The SCIENCE! Behind Mass Effect Technology
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- čas přidán 3. 04. 2016
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I believe that FTL can work. You just need Garrus for calibrations.
+Iron Fist's Captain Tarcitus *claps*
your belief doesn't matter, it needs to be proven, this is SCIENCE!
😂😂😂😂😂
That's a really cool swastica man
So you are a superswastica?
*types "no god damn sense" in four keyboard clicks
Macros...for words.
oh my god...
Maybe he has some sort of auto complete like on the PlayStation where he can select words he types the most.
+sergentti ... that was very naive and adorable of you.
yes. exactly like ... playstation... never change you precious cinnamon bun.
He has it hot keyed
_The Mass Effect universe is an alternate universe where Mass works differently, there, I fixed it._
Didn't EDI have a line of dialogue where she talked about trying to figure out with Liara's help if Mass Effect tech works in other universes or if it was something unique to theirs?
Clearly, it is unique.
yes.
you are implying that the only requirement for the suspension of disbelief is the element zero, but that sadly isn't true, almost nothing from the technology standpoint doesn't make sense in MAss effect, it's glorified science fantasy just like star wars, weapon technology wouldn't work, kinetic bariers wouldn't work, reaper beam weapons wouldn't work, the list is quite long
Jan P.
_Wrong._
_If the author/authors say that something is or is not the case, then that is the way it is._
_If the authors say that Element Zero does X and Y, such as allowing for Superluminal travel, _*_then it does._*
_And if that rustles your jimmies, boo fucking hoo._
Rubastax The Tenno then it's magic because it defies the laws of physics of this universe, and the game is set in this universe so it has the same laws of physics, the thing is creating a hard core science fiction is really hard, even harder when you deal with interstellar travel, I get what bioware tried to do and there is no harm in it, but that doesn't change the fact that the scinetific accuracy of their technologies is on very simmilar level as those of star wars, it's not good or bad, it's just a fact, it depend of the individual how they deal with the facts, I didn't mind that mass effect is a science fantasy, just like I don't mind it in star wars, but I also don't fool myself and try to justify anyting just too keep my understading of the media intact, mass effect isn't scientifically accurate and so what, I can enjoy it anyway, but I won't lie to myself that it's the other way around :)
you know shit is hitting the fan when you hear _in the hall of the mountain king_
Exactly what I was thinking !
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lol
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Hl
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Jelly
Glklkjjkhmjbjhhh k
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Jinnah
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Icedrake011 oh my gosh I was just thinking that
I actually wrote Drew Karpyshyn an email about this YEARS ago after reading one of the mass effect novels. He wrote back. The solution left a lot to be desired, and this video FINALLY explained why. Thank you.
Mother's Basement Boi
Drew Karpyshyn’s the man.
His Star Wars books are good
this is the last place I expected you to comment but at the same time I'm not apart of your everyday life I don't know which channels you like so I shouldn't judge
You assume the Citadel races know how the Mass Relays work beyond "I want to go somewhere and it takes me there."
The Codex is a In-Universe thing, as in ME2 the Codex says that Sovereign was a Geth Superdreadnaught.
And don't forget that the lore even says that the relays and the Citadel were there long before anyone got to them, and no one could figure out how they worked, just how to work them and the fact that they did work.
Ian Smith Exactly.
+Ian Smith The Keepers always got in the way of them trying to understand anything.
+FreyjaTheWarrior Furthermore, the last time someone went messing with a Mass Relay they didn't know much about, the Rachni Wars happened, so there's probably a "Don't look a gift (alien) Horse in the mouth." Mentality going on through the citadel races.
xxKumorinekoxx
There's actually a reason to believe that the Reapers caused the Rachni to be so aggressive.
you can give Bioware props because at least they tried really hard. They are an entertainment company, not a science lab :D. And they made all that science seem very reasonable and plausible :v
The Mass Relays don't accelerate anything past the speed of light, they (And I'm taking this from the lore of the franchise) open up a corridor of mass-less space which supposedly allows a ship to instantly move from one relay to another. For proof, read Mass Effect: Revelation
+Chris Edwards So how... does space... as in space per se, not whatever obstacles or particles might be there... have a mass again?
Siana Gearz Because reasons (According to the developers)
+Chris Edwards wormholes, no?
Reapers built the mass relays and they are incredibly intelligent. So it would make sense that they would have eliminated all obstacles between a relay and its target
Le GentleMan ni its an allcuibierre warp drive it warps space stime
You're trying to understand Reaper technology, but they are beyond your comprehension.
+Zack Gobah Also, its science FICTION.
Keep saying that, we'll see who's science fiction in about 200 years when they start exterminating all of us.
+Zack Gobah Hopefully, I'll be exterminated a long time by then.
You mad tho?
"Ah, creatures of science and learning, fumbling around in ignorance. How you touch my impossible mind."
- Sovereign
I don't usually like nitpicking stories like this, but I love these videos. Must be Austin. He's the bee's knees.
+Ono matopoeia He is quite the jive cat
Actually gravitation doesn't change 'direction' of light either, in the sense that light always moves 'straight' along the geodesics. What is curved is spacetime itself.
Well there is a reason why there is "fiction" in science fiction ^^
That's where the science comes from in this video
Yeah, but science fiction implies “fiction” that uses “real science.” Science fantasy can do and say what it wants because it’s not meant to be explained.
@@Appl3forPFP History describes "things that have happened," yet in historical fiction, people/events are invented that did not exist. Does that make all historical fiction historical fantasy instead?
@@BlueisNotaWarmColour If magic or unexplainable “science” are a thing in this “historical fiction”, then yes.
Also, historical fiction implies it’s going to at least try to be somewhat accurate. If it’s just a bunch of fanfic-like bullshit that goes completely off the rails, then yes, I *would* call it historical fantasy as opposed to historical fiction.
Edit: additional clarification
Looks like BioWare needs to do some....calibrations.
Yeeeeeah. Ba dum. Ba dum
Basically what you're leaving out is that eezo is specifically stated to work via dark energy, the as yet undefined force driving the expansion of the universe. We know from observations that said expansion can, and has, occurred faster than the speed of light. The mass relays are called out in the codex as creating a mass effect field in a corridor of space, essentially warping the space-time between them using dark energy. If an object is inside that corridor it would be pushed in the direction of the expansion, at the rate of expansion. While, from an external observer, the Normandy would be travelling FTL, it would not, from an internal reference frame, ever approach relativistic speeds and thus the clocks would not experience extreme time dilation. Some, yes, but not necessarily anything very noticeable.
That Beacon must have had some hell of a technological breakthrough for us...
The speed of light is a constant in normal space. It is a local frame constant, not a universal constant. See: Special Relativity, dark energy, exotic energy, exotic matter, singularities, etc..
Separating a ship from normal space with artificial gravity, negative energy, any kind of exotic energy bubble, warp field, etc. will separate the physics of the ship inside the bubble relative to the physics of normal space(everywhere else).
Here's a pitch. The mass relays are interconnected artificial worm holes that exist as a single hole punched trough a multi-layered folding of time-space(we could use quantum entangled singularities to hypothesize this). To travel from one layer to another your ship has to pass through an infinite compression of space-time(the singularity). To do this the relay envelopes you in a field of negative energy, turning your ship into a giant tachyon, that will only last long enough to get you to the relay of your choosing. Since you are not accelerating or even traveling at any speed, as far as normal space is concerned, there is no time dilation.
p.s. Negative energy is energy, and like any energy it will transform and fall to entropy. It is not "anti-matter" that will explode when it comes in contact with matter or positive energy.
+Michael Totin my brain hurts
Do you know that dark energy, exotic energy, exotic matter, singularities, are just mathematical theories and have not been scientifically proved right?
@@polkanietzsche5016 Widely accepted, heavily researched, and, for the moment most logical theories, much like many of the laws you were taught.
There are very little truly 100% "Scientifically Proven" science/theories around, as no matter how certain you are that, say, gravity or light works like X, it could take one person proving that it does Y too/instead to knock down the total understanding.
In regards to Dark Energy, it's by far one of the more.... tricky ones. As while it WOULD explain our observations of a universe rapidly expanding faster and faster, and even support theories of negative/anti-gravity of sorts, it would at the EXACT same time violate the First Law of Thermodynamics unless there was something to draw from, which may support the multiverse theory as well. And so on...
Exotic Matter varies, on some ends, it's firmly within the possibility of our current understanding and even expected. Some even well known such as Supercritical Fluids. Degenerate Matter is Theorized, but unless we can manufacture it or *somehow* extract a sample from a White or Black Dwarf (does not exist yet), it cannot be "proven". Neutron stars as well are theorized to produce some interesting properties as well due to just how extreme the pressure is, but again, gravity would deny us long before we could dig into something barely under the density needed to create a black hole.
Do you think we will reach the point of colonizing other planets before destroying ourselves?
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+ShoddyCast only if we stop worrying about the environment on our planet and start focusing all of our efforts on planet colonization...the more we waste time, energy, and resources worrying about our own demise the less time, energy, and resources we have to spend on more productive things.
+ShoddyCast nope, not when we still haven't colonized the ocean floor r Antarctica
Blair Brookes there's a military base in Antarctica...it even has a McDonalds. so it's a colony as far as i'm concerned.
+ShoddyCast Nuclear Armageddon will be brought upon us by a Donald Trump presidency... We are doomed to suffer the same fate as the Krogan and the Fallout Universe...
If you include a partially terraformed Mars then most likely yes. Otherwise I believe that humanity will never be able to reach another earthlike planet. I think that at some point in the future spacetravel will become less and less important as the focus will lie more on computer systems, reversible and quantum ones, artificial intelligence and, with time, the ability to plant ones conciousness into existing mainframes. This would open up possibilities beyond our wildest imagening since then one could effectively create new universes with completely new rules due to the processing power available. The only major problem that would then exist is a need for energy sources and there are plenty of those in out universe. By that point humanity as it is today will most likely not exist anymore as silicon based bodies are not only easier to maintain but have many more advantages over our current bio-chemical vehicles.
This would also be an explanation for Fermi's paradox as at that point there just would not be a need to look for another species or earthlike since one could just imagine a race of aliens and due to the massively enhanced processing power it would simply begin existing within the various mainframes.
Woop!! Woop!! That's the sound of the fun police.
that's pretty much the point of these videos, going into the actual physics abs reasoning behind different games.
doesn't need to ruin the fun. just something to think about. like how superman could beat the tar out of goku. that doesn't mean DragonBall is a worse show.
9:57 if memory serves, it'd take a few hours to get to the citadel from earth, meaning the speed's a fair bit lower than your 5 minute travel calculations.
You now when you hear that orchestra kick in you know it's bout to go down
Isaac Newton really is the deadliest son of a bitch in space, then.
sorry but at zero Kelvin the ship wouldn't be a block of ice as shown in the graphic but it would (probably) turn into waves
.
+bob hammer can you really have waves if there is zero motion?
James Hunter look up nose Einstein condensate
+bob hammer OK? not seeing mention of waves in any of the research, and all the reasearch is done at NEAR zero K. AT zero K there is absolute stillness, there is no energy for the particles to vibrate entropy would equal zero meaning perfect substances could be formed, Bose-Einstein Condensates are close, but far from perfect materials.
We can only test at bear absolute zero because we can't reach absolute zero and the theory is when a substance reaches absolute zero it turns into waves which has been backed up by the testing of objects at tepretures as close to absolute zero as we can get
Actually light doesn't always always always travel at the same speed. The speed of light is actually the speed of light in a vacuum which is the fastest light can ever go but it is slowed down when it passes through other mediums like air and water.
+'Ello Guv'ner no it doesnt, light is always travelling at c. The slowing down is what it seems due to light reflection within materials
+RobosergTV - игровой канал wrong
+Carlos Espindola nope, i am right. He even talks about it in the video, but I knew it from the school.
RobosergTV - игровой канал It used to be known that way, but recent discoveries show that you can slow down light even up to incredibly slow speeds
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light
There are other examples where one can use certain gasses to slow light
Also
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
"The speed at which light propagates through transparent materials, such as glass or air, is less than c"
Light slowing down is imperative to our sight also. If light travel at full speed always, we'd be blind. Light slows down a tiny bit when entering out eyes.
+RobosergTV - игровой канал
I bet our knowledge of time and light isn't even half of the story..
Quantum physics allows one to have their cake, and eat it. In an infinite number of ways, all in the same instant, and over an infinitely small and infinitely large period of time.
So, in order for Bioware to "fix" their in-game lore, they need only state that the Mass Relays create a quantum field entanglement between two points which causes matter to teleport between those two points instantaneously, and that the passengers experience this as not being instantaneous only because the mind is incapable of processing information so quickly.
Ah, the beauty of quantum physics: the space vessels in Mass Effect are both there, and not there.
in order for this to work the original head to be destroyed.... just thought I'd point this out.... but I totally wouldn't be against it!!!
Ahh but quantum entanglement only works at small scale and doesn't permit the transfer of information :)
As far as I know, there have been no proven limits put on the size of objects that have been entangled. As far as I know, the only argument against faster than light communication (transfer of information) is that it makes causality weird as you could send information back in time. While I tend to prefer a universe with a single direction of causation, I'm not philosophically committed to the idea.
TLDR: Your claims seem a little hasty and premature.
+Nolan Hartwick (what's tldr)
Too Long Didn't Read
It's almost like Mass Effect isn't real. Crazy, right?
+Nick Reed it's almost like he's argumenting it as being science fantasy and not science fiction. Crazy, right?
+Nick Reed The point is, Bioware tries to make it sound possible with big words and wonky math.
Better to crudely explain something with a mix of reason and bullshit than to simply not make an explanation for it.
+animehbkscm Unlike Star Trek. warp be praised xD
ben reed Hello Ben Reed.
Mass Effect IS science fiction, but not hard science fiction
+Qazmax It's still being discussed, but the current dividing line between science fiction and science fantasy is as thus:
* Science fiction explores what is possible, even if it is improbable. All science fiction builds, draws, and extrapolates on what we really know about from science and reality.
* Science fantasy explores the impossible is impossible, inventing new rules of reality to help drive the story.
As element zero and the mass effect for FTL travel are clearly in the realm of something added to help drive the story, Mass Effect is science fantasy (or space fantasy if you prefer). If Mass Effect just used FTL without inventing some impossible science to explain it, then it quite possibly would be science fiction.
------ initiate tangent ------
To further the issue, recently science fiction has been broken into two sub-genre called "hard science fiction" and "soft science fiction". The dividing line between these two is subjective:
* Hard science fiction is defined by being science fiction where science and technology are the main focus point.
I have to quote Doug Tricarico on this, as he lays it out the best:
"I'm partial to the idea that fantasy deals with the impossible, while science fiction deals with the possible; that hard science fiction deals with hardware while soft science fiction deals with wetware. ...The best science fiction, however, deals with both aspects, applying the science to human behavior and systems."
------ terminate tangent ------
In my honest opinion, the only reason we feel the need to define hard science fiction, soft science fiction, and space fantasy from one another is so various geek cliques can waggle their fingers at one another and say their is better than the rest.
+Qazmax I think his problem with it is it treats itself like hard science fiction. At least, that's what I got out of the video.
+wolfbyte3171
Because it is Science Fiction.
About 3 on Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness , with most of the other Space Operas.
Hard Scienfiction (which seems what Austin defines as sicne fiction) is 8/9.
+Sin tanan It would make more sense to me that if the majority of the stories universe is driven by science fiction or science fantasy that it is included in that genre. Take element zero. I'll admit it is a incredibly important part of Mass Effect's story and clearly science fantasy, but once you get past that a lot of Mass Effect falls under science fiction.
note to viewers: traveling faster than light (FTL) does not necessarily mean you go back in time. This is known as the tachyonic antitelephone, and is only a theory since we don't quite know if FTL is possible and how it works. You do get a negative solution but its suppose to be treated as an imaginary number. Its just one solution of many. Another theory is yes you do go faster than FTL and everything is as you expect it, ie the solution Mass Effect and most Sci-Fi works choose to use.
+malkavian5 And really, you don't actually go backwards in time, you just arrive at your destination before your actions at your previous location have a causal effect on the destination.
+malkavian5 A negative solution and an imaginary solution are two entirely different things.
In general relativity a frame that is entirely faster than light most certainly results in a 'negative solution' (not at all an imaginary one) which reverses causality (going backwards in time). It is not one solution of many, and it is not an imaginary solution.
@@BlueCosmology But again that's presumed based on the values used to calculate dilation below the speed of light. Since FTL likely isn't possible in the first place and there's no way of knowing it works on the same principles or mathematics, it's purely conjecture. Though to be fair, FTL as a whole is as well.
@@Skylancer727 I'm confused why you are saying 'But again', I've never spoken with you before.
This isn't based upon values used to calculate time dilation below the speed of light. The derivation of time dilation in General Relativity is completely agnostic of whether something is faster or slower than light. It has only been tested slower than light, but it is not calculated based on values from speeds slower than light.
Also this is irrelevant, treating a negative solution as an imaginary solution is never valid. They are completely different things.
@@BlueCosmology is really relevant if we ever spoke before? The concept is still the same. The "but again" is to reference the previous conversation you had which stated it as being "imaginary". It's not entirely false but I think you took the idea of imaginary the wrong way. It's not as much imaginary as much as it is conjecture with little evidence. The problem is that Einstein's Theory of Relativity breaks down when things go faster than the speed of light. A negative number implies breaking causality which is a logical paradox. You can't go to the past to tell yourself you went on this adventure and expect the you you told to do the same. It's implied he will do that but considering you went back without meeting yourself prior suggests it would basically be making new time streams or new alternate dimensions as you can't go back to the original if you messed with the past in a way you didn't before.
The logic breaks down much like relativity breaks down on things such as black holes which it claims are points of infinite density which obviously is false. It has an apparent infinite density but obviously is not infinite as infinite is logically impossible. We can't always assume the math we have is accurate especially when twisted in ways it was never ment to be used. Much like how we can't take the alcubierre warp drive at face value as it's a result of taking the math of relativity and flipping it in reverse. We can't just assume it checks out like we think it will. We have been surprised in the past to be wrong about such things.
love how the music, footage and the voice tone and context go so well in the final part of the video.
The most feasible explanation that I would have used is that the Mass Relays, when activated, create a wormhole between it and the target Relay, and shunts you through it. As wormholes follow the rules of space time, and fold the fabric of it, it connects to a corresponding point in space time. The flash of energy you see would instead be the Relay opening the wormhole and accelerating you to near the speed of light through the wormhole. As space time still exists, and you are travelling many many Light Years it would just seem like you are travelling in an FTL state. Element Zero use would just enable you to accelerate faster in the wormhole for the same amount of energy. A possible reason if the game followed wormhole travel like mentioned above, the Reapers motives for killing all FTL capable species, is that the repetitive use of creating wormholes over and over again weakened space time to the point of the Space Time Continuum of it breaking. This is a theory, not fact, so anyone who believes anything else, please take it elsewhere.
+The_Night_Warrior_Gaming That explains the ships stopping when reaching their location right?
lambusado yes. A wormhole connects two points in space time, nothing more. Think of it as a shortcut through space. It works kind of like the theoretical drive he mentioned, that moves you through space time on a wave. Imagine travelling some where a day away. Now imagine folding the route, so your target is close to where you are, but the distance is the same. Instead of following the road, a tunnel is created that when you go through it, you arrive at the same point you would have had to drive a day to get to, instead it would take a major fraction of time, making it appear that you have travelled FTL. With that, when the Relay stops you from the speed of light at the end of the trip, it is instead stopping you from being flung out into space as you exit out of the wormhole.
The_Night_Warrior_Gaming And I know how wormholes work btw. I've seen my share of Stargate episodes hehehe (thanks anyway)
Could be a suitable change to make the series more fiction than fantasy.
Dear bioware,
the element you made yp specifically to break the laws of physics doesn't follow the laws of physics.
just because you changed the rules, doesnt mean the rules have changed.
that is what im getting from this.
Yes. Exactly.
+Zachary Hanson Its not necessarily that, hes saying that even if you were to accept that the element did have those properties, those properties alone wouldnt be enough to get those kinds of effects. And even if they were, the effects would have very far reaching implications that arent addressed.
+John Smith though, the issue is the deceleration portion, because as you slow down, time would rapidly catch up to you, so i wouldn't be surprised if the 13.5 years caught up. He's leaving out Deceleration which is INSANELY hard to do in space.
My favorite part of your videos is towards the end when you describe, in hilarious detail, exactly what sort of catastrophe would happen if the subject of the video were to happen in real life.
These open latter videos are great. Certainly your best ones. I'm eagerly looking forwards to more.
there was an easier way to figure out that Mass Effect is Science Fantasy, the reapers and leviathan can mind control, and the Protheans have this thing, where they can perceive what other creatures have been in the room and what they were doing and even feeling.
Javik talks about this on the Normandy, he instantly figures out there was an artificially created Krogan in the room in the past.
Between indoctrination and that, it easily falls into the science fantasy category.
+Ebon Hawk Mind control is not science fantasy, just look up mind controlling plants, wasps and mushrooms. Tactile "divination" could be considered science fantasy.
They made it believable, heck they made giant robot space octopuses believable 😂
+Luke Woods I just view it as they are in a different version of our universe in each these rules are allowed. so I agree.
so happy i only had to rewatch a few parts
that was a surprisingly well done breakdown of something that is extremely complicated.
Dude it's a space opera, it has no higher ambition
Aside from the fact that mass relay travel *isn't* instantaneous, there's another thing you have to realise about the relays, this one little quotation here: "Mass relays function by creating a virtually mass-free "corridor" of space-time between each other."
Effectively, they create a wormhole that isn't a door from one location to another, but rather a tunnel between two relays (which allows them to avoid possible collisions) that has spacial length, but that's significantly shorter than the actual space between the relays.
I believe there's also an aspect of an understanding of quantum physics that we don't have, like their QECs (Quantum Entanglement Communicators), but I'm not sure offhand. Regardless, the fact that we don't know how mass effect fields work (because they're fictional), and light _does_ travel faster in a vacuum than it does through an object (source: math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/speed_of_light.html), I'd venture to say that, even if Quantum Physics aren't involved, they have a good case for ignoring time dilation.
+Cody the Schmuck Unless im mistaken the Quantum Entanglement Communicators function using quantum mechanics that state that a object can be in several locations at once.
So if say they have a atom they can messure and effect at earth, the same atom can be in the space craft (at the same time) and also messured and effected there. They can then use said measurements and effects to transfer data instantly between the two points.
Off course i do not realy understand the theory behind quantum mechanics so i can't realy say if its feasible in reality.
+GaratghDeloi Not even quantum physicists fully understand quantum mechanics, so you're not alone there. Regardless, were that the case, the same thing could be applied to the relays as well; the ship is in two places at once until it arrives at its destination.
Cody the Schmuck It only seems to work with microscopic objects. (for whatever reason).
I love how he has the music timed perfectly. Everything going to shit happens when the music is at it's most climactic point. And at the beginning how he basically ends a paragraph by ending a song and jumps into the new music and the SCIENCE!
These always get so much better once the music starts.
Woah woah woah! "c" is the speed of light in a vacuum, not just the speed of light.
***** light and time are different ;)
+Diana Winters But light always travels at the speed of c lol
+Kyle Schaff Diana is correct that 'c' is the speed of light in a vacuum. The speed of light actually does change when it goes thru different mediums such as glass or water.
I'll just copy/paste my comment from earlier lol
The speed calculated of light traveling through a medium (like water) only accounts for the time it takes for light to move from point A to point B in the medium. That accounts only for light moving in that one direction; however, light does not move in one direction through compounds. In the example of light moving through water, light must change its direction if it runs into a water molecule. As it changes and when it has finally changed direction, light maintains the constant speed of c. The velocity for light traveling through a medium is the average velocity of light's movement in that one direction; sometimes the photon gets through in a clear shot and is measured to have traveled at the speed c, sometimes it bounces around and takes longer.
+Kyle Schaff This ^^^
Light's different speed through a medium is only caused by the interactions with the medium, absorptions and re-emissions. Light is nothing special, anything without mass (such as gluons also) can only travel at c......I prefer c as the name lightspeed itself causes so much confusion. The much deeper points about space, time and causality have nothing at all to do with light :)
Light does not always travel at the same speed. When light travels through a medium it's speed decreases
Exactly. Light refracts as well
Interstellar did speed of light really well taking into account time around the vessel.
this was really well made, loved the video!
Next time: Warhammer 40k and the Warp!
+John Peacekeeper That makes some sense as the warp is a different dimension without rules of physics or different rules of physics, allowing "sub-light" speeds in the Warp to be much faster then C in the "main" universe. Old Necron FTL, on the other hand, "works" in a similar way to Mass Effect FTL but disables inertia in addition/instead of mass. This would be interesting to discus, but ultimately futile since Warhammer 40k, unlike Mass Effect, makes no pretense of realism. This does not change the fact that I would still sub if the video was made! :)
I've always thought the same thing about Mass Effect FTL; even if you reduce the mass of your ship to a feather, you still can't pump it up to faster than the speed of light.
However, the best of Hard Sci-Fi usually breaks only one rule of actual science, and most often that is the Speed of Light, so I'm willing to forgive ME because of this.
Of course, they also introduce 'psionics' thanks to Plot Device Element... but it was a damn good game so I'm forgiving this also ^_^
Im glad I let my youtube go to autoplay for like 4hours, because now I found your channel, and its fantastic.
The use of "In The Hall of The Mountain King" and how it reached its climax when you were at your most breathless, with the chaotic game visuals, was fuckin' magnificent X-D
Three things I'd like to say:
1) Light can change it's speed depending on the medium it's traveling through. 'C' is the speed that light travels through in a vacuum, light traveling though an atmosphere, water, or any other medium will slow it down.
2) As for the problems of time travel, I have a bullshit idea: Because the faster than light travel will reverse time, and because traveling at near-light speeds will slow down time relative to you, why not have periods of time en route to your destination that will be done at near-light speeds? Before and/or after you hit the mass-effect relay. Your time will pass at a very slow rate, and the time in the rest of the universe will continue on at it's normal rate. You travel at this rate until the universe outside your speed (and more specifically at your destination) has passed a sufficient amount of time for your needed travel distance (13.8 years in your example) you reduce your mass and hit the relay.
3) I have a potential bullshit excuse for the potential horrifying anti-gravitational anomaly of a ship arriving through a relay. If both Gravity and Anti-Gravity work on the inverse square law, distance would be the best way to mitigate the damage done by arriving at the relay. This could be why mass relays tend to be on the fringes of a given stellar system.
Light always travels at c, but when it passes through something e.g. air or glass, it takes a little more time because light is bouncing of particles (it's longer path)
the only problem with that third point is that the ship itself causes the distortions when it exits it's FTL state. And appearing on the fringes of a system far enough away for it to not impact it would probably mean you have a lot of time to fly to the actual system from wherever you appeared. Not to mention you would have still traveled into the past and who knows what the hell that will have done to space time.
+Grzegorz Chojnacki That is wrong. A _photon_ always travels at c, but light isn't the same as a photon, it's a collection of them. Light really does slow down in a medium, and *not* because of collisions with particles. I suggest you search for a Sixty Symbols video called "Why is light slower in glass?" here on CZcams to learn the real reason.
Actually, there is no time dilation in the Alcubierre warp drive. Clocks in the ship stay synchronized with clocks on Earth.
Much of the science you discussed leaves a lot to be desired, to be honest. Are you REALLY changing the sign in the time dilation formula for no apparent reason? What the hell do you think you're calculating? No, you don't arrive 13.8 years in the past, nor do you send "huge pulses of disruptive anti gravity waves". That's just as bad as the mumbo-jumbo science in Mass Effect.
***** Which is understandable, but if you make the effort to criticize someone else's bad science please make sure yours is good first.
+avicenna As I remember this is very true ... as I recall the frame of reference you begin in is essentially the one you maintain, until you exit assumed "warp field". As fascinating or humorous as his criticisms were, the rate of his snark was exponentially expanding my own.
+avicenna Most of what you said is spot on, but I will point out that one effect of the Alcubierre curve is that the actual "surface" of the curve generate some horrific tidal forces. Within the spheroid of the curve, the tidal forces are easily manageable, but outside of the curve they appear to be potentially catastrophic. Still, time dilation isn't induced since the contents of the curve are not actually moving (or at least not moving in any way they weren't moving before the curve formed), and the tidal forces likely wouldn't span across solar systems as this video implies.
+Pneumonica The Alcubierre drive strikes me as one of those things in which we've all missed a critical detail that would make everyone go "oh... oh yeah, that can't work." It seems like there'd be a significant issue relating to causality. Like, if the bubble can be thought of as discrete regions of inside, outside, and boundary, if there's a >c differential between the inside and outside, how can information traverse the boundary? And if inside can't talk to outside, how can the between be stabilized in any functional manner? I did take a good bit of physics in college, but not enough to really strongly grasp relativity and field equations and such so I do admit that this a topic a bit out of my league.
+ExaltedDuck That's actually when we start getting into the area of "wtfidk" with the theory - it is just a theoretical model, although NASA is experimenting with it. There's a point in even the hard sci-fi that the "speculative" part of "speculative fiction" will become an issue. One possible and relatively simple explanation: "Information" can pass through perturbative vacuum at >c. (I'm not saying that's their explanation, or that they have one, I'm just saying that if you're speculating, the speculation doesn't need to be difficult or physics-breaking.)
I'm personally surprised that the creator of this video looked to Mass Effect of all things as "hard" sci-fi. I wouldn't directly call it science fantasy, but it's certainly soft (look at how the Reapers operate, and especially the third game). Pretty much, any time you propose significant enough advances (like the stuff the Reapers seem to have) the speculation softens the sci-fi noticeably.
you have explained the speed of light to me through this video better than every teacher I've ever had or probably ever will have. thank you, love the videos!
Though you would think that the person who designed the relays would have been able to capture the energy since they do have mass effect tech.
Thanks Austin. This is why we can't have Nice Things.
Dear ShoddyCast,
Do you know why do we, people, write sci-fi? Because it allows us experience things that aren't possible! I think it's absolutely acceptable if there's some 'gaps' in the science, because it allows things like the interstellar travel. With our science we can not achieve that. So there's the word fi, the fiction within it. I think that small 'violations' of physics laws are desired and even pleasurable for this kind of art. (It's art after all.)
And also, these people are about (I'm not sure, I haven't played ME.) 200+ years forward than us, so there's small possibility that we are wrong in some places of our science.
The first Mass Effect takes place in 2183.
+Stephen Garforth I'm not butthurt, m8y. Just pointing out the exact year that Mass Effect takes place in. Just go to the Wiki if you wanna learn more about this stuff. I think you guys may be taking this video format too seriously.
+petrodeloro It's a video representation of a which way book. Art is the video and audio aspect. I would classify it as Literature in an audio & video format. Your comment is well said, Thumbs up.
VileIntent Thank you.
I still love how they "try" two explain the science behind mass effect it adds up so much to the atmosphere and immersion. For me these "explanations" put the game on my top one of all sci fi universes
I remember reading that light can be forced to move slower. It was a paper put out by a university that said that light moves at different speeds through different mediums. The more dense the medium, the slower light moves through it. Through one material they actually managed to slow it down to 30 something miles per hour. I believe that's remembered correctly.
Which is why making the space in front of the ship more dense would allow the ship to travel faster than light, if the ship could maintin a constant speed despite the more dense space in front of it. Which would require a vast amount of energy, but crucially, not infinite energy.
That said, that paper may have been disproved or debunked now, I don't know. It was a few years ago I read it. Or it might have only been about the perception of the speed of light, not the actual speed of light, as you mentioned.
+James Bennett news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.18/light.html
That wasn't what I read, but it was about the same thing. That was what I was referring to. Thanks.
Nanomachines
+Bichpants McGee Son
If mass effect isn't Sci Fi, then neither is Star trek.
+TheKrensada Then nothing is...
+TheKrensada Or Star Wars for that matter.
+Stayler17 star wars is science Fantasy and is strictly such.
+TheKrensada He blames it all on techno-babble, as if Star Trek isn't the fucking king of techno-babble.
*****
yes and they don't explain how they get this effect. somehow dilithium crystals makes it possible. just like element Zero. in any case what I'm trying to say is this video is either full of shit, or the guy in it is splitting hairs, and nit picking to the point of ridiculousness.
sneakily teaching me about physics keep up the good work : D
when you spend a few hundred years studying physics but some shit you've never seen before shuts you up in a second
Shut up baby, I know it; I'm 98% stuffness.
I'd love to know where you get the conclusion, that going faster then "c", will make you travel backwards in time. In fact I'd love to know where anyone, would get anything about going passed the speed of light, considering just how badly it would break everything we know about anything.
Now as for Element Zero. You are gravely mistaken here Austin. Using an Alcubierre drive, you would indeed negate time dilation, at least comparatively to the reference frame you left from, as your velocity doesn't change in space. So using element zero to produce a warp bobble would theoretically allow you to TRAVEL faster than speed of light, without MOVING faster than the speed of light. Even the problems of relativistic speeds wouldn't be a problem, because the conventional speed adjustment, while of course requiring conventional thrust, wouldn't require much if the mass effect field changed the mass of the ship to barely anything, as you yourself touched on. Also with what the mass effect fields are suppose to do, you could even negate inertia.
Ofc all 3 of these systems would be completely different in function, but honestly Bioware did a very solid job with the "science fiction". With what element zero is said to be able to do (which is completely impossible), there really is no problem with anything they are doing in the game.
One thing though. Not all planets or star bases are moving at the same speeds, and no amount of mass effect fields (so far as shown) would negate that. So while the travel might not be a problem, communications and A LOT of other stuff, would be very hard to get around.
he ignored a minus that why got the bach in time answer
+Sokar Ahh somebody already wrote it. Thumbs up.
+Sokar Your effectively arguing real world physics with video game logic
+LandoCowDelicion Have you seen any of the videos on this channel?
Also, you're*. Yeah, I'm gonna be 'that guy'.
+LandoCowDelicion "Durr its a video game its immune to real life logical arguments!"
Would you people quit that for fuck's sake? Video games are not immune to logical criticism because "durr video game". Suspension. Of. Disbelief.
I have watched at least 5 of your videos so far, and I laugh at the opening and music choice every time.
That moment you realize the joke in Futurama about having a ship sit still in space and have the universe move around it... then realize how much science a cartoon show's creators have..... mind blown
Think happy thoughts.....just like Peter Pan....BELIEVE AUSTIN, BELIEVE~~!!!
Light doesn't always travel at the same speed. It's relative to the density of the air it's traveling through
Light travels slower through air than it does a vacuum.
+Andre A Light always travels at the speed of light, from one atom to another. It takes time for an atom to re-emit a photon it absorbs. This is why light is "slowed" and refracted in a substance.
These make me smile so much. Thank you.
Dude you are absolutely awesome i only have to watch two videos and im hooked cause you explain the actual reality of what the video game presents awsome
a week ago-
AUSTIN: *light doesn't have mass*
SIENCE: *light does have mass austin*
AUSTIN: *Anything with mass can't move at the speed of light*
SCIENCE: *stop going to wikipedia*
There are no definitive studies that prove that photons have mass.....plus when you're thinking about it in terms of relativity you can say that the resting mass of a photon is 0. Thats what they tell you in physics who knows tho
+mrgolamhossein photons do have mass hence light sails
+anfromanx1981 Nope. Photons carry momentum but they don't have mass. Sorry!
The equation for energy in Special Relativity is E^2=m^2 * c^4 + c^2 * p^2, where E is energy, m is mass, c is the speed of light and p (stupid choice of symbol but that's how it is) is the momentum. As a kind of hand-wavey proof of me not being wrong, if you set p = 0, i.e the object is not moving, then you get E=m*c^2, which must be true, we read it everywhere, right?
Well, it gets even more interesting when you set the MASS to be 0, as we obviously know that a photon is massless, I mean, we hear it all the time, right? This gives us the super-simple equation E=c*p, which actually is the equation for a photon's momentum. It is this transfer of momentum, as each photon comes up to the sail and is reflected off, that powers a solar sail, not any mass effect (pun so intended).
This can be checked by subbing in de Broglie's relation (look it up, it's beautiful) which gives us the Einstein relation E=h*f, where h is Planck's constant and f is the photon's frequency, which at the time all this was done was already a fairly well measured relation and taken to be damn close to true. If you want a full (warning: very mathsy, does need a basic knowledge of a little calculus) derivation of this energy formula just let me know, I'll walk you through it from the beginning if you want :)
TL;DR: photons are DEFINITELY AND UNAVOIDABLY massless but have momentum given by p = E/c. Momentum transfer powers solar sail ships. Very real, very cool, demonstrates how physics can actually affect the real world :)
Mass is energy hence higs field
anfromanx1981 Eeeehh not quite. Mass is energy confined spatially (or energy is mass that has been removed from hard spatial confinement). The way the two sides of the mass-energy coin interact with space-time is described by the Higgs field, but that is a stupidly, mind-boggingly and beautifully complicated interaction. Essentially the Higgs field determines how mass interacts with the universe, and was actually predicted by Peter Higgs on a hunch, a pretty neat little mathematical trick for a philosophical problem. Like all quantum fields, it should manifest in quantum force particles - bosons - and something with the same energy signature as the predicted 'vanilla' Higgs boson mass has been observed in the LHC!
So, nothing really gives any indication that Higgs field except this new LHC data, and even better nothing before Higgs had the idea gave him a clue either, which is pretty bananas. Glad to see that science curiosity is out there!
The main problem is that you're looking at this with the understanding WE have of technology. At a point in the future, we can't use our understanding of science and technology to reach a conclusion. We'd have to use the understanding of their technology and science.
The laws of our universe don't apply to an alternate universe where ancient beings exterminate all life every 50,000 years.
+Violet Snow yeah but the past in mass effect is the same as the past in our universe (i know that because admiral hackett spoke with shepard about the atom bombs drop in japan in 1945) so is't not an alternative universe but our universe just in future while the same rules of physics apply... still he is exaggerating it's just a game... who gives a shit if technology is realistic or not.
Star Lord
It could very well be an alternate universe. The theory of the multiverse has millions of possibles universes. There isn't one singular universe where bombs dropped in Japan during 1945. That's not enough information to conclude it's our universe.
Violet Snow well yeah it could be but i refuse to think so...it's more immersive for me if i think it is our universe... just as i can't get into skyrim or oblivion if i'm not a human (bretons don't count since they are a mix of mer and men)
Star Lord
It doesn't really matter if it takes place an alternate reality or not. The fact still remains that it takes place in the future. The Mass Relays aren't even discovered until 2148, a century and a half into the future.
Our understanding of the technology isn't accurate. As a matter of fact, our understanding is all just theory at this point.
so...you're telling me a video game isn't real? omfg i thought it was a documentary of the future
+Christopher Hall Ditto'd
+Christopher Hall No he's telling you that the game is pretending to be based on real science when it isn't, that's all.
Ｓｔａｙｎｉｆｔｙ >> Of course it's pretending to be based on real science... It's a sci-fi game.. That's kind of obvious.
+Kade Smash The issue is that they're PRETENDING to be based off of real science. Science fiction is actually based off of real science. If it's pretending to be based off of real science, it's science fantasy.
so happy i found this series the power of a well thought out rant is true!
Light always travels at the same speed. Completely true...barring a small caveat: *while in a vacuum*
yea but when it isnt it goes slower, so still FTL travell seems impossible
+Aipe97 right now yes. In the future...
Fun fact, The original script was the Reapers coming to kill everyone so they stop using the relays or more precisely developing mass effect technology, because it was causing exactly what you were saying at 9:27. In fact there are hints of this in Mass Effect 2 in a mission where you recruit Tali, in which she was in an colonized planet they lost to the Geths because she find out the sun on that system was suddenly dying before it's time, while she suspected it had a connection with Element Zero it was never brought back in ME3 because they had to remake the entire game from scratch just a few months before it's release date because someone on EA didn't like the story. Link www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-19-ex-bioware-writer-discusses-dropped-ideas-for-mass-effect-trilogy-ending
Direct Quote ""Maybe the Reapers kept wiping out organic life because organics keep evolving to the state where they would use biotics and dark energy and that caused an entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe. Being immortal beings, that's something they wouldn't want to see." The original writer of the first game left, then the rape of it's own lore started. And we got the Mass Effect 3 game, that ended being a huge fuck up.
That would have been the greatest intergalactic sci-fi story ever. It would have made more sense and it would have proved a better ending if you could have found the solution or none at all. Thanks EA for fucking up everything you touch.
Another plot shield for the FTL travel is that the mass effect relays are Reaper tech, and the secret of how they function is not yet fully cracked.
Smaller mass effect generators were successfully created and used for different tech (most prominent one in the game are the guns), but the travel isn't clear yet- except for the fact that both ends of connected relays are required for the FTLT to work (which is plausible explanation that suggests additional factors that come into play in-between the relays).
Very good and kudos on bringing up gravity distortion drives
I love your rants, especially w/r to laser rifles having recoil in Fallout 4. On FTL travel in Mass Effect, you're a bit off base. (FYI, I'm a physics PhD whose research included special/general relativity and plasma.) The main thing to note about "laymen's explanations" vs the real scientific explanation is that the wording will be imprecise. So the way I handwave away a lot of the scientific inaccuracies is that the layman's version HAS TO BE INACCURATE. The word "effectively" goes a long way towards explaining things without actually doing real math.
I regard "zero matter" as being much like the "negative mass" that is actually postulated for relativity by respected relativists such as Kip Thorne (whose work regarding gravitational waves recently produced real results after more than 30 years of waiting!). I always intuitive figured that the Mass Effect was really just another way of saying "wormhole" that was stabilized by "zero matter". There's a reason humanity and the rest are stuck using pre-existing mass effect portals to travel from place to place: creating the wormhole is a lot of work, and needs a lot of ongoing stabilization from "zero matter" or "negative mass".
They key to discerning between "science fiction" and "science fantasy" isn't that the science fiction entirely avoids anything brushing too close with handwavy pseudoscience. Rather, the main distinction is that science fiction actually tries to give a plausible explanation that only violates one or two rules of physics, as opposed to science fantasy with tends to violate rules as a matter of convenience. James Hogan's writing is a good example of hard scifi that only violates a single rule, or rather postulates only one thing being different. E.g., "Thrice Upon a Time" (great book!) postulates tachyons enabling communication with the past, and that's it. Mass Effect lives up to this standard, by only postulating "zero matter", and how it breaks the laws of physics with respect to manipulating space-time (hence being able to create localized gravity distortions). You can argue that it breaks more than "one rule", but really, as long as it only breaks a very small set of known rules of physics, it's legitimately scifi and not fantasy.
That said, this is a great video, and your points are mostly dead-on accurate. The real problem is that insofar as we understand physics FTL is impossible. I say it's still scifi because that's the ONLY rule that really gets broken.
That is on the assumption that time can ever go backwards at all. Slowing and going backwards a completely different things.
"light always travels at the same speed.".... in a vacuum. Light moves slower through 'thicker' mediums.
I was actually gunna bring up that ship but you already did. Good on you homie.
Great Video as always and good solid math! Ever thought about partnering with MatPat from Game Theory?
The speed of light is not constant. It changes based on the medium through which it travels. If Eezo is altering the nature of 'space' through which one is moving, the speed of light may be different.
+Ilhares but that would make the speed of light slower.
+Ilhares As I understand it, that's less changing the speed of light, and more the light bouncing around particles, increasing the distance it has to travel, making it seem like it takes more time to travel the same distance.
Kind of like...Taking a detour through the city, while still heading to the same location, and taking five minutes longer, despite traveling at the same speed.
I just want to add that light only travels at c when in a complete vacuum. It travels slower through everything else, depending on how dense it is
There's a hypothesis out there that the speed of light is not constant. Still being researched upon last time I checked. Pretty interesting stuff. Fun video! Love this channel.
Suspension of disbelief, homeboy!
+Franco G. That's what I love about this channel; He takes the suspension of disbelief that makes our game universes fun, and tears it apart just to satisfy our curiosity of how an annoying knitpicker would approach it. This series always makes me smile.
This show got so much better than since he started to swear.
I love the way you presented the physics, made the video very entertaining
this is an old video but good news about the "Warp bubble" alcubieri drive, is more math was done that, the gravity bubble would actually not have an effect on time dilation because you kinda aren't moving, but moving things around you propelling you forward, so are moving while simultaneously not moving. however the level of energy released would indeed do what you mentioned which actually has the power to rip planets apart. so there is that to contend with. Not to mention the level of energy required to run the drive is still stupid huge.
Dug the video! However, I'm not so sure that time dilation applies to a ship using an Alcubierre drive. Such a ship wouldn't be accelerating. It's not moving *through* space, it's moving space *around* it.
+NSNick I was thinking the same thing.
+NSNick That was his point
I just calculated that if the Citadel was 20000 light-years from Earth and the Normandy travelled to it from there in five minutes, the Normandy would be travelling at 1.44x10^18 ("1.44 quintillion") miles per hour, or 2147282077.71 times the speed of light.
It's probably like Star Wars deal with FTL. Hyperspace is a paralel dimension to the universe, so when ships jump to FTL they are in fact running on another reality, in wich time works in another way. The "Hyperspace Dimension" works like the difference between Nether and Overworld in Minecraft, 1 meters on Nether are 8 meters on overwolrd, so you can travel 8 times loger distances with 8 times less movement and time consumed.
The music for this video is on point.
I always took that ftl happened because of the E=mc^2 formula
Element 0 reduces the m but the energy of the object stays the same, so c is altered to balance the equation in the local space of the Mass effect.
Before you say ' That is impossible '
You should have said that about the mass effect, both are impossible, if you accept one, then just accept the other, the 'light effect' is the balancing factor to retain energy
Occam's razor. The only way to accept the "mass effect" is to also accept the "light effect" solution. Therefore, since there's no other way to accept "mass effect", either "light effect" is the true answer or going ftl is impossible- which is the main premise of this video.
So it's simpler to disregard both rather than having to only accept both
you do know that sci fi doesn't need to be actually scientific? It just needs to maintain a internally consistent logic
That's a bit of a contradiction. Science fiction doesn't need to be accurate but at its core it is based around some form of science. The contradiction comes from saying "...maintain a internally consistent logic", by definition that is pretty much what science reveals to us, the inner workings/rules of our reality (Logic).
In the end, the definitions of science and logic are pretty similar making your comment kind of, irrelevant? Misconstrued?
I'm not sure how to describe it, you're not really wrong, but not for the reasoning you gave as the reasoning you give proves you wrong lol.
No, a good sci-fi doesn’t break physics and creates a new one. A good sci-fi maintains existing proven theories, and plays only with the unknown part.
We don’t know what dark matter is for example. So let’s fantasize about it, and imagine it is something responsible for mass, and we can manipulate it. Just like we can manipulate magnetic fields with electricity, we can manipulate gravity field as well.
Same with warping the space.
So we can just pick one of the unproven hypotheses, and build our scifi on that. In that case, it can be entirely consistent with proven physical theories, and still be a fiction,
7:15 was in Futurama in the episode where the professor was taken to that old folks home planet and his clone/son who was introduced in this episode explained how their FTL drive works, "The engines don't move the ship at all, it moves the universe around it"
I like the concept of both the Mass Relay's and the Shaw Fujikawa Drives, one decreasing mass and speeding you past light speed, and one ripping a literal hole in space-time and forcing space to move around you whilst you essentially remain still.
I would like to see some form of viable interstellar travel be developed before I die, as would I like to see some form of fully integrated virtual reality technology similar to .hack and SAO.. But I really doubt I will
Reapers built them, so we dont know. Trip from Earth to Citadel could take hours for all we know. Due to all these problems NAsa and new scientists are working on a new Theory about shits travelling through time and not space
+GeorgeofGondor2 Gotta love our tax dollars at work, nasa working on a theory about time traveling shits.
Am I the only one who thinks Austin sounds like Joker?
+KIRPAT The stress must be getting to Austin. XD
I loved these science vids back in the day, would've been amazing if you could have done one for Elite: Dangerous
This entire video was incredible. Haha. I enjoyed this greatly.