Re: FWD [forteana][ExT][Para-Discuss] Re: faster than light?

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Jun 10 2003 - 13:19:37 MDT

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    Terry W. Colvin wrote:
    > --- In forteana@yahoogroups.com, Barbara Barrett <barbarabarrett@o...> wrote:
    >
    >>Applying propigation of forces math to gravity to determine its "speed"
    >>seems very silly to me. I'd liken it to someone asking what is the
    >>velocity of the distance between say London and Manchester!
    >>
    >>Really I find it inconcievable how anyone could think of gravity as
    >>having a "speed"; gravity is a by-product of mass acting upon spacetime,
    >>so it's just "there"; it dosn't travel at any speed. It's spimply
    >>convinient to think of it as a "force" even though it isn't really.
    >
    > Speed of gravity becomes important if (when) we ever figure out how
    > to deflect or negate it, especially if the technology is going to be
    > applied to large structures or machines. It's also important when
    > using inertia modification techniques to reduce internal stresses in
    > large devices moving at speed.
    >
    > The fact that "gravity" is (currently) an all-pervading force means
    > that determining its speed of propagation is currently moot, but when
    > you start monkeying about with it then speed of propagation becomes
    > important. Heck, it could even turn out to be a bit like light on
    > discworld and actually propagate very slowly, say at a brisk walking
    > speed. Your "Mass acting upon spacetime" model is still just a
    > theory. Gravity may have existed before the rest of the Universe was
    > created, in which case it would have had plenty of time to spread
    > itself about before everything else.

    Terry, this is complete gibberish. Why are you forwarding it to the
    Extropians list? As a cautionary tale?

    -- 
    Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
    Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
    


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