The warp drive is something that would need a massive breakthrough and a shift in whole understanding of spacetime. In a thousand years? Maybe. What I fear is that according to Fermi, every civilization destroys itself before that point, because it's always weapons. New technology is usually developed as a weapon and only after that, other uses are considered.
Anyway, what I do believe will be possible in next few hundred years are CA/CD generation ships. Once we sort out the effectivity of propulsion (ion engines or a kugelblitz drive) we will be able to build a ship capable of accelerating at 1g up to a decent fraction of the speed of light (80-90%). Such ship would be able to cross the galaxy in about 30-40 years. Well within the lifetime of the crew. Naturally, from the Earth's perspective the journey would take 100.000 years, so no happyend there.
But this, unlike the Alcubiere drive, is something I would believe we are capable of on our current technological level. All except that damn propulsion is doable.
A rather depressing thought experiment to be sure. I certainly hope that intelligent life is present in our galaxy and that we will eventually encounter it. Certainly I hope that advanced civilization is not simply doomed to self-destruction! There could be other explanations for why ET hasn't been here already, heh.Well, it has been mathematically proven and if history taught us anything it's that physics always catches up with maths in the end.
Another question (more practical one) is - can human body and human technology and materials ever evolve to actually survive such journey? I mean the simple fact that all light and generally electomagnetic waves such ship would travel though would be effectively a high-energy gamma rays is a big no-no. A colision with any particle is basically an infinite energy collision. Etc. Those kinds of problems could stop this from being viable option even IF we ever actually make the warp drive.
And then then there is the unsolved problem regarding the exit. If I remember correctly, exiting the warp bubble and effectively stopping the ship would also require infinite energy, according to the equations.
Problems... [big grin]
Well, it has been mathematically proven and if history taught us anything it's that physics always catches up with maths in the end.
Another question (more practical one) is - can human body and human technology and materials ever evolve to actually survive such journey? I mean the simple fact that all light and generally electomagnetic waves such ship would travel though would be effectively a high-energy gamma rays is a big no-no. A colision with any particle is basically an infinite energy collision. Etc. Those kinds of problems could stop this from being viable option even IF we ever actually make the warp drive.
And then then there is the unsolved problem regarding the exit. If I remember correctly, exiting the warp bubble and effectively stopping the ship would also require infinite energy, according to the equations.
Problems... [big grin]
Not to mention that for such spacetime manipulation we really need the quantum gravity incorporated into the rest of the physics. String theory might do that or it might not.
And yes, the vacuum energy. First we need to know what the 95% of the space is up to while our ordinary matter just sits here like a plum.
Hah. Optimist. We're not even waddling.
