It has taken me literally decades to come to this mentality of technorealism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorealism
Quote:
"Technorealism is an attempt to expand the middle ground between Techno-utopianism and Neo-Luddism by assessing the social and political implications of technologies so that people might all have more control over the shape of their future. The technorealist approach involves a continuous critical examination of how technologies might help or hinder people in the struggle to improve the quality of their lives, their communities, and their economic, social, and political structures."
So to me technology, such a warp drives or FTL drives or whatever you wanna name it, cannot be regarded disconnected from the real world. For me technology or science for that matter, is not an abstraction.
I learned of this word only a few years ago but it fit the way I thought about technology.
Most people are not used to consider the moral or ethical implications of technology at all, rather, they accept technology without criticism or judgment.
In this topic there is only so much you can say about such drives because we lack the background in such advanced physics. So staying 'on-topic' has only a limited reach.
I have a saying: 'What use is it for babies to discuss the nutritional value of porridge if they only smear each other with it.'
That is why I injected these notions of technorealism so that at least that aspect could be highlighted because I think they are worthy notions to explore.
To me it is an important discussion because simply, as I described, we are not just talking about some technology to improve the quality of, say, LCD screens. Or a new type of digital to analogue converter.
Going to the stars using some interstellar drive system will literally be the end of the world as we know it. In the same way that the world has changed in the last two decades under the impact of ICT.
We can see the results of that in our daily lives and how it affects us rarely seems a topic of debate. We embrace rather than critically assess the situation.
What do we have. We have smart phones but the intelligence communities around the world use it to track you. This is not paranoia, yesterday the Washington Post revealed the NSA is gathering and datamining data from over 5 billion smart phones out of a total of around 6.8 billion phones. And if you haven't kept up with current affairs, where have you been hiding?
This impact enormously on our privacy and autonomy. The world has changed considerably.
So in the same way a FTL drive would change society irrevocably. So is it not better people discuss the consequences beforehand rather than what we do normally, introduce a technology and then let's just see where the chips may fall.
At first the appearance of warp drive on the stage would not mean much, in the same way ITER doesn't mean much at the moment.
A first flight might be scheduled. More prototypes build. Expeditions planned to go to nearby stars. Meanwhile, people on Earth will start to see the possibilities.
I can see how different countries will build their own warp ships. And what role will the UN play when the americans fight the chinese claiming Titan for themselves? Are we going to remain sovereign countries grabbing what we can in a new land rush, or will we establish some UN counsel so thatw e go as one to the stars?
Who will have access to these ships? Will it be the universities that patent their research and devices? Will it be governments that own the research? And would they be willing to share them?
And who will, when ready, colonize other worlds? Will rich westerners go or will we send away poor people with the hope they will have a better life on another world?
But what a scandalous situation would that be, that we cannot create a good life for all on Earth yet we send them off into the unknown so we don't have to feel guilty for not sharing our wealth or not being able to distribute wealth rationally and morally.
FTL drive capability throws everything up for grabs. Will society be able to cope?
Technologies of that magnitude need to be carefully considered. Do we really want to export current paradigms into space so that in many thousands of years, like in so many games, there will be a Federation and an Empire that wage war on themselves in the same way we do so on Earth now?
So FTL drives are not just a technology, that is, nuts and bolts machines. They are paradigm-changers, they are cultural affected concepts, they are new memes, they are diversionary objects and possibly the opposite. A whole new ballgame.
To me those aspects are more important and quite a bit more relevant than the nits and bolts discussion, that no one here really understands anyway. Unless we have a resident theoretical closet physicist, but even then, he can write but can we understand?
So there is a whole dimension to technology many people are unaware of or see just parts of now and then in the news but we are all deeply indoctrinated by accepting technology in society without criticism. When something appear in the shop, we assess it in terms of how it makes our life better individually, but do not reject something because it alters society at large.
I find these notions and ideas worthy and very rewarding to explore and I welcome any insight or ideas. Ideas are what I live for really, in so that I might expand my understanding of the world we live in through interaction.
And for that reason I do not like it when people suggest it is off-topic. Technorealism should be attached to every technology and sometimes it will be more appropriate and sometimes maybe less so, as discussions flow. You may not want to talk about it, but then ignore it but don't try to impose restrictions on what should be acceptable opinion.