RE: starship-design: Quantum Gravity

[Steve VanDevender <stevev@darkwing.uoregon.edu>]

L. Parker writes:
 > Zenon Kulpa writes:
 > > If that proves to be true (whatever "true" exactly means),
 > > it will relate to our objective quite significantly.
 > 
 > > Namely, it will mean that our Universe is like a 3(or more)-D
 > > cellular automaton (just like a giant version of Conway's game "Life"),
 > > which in turn will mean that FTL is really impossible 
 > > (and explain why - you cannot shift bits in your computer
 > > faster than one tick of your master clock...).
 > 
 > > Moreover, then all will have to go digital... ;-))

 > [L. Parker] Not only does this threaten to replace large chunks of
 > quantum theory but also Relativity, it means there is at least one
 > fixed Frame of Reference, what does that do to relativity theory?

It seems pretty clear from our experience so far that any purported
preferred frame for the universe is awfully hard to detect.  There is no
reason that a cellular automaton theory of the universe would have to
have a preferred frame.