Do you believe in UFO's and Aliens?

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Speaking of causality, have a look at This twoshots:

Now it seems you and Fnord have a pretty understanding of Special Relativity but Im dismayed to see no acknowledgement here of General Relativity; in which the causality issue is considerably more complex and uncertain(as it is in QM). So you see, at the moment it appears that nothing can travel faster than light by brute force, but effective FTL actually CAN be achieved by means of warping spacetime.


here's the link BTW: http://www.livescience.com/technology/0 ... light.html

I haven't reviewed that kind of thing yet, but I'm pretty sure the overall conclusion is still that you can't send info faster than light (especially with this method).

Yes, the situation becomes much more complicated when you take into account GR (you did specifically question SR). Which brings up the question of the practicality of time space warping methods. As I have pointed out, wormholes are not even sure to be possible, Alcubierre Drives even if they were physically possible are pretty much certain to be impossible to actually implement, and they both require things like exotic matter, which may or may not exist. If you can think of any other known solutions to GR which allow us to circumvent the speed of light, similar objections probably apply.

I can't read his mind, but I would guess that he makes such statements because he believes them to be true. I merely wished to point out that his statements aren't more credible than those of my neighbour simply because Mitchell been to the moon.

What makes you focus so fervently on wormholes BTW? Yes they have not been proven to exist but the Alcubierre Drive is only ONE possibility. I agree that its feasibility is VERY sketchy but that does not mean that it would be impossible to warp spacetime in a (rather)small region of space to get around the light barrier.But as you can see, there is some VERY Reasonable Doubt that travelling faster than light and/or travelling vast distances in outer space by means of shortening the actual distance is totally impossible. Wormholes may not exist in nature, they may have to be created.

Evidence, Please?

The phrase I put in bold type, and the word in italics say all that needs to be said.

FTL is an illusion, at best.

In that case, why dont we Ramp up the speed of light!
But like I said in the last few posts. The way to get around the light barrier on the classical leve is Not to use quantum entanglement but to exploit General Relativity.

I assume that somewhere in the Universe aliens exist, but what we or our friends see, or mass-media tell us about the UFO is really not worth attention. It might be an optical illusion like Aurora Borealis

The skepticism surrounding UFOs and aliens by rationalists strikes me as very odd. There really are NO obstacles in physical law precluding extraterrestrial life AND extraterrestrial intelligence.

Yes, something that I find paradoxical about this issue is that, if FTL was possible then I don't see the point of space and time bending when getting close to the speed of light, according to the special relativity theory, which that aspect itself suggests the speed of light being the limit.

Good point greenblue. But the structure of spacetime on the Quantum level is VERY different than on the astronomical level. twoshots gave the 2 assumptions of SR that prohibit FTL, but the discovery of Quantum Entanglement casts some SERIOUS doubt on quantum-scale causality.

This is an area I find interesting, but I don't have proper knowledge about it, wormholes could be used not only to inmediate travel to space but also to become time machines, although not so much likely I think. As it is an interesting theory, and it seems there are mathematical models for it, not sure if this has been actually tested in labs at quantum level? Some claim to be this true, I have heard some UFO fans to claim and seem to be sure about it, that this is the way aliens travel through space to visit earth.

No wormhole has ever been created in a laboratory. Wormholes are mathmatical constructs used to explain (or 'fudge') certain other quantum-level theories and observations.

UFO Fans? About as reliable in explaining the origins of UFOs as anime otaku are at explaining classical literature.

lol, of course, there are some that claim themselves to be investigators in the subject, which they claim to do research, and come up with the theory of how aliens travel through space. Anyway, some "research" or "proof" they might claim, have been proven false. The face on mars is one of them and some UFO videos have been proven false by ILM. (video montage).

Statistically speaking, the odds are that there are many planets "out there" with life on them. Some likely more advance than ours, some likely less. The chances of us recognizing any of them as life are fairly small. What makes anyone so certain that they would recognize US as life? Or that we would be so fascinating that they would really bother travelling such massive distances to observe or abduct us? Frankly, if someone could just answer for me why we bother watering the lawn to make the grass grow when we're just going to complain about mowing it, then the human race just might make sense. Maybe?

Judith

Life is characterised by having all of the following:

(1) Cellular Structure

All living things are composed of one or more cells. Different types of cells have different "jobs" within the organism. Each life form begins from one cell, which then will split. These cells split, and so on. After this has happened several times, differentiation is undergone, when the cells change so that they are not the same thing anymore. Then they are used to begin to put together the final organism, some cells, for example, as the eyes, some as the heart, etc. The only arguable exception to this is viruses. They are not composed of cells, but are said to be "living."

(2) Organization and Differentiation

Complex organization patterns are found in all living organisms. They arrange themselves on very small levels, grouping like things together. On larger levels, they become visible. This also has to do with differentiation, as the cells are organized in a manner that makes sense for the organism after they change to what they’ll be in the final organism.

(3) Use of Energy

All organisms use energy. The sum of the chemical energy they use is called metabolism. This energy is used to carry out everything they do. Autotrophs (plants) use energy from the sun for photosynthesis, to make their own ‘food’ (glucose). Heterotrophs (animals and humans) must ingest food for this purpose.

(4) Homeostasis

All organisms have stable internal conditions which must be maintained in order to remain alive. These include temperature, water content, heartbeat, and other such things. In a way, this has to do with energy use, because a certain level of energy must be kept within the body at all times. For this, obviously, humans must then ingest food on a regular basis. Not all conditions are for the body to maintain itself; though most are.

(5) Growth

All organisms grow and change. Cells divide to form new, identical cells. Differentiation happens, as well, when cells mutate into other types of cells, making a more complex organism. Organisms growing, changing, and becoming more complex is called development. Single-celled organisms do grow as well, but they will only become slightly larger – this is nearly unmeasurable.

(6) Reproduction

All organisms reproduce in order to continue the species' life. This is combining genetic information (in sexual reproduction) or splitting into two organisms (in asexual reproduction) in order to create another of the same species. In sexual reproduction, the new organism will have some characteristics from the mother, and some from father. It may look like either of them, or it may not. In asexual reproduction, the new organism is an exact copy of the first. Sometimes, not every member of a species is able to reproduce. As long as others are (which we know they can, if they still exist today) then it does not threaten the species. (Except for mules, but don't worry about them, they are a bizarre anomoly.)

Note that all of these conditions must be present (with a few rare exceptions) to be classified as life.

BYW: I stopped watering my lawn more than once a month about a year ago, after putting in drought-resistant plants instead of grass. Mowing now takes about a half-hour once every three months, and nobody complains.