Space and time in special relativity

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1. shpxOct 2017
   Special relativity is a fact. It is literally how the universe works. I don't know what else to say. There's no debate, it's a certainty that you cannot transmit information faster than light. Space and Time in Special Relativity is 240 pages, and you only really need to read like half of them.

   Maybe gravity doesn't exist on the sun. Maybe electrons attract in the Sahara desert. This is what you're suggesting.

   Authors are making a common mistake, and you're justifying it. The point of science fiction (at least hard scifi[0][1]) is to predict the future given some assumptions or premise like "we can control individual neurons"[2] or "there's life on a neutron star"[3] or "the moon exploded"[4] or "message from outer space"[5]. You get some outlandish sounding ideas that readers can consider seriously because the author genuinely thought them through. Ideas that don't respect relativity are useless. It's like writing fiction about Napoleon with walkie-talkies. It doesn't make sense, you could (probably) do much better than Napoleonic tactics with a walkie-talkie. A military tactic in space that relies on instant communication is a useless idea. Plus I just plain think it would've made a better story if they had to strategize around the speed of light.

   (spoiler) to be fair, The Three Body Problem almost did it right, their ships travel at non-relativistic speeds, and the first 3 messages take 5 years to transmit. But I didn't bother reading past the first book after the quantum entanglement mistake on the last few pages.

   Maybe I'm getting elitist. The hard/soft scifi thing is an old conversation. I understand that the social commentary is a big aspect of some books, just don't call them science fiction.

   [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15462327

   [1] https://www.google.ca/search?q=three+body+problem+"hard+scie...

   [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nexus_Trilogy

   [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg

   [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves

   [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel)

   https://books.google.ca/books/about/Space_and_Time_in_Specia...

   https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8937197

   https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7888847

   https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4588938

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2. ahelwerJul 2018
   I remember a while back there was a post by one of Prof. Sussman's grad students on books he (Sussman) recommends[0]. One of the books (improbably[1] prescribed for high school students) was Space and Time in Special Relativity by David Mermin. Does anyone have experience reading this book as a way to learn special relativity?

   [0] http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html

   [1] One of the other books recommended for high-schoolers - Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson - I found very dense despite having a bachelor's degree (and no small amount of extracurricular interest) in the subject matter.

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