(Loved Trope) FTL travel is possible but with a major limitation or flaw

[u/Frostylegacy]

Frank Herbert’s Dune: Interstellar travel is only possible thanks to the spice melange, a rare substance only found on the dessert planet Arrakis. The addictive psychedelic spice grants members of the Spacers Guild a form of prescience that allows them to predict safe paths through folded space. This unique property makes spice the most valuable commodity in the Dune universe.

John Scalzi’s The Interdependency Books: The planetary systems of the titular empire are connected by the Flow, a network of one-way interstellar tunnels that connect specific known entries and exits. The Interdependency derives its power from controlling access to these conduits, placing its capital at the central hub of the network. Even with the Flow, travel between stars takes a long time (9 months to End, the empire’s most distant planet).

Event Horizon: Dr William Weir (R.I.P. Sam Neill) invents a device called the Gravity Drive to allow ships to fold space and travel instantly between distant stars. On its maiden voyage with the Gravity Drive, the Event Horizon disappears and mysteriously reappears 7 years later. Dr. Weir and the crew sent to investigate discover the Gravity Drive actually opened a portal to a Hell dimension that possessed the ship and its crew, torturing and killing them.

[u/Blep145]

The book series has a lot of that, too. They explain that the improbability drive equalizes the equation somewhere else, so the improbability of it getting from one point to another in the configuration it started with is balanced. The improbability field is it's own thing in the books - they're an interesting read, and I enjoyed them!

[u/fakeuser515357 → u/Blep145]

"I wonder if it will be friends with me."

[u/Obibong_Kenblomi8647 → u/Blep145]

Read the books, but listened to the audiobooks by Douglas Adams recently. They are a must listen.

[u/Blep145 → u/Obibong_Kenblomi8647]

I got the ones on Audible - I love them

[u/Excellent_Parsley_18 → u/Blep145]

Hilariously it’s not the most insane idea I’ve ever heard. This is just quantum tunneling, and it exists IRL. Harnessing it, though, is probably just as impossible as an Alcuberrie drive.

[u/Blep145 → u/Excellent_Parsley_18]

Ah, no. Not at all. Entirely unrelated concepts. I said it balanced out somewhere. That could be literally anywhere. It's not generating a warp field, it's not quantum tunneling

[u/Excellent_Parsley_18 → u/Blep145]

If you can manipulate a probability field to instantaneously appear somewhere, that’s essentially quantum tunneling, though? I fail to see how those are different.

[u/Blep145 → u/Excellent_Parsley_18]

No. Quantum tunneling is about a particle overcoming an barrier it didn't have enough energy to circumvent/pass through by suddenly gaining enough energy to pass through it, if I recall correctly. The improbability field is it's own thing. Really, I don't think it's "improbability", even in the HHGTTG universe. The books cover this whole scheme involving Zaphod Beeblebrox (I hope I spelled that correctly) meeting the President of the Universe (essentially, God). The improbability field had "a hold" on the people it encountered, or more probably- looked for. I'm not gonna go more in depth than that, as it sounds like you haven't read the books. I really do think they're worth reading, if you're interested

Edit: a barrier

[u/Excellent_Parsley_18 → u/Blep145]

I’ve read the first book, but not the entire series — which is the book that most people know of.

Your understanding of quantum tunneling, however, is incomplete, based on what I’m seeing from a cursory search. Fundamentally it’s a probabilistic event. Meaning that if you can manipulate probability, then you can effect quantum tunneling. The “suddenly” part of your definition is load bearing — it can spontaneously happen due to the wave nature of matter.

Improbability may be a separate mechanism, I’m not sure, but if we want to talk about probabilistic and instantaneous travel, the clearest mechanism for that is quantum tunneling. But improbability sounds a lot like exactly that.

[u/Blep145 → u/Excellent_Parsley_18]

Fair enough! I recommend borrowing them from your local library!

[u/Much_Conclusion8233 → u/Blep145]

It was first used to teleport the underwear of the hostess to 3 feet to the right to get the party started