this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
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I'm asking this because there is a scifi book I'm reading, and in the book there's a scene where someone is communicating with a person in a spacecraft moving at lightspeed. I know their ability to communicate would probably not be possible, but let's just put that aside for a second. Hypothetically, if you could communicate with someone moving lightspeed, would the time dilation make it so that they would appear to be moving and speaking very slowly relative to you?

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[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

If an object broadcasting a signal moving at the speed light away from you, I would further assume you experience a severe Doppler effect.

In principle you could have equipment that cancels out any doppler effect, no?

I also did some communcations work for a time. So, this is tickling my brain and I might spend the rest of my evening in my books.

That's awesome, let me know if you find anything interesting

[–] imahappyguy@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Oh boy, I went down a rabbit hole. This has been bothering me to the point where I called in some favors and found some public info for what the current hypothesis on "near" light speed communications is. Because light speed is impossible...for now haha. But let's use some assumptions.

First, light speed travel is possible. Second, that we have superior tracking technology. To the point where we can find the exact location of a traveling at light speed object in space.

The best option we have now is using photonics for communications. This bypasses using radio waves by using an array of lasers that are pointed toward a receiver, which is in turn pointed to the transmitter. We can see why space and light speed travel makes this difficult. It's hard to track objects in space at very high speeds with the precision needed for this level of communication.

The reason photonics is the best option is, it opens up significantly more frequencies to work with. And some frequencies travel farther and faster than others. If we ever master light speed and light speed communications, I would bet money now it's photonics. Because what's faster than light?

Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Please do not ask about FTL, crazy things start happening then. <- in jest, if you wanna ask you can. Engineers I know argue about it to the point of almost fighting. But that's engineers for you.

[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Oh boy, I went down a rabbit hole. This has been bothering me to the point where I called in some favors and found some public info

I appreciate the dedication!

The lasers idea is interesting.

And some frequencies travel farther and faster than others.

Don't all frequencies of light travel at the same speed?

[–] imahappyguy@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

You are correct, my sincerest apologies. Light at different frequencies can carry more/less data. I will leave my mistake, as failures are the price of progress. I will not make that mistake again and be more careful. Thank you for your kindness.

Edit: Clarification; different frequencies affect data transfer rate

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