This past week the world of physics was stunned with the news from CERN that they had possibly detected FTL particles. The thing that fascinates me the most at the moment, and is directly related to the book, is physics and the notion of faster-than-light technology. Ever since Star Trek original series (STOS) the concept of FTL spaceflight has been very mainstream in the collective consciousness. Certainly the Warp Drive was a central element in many of the problems that the crew needed to overcome to escape their predicament-of-the-moment, and was also a plot device that allowed them to visit all the wonderful alien worlds in the Star Trek universe.
Other than the disappointing beer factory in the last Star Trek movie (2009), the engines and behind-the-scenes tech of Start Trek were always fun and interesting for me to see. I can’t get past the beer vats-as-engine-room, or having communications officers and desks in the engine room of a ship larger than the original Enterprise. Please think a little, people. Yea, its shiny, but a noisy engine room is not for comm officers. Other aspects were real-feeling and I liked that. The Enterprise bridge looked great, as did many other things like the shuttles and shuttle bays, but don’t get me started on where things just didn’t make sense. Perhaps for another day. This lack of sense in the technology, and lack of a cohesive plot in many mainstream stories, is part of what drives me to create my own stories, my own universe, my own plots.
At least in the Star Trek universe things are pretty consistent, save for some items that shouldn’t be that fast but are, like warp-driven probes with no visible warp engines. In the Star Wars universe if you look at the variety of ships that exist it is hard to guess what underlying tech might be in there. I think the ship with the solar sail that unfurled is the one that broke my suspension of disbelief the most. I see that each planet may have developed its own FTL tech, but there are too many different possibilities for how physics would work. And FTL would need some serious power, and these ships are often not big enough for the crew let alone engines and a power plant to drive it all. In Battlestar they all jumped in a similar way, so at least it was consistent.
The underlying technology of the Star Trek warp drive has evolved and been refined over the decades into something that makes some sense to fans and physicists alike, and books like “The Physics of Star Trek” by Lawrence Krauss and “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku lend some credibility to the mystery and magic of FTL flight. Is it really possible? I’ll tell you that I’m continuing a lifelong fascination with future technology and absorbing everything that comes my way, particularly on physics and the possibility of FTL.
For the novel I am working hard to find my own path to FTL based on where I think physics will be in 100 years time. Michio thinks it will be ten times that long before we get FTL, and perhaps he is right. I’m betting on 100 years for this to emerge, to be just at the cusp of realizing this tech. The universe is amazing, and look how far we have come in the past 100 years since Einstein emerged onto the physics scene. All things are possible.
I’m avoiding anything that resembles a Star Trek warp drive, but that is harder than you think unless you just make it all ‘magic’ and ignore the “how”. In the new Battlestar series, which I enjoyed, the FTL evidently ran on coal and magic. Instant transfer from point to point, and kinda cool, but required miners and a refinery ship. Did it matter how it worked? Perhaps the ‘how’ shouldn’t be important – it could be a drain on the story being bogged down in the tech. It is a balancing act, and my thought is that the tech should make sense, there will always be a little magic sprinkled in, the tech should help to advance the plot when needed, but the story is about characters and conflicts.
So, no I’m not going to have something called a ‘warp drive’. Orson Scott Card says that is a quick way to get yourself labeled as an amateur. I don’t think “hyperdrive” is any better, personally, and that was his choice. It is meaningless, but perhaps a throwaway word is fine for most stories. A ‘warp’ drive at least implies the warping of space to achieve FTL. There is certainly a lot to think about.
FTL is central to the plot in my first novel, so the physics and the tech is something I’ve been putting a lot of mental effort into creating. You’ll just have to wait and see how it all turns out!
