Warp/Faster Than Light Drive: How would it change human civilization?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

According to the work by such people as Albert Einstein and others, the universe has a speed limit: The speed of light. 186,000 miles per second, in a vacuum. There are some who have challenged this, but that is not the point of my question. Assume Einstein and other relativist physicists are correct, and this is the maximum speed of light. Now, according to Einstein and others, if you can warp space through some means, curve or bend or warp or stretch or manipulate space itself, you can get over or around this speed limit. Say humans figured out how to do this, through some form of warp drive, and depending on how much energy expense it was to do it, this became common place, like airplanes, cars, and other forms of transportation are, what effects would it have on human life and society?

And say there were off-shoot technologies, like space-warp-based machines that can project a warping field in a local area. Could you have "Super drilling devices", and "warp weapons"? What types of laws would likely spring up to deal with these technologies?

[Doc Dan]

Such a technology would be immediately weaponized. However, all sorts of useful things would be developed because of it, too. Shielding technology to protect from impacts with asteroids necessary for such a technology would have to advance and could have medical implications. Computer technology to advance along with it to help us keep from flying into something at such speeds. That would bring about a whole new revolution in computing power, which impacts all of life.

[chuck_roxas45]

It would make buying knives much more "instant gratification". :D

[holeshot]

Well, when I want to go warp speed I just hop on my ZX1100 Ninja with it's custom racing clutch. Launches like a howitzer. :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Good one, holeshot :)

If you had a warp capable ship and the replicators to make whatever you wanted, how many of you would choose to leave Earth and make your own "Space house" that was comfortable and livable ?

[O,just,O]

It really would not change a thing because it will not work & the concept is based on very flawed Einsteinian theory.
The brakes it would need.
O.

[holeshot]

It really would not change a thing because it will not work & the concept is based on very flawed Einsteinian theory.
The brakes it would need.
O.

I use Jesus as my brake marker. :D

[Doc Dan]

Such an idea may be possible. New science is showing that there are some things that appear to move faster than light, but scientists do not know why or how. (The sound barrier also had such 'scientific' thinking that it was impossible to break)

[O,just,O]

I use Jesus as my brake marker. :D

Exactly Brother & Amen.
If more people did then we would not even be making mention of warp drives.
O.

[jayhawk]

Such an idea may be possible. New science is showing that there are some things that appear to move faster than light, but scientists do not know why or how. (The sound barrier also had such 'scientific' thinking that it was impossible to break)

The sound barrier would have been broken by early rifles and canons I would think. It was also broken by propeller blades well before aircraft could approach those speeds. There were certainly aerodynamic problems in getting an airplane to be able to break the sound barrier (without destroying itself).

The speed of light is another matter entirely.

[Doc Dan]

You are right about the sound barrier, but scientists still argued it could never be broken. The same is true for light speed. There are things that actually do go faster, but many scientists still hold on to saying that nothing can go that fast, especially a ship. It will be broken, one day.

Breaking faster than light speed barrier is not really the biggest problem. As I see it time and mass are real issues, as well. If you leave earth at faster than light and reach the nearest star in one earth year (for the passengers), many years would have passed on earth. Also, if I remember my physics from 45 years ago, I believe objects gain more mass the closer to light speed they travel. I do not know about you, but I do not think I want to weigh a couple of tons, or whatever. What would that do to us? Or, would we perceive it at all? Who knows? We are still very primitive in many ways.

[jayhawk]

Breaking faster than light speed barrier is not really the biggest problem. As I see it time and mass are real issues, as well. If you leave earth at faster than light and reach the nearest star in one earth year (for the passengers), many years would have passed on earth. Also, if I remember my physics from 45 years ago, I believe objects gain more mass the closer to light speed they travel. I do not know about you, but I do not think I want to weigh a couple of tons, or whatever. What would that do to us? Or, would we perceive it at all? Who knows? We are still very primitive in many ways.

Taking humans out of the equation, the difference between pushing matter to the speed of light and pushing light at or beyond the speed of light seems to be pretty significant. Afaik, the closest we've come is with the large hadron collider and it can get a particle to within a few m/s of the speed of light if I'm remembering correctly. But as you say, in the theoretical formula for the speed of light as you approach the speed of light, momentum increases at a higher rate than velocity, which would imply that mass is increasing (and energy required to approach the speed of light is increasing). It seems that to achieve the speed of light, matter would have to travel in a wave-like manner. But of course, it seems there is far more than we don't know about the physical universe than we know (dark matter and bosons and whatnot)