What's Stopping Us From Building a Warp Drive?

[@CoolWorldsLab]

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]

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]

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

[@tonywells6990]

Not likely. It's just pure science fiction.

[@parttimehuman]

@@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]

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]

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]

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

[@joshwoodward333]

Any sufficiently advanced tech seems impossible ❤

[@jedaaa]

​@@dienvidbriedis1184No it's an Engineering problem .

[@jedaaa]

​@@dienvidbriedis1184No it's an Engineering problem .

[@benyseus6325]

@@jedaaa​​⁠it’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…..

[@infiniterats3870]

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]

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]

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

[@jgunther3398]

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]

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]

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.

[@asialsky]

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

[@climbam6714]

Thats true but brother just simply send some robots to investigate

[@larryvanbarriger6670]

Right, I agree NASA engineers are stupid

[@arthurzettel6618]

​@@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]

@@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]

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

[@pickelkilla]

Okay guys, I’ll build it.

[@phishtix452]

Sorry it took so much convincing

[@kevray]

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

[@ubergoober25]

@@kevraysame. We can use red stone

[@Schlepped_On]

Gracias

[@bendover4952]

Elon? Is that you?

[@nicholashylton6857]

_"...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]

"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]

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]

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

[@MrCmon113]

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]

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

[@edwinwagha]

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]

same

[@eithkobbsh1094]

Pipe dream

[@freedomloverusa3030]

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

[@o-wolf]

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]

@@freedomloverusa3030 And nuclear bombs ?? 🤔

[@juzoli]

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]

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

[@drdca8263]

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]

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]

@@protoborg What misunderstanding is that?

[@juzoli]

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

[@gothfalcon]

The original Star Trek series refers to it as "Time Warp" factors. The way they were supposed to work was to create basically two bubbles so that outside of the outer bubble was normal space, then inside the inner bubble was normal space, but between the two bubbles, time moved very quickly so that the speed you were traveling was set in the space between the bubbles so that it was multiplied to being faster than light. Star Trek warp speed is time travel. Star Wars hyperspace is moving into an alternate reality similar to our own that is affected by matter and gravity in our universe. That's why Han was able to make a trip faster than anyone else in the expanded universe lore. He knew a path through a region with a lot of black holes that required precise travel and even dropping out of hyperspace to safely navigate

[@paulgibbons2320]

They always require fictional materials that can alter or modify space time. Any research in this field is a hiding to nothing until we are in possession of such materials. It's good to dream. But science used to be about observable reality.

[@repealthepatriotact]

So....Han was traveling through black holes....the objects that violently reduce matter to subatomic particles?? Yeah....that doesn't make George Lucas seem very bright.....

[@kingclimby772]

​@@repealthepatriotact He was dodging around them, not flying through them.

[@repealthepatriotact]

@@kingclimby772 LMAO. Dodging around them? WTF does that even mean? Do you have any concept whatsoever on how speed of light travel and black holes work?

[@smokyHR]

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]

I see you're a man of culture as well

[@Dushess]

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]

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]

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

[@SnW_Wolf]

@@chakusekimy man!

[@fwd79]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

​@@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.

[@rJaune]

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]

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]

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]

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

[@jameswashington4704]

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

[@JetJockey87]

Maybe that's what dark energy is?

[@zjaeriqsanders1731]

8:13 Erik Lentz stated on his blog that they came to a consensus and that Santiago’s rebuttal (at least of his paper) was based on false assumptions about how Lentz did his calculations and they now agree that his findings are valid. His paper also brings the mass/energy requirements down to about 1/10th of a solar mass and in a talk he gave about his paper he said smaller warp bubbles would require less energy (in his original paper his calculations were for a 100m radius warp bubble) His paper essentially solves the first two hurdles mentioned single-handedly. Also I’m not sure where the idea that you have to encapsulate the warp field within a shell comes from, I’ve never heard of that and it doesn’t make any sense to me why that would be necessary but I’m not a physicist

[@mrtoastyman07]

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

[@SergiuCosminViorel]

you re-watch it only because it is unsolvable 🤣

[@jackmountain8503]

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

[@Random_user_8472]

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!

[@fn0rd-f5o]

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

[@patbl61]

Anton Petrov is pretty good too.

[@Jedbullet29]

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]

Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the endorsement!

[@TheGecko213]

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

[@eddiethompson717]

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

[@88997799]

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]

@@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

[@gravitascascade5798]

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]

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

[@gravitascascade5798]

@@java4653 If you say so, internet stranger

[@Karthik-pn2yj]

​@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]

​@java4653 so was a microwave at one point in time

[@SquidwardQSagan]

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

[@CalamitousJonathan]

When flying at warp speed we stepped outside of the spaceship onto the iceball that formed around our ship and gazed out on the universe surrounding us. Bending around us. I took all of the crew out to look at space bend around us. We all broke down and cried at the beauty. Then we cried again after dreaming about it.

[@trumtrum5510]

yeah thats what i woulda did

[@AlexanderTzalumen]

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]

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

[@AlexanderTzalumen]

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

[@10054]

This already exists! Look up magnetohydrodynamic engines.

[@cedriceric9730]

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]

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

[@jgkitarel]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

@@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

[@Exilum]

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.

[@ChristianIce]

The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible

[@natgrant1364]

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]

If we haven't already ...

[@matfax]

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]

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

[@simonmasbaum8399]

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

[@samuelfazers]

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

[@WTI00]

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]

@@WTI00 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]

​@@WTI00Take your meds that never happened lol.

[@looke3392]

@@WTI00 that never happened

[@Danielk8586]

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

[@stevencoardvenice]

I know right

[@exocosm-worldbuilding]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

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

[@jeremiahdusenberry6635]

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

[@camb06]

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]

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

[@camb06]

@@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).

[@DanielAppleton-lr9eq]

The system would be like the interstellar travel in " Firefly ", so it seems.

[@Icetea-2000]

Isn‘t that already how time dilation works? That’s nothing new, you could achieve the same with sublight speeds from the perspective of the traveler

[@93nGU1n]

people on Earth don't experience the same passage of time as people on the ISS... It's not a perceptible difference but it's a measurable difference.

[@nadalpushnof]

Dr. Kipping, I wish to express my utmost and sincere appreciation for your inspirational and awe-inspiring videos. Your content has had a profound impact on my educational journey. Recently, I have delved deeper into physics-based content, and I'm pleased to share that I have gained a conceptual and practical understanding of several complex topics mentioned in your videos. Please keep posting more content- it means so much to me and to others. Thank you!

[@JackSarfatti]

That's because you are not a high-level theoretical physicist and are easily fooled.

[@Strapp1]

@@JackSarfattiwhat?

[@prototropo]

Well-expressed. (Ignore the numbskull who said otherwise) Yes, David Kipping, with estimable contributions by his post-docs and lab workers, etc, are churning out incredibly impressive video "essays," I like to call them, with research, writing and production values that clearly dazzle legions of science-literate non-scientists, and even fellow astro-physicists, which is a compliment he earns easily. Years ago, after I first saw "Watching The End of the World," I think my jaw actually fell slack, and I stared ahead unawares, until I regained my space-time composure. I started binge-Kipping, and arranged monthly deductions of support for the first time ever outside NPR! Even from my dinky capacity it feels purposeful, because someone like David Kipping could gather enough momentum to change the world! Upon realizing that, of course, I sent everyone I like a playlist, including "Journey To The End of The Universe," "Why We Might Be Surrounded by Older Alien Civilizations" and "Why We Might Be Alone in the Universe." In other words, the most apocalyptic science-art-documentary ever has given my life deeper meaning than I hoped was possible. So I feel reassured by your parallel admiration!

[@fureniku]

Causality: the grandfather paradox breaks physics; or disproves free will. Simplify the concept, instead of a grandfather we'll go with something much more measurable. Put two coins heads-up on a table. One person observes these coins continuously for 10 minutes while the other leaves the room. The other then returns, and uses whatever time travel device to go back 10 minutes, and flip one of the coins, then comes back to their present. What does that observer in the present see while the other person travels? With the grandfather paradox, the key assumption is there is one single linear timeline; so anything you go and change in the past, impacts the present you came from. Considering that, the coin should be flipped for the observer and now be tails up. But the key question is what did that observer SEE? before the traveller left, both coins were still heads up. The observer isn't travelling back so they don't witness the traveller arrive to flip the coin, which means if the past has changed the present then the coin must have been mysteriously flipped by an invisible force. But an object at rest tends to remain at rest, so where did this force come from? The only way the universe could rectify it is to basically gaslight the observer into thinking the coin was always tails up, effectively altering their memory and perception of the events, but that goes against the concept of us having free will because it implies everything is already decided. So that to me makes the grandfather paradox impossible. As this video went on to say, the only way around it on a single linear timeline is a feedback loop to prevent the action taking place, probably very destructively. Or, with other methods of time travel, a multiversal style approach would resolve the problem by effectively creating a new timeline due to your change - but that doesn't line up with this FTL-style time travel. I'm no physicist so I may well have missed something fundamental but I've had this theory for a while, and any time I've posted it so far no ones jumped out with an obvious issue. If someone smarter than me knows something please do speak out! I'm really interested in this stuff.

[@JZsBFF]

I watched a video in which one explained that (when traveling back in time), trying to change something changes one's timeline and makes one ends up in a parallel universe, safeguarding the integrity of events. (Many worlds interpretation of quantum physics)

[@adammanneh4692]

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

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

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

[@harrybarrow6222]

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]

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.

[@Oldtricksmadenew]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[@JoraulStreams]

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

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

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

[@DCcopter]

@@VeganSemihCyprus33 no one cares

[@projectgg6730]

These videos are helping me write the story for my Sci fi video game so much...

[@Suzukkk]

I really hope it’s made in unreal engine so the graphics are at least pretty

[@projectgg6730]

@@Suzukkk it is. But I'm no artist. That comes later 😅

[@WebNovel-t1n]

What's U name it? ​@@projectgg6730

[@lorddoinkus9912]

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

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

What's Stopping Us From Building a Warp Drive?

[@UnchartedWorlds]

@@LavaCreeperPeople Us is stopping Us!

[@Greenhead24]

…”you complete me”

[@ricardoabh3242]

He mentioned 6 fundamental… What are the others?

[@googleuser202]

Better lol how does a slightly better understanding of how impossible SLT is make your day

[@danielcreepercristo9864]

I really liked the way you assessed these fundamental problems to the creation of a practical Warp drive. However, I can think of a 7th essential obstacle that no one here seems to talk about: How are we going to protect ourselves from the Daemons?

[@ArtificialDjDAGX]

doomguy :)

[@danielcreepercristo9864]

@@ArtificialDjDAGX*Daemons* , not just regular demons. I was making a Warhammer 40000 reference.

[@ArtificialDjDAGX]

@@danielcreepercristo9864 I know, but considering the fact that doomguy becomes basically a conceptual anti-demonic entity in the remakes by Bethesda, I was wagering that he'd do pretty well against even WH40K daemons.

[@danielcreepercristo9864]

@@ArtificialDjDAGX Oh ok, I can agree on that part.

[@Quil897]

That's why this isn't the only problem. We need to find a way to train navigators as well

[@Demon-d9i8j]

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!

[@DanielAppleton-lr9eq]

This would be a true breakthrough, BUT we should stop relying on chemical propulsion.

[@PersimmonHurmo]

I love how a single article on the possibility of a warp drive has spurred an entire field of study and discussion on warp drives.

[@risenarchangel-t2l]

The interesting thing is that Von Braun had an idea about warp drive. His idea was to use thorium reactors and magnetic fields, according to his theory depending on the strength of the magnetic field the more space you can fold.

[@eithkobbsh1094]

Fold space.... Bwahaha

[@YunoRiv]

@@eithkobbsh1094 you realize that's a thing right?

[@eithkobbsh1094]

@@YunoRiv Any evidence of us doing this, "thing".

[@YunoRiv]

@@eithkobbsh1094 humans havent yet but the concept itself exists. for example gravity

[@eithkobbsh1094]

@@YunoRiv Gravity isn't a concept, it's a reality.

[@davidwalker6353]

One paper I would suggest is a good read on a positive energy density solution is "Positive Energy Density for the Alcubierre Warp Field Equations Using an RF-Driven Dielectric Resonant Cavity" by Chance M. Glenn. He makes the warp drive more like a practical engineering problem

[@xsto01]

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]

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

[@ChaseCasimiro]

@@kw2519i agree!

[@haircafekevin]

I don't think a warp drive is practically possible.. What we need to do to achieve interstellar travel is reach a relatively high fraction of the speed of light. If we could even reach 7 percent the speed of light then we could reach some of the closer stars in a human lifetime. If we can get to 20-30-50 or more percent the speed of light then it would be kind of like having a warp drive because the time dilation would make the journey seem much shorter for the passengers. The energy for such technology is possible with nuclear fusion and nuclear pulse propulsion technology. We just need political capital for it. If the James Webb telescope could discover a relatively close by habitable planet then there would be much greater demand for interstellar flight.

[@TheInternetFreak]

there are humans on the earth like planet at our neighbouring star...

[@Soupy_loopy]

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]

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]

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

[@killman369547]

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

[@Soupy_loopy]

@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]

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.

[@lloydlopez8756]

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

[@Keepitpushnn]

Think so🤔

[@StuJones-gn7te]

No global magnetic field makes that less desirable. Not sure we can fix that. No protection from much of the solar radiation.

[@aurorapaisley7453]

The reason why we even had the Apollo missions was because of the space race against the Soviets. You want interplanetary colonization? Garner public interest with a competitor or something. When people landed on Luna, humanity is like "Meh, guess we can land people on moon now" that lack of enthusiasm slows us down from continuing that moon base to reach everything else

[@StuJones-gn7te]

I don't think the govt will (or can) invent warp drive. If it was just a matter of collecting materials and funding, then govt could do it. This was how they were able to build the atomic bomb. But with warp drive, we only have hypotheses. No theories at all. In fact, all accepted theories basically say its impossible. My guess is, if its actually built, it will be built by a crackpot billionaire inventor at his own expense. And to be honest, I wouldn't want the govt to invent it. I have a couple ideas about how it might be done. Whether or not they can work depends on how much spatial distortion is required to create the so called "warp field."

[@stop-533]

@RichardHandler-vq6vlNot even…what lead you to this conclusion???

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Always great to see a new video from the best channel on KZbin - thank you Professor Kipping for all you do!

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

hi verified

[@hugoperez8265]

The universe does it, we can do it. Humans utilize the phenomena of the universe in everything in our life, we just have to keep experimenting and researching.

[@jasonjacoby]

My guess is that shielding a ship from the effects of time frame dragging will be way easier and also have a similar effect, except you wouldn't be charting a course, you would be in some kind of freaky temporal freefall. If you could change the way time passes inside a ship, it could move very slowly and yet for the passenger the trip would seem stupidly fast. No, I think that if we ever get some kind of magical negative mass material, we would be better off using it to stabilize artificial wormholes, and then we could just travel preposterous distances with regular crap spaceships.

[@aesma2522]

If the travel is slow, then do we really need that travel ? For example, would we buy stuff made on the other side of the world if it took 10 years to get delivered ? I think humanity needs and will send ark like ships to other worlds, but without faster ways to travel, we will just have seeded these worlds with humans, it won't create a unified multi-world civilization.

[@chuckkimber2773]

If alien life elsewhere had solved these problems, what should we be looking for out there to spot them using it? Small energy bursts indicating one dropping out of bubble? Could we see them pushing particles streaking across the sky as they moved and bounced off the edges of the bubble? What else?

[@huxleybennett4732]

I mean the problem is that since we don't know the solutions, we don't know what the signs of them would be

[@eval_is_evil]

The ship would probably have to be planet size or something for us to detect their 'wake' ...at least until we create more advanced telescopes

[@alexmarkadonis7179]

Hopefully they emit only small bursts of energy. Some think the device would emit supernova+ level radiation (in a steady beam perhaps), turning it into a weapon

[@jackmountain8503]

Simple but astronomical in practice, plantiods getting vaporized, stars pretty much anything but black holes in a line across at least a light year min. So hey bob that galaxy we were looking at? Its got a weird dash in this arm of that spiral

[@Tom_Quixote]

If they solved those problems, we should look for them here on Earth. The lack of aliens on Earth seems to suggest warp drives are simply not possible to build.

[@Malicious2013]

Humanity has always figured out ways around problems that were once considered impossible, and this is happening exponentially faster as time goes on. I have little doubt that if it's possible, we will figure it out, and likely sooner than we think. We likely don't understand the universe well enough yet to even say whether or not our speculations are accurate. The universe seems unbelievably complex. A chest of secrets that we've only begun to open. If there's a way, we'll find it.

[@plaguepandemic5651]

I agree with this. If you asked a 16th century astronomer if he thought humanity would ever visit the moon, he'd probably laugh and say it's impossible. Yet we did it. Nobody could have conceptualized the internet back in the days of covered wagons, and yet we figured it out. I think people have this bias where they only consider the limitations of modern technology while not accepting that we may find some revolutionary discovery someday which makes FTL travel possible.

[@Malicious2013]

@plaguepandemic5651 You know, I'm always amused when people, including scientists, speculate about future humans. They always say, "If, in 1 billion years, humans are still around, the sun will make the Earth uninhabitable for us. We'll then need to find a new home." Like, do they not realize how long a billion years actually are? If humans are still around in 100 or 200 years, we'll have already started expanding into space. Hell, once we start mining asteroids, all material bottlenecks vanish. Suddenly, if we want to build it, we can. Trillions of tonnes of material. We'll have machines that'll work faster than any human can in conditions that would kill us and without breaks. AI will compliment our intelligence and take over the burdens of menial tasks and day-to-day operations. A technological and societal reformation that'll shake us to our very cores. That's probably within the next century. Companies are already looking into mining asteroids. With seemingly unlimited resources and AI assisted technological development, nothing short of breakneck, it astounds me that it's even a question of if. It's a question of when. Humans will either die off, or we'll transcend our planet. At that point, short of an alien civilization, our survival is all but guaranteed. If FTL travel is possible, we'll find out how to do it.

[@SoapyCilantro]

I love this. So true, so optimistic

[@Bomkz]

@@SoapyCilantro to break that optimism, wartime is what gave us most of our modern science and tech advancements. We got to the moon via a rocket used for ICBM research. We got microwave ovens that stem from radar technology used to predict incoming attacks. We got the internet stemming from a communication meant for military purposes initially. jet powered aircraft comes from back in WWII, ect... If we want more innovation as quickly as possible, there's a cost, and that cost is measured in human lives.

[@Malicious2013]

@@brummyuk2151 Right. Once we achieve commercial success in space, we'll expand our horizons exponentially. The value of rare materials on Earth will die, as even the rarest elements will become abundant. Even the most expensive endeavors would become inexpensive. Building massive systems, such as enormous colliders or scientific apparatus, or scientific endeavors currently limited by resource scarcity. Perhaps we'll be able to create exotic materials in quantities far greater than a few atoms. It's an interesting thought experiment.

[@Derps189]

Was thinking about it; An electromagnetic actuated matter shield system. This essencially surrounds a ship and the ship controls the matter via electromagnetism, controlling matter like a piston, changing its position however we want just with this an electromagnetic force acts like a beam of force. This solves the material thinness and mass requirements and how? You make it go really-REALLY fast, as Einstein stated, as matter speeds up its mass increases. So this basically works like a particle accelerator, but it doesn't have a true physical structure. It's actuated or controlled by using electromagnetic forces, then the matter in use would speed up around the ship, increasing the mass around the ship whilst not affecting space outside. The diagram would most likely match the shown diagram in the video, due to the thin areas where matter only exist, those said areas are the only part of space to be bent causing the effect with a little push with propulsion. One problem... energy requirements, fusion reactors are the ones I use as basis, but no calculations and lack of expertise, I just have speculations. So... yeah, just a thought hehehe. I have others but it's more similar to teleportation than warping.

[@aliaf22]

I have no idea of the details being discussed here (I’m no mathematician or physicist) but I LOVE getting the general gist - the image of space time really helped my understanding / conception of in and outside the bubble. Which was a new idea for me entirely. Cool Worlds are v cool! ❤

[@artscience9981]

What a great video! This is what is really exciting about science, when someone looks at a problem in a totally new way and opens up new vistas for the rest of us to look through.

[@leatherelf2078]

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]

His ghost would want a royalty.

[@jflow5601]

No. Alcubierre would deserve the credit.

[@gdpirahna]

I don't have the math to understand a bit of this. You explain incredibly sophisticated and deep subjects in a way that allows me to trick myself into believing that I actually do have a clue. I thoroughly enjoy your videos, especially this one. Thank you for your work.

[@SmartassEyebrows]

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]

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

[@charlescook5542]

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]

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

[@clevelandsavage]

@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]

@@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?

[@Arashnotekno]

Longtime fan here. Thank you, truly, for continuously creating such insightful and beautiful content. In my mere opinion, this amongst one of the most well-crafted and intelligent channels on any media platform. Thank you sir.

[@bohba13]

The subluminal warp drive may be what we end up using. The superluminal version may be a 'cathedral project' as you mentioned in the sponsorship that may not be solved for generations. And the tunnels are not a hard stop in a universe with sublight warp drives as they could be built using them.

[@Erowens98]

Problem is tunnels long enough for interstellar travel would likely require multiple planets worth of materials.

[@bohba13]

@@Erowens98 likey. not to mention that the precision required to maintain the tunnel might be insane.

[@grahamrich3368]

Fabulous ideas here!! 👏👏

[@spc3461]

The Warp Drive Hurdle: Exotic Matter The primary obstacle to building a warp drive is the requirement for exotic matter. Exotic matter is a hypothetical substance with negative energy density. It's a concept derived from theoretical physics, but as of now, we have no experimental evidence of its existence. To create a warp bubble-the theoretical construct that allows for faster-than-light travel-we would need to manipulate spacetime itself. This manipulation requires exotic matter to curve space in a specific way. Other Challenges Even if we could obtain exotic matter, other hurdles exist: * Energy Requirements: Generating enough energy to create and sustain a warp bubble is astronomical. * Engineering Complexity: Building a spacecraft capable of harnessing and controlling these immense energies is beyond our current technological capabilities. * Understanding Spacetime: Our understanding of spacetime is still incomplete. A deeper grasp of gravity and quantum mechanics is necessary. While the concept of warp drive is incredibly exciting, it remains firmly in the realm of science fiction for now. However, the pursuit of such ambitious goals often leads to groundbreaking discoveries in other areas of science and technology.

[@doeverything7997]

Absolutely awesome video. While I love and adore the concepts explored by physicists exploring the possible realities of science fiction, VERY FEW have taken the time to explain the problems associated with FTL travel. Kudos, much love, and after at least a dozen of your videos viewed, this is a subscription well earned. Thank you, and keep up the good work.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Your causality/FTL video was a "mind clear-er". Finally helped me understand what could happen if these were possible.

[@killman369547]

Yeah, we would have to find a way to insulate both the vessel and the universe at large from the temporal effects of the drive, and who knows if that's even possible.

[@ReynaSingh]

Every video on this channel is so well made. Keep it up

[@JackSarfatti]

Only for easily fooled physics illiterates.

[@johnnyboy8498]

As a fan of science and sci-fi I found this video very interesting and informative. I appreciated that it was based in real life scientific research and concerns and wasn't some clickbaity video. I've subscribed and am looking forward to viewing your other videos. Keep up the great work!

[@The_Devil_Riser]

People worry about changing the present by going to the past but they don’t worry about changing the future from our present . Love the video , my favourite channel by far🙏🏻

[@YoungMasterpiece]

Oh man, do I love your videos, how much effort, love, and sense of all things as well as knowledge you give, it's just so beautiful. You and rare sorts of people like you inspired me to make my own little channel and try to popularize Space exploration to uninterested people in my country, in Slavic languages. I called it Balkan Secrets. Thank you, Professor!

[@blast_processing6577]

I would like to see a video on the problems with wormholes. I've read many over the years, including some reasoning (from Daniel Jafferis in 2019) that wormholes might actually be slower to traverse than sub-light travel through normal space.

[@queensapphire7717]

When we solve this problem, we will also solve the time travel problem, which we know is impossible as we would have travelers from the future.

[@deanlawson6880]

What a fascinating video! I too was inspired at a very young age by Star Trek. In my lay-person's understanding, if something isn't forbidden by laws of Physics, and rules of general and special relativity, then it's possible (as you state in the video). In this case now, it's just an engineering problem, albeit a really super complex thorny engineering problem. I have no doubt that we will someday unravel the challenges to allow us to travel and communicate via FTL. It may take us a good long while, but we'll do it. Staying positive, and hopeful while staying thoughtful and curious... Thanks for this awesome video Prof. Kipping!

[@j.campbell4497]

You know, the thing is we only have the laws of physics. down to a point they are painted in pretty broad strokes at this time. and we know that relativity, Which is arguably the very foundation of everything? of everything we know about the macroscopic universe. is not complete. for example, its inability to play nice with quantum physics. So I guess my point is this. I think it far more likely that we will discover some nuance of the physical laws of the universe that proves to be. a deal breaker for F. T. L. Then to find some loophole in those laws. to allow it. I desperately hope that the universe does allow for such a thing. But realistically. there could be any number. of reasons why it isn't possible.

[@KEWords]

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.

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

Great video! I'm no physicist, but the way you explain it can help me understand a bit

[@AaronKelley1969]

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.

[@lvasiescu]

and how do you create a new "timeline"? Whet kind of energy and what amount the energy and what phenomena would create a copy of your universe?

[@AaronKelley1969]

@@lvasiescu My understanding is that it already exists. Every decision ever made and how they affect everything already exists including, if it's even possible, the ability to travel through time.

[@lvasiescu]

@@AaronKelley1969 of course it’s not possible. And no, I don’t believe they already exist. And I don’t think that the multiverse theory is valid.

[@AaronKelley1969]

@@lvasiescu there are plenty of scientists who would disagree with you.

[@lvasiescu]

@@AaronKelley1969 on which part? And based on what? MCU? "On our current understanding of the Universe, we could potentially travel into the future, but travelling into the past may well be a total no-no." "multiverse, a hypothetical collection of potentially diverse observable universes, each of which would comprise everything that is experimentally accessible by a connected community of observers. " "Is there a multiverse theory in real life? Although some scientists have analyzed data in search of evidence for other universes, no statistically significant evidence has been found. Critics argue that the multiverse concept lacks testability and falsifiability, which are essential for scientific inquiry, and that it raises unresolved metaphysical issues."

[@jonathondancisak320]

I really appreciate the honest assessment of where we are at with FTL space travel. Some of these KZbin 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.

[@koenwijnen8278]

Creation?

[@tankaccount2990]

@@koenwijnen8278 yes, creation, stop being an idiot who thinks earth just popped into existence, even Elon musk knows there was a creator.

[@alanthompson5639]

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]

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]

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]

That's simply magic.

[@Parbruek]

The horizon problem can be solved by shells or bubbles which decay. I was thinking of a bubble which only functioned for ten seconds or so, and then got replaced as it warped and weakened. As far as the bubble's material is concerned I think we are looking at a broadcasting problem. I think it might be easier to hit a bubble of fluid-like material with a tone to help keep its shape consistent rather than building a more permanent shell. Further, a fluid material would allow for the bubble to collapse periodically, allowing for the horizon problem solution. This solution would also simultaneously solve the particle buildup issue. Given the temperatures involved, the fluid we are probably talking about is a plasma.

[@Fightre_Flighte]

I was reading this whole comment and thinking: "so... Plasma? Aaaand it's plasma." I kinda follow that. With proper magnetic fielding we might even be able to control a plasma bubble. In which case, we could cause a decay and rebuild of the super-thin plasma field in order to manipulate spacetime for control. But the video did miss one particular idea: if the passengers are in a stationary bubble of spacetime, who needs a front and back of the ship? This is basically a gravity drive for a ship. The occupants feel nothing as it accelerates or decelerates through nominal space. Manipulate the bubble and you can change directions. Like steering a rocket, you point the bubble's "front" where you want to go. But that could only be solved if the bubble can actually be manipulated.

[@arthurcamargo8416]

First, I must have been blind, sick or living under a rock to have missed this video for so long, that I am getting to it just now! Alcubierre's Metric is inspiring. It "drives" us to look for solutions as you said as well as the faults in those very solutions. Perhaps one day, we will be able to create tachyons. We could then build wormholes that are stable as a result. We could then build a Krasnikov tunnel system, much like the movies Contact or Stargate. If we don't get inspired by these things, then solutions will never be sought. And even a partial solution is better because it moves us forward. Slowly.... but still in the right direction!

[@DevilYouDont]

This really reminds me of a method described on Cixin Liu’s “Remembrance of earths past” science fiction series - in which a “curvature propulsion” method operates incredibly similarly.

[@sodadrinker89]

Curvature Propulsion is just the Chinese way of saying Warp Drive. 曲速

[@notioncreanga]

that whole series is amazing

[@AveragePearEnjoyer]

halo was a sub-light speed ship, but that wasn't a problem because special relativity meant that you could travel countless light years in what the ship and passengers would experience as a few hours. If we want to explore the universe in 99.999% lightspeed ships, it would be easy. But, there would be no going back, and no practical communication between systems. There is also a risk of encountering aliens that will force you to move to Australia.🤮

[@esakoivuniemi]

Thanks for the sobering and inspiring video. To me it's encouraging that people are working with these concepts at all. I'll keep on hoping the nature allows FTL and warp drives and we'll find the way around these and other problems - eventually.

[@dylananderson7658]

Wonderfully approachable content that stands on its own and inspires others. Very well done.

[@burtlux3736]

"Humans may never fly for another million years" A week later the first plane is built

[@Spooglecraft]

it's crazy impressive we even have anything like this. imagine a 1920s scientist mathematically describing a way to break the sound barrier, when it only started become known and was still thought of as unbreakable.

[@fact6360]

Never thought of this. Good perspective

[@joebullwinkle5099]

Thanks for your great presentations on the enormous conundrums that face us with the leading edge of physics, it sure makes me think a lot more about these subjects and where reality may actually lie.

[@JabberW00kie]

If the warp drive dilemma is solvable, then it stands to reason at some point in our future history, it will be achieved. If so, since it is also technically a form of time travel, it might also be that our descendants have already been traveling back-and-forth (assuming it’s possible to go into the past and not just forward) across the timeline. The implications of that are frightening. What if some of the unexplained phenomena we’re seeing are our descendants from thousands, maybe millions of years into the future? What if the biological entities associated with said phenomena are not aliens, but the form to which we eventually evolve? It’s all a little too fantastic for me to believe, but it would make a good science-fiction novel.

[@zeph_os]

This series of explanations reminds me of trying to explain why reaching absolute zero is impossible. Like warp drives, there are complex topics surrounding it, but from an engineering perspective, to cool something to absolute zero, you need something colder than absolute zero, and the engineering behind warp drives requires us to invent technology that would reinvent our understanding of physics

[@dumbsterphire]

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]

That sounds cool as hell

[@ianharrison5758]

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]

​@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]

@@Fightre_Flighte elaborate that sounds super interesting

[@Fightre_Flighte]

@@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.

[@andrewparker318]

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

[@LineOfThy]

yep. all FTL travel has problems.

[@frede1905]

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

[@jaystarr6571]

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

[@StarGazer204]

Quantum computers are still very new and yet they work magnitudes faster and more efficient then even the most complex super computers in existence currently, they just have a lot of kinks to work out first before becoming a fully viable asset. So I believe that once they become viable we could use them to solve a lot of complex problems like the ones you mentioned in this video relating to the warp drive. The future seems bright for ingenuity, let's hope we live to see it. 😅

[@dev-mc4jq]

Don't be misleaded please. Quantum computers are better at solving certain kind of mathematical problems in certain way to make them possible in a decent timeframe (such as rsa breaking), but current computers are already very good at doing 'normal' maths, and quantum chips are actually slow if you try to do 'normal' math with them because their architecture isn't fit for it. You can see quantum computers as a change of cpu architecture to open new horizons, currently that's what they are.

[@shugyosha7924]

To go to Andromeda etc it's not actually necessary. It's only necessary to come back to tell the tale (and bring with it causal paradoxes). It's not necessary for subluminal travel because time would slow down for you. With enough energy you could make the trip (from your perspective) almost instantly. The problem I often think about though, is how do you avoid collisions? Just a bit of space dust would slam into your ship with incredible force. You'd need some shielding or perhaps an incredibly strong, long coned nose designed to make impacts hit as shallowly as possible. But if you hit a rock it'd be over. You'd be able to see it coming (thanks to C being constant at all reference frames) but it'd be almost impossible to break or course-correct because you're going so incredibly fast. Sudden deceleration would of course kill you.

[@randomcommenter1812]

I feel like if used properly, AI will help create the first functional warp drive within the next 100 years.

[@JW-fq1pp]

I have a Physics degree and this is many levels above me. One thing I do know is that whatever humans have been able to imagine, we eventually are able to put into action and make it happen. The universe wasn't put there just to look at, but to explore. Now, if we are only provided with the time and necessary vision to accomplish it, that would be great.

[@dinocr6783]

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.

[@cosmictreason2242]

That's the only logically consistent view but it also means you can never go home

[@TheSingingCelebrant]

Brilliant watch. Thank you for speaking in a way that novices can actually understand

[@midgarw6775]

As scary as the risks that come with the inevitable existence of general artificial intelligence are, you have to wonder if it could help solve many if not all of these problems.

[@frozentspark2105]

Such a good channel. Among all the crap in the world, its nice to actually learn something

[@brandonmurphy301]

One wildly outrageous solution I can think of: Stop time. If time were to stop in the entire universe, except for the vehicle(with the passenger area being outside of the field, also time-stopped), then the vehicle could proceed to a destination at any sub-light speed, power down, allow time to resume, and look to the rest of the universe as if it had traveled instantaneously. No time travel, no FTL.

[@thatrandomspaceguy]

The concept is great, but the problem: how would actually do that?

[@brandonmurphy301]

That is the detail work, I'm just the idea guy, lol. Get on it, science!

[@tomasjggjgg]

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

[@acb9896]

Dumb guy here. Einstein's speed limit only applies to physical objects travelling thru space, right? The Universe is clearly filled with physical matter (galaxies are matter, yes) It is said The Universe is expanding FASTER than light. If that's possible under ANY circumstances, the Eistein is wrong. If I have a pizza (your favorife form of matter) in my Ferrari (The Universe) and I accelerate to 170 mph, that pizza is going 170 mph. So ANY matter in The Universe is going FTL.

[@Ibloop]

I don’t think that since the universe is expanding faster than light we are going the same speed as its boundaries. Though I don’t know for sure.

[@legotrekker]

This isn't quite how "faster-than-light" expansion works. Space itself doesn't move, it changes scale over time. This means that the distance between every thing, as in literally every particle and every other particle, is constantly being increased over time. Gravity causes objects to cluster into bunches that squeeze together to resist this scaling effect over time and remain in relative proportion to its previous state, but space itself continues to grow without us. That means the scale of the distance between us and very distant objects is growing so quickly that eventually even photons, massless particles that travel at the speed of causality, won't be able to travel the distance because the distance itself is growing much faster than causality. We will simply no longer be casually linked. Our universe shrinks and is separated from other pieces into smaller universes. One of the biggest issues with a hypothetical warp drive is that it would appear to allow us to alter causality in ways that are hard to comprehend with our current understanding of the world. Effectively it would allow for time travel and the ability to reconnect causally-separated regions of spacetime. Another example of a casually separated region of spacetime would be the interior of Black Holes. We are capable of affecting the interior in some ways but the region within is incapable of affecting the region outside (I think if Hawking radiation/Black hole evaporation exists this may be untrue but I'm not sure). The point is that if you cross the event horizon of a Black hole, you can shine a flashlight back toward the outside world and the light would constantly be travelling at the speed of light toward even nearby planets and stars and yet never reach them because space is being warped in such a way that causality becomes one-directional this isn't the same as true superluminal (or supecausal) velocity. spacetime can be warped in ways that prevents objects (or information from one perspective) from affecting other objects, which is what expansion, or the scaling up of space itself at every point in the universe simultaneously, achieves. Objects aren't truly accelerating away from each other, they are resting in their reference frame. The reference frames are simply growing more distance due to this rescaling. Meanwhile, if you were to either somehow accelerate an object to superluminal speeds (ignoring how this would require infinite energy) or something existed which travelled faster than the speed of light; C; causality, we would be describing an object that is changing its own position relative to its reference frame *faster than cause is able to create effect in the universe*. It is entirely clear what this would even mean, and reads as somewhat similar to the infinite values that appear in singularities popping up everywhere in the universe in general relativity. This part is actually what appears to show an incompleteness in general relativity, whereas the expansion of the universe (including at apparent "superluminal" speeds that aren't truly so) is actually very consistent with the rules we are familiar with the physical world following This isn't to say we really understand *why* the universe is expanding, especially at the rate it is. That's absolutely a mystery! We don't really know why the Hubble constant has the value it does, where dark energy comes from, or why it appears that cosmic inflation occurred (it looks like in the very early universe this rescaling occurred very very rapidly and slowed down enormously before stabilizing since then. We dont know why, but that seems to be the history of our universe as observable in the microwave background!)

[@shovon9412]

Not going to happen in our lifetime sadly

[@adamkosloff3576]

Love your videos, CW! It does seem that many of these exotic concepts in pop-physics--FTL travel, time travel, dyson spheres, interstellar travel, etc--are for all intents and purposes impossible to achieve in the real universe. Shouldn't we operate from that POV, as our null assumption? It seems hand-wave-y to say "we'll leave it to the engineers to whip up 17 flavors of unobtainium" and get this built. I mean, I get that speculation leads to wonder/innovation. Of course! But per arguments made by people like Sabine Hossenfelder, there's a dark side to rampant speculation, too. It can lead to foggy thinking--to making foolish assumptions about what's plausible and to burning resources in the process. Relatedly, it fosters magical thinking vs. scientific thinking. For instance, an obvious solution to a problem like, say, the Fermi Paradox is that space is too big and interstellar travel is just impossible for intelligent creatures to engineer. That's a boring answer. But it (or some variant of it) should be the null assumption, based on current engineering. Instead, with problems like Fermi, we are given a zoo of highly speculative, almost-certainly-un-engineer-able fantasies. The scifi kids love it. But it's magic with a dusting of science words. At the very least, it would disappoint Richard Feynman :)

[@clarenceorozco5300]

U should not be so hopeless.

[@dagamerboi]

6:30 you only need a relative negative energy density, we could achieve it by filling the space around the bubble with massive objects, a sort of tunnel

[@landonperez7521]

TLDR: skill issue

[@razorbackblood06]

Oh you play EVE?

[@idarekorval8077]

I'm a bit surprised nothing was mentioned about the Science Times article of the possible accidental creation of a warp bubble (the numbers in the experiment seem to suggest this happened) while investigating the Casimir effect. Even if only at that tiny size, a warp bubble just happening is very interesting and may mean they are more common or easier to create then thought.

[@AlienTech-bk5xl]

Ya bro The DARPA funded bubbles made by NASA/Lockheed-Martin/Harold-G-White are proper size warps. This is mainly a defence secret. Chinese warp missiles and Russians new generation lancets are other examples of real-time controlled warps.

[@Matt33318]

All they did was show that the three-dimensional energy density generated by this cavity displayed some qualitative correlations with the energy density field required by the Alcubierre drive. They only calculated numerically. Clickbait media picked up...

[@AlienTech-bk5xl]

@@Matt33318 lol that's what they want you to believe xd

[@AlienTech-bk5xl]

@@Matt33318 rmmbr that The chinese demonstrated a warp missile that made a full 360 revolution across the globe and reached back to where it was launched in 2 hours...USA got freaked out and then blamed the Octagon/Cylindrical object UFOs as chinese spy balloons and then got fuckd by press

[@AlienTech-bk5xl]

@@Matt33318 advanced propulsion uses warp-drive and it works based on manual production of anti-desitter space and using return curvature for thrust..ive worked with this and i can't reveal anything lmao

Trash idea, if you flatten spacetime you are just ruining that space for everyone else and making so anyone who does go through your trail gets suck for eternity in that flattened space time.

[@phantomthedrake8420]

Please think about the laws of physics, alongside how space and time interact with mass and other things. Space time cannot remain flattened, it always recovers due to Newtons Laws of Physics. People like you need to not say stuff, leave it to actual astrophysicists and astronomers to say stuff that would make this impossible, plus engineers are who would make these things.

@@phantomthedrake8420 actually it can remained flattened. Forever potentially.

[@CharlesRichelieu-hv7sn]

@@phantomthedrake8420 Im a physicist, and he is right. Spacetime stays flat forever. I get that you don't read or do research or anything beneficial for humanity, But you should go and just watch tv instead of espousing terrible opinions on the internet that might get people stuck in a living hell.

[@kaidiirty6100]

@@CharlesRichelieu-hv7sn I mean, if you’re actually a physicist you’d know it’s going to take more than an appeal to authority to justify the claim that 3-dimensional space would arbitrarily remain condensed into a 2-d form, especially when one of the key points of this video is how outrageously expensive the process of actively condensing spacetime would be in the first place… all coming from a layman, I certainly wouldn’t lie about credentials on the internet

[@CharlesRichelieu-hv7sn]

@@kaidiirty6100 XD you are the one making an appeal to authority. Im the one with a physics degree. cry about it.

[@kevinchou-ri8tu]

keep in mind it took 400 some years from the fist conceptual drawing of a flying machine to the first powered flight