starship-design: My two cents (was Re: Battleship Galactica?)

[Steve VanDevender <stevev@efn.org>]

Kyle R. Mcallister writes:
 > Note to physicists: Don't repeat the causality-problems
 > with tachyons. Sagan, Drake, Orgel, Kardashev, et al have speculate on
 > this. I think I can too. 

Apparently they (and you) were speculating without bothering to check
their physics.  Aside from the causality problems, a quantum mechanical
analysis of tachyons shows that they can't be used for FTL
communication:  either a tachyon travels FTL, but doesn't interact with
our universe, or it doesn't travel FTL.

Authority counts for nothing in science.  Just because an authority
speculates about something doesn't mean it's true.