Different Kinds of "Impossible"

By | April 3, 2008
5 Comments

Michio Kaku says there are three:

Type 1 impossibilities

Impossible today, but do not violate the known laws of physics. Might be possible this century or the next: force fields, invisibility, phasers and death stars, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots, UFOs and aliens, starships, antimatter and anti-universes

Type 2 impossibilities

Technologies that sit at the edge of our understanding of the physical world. May be realised millenia or millions of years in the future: faster-than-light travel, time travel, parallel universes

Type 3 impossibilties

Technologies that violate the known laws of physics. If they turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics: perpetual motion machines, precognition

Kaku has some interesting speculations on when we’ll be seeing things like teleportation and time travel.

  • http://nextbigfuture.com advancednano

    I would also include type 0.

    Actually possible now but the person classifying is not aware of it.

    Lasers as weapons exist but have not been widely deployed.
    The chemical laser used and tested on a modifed jet had megawatts of power and I think they have had various limited successful demos.

    New solid state free electron lasers are at 100kw this year. Navy has funded for 5 years to get to megawatts there as well.

    Robots are around just not as good as the science fiction versions.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Advancednano:

    Agreed.

    “The Future is here, its just not evenly distributed.”

    - William Gibson

  • http://mprize.org da55id

    Practical/actual perpetual motion exists – it’s just so ubiquitous nobody notices. Two examples:

    Electrons orbiting atomic nuclei

    planets orbiting stars – which can produce useful energy from wind, tides etc

    Are they truly perpetual? Well, yes, on the scale of billions of years… vastly more perpetual than you or I.

  • Harvey

    I appreciate the way this information is organized in this article and the link. It’s an easy read, so it aids me in making my own speculations.

  • Harvey

    I appreciate the way this information is organized in this article and the link. It’s an easy read, so it aids me in making my own speculations.