Warp versus Warp

(First wrote this ages ago but never before published) 

Old Warp vs. New Warp

“Speed of plot” notwithstanding, in episodes of Star Trek two variants of warp speeds  appear to be given. In the Original Series, alien ships are occasionally described as traveling at Warp factors of 10, 12 and 14, while it is often established in Next Generation-era episodes that Warp 10 is the upper limit for Warp velocities as it refers to an effectively infinite velocity. Conversely, ships are often described in TNG as taking 70 years to traverse large distances at Warp 9 when the Enterprise covers comparatively greater distances in much shorter times.

So what speeds do the term "Warp Factor" translate to?

Keeping with the “Old Style” warp, v=(w^3)c, where c is the speed of light, v is the velocity and w is the Warp Factor, which is then cubed. This value fits in with the “Maximum Cruise Velocities” often given in all series-it takes the Kelvins about 200 years to travel to our Galaxy from Andromeda while it would take a Starship 70 years to travel the distance which the Bajoran Wormhole covers.

These so-called “cruise velocities” do seem to work in all eras and Series-The first “NX” class vessels (launch date of NX-Enterprise: 2251) have a MCV of w5.4 (157c), Constitution-Class vessels about warp 7, Galaxy-class Starships w9 and Intrepid-class w9.95.

For the actual day-to-day speeds given on-screen to work, this formula is insufficient. For example, at certain periods in the Original Series, the Enterprise travels at around 600,000 times the speed of light. As a further example, Bajor is probably at least 2000 l.y. from Earth and it takes about a week to travel between the two planets, presumably above warp 8.

For warp velocities to fit in with “speed of plot” (not to mention managing an interstellar federation without it having to take eight years to get from one part to another) a formula of v=(w^4)c works between warp 5 and warp 8; after which

it increases rapidly in an empirical fashion up to infinite velocity at Warp 10.

This also allows the MCV given for each class of starship to be the maximum “New Style” on-screen velocity. This certainly works for the NX-class Enterprise (5.4^4=850) as it must approach 1000c fairly significantly and Voyager can manage warp 9.95 for exactly one minute. Values for MCV (would presumably) reflect the amount of anti-matter a starship can produce to power its warp drive without replenishing its supply from a starbase. Upper limits for warp values on-screen reflect the speeds a ship can go before it either runs out of
antimatter (not power per se as at least the Enterprise-D and Voyager carry Bussard collectors to harvest interstellar hydrogen for nuclear fuel) or the engines are simply overloaded, risking a warp core breach.

 At warp 5 and below, the old formula still applies, so 22^nd century ships mostly travel at around 100c (example, below warp 5 it takes the Enterprise 60 minutes to reach Neptune, which sounds impressive but is very slow in galactic terms). There is something of a contradiction in using two formulae, but Warp 5 is effectively the speed limit within a solar system, presumably due to the increased levels of interstellar (planetary) dust present, so this could be a realistic reasoning for the change in formula after warp 5.

  

According to the calculated values, warp 1 is the speed of light, warp 4.8 is 111 times the speed of light, warp 5.4 is 850 times lightspeed and warp 8 is 4096 times lightspeed. This allows for the Romulan Neutral Zone to be situated in the Beta Quadrant between c.350 and 1700 light Years from Sol in the direction of the Delta Quadrant. This also allows for the Romulans to have a vast empire, most of which is in the Beta Quadrant of the Galaxy, thus explaining why most of the Federation/Federation exploration is in the Alpha Quadrant.

No real details of the RNZ are described, but it is reasonable to assume it extends at least 1500 light years in a roughly straight direction between the RSE and the UFP facing roughly ‘north’ in the Galactic plane towards the Delta Quadrant as this distance is the thickness of the Galaxy/ Galactic plane (think of the Galaxy as a dish 1500 light years thick on average, while having a diameter of 120,000 light years) in order to allow no opportunity for it to be circumvented by one side or the other.

Apparent disparities: Obviously being a television and film series not everything in Star Trek should be considered canon (i.e. the changing appearance of the Klingons and Trills, the postponement of World War Three), but there are some apparent glaring contradictions with the limits on warp speed.
For example, in “The Final Frontier” both the Enterprise and a Klingon Bird of Prey travel from a system in the Klingon Neutral Zone to the apparent centre of the Galaxy in a manner of days-presumably a distance of at least 20,000 light years-when it would normally take probably six years for a starship to traverse such a distance (a very conservative estimate). However, for the purposes of making a fast-paced filmed drama it would hardly do for long scenes of the Enterprise crew playing cards or reading “War and Peace” for the tenth time!

A six-year journey would, however, fit in nicely with the timescale for significant Federation

events:

[· 2272: An attack on Earth by a massive machine life form called V'Ger is closely averted. ***

· 2286: Another devastation of Earth is averted, when a reply to a probe of unknown origin can be given, whose attempts to contact Humpback whales severely affect Earth's atmosphere.

· 2293: On the Khitomer Conference between the Klingons and the Federation the Khitomer Accords are signed to establish a lasting peace between the two powers.]

which have the events in the Kirk movies taking place over a nineteen year period (up to “The Undiscovered Country”), while in the real world they were in production over a twelve year period. This may also explain why the [apparently newly-constructed] Enterprise-A was ordered to be decommissioned at the end of “The Undiscovered Country”.

*In the NG episode “The Neutral Zone”, the Enterprise crew discover and revive three cryonically preserved humans, who ‘died’ in the late 20^th century, near the Romulan Neutral Zone. 

[Presumably the pod/ satellite containing them was accidentally taken in by the warp wake of one or other of the ships establishing one of the Earth colonies which (TOS) had been established near what would become the buffer zone between the (United) Federation (of Planets) and the Romulan Star Empire at some unspecified time in the 22^nd century when traveling these distances had become feasible for Earth-built starships]

 

 

 

 

 

**When Q transports the Enterprise-D 7000 l.y into the Delta Quadrant, Lieutenant Commander Data comments that it would take two years to reach the nearest Starbase.

***If this date is canon, the events take place three years at most after Kirk’s five year tour of duty, but “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was in production ten years after the Original Series was made.

Doctor, doctor

Man named Andy goes into his doctor's surgery

Meets Doctor, says "Doc, I've got a trigger inside"

Doctor says "Well, what makes you say that?"

Andy says "Well, I am in Therapy"

Bu-buhm

The Last Days of Jack Sparks

Just finished named novel, couldn't help thinking of the following lyrics. Really sums the novel up, no spoilers, but the book ends up being a supernatural odyssey of self-harm, militant scepticism and time-travel:

Your ritual everyday
A mild shower soak in aftershave
Best clothes do your best
Look in the mirror go on
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
Belittle yourself yourself yourself

You go on day after day
Dreaming on a lie
That you keep locked inside
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself

Can you sleep tonight
Cast aside for some pouting young pup
Sink into a slurred veneer
Alcoholic haze so now
Least you can like yourself yourself
Least you can like yourself yourself

You go on day after day
Reservoirs of guilt
That your fixed grin always hides
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself

You look at ad's all day
Everyone is perfect and you're so lame
Free scent burns your skin
But no smell can really cover sin
Too many teenage holes to fill
Too many teenage holes to fill

You go on day after day
Speak to your despised
Blanking your loved ones
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
-Yourself, Manic Street Preachers

"Nostalgic Pushead" is a good one also, author Jason Arnopp must be a fan
#JackSparks

Summary: Despite a paranormal encounter as a child former journalist and militant atheist Jack Sparks is determined to discredit ghosts, exorcisms and other aspects of the paranormal. So he begins writing and researching a book on the subject, hoping to disprove the existence of the paranormal forever. His last book "Jack Sparks on Drugs" sent him to rehab, will his new crusade cost him his sanity and life?

(Another) critique of libertarianism or

The Mentality of Born-Again Ideologues

A critique of the mentality of "born again" zealots, particularly rightlibs or libertarians.

Whether religious or political, these are always people who have not long come into contact with the beliefs they pretend to espouse but have had little time to consider if they might be wrong or any other point of view.

 

They've not long read a book about the Bible or Marx or Rand or who/whatever (never the source material, at least in the case of the Bible) liked what they read, took it to heart, had an epiphany and told themselves "Oh my God this is so right how could I not have seen that things are this way". This then leads to "why don't other people see things this way?" which then leads to "how can they have the gall to even think differently?" and a total refusal to consider for a second that other people may be right.
 

It's difficult to take libertarians seriously when they all seem to believe the same thing, or at least those who subscribe to a version of capitalism that both never existed and is more in line with the thinking of mutualist/market anarchists like Proudhon; specifically one that envisages a petit-bourgeois society of small tradesmen, small hold farmers and shop keepers, sort of like Napoleon's description of the English.

If they subscribed to such a reordering of capitalism I could take them more seriously but this would in reality involve such a large re-allocation of land and capital that they would consider to be violence-except people aren't immortal; libertarians could (and it would be consistent) support the abolishment of inheritance as a way of raising revenue without taxing wealth or productivity and as a way of heading towards a mutualist small holder version of society by allocating land and wealth as it becomes available. Similarly, the idea that any kind of welfare state is both immoral and represents only a form of violence is both misguided and only explained by the espousal of so-called free market capitalism.

Which isn't an explanation.

The Elizabethan poor laws established the welfare state, this didn't lead to socialism or make people lazy. Besides, if libertarians were right than the perfect society would have been Victorian England.
Or pick any third world nation.

Also, why is it immoral to receive money to live off if you don't work? It's not theft. To allow people to starve is a form of violence by society, plus: why should people be forced to work in the first place? If one only has the option of work or starvation one is really no better than a slave.

 

There's nothing virtuous about being rich and out of work just as there is nothing virtuous about being poor and out of work or being poor and in work (most poor people do in fact work as do most people receiving some form of welfare in advanced countries), so should Mr or Miss Trust Fund be sent to a re-education camp to teach them the virtues of hard work?

Why should the poor remain in both poverty and endless drudgery? Or are the rich automatically morally (and hey why not genetically?) superior to the rest of us? The attitude libertarians have towards most of Humanity borders on racism and like racism it is totally disproved.