Re: Why was Starbuck shocked?


<marc0ni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:04af9835-62fc-4541-af92-649a318af59a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Feb 12, 5:26 pm, Barry Margolin <bar...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<8d76e9bd-8c45-45c3-b476-374f96a11...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

"marc...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <marc...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've been catching up with BSG after having avoided when it first
> started. I've reached the first episodes of the fourth season.
> Starbuck has returned to the fleet to discover that everyone has
> thought she's been dead for months. For her, however, the duration has
> only been a few hours. She is shocked, SHOCKED at the turn of events.

> But why? Even the civilian ships in the fleet are capable of faster-
> than-light travel and subject to the laws of relativity. Wouldn't time
> distortions be a common occurrence for every character in the BSG-
> verse?

If they're capable of FTL travel then they're obviously NOT subject to
the laws of relativity.

--
Barry Margolin, bar...@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

Not so "obvious" to me, Sheldon.

I'd swallow the condescenion better if you could explain how
travelling at precisely the speed of light causes relativistic effects
but travelling *faster* than the speed of light doesn't. By way of
analogy, travelling at Mach speed causes sonic booms and travelling at
multiple-Mach also causes sonic booms. So how could FTL travel
overcome relativitistic effects?

Unless you're suggesting that the ability to achieve FTL speeds would,
in and of itself, disprove relativity.
-------------------------
That's one way of saying it, but it would be more accurate to say that FTL speeds would be a phenomenon as to which the laws of relativity would not apply. My understanding is that relativity is not going to be "disproved"; however, there are laws of the universe we do not understand and phenomena that relativity cannot explain or predict.

If FTL travel were to exist, it would be "outside the box" within which Einstein's theories operate.

There are, in fact, phenomena that relativity cannot explain, meaning that we have already proven it might be wrong in some circumstances. As long as there are things that physicists cannot explain, the possibility of FTL travel can't be disproven. So as far as I'm concerned, if someone wants to write science fiction based on FTL travel, they have a tabula rasa for writing laws of physics associated with it.

.

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