[ExI] Faster than light??

[spike]

On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
Subject: Re: [ExI] Faster than light??

On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 2:28 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> I'd call retrograde signalling in time (which can be indefinite via a 
> chain of routers) and causality violations pretty Earth-shattering.


I thought of an example.  Assume FTL signaling is possible, but we don't
think it is.  A quasar could be a very tight cluster of distant stars
inhabited by an advanced species.  They emit signals for some reason we
don't yet understand, perhaps a navigation beacon or something.  A central
commander gives orders to the outliers to change the emitted signal to such
and such and sends out the command faster than light.  They all do so.  From
the point of view of all distant non-FTL-hipsters, the cluster of stars
appears to change in a few light hours when they are actually ordinary stars
spaced over perhaps a few light months, leading the ignorant (us) to assume
the object is a lot smaller than it really is, and emitting energy from that
small space at an astonishing rate.

spike