The Discovery of Gravity Waves and What it Means for Interstellar Communication

Big news in science this week: scientists released results showing that they had measured gravity waves for the first time. Einstein first theorized the presence of such waves nearly 100 years ago as a part of his theory of general relativity, but actual observation had eluded scientists until last year when two specialized observation stations came online just in time to detect the collision of a mass of nearly 50 star systems in the formation of a black hole (it turns out such things release more gravity than your average star). The details of the observation are all over the internet; you should check it out, it’s really interesting.

While the discovery is a landmark event in the field of astronomy (going forward, astronomers will be able to use gravity to measure far-off features of the universe instead of just electromagnetic radiation), I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed. You see, the scientists found that the gravity waves they were observing propagated at the speed of light, just as Einstein theorized. Fantastic validation of Einstein’s genius, but crushing blow for nerds everywhere eagerly awaiting mankind’s dominion over a galaxy of star systems.

Confused? Let’s make this a little more practical. Nearly every science fiction depiction of interstellar travel and colonization assumes that future humans manage to circumvent the limits of the speed of light. Interstellar civilization is somewhat impractical otherwise: our Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years wide (i.e., if you can only go as fast as the speed of light, it would take you 100,000 years to navigate the width of our galaxy). While current science provides us no visibility to the transportation of matter at faster-than-light speed, information is another question entirely. So even if we couldn’t colonize the galaxy rapidly, we could at least theoretically manage it centrally.

So, the problem: gravity was one of the last potential holdouts for faster-than-light communication. While most scientists had accepted that gravity propagates at the speed of light, there were a few rebels that suggested it may do so instantaneously, which theoretically opens the door to instantaneous communication. This most recent discovery, however, closes that door quite firmly.

Well, here’s to quantum physics as our last bastion of hope!