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<blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 3123533" data-attributes="member: 114">However, one thing we learn from history is that todays scientific certainties become tomorrows old hat. Newtonian -&gt; Einsteinia -&gt; Quantum physics - each step changes the rules. It doesn't completely invalidate the old one (newtons laws of motion work fine for day to day use and calculations, for instance), but the old theories become invalidated at certain points and new ones appear.You massive energy cost scenario is but one example of thought about FTL travel (which I take to mean 'getting there faster than light does', not 'accellerating past the speed of light'. The latter would be clearly forbidden by the physical laws we know about, the former is why other conjectures can still be considered.Interstellar Hard SF nearly always allows for some means of circumventing the FTL problem, and then stays consistent within that; the main exceptions that I can think of are those that deal with relativistic ageing (like the Forever war) and those that deal with generational ships (like Non-Stop by Aldiss)Cheers</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Plane Sailing, post: 3123533, member: 114"] However, one thing we learn from history is that todays scientific certainties become tomorrows old hat. Newtonian -> Einsteinia -> Quantum physics - each step changes the rules. It doesn't completely invalidate the old one (newtons laws of motion work fine for day to day use and calculations, for instance), but the old theories become invalidated at certain points and new ones appear. You massive energy cost scenario is but one example of thought about FTL travel (which I take to mean 'getting there faster than light does', not 'accellerating past the speed of light'. The latter would be clearly forbidden by the physical laws we know about, the former is why other conjectures can still be considered. Interstellar Hard SF nearly always allows for some means of circumventing the FTL problem, and then stays consistent within that; the main exceptions that I can think of are those that deal with relativistic ageing (like the Forever war) and those that deal with generational ships (like Non-Stop by Aldiss) Cheers [/QUOTE]

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