1. cjones636

    cjones636 New Member

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    Help me come up with a word for, "Warp Drive" (SCI-FI)

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by cjones636, Jul 29, 2016.

    This is my first time writing a sci-fi short story. I've had this story in my head for a couple of years now, and would now like to get it out of my head lol.

    I'm looking for a word for "warp drive". A warp drive is a piece of technology that makes deep space exploration in the least time possible.
     
  2. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Really you need to decide how your drive 'works' (which is difficult because faster than light travel is impossible so making something logically consistent is the key) then from that you take your name

    for eample John Scalzi decided that his ships 'skipped' from one part of the multiverse to another thus they never really travelled they just arrived - hence skip drive (he had one character explain this to the others skipping the heavy physics by telling them 'you don't have the math')

    The forever war on the other hand made a plot point of the time dialation at near light travel, so that troopps on the ships experienced much less time than those left behind

    lots of other examples
     
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  3. SethLoki

    SethLoki Retired Autodidact Contributor

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    ermm, warp drive gathers up space-time and squishes it about itself so it can thread itself like a needle through pleats. Yes?

    Random thought associations to the above:

    Space-time Threader
    Pleat Drive
    Continuum Compactor
    Chuck Norris (apparently when he does press ups the earth moves to and from him so why not)
    Hyper-Condensor (yes with an 'O')
    Space-Needler
    Interspace-Leaper
    Wrinkle-Spanner (you get 2 for 1 with this, also makes spacemen/women look 10 years younger)
     
  4. Michael Pless

    Michael Pless Senior Member

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    I read FTL in a novel years ago - Faster Than Light, and memory tells me the author used the term "FTL drive". In Dune, they used the spice to "fold space".
     
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  5. Scot

    Scot Senior Member

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    Engineering has a habit of throwing up acronyms. I think you should be looking for a sci-fi phrase that would meet that criteria. A bit like Dr Who's Tardis; Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.
    Another option is to name the drive unit after a famous astro-physicist who developed the theory of interstellar flight; or so you can claim.
    Hawkings' Interstellar Drive; HID.
    Relativistic Interstellar Space Engine; RISE (I wanted RISK but couldn't think of anything suitable beginning with k.)
    C+ Warp Engine.
    MOBIUS drive. Come up with your own words for this acronym. I like the idea of taking multi-dimensional space-time and folding it to get fewer dimensions; rather like a mobius strip which has only one side and one boundary.
     
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  6. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    I'm planning to use: HSWT (Holy Shit, We're There) drive. :)
     
  7. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Are you writing about people who understand the technical details, or just about people who use it? If it's just the people who use it the way non-engineers use cars, then maybe the generic "FTL" would work well enough?
     
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  8. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    In Farscape they use Starburst.
    Subspace.
    Rift.
    Jump Drive
    You could even use a massive gravity well from a black hole, and some high energy engines to fling the ship into an FTL speed.
    Maybe even some kind of FTL gates posted at all destinations (manufactured wormhole concept).
    Quantum Time Space Displacement
     
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  9. I.A. By the Barn

    I.A. By the Barn A very lost time traveller Contributor

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    ^liking just for farscape
    Space folder
    Space tearer
    Quantum folder
    Quantum space messer upper
    The Quick Switch
     
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  10. loonypapa

    loonypapa Member

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    Look up Alcubierre Drive.
    Other than that, the warp drive concept is nonesense.
     
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  11. Aeriion

    Aeriion New Member

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    Planning the general functionality of the device ahead of time can definitely narrow down a good word or phrase for the technology. Quantum Tran-Spacial Engine perhaps? Quantum mechanics breaks down the ability for the universes smallest particles to essentially be 2 things at once. To shorten this name, you can just do QTE, or Qutie as a sort of hip way of saying it. Military has weird letter sequences they just make into words so it works. Hopefully this sparks something in the grey matter. ;)
     
  12. Necronox

    Necronox Contributor Contributor

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    Techyon Drive - A drive that harnesses techyons (faster then light particles)
    Wormhole drive - makes wormholes
    Hyperspace Drive. (the idea of going on a different "plane" to travel faster.
    Gravity Drive (High gravity results in time (and space) to bend around it. Effectively this means that the ship is moving as a normal speed, but just that the world is sped up around it, meaning in a relative increase in travel speed beyond the limit of light speed).

    I suppose you can alter the "drive" part to other terms like "Engine" "Generator" or whatever strikes your fancy.
     
  13. MichaelP

    MichaelP Banned

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  14. psychotick

    psychotick Contributor Contributor

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    Hi,

    If it's a warp drive as in Trek, then why not go back to basics. The drive is actually a spatial compression system where the bubble of space in which the ship travels is compressed somehow - which is theoretically maybe possible a la Alcubierre. So why not call it a spatial compression drive and then abbreviate it - eg the Spacom drive.

    Cheers, Greg.
     
  15. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Another way to put it, warp drive refers to bunching up the fabric of space-time so that you go through something like pleats, bending the fabric of space.

    Jumping space-time
    Threading space-time
    Jump drive
    Tunneling
     
  16. Razielgrimm

    Razielgrimm New Member

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    Alright I have to correct all of you who are getting this wrong. There is a big difference between an FTL Drive a Warp Drive. An FTL Drive uses force to physically propel the ship to reach faster than light speed. Whereas a Warp Drive bends space to instantly move the ship from point A to point B.
     
  17. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Four year old thread, probably resolved by now.
     
  18. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    And Homer came up with a new one two days ago that beats them all!
     
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  19. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    Let's * argue about how a fictional piece of technology works...

    *not
     
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  20. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    It doesn't work that* way.

    :supertongue:
     
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  21. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Personally, I'm down for Sulu Drive. Sulu for super-luminal and also because I like the idea of George Takei sitting in the matter-antimatter chamber, getting the order to "give'er all you've got" and a softly sensual "Oh my..." reverberating through the ship's interior comms.
     
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  22. J.D. Ray

    J.D. Ray Member Supporter Contributor

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    This is perfect.
     
  23. Madman

    Madman Life is Sacred Contributor

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    Hitherto super arriver.

    Underspace tunnel crawler.

    Tachyon imbued travel field.

    Dream-scraper imaginatorisation drive.

    Sci-field generator.

    Space Streamer.

    Anti-gravity super pulse jumpilisation spooling thitherto commencer.

    Highgard drive.

    Random instancing generation drive.

    Lucky-unlucky jump drive.


    EDIT:
    This is brings me too much enjoyment.

    Space Instancing Aid.
    Travel Enforcement Drive.
    Super Luminary Spool.
    Anti-theoretical practicality emplacement drive.
    Digestive teleportation pill for biological ships.
    Universal Fenestration-Defenestration Drive.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2020
  24. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    "Sir, we have to make a Necro-Jump!"

    "No, it's too dangerous! We could resurrect a timethread from decades ago... "
     
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  25. J.D. Ray

    J.D. Ray Member Supporter Contributor

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    The Impossibility Engine
     

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