FTL HOWTO
=========

Experiments in space-folding as a manner of circumventing the
universal speed of light limitation have a rich history.  While
requiring considerable energy and, generally, a large chamber in which
to conduct the experiment, distortion of the spatial fabric has been
reliably reproducible leading to free-fall velocities, from the
observor's perspective, in multiples of c.

It was [?][citation needed] who first proposed that an enclosed object
may fall into a (relatively) small chamber which, from a
three-dimensional perspective, the object contained.  Because the
mathematics describing FTL travel are inherently four-dimensional, a
sphere (for example, and again from a 3-D perspective) inside an
object could serve as a conduit into which the object could transit[1].
Outside of a general ignorance towards the actuality of 4-D math, two
substantive objections prevented this approach from being easily
adoptable as a means of practicable travel.

Firstly, the approach was dangerous. A minor miscalculation, a
difference of a few micrometers in the vessel's coordinate system,
would lead to a field disruption and positive-feedback loop that would
quickly destroy the vessel.  While similar objections have
historically been raised regarding the adoption of many new
technologies, the nature of space-folding made this objection seem,
biased or otherwise, more substantive than most historical cases.

Second, it is trivial to show that, strictly speaking, it is
impossible to control the free-fall from the "moving" vessel.  Because
communication takes place at the speed of light, the controller can
never catch up to the mechanism.  This makes it, at best, an open
control system with, again at best, neutral stability.  While it is
true that, locally, there is no communication faster than the speed of
light, the space-folding mechanism has been compared to "balancing a
ship on a crest of a wave, or, equivalently, a car pivoting over the
edge of a cliff"[2]. 

In the ruthless days of the General War, timidity in the face of
danger was a non-concern, so the first may be dismissed.  The control
problem, however, was not so easily surmounted.

With most of the test system constructed -- the computer, whereby
commands could be given; the hyperspace engine; and the control system
linking the two -- a solution was implemented born of frustration and
creative hackery.  It was shown[3] that by massaging the inputs directly at
the point of the hyperspace drive, the original intent of the control
system could be maintained.  Between the (traditional) control system
and the drive, engineers inserted a panel [4] of a semiconductor
etched with an unseasoned, high-density neural net[5]. Lithography
was used to impress an image of the control system directly on the
panel with suitable (albeit simple) mathematical models of the inputs
to the system (chiefly, computer telemetry and input power). Because the
imaging of information from the control system to the panel is, in
effect, a communication with infinite speed (although trivially so)[6],
a jump (or gap) in information exchange, with the knowledge suitably
represented the panel would massage the control panel inputs,
effectively giving the feedback loop strong neutral stability (a
metastable state with a large e.g. time coefficient).[7] 

Experiments with the first manned craft[8] proved successful.  The
advent of FTL travel, being of profound political importance,
mitigated research into the basic science of the control system.
Indeed, for several years it was seen as unimportant.  Manufacturing
processes for the panels became standardized, and they slowly grew to
resemble materially the devices we know today.  However, how the
device worked remained uninvestigated and the installation and
mechanics (QED) were largely done by rote.  This is not to minimize
the few gifted engineers that, even bereft of a framework of
scientific understanding, were able to intuit the emperical natures of
this all but forgotten component of FTL.

It wasn't until the resolution of the General War that the basis of
understanding of this device was furthered and a body of scientific
knowledge began to accumulate in the manner typical past the point of
paradigm shift of a scientific revolution[9]. United, with no cause to
deceive their former opponent in the new political climate, scientists
of the chief former rival house[10] visited the successful progenitors
of working, stable, FTL transports. They had had their own engineering
program seeking to achieve these ends that had been affected, and had
since[11] developed a comparable (though non-working) system.
Needless to say, they were eager to see what they had missed[12].

A scientist[13] who had been the chief engineer in charge of the
control system interface in the rival House's project, talked to
[NAME OMITTED], his counterpart:

[13]: We could never achieve cohesion between what we were putting out
from the computer between what the drive would take.  It was....I
don't know....it looked right.  But it would always go unstable.  We
always had to shut it down.  We obviously didn't ever make it fold,
maybe we were being too cautious.  But I don't think so.  We lost a
lot of vessels and a lot of good men.

[NAME OMITTED] looked over his research.  "That's your problem,"
[NAME OMITTED] said, "You imaged the panel with the schematic of the
control system and not the physical control system."

"Why should that make a difference?" his counterpart said, "You use
models for the inputs anyway."

"Its a physical system," [NAME OMITTED] said, "There's going to be
variations, minor imperfections.  That's the whole point.  You have to
use the real system. If you don't give it what it's expecting...its
like an impedence mismatch."

[13]: How can you image the physical system?

[NAME OMITTED]: It doesn't matter. A high resolution optical image of
any wavelength is fine.  As long as its a complete representation of
the system.

[13]: A photograph?

[NAME OMITTED]: Yeah. All the panel does is correct the physical
anomalies, so you do need them as a seed.

[13]: If I understand what I think you're saying -- and you're right,
which I'm not sure if I believe you -- you could remove the physical
control system entirely, image the schematic, and have it all work virtually.

Experiments on [13]'s and (hesitantly) [NAME OMITTED]'s part showed
that this claim was, in fact, true, leading to the modern FTL control
system.  As importantly, it also directly lead to the explosion into
EtherTerm research giving another case of a revolutionizing technology
spinning off of another case of a revolutionizing technology.

----

[1] Critics of this analogy have often pointed out that falling into
an "interior" space (again, from a 3-D perspective) is closer to a
ring falling down a pipe, or occassionally the inverse, than a rock
falling into three space.  Others say that these analogies are equally
flawed and all attempts to find an equivalent three-dimensional system
are only served to display and highlight an ignorance of
true hyper-mathematics.

[2] [Citation needed]

[3] [Citation needed]

[4] Sadly, details of the original manufacture are lost to
history. The origin and exact design of the original panel is
unknown.  Subsequent FTL controllers mimiced this original design, so
researchers into these devices may consult the relavent annals of
Tellares history (where available).

[5] Notes preserved from the ship's manifest (or so agree most
historians) indicate this original panel was also magnetic, which fits
with our current framework of understanding of the function of
EtherTerms. The (quantum) properties of the class of (crystal) materials that
are both (optically) transparent and magnetic (mu/mu_0 >> 1) are well
understood in terms of the mechanics of the scattering of light by light.

[6] Replication of information and keeping copies at a distance may be
shown to be equivalent of the infinite phase velocity case where
no information is transfered perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

[7] While this explanation is, necesarily, hand-wavy, this is a
discourse on the discovery of FTL travel and not its precise
mathematics or engineering implementations.  For the latter, see the
considerable volume of excellent sources.

[8] The first such non-trivial working FTL device of this class --
certainly the first with the concordant neural net controller -- was manned, as
control of the system required meticulous attention on the part of its
passengers and the experiment was too expensive (and important) to be
left in the chance guidence of a computer.
While this may seem proposterous today -- since, humbly, we must admit
that the engineers and scientists had no idea if this would actually
work -- the greed and hubris inspired by the race to faster than light
travel make such illogical efforts contextually sensible. (It has even
been suggested [citation needed] that the irrational "leap" to
activate the device is fundamentally necessary to quantum-cosmological
information theory for such a device to be achieved in the same sense
as the imaging of the traditional control system on the EtherTerm
panel. This, however, has never been shown by rigorous mathematics.)

[9] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn, Thomas.

[10] As documented elsewhere.

[11] Aided largely by a network of informants, willing and unwilling,
though not to give their scientists too little credit.  Security at
House Tellares,
through complete intolerence of loyalty, was
draconian, leading to less information leaked to their rivals than is
commonly believed.


[12] And not through intellectual curiousity alone (albeit, perhaps,
chiefly). In those times, however simple the tea-leaves seemed to
read, it still did not seem absolutely certain to whom power would fall.


[13] A Mr. Jay Merriwether