Why Worldhopping is Doomed To Fail

[Worldhopper From Yolen]

Okay, so, worldhopping only works because people have no concept of outer space, so it doesn't exist in the Cognitive World, meaning that worldhoppers can walk from planet to planet. The problem here is that people will eventually make spacecrafts(Mistborn Era 4), meaning that they will discover space, making it exist in the Cognitive World. Do you see the problem? Worldhopping cannot work because the Cosmere will discover the space between planets, making it that much harder for Hoid, the Seventeenth Shard(in-world), and people like Vasher and Vivenna to get around. 

(If you disagree, please reply and tell me why.)

[+Ark1002]

I agree in part, but I think that the invention of spacecraft will more balance it out. But that is worrying, so I hope Brandon finds an explanation. My one reason it might not, space is to much for the human brain to handle, so it wouldn't affect it too much. I hope.

[Calderis he/him]

I actually did agree. But Brandon has nixed it. The Cognitive Realm will only grow in places where new colonies pop up, like space stations. 

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

In the Cosmere, as space becomes more developed...*inaudible* outer space.

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

It's an interesting question that I've had to ponder. Would the space race happen more slowly because there's an alternative, or would it happen more quickly because you know other planets are inhabited. I'm not going to answer what I came up with, because it's a plot point in the books. So I'll give you a RAFO card, but that's the question to ask yourself.

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

That wasn't my question! My question was, in the Cognitive Realm, with the gap between planets...

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Oh! Will the gap between planets get larger as more people travel in between it. So, barring things like space stations, there's going to be so few minds in between, that I don't expect space to become larger because of that.

I don't expect it to be a factor, except--barring--there will be possibilities of certain regions popping up.

source

 

[+Ark1002]

Well that helps!

[c4m]

I think that spacecrafts would only take certain routes through space, meaning a worldhopper would either be able to walk a long path created by a spacecraft route, or just find another shorter way around it. But then again, who knows.

[Vargo Seldon he/him]

Maybe space will become so explored that worldhopping will only be plausible for people who have access to quick travel methods (like teleportation).

[Weltall]

Given that Brandon has explicitly said that's not going to be the case... nope. Just becasuse people know more about space and think about it differently, it's not going to radically affect the distance between places in the Cognitive Realm. You'd need to have a massive number of deep-space stations spread in the area around a given system to create a big enough collection of thinking minds that they would actualy form an appreciable 'zone' in the Cognitive Realm that would seriously affect the travel time of a worldhopper going to or from that system. And even if you did, most of the Physical Realm is still empty space that has no real Cognitive presence so couple of space stations aren't going to appreciably add to travel times.

Let's take a couple examples of large structures and you'll see what I mean. Deep Space Nine from Star Trek is roughly a mile in diameter and the eponymous Babylon 5 is about five miles end to end. The very large space colonies in the Gundam metaseries are maybe twenty miles on the long axis. Assuming every bit of Physical space gets 'grown' into the Cognitive Realm, that's still a very tiny blip in the vast emptiness of space that you can probably avoid with very little difficulty. Even if you have to go through such a region on foot and on the longest possible course, you'd only be adding a few hours travel time at most.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Weltall