From: utzoo!utcsrgv!donald Newsgroups: net.space Title: Re: FTL etc. Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.507 Posted: Sun Aug 8 13:39:38 1982 Received: Sun Aug 8 21:14:45 1982 References: alice.842 There is a big difference between informed discussion and wild speculation. The recent slew of articles on FTL fall into the latter category: the people out to "get" relativity and quantum mechanics have very little knowledge of how they work. They merely seem to take notions gleaned from SF and popular science magazines to try a find a loophole in physics so that their pet peeve (FTL travel) is "possible". No attempt is made to formalize their arguments mathematically or replace the physical theories that they demolish. THAT is the diffence between Galileo and Erich Von Daniken, or between Einstein and Velikovsky. The scientific crank's favorite defence is a comparison between himself and Copernicus and a plea for "free inquiry" or "open minds". Sorry for the flames, but I don't wish to see net.space go the way of net.misc (you people with the persistence to stick with net.misc should know what I mean!) Don Chan