Zoey

I have a theory of how the FTL would work in the Cosmere, and just wish to share my idea here to see what others think about it. This was found in FanX Spring 2019 (April 19, 2019), for those of you wondering. Now, the Alcubierre Drive functions through the creation of a Spacetime Topology which has space compressed on one end of the ship, and expanded on the other. This works in accordance and does not break Einstein's Field Equations. It is very complicated, so I will not go fully into how they are thought to operate in the real world, but you should already be seeing where I am going. Allomantic Cadmium and Bendalloy both are able to, in a localized area, expand and contract time. This is notable, due to the fact that Space and Time, in General Relativity and other fields, are fundamentally interchangeable. Which leaves on to question if it is theoretically possible that a skilled Allomancer could apply the effects of these Metals to Space instead of Time. Therefore causing Space itself to expand and contract like they do to Time. This would be able to create an effect nearly identical to the Alcubierre Drive, creating a very similar Spacetime Topology. This could be done through some sort of automated, mechanical Allomancy, and mix this with Duralumin and one could further intensify the degree of warping which occurs. This would allow one to go, essentially, faster than light, while remaining in adherence to the Laws of General Relativity on a local scale. This does require negative energy, or a infeasible amount of energy. But this can easily be overcome with Cadmium and Bendalloy being used to bring about the proper curvature and topology. Now, one of the major issues with the idea of this, is heat and energy production with the warping, These show that the Warp Drive would likely produce large amounts of heat, but, theoretically, a skilled Feruchemist could find a way to take this heat production and store it in metals in order to help the people within it not perish due to the heat production. Like with the Warp Bubbles, this could also possibly use some form of automated feruchemy, if something of that sort is ever discovered in the future. This fits with the knowledge Sanderson has of Warp Drives, theoretically can be done with Allomancy, and also does not violate causality, which is an issue Sanderson was aware of with FTL Travel, Further support is in how the Time Bubbles are called as they are, as the are close to the term "Warp Bubble", and the shimmering border and how everything that passes through it being disturbed does fit with the idea of a topological defect like that formed by a Warp Drive. Which, while not significant backing, does help support my point. This does have the issue of assuming it can warp space, but according to physics it should be able to. This does also fit with the idea of Sanderson saying that FTL Allomancy uses concepts and uses of the Metallic Arts we are not familiar with yet, this, I believe, could be in reference to Spatial Manipulation. As he did imply that the Tables are only human ideas of how they are organized rather than some kind of Rule. So it is possible that Cadmium and Bendalloy are not purely temporal. So, what do you think of this theory? Does it sound plausible?

I kinda want to just go with the explanation in the WoB about Higgs Field interference. It does make the most sense to me. Storing the mass formed by interactions with the Field into the metal as energy/Investiture, and being able to take that in again and add the mass back, is what makes the most sense to me. It makes a degree of sense in terms of the physics of it, and also works with how Feruchemy functions. I do hope that we do get more on this, and just get a more consistent explanation of Iron Feruchemy in general. Hope we can get that in Wax and Wayne 4. But the Higgs stuff would likely only get explained in Era 3 considering the technological levels of Era 2 not really being enough to become aware of such quantum concepts and occurrences. But do hope that it, W&W4, can at least give a more consistent and solid statement of how it works on the Macro scale. Ah, yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. (Same Speed minus Wind Resistance and, in Cosmere's case, the changes in mass leading to velocity changes to compensate for Conservation of Energy and Momentum) This and this: and the aforementioned statement of the Higgs Field interactions, Make me feel that it is indeed just Higgs Field interactions misunderstood by the people. It would explain a lot of the apparent inconsistences, leading to a consistent answer of what is going on in the background of all of this. Am I justified in thinking this? It seems reasonable to me. *Sorry for the Bold there, it is being extremely annoying and tedious, and I can't unbold it.

Yeah, I tend to see it moreso as them not fully understanding it themselves. Thus a lot of mistakes go on. Wax, iirc, does not fully have an understanding of science and the like, he is moreso just skilled gunman and knowledgeble in criminology, its been a while. So it is possible he just, in universe, assumed resistance to penetration had to do with density, I know Brandon thought this too in 2014, but it seems that he has things concerning it planned out more nowadays.

Okay, I am confused about Iron due to it being quite inconsistant compared to all the other metals. How exactly is it meant to work? Behind the scenes it interferes with the Higgs Field, which would increase mass and density. This is a pretty ingenious way to think about it in my opinion. But in Well of Ascension it says it only changes gravity, at least according to the Terrismen beliefs, when Sazed was traveling with Marsh. Yet in Hero of Ages it says it changes density, as seen when Sazed was breaking out of prison. Alloy of Law says it changes weight but not density when Wax was destroying the mill. And the Ars Arcanum lists it as "Effective weight" Sanderson says it is Mass and Higgs Field shenanigans. Which makes sense, and I do choose to stand by this. But the books themselves just seem to disagree with themselves throughout. So what exactly is it meant to do? I am getting rather confused about it. The first with the Terrismen thinking it was gravity is explainable through them just being wrong, but everything else leaves me confused. Does anyone have an answer to this? As it seems I am the only one confused as I can't find anybody asking about it and these apparent discrepancies in Arcanum.