Tachyons in fiction

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The hypothetical

K-Pax, which coined the term "tachyonic speeds" for "multiples of light speed".[5] An "unabashed" use appeared already in 1969, where "Bob Shaw's The Palace of Eternity features such delights as a million-ton tachyonic spaceship travelling at 30,000 times the speed of light."[8] In the Star Trek franchise, in addition to facilitating faster-than-light travel, tachyons have been mentioned "for varied purposes, including cloaking a spacecraft, detection" of such cloaking and overcoming defensive shields,[5] which has been regarded as "technobabble" by Mashable contributor Keith Wagstaff: dialogue that implies a scientific explanation, using a term with a real scientific concept behind it, "but really doesn't mean much."[9]

Tachyon model.
Animation

As a means of faster-than-light travel, the concept brings with it the consideration of transforming ordinary matter into tachyons and back, as is employed in the

Farthest Star (1975) by Pohl and Jack Williamson expands this by the notion that the necessary copying technique might be employed not only to transport an original person, but to create duplicates, which might be self-aware or remote-controlled via interstellar distances.[2][4] A use for slower-than-light propulsion appeared in Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel The Forever War under the name tachyon rocket and has been further described by John G. Cramer as tachyon drive in 1993: Tachyons ejected in a directed beam could be used to propel a spaceship forward with high acceleration while reducing the necessity to carry fuel.[2][10]

A disruptive use is featured in the comic book series

Dr. Manhattan to perceive the future, "presumably because tachyons scramble cause and effect".[5][11]

Science fiction scholar Gary Westfahl concluded for appearances of tachyons that "since most scientists discount the possibility that such particles actually exist, they have only rarely figured in science fiction".[11]

See also

  • A chronon, a proposed elementary particle related to a hypothesis that proposes that time is not continuous
  • Thiotimoline, a fictional organic compound from short stories by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov

References

  1. ^ Fisher, Mandy (25 March 2017). "Tachyons are flashy in popular culture". 1E.com. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  2. ^
    Tor.com
    . Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  3. pitt.edu
    . Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  4. ^
    OCLC 2984418
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 9781908977724
    .
  6. ^ Nicholls, Peter (2011). "Tachyons". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  7. ISBN 9780387985718
    .
  8. OCLC 8689657
    .
  9. ^ Wagstaff, Keith (15 July 2018). "The Science Behind Star Trek Technobabble". Mashable. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  10. Analog Science Fiction & Fact
    . Retrieved 2024-03-20.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9798216142348
    .

Further reading

External links
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