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<blockquote data-quote="Nadaka" data-source="post: 3120810" data-attributes="member: 14651">Why would you consider nanotech not hard science while considering FTL hard science?FTL is impossible because we know of no way to increase speed without acceleration. And the speed of light is the position of the asymtote for energy as applied to acceleration. This means it takes infinate energy to reach c. unfortunately the amount of energy in the universe is probably finate, and besides even if the universe had infinate energy who wants to destroy a universe to get somewhere faster (especially considering that somewhere lies within the universe you have to destroy to reach that speed).The other option involves wormholes, and we can barely detect those. And all (or nearly so) them operate on planck scale. So not only do we have to find a wormhole, but we have to increase its size and probably find a way to fix or drag the ends around.&nbsp; Note that noone has any idea how to do any of that.As for nanotech: we have it today. Its not spectacular, but we DO have it. Some scanning tunneling microscopes can and have been used to manipulate individual atoms. Nano particles are being used in medical and industrial applications. Moving mechanical elements less than the width of a human hair have been created using lithographic techniques. We have already managed to store and retrieve 7 bits of data in the quantum state of a single particle. etc. Its something that not only does physics and chemistry allow, but we are starting to apply it today.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nadaka, post: 3120810, member: 14651"] Why would you consider nanotech not hard science while considering FTL hard science? FTL is impossible because we know of no way to increase speed without acceleration. And the speed of light is the position of the asymtote for energy as applied to acceleration. This means it takes infinate energy to reach c. unfortunately the amount of energy in the universe is probably finate, and besides even if the universe had infinate energy who wants to destroy a universe to get somewhere faster (especially considering that somewhere lies within the universe you have to destroy to reach that speed). The other option involves wormholes, and we can barely detect those. And all (or nearly so) them operate on planck scale. So not only do we have to find a wormhole, but we have to increase its size and probably find a way to fix or drag the ends around. Note that noone has any idea how to do any of that. As for nanotech: we have it today. Its not spectacular, but we DO have it. Some scanning tunneling microscopes can and have been used to manipulate individual atoms. Nano particles are being used in medical and industrial applications. Moving mechanical elements less than the width of a human hair have been created using lithographic techniques. We have already managed to store and retrieve 7 bits of data in the quantum state of a single particle. etc. Its something that not only does physics and chemistry allow, but we are starting to apply it today. [/QUOTE]

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