Re: virus: playing safe with supernaturalisms

JakePrime@aol.com
Tue, 16 Jun 1998 10:52:49 EDT


In a message dated 98-06-14 04:08:30 EDT, Nathan Russell writes:

<< You wrote:

> The difference between these horizons and what you talk about, is that the
> light horizon *IS* a real observational barrier. We know of no means to
get
> around the speed of light, and we have no reason to believe that there is a
> way.

What about wormholes? >>

Should they actually exist, that would not obviate the speed of light limit.
Light would still move through space at a fixed speed. Now if it is possible
to exit space and re-enter space at a different point, you would not be
getting around the speed of light, you would be getting around space.

I haven't heard of any reason to believe that there are wormholes other than
people's desires and hopes that there be such things. I also don't know how
you would verify the existence of such a thing or how you could formulate a
disprovable hypothesis.

Can you get matter through a wormhole intact? If not can you get information
through a wormhole intact? If not, how can you even suggest in any rational
manner that stuff coming out of one end is the same stuff going in at the
other end?

My ignorance on these issues does not mean that wormholes are automatically
supernatural concepts, but if these issues cannot be addressed I would have to
think that wormholes represent a slip into supernatural thinking.

If the end of a wormhole is a black hole, I don't see how any information,
much less intact matter, could make it through the intense gravitational field
without being completely garbled and slowed down beyond all recognition. If
we are talking black holes here, the time slowing caused by intense gravity
would, if anything, make a wormhole the slowest concievable method of travel
and information transfer in the universe. You would have a much more real
chance if you just stuffed a message in a bottle and hoped that it would
eventually meander to its destination.

If we aren't talking about black holes, then what are we talking about? It
may be good science fiction, but it is still fiction as far as I am concerned.

-Jake