Subject: RE: (urth) probable distance from Urth to Bleen
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 16:13:12 -0700
From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 

> Um, no, Jerry . . . when the Whorl is at rest, the Whorl=20
> people experience time at the same flow as people on Urth or=20
> Blue or Green, but at near-light speeds subjective time (the=20
> passage of time experienced by the crew) is compressed=20
> compared to the objective time of the rest of the universe=20
> (or technically "any other location that is not accelerated=20
> to NAFAL velocities," which happens to encompass most of the=20
> universe).  This is the basis of the famous "twin paradox." =20
> (I'm not coining the use of "objective" and "subjective"=20
> here: that is how it is done.)  Look into it, if you like,=20
> since it is fascinating!  Or just take my word for it.

Um, no, Mantis ... in a world that obeys Einstein's rules,=20
"time" is equally [ob|sub]jective in any inertial reference
frame; more specifically, "time" on the Whorl cruising at
NAFAL velocities is no more and no less objective than "time"=20
on the surface of Urth. This is a consequence of "time" not=20
being an independent entity in such a world; it is one=20
dimension of a four-or-more-dimensional manifold which we=20
(more) properly refer to as "spacetime."

The "objective time"/"subjective time" terminology you use
comes, not from relativistic physics, but from SF writers=20
who play with these concepts in their novels but either=20
do not comprehend what I oversimplify in the previous
paragraph, or else assume (and I think this quite likely)
that most "users" of NAFAL ships would think this way, the
non-absolute nature of spacetime in an Einsteinian universe
being kind of difficult to wrap one's head around. (I do
not claim to have my head all the way around it by any
means!)=20

--Blattid


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