Technology that defies logic

Why not? If you shrink the space between two objects then surely they will move closer together? If I laid out a sheet and placed a ball at each end, then scrunched up the middle of the sheet, then the two balls would be pulled closer together. Or am I misunderstanding something about how warp theory works?

Yes I do realise we are talking about something which has not, and probably will never be, achieved. It’s still an interesting conversation though

 

Let's imagine a long runner of carpet in your hallway...I'm assuming it's about 20 feet long...Our solar system is at one end of it - 6 inches in...The starship Enterprise is at the edge of the solar system (point A) - 7 inches in...Alpha Centauri is at the other end of the carpet (Point B) - 19 feet 6 inches in.

We engage warp, and the carpet in the middle is both compressed and expanded...That between point A - 7 inches - and point C - 19 feet 5 inches contracts to 1 mm, that between point C - 19 feet 5 - and point B - 19 feet 6 expands to 18 feet 11 inches. The Enterprise travels the 1mm that is all that now separates point A and point C in a very short time. We disengage warp, and everything goes back to the correct distance apart. The Enterprise travels the 1 inch from point C to point B very slowly, but it's a short distance, so time taken is bearable. (My daughter recently came back from Marrakech - flight time 3 hours 35 minutes for 3,000km, rail travel time 3 hours 24 minutes for 180km - a bit like warp travel and impulse travel!)

As long as there is nothing on the carpet between points A & C, everything's fine; the problem arises if you try to go too far without checking what's in between.

Imagine that there's something between us and Alpha Centauri - a rogue comet, perhaps. If it's directly between us, it's likely that Enterprise will go through it at a relativistic rate of knots; I think (?) that the relativistic effects will probably increase the apparent mass of the objects involved considerably, and the collision will probably destroy them both (and space for quite a radius) in a massive explosion. If it's slightly off to one side, the comet's gravity as Enterprise goes past could well affect the trajectory, and mean that the Enterprise won't end up where they expected; the comet would probably be similarly perturbed by the near-miss.

 

Good point, but having literal superpowers is a pretty high benchmark.

 

@Shadowfax
Ahhh, I understand now. I assumed the stretching and contracting of space would cause stretching of the space around it, like if you pinched the surface of a partially inflated balloon, and that this would therefore cause mass adjacent to the warp field to be drawn towards it (at both ends, hence making them closer to each other). I didn't realise that it was so localised that it had no effect whatsoever on the immediately adjacent space. That cutoff of stretched/unstretched and compressed/uncompressed feels intuitively like it should cause a tear, because there would be a large amount of stress on the juncture. I don't know whether that would bear out in physics though, even if it were possible.

 

It doesn't unfortunately. The mathematics behind general relativity allows you to create objects like that, but only with non-physical input parameters. The object is called an alcubierre bubble, but it requires a negative energy density.

 

Which is, presumably, not possible within the physics of our universe, correct?

 

Man, @mashers and I were having such fun talking utter b******s, and you have to go and talk sense!

 

Unfortunately. It's possible to have momentary moments of negative energy in the quantum foam, but it can't be sustained.

 

Damn. I really wish FTL travel were possible. I sometimes feel like it's our only hope for surviving what's going on on this planet

 

I'm actually trying to read Proxima right now and struggling to get through it. I'm not sure why though. I don't think it's the tech, but I'm not sure.

 

Sounds like what is commonly called 'magic realism'. magic-realism is something in a story that is out of place but accepted in that setting. Think Kiki riding a broom delivering things in modern day Toyo, or a walking castle in Howl's Moving Castle.
We also deal with things, including technology, that we as humans don't understand, but we understand that they work- asprin is one, most meds that claim to regulate seritonin, and we have been left with momoliths that defy our logic even more modern ones (Coral Castle).
My hope for a story that is like what you said would be that it is used sparingly, since they don't know how it works, or fully understand the ramifications.
"I got this box with a button on it. I was told it can destroy land. I stared at an atoll on a map for awhile and pressed the button, that atoll was destryed. Now China is making plans to invade Japan, should I do it again....?"
In addition, we are used to using technology on a daily basis that most do not understand- mobile phones, vehicles, airplanes. Hell, a lot of people don't know how STDs are spread.