This channel is an absolute gem, I’m working on a realistic FTL mechanic that utilizes something like the TEQ in 4 dimensions. Where the extra spatial dimension acts as an absolute reference frame, allowing FTL (but not infinite speed)
I think the reason I was confused about the light cone and the backwards-in-time issue is because my “theory” (actually it’s just a wacky idea) for spacetime does have a zero- velocity component to it. You can look at my idea at SpacetimeCells.com. Tell me what you think, please. I’d love to find out in what ways it must be wrong, and more so, I’d love to come up with some ways to test it. :-)
This solution bugs me a bit because the speed of zero relative to the objective reference frame would actually vary a lot from galaxy to galaxy, and even inside galaxies, only really allowing one galaxy to be the special one where the objective zero speed seems "normal" relative to the galaxy. Is there a way to "soften" this solution into a field that functions mostly in the same way, but is somehow tied to gravitational influences in a way that makes the objective zero be the average speed of gravitational bodies in a region? I've been thinking about this for a few days now, and I'm still suspicious of my solution because it sounds like going back to relativity. If it's ruled that changing reference frames within the FTL field would limit your FTL as the field's zero changes, would this just go back to limiting everything to no FTL, pretty much making it all useless? Or would it actually work like I want, forcing FTL paths to remain within regions where the average motion of gravitational bodies doesn't change? I imagine that it depends on how “smoothed” the gravitational influence is. If we don’t smooth it at all, then relativity would probably come back. But if we smooth it entirely, then it creates an absolute field like the one discussed in the video. If we then smooth it just an arbitrary bit, then it should mix these effects, right? You might still need to change your speed a lot to reach the field’s zero, but it can still be “fair” for every galaxy due to the vast voids between them.
The problem with linking it to nearby mass is that you can find time-travel loopholes by having a large amount of mass traveling in a circle. But there is a way to have an absolute reference frame which is close to the average velocity of each galaxy: comoving coordinates, a set of coordinates that are synchronized with the expansion of the universe. So even though the Milky Way might be traveling near the speed of light compared to a galaxy 10 billion light years away, their velocities are essentially equal in comoving coordinates, because it's the expansion of the universe that is causing the difference. Thus, the 0-frame would change throughout the universe in such a way as to account for universal expansion.
Aw man, and I was already imagining some cool worldbuilding things where you have to plan your route to follow the path of matter or else your FTL is way less efficient. Is it as simple as just picking a location and jumping then? That sounds less fun. I didn’t want to complicate my comment so I didn’t ask then, but I also ruled a thing about a “gravitational drag” where being deeper into a gravitational well also makes your FTL less efficient. I ruled this in order to make FTL within a galaxy slower than jumping between galaxies, for the convenience of the story I need to tell. I didn’t want to let the door open for exploits around black holes as well, since black holes usually do some pretty weird stuff. If the exploits rely on the presence of a lot of mass, would this “gravitational drag” sort out this situation? In the end this solution is better than mine because I may be introducing complications which don’t even give me the exact results I need. My hope is that there is enough room for tweaking it so that time travel doesn’t happen, that jumps between galaxies are faster than even just going around the galaxy’s edge and that travel within the galaxy still takes a short enough time. Letting all of this go would make things less quirky, but maybe it’s for the best. Thank you SO MUCH for replying though, I usually don’t ask questions because more often than not I get no replies, so I really appreciate this. I’ve found this channel recently because I was looking for an answer on this, and so far it has been the best resource.
@@zee_space_wolfy If you've got a really cool story idea, then go ahead and write it. In a story, it is more important that the practical rules are self-consistent than that their explanation is.
@@zee_space_wolfy To Sleep in a Sea of Stars has a cap on how fast you can go near masses. The Markov Bubble (their way to access superluminal space) needs to be more energetic near masses. Higher energy in ftl-space means slower speed. So what they do in the story is to do a first jump as soon as they can (in Sol it’s about as far out as Jupiters orbit, though you’d need to go farther if you’re actually near Jupiter) and then later a second with less energy in the Markov Bubble to then really go fast.
This channel is an absolute gem, I’m working on a realistic FTL mechanic that utilizes something like the TEQ in 4 dimensions. Where the extra spatial dimension acts as an absolute reference frame, allowing FTL (but not infinite speed)
This just shows how much Paolini did his research. It took him over a year to make this FTL system
It may not have shown as well as I wanted it to, but I really respect the man and love his books.
This is so fascinating!
Ok. I have to read this book myself, or at least the explanation... Or just rewatch this video a few more times :))
I think the reason I was confused about the light cone and the backwards-in-time issue is because my “theory” (actually it’s just a wacky idea) for spacetime does have a zero- velocity component to it. You can look at my idea at SpacetimeCells.com. Tell me what you think, please. I’d love to find out in what ways it must be wrong, and more so, I’d love to come up with some ways to test it. :-)
This solution bugs me a bit because the speed of zero relative to the objective reference frame would actually vary a lot from galaxy to galaxy, and even inside galaxies, only really allowing one galaxy to be the special one where the objective zero speed seems "normal" relative to the galaxy.
Is there a way to "soften" this solution into a field that functions mostly in the same way, but is somehow tied to gravitational influences in a way that makes the objective zero be the average speed of gravitational bodies in a region? I've been thinking about this for a few days now, and I'm still suspicious of my solution because it sounds like going back to relativity.
If it's ruled that changing reference frames within the FTL field would limit your FTL as the field's zero changes, would this just go back to limiting everything to no FTL, pretty much making it all useless? Or would it actually work like I want, forcing FTL paths to remain within regions where the average motion of gravitational bodies doesn't change?
I imagine that it depends on how “smoothed” the gravitational influence is. If we don’t smooth it at all, then relativity would probably come back. But if we smooth it entirely, then it creates an absolute field like the one discussed in the video. If we then smooth it just an arbitrary bit, then it should mix these effects, right? You might still need to change your speed a lot to reach the field’s zero, but it can still be “fair” for every galaxy due to the vast voids between them.
The problem with linking it to nearby mass is that you can find time-travel loopholes by having a large amount of mass traveling in a circle. But there is a way to have an absolute reference frame which is close to the average velocity of each galaxy: comoving coordinates, a set of coordinates that are synchronized with the expansion of the universe. So even though the Milky Way might be traveling near the speed of light compared to a galaxy 10 billion light years away, their velocities are essentially equal in comoving coordinates, because it's the expansion of the universe that is causing the difference. Thus, the 0-frame would change throughout the universe in such a way as to account for universal expansion.
Aw man, and I was already imagining some cool worldbuilding things where you have to plan your route to follow the path of matter or else your FTL is way less efficient. Is it as simple as just picking a location and jumping then? That sounds less fun.
I didn’t want to complicate my comment so I didn’t ask then, but I also ruled a thing about a “gravitational drag” where being deeper into a gravitational well also makes your FTL less efficient. I ruled this in order to make FTL within a galaxy slower than jumping between galaxies, for the convenience of the story I need to tell. I didn’t want to let the door open for exploits around black holes as well, since black holes usually do some pretty weird stuff. If the exploits rely on the presence of a lot of mass, would this “gravitational drag” sort out this situation?
In the end this solution is better than mine because I may be introducing complications which don’t even give me the exact results I need. My hope is that there is enough room for tweaking it so that time travel doesn’t happen, that jumps between galaxies are faster than even just going around the galaxy’s edge and that travel within the galaxy still takes a short enough time. Letting all of this go would make things less quirky, but maybe it’s for the best.
Thank you SO MUCH for replying though, I usually don’t ask questions because more often than not I get no replies, so I really appreciate this. I’ve found this channel recently because I was looking for an answer on this, and so far it has been the best resource.
@@zee_space_wolfy If you've got a really cool story idea, then go ahead and write it. In a story, it is more important that the practical rules are self-consistent than that their explanation is.
@@zee_space_wolfy
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars has a cap on how fast you can go near masses. The Markov Bubble (their way to access superluminal space) needs to be more energetic near masses. Higher energy in ftl-space means slower speed. So what they do in the story is to do a first jump as soon as they can (in Sol it’s about as far out as Jupiters orbit, though you’d need to go farther if you’re actually near Jupiter) and then later a second with less energy in the Markov Bubble to then really go fast.