7,831
edits
m (Mass update links) |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
(19 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Space is big. No, ''[[Sci
There are several types of faster than light technologies in fiction; however,
If the setting has both subspace and hyperspace, then typically subspace will allow nearly-instant communication, but can't be used for travel. Even in ''[[Star Trek]]'', which uses subspace for both, real-time conversations take place between characters who are days of [[FTL Travel]] apart. This allows plots to be written as if [[Space Is an Ocean]]. On the other hand, just as not all FTL methods are equal, neither are all FTL comms. A humble 10''c'' is technically FTL, but it'll still take about 5 months for a message to reach Earth from an Alpha Centauri colony. Raising the speed of transmission to 365''c'' turns the travel time down to 4 days, but still an eternity for any poor spacers calling for reinforcement, and God forbid you need to call for help from anywhere further. Having a determinate speed rather than [[Traveling At the Speed of Plot|that of plot]] can shape a story's events.
In some cases, a
Presumably, an [[FTL Radio]] is also what allows ship sensors to work faster than light, viewing objects that are light-minutes away - or even light-years! - in real-time. However, any attempts to explain it are indistinguishable from a [[Hand Wave]] (unless tachyons are involved; then it gets complicated).
The term "ansible" for this kind of near-instantaneous subspace communication system was coined by [[
If [[Psychic Powers]] exist in a setting, they often work instantaneously at any distance, and function as a
----▼
▲----
== [[Literature]] ==▼
{{examples}}
* The ansible appears in most of [[Ursula K Le Guin|Le Guin's]] ''Ekumen'' novels. In ''The Dispossessed'' she tells, among other things, the story of its invention.▼
== Played Straight ==
▲=== [[Literature]] ===
▲* The ansible appears in most of [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Le Guin's]] ''Ekumen'' novels. In ''The Dispossessed'' she tells, among other things, the story of its invention.
** It's interesting to note that, in the world of the Ekumen, there is no faster-than-light space travel, but there are FTL weapons. It's explained by saying that nobody can survive faster than light speed but radio waves and unmanned ships have no problem. In ''Rocannon's World'', there are even FTL weapons that have people inside them, to be launched in event of emergency; they're the equivalent of suicide bombers. There is, however, survivable near light speed travel.
*** Later into the cycle the problem of the [[Faster
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'' is a major example of another writer taking the name from [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Le Guin]]. A character mentions that there is a formal name for their [[FTL Radio]], but "somebody dredged the name ''ansible'' [[Shout
** These links are also both [[The Power of Friendship]] and what holds the universe together.
*** AND how the Buggers/Formics communicate with each other and their drones (they EVOLVED to possess FTL communication!) It makes sense if you read the explanation of how these links work and what they really are.
**** Turns out the Piggies use them to communicate too or at least {{spoiler|the sentient Father Trees do amongst themselves (they can talk to Formic Queens directly too)}}
** Also, the super-AI/alien-hybrid/space-god, Jane {{spoiler|came into being when the Formics tried to create one of these links to Ender himself (during the third war) by going through the psych-analyzer computer program that created Fairy World}}
* James Hogan uses a similar system (and also worked in the computer
* Richard Morgan's ''[[Altered Carbon]]'' features "needlecasts", but no FTL travel. Interestingly, since [[Brain Uploading]] is routine, people may travel from planet to planet by downloading into a local body.
** The information-only aspect is a power limitation, not an inherent limitation of the functionality. The information is transmitted by energy; the best matter-energy conversion reactors they have can hold open a needlecast portal for at most 15 to 30 seconds, and transmit only blinking light. They find a stable [[Stargate]]-style portal created by the precursors, extrapolate the energy costs, and realize that a hiccup in the portals matrix would crack the planet open like an egg. Hazards of children playing with adult toys.
* In ''[[Time
* Similarly, in [[
** There are also a variety of "waves" and "rays" that can be used for FTL communication and sensors by people who aren't Lensmen.
* Likewise, in the Talents universe of Anne McCaffrey, [[Psychic Powers]] not only provide interstellar communication, but interstellar ''travel'' by psychokinetic [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation]].
Line 35 ⟶ 36:
* Notable subversion in James Blish's short story "Beep". Ansibles are common and cheap to use, if you can stand the loud and annoying beep that accompanies every one. Due to quantum effects, the title beep contain every message that ever was or will be sent, ever, and they can be heard if slowed way, way down and appropriately filtered. The government's primary purpose is to ensure that the events described in the beep come to pass at all costs, to prevent a paradox from prematurely ending the universe.
* The Fatline in Dan Simmon's ''[[Hyperion]]'' uses modulated neutrinos (or some such [[Phlebotinum]]) to send messages instantly across interstellar distances. At the end of the second book {{spoiler|God(?) revokes their radio privileges completely, since the transmission medium (the Void Which Binds) is disrupted everytime a message is sent.}}
* [[Alan Dean Foster]] uses the [[Subspace or Hyperspace]] version in his ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series. "Space plus" is hyperspace and is used for [[Faster
** In his remake of ''Design for Great-Day'', Foster's Solarian Combine is a kind of galactic [[Hive Mind]] created as a natural extension of intelligent beings learning to live and think in harmony. Said thought processes apparently travel instantaneously, ignoring the speed of light. Of course, they've learned to circumvent this with starships as well; the Combine's ships can traverse a galaxy in a matter of hours, and intragalactic jaunts are considered to be fairly trivial, if not entirely routine.
* Though it never actually comes up, the ''[[Discworld]]'' series has a bit of fun with this in a footnote. It points out that a Disc philosopher decided that the fastest thing in the universe is ''monarchy'', noting that regardless of distance, the ''instant'' a monarch dies, the heir immediately succeeds them. He further proposes subatomic
* The first of ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'' novels by [[Harry Harrison]] feature psychics used explicitly as communicators over interstellar distances. Later novels don't seem to rely that much on conversations at distance.
** Some ''[[Death World]]'' novels (which, supposedly, take place in the same universe) feature portable psychic locator beacons. Also, every ship is equipped with a psychic transmitter/receiver, making actual psychics obsolete.
* Heightened stellar activity can interfere with FTL communications in the ''[[Wing Commander (
* Elizabeth Moon's ''[[
* FTL communication is possible in ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' but very cumbersome, not available in sub-lightspeed craft and requiring exotic synthetic materials that starships aren't equipped to make. The mutineers sabotaged Dahak's and stole the only spares, so Dahak was forced to throw together a mundane lightspeed device instead in his attempts to phone home. {{spoiler|The lack of an ansible is one of the Achuultani's greatest disadvantages, forcing them to slowly advance through a system of preplanned rendezvous points and delaying reports back to their homeworld by centuries.}}
* The popular ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Spock's World'' by Diane Duane tells the history of the planet Vulcan, and points out that since Vulcans are [[Psychic Powers|psychic]] to varying extents and telepathy is assumed to be instantaneous, telepathy was their first subspace ansible. The limiting factor is that only a small minority of Vulcans are strong enough telepaths for this to be practical.
** In ''Infinity's Prism'', there's a [[Star Trek: Voyager]] story set in an alternate timeline where ''Voyager'' didn't manage to cross Borg space at the end of season 3, and instead ends up building a new Federation analogue in the delta quadrant. The holographic Doctor becomes a distributed AI with one node sent back to the Vidiians to cure the Phage. That node's updates via subspace take a day (each way, I think) to make the trip to the Doctor's central processing core located near Borg space.
* ''
* FTL communication in ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' books is achieved using enormous spherical orbital stations, which use powerful generators and transmitters to punch through [[Subspace or Hyperspace|hypersphere]] to reach other worlds. During the heyday of the [[The Federation|Confederacy of Suns]], these were networked to create the Interstar, the future version of the Internet. As communication is vital between worlds, no one in their right mind would dare destroy an HF (Hyper Frequency) station, so they aren't even armed. A major plot-point of one novel involves a previously-unknown alien race launching a sneak attack on humanity by taking out the Interstar hub, isolating the human colonies. Ships also have their own HF generators, but those are usually not very powerful.
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has gone so far as to make its prevalence an [[Invoked Trope]] in ''[[
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* In ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', the Vajra are capable of interstellar communication via their {{spoiler|[[Hive Mind]] link, which uses symbiotic, fold quartz-carrying bacteria in their entrails to link the whole species together}} instantaneously across the galaxy, without any sort of fold interference or delay. In fact, abusing this {{spoiler|galactic overmind to link up the entire galaxy whether it wants to or not (humanity included) is the major goal of the [[Big Bad]].}}
* The SolarNet in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''.
* The ability of the Emilys from [[Soukou no Strain]]. {{spoiler|Which led to them being [[Nightmare Fuel|cranially bisected alive]] by human scientist to obtain it. Being [[Hive Mind]], they share the pain as well...}}
* Galaxy Network in [[Starship Operators]].
=== Film ===
* According to ''[[Avatar (
* In ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' radio broadcasts and telephone/video conversations are instantaneous.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', of course. People communicate in real time through holograms, despite being separated by several light years. "Disturbances in the Force" can also be sensed instantaneously.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* In ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' comics, communications are relayed through the same Stargate system used for FTL travel, making it possible to have a real time conversation between Legion HQ on Earth and the Legion Outpost in deep space. In the post-Zero Hour, pre-Infinite Crisis Legion, when the Stargate system goes down, people can still travel in "old fashioned" warp vessels, but the only means of communication is Titanet, a relay of Saturnian telepaths.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Star Trek]]'', as mentioned.
** However, when the plot required it in [[Star Trek:
** They touched briefly on the logistics of subspace radio in the ''[[Star Trek:
** Communicating over long distances is important for the crew of the [[Star Trek: Voyager|USS Voyager]], as they're stuck on the other side of the galaxy (and presumed dead), so even subspace communication won't work. After several failed attempts, they eventually succeed via [[Lost Technology]] and [[Applied Phlebotinum]] (as well as physically moving closer in the mean time).
* ''[[
* The [[Stargate Verse]] uses stuff like this on occasion, and it is explicitly stated that radio waves can travel both ways through wormholes, which work only one way for matter streams.
** Besides simply sending radio signals through stargates, plain old FTL radio is used, the range of which can be determined by one episode which involves relaying an important message to Atlantis by sending someone with a subspace radio to the outer edge of the Milky Way in order to contact the Daedalus, halfway between galaxies.
Line 74 ⟶ 75:
** The Ancient Communication Stones, which allow one to not only communicate, but INSTANTLY transfer your entire consciousness from point A to B. Distance does not seem to be an impediment - from thousands of ''galaxies'' away one can report to Stargate Command.
** When the [[Human Alien|Tollan]] were first encountered, one of them used an FTL communication device to send a message to the [[Actual Pacifists|Nox]]. When Daniel asks Omoc how the Nox are supposed to get it within any reasonable amount of time, Omoc grudgingly (due to the Tollan unwilingness to share technology) takes a tree branch and bends it so its ends touch. Daniel guesses that he's talking about space folding, only for Omoc to disappointedly drop the branch and reply "no".
* Used with subtlety on ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''. The orbit-to-land transmissions lack any delay at all, which is impossible if they were ordinary radiowaves. [[The Movie]] has several conversations between Mal in deep space, and somebody else on a far away planet.
* Used without any justification ''[[Defying Gravity]]''. It's far more jarring than in ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'', because the rest of it is trying to be on the hard side of the scale.
** IIRC, they [[Handwaved]] that in the first ep mentioning that the recent invention of some new instant communication device was what made the entire mission feasible.
** Of course, the show only ''starts'' trying to be hard sci-fi. With the introduction of {{spoiler|Beta}}, all bets are off.
* In ''[[Eureka]]'', after Fargo and Henry build an FTL drive, the government starts planning the ''Atraeus'' mission, the first manned flight to Titan. One episode involves a scientist trying to build a
** Later on, after [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Sheriff Andy]] is accidentally transported to Titan, Jack is able to communicate with him via real-time video.
* The ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' communicators, which are connected to the Command Center's [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation system]], can communicate across incredible distances.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* In a typical ''[[Warhammer
** And frequently, the messages either arrive too late or not at all or are completely incomprehensible due to the receiving psyker not being able to work it out via space tarot cards or throwing chicken bones or... Well, there's one example of an Imperium ship going to its death responding to a distress call sent by its future self.
* [[Eclipse Phase]]'s Quantum Entangled Communicators provide instant communication regardless of distance, but like those in the [[Charles Stross]] example rely on pre-linked, finite "qbit reservoirs".
** Since the vast majority of what's left of posthumanity is still in the solar system most people just deal with a few minutes or hours of lag with radio, laser, or (speed-of-light) neutrino communications. Or [[Brain Uploading|farcast]] a fork of their ego if they absolutely have to have a real-time conversation. QE comms are mostly used by spies or to contact the few exosolar colonies that have been established.
* ''[[GURPS]]: Ultratech'' has two versions. The first uses quantum entanglement (so it's impossible to intercept) and the second is generic [[FTL Radio]].
* The ''[[
** Just don't mention the TV series, which had a realtime video conference using said HPGs.
** That would be a HPG relay, set up by using two HPGs at once. It has been used in the novels and is noted to be very expensive.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* It is never explained how exactly communication works in the ''[[Free Space|Descent: Freespace]]'' games. Seemingly, instant interstellar communications ''do'' occur in that universe, which means FTL communications. Command can also communicate with you as your ship is traveling in ''subspace'', though the messages break up and distort like a bad telephone connection.
* Similarly, the ''[[Wing Commander (
** The [[Wing Commander (
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' allows faster-than-light travel by [[Minovsky Physics|giving physical objects zero or negative mass]] or through the use of large and fairly rare mass relays that create long tunnels of space where everything has zero or negative mass. Communications often take place through large numbers of comm buoys deployed throughout explored space, which transmit messages via photons passed through miniaturized corridors of mass-free space. Time lag in real-time communications occurs if transmitter bandwidth is overloaded, though high-level government operatives and military personnel get access to high-end, high-speed channels that allow near-instantaneous communications. Long-range interstellar calls are implied to be highly expensive, judging by one overheard conversation on Noveria.
** The second game also features a quantum-entanglement transponder which allows the Illusive Man to contact Shepard instantly while conveniently avoiding the relay network. While this is efficient, as it bypasses the limits of bandwidth and time delay, it is highly inefficient for mass production, as it's basically a two way radio with a truly astronomical price tag - according to EDI "each quantum pair costs almost as much as a comm relay." It only communicates between the Normandy and the Illusive Man's hideout. If they wanted to contact somebody else this way, they would need to do more quantum entanglements.
** The existence of
*** Fridge Brilliance: Done by implanting every Collector with part of an entangled pair which the Reapers can surely manufacture more easily than Cerberus, being [[Eldritch Abominations]] [[Clarke's Third Law|so far above us]] technologically.
** The third game has quantum entanglement communication units practically everywhere, after the Systems Alliance takes apart the ''Normandy SR-2'' and finds out all the enhancements Cerberus made to it. It seems as if they're all connected to each other, which wouldn't make sense given EDI's comment about the device in the second game (i.e. a single communication unit can only connect to its partner).
* The plot of ''[[
* ''[[
** This is based very loosely on the concept of quantum entanglement. It is possible to create pairs of particles both of which are both in superpositions of quantum states (e.g. spin up and spin down at once) and can be separated by a substantial distance. Observing the spin of one of the particles forces it to collapse into one state (either spin up or spin down, but not both) observations of the other particle are then guaranteed to see it in the other state. The particles seem to have needed to communicate faster than light to make this coordination. Unfortunately, in the real world, this does not help ''us'' communicate faster than
* The ''[[
* Every (playable) race except the Liir (see aversions with FTL travel below) in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''.
** Humans the the [[Planet Looters|Zuul]] actually use regular radios to send and receive messages. They just leave relay buoys near [[Subspace or Hyperspace|node space]] points that re-transmit the messages through to the other side. Given this [[All in The Manual]] description, this method is far from instantaneous.
Line 110 ⟶ 111:
** The [[Bee People|Hivers]] use tiny gates hooked up to their [[Portal Network]] used to send and receive messages. While ship-sized gates require being in the gravity well of a planet-sized object, the mass of the ship is enough for a communication gate.
** All races seem to have FTL sensors, though, which the manual doesn't even attempt to explain. Also, one of the prerequisites for interstellar trade is FTL "Broadband", which carries the side effect of letting you observe allies' combat.
* In ''[[
* In [[Descent]] 2 has a real time FTL communication connection that somehow [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTZuxGAUbro keeps working] even when the ships warp drive malfunctions and deposits the character in the middle of nowhere with the ship broken.
* In the ''Alien Crossfire'' expansion to ''[[Sid
==
* In ''[[
** Which is why ships that expect a battle deploy remote probes, and sometimes pre-launch interceptors, missiles with sensors, and so on - big sensors are better, but ability to win time even from light speed lag often matters more. Also, [[Teleporters and Transporters|teraport]] normally starts with sending a bunch of miniature probes first to see whether they'll go "splat" on Teraport Area Denial or see something unpleasant on the other end, though it's mentioned only in rare cases when the probes were ''expected to'' make it, but didn't, or when the ship runs out of probes and have to improvise.
*** The same applies to [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-12-29 area defence]: if you're worried about relativistic projectiles, what you need is some ships with enough of (gravitic) juice to deal with such threats, plus lots and lots of drones to detect the problem while you still have time.
** Also, hypernode jamming or even lasting disruption is possible, though at relatively short ranges. Once the jamming area was appraised by looking which opponents reacted after light from an event could reach them, and which ones before, and thus are able to use information from sensors somewhere closer (being an opportunistic coalition, they weren't networked together).
* The ''[[Starslip]]'' technical manual asserts that FTL communication is actually an incredibly sophisticated computer that anticipates what the other party will say. "Modern" systems are so good, it can predict and initiate a call at the same time it is placed, light-years away. [[FTL Travel]] is almost as preposterously handwaved.
** Only at first though (and hell, the strip is NAMED AFTER their FTL system), the detailed explanation becomes a major plot point and the titular Starslip Crisis when the future declares war on the past to make them stop using it.
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* In ''[[
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
* The time taken for messages to reach to the other recipient is practically the entire point of ''[[Voices of a Distant Star]]''. There ''is'' [[FTL Travel]] in ''Hoshi no Koe''.▼
** There's also, briefly noted, some form of subspace communication. But it's only there for
*** And, to make the irony even more cruel, -- Noboru is a comms officer on one of these new ships.
* Communication across large distances is virtually impossible in the ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' universe; it is actually a plot point in ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', where even relay buoys must contend with "fold interference" that delay or disable communication entirely. However, the [[Neglectful Precursors|Protoculture]] and the Vajra have their ways around that (see above.)▼
=== [[
* ''[[Dune]]''.▼
* ''[[Alien (
** However, the sequel, ''Aliens'', explicitly uses FTL communication, as the ''Sulaco'' is expected to report back to Earth on a daily basis, and the lost contact with Acheron is noticed after a matter of days, not decades. Since this communication is not explicitly accomplished by means of FTL drones or somesuch, the presence of an ansible is implied.▼
*** In the Extended Edition opening, one of the colony higher-ups on LV-426 says that "[i]t takes two weeks to get an answer out here", implying that the speed of messages is no more than one week either way (as the delay may be partially due to [[Executive Meddling]] or other delays on the end of the replier).▼
* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s [[Technic History]] novels and short stories, there is no "interstellar equivalent of radio" and all messages have to be carried by courier spaceships.
* Stephen Harper's Silent Empire Quadrilogy exists in a universe with FTL flight, but no FTL communication. This necessitates the use of psychics for communication. This universe has a thriving slave trade for the same reason.
* Ditto in ''The Gap'' series by Stephen Donaldson. Courier drones are the order of the
* The [[
* ''[[
** At one point, a Manticoran diplomat intentionally exploits this trope just to issue a calculated insult to a Solarian Admiral, by [[Leave the Camera Running|keeping his video feed on]] and using the lengthy comm delays to kick his feet up on a nearby piece of furniture and catch up on some casual reading.
* David Feintuch's ''[[Seafort Saga]]'': while FTL travel existed in the form of "N-Waves" propelling a ship, even human-level computer AI couldn't run a ship (robotics not being advanced in Feintuch's 'verse). Physical mail was carried by the ships traveling to extrasolar colonies, while ordinary radio was used in-system.
* [[H. Beam Piper]]'s Terro-Human Future History. News and communications travel with FTL
** It can be said that Piper and other writers who have FTL travel but no FTL radio setups in their works often do so to justify why the protagonists must handle the issue at hand and can't just call back to base for help/relief/support from more qualified personnel.
** They come the closest in the Empire story "Ministry of Disturbance", where a scientist discovers a method of teleporting a particle. Unfortunately, the only story following "Ministry of Disturbance" took place several thousands of years after that one and on a backwater planet, so Piper never managed to explore the consequences of this new technology.
Line 144 ⟶ 159:
** The lack of FTL communication plays as a plot point a few times; in The Vor Game, Miles uses the time lag between communications to [[Mind Screw|play with the head]] of his compulsive plotter opponent, {{spoiler|Cavilo.}}
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Nemesis'', the humans left on Earth eventually discover faster-than-light travel, but point out that there is no way to send radio waves through hyperspace. This leads to difficulties communicating with the Nemesis colonists.
* Averted in [[
* In ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' series, the delay in receiving electromagnetic signals plays a large role in the various spaceship battle tactics shown. For example, at the opening of the first book, Geary uses the massive delay in communication with the enemy to buy the time he needs to rearrange the title fleet for a [[Tactical Withdrawal]]. Even then, the fleet barely makes it.
* In ''Hellspark'' by [[Janet Kagan]], there is FTL travel but no FTL communication. Messages have to be physically transported, and there are severe penalties for interfering with a ship carrying mail. Expeditions planning to spend time away from the regularly-travelled routes may take unmanned message drones, but these are expensive and hard to replace, and are kept in reserve for emergencies.
* In [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''[[The Conquerors Trilogy]]'', there are two possible FTL speeds for ships allowed by physics, but faster-than-light communications are impossible.
* [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' features the Psychlo Empire, a civilization linked by the miracle of teleportation. Here's the thing, though - the rules of teleportation make opening two "links" to the same planet [[Teleporter Accident|dangerous]], so the Psychlos set up a strict schedule of when their worlds can link up with the capital. This means that the disparate worlds of the empire have to function on their own for a year or more, until they reach the hours-long window to exchange communications and supplies and personnel. Aside from the inherent problems with this scenario, this means that once the protagonist bombs the Psychlo homeworld into a new sun, there's no way for the rest of the empire to know about this until they try to open a teleport link to it and instead get a facefull of atomic fire.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
▲* The time taken for messages to reach to the other recipient is practically the entire point of ''[[Voices of a Distant Star]]''. There ''is'' [[FTL Travel]] in ''Hoshi no Koe''.
▲** There's also, briefly noted, some form of subspace communication. But it's only there for irony -- a newspaper shown for a moment has a report on the next generation of starships, the ones built ''after'' Mikako's fleet leaves. The new ships will have this form of FTL communication; the fleet Mikako is in, however, does not.
▲*** And, to make the irony even more cruel, -- Noboru is a comms officer on one of these new ships.
▲* Communication across large distances is virtually impossible in the ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' universe; it is actually a plot point in ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', where even relay buoys must contend with "fold interference" that delay or disable communication entirely. However, the [[Neglectful Precursors|Protoculture]] and the Vajra have their ways around that (see above.)
▲== [[Film]] ==
▲* ''[[Dune]]''.
▲* ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]''. The Nostromo and other ships are out of contact while on the frontier, and are thus on the spot, for taking on the terrors that wait on whatever God forsaken planet the crew finds themselves on.
▲** However, the sequel, ''Aliens'', explicitly uses FTL communication, as the ''Sulaco'' is expected to report back to Earth on a daily basis, and the lost contact with Acheron is noticed after a matter of days, not decades. Since this communication is not explicitly accomplished by means of FTL drones or somesuch, the presence of an ansible is implied.
▲*** In the Extended Edition opening, one of the colony higher-ups on LV-426 says that "[i]t takes two weeks to get an answer out here", implying that the speed of messages is no more than one week either way (as the delay may be partially due to [[Executive Meddling]] or other delays on the end of the replier).
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Notable in its absence in ''[[Andromeda]]'', where communication over interstellar distances requires a living courier.
** It's mentioned that they attempted to use Slipstreams for FTL radio, but that it didn't work very well, so they went back to couriers.
** This is because Slipstream is highly unstable. Traveling through it requires one not only to be a good pilot but to be ''lucky'' (something about quantum physics). It is stated several times that a machine, even an AI, is unable to successfully navigate in Slipstream, as machines can't guess. An attempt was made to map out Slipstream, but it failed.
** In one episode, [[The Captain|Hunt]] laments the need to wait for a reply when the ''Andromeda'' is more than a few light-minutes away.
{{quote|
* The 2000s ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' apparently relies solely on radio ([[Call a Rabbit
** However, the presence of some kind of FTL transmissions is implied with the Cylons. They have possess tracking beacons mentioned early on that can be traced after an FTL jump (see the Olympic Carrier in the first regular episode), plus the very nature of Resurrection technology requires FTL transmissions, as the Resurrection ship/hub is often shown as being in different ''star systems'' from the point of the Cylon's death and yet works relatively fast.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Traveller]]'', where all interstellar messages have to be delivered by courier (although those can still jump). This has a natural impact on the way the universe works.
** Deliberately invoked in The Fifth Frontier War, a tabletop board game based on the Traveller universe. Players were required to plot moves multiple turns in advance. The presence of Admirals, intelligence gathering, or other factors could reduce the preplanning by one or two turns.
*** Note that this is almost exactly the same problem faced in H. Beam Piper's universe.
* ''[[Stars Without Number]]'' has it mostly averted. FTL lasers are one of the few metadimensional technologies available on [[Tech Level|TL 4]] (i.e. worlds capable of interstellar travel), widely used for communication, which is not only fast, but more reliable and secure, thanks to not interacting with almost anything in visible universe. The problem is that it requires rather precise targeting, thus all uses are variations of either "call one of the objects you are actually tracking now" (e.g. other ships of a fleet) or "call something ''on a known orbit in the same star system as you'' <nowiki>[and give it your own coordinates to let it reply]</nowiki>" (surface to orbit, one planet or asteroid habitat to another). With moving objects you don't track, you could communicate via stationary network. But at interstellar ranges, only by ships.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Halo]]''. All messages are carried on ships that travel between planets. Described as the futurisitc Pony Express.
** This is more a UNSC problem though as the Forerunner definitely had FTL communications (it's unclear if the Covenant have this technology or not). Some scenes also suggest that the UNSC has at least "short" range FTL sensors as for instance they seem able to detect ships incoming at FTL speed somehow. It's also notable that their never seems to be any delay in communications even over large distances inside systems.
** In the books it's shown that they'll send probes into slipstream, which will then scan for anything traveling FTL before returning to regular space, and then transmit the data back.
** The book ''Contact: Harvest'' has a Kig-Yar (Jackal) [[Privateer]] ship find the human colony of Harvest. All Covenant ships are equipped with a [[Precursors|Forerunner]] device known as a "luminary", which scans for Forerunner energy signatures (and other factors) and relays the data back to High Charity. Tampering with luminaries is forbidden under the pain of death (not the least reason being that they're Forerunner relics and are, thus, holy). The Kig-Yar attempt to do just that in order to prevent their luminary from letting the Covenant know about the discovery. They fail. The rest is history.
Line 186 ⟶ 189:
** Technically, the Liir don't have FTL. Their "stutter-drives" are teleporters, moving a ship a tiny distance millions of times per second, imitating physical movement. It's difficult to imagine a computer able to do this faster than the speed of light. It's likely they move at very high STL speeds and are not experiencing [[Time Dilation]] effects due to the ship actually standing still at any given moment.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* In ''[[
==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* ''[[Planetes]]'' features a phone on a lunar colony with a Windows-esque progress bar on a video screen that gives the delay between messages between the Moon and Earth (about a second and a half)
* ''[[Stellvia of the Universe]]'' has this as a plot point. Videomail between Foundations travels slower than light, so it takes hours for the messages from Shima and Rinna to reach each other.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''
* [[Greg Egan]]'s ''[[Schilds Ladder]]'' features a universe with neither ftl communication nor travel. Being written by [[Greg Egan]], most interstellar travel is done by transmitting your [[Brain Uploading|mind]], with only a few "anachronauts" crawling around in starships to investigate the future they find along the way; either way all travellers are doomed to miss decades of time. One planet solves the problem by putting the entire population into what amounts to slow-motion until the traveler returns.
* One of the entries in the [[X Wing Series]] has the squadron tapping in on a pirate conversation. They figure out how far apart the two conversing parties are by the length of the pauses, and by doing so, pinpoint their locations.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Usually, the ''[[Metroid]]'' games avoid this by having no form of communication through space, but in ''Metroid Prime: Hunters'', it's stated that a signal was sent to various bounty hunters via a telepathic frequency.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* [[Real Life]], so far. [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/167610/may-08-2008/garrett-reisman This clip] shows how tricky surface-to-orbit conversations can be without an ansible to hand.
** Even Digital Satellite TV (e.g. DirecTV, Dish Network) is delayed about 4 seconds relative to the cable feed the shows come from. This delay is mostly due to the processing time necessary to compress the data on-the-fly, however; the actual signal-propagation delay to and from the satellite is only a quarter of a second.
* Recently,<ref>published 2 December 2011</ref>
{{reflist}}
Line 214 ⟶ 215:
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Faster Than Light Index]]
[[Category:
|