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shuckster t1_j25q6fd wrote

The whole “it might have happened already” argument that everyone says about these things might not turn out right.

I mean, if the warping of spacetime for the purpose of FTL travel isn’t possible under any condition, then we can say causality itself propagates at the speed-of-light.

Which means Betelgeuse will explode when we see it explode, not “600 years ago already”.

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jidar t1_j25rgnr wrote

I was going to argue at the start of your post but you stuck the landing.

Okay yeah, causality travels at c.

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tacoeater1234 t1_j25ulhp wrote

This is how I like to look at the progression of time. It's much simpler and consistent, in a lot of ways.

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Taxoro t1_j25un5i wrote

>then we can say causality itself propagates at the speed-of-light.

You got it backwards lol. What we call speed of light or 3*10^8 m/s is actually the speed of causality. That's why it's denoted as "c". It's light that propagates at the speed of causality.

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shuckster t1_j25wu96 wrote

> The speed of light in vacuum is usually denoted by a lowercase c, for "constant" or the Latin celeritas (meaning 'swiftness, celerity')

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light

Still, even if you were right I don’t think you need convincing that many here are optimistic about warp-drives eventually becoming an actual thing.

If so, then we’ll have to choose another letter for “c”. I’d vote for “b”, meaning “bulb” in honour of that sly huckster Edison.

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