Re: FTL transmission?

From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Wed May 31 2000 - 15:48:14 MDT


Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> There is a difference between having something arrive faster than
> light and transmitting information. For example, if I point a laser at
> a distant wall and then turn around, I can make the spot where it
> meets the wall move faster than light. But it doesn't transmit any
> information from the original spot to the final one.

Right, but in their experiment didn't they effectively send the pulse
of light (which could be used to send information) from the "original"
spot to the "final" spot faster than lightspeed? I think their experiment
and your laserspot mind experiment are apples to oranges.

And I still don't see (assume for a moment they really can transmit
light, and therefore information, faster than normal lightspeed) how
sending light faster than normal would lead to any kind of paradox.
You can only have theoretical paradoxes if you go back in time before
some event happens. But we are not talking about that, we are only
talking about speeding up the process of informing you that an event
has happened.



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