🚀 go-pugleaf

In <5ddbj6$k7g$2...@zinger.callamer.com> mkel...@hertz.elee.calpoly.edu
(Matt Kellner) writes: 
(snip)
>
>According to the Relativity theory, if an object's speed exceeds that
>of light, Time becomes a complex number.  I believe one of the key
>points in Warp Theory (Star Trek stuff) is finding a way to deal with
>time as a complex number.

Actually, the warp theory Star Trek uses has nothing to due with
traveling faster than light (directly).  They are warping the spatial
dimensions to utilise "short cuts" that give the appearance of
superluminal travel.  Let me try to illustrate this with an example.

Say you wanted to travel from New York to California, and you were
permitted to travel at no greater than 55 mph (analagous to the
Einstein limit, i.e. the speed of light).  If there were a road that
ran directly between the two points traveled, driving at 55 mph the
entire journey would get you to your destination in the shortest time.

However, the earth is curved, and the shortest path between the two
points would actually be a tunnel through the earth.  If you were to
travel at exactly 55 mph through this hypothetical tunnel, you would
arrive at the destination in a shorter time.  To a viewer on the
earth's surface, you appeared to travel faster than 55 mph (analagous
to going faster than the speed of light), even though you obeyed that
limit at all times.  

These space warps are such short cuts in curved space-time in the
twisted geometry of general relativity.