this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026

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343

Make it so (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by cannedtuna@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Wikipedia

The Star Trek television series and films use the term "warp drive" to describe their method of faster-than-light travel. Neither the Alcubierre theory, nor anything similar, existed when the series was conceived—the term "warp drive" and general concept originated with John W. Campbell's 1931 science fiction novel Islands of Space. Alcubierre stated in an email to William Shatner that his theory was directly inspired by the term used in the show and cites the "'warp drive' of science fiction" in his 1994 article. A USS Alcubierre appears in the Star Trek tabletop RPG Star Trek Adventures. Since the release of Star Trek: The Original Series, more recent Star Trek spin-off series have made closer use of the theory behind the Alcubierre Drive incorporating warp bubbles/fields into the in-universe science.

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[–] Apepollo11@lemmy.world 18 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

I noticed a lot of the players doing that neck grabbing thing in the World Cup this year.

I get a visceral reaction every time I see it. It'd be a massive red flag if someone tried to do it to me.

Is it a new Andrew Tate/alpha male kind of thing? It's weird and I don't like it.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

I love it when my partner grabs me like that. 😈

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 20 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

That idiot explains it to the wrong person. Instead of to that woman, who's clearly not interested, he should talk to me, a fat guy who loves Star Trek!

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

But I bet he can't wrap his fingers as easily around your neck.
~(Wasn't meant to be rude, just in case)~

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 1 points 19 hours ago

Probably not, and he might not feel like doing so as well.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 43 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And all it would require is more energy than exists trapped in all the matter in the galaxy!

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 33 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I thought someone redid the math a while back and got the energy requirement down to simply the mass of Jupiter.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Corrct, but, it also still requires local negative energy density to be a conceptually and physically possible thing.

Which is... currently not understood to be possible, or exist... so that basically does violate the laws of physics.

There have been even more recent attempts to... reconceptualize the whole idea, which have resulted in less required negative energy density...

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.06824

... but not 0. So this is still sci-fi, untill we discover... anti-energy, or... something like that.

Pretty good recent recap of the current status of this line of research, if you look past the misleading headline:

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Negative energy is almost certainly not a thing.

If two objects made up of matter and antimatter collide, they would annihilate each other and release all of their energy as an explosion

If two objects made of energy and anti-energy collided they would also annihilate each other... except there would be nothing afterwards. Total information loss as no energy would escape the impact, since there would be no more energy afterwards.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Yeah I'm inclined to agree.

If negative energy is somehow possible, it causes ... an absurd number of paradoxes, very quickly, if it can just... exist, without bounds.

I am not any kind of actual physicist, but if I had to attempt to concieve of some framework where it even might be possible...

I'd go for some kind of 11, 12, whatever dimensional universe, when it would concievably be possible to have energy be able to bleed off, transfer, through higher dimensions, which might kind of look like 'negative energy' to us 3D spacetime things, but actually wouldn't be.

Of course... all of that is mind bogglingly complex as well, and probably causes paradoxes I am too ignorant to understand.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

since energy is a property of matter rather than something on its own, it would be more like a totally inelastic collision.

but while we're on sci-fi, what if negative energy is possible in a moving reference frame?

[–] lemmyman@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Sir are you accusing this meme of lying to me?

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 22 hours ago

Just want you well appraised of the facts, sir, up to you to judge the rest.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 17 points 23 hours ago

But in negative energy, which isn't known to exist independently. (You can't take the Casimir effect out from between the plates, etc.)

[–] boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

And a completely hypothetical state of matter and energy.

[–] addie@feddit.uk 9 points 21 hours ago

Well, the universe is expanding, and we don't know why. Dark energy has come to dominate the energy balance of universe, and we don't know what that is. We've a theory that's great for describing small things, and a different theory that's great for describing large or fast things, but they don't line up, so we can't have them quite right.

If the universe did have a period of greatly increased expansion shortly after the big bang, it doesn't seem too crazy to suggest that you could do it again, at least in theory. Might require some absurd energy density. That much energy in one place is likely to collapse into a black hole, which would sort out contacting the universe again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_of_the_universe

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0506041

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I've seen this meme many times, but for the first time I'm seeing Dr Ian Malcolm's dumb jock brother. I hope this is temporary and not something that can't be unseen...