The idea of instantaneous travel to other galaxies, times and dimensions has been bandied about by science fiction lovers hundreds of years before the Stargate was a twinkle in film writer Dean Devlin’s eye.
But is it really possible? GateWorld asked Bill Nye the Science Guy this very question in a recent interview, and here’s what he had to tell us.
“This idea that you could fall into a black hole, a place with so much gravity that you end up in another part of the universe at another time is quite charming, but so far from what we know about black holes you would die.
“But maybe it’s not a black hole. Maybe it’s [something else].”
“And you get into, if I may, the interstices, the places between the nodes of the network of mathematics, and who knows? This is another case where science leads us to this fabulous science fiction.”
Nye guest-starred with real-life astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in the recent Stargate Atlantis episode “Brain Storm.” He didn’t get to travel through a wormhole himself, but he is obviously acquainted with the idea.
“What goes on with relativity is sort of stranger than you could imagine from scratch,” he told us. “It’s so counter-intuitive, so outside of our everyday experience and yet obviously, so obviously true, that who knows what’s possible with black holes and space time and multiple universes and travel between them by just pushing the right button. It’s wonderful to think about.”
A noted environmentalist, Nye was thrilled with the idea of Atlantis, a series not even set in this galaxy, dealing with a real-world issue he is passionate about.
“The thing that I love about science fiction is it’s so hopeful,” he said. “Not all of it, but when you’ve got people flying around galaxies it shows you that humans will make it to the next level, and that’s what everybody wants.”
Stay with GateWorld for a lengthy audio interview with Bill Nye in the coming weeks, in which we discuss his appearance in “Brain Storm,” more on the phenomenon of science fiction, and a serious look into humanity’s impact on the planet.
ah.. The stargate is technically a transverable wormhole. Matter as we know it can not survive a blackhole. Transverable wormholes are closely related to the tunnels Enstien Rosen postilate, so called Einstien Rosen bridges. perhaps the primier researcher in the area of transversable wormholes is Kip thorne. Although the verdict is still out on the possibility of these passages and is likely to be for some time until we have a better understanding of the processes involved. The basic premise as far as a star gate device is concerned, is to find one of these small primordial wormholes left over… Read more »