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Questions tagged [faster-than-light]

For questions about settings in which superluminal travel and/or communication is a possibility.

4 votes
3 answers
1k views

How would time dilate for pioneers travelling to Alpha Centauri Cb?

Re: Relative Velocity Time Dilation: Pioneers have travelled 4.2 light years to Alpha Centauri Cb in 9 months. Handwavium tech can transport mass in this timeframe. Upon their arrival to Cb, they are ...
reiterwriter's user avatar
5 votes
13 answers
3k views

How would FTL travel based on tachyons most likely work?

So, I am trying to design an FTL system for my sci-fi setting. I find the concept of tachyons to be intriguing, and want to incorporate it into the system, but I'm not that familiar with how they work....
Knight_of_the Order_of_Pizza's user avatar
10 votes
7 answers
3k views

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

I'm trying to implement proper FTL travel in my story. I have already looked at the Alcubierre Drive, but every implementation of said drive that I've seen is too outwardly obvious for my taste. ...
viridianskyes's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
687 views

Speed of light in higher-dimensional space [closed]

In science fiction, one of the widely used tricks for achieving faster-than-light motion is traveling through "hyperspace". By that I mean, entering a space with more than 3 spatial ...
SCP_org's user avatar
  • 61
2 votes
1 answer
756 views

Can an Alcubierre drive be built by starlifting?

I am setting up a very futuristic world for a sci-fi story, where having FTL tech would be very practical. For a bit of context, here is what I am imagining: It is a type 3.2 - 3.3 civilisation, where ...
The Rocket fan's user avatar
11 votes
10 answers
4k views

Is it reasonable for the development of faster-than-light travel to significantly slow the development of machine learning technology? [closed]

One of the settings I'm in the very early stages of working on is based on the idea that, if humans had somehow developed faster-than-light travel in the mid 2000s, the development of machine learning ...
Choroflorocarbon's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
155 views

What could be used to explain the visual effect of the ‘Blackout Flare’ phenomena described?

As stated on a work-in-progress document for the phenomena I’m referring to as “Blackout Flares”: A Blackout Flare is a short-lived, instantaneous warping of shadows produced by an object moving ...
Godzilla Louise's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
322 views

5,000 years from now — The Best valuable for wealth & trade? [closed]

Humans using faster than light-speed (FTL) travel have found and begun populating other planets, planetoids, asteroids, etc. Local societies farm; they ranch and mine; they are bootstrapping light ...
Old Uncle Ho's user avatar
18 votes
5 answers
5k views

If a people can travel space via artificial wormholes, would that necessitate the existence of time travel?

The primary mechanism of “faster than light” travel in my story is via artificially formed wormholes that can be created to transport a craft to a reasonably precise location. Would the existence of ...
Kal Madda's user avatar
  • 1,851
-2 votes
3 answers
198 views

Where can a non-clarkean civilisation find an FTL Space-drive?

So, this is the deal. In this scenario, humans are unable to create an interstellar civilisation. They have tried colonising exoplanets the slow way, at about a quarter of the speed of light, but this ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,651
5 votes
8 answers
5k views

Would a living being moving at 99% the speed of light see time stop, or would it see time move faster?

Let's say I want to write about a living thing that can naturally go to 99% the speed of light in just one second of acceleration. I would like to write what this being would experience at such speed ...
Invasor's user avatar
  • 533
9 votes
14 answers
3k views

How do we create an interstellar communications system?

In my science fiction project, humans have settled in a new Galaxy, known as the Novan Cloud. In order to communicate information to other alien races humans require, alongside superluminal travel, (a ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,651
3 votes
1 answer
213 views

What would the launch and explosion of FTL-missiles look like?

In Effects of being hit by an object going at FTL speeds, the effects of a spear going at FTL speeds are debated in detail. For my setting, humanity's last hope of stalling an alien invasion comes ...
Elyo's user avatar
  • 313
-1 votes
1 answer
117 views

A device to negate time dilation believability [closed]

In this setting spacecraft are able to approach the speed of light and are equipped with a device to negate the time dilation, this allows things to go horribly wrong if this device fails plot wise. ...
Stargazer's user avatar
  • 525
6 votes
2 answers
548 views

How would the laws of physics need to be adjusted if there really were a preferred frame of reference for FTL?

I am considering how to implement faster-than-light (FTL) travel in a sci-fi setting without the attendant problems with causality. One of the ways I've been thinking about for this is establishing a ...
Lawton's user avatar
  • 588

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