Warp Speed In Five Years... Engage!

It'll just take me a few moments to punch up the coordinates on the navicomputer... okay, done now:

AN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.

The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.

The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

Okay... now, I know this is all absurd. But it comes from the Scotsman, a paper I haven't found to be just plain goofy. And it quotes scientists on the record saying they've been contacted about this.

Now, this is just silly:

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.

Five years. But obviously that's just the thrust part, not the hyperspace slip part.

Unbelievable. I may one day see hyperspace engines. I may see cancer cured. But I'll never see a stupid friggin' flyin' car.

Via Instapundit.

The Technological Tipping Point? Apparently all bloggers are supposed to be talking about "the approaching human singularity," but no one informed me. It's, I guess, the point at which some serious science-fictiony shit starts being created, quickly.

Dean Esmay discusses what some call "The Rapture For Nerds."

Dean runs down the advances we're making, and suggests what might be coming, but no mention of an f'n' flyin' car.

Allah Commands You To Watch This: It's Kurzweil, talking about the coming "singularity" (which I always thought had something to do with black holes, but that shows you how out-of-it I am), on CSPAN. He says it's "mind-blowing," and furthermore, that you should "spark a bowl" when you watch it, whatever that means.

Kind of like incense in a censer? I guess it's a religious thing. I never made it to Confirmation so I really don't know.

posted by Ace at 11:05 PM

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