The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss (PDF)

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How does the Star Trek universe stack up against the real universe? What warps when you’re traveling at warp speed? What is the difference between a wormhole and a black hole? Are time loops really possible, and can I kill my grandmother before I am born? Anyone who has ever wondered “could this really happen?” will gain useful insights into the Star Trek universe (and, incidentally, the real world of physics) in this charming and accessible guide. Lawrence M. Krauss boldly goes where Star Trek has gone-and beyond. From Newton to Hawking, from Einstein to Feynman, from Kirk to Picard, Krauss leads readers on a voyage to the world of physics as we now know it and as it might one day be.

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⭐Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and director of its Origins Project. (He also wrote a sequel to this book, ‘Beyond Star Trek.’)He wrote in the Preface to this 1995 book, “Why the physics of Star Trek?… Many of the technical wonders in the series therefore inevitably rest on notions that may be ill defined or otherwise at odds with our current understanding of the universe. I did not want to write a book that ended up merely outlining where the Star Trek writers went wrong… I confess that it was really the transporter that seduced me. Thinking about the challenges that would have to be faced in devising such a fictional technology forces one to ponder topics ranging from computers and the information superhighway to particle physics, quantum mechanics, nuclear energy, telescope building, biological complexity, and even the possible existence of the human soul! Compound this with ideas such as warped space and time travel and the whole subject became irresistible.” (Pg. xv-xvi)He tackles the problem of G-forces and acceleration, when the spaceship is supposedly going into ‘warp speed,’ etc.: “If I want to accelerate from rest to, say.. half the speed of light, I have to do it gradually, so that my body will not be torn apart in the process. In order not to be pushed back into my seat with a force greater than 3G, my acceleration must be no more than three times the downward acceleration of falling objects on Earth. At this rate of acceleration, it would take some 5 million seconds, or about 2½ months, to reach half light speed! This would not make for an exciting episode. To resolve this dilemma… the Star Trek writers .. came up with ‘inertial dampers,’ a kind of cosmic shock absorber and an ingenious plot device designed to get around this sticky little problem… Alas, as with much of the technology in the Star Trek universe, is it much easier to describe the problem the inertial dampers address than it is to explain exactly how they might do it.” (Pg. 6-7)Of time travel, he suggests, “Within thirty years of the development of the equations of general relativity, an explicit solution in which time travel could occur was developed by the famous mathematician Kurt Godel… Gödel’s solution involved a universe that, unlike the one we happen to live in, is not expanding but instead is spinning uniformly. In such a universe, it turns out that one could in principle go back in time merely by traveling in a large circle in space. While such a hypothetical universe is dramatically different than the one in which we live, the mere fact that this solution exists at all indicates clearly that time travel within the context of general relativity.” (Pg. 15-16)He explains, “You can now see how important warp drive is to the Enterprise. Not only is it designed to avoid the ultimate speed limit—the speed of light—and so allow practical travel across the galaxy, but it is also designed to avoid the problem of time dilation, which result when the ship is traveling close to light speed. I cannot overemphasize how significant these facts are… Thus it is absolutely essential that (a) light speed be avoided, in order not to put the Federation out of synchronization, AND (b) faster-than-light speed be realized, n order to move practically about the galaxy. The kicker is that, in the context of special relativity alone, the latter possibility CANNOT BE REALIZED. Physics becomes full of impossibilities if super light speed is allowed. Not least among the problems is that because objects get more massive as they approach the speed of light, it takes progressively more and more energy to accelerate them by a smaller and smaller amount.” (Pg. 22-23) He summarizes, “Rocket-propelled space travel through the galaxy at near light speed it NOT PHYSICALLY PRACTICAL, now or ever!” (Pg. 27)He notes, “So, time travel in the real universe… seems to hinge on the possibility of exotic configurations of matter. Could some sufficiently advanced civilization construct a stable wormhole?… To date, we do not know the answer. Some specific time machines—such as Gödel’s… have been shown to be unphysical. While wormhole time travel has yet to be definitely ruled out, preliminary investigations suggest that the quantum gravitational fluctuations themselves may cause wormholes to self-destruct before they could lead to time travel. Until we have a theory of quantum gravity, the final resolution of the issue of time travel is likely to remain unresolved.” (Pg. 51)About the transporter/teleportation, he notes “the information storage and retrieval associated with the transporter… Let’s make a simple estimate of how much information is encoded in a human body… compare this with, say, the total information stored in all the books ever written… [This] would require about … a million million, kilobytes of storage. This is about … one ten-millionth of a billionth—smaller than the storage capacity needed to record a single human pattern!” (Pg. 76-77)Of extraterrestrial life, he laments, “when one thinks in some detail about the likelihood of discovering intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the daunting nature of the search becomes clear. Consider, for example, that some other civilization in the galaxy was informed somehow of exactly where to look among the 400 billion or so starts in the Milky Way to find a planet that could support life… What is the probability even then that they would discover our existence?… only in the past 25 years or so have we had radiotelescopes sufficiently powerful to serve as radio beacons for observation by other civilizations. Thus… aliens [who] might have been scanning the Earth from space… could have discovered us only during the last half century… And I remind you, this applies only if they knew exactly where to look!” (Pg. 114)Of extraterrestrial life, he laments, “when one thinks in some detail about the likelihood of discovering intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the daunting nature of the search becomes clear. Consider, for example, that some other civilization in the galaxy was informed somehow of exactly where to look among the 400 billion or so starts in the Milky Way to find a planet that could support life… What is the probability even then that they would discover our existence?… only in the past 25 years or so have we had radiotelescopes sufficiently powerful to serve as radio beacons for observation by other civilizations. Thus… aliens [who] might have been scanning the Earth from space… could have discovered us only during the last half century… And I remind you, this applies only if they knew exactly where to look!” (Pg. 114)Later, he adds, “we have clearly seen how daunting interstellar space travel would be. Energy expenditures beyond our current wildest dreams would be needed—warp drive or no warp drive… to have a fair chance of finding life, one would probably want to be able to sample at least several thousand stars. I’m afraid that even at the speed of light this couldn’t be done anytime in the next millennium. That’s the bad news. The good news, I suppose, is that by the same token we probably don’t have to worry too much about being abducted by aliens. They, too, have probably figured out the energy budget and will have discovered that it is easier to learn about us from afar.” (Pg. 128)He says of String Theory, “a quantum theory of strings cannot be made mathematically consistent in 4 dimensions, or 5, or even 6… such theories can exist consistently only in 10 dimensions, or perhaps only 26!… This plethora of dimensions … was quickly recognized … [as] an opportunity. Perhaps all the fundamental forces in nature could be incorporated in a theory of 10 or more dimensions, in which all the dimensions but the four we know curl up … and are thus unmeasurable today. Alas, this great hope has remained no more than that. We have, at the present time, absolutely no idea whether the tentative proposals of string theory can produce a unified Theory of Everything. Also… no one has any clear notion of why the other dimensions, if they exist, would curl up, leaving four-dimensional spacetime on large scales. So… there may be extra dimensions in the universe… However, these extra dimensions are not the sort that might house aliens who could then abduct psychiatric patients.” (Pg. 146)He concludes, “I will … close this book … not with the mistakes but with the possibilities… By emphasizing the potential role of science in the development of the human species, Star Trek whimsically displays the powerful connection between science and culture… I am convinced that the physics of today and tomorrow will as surely determine the character of our future as the physics of Newton and Galileo colors our present existence.” (Pg. 174)This book will be “must reading” for anyone wanting to know the “reality” of such science fiction clichés.

⭐I read the 2007 “fully revised and updated” version of The Physics of Star Trek. On the back cover of the paperback are these two sentences which clearly describe the book.“How does the Star Trek universe stack up against the real universe? Find out what the series creators got right — and wrong — about science in this fascinating guide.”One of the things that they got wrong was the holodeck. Yes, such things as holograms exist, but they are just images, not physical people and objects. This was disappointing to read because it means that I can’t have a holodeck installed in my house so that I can fully indulge my private fantasies.In other places in the book, you find that the writers have the correct concept but are wrong on the details. When Data and guest character Dr. Marr searched for the Crystalline Entity by tracing the annihilation radiation, they had the right idea, but were looking for radiation with the wrong number of electron volts. And the number that they used is in the X-ray band, not the gamma-ray band as stated on the show.Interestingly, the area where there is hope for a Star Trek style future is in traveling tremendous distances even though you can’t go faster than the speed of light. Consider these lines from the foreword by Stephen Hawking.“Fortunately, Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows the possibility for a way around this difficulty: one might be able to warp space-time and create a shortcut between the places one wanted to visit. Although there are problems of negative energy, it seems that such warping might be within our capabilities in the future.”The book can sometimes get deeper into the weeds than some readers may want. For example, in a section on Quantum Measurements, it is stated that we should not use classical physics language to try to explain quantum physics. Instead, classical mechanics should be understood in terms of the proper quantum mechanical variables.Still, it is an interesting book. You are introduced to many concepts of physics which are presented in the context of stories you have seen in the original Star Trek series, the subsequent Star Trek series, and the Star Trek movies. I enjoyed reading it.

⭐I really enjoyed this book. I’m a huge Trek fan and it was really interesting to read through how some of the tech might work (or no work. I never realized how shockingly unfeasible the impulse drive is!

⭐We just finished reading “Atom” by the same author – also an excellent book – and wanted to read more from the author. So far we are really enjoying this one – my husband is enjoying the Star Trek episode references and I am loving the authors story -telling approach to how the science works. I love learning about advanced physics topics but really can’t get through a text book style approach. This author uses a lot of analogies and visuals ideas.

⭐Written by a REAL physicist, it could be a hatchet job, and or pedantic and or boring. It is very good, interesting, informative and with humour. It treats Star Trek, its noble efforts to get things right, its sometimes dramatic rather than factual plot lines, its “unlikelyhoods, with great respect. For those interested in Physics and an enthusiasm for Star Trek, it is a must read.

⭐Thanks for the email suggestion that I might like to purchase this book. I actually bought it from you a few years ago and by pure coincidence I started rereading it yesterday. 🙂

⭐A really interesting and informative book, even if you’re not a Trekkie!I’m currently reading two of Mr Krauss’s books, and neither are too scientific as to make them unreadable for a layman, but they do take you into the detail of modern physics.Overall I’m really enjoying his books.

⭐Excellent book. Tongue in cheek but also very informative.

⭐This book manages to combine the immense complexity of modern theoretical physics and the wonder of how the universe really works in easy to understand descriptions based on the technologies used in the science fiction series “Star Trek”.Sure, sometimes the physical theory surpassed my understanding, but I learned a lot and now want to learn more about the touched subjects.I suppose that’s mission accomplished for L. Krauss.

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