No! This is the most seismic and fundamentally perspective changing news that I have heard from a physicist in my life. It needs this strong title.
My entire life, as I imagine has been the case for many older nerds, has been one of imagining traveling to the stars, but to only have that possibility become more and more clearly shown to be impossible. Impossible because faster than light travel is impossible. Impossible, because the time-dilation makes the travel a one way trip. I canna break the laws of physics cap’n!
If the laws of physics do not forbid it, it changes everything! It provides hope, it means the search is worth the effort. It allows my kids to dream!
Not a physicist, but for what is worth, my understanding is it's fairly realistic we could send probes to Alpha Centauri within a human lifetime or so using an approach like Breakthrough Starshot (regardless of whether that particular project succeeds).
Yes, there is still plenty to explore in the near-medium term.
I’m also very excited about the proposal to use the sun’s gravitational lensing as a method of imaging distant planets. Might even see that one in my lifetime.
There are multiple levels to this. One is her attacks on the current orthodoxy around arguments that invoke causality or Special Relativity (as opposed to General Relativity). The arguments seem sound, and I’m sure it will hurt egos and generate controversy (a specialty of this particular blogger/youtuber).
The second is that it reframes the speed of light limit as a “barrier”, and more clearly defines why accelerating mass to the speed of light is impossible (while explaining what mass actually is).
It doesn’t give the answer of “well you just need to do this”, but by removing artificial constraints “causality says no”, it will hopefully allow more young smart people to get interested in studying more in this area.
I strongly applaud Sabine in her attempts to demystify General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (across other videos). We should introduce these (particularly Quantum Mechanics) into the later school curriculum. It’s a shame that the majority of people never get to study this, as it’s so fundamental to our current knowledge of physics.
My entire life, as I imagine has been the case for many older nerds, has been one of imagining traveling to the stars, but to only have that possibility become more and more clearly shown to be impossible. Impossible because faster than light travel is impossible. Impossible, because the time-dilation makes the travel a one way trip. I canna break the laws of physics cap’n!
If the laws of physics do not forbid it, it changes everything! It provides hope, it means the search is worth the effort. It allows my kids to dream!
I am very happy about this article!