Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!ntt From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: FTL and time travel Message-ID: <695@dciem.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Feb-84 18:01:15 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.695 Posted: Thu Feb 9 18:01:15 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 19:55:43 EST References: <16357@sri-arpa.UUCP>, <478@ihuxs.UUCP> Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada Lines: 17 ihuxs!okie (B.K. Cobb) cites Larry Niven's "A World Out of Time": ... The computer puts him into an FTL course around the black hole at the core (you have to understand a bit about the cosmology of Niven's galaxy for this) and they wind up back on earth a few million years later than when he left. ... The spaceship in "A World Out of Time" is a Bussard ramship, which certainly does NOT travel Faster Than Light; have YOU ever seen one do it? The displace- ment into the future is just plain old relativistic time dilation as the craft attains speeds VERY NEAR c, and in a strong gravity well to boot. This is not one of Niven's "known space" stories (if it was, Corbell would not have been able to get to the center of the galaxy) and FTL does not figure in the story. The original query was about FTL travel and travel into the PAST, I believe. Mark Brader