DARPA is offering $500,000 on November 11th for the best proposal for this. It's open for public submissions. Hop to it Yarlen!
Hate to burst the bubble but unless physics itself radically changes or we discover an element that can generate infinite power (also a radical change to physics), then we won't be "engaging" our FTL Warp Drive's anytime soon.
Most serious physics literature that I have read, and I will grant that I am a novice, say that star-to-star travel is going to require one of 2 things, either a Generation ship or Space folding/Wormhole Travel (yes current physics says its at least theoretically possible-look up Einstein-Rosen Bridge). Stephen Hawking & Kip Thorne both agree that there is evidence to support the possibility of traversable Wormholes.
If they exist, wormholes would allow travel to whatever other part of space it was connected to at likely MUCH faster speeds than near light travel. This would be the first phase of human space travel progression. After mastering the use of existing wormholes, the next likely progression would be the creation of artificial ones. If the Higgs-Boson particle turns out to exist which the LHC is rapidly determining, it would represent an avenue whereby man could manipulate mass and gravity by fiat. Were this the case, it could be theoretically possible to create new wormholes though these would still lead to a random place. I don't think we will ever get to a point in the foreseeable future whereby we could actually decide where the wormhole goes.
Adding another pence here, just wanted to say that while SciFi and science geeks always dream of ways to make the space thing happen, that doesn't reflect the public at large. Most people want dinner on the table and some sense that their paychecks will keep coming in. Space is just a, "Hunh?" thing to them.
We went to the moon when there was absolutely no point at all for going there--other than to say that we did. it was a huge and practically unreal goal at the start and the only thing driving it was to show the world that we were still on top of the game against communism.
What came out of that effort is staggering.
Study history and you will find that most of the real breakthroughs for society and in technology usually come from one of two things: Exploration or dealing with war and dire calamities.
People need to dream and they are inspired when dreams become real. You just have to present the dream. I'd be happy with a healthy orbital and near earth space industry. If we get there, the rest will follow.
But I do believe sending a probe to another star would make a positive difference in the way people look at life, each other and the world. It would also be a treasure trove of developed technology that's not likely to happen any other way in our futures.
That's what I've been saying
While it may be possible for them to have been made during inflation, in order for the wormholes to still be around, they have to be suported by exotic matter inside. I highly doubt it, but they may be around. On the other hand, if they are around, our observation of the universe clearly indicates that there are no large scale ones (or that they are very rare) and small scale ones are very, very rare. Given the vastness of the universe, and that most of it is empty space, I would say that the closest one is probably in the space between galaxies and leads to another space between galaxies.... making it utterly useless.
Everything we theorize now about any wormholes suggests they will be microscopic on a quantum level and no matter could pass them without collapsing them. What may be possible though is to "teleport" information through them.
"Spooky action at a distance" still appears to propagate at the speed of light so even a quantum entangled signal device would still seem to be limited to light speed. If a wormhole could be opened or created, it might be possible to propogate this information through it--via entanglement--and reach across space "instantly"...if you had a receiver in place and a conveniently placed wormhole.
Perhaps one day,an interstellar web could be set up from located wormholes allowing worlds to be reached more quickly for communication than c allows. Ultimately, we will have to learn how to create and orient our own wormholes if we really want use of them.
The fact that it won't happen in our lifetimes doesn't mean it isn't worth thinking about now--that's always how you start to get where you want to go...and the fact is, as smart as we like to think we are, we really are extreme novices at understanding these sorts of things.
So true. But you gotta start somewhere
I think you know by now that I dont wish to verbally attack you, but seeing as how this has gone back and forth a bit, I wanted to throw out a disclaimer.
Well, clearly some matter (contextual meaning: made of positive energy) must make it through the wormhole, otherwise you have no way of transmitting the information through the hole. Unless you jiggle the hole or something with the hole itself, but no one knows how the thing will react in reality, especially on a quantum scale.
Next, the microscopic ones, according to the theories that invent them to begin with, would last a very short time, and would probably not go very far. So, in order to send the billions and billions of bits of information through the wormhole, you would have to have a ton of these wormholes all going to the same space in a very predictable way (otherwise the information would be scrabbled and un-useable). Also, with all that information (aka, matter) compressed in such a small area, your likely to have it disappear into a mini blackhole (if they exist; but then again, if mini-wormholes exist.... its pretty likely).
An interesting idea.... I don't think I've heard of this idea before. But I'm not sure entanglement would hold once the wormhole is shut down. That would be a hugely interesting and fundamental experiment on the nature of entanglement. As far as using it to teleport someone, you'd still have to create a set of entangled particles and bring a set to the location you want to teleport to along with the other half of the teleporter. And that means you have to be able to get there via ordinary means before you can teleport.
Finally, there have been ideas that exploit wormholes to time travel by putting one end in a strong gravitational field, thus changing the rate of time on that end. I bring this up because you are using the wormhole to violate the lightspeed limit, thus having some measure of time travel already. I am highlighting this because if micro-wormholes exist, quantum theory says they would be all over the place... winking into and out of existence. Any degree of time travel on such a scale means that causality would be destroyed on the large scale, and there are a few ways to do it with that situation. I feel my argument here is not strong, but I think that you would end up without any savings in time, although with less chance for interception and/or destruction of the information teleported.
That isn't really a 'fact'. It's a good guess based off the past. Only years down the line, when/if we actually do know everything could we look back and say that we are novices. Evidence supports the viewpoint that faster than/as fast as light travel will never be possible. As I've said before, I dont object to looking around and seeing what might be possible, and trying things out. But at the end of the day, theres an overwhelming probability that we are stuck in this solar system short of a multi-generation/hibernation approach.
Also, I find it humorous that some people here thought my idea was unbelievable and later a wormhole teleporter is suggested
I think it's a pretty "factual" guess. We can't predict weather or earthquakes--I'm pretty sure we are challenged in fully and comprehensively describing other universes, dimensions, the materials/energies that run them and how they work.
We understand some principles but we're guessing at facts. No one has any experiential data on a wormhole or other universes/dimensions. I don't know of an area ofd advanced science yet where we got it all right the first time. Precedent and therfore hypothesis/theory is on my side.
My "wormhole entanglement telegraph" would cut off once the wormhole closed--we would have to find a way to stabilize them or create them at will--then we could visit the Gamma Quadrant.
Matter through small wormholes at present seems to require the collapse of the wormhole so unless a massive one is discovered, matter isn't passing through. Energy can pass in small quantities--no one is sure how much.
Wormholes don't violate causality--nothing exceeds c going through them--they are just natural "kinks" in space--if any are left. If you manipulate them with strong gravity fields to time travel then ya got issues. Let me know how that goes.
All these ideas are "unbelievable--if you try to make them happen today--but they aren't inconceivable in the future somewhere if we are about. What is a certainty statistically is the earth being rendered uninhabitable for human civilization if we attempt to simply sit here indefinitely. Space now!
When the Karl Benz invented the first modern car back in the late 1800's, people thought that if man traveled in an open air car going faster than 25 mph, his skin would melt and fall off his body. Everything fantastic is unbelievable at first. And our understanding of Physics can change. Has happened many times before.
We can predict weather, we can predict earthquakes. The issue you are really referring to here is the amount of detail attributed to the prediction (ie, the date and time of an earthquake/thunderstorm, or the exact location within 10ft). Sure, we will get better at these things with time, but not much more in understanding. The reason for earthquakes is the movement of the tectonic plates. The reason for a thunderstorm is the accumulation of rain in clouds rubbing together to generate electrical polarization and induction. More than that is details. And to be honest, even when/if we have figured everything out, we will never be able to say exactly when and where rain will fall. There are so many unknowable factors that contribute to such things. That's why theres models such as chaos theory and statistical mechanics. The only way around that is to force the system to behave the way you want it to. I could see a future, ala Back to the Future (part 2), where the exact second the rain stops can be predicted.... If, and only if, we were to force it to rain at a specific time, and a specific place, in a specific quantity.
Are you then claiming to be smarter than advanced science? Or somehow better at guessing how reality works? That is what these 2 statements imply, from my perspective. But I'm sure you did not mean it that way. On the other hand, what area of science isnt on it's 433rd revision?
My point was that you can't have energy without matter. To be clear: 'Energy' is merely a human invention to understand how matter behaves. Thus, statements like "Energy is neither created nor destroyed" really means that the total number of non-virtual particles in the universe is constant, even though the total number of each type may fluctuate. So, you could, say, wiggle some electrons on your side, which 'generates' electro-magnetic energy (photons) to pass through the wormhole and eventually wiggle some electrons on the other side wormhole. But something must pass through. The only way around this that I could think of would involve bending space to carry the information or somehow messing with the wormhole itself, but I dont know.
Ah! Why do these end up so long?! I swear, my first draft was 3 sentences.
Haha...fool! Never enter a land war in Asia or argue with a Sicilian when quantum physics is on the line!
If you want to be nitpicky: energy in the form of matter is problematic to pass through a quantum WH. Matter in an energy state has a better chance. Sunlight can pass through my windowpane but--mysteriously--birds are killed by it. I don't see why--they are just the same stuff in different states.
No...I can't be smarter than advanced science because science is itself an contrived intellectual construct and is thus incapable of having an intelligence. On the other hand, there may be some scientists out there smarter than me but who can really say? It's so subjective. Perhaps the world's smartest scientists and myself are in fact essentially indistinguishable--I am merely a different state of a smart scientist--we are all made of stars.
The precedent of history is that it's more likely we have major errors in our formulations at present than it is that we are "extremely correct". These are theoretical sciences so we really are guessing. Is their a Higgs Boson? Is there actual dark energy and dark matter--or did we just make it all up?
My guess that we have a lot more guessing to do is as accurate as describing evolution. We haven't witnessed major species changes occurring before our very eyes in higher animals but we have enough evidence to assume it is happening. Same thing here.
ok, just so we're clear: please give me 1 specific example of the type of thing that you believe, hypothetically, could fall into a wormhole and not destroy it. Uses of the word 'energy' will receive a $314.16 fine. As a contrast: An electron that enters the wormhole will collapse it.
I think theres trouble here anyhow due to the quantum foam, but I don't know how such things work. It seems to me that entropy would wreck havok on the edges of the hole and cause the whole thing to collapse (I wouldnt even know where to begin with its creation).
My perspective on science is that it is the aggregate knowledge of humanity throughout history in the context of the best minds of the day. To get back to the original comment:
Part of my problem with this statement is your opinion is it will happen, its only a matter of time. My comments in this regard were meant to imply that it is very unlikely to occur at any rate, although I do concede some possibility. The other part I take issue with in that statement is the second half, which reads to me as: "No one knows for sure, therefore, my viewpoint is most likely right". I read it that way because you are using that statement as an argument for your viewpoint. If you, in fact, meant: we= me and you, not society, scientists, or the human race; I apologize. I know there is plenty more to understand that I have yet to learn.
What I thought you were saying was that scientists, combined or just the best and brightest, dont have any basis for their ideas and therefore are most likely wrong. While there is some truth to this, this is saying that science has no predictive power at all. Einstein looked at established theories (some his) and deduced that space and time would distort in the presence of matter. Now, eventually we might find a new theory which says that space and time don't distort. Does this mean Einstein was wrong? Is this a 'major' change rocking physics to the core? No. First, the applications of the physics involving space-time distortions are fairly minimal, so the impact to physics is small. Second, since there are so many experiments showing space-time distortion, the new idea must be: space and time doesn't warp, but matter behaves as if space and time were warped. And so then, the new idea is a refinement of the old. You can still use the old ideas and get usable answers, but with the limitations imposed by that model, which were highlighted by the new model.
It seems I must apologize. I was under the impression many gravitational models of solar systems had been run, without success, on binary systems. Binary systems are the most common type of solar system, and red dwarf stars are the most common star, so this is very suprising.
Here's a quote that puts it simply and that I was able to find quickly without combing the web for physics research papers (neat scifi web site btw):
One method of accessing wormholes involves not so much creating the tunnels through space/time as mining them from the subatomic quantum foam. According to theory, wormholes are constantly forming and collapsing at the planck-scale level of existence, the point where physical measurements become meaningless, around 10^-33 meters. At this level of existence, space/time is ruled by chaos and is far from stable or "firm," allowing structures like wormholes to form with relative ease. The vast majority of the wormholes found here lead to only a few planck-lengths away. However, some can stretch many light years, and some may even lead to the other side of the cosmos. We can imagine a species with spectacularly advanced technology might possess the means to detect, stabilize, and expand these otherwise brief-lived quantum wormholes for macroscopic use. However, expanding the wormhole mouth to usable dimensions and keeping it open takes enormous energies. The gravitational forces at work in the wormhole keeps trying to collapse its openings, requiring some counter-force to keep it open. To think of it another way, the "ocean" of space-time keeps trying to rush in and fill the "drainage" hole created by the wormhole. This creates unbelievable pressure at the wormhole mouth, far exceeding a billion quadrillion tons per square inch for a wormhole with an opening large enough to accommodate most spaceships, say several kilometers wide. This level of pressure is akin to having millions of earth-sized planets balanced on your thumb.
One method of accessing wormholes involves not so much creating the tunnels through space/time as mining them from the subatomic quantum foam. According to theory, wormholes are constantly forming and collapsing at the planck-scale level of existence, the point where physical measurements become meaningless, around 10^-33 meters. At this level of existence, space/time is ruled by chaos and is far from stable or "firm," allowing structures like wormholes to form with relative ease.
The vast majority of the wormholes found here lead to only a few planck-lengths away. However, some can stretch many light years, and some may even lead to the other side of the cosmos. We can imagine a species with spectacularly advanced technology might possess the means to detect, stabilize, and expand these otherwise brief-lived quantum wormholes for macroscopic use.
However, expanding the wormhole mouth to usable dimensions and keeping it open takes enormous energies. The gravitational forces at work in the wormhole keeps trying to collapse its openings, requiring some counter-force to keep it open. To think of it another way, the "ocean" of space-time keeps trying to rush in and fill the "drainage" hole created by the wormhole. This creates unbelievable pressure at the wormhole mouth, far exceeding a billion quadrillion tons per square inch for a wormhole with an opening large enough to accommodate most spaceships, say several kilometers wide. This level of pressure is akin to having millions of earth-sized planets balanced on your thumb.
Brushing up against the sides of the wormhole throat would mean instant destruction for a ship, as it is shredded and crushed by the immense gravitational forces barely held in check there. Also, too large a mass passing through a wormhole might disrupt the delicate balance keeping it open, causing it to spontaneously collapse. Any ship caught in the mouth of a collapsing wormhole is instantly annihilated. The fate of a ship trapped inside a collapsing wormhole throat is unknown. It might be crushed, it might precipitate out somewhere in normal space, it might be launched into a different universe altogether, or it might be forever trapped in an isolated bubble of space/time with no hope of escape.
http://orbitalvector.com/FTL/Wormholes/WORMHOLES.htm
Other things I have read in past indicated the amount of non-matter, converted equivalent form required to "jaws-of-life" such wormholes wider would equate to converting the masses of Jupiter sized planets or stars to a non-matter state for just small masses and sizes of "payload".
Its the volume and mass of matter that are problems for wormhole transit. if they are too big it's unlikely they will be able to enter or get through. Non-matter (literally--as well as said as a means to avoid fiduciary deficit as per our agreement here) has some theoretical chances of making it in certain situations though it has an impact on the structure transited as well.
No need to apologize. Who can know everything? (besides me) They also have some trinary system models with planets in theoretical La Grange points out there somewhere.
The most surprising thing to me about the binary system is how close the stars are to each other. I'm guessing that it formed further out and was pulled in? I might be off base here, but I think that in most binary systems the stars orbit in a way that is closer to a figure-8 (each star has a circular orbit).
As for the wormhole information... Once again, negative mass (exotic matter) is used. If you can find/make exotic matter, it's probably easier to make a warp drive, but then again I don't know how you would make/find exotic matter in the first place. Using the wormhole to transmit the teleportation information does have the advantage that you would need the least amount of exotic matter possible by decreasing the size (seeing as how you only need a stream of particles). However, you run the risk of having information loss if your particle beam interacts with the exotic matter.
Now, you may be wondering where I am getting this 'exotic matter must be used' from when it isn't explicitly mentioned in the quote you provided. well, its the part about prying open the wormhole and keeping it that way. You need an anti-gravitational force to counteract the wormhole's tendency to collapse due to gravity. To create a truly anti-gravitational force (what you need here as it is space itself that is collapsing), you need something with negative mass (exotic matter). You can, for instance, use a laser beam to send the information and thereby reducethe affect on space within the wormhole, but light is still coupled to space and it will therefore cause some degree of collapse in wormhole. The amount is definitely far less than say, a proton beam, but there is some. The wormhole, even with nothing sent through will collapse of its own devices (I am unsure how long and so am also unsure as to the amount of exotic matter needed). Now, the delicate balance is this: Exotic matter is rare (probably impossible, but going with 'rare') and so you want to use as little as possible. But you need a tunnel big enough for your beam to get through, and you need it there long enough to get lots of information through (truly, a cosmic amount of information). So, first you need enough to counteract the wormhole's desire to collapse. Next, you need enough space to send your beam through (most probably, wormholes will exist on the Planck scale, which is far, far smaller than the wavelength of a photon). If you use photons for your beam, you will need the tunnel to be bigger than if you used electrons. But if you use electrons, the have a mass, and so will increase the collapse of the wormhole. I'm not sure what the most effective particle beam would be, but you'd want to minimize the use of exotic matter, reduce the interaction rate of your particle beam with the exotic matter, contain the exotic matter to the tunnel(its repulsive, so it has a tendency to want to fly out one end or the other), and do so for long enough to get all the information contained in a single person through. And this is all before really dealing with the teleportation part.
I think I'll put my viewpoint like this: Humanity has created some amazing things, but all mimicking nature. Airplanes mimick birds, rockets mimick volcanos, solar panels mimick plants (obviously generalizing a bit, but you get it). I have seen or heard of nothing that travels faster than light, nothing that travels via wormholes. To do so would truly be something new. Show me something that does this, and I'll be converted to someone who thinks it's possible.
It's not possible right now and most likely won't be in our lifetimes. But just as you embrace a lot of current science and theory, exotic matters and energies are something more and more being theorized and anticipated. So it isn't impossible that one day we'll find ways to access some of them--just not this week.
I think the key to eventually getting exotic matter is going to be through the manipulation and focus of energy. If the Big Bang was the result of a multi-universal intersection then energy may be the one thing that can open a crack in the fabric again.
Agreed. And we won't have enough energy to really experiment until we get cold fusion or true efficiency Nuke Reactors. Right now the average reaction efficiency of a standard fission reactor is 0.1%. Just imagine the possibilities if we got them to 10-15-20%?
I would like to point out once again that there is no such thing as energy. Not really. Let me explain: It is said that the sun has a tremendous amount of energy. This is partly deceptive as 2 things are implied/meant by this.
So, it comes to how do you generate negative mass when all particles known either have a positive mass or no mass (in terms of it's rest mass). What you need is some particle that causes other particles to change their mass. The Higgs is suspected to give particles their masses, so we suspect that there's something out there that can do it. To reduce mass into the negative range, you'd have to find an anti-particle for the Higgs, and find out how to get particles to generate them. Once again, I do not see this happening in nature, so I doubt it's possible. Or Anything with a negative mass would probably have flown off to the edge of the universe just after it began.
please forgive a bit of tying this all up. I am very tired and will now sleeeeeeeepzzzzzZzzZzzZzz..........
Your same logic could be applied with Einsteinein Physics to actually say:
"I would like to point out once again that there is no such thing as matter. Matter is simply energy stored in a concentrated state until an external force acts upom it and moves it to a state of higher kinetic energy/lower potential energy or vice versa. Matter is really just an artificial construct that we use to define and contain within our finite sphere of reality the truth that everything is really just a state of pure energy. "
E=mc2......So many people quote it yet it is rarely understood. This equation makes so many thing theoretically possible. Pure matter to energy conversion? Mathematically speaking, completely possible. In fact, as near as we can tell, the Sun is the most perfect example we have to illustrate that energy is mass itself. The sun gives off 3.8 x 10^17 Terra-Watts per second of energy and yet it is calculated to have lost less than .03 percent of it's mass in the last 4.5 BB years. But the point is that it IS losing mass because mass is converted to pure energy.
Can we make Artificial Gravity? Yeppers. This equation tells us that even pure energy is affected by gravity and EXERTS gravity as well. Erego, hyper concentrated energy can cause artificial gravity at least mathematically speaking.
Lastly, Radioactive Decay is a form of mass to energy conversion. Matter is nothing more than hyper concentrated energy so tightly packed as to give the feel of materiality.
OK, now Im sleepy and I agree with the portion of SithLord's post pertaining to mass and the Higgs. But I couldn't let the "Energy isn't real" fallacy slide. Albert would be very disappointed indeed if I didn't stick up for him.
What are they searching for? I can't get it
develop a massive acceleration ring on the moon to shoot a capsule. hopefully the occupants aren't turned to jelly.
When I said "energy" there I meant the end result. Whether you focus nanoburst extreme energy gamma ray lasers (or cosmic rays) onto nano-scale targets or accelerate particles in a multi-tracked orbit sized particle accelerator towards the same small target the result is the same--a "little bang" of "not matter". Potato, Potato.
It's "energy" for all practical purposes to me
Arthur C. Clark proposed long ago (in a book I can no longer find) dual stream, counter-directioned beams of matter and antimatter focused in extremely close proximity and parallel to one another. He posited that the two beams would be required to collapse into an infinite point with significant acceleration and essentially poke a hole into space.
While I have no idea of the specifics of his idea, he was pretty certain it was a sound theoretical construct. this was a science idea of his--not science fiction.
I think something along these lines will produce energies sufficient to give us access to actual exotic matter. So energy will come first and the matter will follow. Just my thought.
On a counter note, here's an interesting reference that shows how we may come up with ways "see" things we don't quite get right now. It may be some currently unknown method that gives us access to the strange stuff we need. Perhaps "unobtanium".
I think it is you who is misunderstanding E=mc^2 and my point. 'Energy' isn't a thing that exists in our universe. It's a made up idea that makes it easier to relate different processes. The sun is loosing mass because it ejects light and particles non-stop. Not because it is turning mass into energy. If it were, you wouldn't see it at all because it got converted to this 'energy' stuff that doesn't do anything at all.
I'm going to attempt to explain my position here, but I want to add a disclaimer: yes, you read about stars and they use the word energy. There's a chapter or two on energy in every physics book, I know. I'm not discrediting them or Einstein. I'm saying that it is non-physical. A limited analogy: 'wetness' might appear in a chart with a number of other measurements, but there is actually no such thing as 'wetness'. It is not an elementary particle, an atom, or even a property of the atoms or particles. But it can be used to help categorize things or understand the subjects being considered (for example, maybe this chart is explaining different types of rain-proofed material).
Lets zoom in and look at the fusion process for a bit. You have Hydrogen (1 proton, 1 electron) atoms bouncing around running into one another. Occasionally, some of them will absorb a neutron and become deuterium(hydrogen +neutron). This releases positrons and neutrinos in the process. Then some of the deuterium fuses with hydrogen to make Tralphium (helium short a neutron) and light. The Tralphium then fuses together to make Helium, positrons, light and neutrinos. Nowhere is there a point at which there is a thing called 'energy' that is physical and involved in the process. But talking about the concept of energy is much simpler than stating all of that: You just say "the sun fuses hydrogen into helium, releasing energy", and that is much quicker and easier. The catch is the word 'releasing'. The quantity we call energy has not changed since the universe began. It merely transforms. That is because it reflects reality which is basically an extremely long chain reaction since the beginning of the universe. Where 2 particles annihilate each other and make several new and different particles.
Maybe its best if I simply list each of the different 'types' of energy and explain off of that. Theres Kinetic energy, which is simply the energy associated with the particles motion. What is meant is that particles with a larger momentum will impart a larger momentum on those that they collide with. Potential energy is the 'stored' energy that could be converted into kinetic energy but is being prevented from succumbing. What is meant by this is that the particle is under the affect of acceleration, but is not doing so due to something in the way. For example, holding a can of soup on your hand high off the ground has potential energy, in that it could be falling to the ground, but is prevented from doing so due to your hand. That's really it as far as energy goes. everything else is derived from these two 'forms of energy'. Electric and Gravitational energy are merely potential energy in a different guise. Heat is just kinetic energy. But in an of themselves, energy does not exist.
Most energy is conversion of one sort of particle to another. Energy states is a term often used and that describes it pretty well...particles in an energy state.
When we get to truly exotic stuff though, we may have to broaden and refine our terms even more--if we're even capable of conceiving how. We may discover other forms of force that don't fit within our definitions.
Nice synopsis above there.
Thanks. Hey, you know your link in that last post doesnt link to anything specific. Just the science daily quantum physics news listing.
Well, everything gets convoluted as you go deeper into the quantum physics of it. For example, there are said to be 4 fundamental forces. These 'forces' are the result of particle exchanges (gravity is not very well understood, so im not really speaking of that force), and these dont even abide the f=ma law that defined the term 'force'. So in a real sense, forces dont exist either. Its just a convient way to group particles together by how they work together to cause a specific action. I think this is a fairly broad base already, and it does include some non-fundamental 'forces' that arise under certain conditions.
For example, quantum degeneracy pressure is a force that arises when you try to contain particles beyond the heisenberg limit. This is what keeps white dwarfs and neutron stars from collapsing. Stars like our sun are kept from collapsing by thermal pressure, which is itself caused by the electromagnetic force. Another thing that might be viewed as a force might be mass after the Higgs is discovered.
So there are a few ways that the idea of forces has been broadened and refined, and I agree that more will arrive in the future. The problem I see with exotic matter is that it's like trying to dig a hole with nothing but a dump truck full of dirt. You can add stuff all you want, but you cant get a hole that way.
I might be nitpicking here, but can you give me an example of a situation that is not this?
There are some thing that we don't know for sure exist--gravitons are a fair example.
Gravity may actually be a different sort of force though that's not established in anyway definitively at present. "Dark energy"...is it particles or something else? Is a photon massless? If it is, then it isn't matter.
We're looking for "exotic" matter--I think the truly exotic will be stuff that isn't native to this universe but has somehow seeped in or exerted an influence into it or else is part of this universe that has been warped into something else by the same process.
Right now we look for "particles"--because it's all we know. I think there is much more out there we haven't seen.
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