Faster than Light Project: Window to a Philosophy of the Future
Exploration of Faster than Light Travel
2023
Ontology of Spacetime and Capital:
A metaphysics of spacetime, technology and capital that expands on the causal nature of acceleration and geometric scale,
where the acceleration of technological-capital, reaching past its own geometric limit, reflects the cultural emergence of "faster than light" travel in a post-economic future.
Geometric Growth and Relativistic Energy:
For economic growth in GDP to occur at a geometric rate, as in the following relation:
y = 2^x
The resulting equation tends towards an infinite limit, and would therefor require an unlimited amount of capital to continue indefinitely at a geometric rate of growth.
Special Relativity provides a relationship between energy and matter according to the equation:
E = mc^2
where, E = energy at rest, m = rest mass and c = speed of light
As a mass approaches the speed of light, there is a relativistic correction in the form of a gamma factor (γ) with velocity (v):
E' = γmc^2, where γ = 1/√(1-(v/c)^2)
It therefor requires an infinite amount of energy to approach the speed of light because the mass of an accelerating object also increases to infinity.
The limits to capital, energy and matter can form a causal relation between spacetime and economic growth when accelerated.
If the contradictions of Capital were allowed to unfold, given that an essentially unlimited amount of resources, space...etc., among other things, were required to ensure continued economic growth (Harvey), what would happen if those limitations were somehow exceeded?
And, would this coincide with the cultural emergence of faster than light travel, forming an extension of spacetime geometry and capital in accelerated "frames" of reference, where the very technological limitations of space, time and capital are surpassed?
Since Capital continues to thrive on resource scarcity, the same spacetime resource that could place a limitation on its future growth, then what post-capital future emerges, with a cultural and technological "shift" to faster than light travel?
Harvey, David. "The Limits to Capital." (Verso, 2018).
