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Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
i refuse to believe the whole notion that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. top scientists decades ago said the same thing about the speed of sound, and then centuries ago you had scientists claiming that the Earth was flat and was the center of the universe
just because we can't fathom how anything could go faster than light right now, doesn't mean future generations won't figure it out. and i firmly believe that with people as smart as Stephen Hawkings who are convinced that the only way to ensure humanity's survival is to spread into space, we'll get there eventually
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You are confusing a lot of things and misunderstanding many concepts of history and science.
Going faster than the speed of light is very different than going faster than the speed of sound. No scientists EVER said passing the sound barrier was impossible, most likely they were referring to humans surviving at supersonic speeds. Everyday items were already passing the sound barrier hundreds of years ago. A cracking whip, a musket bullet, etc. The whole notion of people thinking the world was flat is also a myth invented in the 18th or 19th century to spice up an American textbook for young students. Ancient greeks knew the world was round and classical knowledge was historically revered. Sailors who saw ships passing over the horizon knew the world could not be flat.
E=mc^2 means that accelerating a sub-light something to the speed of light and beyond would take most of the energy in the universe. It just is impossible. If you could do that, you would disprove the theory of relativity. Stephen Hawking knows that much
That's why any talk of rapid long-distance space travel always involves either "99.9% of, or near-light speed" or travelling through something that goes around the laws of physics in the normal universe, ie: a wormhole or sub-space.