h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey everyone

I would just like to point out that the nerdiness of this section is quite profusive, i could smell it coming a mile away.. there's a void where no women can be found, only an army of either under or over weight teenagers with specs the size of my fists.

Alright, Animosity aside, Why isn't there a Star Wars Club...
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Seriously, I hate Star Trek, Its like the one solution to all the problems in the Universe is the "Tacion Beam"... or the "Fractal Algorythm"...
As a student in Physics, i can tell you that the only place you'll find algorythms are in Computer programs (They are algorythms... and its not fractal, its recursive), and the second is on Paper.

As for the tacion beam, if you can tell me what or who a tacion is, i'll buy you a beer, secondly, once you have this beam, how in the hell can it solve anything???

Sincerely Confused
BudyChrist

A tachyon is a particle that travels normally through space, but backwards through time.

Physics points to their existnence (relativity, I think), but no-one has every detected one, however, some experiments could be being alter by them as the usual cause and effect principles appear to be being violated.

A fractal algorythm is possible, but not in a linear computer (I am also familiar with recursive algoriths, they caused me much of a head ache - out of curiosity, have you ever played with a language called ML? It's ALL recursive )

Thanks for your comments.

Oh I Completely Agree, I Loath Recursivity with a passion. I'm glad that I'm getting a response from a descent person, and not a Phaser wielding crazy guy telling me where to stick my light saber.

I was a little unfair in my last posting, the only Star trek i ever liked was the original Movies with Kirk and Spok and such.

As for tacions(check spelling i keep missing that one) I sometimes find it hard to.. how should i say... really melt into the plot, when so much of the science on which the show is based, is strickly theoretical. Per Exempi, nowadays, we work under the knowledge that the smallest particle in the universe is the quark (Check spelling), followed by the electron, proton and neutron... What is a Tacion made of, based on these basic particles.

Another question that i feel deserves answering, the replicator.
KNowing full and well that you cannot create or destroy atoms or particles without severe hexothermique reactions, how do they replicate items. (whenever i saw a tidbit of Star Trek, they would always replicate something and i always had this frightening view of a piece of the ship suddenly going missing as someone replicates himself his moring coffee)

Thanks
BudyChrist

I think the tachyon "weights" about the same as an electron.

Replication is quite simple. Einstein's relativity says matter and energy are, under the right conditions, interchangable. The replicator simply creates those conditions.

You'll be famliar with the transporter from the movies. In the Trek universe, the replicator was based on the transporter, it used digital "images" of things, like food, and then uses energy from the ship to recreate them.

I was always worried about there being no barrier when things are being replicated, what if Picard put his hands into it when his Earl Grey is being made in front of him?