New efforts!

[KennonGL]

My group played Champions almost exclusively for several years.  We definitely came up with many builds that were totally unplayable while still being "within the rules".

Let's see, first there was a guy with a 3D6 Ego-Based Entangle -- effectively a permanent hold unless you were another mentalist.  He sent that one into Steve Jackson Games
and it was actually incorporated into the next version game rules (after some serious nerfing) as Paralyze.  My buddy got a note of recognition in the rulebooks for it. :)

I think the most utterly powerful but totally worthless character was made by another friend of mine. 
The character only had 1 power:  Teleport - Extra Dimensional - Usable on Others - Ranged

Bad guys show up - Mr. Bamf points to bad guy - bad guy disappears. 
Other hero: "So, where'd he go?"  Mr. Bamf "No idea, but he won't be back."

[eabrace]

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/eabrace/titan/moderator_hat.png  <- mod hat

THE FOLLOWING IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE TITAN NETWORK MODERATOR STAFF

It is inevitable during the course of keeping order on these forums that there will occasionally be objections or differences of opinion regarding actions taken by moderators.  In the event that you have any concerns or objections to an action taken by a moderator, there are right ways and wrong ways to address these concerns.

Example of the right way:
* send a PM to the moderators and/or admins and politely ask for clarification or state the rationale for your objection/concern

Example of the wrong way:
* following up with a post or new thread referencing the moderated content either directly or indirectly

In the future, if you have an issue with actions taken by a moderator, take it to PMs for discussion.

We now return you to your New Efforts thread already in progress.

[Goddangit]

Bad guys show up - Mr. Bamf points to bad guy - bad guy disappears. 
Other hero: "So, where'd he go?"  Mr. Bamf "No idea, but he won't be back."

Wish him deep into the cornfield, Anthony...

[Arcana]

Might I bother you with a completely unrelated question??

I've just been reading about Alcubierre drives, during which I recalled the gravitational wave experiments of not so long ago - in my (very limited) understanding of the two - both seemed to relate to distortion of space - time...

So, does the detection of those waves suggest to some degree a warp drive really is a possibility in some form - even if it's at subluminal speeds?

(Not sure what that drive is called - so warp drive will have to do...)

Detecting gravitational waves confirms that element of general relativity, and to the extent that those experiments confirm that aspect of general relativity they also suggest that the aspects of Alcubierre drives related to those predictions of general relativity are within the realm of theoretical possibility.  So in other words, yes, a little bit.  However, the problems with whether Alcubierre drives are possible are less about whether space-time waves are possible at all, and more about how you would go about generating the kinds necessary for practical space travel.  In particular, the specific kinds of distortions Alcubierre drives require involve solutions to the equations of general relativity that involve negative energy.  Negative energy isn't totally impossible according to quantum mechanics (see the Casmir effect) but the kinds and amounts required are in most Alcubierre formulations very daunting.  We only currently know about microscopic and quantum level negative energy situations, but the amounts required for Alcubierre's solutions are like comparable to the total energy of the planet Jupiter.  Configured in a very specific way.

There are some other problems, like how you go about simultaneously using that energy outside the ship to create the warp field and yet bring it along with you so the warp field remains stable out in front of you.

[Codewalker]

ISTR theoretical Alcubierre drives also requiring exotic matter particles that have a negative mass. Or possibly that's just the most "likely" way to generate the negative energy required, it's been a while since I looked at them. In any event, which such particles don't violate our current theoretical model of physics, I'm not aware of any evidence that they actually can exist in our universe. Kind of like magnetic monopoles that way.

[LateNights]

I know most people aren't getting very excited, for exactly the reasons Arcana states - but still, potentially a massive step if it leads to something worthwhile...

From what I understand, space is pretty much empty - except for possible dark matter - which I'm assuming is negative energy, or related?

But I always hear of negative energy being used as fuel, or at least it's implied as I read it...

So now I have more questions, is negative energy being used as fuel or is it needed as part the matter being warped?

Or both?

It sounded like it was both?

[Ohioknight]

We only currently know about microscopic and quantum level negative energy situations, but the amounts required for Alcubierre's solutions are like comparable to the total energy of the planet Jupiter.  Configured in a very specific way.

There are some other problems, like how you go about simultaneously using that energy outside the ship to create the warp field and yet bring it along with you so the warp field remains stable out in front of you.

Last I've heard:

They've got the theoretical energy levels down to the sub-kilogram level by first altering the details of the shape of the metric and then by making the metric "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside" and reducing the externally viewed cross-section down near the Planck limit, which would also help with the "arrival death ray of radiation" issue. 

There are answers for the control issues that involve keeping the leading and trailing edges of the metric causally connected to the ship by a "two fold" metric design.

The time paradox issue may(?) be negated by "excluded collapse state" editing maybe??  Also a "universally preferred frame" may be provided by the average apparent distance to the inflationary horizon (big bang)  (I don't quite understand this but heard it in a discussion point between a physicist and the NASA guy who worked on the Lewis center horizons project that looked at Alcubierre type drives).

And the imaginary matter effect may be provided by whatever dark energy is.

Basically IF (and it's a tall if) you can develop a technology that can expand the universe the way gravity can collapse the universe and IF your technological control of gravity is such that you've got some quantum black holes running your electric razors there's a good-ish shot that an FTL drive MIGHT be possible to engineer.

[RGladden]

Uhm....yep.

[Eskreema]

I know most people aren't getting very excited, for exactly the reasons Arcana states - but still, potentially a massive step if it leads to something worthwhile...

From what I understand, space is pretty much empty - except for possible dark matter - which I'm assuming is negative energy, or related?

But I always hear of negative energy being used as fuel, or at least it's implied as I read it...

So now I have more questions, is negative energy being used as fuel or is it needed as part the matter being warped?

Or both?

It sounded like it was both?

I see normal matter as a carrot and dark matter as the stick.  Dark or maybe an exotic matter would dilate space behind you and regular matter would collapse it in front making a wave.  Let's say you are a fish that can swim 35 mph off the coast of CA.  California falls into the ocean making a wave.  You surf the compression of water such that you are inside the wave and not in the typical way a surfer would on the leading fringe.  You could still swim about at 35mph inside the wave as it speeds off toward Japan at 150 mph.  Since there is no limit to how fast space can warp in this way, you could propagate it however fast the energy difference would allow, but you (the fish) have a max - 35 for the fish, light speed for matter in and out of the distortion.  I think.

As Arcana says the amount of energy to do it would be crazy.  To get a sense of it, how much weight would you have to hold above a ball to balance it in mid air, and that would be just equilibrium let alone the beginning of a mode of transportation faster than light (then reverse the secondary weight to exotic matter to propel it faster toward the earth while you move the earth to make it continuously fall.). This example wouldn't work for faster-than-light travel since typical matter wouldn't be able to move faster than light through space

[LateNights]

Only if you're the Silver Surfer...

I see what you're saying, but, isn't the assumption it would take a massive amount of energy based on what we've seen occur naturally?

An example against this idea would be the atomic bomb, no?

(Because it seemingly got only slightly bigger than any other bomb or missile, but due to its design became far more efficient - I don't have an example of something in nature that man has refined to be more efficient, at least not in this sense...)

Last I've heard:

They've got the theoretical energy levels down to the sub-kilogram level by first altering the details of the shape of the metric and then by making the metric "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside" and reducing the externally viewed cross-section down near the Planck limit, which would also help with the "arrival death ray of radiation" issue. 

There are answers for the control issues that involve keeping the leading and trailing edges of the metric causally connected to the ship by a "two fold" metric design.

The time paradox issue may(?) be negated by "excluded collapse state" editing maybe??  Also a "universally preferred frame" may be provided by the average apparent distance to the inflationary horizon (big bang)  (I don't quite understand this but heard it in a discussion point between a physicist and the NASA guy who worked on the Lewis center horizons project that looked at Alcubierre type drives).

And the imaginary matter effect may be provided by whatever dark energy is.

Basically IF (and it's a tall if) you can develop a technology that can expand the universe the way gravity can collapse the universe and IF your technological control of gravity is such that you've got some quantum black holes running your electric razors there's a good-ish shot that an FTL drive MIGHT be possible to engineer.

This is exactly why I needed Arcana to answer - the faint hope she'd decode this into something my poor little mind could read (understand would be a stretch), but I'm gonna have a whale of a time looking up all the terms that resemble English just not in a way I'm accustomed to.

But, it did all sound like good news...

:)

For what it's worth, I don't believe FTL will ever be possible, just because of the implications it has with time / time travel / whatnot - doesn't seem to make sense...

But to be able to travel at even a significant fraction of the speed of light would still be an amazing leap for humanity.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

I see what you're saying, but, isn't the assumption it would take a massive amount of energy based on what we've seen occur naturally?

An example against this idea would be the atomic bomb, no?

(Because it seemingly got only slightly bigger than any other bomb or missile, but due to its design became far more efficient - I don't have an example of something in nature that man has refined to be more efficient, at least not in this sense...)

This is exactly why I needed Arcana to answer - the faint hope she'd decode this into something my poor little mind could read (understand would be a stretch), but I'm gonna have a whale of a time looking up all the terms that resemble English just not in a way I'm accustomed to.

But, it did all sound like good news...

:)

For what it's worth, I don't believe FTL will ever be possible, just because of the implications it has with time / time travel / whatnot - doesn't seem to make sense...

But to be able to travel at even a significant fraction of the speed of light would still be an amazing leap for humanity.

In all honesty i have my doubts that it would allow superluminal travel in any practical implementation, but if it allowed ships to reach even .1c without an enormous energy investment to accelerate and decelerate it would still be amazing.

[Arcana]

From what I understand, space is pretty much empty - except for possible dark matter - which I'm assuming is negative energy, or related?

This is kind of difficult to summarize, but I'll vastly simplify.  There's a quantum mechanical view of space that says "empty" space always contains "stuff" because of the mandates of quantum mechanics.  Heisenberg uncertainty makes it impossible for a volume of space to contain zero energy exactly, so there are things called "vacuum fluctuations" that occur where energy and particles momentarily come into existence and then vanish.  The *average* energy can be zero, which is what we normally associate with the conservation of energy principles.  Besides that, "empty" space also contain what physicists would call "fields" which some people incorrectly call "force fields" because although some of them are associated with forces, not all of them are.  For example, the standard model of physics predicts all of space is filled with a field called the Higgs field and it is interactions with this field that give matter the properties we normally associate with "mass."

That's the quantum mechanical stuff.  Conceptually independent of that, cosmological general relativity (the study of the structure of the universe on the largest scales) makes predictions about the properties of spacetime.  One of them says that the shape, curvature, and changes of those of spacetime are directly related to the energy contained within that space.  Matter (and energy) typically cause spacetime as a whole to contract in a process analogous but not identical to gravitational attraction.  By looking at the universe on large scales we can estimate the amount of mass within the space we can see.  We can also estimate the amount of mass by trying to estimate the mass of everything we can see, plus everything we predict is there but are unable to see.  When we do that we discover that the amount of mass the universe says it contains based on cosmological studies is smaller than the mass we can actually account for with telescopes.  We know what we can see.  We know what general relativity predicts.  We assume the difference between the two is stuff we can't see.  It is "dark" matter - matter we can't see.  But because we're really good at "seeing" and deducing the presence of things we can't ordinarily see, anything we can't see at all has to have some unusual properties.  Thus, all the theories about what "dark matter" actually is.  We know it is matter in the sense that it exists, it has mass, and it responds to gravity, but beyond that we don't yet know what it is.

Dark energy is a totally unrelated prediction of general relativity.  Cosmological observations seem to indicate that the rate of expansion of the universe is getting faster: it is accelerating.  That is counter-intuitive.  Since mass ought to be slowing down expansion, the universe should have been expanding faster in the past and slower now.  In order to explain cosmological acceleration, physicists realized that the equations of general relativity allow for a very specific kind of energy to cause a net acceleration rather than deceleration.  It requires something physicists refer to as "negative pressure" and it would require a kind of quantum field that had a very specific set of properties.  This field hasn't been observed and no one has come up with a good explanation for how the laws of quantum mechanics would originate the field, but if it existed it would fill space with a kind of energy - "dark" energy because we can't see it, but we can see what it does: it pushes "outward" on spacetime itself, causing the universe to expand faster.  Because it is a property of space itself, as the universe expands and "space" gets "bigger" the field just keeps getting bigger with it.  But the mass inside the universe gets diluted by expansion: everything gets farther apart.  The net result is that the mass in the universe gets weaker at slowing down expansion while dark energy stays exactly the same at pushing it outward.  Thus, expansion gets faster.

Also some people make dark matter and dark energy to be controversial ideas, they really are pretty simple ideas.  If you believe general relativity is a correct description of the universe, then GR says there's more matter in the universe than we can see with telescopes and other astronomical observations.  The obvious conclusion is that there's more stuff we just can't see yet.  Dark matter.  If you believe general relativity is a correct description of the evolution of the universe in terms of cosmological expansion, then if our expansion observations are correct the universe is accelerating its expansion.  GR predicts that is caused by a specific kind of energy field that permeates the universe but we wouldn't be able to observer through normal means.  Dark energy.  That's all both things are.

But *what* they are precisely, we just don't know yet.  They could be very extraordinary things.  Or they could be very mundane things that have simply escaped our attention for currently unknown reasons.

[Arcana]

Last I've heard:

They've got the theoretical energy levels down to the sub-kilogram level by first altering the details of the shape of the metric and then by making the metric "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside" and reducing the externally viewed cross-section down near the Planck limit, which would also help with the "arrival death ray of radiation" issue. 

I've read some of that, but to be honest I can't be sure if that's a reasonable extrapolation quite yet.  Alcubierre's stuff seems to require implausibly ridiculous but not literally impossible engineering.  The newer stuff seems to require inventing new (but not necessarily contradictory) physics we can't confirm actually matches reality.  Although even Alcubierre's stuff seems to tread that line finely as well.

[Arcana]

This is exactly why I needed Arcana to answer - the faint hope she'd decode this into something my poor little mind could read (understand would be a stretch), but I'm gonna have a whale of a time looking up all the terms that resemble English just not in a way I'm accustomed to.

But, it did all sound like good news...

Basically, Alcubierre sat down one day and said "since general relativity can be used to predict the geometry of spacetime for any given arrangement of matter and energy, why can't I do that in reverse: make up a geometry of spacetime I like, and run the equations in reverse to figure out what arrangement of matter and energy create what I want?"

What he came up with was a general idea that you could propel a spacecraft at any velocity without violating general relativity by moving spacetime itself.  The actual universe expands in a way that parts far enough apart from each other are receding from each other at greater than the speed of light.  This doesn't violate GR because nothing is really "moving".  In other words, the chess pieces are standing still and someone is moving the entire board.  If we take the space in front of our spaceship and contract it, then the "distance" from the ship's nose to its destination will shrink.  Small velocities could get you there in an arbitrarily short amount of time.  Meanwhile you expand spacetime behind the ship to restore the overall geometry of the universe.  In effect, you've created a relativistic conveyor belt.

The problem is that most such configurations require distributions of matter and energy that are nonsensical.  Alcubierre managed to find one that "only" required an amount of energy roughly the size of Jupiter.  That's ridiculous in terms of human engineering, but it is not an *impossible* amount of energy.  But the problem was that you actually needed negative energy, which is a lot more problematic since negative energy only exists on subatomic scales.  Still, that's interesting.

OhioKnight mentions that other people have taken Alcubierre's inspiration and tried to make the amount of negative energy required smaller.  There are ways to do that, but it is very difficult.  Remember that physicists are kind of playing a guessing game.  They are coming up with spacetime geometries, and then working backward to see what GR says you need to make them.  If what pops out of the equations is too big, they toss that aside and start over.  It is like coming up with a Scrapper build by deciding what numbers you want, and then trying to figure out in Mids how to get it.  But, like, a lot harder.  It is like they are trying to figure out how to soft cap and res cap and regen cap a Fire blaster in Mids.  Alcubierre was the first to say "hey, I can soft cap a Fire blaster to ranged attacks!"  Some recent physicists have announced "hey, if we assume that the Paragon Market was going to release level shift inspirations that last a week long, and we can use unreleased powersets from I24, and I add two hypothetical Destiny powers, I can soft cap Melee and Ranged, and also res cap all but Psi!"

In other words, interesting for the min/max community in a theoretical sort of way, but not really quite practical knowledge for anyone else, yet.

[LateNights]

But *what* they are precisely, we just don't know yet.  They could be very extraordinary things.  Or they could be very mundane things that have simply escaped our attention for currently unknown reasons.

Ah - so that'd be why it's thrown around as fuel and whatnot - kinda a catch all for what's possible "if"...

Although I did in the meantime read dark matter / energy are seperate from negative energy - is that right?

Basically, Alcubierre sat down one day and said "since general relativity can be used to predict the geometry of spacetime for any given arrangement of matter and energy, why can't I do that in reverse: make up a geometry of spacetime I like, and run the equations in reverse to figure out what arrangement of matter and energy create what I want?"

Joshex?!?

What he came up with was a general idea that you could propel a spacecraft at any velocity without violating general relativity by moving spacetime itself.  The actual universe expands in a way that parts far enough apart from each other are receding from each other at greater than the speed of light.  This doesn't violate GR because nothing is really "moving".  In other words, the chess pieces are standing still and someone is moving the entire board.

That's cool!!

Is that expansion connected to "entropy" or the heat death of the universe?

What happens to all the matter?!?

The problem is that most such configurations require distributions of matter and energy that are nonsensical.  Alcubierre managed to find one that "only" required an amount of energy roughly the size of Jupiter.  That's ridiculous in terms of human engineering, but it is not an *impossible* amount of energy.  But the problem was that you actually needed negative energy, which is a lot more problematic since negative energy only exists on subatomic scales.  Still, that's interesting.

Damn!! Spoke too soon - wait...interesting??

In other words, interesting for the min/max community in a theoretical sort of way, but not really quite practical knowledge for anyone else, yet.

I see.

I'm left feeling distinctly childlike, cause I wanna ask the same question again about gravitational waves relating to warp drives - even though I can see you've just answered that - just it wasn't quite what I wanted to hear, lmao!

Hypothetically...possibly...maybe..."if" - Come on science!!

[Victoria Victrix]

Posted because this amuses the heck out of me.

https://studios.amazon.com/discussions/Tx25246NR3P78Z5?page=1

This is pro-writers discussing all the stupid offers they've gotten or seen inviting them to basically work for free.

[Kassandros]

Might be worth noting that we actually know where dark matter is and can make images which show the dark matter "halos" of galaxies. We can do this because gravity bends light and so by measuring how much light from more distant galaxies is bent, we can know where and how much matter is in a galaxy and subtract out the visible matter to "see" the dark matter. Dark matter is also what keeps galaxies together as the visible mass is not enough to account for the galactic structures we observe.

We also can see how dark matter can get stripped away from a galaxy during a collision with another galaxy. There's tons of fascinating stuff out there if you're interested in this stuff. Just stick to legitimate sources as there's also a lot of nonsense from alternative type sites spouting nonsense. The words quantum and dark seem to attract these sorts.

[LateNights]

Might be worth noting that we actually know where dark matter is and can make images which show the dark matter "halos" of galaxies. We can do this because gravity bends light and so by measuring how much light from more distant galaxies is bent, we can know where and how much matter is in a galaxy and subtract out the visible matter to "see" the dark matter. Dark matter is also what keeps galaxies together as the visible mass is not enough to account for the galactic structures we observe.

We also can see how dark matter can get stripped away from a galaxy during a collision with another galaxy. There's tons of fascinating stuff out there if you're interested in this stuff. Just stick to legitimate sources as there's also a lot of nonsense from alternative type sites spouting nonsense. The words quantum and dark seem to attract these sorts.

I'm interested certainly, but I'm nowhere near clever enough to understand a lot of what's out there to read - doesn't stop me from trying every few months though, lmao!!

Actually, I did along the way read that dark matter is all bar confirmed as real - but what it is exactly isn't understood as yet...

I'd like to know why anybody thinks it will turn out to be anything exotic or even useful at all though?

[Arcana]

Posted because this amuses the heck out of me.

https://studios.amazon.com/discussions/Tx25246NR3P78Z5?page=1

This is pro-writers discussing all the stupid offers they've gotten or seen inviting them to basically work for free.

That thread is a bit long for me to read.  Would you mind summarizing all of the content in that thread and posting it here?  I would prefer if there was some narrative flair to the summary that would make it interesting to read.  Actually, if you have some contacts in the voice narration industry it would be useful if an audible version was posted that I could listen to in the car.  I would be willing to credit all of your efforts in this regard.

[LateNights]

That thread is a bit long for me to read.  Would you mind summarizing all of the content in that thread and posting it here?  I would prefer if there was some narrative flair to the summary that would make it interesting to read.  Actually, if you have some contacts in the voice narration industry it would be useful if an audible version was posted that I could listen to in the car.  I would be willing to credit all of your efforts in this regard.

I'm tempted to throw the Bible in here for consideration, but probably shouldn't - because religion...

Getting credit is always nice though!!