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comment by mk
mk  ·  4645 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Is A Warp Drive?
I can't drive 1032C!

    In fact, we know that spacetime has already been ‘warped’ faster than light once before – during the resulting ‘cosmic inflation’ that took place just moments after the big bang.

I don't think it's correct to say that we 'know' that. It's currently one of our best guesses. The inflation model is a way that we can explain the homogeneity of the expansion that we see now. The idea is that at one point during the expansion right after the Big Bang, time and space expanded, but the energy density of time and space did not drop, in fact I think it goes the other way. Anyway, it's still a theory. It has its successes and problems. Some are for, some are against.

Alan Guth's The Inflationary Universe is a good read. I remember that I wrote him when I was an undergrad with a little knowledge and a lot of ideas. -No reply. (BTW, Douglas Hostadter did reply to me. That guy is awesome.)





thenewgreen  ·  4644 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I have never read any Hostadter but now I feel I should simply because he is awesome. Doesn't hurt that he won the Nobel prize for literature either. Any suggestions where to start?
mk  ·  4644 days ago  ·  link  ·  
He won the Pulitzer, not the Nobel. But he is awesome.

Godel, Escher, Bach is his magnum opus. Metamagical Themas might be a good way to ease in though. -It's a series of essays he wrote in the Scientific American.

thenewgreen  ·  4644 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Ha! Sorry about that, I was reading his bio and I think I confused him with his father?! Thank you for the suggestions, Metamagical Themas is now in the queue.