Tuesday, July 4, 2017

"The Time Dilation Conundrum" #Poetry

I've got a physics problem
and I can't solve it myself
I'd call up my friend, Steve-O,
but he keeps babbling to himself,
"We fucked; we're going to die;
the whole damn place is doomed.
We must kiss our butts goodbye
because the planet is really screwed."

We love such mordant metaphysics
from a man who looks at stars
but I need help with homework
and I won't find that in bars
where they laugh and drink and giggle
about the piggy in the middle
but that won't help at all
with my tiny physics riddle

It's about the Time Dilation
and the immense speed of light
so I ask if we could beat it
with another type of flight
We will go out there on lasers
photons charged with distant dreams
to find the things which tantalize
all revealed on an optical stream

But I don't know if it's valid
and the question bites my ass
since all I really need
is a little bit of maths
to solve a relativistic puzzle
of light and life and speed
can it take us to the stars
to fulfill our oldest dream

- Colonel Arbuthnot Jones

Note:  the riddle is real.  (Ithaka: Sending Humans to the Stars on Beams of Light #Science #Physics #Fantasy)

That was Part I and there has since been a Part II.  (Ithaka:  Sending Humans to the Stars on Beams of Light Part II #Science #Physics #Fantasy)

That poet monkey is just blasting with this one since there are sci fi moonbeams shooting all over the place from it.  However, that hinges on the puzzle from Part I.  It's ok to base sci fi on some cockamamie rubbish you threw together while you were coked-up in L.A. but we don't want a warp drive; we want something which could really work albeit at the extension of some fantastic, as in beyond real, ideas.  In other words, it has to be credible or it's bollocks.

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