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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024

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Does anyone have any thoughts on the spate of propellantless propulsion efforts currently being made?

Until I put my fingers in the nail marks, and put my hand in its side, I will never believe.

And Neil deGrasse Tyson said unto him: more blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have fucking loved the science

My understanding is that propellantless drives ("swimming in space") are permitted by the current Laws Of Physics. This approach is very different from the one taken by the propellantless propulsion efforts, though.

Don't most of these still require exotic matter? Trading breaking conservation of momentum for negative mass never really sounded to me like a gain in credibility.

Not "swimming in space" – that just requires changing your shape.

There are "warp drives" that use exotic matter for superluminal travel, but there is also at least one proposal that uses no exotic matter, albeit only for slower-than-light travel.