M Thomas Apple Author Page

According to Thorne, who served as a consultant on the science of Interstellar, quantum mechanics could hypothetically explain a way to time travel via wormhole. So far, it’s a thought experiment that leads to the conclusion that you’d lose information along the way—not very practical.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a62175728/interstellar-travel-wormholes

First off, I’m incredibly annoyed at the way WordPress has screwed up the “quotation” function. It seems they are more focused on encouraging bloggers to use AI to write.

Uh. I don’t need AI. I blog. The end. WTH is the point of using AI to write my thoughts? It’s already being trained to USE my blog in the first place! Idiots.

OK. Second, the Popular Mechanics article I’m linking to is entitled “Interstellar travel is possible if we break into a higher dimension, scientists say.”

Only, that is NOT what scientists say. It’s still a thought experiment!

Wormholes have become part and parcel of Sci-fi since the 1950s (when the term was first coined).

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 famously was entirely due to the concept of a stable wormhole created by “the Prophets” (aka “Wormhole aliens”).

But so far, no actual wormhole has ever been observed. None. Nada. Zilch.

So, what is a wormhole?

To picture what a wormhole does, imagine a scarf with an ant at one end. The scarf is perhaps six feet across, and the ant would spend a few minutes crossing from one side to the other. Now imagine picking up both sides of the scarf and folding them so the opposite ends are close together. In the middle, place a cardboard tube connecting the two sides. Now, the ant can traverse the scarf’s length in mere seconds.

This was famously depicted in “A Wrinkle in Time,” and called a “tesseract,” with the image of an ant crossing over a string whose ends were brought together. Technically not true, but still helpful. (A rotating hypercube is not exactly the same as a wormhole…)

At any rate, I haven’t blogged in a while bc I’ve been bummed out at all the bad science reporting worldwide, from the botched Boeing “Starliner” BS to the Space X helium leak (although eventually they got to risk life and limb to do spacewalks with no mishap) to NASA launching a solar sail (what’s the point ? it doesn’t get us to start a Mars colony…).

Ah, well. At least we have two people who are definitely not young fighter pilots up in space through the New Year. It may help us better understand how the average person will fare in space (I have a hunch the answer is not pretty…).