existing communications and broadcasts use radiowaves/lasers/ect as a medium, all of which are basicly lightspeed communication (regardless of how much time is required to send/recieve the data).
FTL communications does not automatically mean realtime conversationsacross galaxies. A com signal that travels twice the speed of light is technically FTL but there's still gonna be a delay in responses if 1 person is at Earth and the other is at Saturn. You'd have to wait hours between each response with normal transmissions (something like 80 minutes each way using the mean distance) Even if the FTL lines were 10xlightspeed, there'd still take over a quarter of an hour to get a reply.
lets see, using Fnord's travel time chart from the gazetteer thread, a transmission from Earth to Mars (mean distance)would take:
1c = roughly 12.5 minutes (25 min round trip)
5c = roughly 2.5 minutes (5 min round trip)
10c = rouphly 75 seconds (2.5 min round trip)
heck, even at 50c there'd still be 30 sec round trip, and none of these times include deciding how to respond
hmm, I must be tired, I think I'm rambling. anyways, my point is you'd probably need special (read: 'Waved) gear to transmit or recieve FTL radio so combine that with an FTL speed of, say, 5c and you get good but not perfect communications.__________________
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live. - George Carlin.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
FTL communications does not automatically mean realtime conversationsacross galaxies. A com signal that travels twice the speed of light is technically FTL but there's still gonna be a delay in responses if 1 person is at Earth and the other is at Saturn. You'd have to wait hours between each response with normal transmissions (something like 80 minutes each way using the mean distance) Even if the FTL lines were 10xlightspeed, there'd still take over a quarter of an hour to get a reply.
lets see, using Fnord's travel time chart from the gazetteer thread, a transmission from Earth to Mars (mean distance)would take:
1c = roughly 12.5 minutes (25 min round trip)
5c = roughly 2.5 minutes (5 min round trip)
10c = rouphly 75 seconds (2.5 min round trip)
heck, even at 50c there'd still be 30 sec round trip, and none of these times include deciding how to respond
hmm, I must be tired, I think I'm rambling. anyways, my point is you'd probably need special (read: 'Waved) gear to transmit or recieve FTL radio so combine that with an FTL speed of, say, 5c and you get good but not perfect communications.__________________
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live. - George Carlin.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin