The Shalimar Treaty

[douglas]

Thermodyne said:
Also, Einstein’s limit on the maximum speed that mater can obtain, is based on the theory that mass increases with speed. This foundation of his work has yet to be demonstrated. So everything built upon it is still theory.

On the contrary, particle accelerators have pushed various subatomic particles to very near the speed of light with a resulting increase in mass sufficient to require designing new kinds of particle accelerators (at least of the circular variety) to take the mass increase into account before being able to achieve even higher speeds. The amount of the mass increase corresponded quite well with the predictions of relativity. For a little bit of reference material, go here.

[Slick]

This is what happens when you propose a situation that follows established physics for one part (the propagation of the signals) and makes up jibberish for another part (FTL travel). You can prove anything.

I am not totally discounting that we may one day figure out how to travel faster than light. However, if we do, it will mean that we have to change our ideas about basic physics. If this ever happens, this discussion would have to be done using the new physics, not a bastardization of the current physics. As of right now, we just can't travel FTL. There are some interesting experiments that are going on at the sub-atomic level that may lead to new understandings; but these experiments have so far only yielded results which confirm or are consistent with our current accepted understanding of physics. And our current physics predicts that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light; indeed nothing with mass can even achieve the speed of light.

To some people this is the motivation to discover something new to expand our understanding of how the universe works. I certainly applaud these efforts and hope for their success.

Until we figure it out, or even figure out a theory that can be tested and agrees with observations, FTL travel is currently not possible under our current established theories.

Yes, there are ideas about wormholes, extra-dimensional effects, strings, superstrings and a myriad of other theories that would make FTL travel, time travel and other SciFi concepts possible. Until these theories are reconciled with observations and put into a theory that makes predictions that can be tested, they are just fun things to think about and put into science fiction stories.

That's just my opinion, of course.