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 Selym wrote:

 Minx wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Imagine a computer network that had the ability to instantaneously communicate between clients. Computers whose processors execute operations almost instantly. A world without LAG where buffering the latest Netflix addition takes all of a second!

Entanglement doesn't allow instantaneous communication (if we are talking about a usable information exchange). A distributed quantum processor is possible though.

Communications would get faster, if you could interpret the entanglement sufficiently. Transmission time would be almost nil, but you'd still have the time it takes for the sender to process the data and convert it to a signal, and the receiver would need time to process the signal and turn it back into usable data.

Assuming entanglement allows for an instantaneous change of state.

It probably doesn't. If it does, there's larger implications than interstellar empires or zero lag internet: Either special relativity is almost entirely wrong (an option which all observation and testing disagrees with) or we can talk with the past (this involves subjective time and light cones). I kind of like causality, so I'm going to go with "entanglement can't actually communicate at speeds higher than c."

 Selym wrote:
How would you communicate with the past if there was instantaneous data transfer?

It has to do with your own relativistic frame of reference. Basically, say we're both moving away from each other at .87c, so there's 2:1 time dilation. At 12 weeks, I send an instantaneous message to you that there's been a mutiny aboard my ship, and a list of who was involved. Now, from my point of view you're the one experiencing time dilation (as all reference points are equally valid(, so your calendar currently says 6 weeks when the message arrives. You're generally a fan of my leadership, so would like to prevent the mutiny. You send me a message warning me of the mutineers. From your point of view, I'M the one experiencing time dilation, and when your instantaneous message reaches me my calendar reads THREE weeks. I now have nine weeks to throw the mutineers out the airlock and continue on my merry way.

 Selym wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:

 Selym wrote:
How would you communicate with the past if there was instantaneous data transfer?

It has to do with your own relativistic frame of reference. Basically, say we're both moving away from each other at .87c, so there's 2:1 time dilation. At 12 weeks, I send an instantaneous message to you that there's been a mutiny aboard my ship, and a list of who was involved. Now, from my point of view you're the one experiencing time dilation (as all reference points are equally valid(, so your calendar currently says 6 weeks when the message arrives. You're generally a fan of my leadership, so would like to prevent the mutiny. You send me a message warning me of the mutineers. From your point of view, I'M the one experiencing time dilation, and when your instantaneous message reaches me my calendar reads THREE weeks. I now have nine weeks to throw the mutineers out the airlock and continue on my merry way.

Ah, science. The more I know, the less I understand.

You could resolve that by having both time sections occur simultaneously - so that they reply can only be received after the message. But I haven't the foggiest if that's even a valid statement.

The problem with this is that there's no such thing as an objective universal frame of reference (thus the "relativity" bit in the theory of relativity), and experimental evidence already shows that time dilation does occur (it's even compensated for by GPS systems). Related is the fact that light will always appear to move at the same speed no matter the relative velocities of observers. However, light shifts along the spectrum towards blue as light waves "compress" if an object is moving towards you, or towards red (as the waves separate from each other) if the object is moving away from you. Thus, regardless of your own temporal frame of reference, light will still seem to travel at "your" c, as if you were motionless (which is actually another way to prove time dilation occurs, as well as how we prove that the universe is expanding without any objects in it necessarily moving).

I'm kind of just roaming about the topic of relativity here, which I'm going to blame on lack of caffeine.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Wait, so Mass Effect's Quantum Entanglement Communicator could actually work one day?

In short, no. Cosmic speed limit (the speed of light) prevents transfer of information beyond the speed of light.

Only if you are limited to using the physical universe as a method of transfer. Sub-dimensions and space compression are possibilities for "exceeding" the speed of light. And really the speed of light is only the hard limit for matter to travel, I believe energy is not limited by it.

Energy is also rather limited to the speed of light. Extradimensional methods are purely the realm of science fiction, barring (potentially, and incredibly hypothetically) an Alcubierre drive. Bright side of that one, they've gotten the energy requirements (not including the requisite negative mass) down to the mass-equivalent of Pluto last I checked!

Related: The Alcubierre drive still breaks causality for the aforementioned reasons.

 dusara217 wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Wait, so Mass Effect's Quantum Entanglement Communicator could actually work one day?

In short, no. Cosmic speed limit (the speed of light) prevents transfer of information beyond the speed of light.

Only if you are limited to using the physical universe as a method of transfer. Sub-dimensions and space compression are possibilities for "exceeding" the speed of light. And really the speed of light is only the hard limit for matter to travel, I believe energy is not limited by it.

Energy is also rather limited to the speed of light. Extradimensional methods are purely the realm of science fiction, barring (potentially, and incredibly hypothetically) an Alcubierre drive. Bright side of that one, they've gotten the energy requirements (not including the requisite negative mass) down to the mass-equivalent of Pluto last I checked!

Related: The Alcubierre drive still breaks causality for the aforementioned reasons.

See, now, the issue with that is that lasers used to be the realm of science fiction, as well. And Power Armour. And cyborgs. My point is that everything is science fiction until we figure out how to do it.

Lasers, cyborgs, and power armor at least had some basis in reality. Other dimensions are pure narrative fiat to bypass the fact that we can't move faster than the speed of light.