Why Going Faster-Than-Light Leads to Time Paradoxes

Is faster-than-light (FTL) travel possible? In most discussions of this, we get hung up on the physics of particular ideas, such as wormholes or warp drives. But today, we take a more zoomed out approach that addresses all FTL propulsion - as well as FTL messaging. Because it turns out that they all allow for time travel. Join us today as we explore why this is so and the profound consequences that ensue. Written & presented by Prof David Kipping. Special thanks to Prof Matt Buckley for fact checking and his great blog article that inspired this video (). → Support our research: → Get Stash! THANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, H. Jensen, J. Rockett, N. Fredrickson, D. Holland, E. Hanway, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, F. Van Exter, S. Roulier, B. Smith, P. Masterson, R. Sievers, G. Canterbury, J. Kill, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, T. Wheeler, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, S. Krasner, W. Evans, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp, T. Kordell, T. Ljungberg & M. Janke. ::References:: ► Alcubierre, M., 1994, The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity, Classical and Quantum Gravity, 11 L73: ► Alcubierre & Lobo (2021), Warp drive basics, ► Pfenning, M. & Ford, L., 1997, The unphysical nature of Warp Drive, Classical and Quantum Gravity, 14, 1743: ► Finazzi, S., Liberati, S., Barceló, C., 2009, Semiclassical instability of dynamical warp drives, Physical Review D., 79, 124017: ► McMonigal, B., Lewis, G., O’Byrne, P., 2012, Alcubierre warp drive: On the matter of matter, Physical Review D., 85, 064024: ► Everett, A., 1996, Warp drive and causality, Physical Review D, 53, 7365: ► For a more rigorous breakdown of the axis flipping in Minkowski spacetime, see Chapter 3 of “Special Relativity“ by Valerio Faraoni ( ) ::Music:: Music licensed by (SS) [], or via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (), or with permission from the artist ► Hill - An Interesting Retirement [] ► Joachim Heinrich - Stjärna ► Falls - Life In Binary ► Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Two ► Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Five ► Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four ► Falls - Ripley ► Caleb Etheridge - Always Dreaming ► Joachim Heinrich - Y ► Indive - Trace Correction ::Film/TV clips used:: ► Interstellar (2014) Paramount Pictures ► Contact (1997) Warnes Bros. ► The Imitation Game (2014) The Weinstein Company ► Star Trek: Generations (1994) Paramount Pictures ► Cosmos: Possible Worlds (2020) National Geographic Fox ► Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places (2016) Curiosity Stream ► Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 20th Century Fox ► Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) Paramount Television ► The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) 20th Century Fox ► Stargate (1994) MGM/UA Distribution Co. ► Star Trek: Beyond (2016) Paramount Pictures ► Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Paramount Pictures ► The Expanse (2015-2022) Legendary Television Distribution ► Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) Paramount Television ► Avengers: Endgame (2019) Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures ► Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005) Paramount Television ► Back To The Future (1985) Universal Pictures ► Passengers (2016) Sony Pictures Releasing ► The Time Machine (Dreamworks) ► Alien: Covenant (2017) 20th Century Fox ► Star Trek (1966-1969) Paramount Television ► Tenet (2020) Warner Bros. Pictures ► Loki (2021-) Marvel Studios ► Somewhere In Time (1980) Universal Pictures ► The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Warner Bros. Pictures ► Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) Paramount Pictures ► Logan (2017) 20th Century Fox ► Star Trek: First Contact (1996) Paramount Pictures ::Subtitles:: ► German by Frischholz Christian ::Chapters:: 00:00 Introduction 06:52 Space Time Diagrams 12:51 Causality Violations 17:01 Paradoxes in Time 24:28 Outro and Credits #FasterThanLight #Alcubierre #CoolWorlds