Subspace or Hyperspace: Difference between revisions

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[[Subspace or Hyperspace]] are terms used in science fiction to describe certain forms of space that can do things impossible in regular space (see also [[Green Rocks]]).

'''Subspace'''<br />Subspace was popularized by ''[[Star Trek]]'' and is a trope for a form of space that has different physical properties from normal space and allows the ''Enterprise'' crew (and the writers) to do all sorts of things that have [[Magic A Is Magic A|some degree of scientific "consistency"]] but can't actually happen in the real world. For example, generating a subspace field can alter the apparent mass of an object, allowing it to be moved more easily. It's also the basis of [[FTL Radio]], which makes communications possible in ships that are moving faster than light (since real-life radio transmissions can only travel at light speed). It was used on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' with regularity, often just to fill the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] slot for the episode. ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' took this to silly extremes-at least one episode referenced ''hypersubspace''. Your guess as to what that means is as good as ours.

'''Subspace'''<br />Subspace was popularized by ''[[Star Trek]]'' and is a trope for a form of space that has different physical properties from normal space and allows the ''Enterprise'' crew (and the writers) to do all sorts of things that have [[Magic A Is Magic A|some degree of "scientific" consistency]] but can't actually happen in the real world. For example, generating a subspace field can alter the apparent mass of an object, allowing it to be moved more easily. It's also the basis of [[FTL Radio]], which makes communications possible in ships that are moving faster than light (since real-life radio transmissions can only travel at light speed). It was used on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' with regularity, often just to fill the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] slot for the episode. ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' took this to silly extremes-at least one episode referenced ''hypersubspace''. Your guess as to what that means is as good as ours.

Before there was ''Star Trek'', Golden Age science fiction would sometimes include references to "sub-etheric" communications or waves. The idea of the ether had already been disproved, but the term was useful for "waves that behave kinda like light, only different."