The problem with warp drives

Some physicists recently suggested we should look for warp drive signals to find aliens. I had a look at the paper and have a few things to say about it...

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#science #sciencenews #warpdrive #astrophysics

[KatyCloughQMUL]

Hello Sabine! I’m one of the authors of this paper, thank you for making a video about it. Regarding the point about the total mass of negative energy density in the warp bubble, the number you highlight is the physical value for a mass of 1R in geometric units (c=G=1) when R is 1km. Later in the paper we say that the integrated mass of the negative energy density is 0.01R (bottom right of page 4 of the paper). So it is about 1% of a solar mass at this scale, and didn’t need to be finely tuned to avoid forming a black hole. It is of course still quite a lot of negative energy to get into one place, and as we say in the paper, we don't advocate going out to look for the signals :-) We had a lot of fun doing the research, and it is nice to hear people talk about it, so thanks again for covering it.

[slaphead]

"Ye Cannae Change The Laws of Physics" - Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, sometime in the 23rd century.

[mky]

All we need are Dilithium Crystals or a Berylium Sphere to power the warp drive. I saw that in some old historical records.

[msromike]

There is plenty of negative energy. We just need to find a way to harness it from American political campaigns.

[LarryGarfieldCrell]

As an American, I find the way you pronounce "Einstein" to be absolutely delightful.

[maidros]

I don't know why her "waving my hands causes gravitational waves" caused me to Crack up as much as it did, but I am grateful 😂

[aquahood]

You know Sabine we all just love to dream. I am lucky to have spent 2500+ hr underwater, am an Instructor, a technical diver, and it is the closest I will ever get to space but it is very similar. Completely different environmental conditions, microgravity, 1 atmosphere per 10m, so 2 atmospheres at 10m. 1 plus 1, as at the surface you are at 1ata. I dive in a dry suit if it's not the around the equator. So, , with 2 tanks ob my back, 2-4 tanks hanging under my arms, I can go many places and it's absolutely as close to what you may experience on an exoplanet as we don't know what a fraction of the life we see is and have stopped naming as the convention is broken (creatures which eat others but have chloroplasts:-). I remember on a decompression stop it at 6 m for 45 minutesand there was this little ball with Angel swings that was flying around in the water like the water was air.... I asked one of my buddies who is a long time instructor hey did you see that and he's like yeah do you know what it is now nobody does. It was 9km off the coast of Western Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean. We were coming up from 70 me had been exploring a the first purpose built aircraft carrier and one of the first victims of WWII. The Japanese bombed in surprise attack and they weren't even able to get any shots off but nice to know that most people made it to shore. That doesn't mean we didn't run into skeletons inside the ship and you don't take anything or touch anything as it's considered a war grave. However, when you die for such a long time and you do so many Dives you realize how foreign we are to that environment and you develop a great respect for it knowing how important it is for our life on this planet when you see entire galaxies of phytoplankton and zooplankton and every possible shape conglomeration of jellies float by you it's absolutely mind blowing. I guess I'm lucky to have that experience. And of all around the world and I've seen so many beautiful things.

[DN]

We can easily detect warp drives from gamma ray bursts from alien civilisations blowing them selves up trying to achieve warp speed.

[jdbrinton]

I'm actually pretty encouraged by this progress. It means there's a direction for further exploration - expelled negative mass and have a solar mass equivalent of energy. It's a starting point.

[tvuser]

2:52 "Momentum conservation": I thought part of the idea of a warp drive is that you don't need any rocket engine, because you're not actually accelerating the spaceship, you are expanding space behind it and contracting it in front. The spaceship is "sitting still" while space warps around it, and momentum is conserved without throwing anything out the back.

[miketurner]

“The real problem with warp drive”
Just what I needed after a day at work.

[foxtrotunit]

4:26 TBH an alien race that can warp space, can also probably manipulate the higgs field.
Something having the mass of a sun doesn't have to be it's actual size.

[diGritz]

Simulation Technician #1: Alright since we can't agree whether or not to allow FTL in this Sim, how about we play Rock, Paper Scissors.
ST #2: Sounds like a plan. Winner decides... Rock, Rock. Paper, Paper. Rock, Rock. Scissor, Scissor.
ST #1: Alrighty then, lets just split it 50/50. We let them think they can but make it so hard they'll never figure it out.
ST #2: But didn't we do the same thing for Fusion generation?

[charliedulin]

The Romulans use a singularity as the power for their warp drives. The Gallifreyan Time Lords also use singularities to power their Tardises.

[qrnzwij]

“I read the paper & I think it requires some clarification”
So many high hopes dashed with these few words 😢

[tombayliss]

I grew up on a large farm many years ago and learned that to get to a certain location was to take a "short cut" if I wanted to get there in the shortest time and with the least effort. In college I majored in physics and we were not on the Moon quite yet and I proposed that we take a short cut and everyone laughed
but physicists are now very close to "short cuts" because the stumbling block of "time" is getting very different.
The older I get the more I realize it's lacticity.

[empireempire]

Interestingly, SUB FTL warp drives STILL require dizzying amounts of mass - i've talked with Helmerich directly about it and i'm working on numerical optimizer for their software so that we can see how far we can push this down.

I'd say, if within my lifetime we can warp one arm of an interferometer by detectable amount in a controlled manner - meaning there's on-off switch for the warp field - i'd be happy enough. This could be, for example, used to reduce delay in data transmission in the fiber optic cables between the continents.
Dont get me wrong, Enterprise-A would be nice and all, i dream of going to the stars just like any nerd, but i think going straight for FTL starships is trying to jump 10 developmental steps ahead. Lets try SMALL WARPS first.

[Zandaarl]

One of the authors of the paper about detecting warp drive activities (1:50) is even named 😂 (The main antagonist of the second Star Trek movie.)

[DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

The real problem with warp drives? They keep warping my laundry.

[davidknellinger]

Love how you explain things, this is at the bleeding edge of my understanding, but you make it consumable.