Advanced Propulsion Systems with Dr. Sonny White

[@merky6004]

I recall reading a Popular Mechanics (or Science) article explaining how the Sound Barrier would never be crossed by a vehicle. It was from the 1930s.

[@andyf4292]

theres one from the 1930s going on about how these new-fangled aircraft carriers would be easy meat for battleships....

[@merky6004]

@@andyf4292 A story from my father, the aviation fan. An early demonstration of bombing ship from the air was…supposed to bomb. The gathered brass fully expected to laugh at pilots bombing some ol’ to-be-scrapped ships. Their expectations were the ships to still be floating and strong afterwards. The ships were ripped apart/ sunk by a few planes. The story it was pretty quiet in the stands then.

[@frun]

Yes, there is a similarity. But in this case the 'vehicle' is the sound itself, afaik (quasiparticles).

[@peteclegg1578]

The sound barrier wasn't inextricably tied to causality.

[@housetheunstoppablessed4846]

@@peteclegg1578 For the last time, Warp Drives do not violate causality as they do not literally travel faster than light. Effective FTL and Literal FTL are two different things.

[@LordZordid]

We need more people like Dr. White to groom the next generation. He seemed so enthusiastic and engaged. And you get a feeling of sincerity and honesty from every spoken word.

[@THIS---GUY]

I agree with you but the phrase to groom has been tainted 😅

[@TheGamingMotionTGM]

​@@THIS---GUYJust like the phrase Xe which was Xenon on the periodic table is now an alternative gender pronoun, and also CP as either Central Park on NY or Command Post if you like to play Star Wars Battlefront 2 (original version). Wish one could go back to those simpler times before both gets altered.

[@JurisKankalis]

Amazing interview - Fraiser is not only able to talk (have watched plenty of news videos etc on the channel) - but also listen. Well done. Will be back for more. Greetings from the glorious country of Latvia.

[@celestromel]

Brilliance! A real window on possibility grabbed with both hands - wonderful to hear about how an unfettered mind works.

[@pi1392]

You had me at 'Advanced Propulsion Systems'. I really loved this interview and Dr Sonny White is amazing. ❤️

[@neck_acrobatics]

Great interview, thank you for all the hard work Fraser & Co. (and for the captions!).

[@garyswift9347]

another great show Fraser. Thanks also to Dr. White.

[@DigDougDig]

Hello Fraser, Excellent interview. Retired Engineer here. We can do it! Hopefully soon! Maybe next week! Should have been this week.

[@infinitumneo840]

This one of the most fascinating discussion in terms of space exploration in the future. Basic science is much needed in order to reach future goals considering the daunting vast distances. I'm encouraged by many of the recent paper that have greatly enhanced our understanding of the Alcubierre drive with Allen Everett's warp bubble. We are building a foundation for future technologies have extended our vision. There much to learn in this area.

[@kayakMike1000]

Really really hope we can get something together for at least decently relativistic speeds. Even if we slow crawl through the galaxy... It would be super cool

[@alexv259]

Thanks to youtube I am so glad to be introduced to this great channel. So much interesting things to learn!👌

[@MrAluntus]

Fraser - great interview. Love the fact that you do this. Thank you!

[@bardigan1]

Fantastic episode. Many thanks, Frasier and Dr. White.

[@jasonalpha]

Great interview. Fascinating

[@BrokenSoul79x]

The Expanse is the _absolute best_ science fiction show out there, the attention to detail and realism, and adherance to the actual science/laws of physics shine through at almost every turn.. Puts EVERY other sci-fi show/movie to _total shame_.

[@ViktorFerenczi]

11:00 If you pull your ear the audio drops out. Wow, I did not know about that feature of VoIP software. :)

[@pavlosjoller4324]

Brilliant really good entertaining listen

[@melantorja]

That was super dope, thanks

[@DanBennett]

Excellent show! Its really nice to listen to the reality of FTL travel vs more practical slower methods.

[@housetheunstoppablessed4846]

Dr. White did not say it was impossible. Only incredibly difficult.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

48:53 in chat Edward Kasimir THANK YOU for saying that mathematics is a field of knowledge!

[@johnaweiss]

1:00:46 Launch by turn of century? Or arrive by turn of century?

[@mikeday5776]

Great interview 👍

[@Christoph1888]

Chapters would be nice. Great vid. Thanks.

[@seditt5146]

For those believing we will never have Negative mass I would like to point you towards Phys. Rev. B 97, 134516 (2018) by Alberto Nicolis. He found that 1watt per second produces about 0.1mg of gravitational mass. I can't remember if its this paper or another( if so I will provide the citation in near future) In the proper standing wave configurations further analysis has shown that the sound waves can be configured to behave as Negative Mass. I wish I could give more knowledge on the subject but I have more study to do. Just figured I would share as I personally felt Negative mass was never happening now we see it might entirely be possible and if not with sound waves I suspect gravitational waves in similar configurations would be exactly what we need to produce such a drive. Interesting times indeed.

[@virutech32]

we can make sonic analogs of black holes, but being able to make an anaolg says nothing about being able to make the real thing

[@seditt5146]

@@virutech32 Have you read the paper? Its not a sonic analog of a blackhole. Its literally demonstrating that sonic waves carry gravitational mass and are capable of demonstrating Negative mass under the influence of external gravitational fields. My quip about gravitational waves was to not that while we can not produce sonic waves in a vacuum similar configurations of gravitational waves are likely to produce Negative mass effects as well, Likely of a much higher order. The paper basically demonstrates capabilities of producing -0.1grams/Watt. Actual Negative Mass unless I am seriously missing something. I still have yet to find the other citation which goes into this phenomenon and its something I myself have been experimenting with and researching for the last couple years now.

[@seditt5146]

@@virutech32 I get it if ya don't want to read the whole paper, Its a bit of a tough read and dry but at the very least its worth a glance as you will notice some interesting notes.

[@marvinmauldin4361]

What we need is a warp drive that works as in scifi, where the same amount of time passes at home as for you, so that you can come home again and not find that your twin is geriatric or the continents have drifted unrecognizably.

[@frasercain]

That would be great.

[@Lythp]

Do we have an update to this interview to see what has changed

[@marvinmauldin4361]

Futurists aren't always wrong. I've seen a cartoon from the 1920s showing a flapper sitting at an outdoor table of a restaurant, talking on a phone with a flat screen color video and a clumsy antenna that could be folded up to be portable. Not bad for a cell phone 50 years before they were invented, especially with the big color video screen.

[@alexb2082]

I wish you would have asked about how they think they can avoid obstacles and interstellar medium wearing away the spacecraft going at these speeds. Alcubierre drives seen to have a possibility to collect enormous amounts of matter at the front end as it's basically a gravity well if i understand correctly. What happens to that matter when the drive turns off?

[@frasercain]

I think it pulls anything inside the field with it, and then drops it off again at the destination. It's not actually moving through space at high speed.

[@yumazster]

I knew that the cathedral analogy was in the offing before it was made. We need more of people playing the long game if we are to prosper or survive. Great interview!

[@bibliophile2707]

Fascinating from a new subscriber!

[@danielfoster2788]

Does Sonny utilize permittivity and permeability for warp drives? Does Sonny invite permutivity cross reference comprehensiveness for warp drives?

[@roderickbeck8859]

Fraser does a great job.

[@seditt5146]

This is one of the best talks in a while TY Fraser. He not only covered an extremely interesting topic but also some deep philosophical concepts without pushing some social or political narrative which I appreciate. PS: Anyone have any knowledge on these grants he is discussing? Do they have anything setup for Citizen Scientist? Just curious because I have been studying effects of Faraday waves in fluids and their effects on/in materials for sometime now however all experiments use basically salvaged equipment and materials. Even a couple grand to purchase proper transducers and measurement devices could go a long way. Wouldn't be able to really promise much as I couldn't claim I fully know what I am doing however I do completely intend to hopefully publish it all one day. Would love if there was more things setup for curious people to largely just "goof off" with because people doing just that have largely built the entire foundations of our current knowledgebase of physics as a whole.

[@psycronizer]

lol yeah but those people who you claim are goofing off actually DID know what they were doing, in any case, I highly doubt you'll get any one wanting to throw cash at something that frivolous and with no scientific aim. You need to treat things properly: Preamble-Aim-Method-Data-Results-Conclusion-references. a basic traditional scientific structure, otherwise you are wasting your time, although, it's yours to waste, just not other peoples money lol...

[@seditt5146]

​@@psycronizer Sounds like you are grossly focused on misunderstanding the use of the word "Goofing" to be honest. I am not suggesting throw money at people to do whatever with at all. I am suggesting there are tons of "unqualified"( IE: No background and connections with Academia) people more than capable of performing proper scientific experiments despite not having a piece of paper and connections. Especially now that we live in a time where if someone wishes to be self taught they can accomplish as much as collage education could with ease. Hobbyist have a drive and interest in a subject likely well above students per-capita. As an example, while I am not 100% sure I don't believe Fraser has ever had proper education in this field however in my opinion he is more than worthy were he to decide he needed funding to test a hypothesis he might have. I also regularly coach young students myself who are getting their degrees in programming, as well as collage graduates, and help them with various problems they may run into yet I am 100% self taught from dozens of books and thousands, if not tens of thousands of websites for learning coding. In a similar fashion I have taught myself organic chemistry, some mathematics( the devil lol), physics and various other scientific topics. Polymaths who do it for the love of Science are the ones who make the greatest discoveries. Throughout all of this and despite Science being my passion in life( potentially compulsive disorder) I have had little to no drive to pursue an academic path. I never studied to prove superiority over another and I only do it because its what I love and what calms my mind and soul. These are the types of people you want to throw money at and who will genuinely discover big breakthroughs, not someone doing an experiment because its good for the cooperate backers.

[@psycronizer]

@@seditt5146 While you enthusiasm is commendable surely you don't think that some backyard scientist is going to actually be "the one" to make some stupendous discovery that opens the way to some new "warp drive" or new field of physics. Here's what's going to happen regarding propulsion. Thrusters like VASMR ion drives etc. will be the only game in town for sustained efficient long range travel, until fusion tokamaks utilizing REBCO come along, and then those get used as the core for a NERVA like rocket to provide all the thrust you could ever want. Any new kind of sci fi like warp drives or other fantastical drive, if they ever happen, won't be a reality for a very, very long time. We might have the standard model of particle physics but our ideas on gravity are screwed, so developing anything in that vein is a long way off, MOND is probably closer to the truth in my opinion but I certainly do not subscribe to pointless research into crap that uses exotic matter etc. when we don't even have a T.O.E. we will be similar to "The Belt" rather than "Star Trek" for quite some time..and there's nothing wrong with that. I do not think anything worth while will come from anyone's garage, not at this level

[@seditt5146]

@@psycronizer If they were funded even half as much I indeed to believe they are the ones who would make those discoveries so sorry I think we have reached a fundamental level of disagreement that is unlikely to be rectified. Citizen Scientist are more than capable of laying groundwork for successful experiments and grants are given out for them all of the time. I am not sure if you are unaware of this or disagree with it entirely and clearing that up would help me understand where your stand a bit better.

[@psycronizer]

@@seditt5146 oh lol, I will gladly explain my position ! In the past 300 years or so, many intelligent men, as you know of equal intellect to those of today (just missing the mountain of knowledge we have, discovered in steps) teased out the mathematical underpinnings of the natural world around them, Volta, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein to name a few. They all did it with keen minds and very limited physical interaction with the world to prove their ideas, due to the limitations of the day. Here's the key part, all of the forces and little oddities of nature that required a mathematical proof to show we understand them , have already been done ! From Maxwell's field equations to Einstein's theory of special relativity, all of it is done, there isn't a single thing that happens on this earth that cannot be demonstrated by what we know.. In a rough sense, it was all the low hanging fruit, and it has been picked off by smart men using observation, imagination, and math, and it is DONE. Any physicist will tell you that. There is nothing left to find there. This is why around the 1940's and 50's when they knew that they had cracked as much as they could they needed atom smashers to see what spills out of atoms when you hammer them hard enough, with high energy kinetic energy, know any back yard scientist's who just happened to build a cyclotron, synchrocyclotron, storage ring, linear accelerator ? no neither do I. QCD is successful and could never have been arrived at by a backyard experimenter. The same was true for the Higgs, although even higher, much bigger machines were needed for that. So that's the mass explained, and gravity being even weaker has required stupendous machines to glean something. Laser interferometers, LIGO, your back yard boys built one of those ? didn't think so. Our current theory of Newtonian gravity isn't cutting it, sure, it works down here, on this pathetically small scale, but it doesn't work out there, MOND might be the answer, anything to get people to junk dark matter, as it's a joke. We have gravity wrong, there are far too many problems with it on the macro scale. The instruments needed to test new ideas to figure out what it is that we don't yet get about gravity will probably be space born, and large, and the level of education behind building and understanding these new tools, just like all the previous ones, won't be back yard stuff, and it is naïve to think it will.

[@danielfoster2788]

Has Sonny precluded antigravity (so called electro propulsion) before warp drive? Isn’t an electro-gravity Propulsion Drive preclusive? Can Sonny speak to us on that ?

[@danielfoster2788]

How might we equate time dilation utilizing a warp drive? Do we get younger FTL or older? What might we do to regulate time aboard such a warp craft ?

[@danielfoster2788]

How does processional thrusting of scalar gyroscopic energy commit within Sonny’s warp designs?

[@danielfoster2788]

Does Sonny have any ideas about how distortion sound square waves accelerate electro warp propulsion for lesser resistance within stand alone circuitry?

[@silberlinie]

All well and good, Dr. Sonny White. But what about faster then light Information Transmission?

[@henrikellanna2104]

how would one steer a warp bubble space ship to avoid colliding with big objects? is there a way to change course at 10C to avoid objects inside the bubble?

[@mushroommcfarmer1766]

This is covered in the discussion, Henrik. 😑

[@michaelwilliams2593]

I propose "A-Drive" as a slang term for Alcubuerre Drive. Apologies for the misspelling

[@wiktorm9858]

Dear Fraser, maybe you can make a video about tyranny of time? Usually, ppl focus on tyranny of distance, but time is more important in my opinion. Regards!

[@gravityalchemist6599]

I need help perfecting my Gyral Motor. It could be the next propulsion motor till we can manipulate time-space😃 and use vacuum technology

[@TomBall-r4d]

I always wonder what FLT would result in. Surely we are not only traveling faster than light, we are travelling faster than TIME. where (or when) would we arrive?

[@StefenTower]

If a FTL drive is ever developed, a good first use would be non-human travel, i.e. probes. For instance, we could send a probe to Alpha Centauri. The craft would be programmed to collect scientific data for a while and then travel back to Earth's vicinity, where we could then download the data. It would be a great way to experiment with these drives without considering human safety or comfort, and thus having to build huge craft. The only thing we would have to protect is electronic equipment.

[@peteclegg1578]

Violates causality and not physically possible.

[@Robert-Theodore81]

@@peteclegg1578 🤦‍♂️

[@kylegoldston]

Contemporary fighter jets are probably capable of ~1.5-2.5g of horizontal acceleration. They are Certainly able to generate 1-1.5g of vertical acceleration as seen in public air shows as are Helicopters. They have an atmosphere to push against and support themselves. A Fission rocket ought to be able to produce 1G up to ~.25-.5 C which is plenty fast to get all the jobs done. We just need to learn how to build these things on the Moon. 1/3 - 1/2G would allow lunar takeoff and might be enough to extend our survival in space. We need to get a lot more experimental in space and maybe even slow down on science to make that happen. We can't just grasp at straws forever!

[@mrbaab5932]

We have not been to the lunar surface in like 45 years and returning is eating up much of the Nasa budget.

[@danielfoster2788]

I appreciate Sonny White. I could never get a degree at warp propulsion when I attempted to grow up. Best to us :) I am not a college degree but drop out. How does Sonny rectify Tesla’s ether with dark matter?

[@Lightillusionsstudios]

How about the Princeton satellite systems liner fusion drive with 40 newton of thrust and 30,000 kilowatts of electricity ?

[@pedrosura]

The Drake equation answers the very uninteresting question “how Many civilizations are there in this Galaxy utilizing Earth hommo sapiens 50s technology??”

[@andrewclimo5709]

I'm glad that we have people focused on the critical path issue: Propulsion. It seems that major funders have been very easily side tracked into (highly interesting) but ultimately side issues, like industrialisation of transport infrastructure, or medical space science. Important issues, yes, but it ain't getting the baby's bottom washed as my granny used to say. Delta V, energy, time. The rest is chicken soup.

[@danielfoster2788]

Does Sonny hold any comprehensive views for redaction of the FCC regulations considering warp drive promulgation?

[@petersvancarek]

I don't really know what the equations suggest, but I can't help but thinking about warp drive as of method of make yourself "flying by pulling your hair up." Because you generate expanded space behind and shrunken space in front of ship... How could the ship move toward that shrunken space if it is generated by the ship itself? There was article about microscopic warp bubble generated in cavity during testing of the casimir effect some time ago. Yes it was static. Even if it could reduce the effective mass and inertia of something inside such bubble, I think it is improbable that any engine would do anything good... any reactive form of propulsion works with matter... and that matter would have reduced mass and inertia as well.

[@jonathancardy9941]

A couple of predictions. 1 a major company will commercially release a vehicle with "warp drive" in the next decade. 2 when motoring journalists review it they will pay more attention to the range and the legroom in the back seat than the top speed. 3 the record for highest speed recorded on a speeding ticket will be broken again. 4 It won't be much use off road, let alone in space.

[@SamtheIrishexan]

Thorium salt reactors. Until we can get enough neutron star stuff to make our mass large enough to bend space time. Over at Cool Worlds he came up with an ingenious idea of firing a laser into a black hole so that it loops back around and powers the ship. Then you could theoretically hitch a ride.

[@SamtheIrishexan]

I may have said that poorly the laser anchors the spacecraft.

[@bryanl1984]

You still have to make a black hole first. Firing Tungsten telephone poles at near C into each other from multiple directions using nukes _may_ be possible with advanced enough computation but, it's a hard task, to grossly understate. Once you have one you can do Kugel-Blitz drives and other interesting things but, starting with the premise that you have a micro-black hole is kind of a leap. You might as well start with "low speed" Warp Drive as an assumption.

[@gravelpit5680]

great talk

[@richardmarkham8369]

Did Dr White actually say Nuclear Fusion was only 10 years away? Think I've heard that before somewhere... Great video though!

[@kwcnasa]

Resume @38:00

[@Dadecorban]

When the first warp drive/Q-thruster stuff first came out...most outlets that weren't going overboard on "NASA invents warp drive" were trying to paint this guy as a fringe garage scientist who didn't really work for NASA.

[@sureshbaliyan7567]

Can wait to see the new star travel after 20 years!

[@PaulHigginbothamSr]

I think cosmic jets from black holes produce an answer to us small humans. Studying incidents of "sucker holes", in Thunder storms from the Caribbean and missing time, or fewer hours of flight time show high energy Thunder storms show us how to warp spacetime without Jupiter size masses. High energy space/time warpage from thunderstorms shows us an answer if we can catch it.

[@mrbaab5932]

Only if it was repeatable.

[@cordialreason254]

In college I couldn't get my mind off the Bose Einstein Condensate. Still curious if the possibility of an atomic entity with strenuously abundant mass and inverse effects on the superfluid electromagnetic properties. Hypothetical nerdy thought I know, but could provide quantum physics some desirable studies. I'm still selling myself on the creation of the fusion generator. Guessing might be the key to producing this so called exotic stuff.

[@cordialreason254]

Imagine one day being able to create and harness the power of the sun like a horse on the front of a chariot.

[@danielfoster2788]

I remember the “Mercurochrome Man” at Nyak New York. My first woman love from there introduced us. He flailed an 1919-23? ( I don’t remember) he was a nice beggar with a time experiment gone wrong story :) I love the antiquities of that seemingly Colonial Town. I more love the people I met there dead and or alive. Tell me what have you to render for someone who has been ostracized by such a community who perhaps might invite a team of warp drive experimenters?

[@silberlinie]

I am convinced that we will not get anywhere as long as we cling to the traditional concept of propulsion. As long as you stick to the old, outdated terminology, your thoughts and ideas will remain stuck in the old ways. Coin a new term. Get rid of the toxic term propulsion. Then the new unbound ideas will bubble up in abundance. Because: Nomen est Omen, remember ...

[@olliverklozov2789]

Guest: ...not sure if your audience will understand... Fraser: oh they do Audience: 🙂

[@zapfanzapfan]

Nuclear electric would be a good start so that getting to the outer solar system doesn't take a decade. Light weight 100kWe reactor would be a game changer and it would be very useful on the Moon or Mars too. Get on it, someone! :-)

[@mrbaab5932]

Lol. Warp drive to the moon. How about warp drive to go shopping on the other side of town.

[@chadwickwood9843]

There will eventually be a business case for mining and manufacturing off earth.

[@virutech32]

eventually...decades from now

[@DexLuther]

Um. 2064 was never mentioned. That's when Zefram Cochean invents the warp drive and catches the attention of the Vulcans, who propel us 400 years into the future technologically. That is, of course, assuming we are on a timeline that John Titor "fixed" by time-traveling from the year 2038.

[@MsDriftedSW]

theres actually a "hide self-view" option on zoom (right-click onto the own video)

[@mathman1475]

I think the number one problem is still energy because you can’t have any form of propulsion without energy.

[@deltalima6703]

Oh yes I can

[@Innovate22]

Time stamps would help.

[@stanleykomonce8302]

WHAT IF YOU SENT FUEL AHEAD AND SENT FUEL AHEAD OF THAT FUEL WHAT WOULD THAT COST

[@frasercain]

It's a great idea and has been considered. You could send fusion pellets in a chain ahead of your spacecraft, and pick them up as you go.

[@stanleykomonce8302]

WELL IF YOU DID SEND ANY KIND OF FUEL AHEAD ... THE FIRST ONE WOULD HAVE TO BE GOING THE FASTEST ....THEN EACH ONE SLOWER ON DOWN THE LINE....I THINK THATS WHY THE NEVER CONCIDER DOING IT ..... BUT WHAT ABOUT THE IDEA OF SCOOPING UP HYDROGEN AS THEY MOVE ALONG ... IM SURE A NUCLEAR REACTER AND A ONE KILOMETER ELECTRIFIED Apparatus IN THE FRONT HANDLE THE JOB @@frasercain

[@everettputerbaugh3996]

Slide rule: the original pocket computer. It gave us the bomb and verified the math that took us to the moon. Now to figure out how to combine matter and antimatter and harness all of the resulting release of energy to power... I won't hold my breath until 2168.

[@johnaweiss]

1:10:21 Why assume that? Maybe we're just the first one. Maybe we're in the lead.

[@frun]

Action of a Warp drive reminds me of how a quantum particle propels itself in the de Broglie's double solution theory - "stop and go locomotion of walking droplets". kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWOuk3yaqp2pd9Um50s In a moving vortex ring there are areas of low and high pressure in similarity to contracting and expanding space in relativity. I'm curious if quantum particles are warping their way thru space.

[@frun]

🤭

[@isaackitone]

And at that speed, what happens when your spacecraft collides with a particle the size of a grain of sand?

[@jedi4049]

Game over

[@waspsandwich6548]

Would you even collide with anything at all? You're not actually going faster than C, you're just warping space around you, so wouldn't it just collide with the warp bubble?

[@mrbaab5932]

@@waspsandwich6548 The bubble is based on empty space. Matter will disrupt the bubble.

[@kennethrichards3143]

What if you could amplify mass

[@fleezy1579]

Electricity around a craft controllably is the key to negative mass.

[@martinwilliams9866]

I heard that Harold White had already made a nano-warp bubble, not just a possibility, which is it?

[@hawkbartril3016]

Location location is very important in space to tho. We could gather hydo-carbons, methane mainly from Titan and store it close to Earth. That would open the door to wherever. Sorting the feasibility to this is unfortunately above my pay schedule

[@cykkm]

ca. 44:00, Dr. White makes a very poignant comparison with Strasbourg Cathedral. FWIW, it was commissioned by Count Werner Habsburg, Bishop of Strasbourg at the time-the man from a rich family of rising influence. He convinced the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich II (of the House of Otto-the Habsburgs wouldn't be on throne for another 400 years) to chip in, but that was all to its funding. NASA is great, but inevitably politically volatile. The JWST was nearly canceled-twice!-with the final cost of just a few $B spread over nearly 20 years, which is about “misc. petty cash expenses” at the size of the USA economy if it were a corporation. At the same time the Senate Launch System proceeded, at mere $2.4B a launch-the capacity that should have been handled by the private sector. We have had rare element shortage for decades. Tantalum the first one coming to mind-one of the contributor to the COVID electronics supply crisis. And no, it's not likely that the tantalum capacitor will be replaced across the board any time soon: “crippling tantalum caps shortage” has been a phrase since mid-1990, and the unicorn invention that would replace it has not arrived in the 30 years since, despite a huge, get very rich very fast, R&D incentive. And I'm not even talking a Maecenas here: 1000 ton of raw _16 Psyche_ material a year is past break-even if only for its platinum and iridium content, although it's not the goal: these are by far not the most strategically important elements extractable from it. This is not enough w.r.t. rare elements, but partially concentrating metals _in situ_ via good old induction melt could pay the cost a hundred-fold. And iridium is an excellent material for a reentry vehicle, as long as no one cares about the extra g and possible melting of the vehicle content, and essentially free in this role, as it's also part of payload.

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

I think matter and antimatter do not repel each other. They're both made of positive energy. I think they have normal gravitational attraction. Let's assume we have one hydrogen atom and one antihydrogen. The antihydrogen's shell would contain one positron, and the hydrogen one electron. Normal matter would repel other normal matter, but at short distance would be attracted because of the electron and positron attracting each other, annihilating, after which the nuclei would attract and annihilate. Although antimatter mathematically travels backwards in time, entropy increases for antimatter in the same direction of time as for matter. If the antimatter were made of negative energy, it would literally be travelling backwards in time with reversed entropy (true backwards). As this would seem impossible (let's assume it is) this could be the reason we use virtual particles in QM as virtual antiparticles CAN have negative energy. But they cannot actually exist in our reality. This reasoning also supports that negative energy particles are always the ones to be swallowed by a black hole, while the positive energy counterpart is ejected into real space as hawking radiation.

[@frasercain]

We actually still don't know if they repel each other. There have been a few experiments done and the results have been inconclusive. It would be really interesting if they did.

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

@@frasercain Yes I know that we don't know, that is why I was hypothesizing ;)

[@marvinmauldin4361]

When the first hydrogen fusion bomb was set off in 1952, we were going to have unlimited power from hydrogen fusion in 20 years. In 1972 we were going to have unlimited power from hydrogen fusion in 20 years. In 1992...there seems to be a pattern here...

[@danielfoster2788]

Has Sonny understood that a simple ON/OFF mechanism for such a warp drive is extremely more damaging than any nuclear weapon?

[@marco8696]

The warp drive is only theorical but impossible in real life with our tecnology level!

[@705johnnyboy]

where did the energy come from to create the big bang and what is the universe expanding into ....

[@virutech32]

for the first question we have no idea but the second is a misunderstanding of what cosmic inflation is. The cosmos isn't expanding into anything. Space itself is expanding. Kinda like if you have a graph. Making the the boxes or graduations bigger makes the available space bigger but it isn't expanding into anything. Pretty hard to get ur head around but then again a lot of physics & cosmology is like that.

[@Enkaptaton]

Was this an invitation to send you warp drive depictions? As an medicine student, I get sent pictures of nail fungus from people I really do not know well on a friendship level. I would like to change this for warp drive descriptions

[@peterpalumbo1963]

I remember the X Prize.. Mabey we need another one.

[@SteveWindsurf]

It could be that modern physics, in all its increasing complexity represents just one possible solution to link our understanding to observation. Our solution is promising but perhaps ends in infinite complexity rather than an elegant theory of everything. It could be that some philosophical thought, not corrupted by the current physics, will discover other ways to interpret what it is we see, hear, feel and experience. Maybe human senses, born from local physics is the limiting factor. I imagine given a blank slate, a huge AI asked to come up with a theory of everything, would come to completely different solution, e.g. if it visualizes our universe in higher dimensional space. Unfortunately we would probably not understand the result.

[@isitme1234]

There is a mathematical problem with reaching the speed of light within our universe. The spacecraft could not function at that moment. So one of the only possible things would be creating a "space" within our universe which is not conected WITH the universe itself. As crazy as it sounds it is the only possible solution. The spaceship could not slow down after reaching the speed of light because there is no computing space for the computers to function. No one solved that problem yet...

[@kylegoldston]

Has anyone ever studied the reactor from a Fast Attack Submarine as an interplanetary power source? How about a low mass low shielding reactor, liquid metal? How about a reactor that is self consuming for reaction mass and pukes itself out through the nozzle?

[@TomBall-r4d]

Mike Wells why would the clocks go backwards? As I often ask "what is the past?" Is it what the present used to be? Really? We don't know what the future is. We only ever live in the present.

[@TomBall-r4d]

Jaskooner Singh I don't have the maths but causality seems slightly odd to me. With no universal time how do we know that say a photon has left the sun before it arrives on the earth?

[@deltalima6703]

Noethers time-energy conservation.

[@lupevelez5723]

@1:10:02 Where's my people at?

[@webbyweb6657]

Could an MHD drive be used near the sun's Corona, to propel a spacecraft to a significant portion of the speed of light? Assume that the heat problem from being so close to the sun has been solved, that it is an unmanned spacecraft and can accelerate to thousands of gee forces, and that all you have to do is attract and repel magnetic fields near the sun's surface.

[@mrbaab5932]

You really think thousands of G's won't brake metals and plastics?

[@deepblack67]

The short cut in physics is what we do not currently understand.

[@JJs_playground]

We have until 2063 until we get warp drive, let's "make it so".

[@henrikellanna2104]

i also like the prime directive, where we dont interfere with civilization until they make warp

[@sarcasmo57]

Make rocket go now!

[@ElektroKinetik]

Absolutely brilliant last question from Fraser. If alien civilizations existed wouldn’t they have already developed warp drives?? But we’re not seeing any visit us? Why?? Either they’re not sufficiently advanced to create warp drives or warp propulsion is not possible

[@mnrvaprjct]

or we’re in a zoo of sorts - which is likely considering

[@mrbaab5932]

Or we are so backwards we are not worth their time.

[@housetheunstoppablessed4846]

We're not worth their time. Warp is possible, but its foolish to think we'd be worth the hassle in our current stage.

[@Greg_Chase]

I think the challenge for a population of people who have mastered artificial gravity propulsion is - well put it this way - an analogy: 1) there is a zoo in a nearby town 2) the orangutans and chimpanzees got hold of firearms and are extremely territorial How many tickets would be sold to zoo visitors? Probably zero. Humanity, right now: 1) is extremely territorial - lots of disparate groups 2) the disparate groups are heavily armed This could well be the reason for lack of visitors. .

[@PhysicsNative]

The LSI website has no new grant notices since 2020, and no information on what was awarded that year and progress, though in the interview such grants were mentioned as ongoing. Is LSI just a PR nonprofit org or have they actually accomplished some milestones toward advanced propulsion technology? The guest mentioned commercial confinement fusion with “high temp” superconducting magnets, but does he realize this won’t be practical for APP with the size and lack of scalability? Jump to less credible concepts such as warp drives with exotic matter-energy and we are left with an impression that there are no solid practical ideas replacing chemical rockets or providing near-term options beyond Mars. That shouldn’t be the case, we need all able minds on this.

[@frasercain]

They're brand new and fairly well funded, but I haven't dug into the specific funding rounds they've handed out. I asked Sonny to let me know the next time the release a new round so we can investigate the various projects.

[@FloPm3ister]

How would sports betting work with faster than light travel? We warp to planet betazed, play a football game, then warp back to earth. A person watching on tv on earth wouldn’t know the results for decades. But the athlete might live and die before the light from the game reaches earth.

[@neilruedlinger4851]

In the interests of accuracy, I feel obligated to point out for future reference, Dr. Miguel Alcubierre's family/surname is of Spanish origin, *not* French, thus the final 'e' is pronounced in the Spanish language; the correct pronunciation is Al-cooh-beer-eh. Here is a Spanish language video for the correct pronunciation of Dr. M. Alcubierre's surname or family name, by a native Spanish speaker, from time index 2;14: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKrRd2OMfNOmiZY

[@frasercain]

That's really interesting, thanks a lot. I live in Canada so we see a lot of French names and learn to pronounce them that way.