get to even the closest star, do the investigation, and transmit the data back would just be far too long. If anything goes wrong, we wouldn't even know until the data doesn't come back. Ultimately, the time factor is a big problem with any travel outside our solar system (and even inside for human travel). Think of all the missions before Apollo 11 that tested the various pieces required for a moon landing. There's simply no way to test equipment beyond a certain point and get the information you need to make necessary adjustments and changes. Think of Apollo 13. One small oversight and you're out billions of dollars and will never know what happened or why.

@sggsquadpresents 3 ай бұрын

@@climbam6714Today's robots are not able to adapt to new frontiers as fast as humans do.

@pickelkilla 3 ай бұрын

Okay guys, I’ll build it.

@phishtix452 22 күн бұрын

Sorry it took so much convincing

@kevray 8 күн бұрын

If these scientists can’t build it soon I might have to get involved

@Zapzipzoop16 8 күн бұрын

@@kevraysame. We can use red stone

@Schlepped_On 2 күн бұрын

Gracias

@bendover4952 Күн бұрын

Elon? Is that you?

@edwinwagha 6 ай бұрын

The fact that a group of people around the world are busy trying to solve some of the most complex problems available, problems that their solutions feel like they are hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of us, makes me feel hopeful for a greater future for our species. I might be wrong, but I am optimistic about things and ideas like this.

@wileycoyote9688 5 ай бұрын

same

@eithkobbsh1094 3 ай бұрын

Pipe dream

@freedomloverusa3030 3 ай бұрын

@@eithkobbsh1094 just like nuclear reactors to the Ancient Romans.

@o-wolf 2 ай бұрын

The fact that a group of so called intelligent people around the world are wasting considerable energy working on a dead end all because it scratches a wish fulfillment itch from their fav sci-fi TV show

@eithkobbsh1094 2 ай бұрын

@@freedomloverusa3030 And nuclear bombs ?? 🤔

@infiniterats3870 8 ай бұрын

Imagine you use the warp drive to jump to the nearest star. Once you got there you could look through an extremely powerful telescope and see yourself in the past because the light traveled slower than you did. I love this idea

@Zweite93 8 ай бұрын

Just like we see light from stars that are long gone, you would just see a light from your spaceship that is no longer there, like a light footprint.

@ikarikid 8 ай бұрын

I do believe the technical term for this is “The Picard Manoeuvre”

@jgunther3398 8 ай бұрын

imagine you travel AT the speed of light. already times and distances are zero, and all travel is instantaneous from your point of view. now what happens if you go faster than instantaneous? i think this drive is supposed to not be subject to relativistic effects though, what i understood anyway, which would be it's big benefit -- you could go far away and come back without being younger than your daughter...

@handlesarethelaststrawiquit 8 ай бұрын

people have been doing that in sci fi to look back and see the disaster or alien attack that happened yesterday since at least the 50's.

@jaaad344 8 ай бұрын

Just like if you theoretically sat at the event horizon of a black hole and looked to your left or right, you’d see yourself in the past.

@nicholashylton6857 9 ай бұрын

_"...merely engineering issues..."_ When I hear that remark about speculative technology, I frequently think they're saying in a roundabout way - _"...and then magic happens..."_ An excellent video! Clear and without the hype.

@zeph0shade 8 ай бұрын

"Any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic," in other words whether this in particular turns out to be possible or not, whatever does turn out to be possible eventually would have seem just as unlikely or even impossible to us now!

@metatechnologist 8 ай бұрын

Yea me too. Like that classic cartoon I see this video as a fun video. Edit written before Cool worlds acknowledges the "intellectual playground" at 22:00

@thefitgm335 8 ай бұрын

Basically what Isaac Newton did to some of the things he couldn't explain "God did this part"

@MrCmon113 8 ай бұрын

No, if it's an engineering issue that means it's possible. Honestly I don't see how something can be *physically* possible and yet impossible in some other way for a civilization.

@paulbutkovich6103 8 ай бұрын

@@MrCmon113 How does one manipulate matter on the Planck scale? And not just matter, matter that has to be neutron star level of dense.

@Jedbullet29 6 ай бұрын

We discussed this paper back when I was doing my Ph.D (it was new then). We came to the conclusion that although very interesting (and exciting), some fundamental problems existed with materials (now realised as the Planck length skin lol), energy requirements and we just couldn't get away from the paradoxes, and how quantum mechanics/gravity (if we ever get unification) would play into this. Looks like we've come a long way in understanding, but we young Ph.D students weren't too far off. Brilliant synopsis and Video. Thanks man. PS I'm now a blinkist customer, cheers lad, Dr D (aka Jed)

@CoolWorldsLab 6 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the endorsement!

@TheGecko213 3 ай бұрын

We need to become robots or cyborgs to ever venture out into deep space

@eddiethompson717 2 ай бұрын

@@TheGecko213 That or perfect animation stasis chambers. We need to study FROGS and other animals and bacteria that slows their metabolism when frozen.

@88997799 2 ай бұрын

The universe is full of all the energy we would ever need if we would stop fighting over insignificant amounts of resources here on this planet. Classified technology from area S4 that Bob Lazar told us it exists and it needs more minds working on it, then we will figure it out faster.

@TheGecko213 2 ай бұрын

@@eddiethompson717 No It is the biological carbon based body which prevents us from venturing into deep space . Breathing and blood is what the limits us . Cyborgs is the solution

@Exilum 7 ай бұрын

For causality, it does make sense to me that if the chances of you going back in time are null, you shouldn't cause any feedback. But on the other hand, even a low probability should go out of control. The FTL systems must be physically unable to make use of the bubble for time travel, because we can't count on humans and their intrusive thoughts.

@gravitascascade5798 8 ай бұрын

Despite all of the challenges, it's encouraging to see that this is not just a fantasy, but an actual branch of theoretical research

@java4653 6 ай бұрын

No, it's not. It's just an idea, already proven impossible.

@gravitascascade5798 6 ай бұрын

@@java4653 If you say so, internet stranger

@Karthik-pn2yj 6 ай бұрын

@java4653 what do we know We don't know how the universe works 100% So saying it's impossible forever is navie and ignorant It might be impossible forever , or possible one day

@Zqppy 6 ай бұрын

@java4653 so was a microwave at one point in time

@SquidwardQSagan 6 ай бұрын

@@Zqppymicrowave is a bit of a different scale than this proposition…

@smokyHR 8 ай бұрын

Mass relay stations from Mass Effect could be a solution for the horizon issue, that is a launch and catch stations. First trip would be a long one but a needed sacrifice for the ease of the rest. Kinda like a highway, you need years to build it, but hours to travel through it.

@SnW_Wolf 4 ай бұрын

I see you're a man of culture as well

@Dushess 2 ай бұрын

At least this is more believable method for all of this limitations. Gateway for distant travels and STL alcubierre drive to travel inside of the system.

@MyNameIsSalo 2 ай бұрын

the issue is that first trip, even if you're at 0.9999999c, is millions of earth years. By the time you make it to any meaningful distance, all life on earth is dead. We could do travel within our solar system, but not much else.

@chakuseki 2 ай бұрын

@@SnW_WolfYes, we will build anything to meet The Consort!

@SnW_Wolf 2 ай бұрын

@@chakusekimy man!

@lloydlopez8756 4 ай бұрын

"If we have budget as much as the military does, we would have colonized Mars 30 years ago "

@Kingrome777 2 күн бұрын

Think so🤔

@user-ru8sz4pf6x 6 ай бұрын

I could listen to both you and Brian Cox all day long. The two most soothing and informative voices in science. The ability to tell it all as a story is amazing. Awesome!

@juzoli 9 ай бұрын

I rarely see the Horizon problem the emphasis it deserves, and it is very well described here. This is THE ONE issue which is not just an engineering challenge, but makes it outright impossible. Basically we need another FTL communication method to be invented, but that is exactly what we tried to solve with warp drive in first place.

@MrCmon113 8 ай бұрын

If I understand this correctly it means you can only go between places that you've already visited.

@drdca8263 8 ай бұрын

What if whatever is creating the bubble (maybe an external not-moving-with-the-ship structure around a tube) just only has the bubble created for limited amount of time? Say... If any chosen geometry of spacetime in principle has a corresponding value for like, the masses and momenta etc., even if it isn’t like, something we can obtain a closed form solution for, what stops us from taking a geometry which has a warp bubble form at rest, and then gradually accelerate to FTL speeds, decelerate, and then un-form, and then solve (numerically, let’s say) for what matter fields would be necessary for that? Or, might one come up with answers like “the only matter field configuration that corresponds to this geometry, is one which violates conservation of mass , or momentum or energy or something” ?

@protoborg 8 ай бұрын

The Horizon problem is merely a fundamental misunderstanding of the physics involved. Humans will eventually overcome this and be able to join the rest of the universe.

@drdca8263 8 ай бұрын

@@protoborg What misunderstanding is that?

@juzoli 8 ай бұрын

@@protoborg Please elaborate. What is the misunderstanding and what is the correct understanding?

@simonmasbaum8399 9 ай бұрын

I'm tickled by the fact that warp field theory is becoming an actual field of physics.

@samuelfazers 8 ай бұрын

I my brother we are on the verge of this sort of understanding and knowledge hes so it's not gunna be in our life time I'm thinking what 40 50 years left of my life I wanna see what happens in the 20 years

@HarisKhan-zf8nk 8 ай бұрын

well it has to because this technology has already been reverse engineered from ET craft that crashed back in the 1940s. its sad we're only now catching up, so that's a century of progress lost.

@Brukner841 8 ай бұрын

@@HarisKhan-zf8nk oh come on, stop believing that crap. It's more likely it was humans, a breakaway civilization, the ufos seen in the 20th century look quite human made, bulkheads and windows and such. It is a huge psyop

@WokeandProud 8 ай бұрын

@@HarisKhan-zf8nkTake your meds that never happened lol.

@looke3392 8 ай бұрын

@@HarisKhan-zf8nk that never happened

@jonathondancisak320 4 ай бұрын

I really appreciate the honest assessment of where we are at with FTL space travel. Some of these KZfaq videos would have you believe that we'll be going on vacations half way across the galaxy next month. That said, I suspect that there is so much about creation we don't understand yet, that history will look back on this time as when we finally started asking the right questions.

@jeremiahdusenberry6635 3 ай бұрын

Best video on youtube I have seen concerning this topic, thanks for putting it together.

@mrtoastyman07 9 ай бұрын

Cool worlds and pbs space time are the only channels I re-watch videos multiple times. So information dense. Amazing as always.

@SergiuCosminViorel 9 ай бұрын

you re-watch it only because it is unsolvable 🤣

@jackmountain8503 9 ай бұрын

I'd add PBS eons for those into earths history and past biology🗺🌋🌅🦕🦖

@Shamanicus 9 ай бұрын

I also like to watch videos from Ash Arvin, he also has a very nice way to explain quantum physics. But like David says in this video: there are so many channels with this kind of information and more than 90% of those is bias, but mixed with real information, which makes it harder to distinct the facts from the fiction. Always stay critical and ask questions, do your own research and never take anything for granted! Like with David Kipper, I googled him, saw that he's an astronomer, an astrophysicist and a writer, which make the channel way more plausible. But even then, physicists also don't know everything, so still stay critical, always!

@garystewart3110 9 ай бұрын

Yeah Dr.O'Dowd is super cool. Plus he's an Ozzie (sorry can't remember his names spelling offhand)

@patbl61 9 ай бұрын

Anton Petrov is pretty good too.

@fwd79 9 ай бұрын

Despite all these *extremely* compelling arguments against _warp drive_ I am (somehow silly) convinced that humans, or some other intelligent being around the universe, will crack the code and break the faster than light speed barrier. We just need to keep at it.

@danadevoe7962 8 ай бұрын

The navy filed a patent already. I wonder why the scientific community is not attempting to build the tech outlined in it. Patent # US10144532B2. Skepticism is an impediment to progress if it prevents a person from looking at new ideas or testing them.

@mayravixx25 8 ай бұрын

Agreed. It may just be as simple as us as a species not being ready to make something like this yet. It's like trying to grow up too fast, while we think it'd be cool, it may just be that we have to wait for technology to evolve even more than it already has before something like this can be done

@spiritoffire7432 8 ай бұрын

I mean, we literally found out how to harness the power of sun to make electricity, we split the atom, we fucking launched atoms at each other and made new atoms that were once only theoretical. There's a quote I like to go back to whenever there are discussions on human progress: "(Light speed travel) is hard, but we're good at doing hard things."

@devi1sdoz3n 8 ай бұрын

The nature of the Universe is why FTL is a problem. Relativity is one of the most tested theories in human history, with, and this is important, many real-life applications that wouldn't work if relativity didn't work (like GPS). So we know it's right, or such a good approximation that it's right for all intents and purposes. The problem FTL is trying to solve is not speed (speed of light is fast enough for anybody - from his point of view, an observer traveling at c arrives to his destination *instantaneously*, you can't ask for faster than that). What it's trying to do is bring back absolute space and time, which we *know* isn't true, othervwise relativity wouldn't work. Time dilation is a bitch. Why try to bring back sbsolute space and time? Because we'd like not ony to travel really really fast, but we'd like everybody else to see us travel as fast as we percieve it, which ain't happening. Let's say you travel to a star 10000ly away at the speed of light. Again, it's instantaneous for you, really cool. But for an observer on the Earth, it takes you 10000 years for the trip. If you decide to come back, it's again instantaneous for you. But for the Earth observer, it took you another 10000 years. So you return from your basically instantaneous round trip, and find out that 20000 years passed on the Earth. Sucks. This is what the problem is, and what most FTL in sci-fi tries to wave away. And it doesn't matter what type of FTL it is (warp, hyperdrive, wormholes, you name it), you can skip the metod entirely, just the fact that your are traveling at or near c will bring out the same result. The only way to avoid this is to have absolute space and time, which we *know* isn't true. Bummer.

@jasonreed7522 8 ай бұрын

@@devi1sdoz3nplease keep in mind that science never settles. General relativity has cracks, the most notable being the incompatibility with quantum mechanics. So far the only field of physics that can actually claim to be perfect is electromagnetism & Maxwell's Equations. As long as humans have the power to dream we will be trying to reach the stars within a human life time, and ideally get home to tell someone we knew before leaving. This is the real goal of the exploration into a hypothetical warpdrive. Its not the warp drive itself, its what it represents, the ability to explore the cosmos in person within a human lifespan and still being able to visit your family without time dialation meaning you're having Christmas Dinner with your brother's great x20 grand kids. So long as humans can dream we will try to achieve them. For the longest time human flight was considered impossible, and then within 100 years we went from the first flight ever, a whopping 14 seconds, to landing on the F-ing Moon. I don't know how long it will take, but humanity will crack fast interstellar travel before the sun explodes killing us all. And we may even get sentimental enough to reverse entropy, or atleast find a way to jump universes. Modern physics is known to be incomplete, the dream isn't impossible, just currently out of reach.

@dumbsterphire 7 ай бұрын

Just an interesting idea I've always had about the alcuberre drive. What if we didn't create the bubble but rather found a way to ride naturally occurring gravitational waves?

@N3onDr1v3 7 ай бұрын

That sounds cool as hell

@ianharrison5758 4 ай бұрын

I wonder if there’s potential for meta materials that could be used create a sail that can be pushed by gravitational waves. Just like light, gravitational waves carry energy, and we can already use light to push things so it could definitely be possible to do the same thing with gravitational waves. The biggest issue would be making a material that can interact with gravitational waves in the ways needed to use them for fuel. How do we isolate a ripple in space time while in said space time. We don’t have an outside perspective to see the wave like we would on a pond from a bridge or on the ocean from a boat. We have to use extremely precise instruments to even detect them. If we can get around the difficulty of interacting with them I think gravity surfing could definitely be a thing

@Fightre_Flighte 4 ай бұрын

@ianharrison5758 I had a similar thought the other day, but instead of gravity surfing it was hawking radiation surfing. Which is arguably more detectable.

@ianharrison5758 4 ай бұрын

@@Fightre_Flighte elaborate that sounds super interesting

@Fightre_Flighte 4 ай бұрын

@@ianharrison5758 Well, we know hawking radiation exists, which is basically like a ripple in spacetime IIRC, and it usually comes out of black holes, but oddly extreme distances away... We've been able to see the stuff, so we could find some going in directions we need, so if we found ways to surf it, we could use it for near Lightspeed travel.

@alanthompson5639 4 ай бұрын

Wow, that was a fascinating look into FTL flight, and the obvious barriers in achieving that goal. My question relates to the movie Event Horizon, in which they built a ship that could generate the energy of an artificial black hole, and use that power to bend / fold space. So in theory the ship never needs to fly at extreme speed, and basically just jumps through the fabric of space to an alternate location. Obviously, we would never be able to harness the power of a black hole without killing ourselves in the process, but I loved the idea of how they did it in that movie. I am sure that caused a few physicist to argue the possibilities of that method over trying to build a FTL ship.

@tiihonhaukanmaki3874 2 ай бұрын

That is a very common topic in sci-fi. They do the exact same thing in Star Wars, Interstallar, etc. And never say never about anything technology related. Humans have always done that throughout history and always get laughed at in the future

@turgeo2004 Ай бұрын

yea but they jumped into hell in that movie, so maybe not a good idea to jump unless you can control where you go lol.

@synthplayer1563 28 күн бұрын

That's simply magic.

@rJaune 9 ай бұрын

I wonder if the people at LIGO or the Pulsar Timing Array have figured out what a warp signature would look like. That would be a really neat way to learn we aren't alone in the Universe.

@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082 9 ай бұрын

would be funny if we could detect warp signatures of other species not having a warp drive ourselves) that's like reverse ST: First contact

@richardsrichards2984 8 ай бұрын

No it cant..at least this concept However accelerating an object through space beyond light speed would produce a boom in spacetime just like breaking the sound barrier does. Also remember it was theorized nothing would break the sound barrier so dont go screaming at me about causality. We are like infants in science yet we think we can define absolute rules for the universe.

@anthonynicholson5523 8 ай бұрын

The warp drive is fun to think about but this kind of travel is achievable by , and only by, superposition drives.

@jameswashington4704 8 ай бұрын

Brother, if uou have seen the news lately, it should be obvious that we are not alone

@JetJockey87 8 ай бұрын

Maybe that's what dark energy is?

@AlexanderTzalumen 8 ай бұрын

Everyone focuses on the possibility of FTL, but i think the most immediate potential is in the form of a sub-light **reactionless** engine. No longer would we depend on accelerating and ejecting propellant, or need to slow down after long distance travel. I appreciate you touching on that feature.

@chrissyjay100 4 ай бұрын

You sound like you'd be up for some hardcore engineering.

@AlexanderTzalumen 4 ай бұрын

@@chrissyjay100 I don't know if you'd call it hardcore, I'm just an embedded software engineer.

@10054 3 ай бұрын

This already exists! Look up magnetohydrodynamic engines.

@cedriceric9730 2 ай бұрын

The two are not different like at all😂 Give me a reactionless drive and I will give you a warpdrive , no kidding The reactionless drive ( which I believe is fact) will open up the physics and applications just like electricity and lightning. A warpdrive would be a relatively meagre application

@AlexanderTzalumen 2 ай бұрын

@@cedriceric9730 it all depends on how much power is needed for a given effective speed

@BisexualPlagueDoctor 7 ай бұрын

The most important thing is making a barrier to prevent matter from hitting the craft, as the level of perfection needed in the shape, and the amount of damage an impact with a single particle may do, means we need a way to violently push stuff to the side before we touch it, probably by an extremely strong electromagnetic field

@r.p5380 4 ай бұрын

That’s why ships in Star Trek generate their own deflection field to deflect dust and matter I think using a much weaker Alcubierre drive

@Danielk8586 9 ай бұрын

"I remember reading these papers as a teenager" I'm happy that people like you exist

@stevencoardvenice 9 ай бұрын

I know right

@exocosm-worldbuilding 8 ай бұрын

You typically start university at 18 in the UK and special relativity is likely taught in the first year of a physics course with general relativity following at a later point. There are many teenagers studying relativity.

@stevencoardvenice 8 ай бұрын

@@exocosm-worldbuilding I have no math skills and I learned the relativity equations in my 11th grade physics class. It's just algebra. That's an ENTIRELY different matter from reading scientific papers about theoretical physics. You're strawmanning the issue by reducing the alcubierre papers and their progeny to high school relativity Its like reducing the Manhattan project to E = mc2. Stop being a pedant. Teenagers DO NOT normally read theoretical physics papers. And you know this very well. Just stop

@exocosm-worldbuilding 8 ай бұрын

@@stevencoardvenice I’m not talking about high school. I’m talking about 1st (and 2nd) year university students studying physics. Reading physics papers is common within that group of teenagers at every university, even if only as part of the coursework. Sure, it’s a small proportion of the total population and it doesn’t mean everyone fully understands everything but it’s perhaps more common than you realise. There were about 120 of us in the year when I was a physics student for example and we certainly discussed such things over a pint in the pub. I’m not trying to downplay the statement, just give it context.

@clarenceorozco5300 8 ай бұрын

@@exocosm-worldbuildingDid you respond to the wrong person?

@JoraulStreams 9 ай бұрын

The best days are Cool Worlds days, especially physics heavy/faster-than-light style videos! We love ya Prof Kipping!

@VeganSemihCyprus33 9 ай бұрын

This is the true story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

@DCcopter 5 ай бұрын

@@VeganSemihCyprus33 no one cares

@mikecasey3055 3 ай бұрын

I absolutely love your videos because there practical within physics, you must have a whole team helping you out with these videos.

@camb06 4 ай бұрын

The concept introduced of having a slower-than-light warp drive, but slowing down the passage of time inside the bubble is actually extremely interesting! A drive like that would invoke a “time-debt” system of interstellar travel, since the passengers wouldn’t experience the same time-passage as outside observers. Very interesting .

@960456 4 ай бұрын

Isn't that more or less how slipspace works in Halo?

@camb06 4 ай бұрын

@@960456 I’m woefully bereft of lore and mechanics of the Halo franchise. I’ve played a handful of them but never got into them very much (until Red Vs Blue).

@adammanneh4692 9 ай бұрын

Always a good day when Cool Worlds drop a new video! Thanks professor kipping. :)

@VeganSemihCyprus33 9 ай бұрын

This is the true story of your enslavement, the "elite" exposed 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

@leatherelf2078 8 ай бұрын

I will always advocate for the first practical design of a warp drive to be called the Roddenberry Drive. Not because he first thought of the concept but because of how he popularized it.

@MuzixMaker 8 ай бұрын

His ghost would want a royalty.

@jflow5601 5 ай бұрын

No. Alcubierre would deserve the credit.

@Valkbg 4 ай бұрын

Alcubierre drive is oe of my favourite things in science. Not only because of its potential possibility but how scientists discuss the idea and its surrounding problems. It explores the limits of our understanding and capabilities. It may never be possible but it does show us our limits and how we may break them.

@Markty07 7 ай бұрын

Well, when you travel near speed of light, doesn't the time seem to slow down and you arrive to your destination near instantly (from traveller point of view) ? Could we use warp bubbles as projectile shield for such sunlightspeed travel ?

@xsto01 8 ай бұрын

I love the idea of warp gates. Its like a railroad track through the Universe. once its there it pretty much builds itself. minor some Celestial Mechanics problems but ey its a thought.

@kw2519 5 ай бұрын

Think about explaining a microchip to someone from 100 years ago. This shit could happen in our lifetime

@jgkitarel 9 ай бұрын

I have always seen it as we are starting to develop the _math_ for FTL. The tech and material requirements, as well as not outright violating the laws of physics as they exist (which is vastly beyond what we currently know) is an engineering problem. Though it is one where we may never be able to practically solve, but it is a problem that has a theoretical solution. And a practical solution will always require a theoretical solution to exist. You put out six issues that have to be dealt with, though those aren't the extent of it. I would place causality as the top issue, as if we cannot solve that, then any solutions to the rest of the issues is moot even if we have solved them.

@devi1sdoz3n 8 ай бұрын

You can't solve the causality problem, that(s the problem, it's like trying to solve 2+2=5 (in a base 10 system, just to head off at the pass trick answers).

@lanteanboy 8 ай бұрын

@@devi1sdoz3n and how do you know the causality problem might not be solved in the future? I agree, it is very unlikely it'll ever be solved, but absolute 0% is an impossibility in the universe. But yeah, for all we know, our understanding of General Relativity is ever so slightly wrong.... or the laws of physics might change for a reason or another. Odds are though that humanity will be gone if it's the latter and it ends up happening....

@devi1sdoz3n 8 ай бұрын

@@lanteanboy I mean if you propose that the laws f physics may change, there isn't anything I can say then, beacuse that could make anything possible.

@yapflipthegrunt4687 4 ай бұрын

@@devi1sdoz3n first of all, stop going around to every comment being a downer second, what's to say we don't just like... speed up time when we get there? fuckin idk, figure it out

@tomasjggjgg 2 ай бұрын

Great content. Entretaining yet ideas are presented with proper research. Thank you.

@andrewparker318 7 ай бұрын

Do these same problems apply to wormholes as well? Could you do a video on that?

@LineOfThy 5 ай бұрын

yep. all FTL travel has problems.

@frede1905 5 ай бұрын

The problems of weak energy condition violation (ie. that it requires negative energy) and causality violation certainly also apply to traversable wormholes.

@jaystarr6571 2 ай бұрын

We need to harness some of the energy of a double spiral galaxy. Know anything about that?

@natgrant1364 9 ай бұрын

I would think that at the very least the act of trying to find a solution to superluminal travel is getting physicist to look at things in greater detail and ask "what if" kinds of questions. I honestly think that we will someday, eventually find more solutions to subluminal space flight at relativistic speeds but who knows when. Like you said, looking at ideas for warp drive might help with a more conventional approach.

@SlickDangler10 9 ай бұрын

If we haven't already ...

@matfax 9 ай бұрын

We don't really have to travel superluminally. It's sufficient to stretch time. I don't think that this would be sufficient to reverse the directionality of time. Furthermore, I don't think there's a paradoxon with regards to causality and reversed time. The paradoxon is resolved by applying the theory of many worlds. Every reverse would put the traveling matter into a new branch, a new universe. So there's no problem "going back" and eliminating your own causality because your own causality remains unchallenged in the old universe that got entangled through this single point of time travel. Every additional time travel would open up additional branches.

@LineOfThy 5 ай бұрын

@@matfax issue is now you're entering the land of theorycraft.

@harrybarrow6222 9 ай бұрын

One thing that has always bothered me about very high speed drives (not necessarily FTL) is what happens if you impact a particle of dust at such speeds. Moreover, any object moving through space sweeps out a volume and will encounter all the dust and fundamental particles in that volume.

@Connection-Lost 8 ай бұрын

The older I get, the more I realize it was sci-fi the whole time, and it's not something you just magically "get" for existing long enough. I don't think we're ever going to other stars.

@ThatFoolishBoy 8 ай бұрын

For a warp drive the field would accumulate the material encountered in the field perimeter in some models. Other models I’ve seen suggested move the material around the bubble like a ships bow. Both have some math to suggest the conclusions others are not so distinct.

@OfficiallyUnofficialAlCooper 8 ай бұрын

The book series The Expanse and the television series about part of the books provides some excellent, real-world illustrations of what bullets and rail gun projectiles would do in space to a ship impacted by those projectiles, so small dust particles impacting at speeds closer and closer to c aka the speed of light are definitely a big engineering and science problem.

@ivobrick7401 8 ай бұрын

That's why you don't want to move even at high fractions of light speed in any system, keep it for when you're out of star system, your's, other's. Doesn't matter. I like expanse too, but i believe you can help that problem with geometry of warp bubble.

@monkeysk8er33 8 ай бұрын

When traveling at such speeds, it ceases being a problem. Dust would be incinerated, but at FTL, you'd be in a different dimension entirely, dodging all matter. Star Wars basically got it right.

@CounterRyu 6 ай бұрын

In order to ride the waves of space, we need a board that can ride along the vacuum of space. Harnessing the momentum that the vacuum of space generates. It’s possible that the vacuum of space does have waves, maybe they’re gravitational waves. Maybe it’s something totally different. Just as the ocean is relatively calm in areas, and hurricane like in other areas. Space might have very turbulent areas that can be used to travel through space faster. This might explain why some stars seem to move faster away than others. We need a spaceship that doesn’t just shoot out fuel and energy to propel it forward, we need a spaceship that can use the frabic of space as the propellant itself. Just as a boat pushes water to move it forward, we need a spaceship that can push the fabric of space in order to really see fast space travel. What can move the fabric of space itself? Some kind of fourth dimensional propeller that can move the vacuum of space as if it were water 🤔 maybe

@dinocr6783 3 ай бұрын

Love the point about the 'Grandfather paradox'. Actually, I'm curious if this really is still a paradox given todays modern understanding of QM. Since every possible outcome that can occur does and creates separate time lines at each of those possibilities, going back in time would introduce a new event creating a new time line. At the time of your return or even the point Space time dimples prior to your arrival would generate a different time line because it never happened before. This would preserve the original time line thus your existence.

@Soupy_loopy 9 ай бұрын

Gotta love it. Scientists say it's an engineering challenge, but when an engineer finally builds one, the Scientists will take credit for the discovery

@jedaaa 9 ай бұрын

Well the engineer won't be able to build one until scientist find or create the hypothetical forms of matter needed to supply enough energy to power it .

@joefish6091 8 ай бұрын

They cannot describe what they want to build. the technical construction details are irrelevant and fantasy.

@killman369547 8 ай бұрын

Well, the scientists build the prototype, then the engineer perfects it.

@Soupy_loopy 8 ай бұрын

@joefish6091 it's like Stan Lee saying, " I had an idea that super heros could were their underpants on the inside, like normal people. And that's how I created Ironman!"

@barodrinksbeer7484 8 ай бұрын

There is a literal lack of disconnect from reality with these engineers. Imagine a game of asteroids, but in three dimensions. However instead of shooting asteroids you have to deal with particles smaller then sand. That are usually not impeded by objects of larger mass, but are now being pulled into your spaceship at extreme speeds. While you are also traveling at equal extreme speeds, under extreme conditions, along a fixed path, with no actual control of anything around you. Only an engineer would enjoy playing this garbage simulation of asteroids.

@SmartassEyebrows 9 ай бұрын

Using warp drives at sublight speeds close to C is another very interesting use case that alleviates most of these problems, and allows nearby interstellar travel without time dilation. Be interesting to have you examine it deeply from that angle.

@ontheruntonowhere 9 ай бұрын

I think sublight warp would still induce time dilation, just no possibility of reverse time travel.

@charlescook5542 9 ай бұрын

But it is still a catch 22, you need 3 stars worth of energy. You would already need interstellar infrastructure and logistics to engineer one but how would you achieve that without warpdrive? Guess we are too unlucky to be in a single star system.

@ontheruntonowhere 9 ай бұрын

@@charlescook5542 I don't think being in a multi-star system would help us either.

@clevelandsavage 9 ай бұрын

@charlescook5542 That could easily be an issue of the energy being applied incorrectly. The exact mechanism of what limits objects to the speed of light under natural conditions is still a very much a mystery.

@robo5013 9 ай бұрын

@@charlescook5542 And that is 3 stars worth of energy to turn it on. How much more energy is required to keep it running and for how long?

@KEWords 5 ай бұрын

The video you want for your highway to solve the Horizon Problem (11:00) would be from the video game Mass Effect.. you sort of described the funtion of the Mass Effect Relay system that allows ships to jump around the Galaxy.

@AaronKelley1969 3 ай бұрын

Paradox goes away if, by traveling through time we instead create alternate timelines. This theory states that you are unable to change the past, but instead create a new future for another you. I've heard this referred to as the multiverse theory and I understand that our current knowledge of physics suggests this is probable.

@lorddoinkus9912 9 ай бұрын

Well my day just got 1000x better. Thank you Dr. Kipping and of course to the cool worlds team.