Speculations on the Use of So-called Space-Time Foam as an Energy Source for Manned Interstellar Spacecraft, the Production of Transient Universes to Power Interstellar Manned Spacecraft to C or Velocities of Infinite C, and Teleportation of Human Bodies and Transport via Quantum Information Teleportation

Space may have fantastic latent energy.

A strange idea occurred to me recently , I think for the first time in its currently mentally articulated form, which involves the notion of producing so-called space-time foam and somehow using it as a reaction mass or reaction mattergy for lack of a better word. The space time foam would somehow be ejected out the back end of a transport or into an adjacent space time dimensionality wherein thrust would result for the rocket craft powered by such a mechanism. The mechanism might in some remotely analogous manner be related to the concept of using space time stress states such as warp drive or even gravity wave propulsion, perhaps even gravity wave rockets.

I will have more to say on space time foam based propulsion systems in the coming days but will present below a very brief overview of the concept of space time foam for those who are unfamiliar to the concept which was especially popular during the mid to late 1970s.

The notion of space time foam and the phrase itself which is more of a layman’s noun for the undifferentiated space-time material out of which the Big Bang allegedly formed was very popular in the 1970s. Accordingly, the space time foam was a raw undifferentiated seething fluctuating bubbly froth of the material out of which space-time is formed and which is allegedly composed of a roiling throth of bubbles, cavities, arcs of all manner of size and duration from the Planck Length and Planck Time (~ 10 EXP – 35 meters and 10 EXP – 43 seconds respectively) all the way down to literally infinitesimal size and duration. The existence of such foam was argued from the finite size of the fine grained structure of space and time as we know it below which would entail a discontinuous undifferentiatable random foam like structure. The concept of space-time foam grew out of earlier attempts to reconcile the notions of finite granularity of space time and the various aspects of quantum field theory such as quantum electrodynamics.

More current forms of the concept of space time fabric involve string theory, the theory of branes (for membrane structures), loop quantum gravity, and other theories, although, in some of these theories seem to be different ways of casting the same concepts, for example, the theories incorporated into M-Theory.

Regarding space time foam propulsion systems, an additional notion occurred to me involving the notion of storing space time foam in some sort of matter, mattergy, energy, or space time fabric container wherein the space time foam would be converted into usable energy via some sort of space time/ mattergy equivalence principle. Perhaps appropriate space time foams would have tremendous energy density or tremendous latent energy density, but display little or no inertia or mass in their raw form. Thus, perhaps tremendous supplies of energy might be carried on board a space craft allowing essentially unlimited gamma factors, and/or warp drive speed, wormhole production, teleportation, or perhaps even inertial faster than light travel through ordinary space time.

With such high energy densities and any raw harnessable space time foam, the possibility of travel into higher dimensional space-time, parallel dimensional space-time, time travel, and travel of cosmic distances in space and/or time may present itself.

Another option is that artificially produced space time foam might be used to engineer and construct, perhaps essentially from scratch, space time structures such as the production of new universes from big bangs, the construction of macroscopic space time volumes from scratch, differential volume by differential volume, and perhaps even craft somehow made of space time foam or space time fabric engineered and constructed via space time foam.

Perhaps the space time foam has qualities such that only a miniscule amount of the stuff can be used to create an entire universe wherein the net space time/mattergy of the initial precursor space time foam seed would result in a perhaps infinite amount of positive energy and an infinite amount of negative each, both ever increasing and boot-strapping each other into ever greater quantities, wherein the net energy would be zero or close to zero in much the same manner that many Big Bang theories postulate the birth of the universe from essentially zero or at least a relatively small quantity of net energy. In such big bang theories, the negative and the positive energy taken together cancel each other out or nearly do so.

It occurred to me to discuss the concept of measure or volume of the space time foam contents of a container that would somehow contain space time foam.

If the space time fabric of our universe is not defined at a level below the Planck Length or the Planck Time, what metrics would we use to describe a so-called differential volume of space time foam with a space time volume with would be linear dimensions below the Planck Length and Planck Time.

Would one linear dimension be indistinguishable from the others? If a space-time metric can be used to describe space time foam, perhaps the number of space time dimensions as such is greater than 3 of space and 1 of time. It might even be the case that the number of spatial dimensions is huge as well as perhaps the number of time dimensions, perhaps even infinite.

Now many relativistic quantum field theorists might scoff at the above speculations, but if we get to the point where we are able to handle, store, and manufacture space time foam, all of the above questions will need to be answered perhaps if only for the sake of safety.

Another option is that there might be two or more complementary sets of metrics describing the volume of such stored space time foam. On the one hand, the definition of a macroscopic volume or even a much smaller sub-Planck scale volume might be described by the usual space time metrics for useful industrial computational and measurement purposes, while at another level, the difference between otherwise separate dimensions including perhaps that between space and time might be blurred, not simply in an observational manner, but also in a real manner analogous to the uncertainty principle describing the relation between the uncertainty in momentum and location and of time and energy. The integrity of space and time as we know it in the macroscopic sense might be scrambled and a randomly roiling manner. Space might become time like and time might become space like. Another analogous duality that comes to mind is the wave/particle duality that describes quantum level phenomenon wherein a object appears wave like or particle like depending on the observational processed performed.

It occurred to me that if space time foam exists and is not simply an artifact of mathematical calculations or of philosophical notions, assuming that the space time foam has a sub Planck Scale composition, perhaps there is some sort of atomization, for lack of a better word, to the sub-Planck scale of any space time foam. Perhaps the level of atomization or sub-quantization occurs at such a small level that there is an ensemble or perhaps even an infinite number of components to a differential volumetric portion of space time foam of volume [(10 EXP -35) meters] EXP 3 or {[(10 EXP -35) meters] EXP 3}(10 EXP – 43 Seconds).

Such a fine grained atomistic structure to space time foam might or might not be classifiable in terms of space and/or time because by current definition of space and/or time, such sub-Planck spatial and/or temporal extension has no meaning. Perhaps there is an embedded structure of space and/or time at or below the Planck levels that remains at least normally inaccessible or non-communicative to super-Planck scale realities. Such a sub-Planck scale reality might be identical or somehow related to any very small scale existent hidden quantum variables.

On analogous concept that come to mind in describing any such non spatial and/or non temporal sub-Planck scale composition is simply the concept of an abstract mathematical set. We are all familiar with basic set theory especially with regard to the roster set of integers, whole numbers, real numbers, irrational numbers and the like yet we do not say that the set containing any subset of these numbers has a spatial, temporal. or spatial-temporal extent or volume.

A really odd kind of reactionary propulsion space craft, perhaps a space craft as such being on the ultimate steroids, might entail some how, in some almost impossibly distant future, a propulsion mechanism utilizing the formation of big bangs to propel a space craft to exactly C in an instant. Perhaps if the laws of special relativity turn out to inviolately true in terms of the requirement of an infinite quantity of energy required to accelerate a space craft inertially to exactly C, then perhaps a series of Big Bang pulses wherein each pulse produces an infinite quantity of energy, say Aleph 0 joules, could accelerate the craft beyond C inertially through space. Perhaps an Aleph 0 number of such pulses would result in the space craft traveling an infinite number of light-years per second, back ground reference frame, and who knows how quickly ships frame.

If a universe or Big Bang could be duplicated wherein each Big Bang pulse released an Aleph 1 cardinality of Joules instantly, perhaps the first pulse would set the craft’s inertial velocity of Aleph 0 light years per Planck Time unit of 10 EXP – 35 seconds background reference frame.

A much more down to Earth concept would be to use the Big Bangs expanding space time bubble as some sort of warp drive mechanism based on inflation or other space time expansion effects thus permitting extreme superluminal velocities without infinite energies. If such universes could be artificially produced and then made to disappear back into the vacuum state, zero point fields, scalar fields of chaotic inflationary theory, or whatever, wherein the universes as such would accelerate the space craft to extreme superluminal velocities and then be detached or decoupled form the space craft after expansion to roughly the size of the space craft, thereupon, collapsing back into the vacuum from which they arose or were produced, then perhaps warp factor infinity could be achieved.

Now this may sound extreme, but what if mankind is able to evolve and acquire ever more advanced technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and intellect, etc., over the next say google-plex years or (10 EXP 100) EXP (10 EXP 100) years or more? Part of my reason for making this conjecture is serious fun but also to promote a “What if… ?” thinking in the mind of the readers of this posting to spur them on to envision the currently impossible: an attempt to shock the readers into saying to him or her selves, we just have to continue to break boundaries and go ever boldly and beyond where no man, and perhaps, no ETI has gone before.

With the negative news as of late of Wars and Rumors of Wars, especially between Russia and Georgia, I invite each and every reader of the posting, how ever goofy it may seem to you to work for a Civilization of Love. In the eternal scheme of things, I am a firm believer that all things are possible.

There is a very interesting article on quantum entanglement observed over a distance of 18 km at the below URL.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/813/3?rss=1

The seemingly entangled state of photons wherein the effects of entanglement occur at least 10,000 times faster than light begs the question as to whether quantum teleportation of the quantum states that define macroscopic objects such as human bodies or transport craft can be teleported in such a manner wherein the conscious identity of the human person would be transported along with the teleported quantum information defining his or her body. If such could be accomplished over cosmic distances, I say more power to the astronautics folks and quantum mechanicists who would develop this technology. However, I would not anticipate such happening any time soon, but it is never to early to start the preliminary physics theory tinkerings that might underpin such a technology.

Another possibility is that the quantum entanglement effect is an illusion and that relativity theory is in no way violated. Could it be that so-called entangled particles have internal clocks that tick at the exact same speed even when the particles are traveling at different relativistic velocities? Perhaps each such would be entangled particle has an internal clock that somehow effects its ability to take on a certain state that is observation dependent and which is not effected all by relativistic time dilation, either in the special relativistic sense nor the general relativistic sense such as by gravitational field induced time dilation.

Einstein was so uncomfortable with the idea that spooky action at a distance could occur that perhaps we need to consider the concept of hidden quantum variables such as this idea for a universal time piece or clock within so-called entangled particles.

Either way, the physics should prove interesting to further investigate as well as the development of any new necessary paradigms to explain these fascinating experimental results.

Regards;

Jim