HOW TO GET TO THE STARS

We are told we cannot get to the stars. Relativity theory holds a barrier to travel. Even if we could approach the speed of light, faster-than-light travel is not permitted – we would, in effect, go out of the universe.
This puts star travel into the realms of the near impossible – our present propulsion systems would, for instance, take 80,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour.
There are theoretical ways out of this problem. One idea is that space bends upon itself. There only appears to be ‘distance’ in the dimensions we understand. If we could access these other dimensions, then we could simply hop from one part of the universe to another.
Then we have ‘wormholes,’ tiny theoretical tubes forming a lattice-work in space. Travelling down a wormhole would theoretically get us from one place to another instantaneously.
Unfortunately, wormholes are many times smaller than a subatomic particle, so they are physically too small for us. However, it is believed instantaneous information could be passed down the wormhole. Does this allow us a ‘short-cut’ to the stars?
Imagine the ability to send tiny probes down a wormhole, transmitting data, in real time, of a far off world. Back on Earth, this data is transferred to a holographic representation of that world, in which we can explore what is actually out there.
Okay, this is not star travel as such, but we would still have the ability for instantaneous exploration of the stars. And if the information was two-way, we could project what we are doing onto that very world itself. A kind of star travel by proxy.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Lift-Off

A LITTLE EXTRA

Consumer – Furniture used to be bought made up. Shop assistants used to serve you. Garage attendants used to put the petrol in for you. Today we’re consumer conscious – obviously another term for sucker.

(c) Anthony North, Apr 07 – find more little extras on pages of North’s Review

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