As far as I know (not a physicist), it takes infinite energy to reach FTL, so out of the question with modern science as you've said.
As a non scientist, I'm also confused with some of the relativistic implications of FTL. I think motion through space and motion through time add up to the speed of light. If so, time would freeze when hitting the speed of light, but does that happen to the traveler moving at C, or to the outside observer? Also, if traveling faster than light (FTL), do I go back in time? Again, is that from the traveler or outsiders perspective?
As far as getting FTL, you've probably heard of the Alcuberrie (spelling) drive which expands spacetime behind a ship and contracts in front of it to push a ship through spacetime via a bubble? Sounds great, but I think it requires exotic materials which don't exist. So we're stuck. I'm pointing this out in the chance you don't already know this.
My hope is that within the next century or millennia, our understanding of math and physics will advance to a point to where things like wormholes become possible, but it'll be long after I'm dead. What worries me is if we're nearing the end of what the human brain is capable of realistically uncovering. Like if my brain's network was significantly denser and able to think better, maybe we could come up with something? I don't think the solutions to the next problems will be a single equation like some physicists like to claim (note they're far more qualified than I to speculate on this). I just see things like the proof for Fermat's Last Theorem that is like 80 pages and one man took like a decade to figure out and other mathematicians took like a year to check. Someone like me has zero chance of intellectually following that. If we have indeed "picked all the low hanging fruit" we can expect very small marginal gains in the upcoming years even with legions of scientists.
My hope is that we're just in another phase waiting for another Newton or Einstein to come up with a single beautiful idea that revolutionizes the field and leads to an explosion of progress.
As far as I know (not a physicist), it takes infinite energy to reach FTL, so out of the question with modern science as you've said.
As a non scientist, I'm also confused with some of the relativistic implications of FTL. I think motion through space and motion through time add up to the speed of light. If so, time would freeze when hitting the speed of light, but does that happen to the traveler moving at C, or to the outside observer? Also, if traveling faster than light (FTL), do I go back in time? Again, is that from the traveler or outsiders perspective?
As far as getting FTL, you've probably heard of the Alcuberrie (spelling) drive which expands spacetime behind a ship and contracts in front of it to push a ship through spacetime via a bubble? Sounds great, but I think it requires exotic materials which don't exist. So we're stuck. I'm pointing this out in the chance you don't already know this.
My hope is that within the next century or millennia, our understanding of math and physics will advance to a point to where things like wormholes become possible, but it'll be long after I'm dead. What worries me is if we're nearing the end of what the human brain is capable of realistically uncovering. Like if my brain's network was significantly denser and able to think better, maybe we could come up with something? I don't think the solutions to the next problems will be a single equation like some physicists like to claim (note they're far more qualified than I to speculate on this). I just see things like the proof for Fermat's Last Theorem that is like 80 pages and one man took like a decade to figure out and other mathematicians took like a year to check. Someone like me has zero chance of intellectually following that. If we have indeed "picked all the low hanging fruit" we can expect very small marginal gains in the upcoming years even with legions of scientists.
My hope is that we're just in another phase waiting for another Newton or Einstein to come up with a single beautiful idea that revolutionizes the field and leads to an explosion of progress.