The Ansible

[SpuD]

Anyone else heard of it?
Its supposed to be a device that can communicate no matter the distance instantly.
It was mentioned in the book Ender's Game, but Orsen Scott Card didnt make the Idea up. A friend's dad told me he read about it in a science magazine, that it was real, and Orsen Scott Card just used that Idea. Hes not the type to lie, and other people I've talked to about it have heard of it.

All I know is that its done by splitting an atom, whatever happens to one half instantly happens to the other half, no matter the distance. Faster than the speed of light.

Heres an article qck pointed out to me: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1154777/posts
and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/555008/posts is interesting aswell

Anyone else heard of this? Anyone else have any information on it?

 

[Delicious Bass]

yeah i've heard about it :naughty:

 

[SpuD]

shut up, you.

 

[Phisionary]

I've long wondered whether such a device was possible. I am assuming that it works (or would work... if it's possible) through a physics property called quantum entanglement. It's not actually atom-splitting, but a different phenomenon (if it's what I'm thinking), which I don't understand well enough to explain...

fascinating though. thanks for the heads-up. Ender's game was one of my favoritest books, years ago. I don't remember this thing in it. I imagine the ships were controlled by it or something?

oh, and AFAIK, it is impossible to transmit data at faster than the speed of light, even while exploiting this property of physical law. So while information might be transmitted point to point, it would have to 'propogate' at the speed of light, or something. That is, based on the information we know at this point... I'll crack that door, but won't open it, for clarky might get in.

 

[Link]

The part I find interesting about all of this is one not touched on by the scientists iirc. If the atoms can indeed 'commuitcate' instantly regardless of distance, yet as Phisionary says, no comunication can happen faster than the spped of light, then what method is used? Is there a 'backdoor' or subspace as star trek often alludes to? Another dimension perhaps? I don't know, but however they do it, I belive that they may hold the key to inter system space travel.

 

[Phisionary]

Hmm. I think the only explanations for quantum entanglement come from string theory. The connections between the two particals occur theough one of the 7 extra deminsions, or something. Otherwise, there is no physically detected medium, or force, connecting the two. They just change...

Oh, and for speed of light, it's something like, it occurs instantly, but it cannot be determined at the recieving end what data was actually sent through the change. Like, it could end up as one of a certain number of [quantum] states, but you'd have to recieve some sort of conventional signal to know which one was intended??? I don't know, it's very confusing stuff.

 

[Link]

Phisionary - True, but then your wouldn't nessaserrily need to know what the change was, just that it occoured. You could use it as a simple form of binary, using two atoms perhaps, one of them for on, and one for off. Then of course, you could use a huge number of atoms paired up to get huge bandwidth speeds.

Another aspect of this that has occoured to me, is that the atoms are paired through some technique of which I know nothing, but imagine if you could pair a local atom with a distant one, say in the next star system, or even the next galexy. I don't even want to consider the possibilitys of that, it mkes my palms sweat.

 

[Phisionary]

The atoms must be paired at a particular place. IIRC, it has to do with splitting a particle beam with a partially refelcted surface, or somthing.

Anyway. I don't remember the details, but they (the physicist/journalist that wrote about this effect) seemed to be rather adamant that it could not be used to transmit information faster than light.

Sorry if it seems like I'm a pessimist or a nay-sayer. Just trying to keep this rooted in what's known(or popularily accepted, in the scientific sense). If you'd rather discuss it as science fiction (since this topic originated there, 'tis no prob) then I'll shut up

 

[DoctorGordon3]

I'm pretty sure theres another type of force thats responsible for this (along with a bunch of other unexplained things). You see, this force uses other physical dimensions and can travel seemingly instantly. This is also how telekinisis and telepathy works.

 

[SpuD]

A thread about a vanilla ice lookalike gets 2 pages, a thread about a sceintific breakthrough that could allow tons of possibilities only has a few :/

 

[Blublu]

They use that in EVE Online... it's not a brand new theory. I have no reason to believe communications through this thing would be possible, seems like people are exaggerating quite a bit. Then again, I know absolutely nothing about quantum physics.

 

[DoctorGordon3]

This also makes sense with another theory, where location is based on charge.

 

[SpuD]

If one can change exactly with the other why wouldnt communication be possible?

Can anyone elaborate more? An article I read said it could be used to make quantum computers with absolutely no lag time.

 

[CyberSh33p]

unless I'm mistaken, stuff like this is the basis for quantum computing, and indeed teleporting quantum states has been done recently, so we're actually on our way to this.

 

[Hazar]

it also relates to teleporting.

The spitting thing is called entanglement, and this makes teleportation possible. Basically, whenever you get an atoms' properties, it changes the properties of the atom. But if you have another one, exactly the same, then you can teleport that one.

EDIT: I should have read the article before I posed

 

[ailevation]

:O The splitting of the atom causes immense disruption of high level energy travelling at immense speeds- that greater than the speed of light, and thus much much more high in temperature. This particle acceleration transport the energy to the given location causing a diruption in time, there the output waves of sound is descrambled and distorted, but is carried by the alpha waves, or the alpha particles within the immense energy released from the atomic fissure. Since, it is traveling faster than light, to point B from A is instantaneous. Or you may call it teleportation of disrupted sound particles that gets reassembled after the high level transportation of energy is to it's destination.

 

[Phisionary]

that was some excellent gobbledegook, ailevation. I had to read it twice to be sure :thumbs:

 

[ailevation]

that was some excellent gobbledegook, ailevation. I had to read it twice to be sure :thumbs:

6th Period. AP World History, Mr. Striegl. I thank you for teaching me the ability to BS effectively in other things besides essays.