Re: starship-design: Re: FTL travel

[Curtis Manges <clmanges@worldnet.att.net>]

Steve VanDevender wrote:

> See pages 201 and following in the second edition of Taylor and
> Wheeler's _Spacetime Physics_.

Steve,

For the sake of anyone who sees these pages, please find a better book to
recommend. I bought a copy about a year ago and soon threw it away. A friend
of mine agreed with me that this is not a book of science, it is a book of
dogma (INVARIANT INTERVAL), chiseled in stone, and supported mostly by
comments, the gist of which is, "believe it because we say so" and
"everybody knows . . .", and extending to the insidious technique of
training the reader to defend its precepts against logical argument. It also
wasted very extensive space on pointless discussions of paradoxes. This book
taught me almost nothing about physics, but was quite enlightening in
brainwashing and propaganda techniques. Even the opening parable of the
Daytimers and the Nighttimers concludes wrongly (that they would be in
agreement: they won't, because they will still be using different
references). Frankly, I've read religious tracts that were more
intellectually appealing.

I am not a scientist, but I do consider myself a critical thinker, and your
continued support of this book is undermining my estimation of your own
credibility. There are better books out there, I'm sure; please find a
different one to recommend.

Curtis L. Manges